27 Facts About Diamond Jenness

Diamond Jenness was the second youngest son in a middle-class family of ten children.

Diamond Jenness earned his first scholarship at the age of twelve by entering a composition competition for children under fourteen.

Diamond Jenness finished his final year of secondary education with six prizes: mathematics, science, Latin, French and English, and was named top student.

Diamond Jenness would be one of the two anthropologists on board; the other was Henri Beuchat.

Diamond Jenness remained behind and spent the first winter at Harrison Bay, Alaska, where he learned how to speak the Northern Eskimo language, and compiled information about their customs and folklore.

The next year, in 1914, assisted by interpreter Patsy Klengenberg, Diamond Jenness commenced studying the Copper Inuit, sometimes called the Blond Eskimos, in the Coronation Gulf area.

Diamond Jenness spent two years with the Copper Inuit and lived as an adopted son of a hunter named Ikpukhuak and his shaman wife Higalik.

Diamond Jenness collected a variety of ethnological materials from clothing and hunting tools to stories and games, and 137 wax phonographic cylinder song recordings he had made.

The website features a short video demonstrating how Diamond Jenness recorded these songs with the technology available in 1913.

Diamond Jenness characterized the "Copper Eskimos" as being in a pseudo-metal stage, in between the Stone and Iron Ages, because this cultural group treated copper as simply a malleable stone which is hammered into tools and weapons.

Diamond Jenness discussed whether the use of copper arose independently with different cultural groups or in one group and was then "borrowed" by others.

Diamond Jenness goes on to explain that indigenous communities began to use copper first and following this, the Inuit adopted it.

Diamond Jenness cited the fact that slate was previously used among Inuit and was replaced by copper at a later time after the indigenous communities had begun to use it.

Diamond Jenness was assigned an office in the Victoria Museum of Ottawa and instructed to write up his expedition findings.

In December 1918, Diamond Jenness applied and received military leave to finish writing his Papua studies report in Oxford,.

Diamond Jenness returned to Ottawa in March, 1919, and the next month married his fiance, Eileen Bleakney.

In 1926, Diamond Jenness succeeded Canada's first Chief Anthropologist, Dr Edward Sapir, as Chief of Anthropology at the National Museum of Canada, a position he retained until his retirement in 1948.

Diamond Jenness served as Canada's official delegate to the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in Copenhagen, 1938.

Diamond Jenness began his career engaging in the early traditional fields: ethnology, linguistics, physical, and archaeology.

The government shifted attention away from domestic problems when World War II broke out, and Diamond Jenness was assigned temporary duties to assist in war efforts at home.

Diamond Jenness's plan was based upon New Zealand's management of its native affairs since the early 1860s, which, in his view, was being administered successfully at that time.

Diamond Jenness pointed out that Japanese children were attending schools with white children in British Columbia while half a mile away Indian children attended segregated schools.

Diamond Jenness added that the Japanese and [west coast] Indians are both members of Oriental races, a fact that had been overlooked, and to put the Indian children in separate schooling, in his opinion, was wrong.

In 1968, in the appendix of Eskimo Administration V5: Reflections and Recommendations, Diamond Jenness included his proposed plan to help the indigenous peoples of Canada's north become more self-sufficient.

Diamond Jenness again emphasized the importance of vocational training, giving several specific suggestions such as establishing a small Seaman's School to train Eskimo youth.

Diamond Jenness received many distinguished awards and honors in recognition of his contributions to his profession.

Diamond Jenness published a popular account of the one year he spent among the Inupiat of Northern Alaska, Dawn in Arctic Alaska.