From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ittoqqortoormiit
Scoresbysund

Location within Greenland
Coordinates: 70°29′07″N 21°58′00″WCoordinates: 70°29′07″N 21°58′00″W
Federacy Kingdom of Denmark
Country Greenland
Municipality Sermersooq
Founded 1925
Population (2010)
- Total 469
Time zone UTC-01
Postal code 3980
Ittoqqortoormiit (Inuit pronunciation: [itːoqːɔʁtɔːʁmiːt], Danish: Scoresbysund) is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in eastern Greenland. Its population is 469 as of 2010.[1]
The Danish name Scoresbysund derives from the name of the Arctic explorer and whaler William Scoresby, who was the first to map the area in 1822. The Greenlandic name Ittoqqortoormiit means "Big House Dwellers" in the Eastern Greenlandic dialect. The region is known for its wildlife which includes polar bears, muskoxen, and seals.
Ittoqqortoormiit was founded in 1925 by Ejnar Mikkelsen and some 80 Inuit settlers (70 persons from Tasiilaq and four families from western Greenland). They were brought on the ship Gustav Holm and settled 400 km south of the last known Inuit settlement in northeastern Greenland (Eskimonæs at Dødemandsbugten on the south coast of Clavering Ø, 27 km southwest of later Daneborg, 1823).
The settlement was encouraged by the colonial power Denmark which at the time had a growing interest in Northeast Greenland. At the same time, the colonization was intended to improve declining living conditions in Tasiilaq, from where the settlers were more or less voluntarily transferred. The settlers soon prospered on the good hunting conditions of the new area, which was rich in seals, walruses, narwhals, polar bears and arctic foxes.
Before that, however, the area itself had been home to a dense population of Inuit in the past, as testified by ruins and other archeological remains.