Ellen DeGeneres is catching heat from way up north.

Remember the Oscar selfie tweeted round the world? Samsung pledged to donate $1 from every retweet (for a total of $3 million) to whatever charity DeGeneres chose. Half went to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. The Humane Society must have seemed like a good bet for the other half — safe and nonpolitical, something everyone who took part in making the image go viral could get behind.



Ellen's Oscar selfie ABC

Well, not quite.

The Humane Society has campaigned aggressively against seal hunting, making the group as popular in northern Canada as a Mister Softee truck in February. And back in 2011, Ellen also took on seal hunting in a post on her show's blog supporting PETA. (Of course, Ellen has had her own issues with animal welfare groups. Anybody remember Iggygate?)

Now, a backlash is brewing among the Inuit of the Nunavut region, who have been flooding Twitter with selfies (hashtag #sealfies) posing with seal fur and affirming the importance of hunting seal for food, clothing, and traditional reasons.

The campaign began when Killaq Enuaraq-Strauss, a 17-year-old "Ellen" fan from Iqualuit, took DeGeneres to task on YouTube. "You're an inspiration as a woman but also as a human being," the teenager begins, addressing the talk show host directly, before going on to "educate you a bit on seal hunting in the Canadian arctic. We do not hunt seals ... for fashion. We hunt to survive."

Enuaraq-Strauss continues, "I own sealskin boots and they are supercute, and I am proud to say that I own them, and I also eat seal meat more times than I can count. But I can't apologize for that."

Due to Ellen's actions, she says, "A huge part of your fanbase is targeting us as a people for practicing our own rights and traditions as an indigenous group ... It's detrimental to our culture. It's oppressive." She adds, "Having a role model to people worldwide use a photo of a few celebrities to protest against our culture, to raise money to fight against us — I'm a little bit insulted and hurt and disappointed. But I'm not mad."

After the video hit local media, a number of her fellow Inuit rallied to her cause, posting #sealfies of their own, including the government of Nunavut's Twitter account.

I was thrilled to bits to sew my own seal mitts in 2009 near Pangnirtung N.U #EllenDegeneres #sealfie @TheEllenShow pic.twitter.com/QevRXDdlZA — Vanessa Dion Fletche (@Vboots) March 31, 2014

Making seal skin mitts w/ elders in Pangnirtung, Canada. Ellen's ignorant, but you don't have to be! #sealfie pic.twitter.com/ElSj47JCdG — emily lennon (@GSLennon) April 2, 2014

I support subsistence living because it's our way of life and it's a way to preserve our culture. #sealfie pic.twitter.com/yD53Ltv5L9 — Lydia (@lagnus) March 29, 2014

#sealfie This is all I asked for at Christmas. Warmest pair I own!! #cbcnorth pic.twitter.com/FJAvpTtsP3 — Juanita Taylor (@juanita_cbc) April 4, 2014

I'd wear this everyday if I could! My wedding dress, my seal skin parka and Qovik's seal skin slippers. #sealfie pic.twitter.com/ynXdaO7UeE — Juanita Taylor (@juanita_cbc) April 2, 2014