The Quest for the North Pole is a production of I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. Picnic tables grown under platters of homemade barbecued chicken, corn bread and collar greens, a vast buffet of yams, corn rice and okra steams in the early summer afternoon cakes and ice cream a weight dessert. The whole spread, laid out in the elegant backyard of a home in Milton, Massachusetts, has been prepared to welcome visitors from a tiny village in northern Greenland.
It's late May seven and the eighty year old sons of explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson, named Callie Peery and a Naucock Henson are in America to meet their relatives. Matthew Henson's great niece, all of Henson Fulton cooked the lunch for the family reunion and cousins friends all gather on the lawn to welcome their inuite kin. After introductions made through an interpreter, Kelly Analco, and their family members
have their initial taste of soul food. They proclaim the chicken as tasty as Greenland birds and the ham as sweet as polar bear. They play music and dance to eighties pop, and the Inuite sang songs to thank their American hosts. They offer beautiful carvings and other crafts as gifts, while Fulton gives each of the men a combination radio and tape recorder so they can listen to a nooktone
radio broadcasts back home. As the celebration winds down that evening, and now Cock's Sun remarks, this has been a great day for our family, perhaps the greatest ever. The cookout was the result of a huge multinational effort led by an unstoppable Harvard neuroscientist named sell Encounter to bring the Intuite and American branches of the families together for the first time. Here we're living, breathing representatives of Perry and
Henson's history, making expeditions in the flesh. It was a joyous, unforgettable experience, but the occasion also brought up some painful memories and uncomfortable questions. From Mental Floss and I Heart Radio. You're listening to the Quest for the North Pole. I'm your host, Cat Long, science editor at Mental Floss, and this episode is family reunions. In several episodes of the
Quest for the North Pole. We looked at how Robert Perry engaged Inuite assistance to perform essential tasks on his trips, from sewing to building igloos to driving sleds. Women, usually the wives of the hunters, prepared furs for new clothing and were an omnipresent but under appreciated part of the expeditions. Perhaps it is not much of a surprise that the men on perious expeditions, including Henson and Perry himself, had
relationships with Innuhite women. There's a long record of Arctic explorers having intimate relationships with women they met in the polar regions, going back at least as far as the British search for the Northwest Passage in the early nineteenth century. Many of those upright naval men were shocked at the relative freedom between Innuwit wives and husbands, and the ease with which husbands share their wives or wives chose to
be intimate with white explorers. That trend continued into the twentieth century with Perry's quests to reach the poll Even before the first expedition, he was already mulling the dynamics between his crews of American men and the inuite women they did encounter in the Arctic. He wrote in his diary, it is asking too much of masculine human nature to expect it to remain in an Arctic climate, enduring constant
hardship without one relieving feature. Feminine companionship not only causes greater contentment, but as a matter of both mental and physical health and the retention of the top notch of manhood, it is a necessity. Of course, these relationships were not equal. Perry's arrival in the inuite community meant a disruption to their daily life and sometimes to their family dynamics. Peary was seen as the man who supplied guns, knives, materials
for sleds and homes, and many more essential goods. In return. As ken Harper mentioned in our previous Bonus episode, the inuite worked for Peery in whichever capacity he needed. Both Peery and the inuite seemingly viewed Perry's intimate relationships as transactional.
None of this went over well with Josephine Debitch Perry, his wife, whom he married in Though she was just as adventurous as her husband and accompanied him on several of his expeditions, she also raised their two children, Marie and Robert Jr. In Washington when Peery was up North. Josephine was humiliated and crushed when she discovered her husband's infidelity with an inuite woman named ale Cassina, who had given birth to a son, A N. Alcock, not to
be confused with Henson's son in d Ala. Cassina's second son, Callie, was born on the S S. Roosevelt in nineteen o six, suggesting that Peery maintained his connection with her over multiple expeditions. For many of his expeditions with Peery, Matthew Henson was single. He and his first wife, Eva Flint, divorced in and he married his second wife, Lucy Ross in en seven. He had no children with either woman, but in the ten year gap between marriages he had a relationship with
an in a white woman named Akatingwa. Exactly when they met and how long the relationship lasted are unclear, but we do know that it was happening during Perry's second real attempt at the North Pole from nineteen o five to nineteen o six. Henson's son, an Alcock, was also born aboard the S. S. Roosevelt in nineteen o six,
the year before Henson married Lucy Ross. He may or may not have known that he was An Alcock's father, and Alcock's children and their children are Henson's only direct descendants. Pierry and Henson returned to Greenland in nine eight for their final quest for the poll. When Peery declared that he had done what he had gone there to do. Neither men ever returned to Greenland or saw their sons again.
Peery's son, Analcock, died when he was twenty seven. As Callie told the anthropologist Jean Mallory in nineteen fifty one, I never heard a word from my illustrious father, nor did I ever receive any money. All I have of his is a photograph I cut out of a magazine. Yet I remember him very well. We lived on his big ship with our mother, and he was nice to us. Mallorie met Kellie and Nalcock Henson while living among the Inuite, and found the fact that Peery and Sen where their
fathers was no secret. Both sons peppered Mallory for information about their families in America. At the time, Matthew Henson was still alive and living in New York City, but Pierry had been dead for over thirty years. Mallory revealed the existence of Kellie and a Nalcock to the rest of the world in his best selling book The Last Kings of Tuli, but afterwards, seemingly no researchers contacted the explorers in Nui descendants until s Allen Counter went looking
for them in the nineteen eighties. We'll be right back, The Amsterdam News called s Allen Counter the most interesting man in the world. Raised in a segregated neighborhood of Boynton Beach, Florida, Counter grew up on the grounds of the tuberculosis hospital where his mother worked. Perhaps that experience influenced his interest in studying medicine. He joined Harvard Medical School as a post doc, then rose up the ranks
as a neurophysiologist. He also conducted field research in the Andes in the Amazon Basin as part of a wide ranging career at the university. In nine, Counter spearheaded the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, which promotes intercultural awareness. During his time as a visiting professor in Sweden, Counter began hearing rumors about Arctic descendants of Pierie and Henson
from his colleagues. In his book North Pole Legacy, Counter writes that he read every book and article he could find about the explorer's descendants found nothing beyond rumor or innuendo.
