The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus

This paper rejects the idea the legendary character Santa Claus traces back to Saint Nicholas and instead proposes a more recent historical figure – Walter Clement Shields (1884–1918) who organised reindeer fairs in Seward Peninsula, Alaska between 1915 and 1918. Shields died of an influenza epidemi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Oliver D. Smith
Language:unknown
Published: 2021
Subjects:
930306:Folklore:topical
1031701:Mythology:topical
Seward Peninsula
Alaska
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.17613/4h9g-hj98
id fthcommons:oai:hcommons.org/hc:43571
record_format openpolar
spelling fthcommons:oai:hcommons.org/hc:43571 2024-06-23T07:56:45+00:00 The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus Oliver D. Smith 2021 https://doi.org/10.17613/4h9g-hj98 unknown http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/4h9g-hj98 930306:Folklore:topical 1031701:Mythology:topical 2021 fthcommons https://doi.org/10.17613/4h9g-hj98 2024-06-11T00:29:35Z This paper rejects the idea the legendary character Santa Claus traces back to Saint Nicholas and instead proposes a more recent historical figure – Walter Clement Shields (1884–1918) who organised reindeer fairs in Seward Peninsula, Alaska between 1915 and 1918. Shields died of an influenza epidemic in 1918 but was by venerated by indigenous inhabitants of northwest Alaska, the Iñupiat. Stories of Shields in Iñupiat folklore became embellished when retold and they were spread by traders of reindeer meat across the US in the 1920s Other/Unknown Material Seward Peninsula Alaska Humanities Commons CORE Deposits
institution Open Polar
collection Humanities Commons CORE Deposits
op_collection_id fthcommons
language unknown
topic 930306:Folklore:topical
1031701:Mythology:topical
spellingShingle 930306:Folklore:topical
1031701:Mythology:topical
Oliver D. Smith
The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus
topic_facet 930306:Folklore:topical
1031701:Mythology:topical
description This paper rejects the idea the legendary character Santa Claus traces back to Saint Nicholas and instead proposes a more recent historical figure – Walter Clement Shields (1884–1918) who organised reindeer fairs in Seward Peninsula, Alaska between 1915 and 1918. Shields died of an influenza epidemic in 1918 but was by venerated by indigenous inhabitants of northwest Alaska, the Iñupiat. Stories of Shields in Iñupiat folklore became embellished when retold and they were spread by traders of reindeer meat across the US in the 1920s
author Oliver D. Smith
author_facet Oliver D. Smith
author_sort Oliver D. Smith
title The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus
title_short The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus
title_full The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus
title_fullStr The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus
title_full_unstemmed The Iñupiat Origin of Santa Claus
title_sort iñupiat origin of santa claus
publishDate 2021
url https://doi.org/10.17613/4h9g-hj98
genre Seward Peninsula
Alaska
genre_facet Seward Peninsula
Alaska
op_relation http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/4h9g-hj98
op_doi https://doi.org/10.17613/4h9g-hj98
_version_ 1802650054733856768

Similar Items