A small wooden figure discovered in 1977 offers an early view of European visitors to northern Canada. It was found in a house built by the ancestors of the Inuit on Baffin Island. Made around 1350, it is the earliest known Indigenous representation of a European in the Western Hemisphere.
The figure stands just 2.1 inches, or 5.4 centimeters, tall and is now displayed at the Canadian Museum of History. Its European clothing and the cross on its chest suggest that it probably represents a Norse person. The long clothing resembles garments worn by Norse Christians in Greenland. Its face has no details, and its short arms are typical of Inuit carvings from the 1300s.
Norse travelers likely visited Canada repeatedly to exchange metal and cloth for ivory from walrus tusks. European objects found in early Inuit houses on Baffin Island support this possibility. The carving may mark a meeting between the two groups. According to the museum, it preserves an Indigenous view of European visitors long before regular contact began in the late 1400s.
