DILLON WALLACE’S The Lure of the Labrador Wild chronicles the disastrous

bard, the group attempted to travel from North West River to Ungava Bay with the aims of mapping both the Naskaupi River and the George River, documenting the caribou migration, and making contact with the remote band of Innu known as the Naskapi (Buchanan et al. 8-9; Grace, “A Woman’s Way ” xxi). After the group confused the Susan River for the Naskaupi River, these goals gave way to a grim fight for survival that claimed Hubbard’s life. However, Dillon Wallace’s stirring depiction of the trip two years later in The Lure of the Labrador Wild spurred a widespread fascination with the journey that continues to this day. In light of re-cent publications which delve further into the circumstances and theoretical sig-nificance of the book, it is important to explore Wallace’s use of a specifically American mythology which, despite being relatively ignored by critics, has reso-nated with readers for over a century. Despite the large critical reception to The Lure of the Labrador Wild, Wallace’s narrative has been widely interpreted as an adventure tale devoid of any cultural frame of reference. However, his use of the rhetoric of faith promotes the virtue of American culture through the discourse of American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism refers to the myth of America as a nation endowed with spiritual power and responsibility. This longstanding belief in America as a distinct and morally superior nation guided by spiritual duty (Byers 46; Madsen 1) is evident i