Townspeople rose up against wildlife, RCMP officers after hunter’s bounty was seized July 24, 1981, became a long, tense day in Rankin Inlet when members of the community rose up against wildlife and RCMP officers. David Tulugak, 59, said the ordeal began when wildlife officers showed up to seize John Tatty’s narwhal tusk because Rankin Inlet had no quota for narwhal at the time. Tulugak said the tusk was outside of Tatty’s house when the wildlife officers grabbed it and hid it from him and the town. That, he said, is when the trouble started. “All the town people started trying to break into the wildlife office,” said Tulugak. “Once they got inside, they realized it wasn’t there. The wildlife officers had handed it over to the RCMP. “The RCMP had put it inside a detached little jailhouse from their main station and somehow someone had managed to see it being put into the blue cell. That’s when the whole town broke into that little jailhouse and grabbed the tusk back.” Tulugak said the whole community showed up to get the tusk back for Tatty. He had never seen the community so mad at the RCMP before that day, or ever since. “Bill Gawor and Louis Taparti had somehow managed to get inside the building and grab the tusk back. And then there was a tug of war between the RCMP and wildlife officers against members of the town. “The members of the town beat the officers in the tug of war and took the tusk back. Then the mayor, I believe it was Louis Pilakapsi who was mayor then, called a special meeting in the hamlet chambers between the town and the officers. “Louis Pilakapsi told the RCMP officers that if they wanted to talk they had to leave their weapons outside and they would talk. “But if they were going to keep their weapons, nobody was going to talk to them. The officers got rid of their weapons and everyone started talking normally.” Tulugak said the mayor had a lot to say and the RCMP and wildlife officers were told they had to abide by his words or no way at all. He said when the smoke cleared, Tatty got to keep his tusk. “This whole ordeal went on until after three or four in the morning. “It got kind of ugly early on with people starting to throw rocks at the wildlife and RCMP officers. My father had a narwhal tusk and he hid it inside the wall panelling of our house. He kept it there for I don’t know how many weeks until we finally got a tag for it and he was able to take it out from the wall. “Back then, the wildlife officers and the cops tried to control everything. They tried to say it was their town, but, in this case, they were mistaken. The people of Rankin said you live here, but this is our town and you have to do some things our way, so they started listening after that. “I don’t think the officers were ever in any real danger. We just wanted them to listen to our side before acting and they started doing that after that day. The community’s actions were 100 per cent justified that day and the officers have had more respect for the community ever since. We were just happy to get our tusks back.”
Reflecting on 1981 riot over a Rankin Inlet narwhal tusk
