A report in the Globe and Mail states that “Between 1903-06, Amundsen successfully guided his ship, the Gjoa, through the Northwest Passage – another first . . it was his two years with Netsilik Inuit in Gjoa Haven, in what is now northeast Nunavut, that taught him tactics essential to survival in polar extremities. . . Amundsen’s contact, however, was more than simply instructional. Living among the aboriginals, Amundsen fathered a son – Luke Iquallaq – with an Inuit woman named Quleoq. In the Inuit tradition of occasionally sharing wives with male visitors, it is possible that she may have already been married. Amundsen never met his son; he had left Gjoa Haven by the time the boy was born. Luke Iquallaq became a Hudson Bay Co employee and a soapstone carver. He died in 1979, only days after disclosing to his children the truth of his biological origins. Amundsen’s Canadian descendants continue to live in the region. Mr. Tombs quotes a great-great-grandson, Damien Iquallaq, as saying that the knowledge imparted by the natives “is what made him so ready for the environment. All that knowledge gave him the skills and abilities to survive.””
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadas-north-won-norwegian-explorer-roald-amundsen-the-south/article2267447/