Padlei

History

The community was where, during the 1950 Caribou Inuit famine, photographer Richard Harrington took his iconic photo of a starving Caribou Inuk mother, pressing her nose and lips to those of her youngest child. On February 8, 1950 a few days before Harrington wrote in his journal: {{blockquote|Came upon the tiniest igloo yet. Outside lay a single, mangy dog, motionless, starving ... Inside, a small woman in clumsy clothes, large hood, with baby. She sat in darkness, without heat. She speaks to me. I believe she said they were starving. We left some tea, matches, kerosene, biscuits. And went on.|Richard Harrington Padlei was the site of a trading post operated by the Hudson's Bay Company from 1926 to 1960. The subgroup of Caribou Inuit who frequented the post were the Padleimiut (or Padlirmiut, or Paallirmiut, or Patlirmiut).