Mountie in Mukluks: The Arctic Adventures of Bill White

Jonathan Anuik is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History and
president of the HGSC at the University of Saskatchewan.

Canadians have consumed their Arctic through scientific and social
scientific research and tales of exploration and discovery. Recently,
academics, journalists, biographers, and historians have contested the
depictions of the Arctic that have come to be accepted by mainstream
readers. Mountie in Mukluks depicts the history of the early
20th-century North through the reminiscences of former Royal Canadian
Mounted Police (RCMP) constable William White, who sought to dispel
myths concerning the Mounties and the Inuit.

Constable White’s tenure in the Arctic, from 1929 until 1934,
represented the early days of Canada’s formal intervention in the
Arctic. The Mounties served as front lines for “newcomer”
interaction with the indigenous Inuit. White’s story is unique in that
he, unlike most Mounties, engaged the Inuit by learning Inuktitut and by
hunting and travelling with them—tasks beyond the list of duties for
Mounties in the region. White joined the RCMP in order to experience
Northern Canada, and his adventures and professional endeavours
represented a sincere interest in exploration and settlement in the
North. Finally, his work in the Arctic demonstrated that settlement can
be a peaceful process. Although White had to investigate a murder case,
his actions represent a profound respect for cultural diversity.

Mountie in Mukluks challenges readers to reconsider stereotypes
surrounding the Arctic; reminds readers of a dynamic Inuit culture in
the region that should never be sacrificed for purposes of modernization
and profit; and revises the history of the RCMP as not simply a unit
that “gets their man” but also an institution composed of humans who
are faced with the same processes of adjustment that all people face.

Mountie in Mukluks is suitable for a diverse readership, from academics
who have positioned their research in the high Arctic to
secondary-school English students who are seeking remarkable prose and
candid testimony.