Greenland - Stone Age To Jet Age

ice over 10 000 feet thick pierced by Bedrock Peaks towering even higher birthplace of glaciers and icebergs land of fog and Storm and The Long Winter night home of the Hardy people almost lost in the immensity surrounding them a place where time Stood Still for a thousand years that's Greenland the world's largest island where now the stone and Jet ages have met the Norsemen reached Greenland 10 centuries ago settling in the South they cultivated the best sites for some 400 years before their civilization died still visible are the ruins of their farms and churches and an occasional skeleton when they arrived they found the remains of Eskimo settlements the eskimos had crossed into Greenland from Canada following the migrating animals which they hunted toward the end of the Norse colonization the eskimos again streamed down the west coast of Greenland probably clashing with the Norseman who were either wiped out or assimilated in 1721 the Danish missionary hence either went to Greenland to look for the Lost Norsemen finding none he devoted his life to Bringing Christianity to the eskimos afterwards for more than two and a half centuries Greenland life remained primitive based chiefly on seal hunting a successful Hunter was self-sufficient the seals gave him all he needed food clothing and shelter tools weapons and boats only in the past generation has this natural economy changed to a money Economy based on fishing now Greenland's largest industry [Music] finally the jet age burst upon the scene ending forever Greenland's isolation from if Danish motherland and the outside world [Music] thank you this tc8 is landing at sunostorm sure airport in Southwestern Greenland a major Junction for jetliners crossing the Arctic between Denmark and California situated on an American Air Base of World War II This Modern Air Terminal has an airport building and hotel [Music] the jet age is also ending the isolation of Greenland's towns and Villages from each other while baggage is unloaded The Travelers await the modern jet helicopter which will carry them on the next leg of their Journey attention please departure green and air 104 for Christians open jagaton all on board please there's no other practical way of getting around the sea provides a means but most ports are closed through The Long Winter freezer airplanes could serve except that carving runways from the granite face of Greenland poses almost insurmountable problems of construction and cost above the Majestic formations of snow ice and rock the helicopter heads North in Disco Bay the iceberg stand like silent Sentinels as the 90-minute helicopter trip nears its end at Jacob's Holland population 2 000 humans one thousand dogs [Music] helicopter arrivals though fast becoming routine usually prove a magnet for the town's people young and old [Music] while the heavy load of mail flown in by the helicopter is sorted at the post office life goes on as usual with jobs for young and old drawing water for the home digging peat for heating [Music] or sewing through a side of whale meat [Music] timing their arrival to the minute the town folk Converge on the post office [Music] today's native greenlanders live in hamlets villages and townships ranging in population from less than 100 to 6000 in the capital got hope [Music] as the day draws too close a fishing boat heads for port in the eyes fjord and children await the return of a lone fisherman in his kayak [Music] Austin Texas some 350 miles to the South all oxalton of Greenland's only radio station gives the evening news greenlanders benefit from another modern link with life beyond their isolated villages [Music] and is at home enjoying their meal of whale meat and whale soup and danish guests at the Jaco Town Hotel relax alike as the newscast ends and the sun sinks over disco Bay stone age or jet age the greenlander's life has always been bound to the Sea seal hunting gave way to fishing as the Seas grew warmer and the seals scarce her and the hunters in their slender kayaks were largely replaced by fishermen who set their lines and Nets from rugged Coastal draggers Greenland's fishing grounds are among the world's richest in 1948 the world's two largest shrimp and prawn beds were found at disco Bay fishing from these small craft in rough and stormy weather is a risky business this shrimp processing plant at Jakarta Town one of many Fisheries scattered along the Greenland Coast typifies the new green land and a whole new way of life for the greenlander [Music] Greenland Craftsmen work miracles sometimes we're the crudest of instruments to recall the cultural past of their Homeland Mrs harms with her beaded steel skins [Music] officin with his wood carvings the christopherson's working with soft fitstone [Music] and the artist alibak whose sketch here shows Eskimo fishermen taking the Greenland halibut or hella fish through the ice malibux print has reality today a sled team slams down a mountain trail to Jacob Town ice fuel later the driver will repeat the exhausting 15-mile Trek with 300 pounds of halibut [Music] the driver trusts the Keen instincts of the dogs to avoid the hazards of thin or shifting ice the Greenland halibut larger and fatter than its Atlantic cousins feeds at depth up to almost one thousand feet these lines over half a mile in length carry as many as 200 Hooks and are drawn down by the action of the current on a metal paraben thank you [Music] as winter sets in the last Supply ship from Denmark is unloaded and fishermen load their boats for the final trip before the ice locks the harbors until spring [Music] helicopter schedules like all else throughout the Greenland winter are subject to the fast changing weather your flight leaves tomorrow morning the ticket agents tell their passengers and then add imaha Maybe The Travelers understand realizing that in due course they'll be flying through the icy darkness and swirling snow moving swiftly over the Frozen wastes below the copters also bring in food and other supplies to the isolated communities snow comes early and melts late indeed if it melts at all but the sun always Rises eventually and its Return To The Devout greenlanders seems almost a religious happening [Music] [Music] with daylight action highlights a typical weekend on Frozen disco Bay near Euless meaning 50 dogsled teams burst out on the fuel on the first leg of a 25-mile race as the races Circle the course many Spectators enjoy their own favorite sports skiing or soccer in the snow [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] and the winners receive their reward enthusiastic Acclaim by the crowd [Music] Saturday night Greenland Style [Music] as a new week begins it's back to work for the greenlanders [Music] and for The Men Who provide their air transportation [Music] every flight is carefully planned especially as to the weather and the pilots are thoroughly briefed but plan or no plan changes come quickly in Greenland this helicopter leaving picturesque soccer Tottenham is detoured to speed a critically ill woman to got hope some 100 miles away although Greenland has come from medicine men to Modern hospitals in a generation or two transporting the sick or injured remains a critical problem especially in winter but hope the patient transferred to the waiting ambulance is sped to the hospital for an emergency operation with modern dentistry and other health services available in most of the larger towns today's Young greenlanders can look forward to a better life than their forefathers the land's future lies in its Youth and an ever-expanding program of compulsory education illiteracy is almost non-existent Greenland students now graduate on an equal footing with students from other parts of Denmark [Music] increasingly in recent years greenlanders have come to direct their own Destinies administrative economic and social [Music] two future Generations will fall the task of converting Greenland's growth into a new era of prosperity mineral wealth exists but so far problems of climate and transportation have made production unprofitable with construction of new housing people from remote hamlets are moving into the larger towns further reducing the isolation of greenlanders from one another but despite modern advances nothing really changes the Ageless face of Greenland the buildings still look like colored doll houses dropped at the foot of a cliff and Inland the mammoth mass of the ice cap looms changeless and eternal all right