Apparently he missed Maori's account. He decided to go to Greenland to investigate a task that involved asking the Danish and US governments for permission to fly to Tooley Air Base, the northernmost American military base in the world, and then helicoptering to the tiny village of more Usuk and there he met a Nalco Henson and his large family, who assumed Counter was their relative because of his dark skin. A few weeks later, he met Kelly and his family
in a village about forty miles away. Counter discovered that for generations, the Greenland descendants remembered and retold the stories of Pieri's in Henson's time in their communities. All were proud of their American heritage, especially an Alcock. Because the whole community held Matthew Henson in extremely high regard. They also expressed a strong interest in meeting their American half siblings, cousins, nieces, and nephews in the US. Counter decided to make it happen.
He called the plan the North Pole Family Reunion. He promised an Alcock and Kelly that he would find out as much about their American relatives as possible. When he returned to the US and Cold called members of the American Henson's and Peery's, they had opposite reactions. Henson's great niece, all of Henson Fulton, and her family were ecstatic. As a young girl, Fulton told him she had been kicked out of class for telling everybody about her great uncle
who had reached the North Pole. Her teacher had thought she was lying. The insult made her determined to share Henson's story with as many people as she could. When Counter told her of his discovery, she couldn't wait to welcome an Alcock and his family to Boston. The Peries reacted differently. A family spokesman seemed to suspect Counter of trying to call Peri's accomplishments into question, or, worse, stir up the bitter controversy between Peery and Frederick Cook over
who conquered the North Pole first. They wanted nothing to do with their Arctic relatives. Edward Peery, Stafford the Explorer's grandson later told The Washington Post that the family was well aware of Peri's infidelity, but that obviously it's not something you talk about because it was very hurtful to my grandmother. Stafford added, Henson and Perry were up there at one time for four years. It's a miracle there was only one descendant of each. Human beings are human.
You can't send a man into a situation like that and expect otherwise. Despite that lackluster response, counter went ahead with the reunion plans, and some of the Peries did join the festivities. When counter bypassed the family spokesman and called Robert Pery Jr. Directly, Robert and his wife agreed to a visit with his half brother, Calli and his family in their home in Maine. Two distant Peri relatives attended a reception with the Henson's and Arctic visitors before
the big cookout. In the days following the party, Callie and a Naucock attended a lavish banquet in their honor at Harvard University, then traveled to important sites in their father's lives. They toured the Explorers Club and Harlem's Abyssinian
Baptist Church to which Henson belonged. They visited Henson's birthplace in Nanjimoy, Maryland, and Peri's grave at Arlington National Cemetery, and now Cock paid his respects to his father at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where Henson was buried in nine. At each stop, throngs of dignitaries and invited guests welcomed the visitors and jostled to shake their hands while newspaper reporters and photographers clicked away. Their whirlwind tour lasted two weeks,
after which the Inuite returned to their home villages in Greenland. Sadly, less than a month later, the Nalcock died of cancer. Counter continued his efforts to share Matthew Henson's story and
give him the recognition he deserved. Before the north Pole family reunion took place, he had launched a campaign to have Henson's remains removed from Woodlawn Cemetery and placed next to Peery's in Arlington National Cemetery, and honor he felt was befitting a co discoverer of the North Pole, and to honor Henson's wishes, he promised a Nalcock that if he succeeded, his children and grandchildren would be there to see it. Counter wasn't the first one to try to
make this happen. In nineteen sixty six, Senator Joseph Tidings, a Democrat from Maryland, introduced a bill to remove Henson's remains to Arlington. Evidently, it went nowhere. In five Counter had written to President Ronald Reagan and the military asking for permission for the reburial, and it was denied. He then wrote to the First Lady, Cabinet secretaries and the media, which got behind the idea, especially after a now Cox
and Callie's visits to their father's graves. In October seven, the Department of the Army changed its mind and granted Counter's request. A group of Henson relatives and John H. Johnson, the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines and a longtime admirer of Henson, joined Counter in organizing and planning the undertaking.
They chose April sixth, the seventy ninth anniversary of the date PEERI claimed to have reached the North Pole for the ceremony, re entering Henson and his wife Lucy, who had passed away in three of a now Cocks sons and two grandsons, and Olive Henson Fulton represented the Henson family. Among the two hundred invited guests was civil rights leader Dorothy Height, a good friend of Lucy's, who delivered her eulogy. Members of the Peerie family were invited but couldn't make it.
According to The New York Times, NASA astronaut Guy Blueford, the first black American in space, delivered a salute to the explorer who came before him next to the granite headstone featuring a likeness of Henson. The new burial plot was right next to Peery's resting place, marked by its huge globe shaped monument. Speaking for the in a white branch of the family and now Cock's youngest son, Kidlock, said, now the old friends are together again, they can talk
about old times. The Quest for the North Pole is hosted by Me Cat Long. This episode was researched and written by Me, with fact checking by Austin Thompson. The executive producers are Aaron McCarthy and Tyler Klang. The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan. The show is edited by Dylan Fagan for transcripts, a glossary, and to learn more about this episode, visit Mental flaws dot com slash podcast. The Quest for the North Pole is a production of I
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