Abstract
Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are the common thread running through thousands of years of cultural evolution in northern mainland Canada. From the earliest Indian traditions, through the Pre-Dorset and Dene cultural evolution, up to historic times, the vast herds of migratory Barrenland caribou provided food, clothing and shelter. They determined the human cycle -- seasonal migrations, seasonal levels of fitness, and season of procreation. Caribou even permeated Dene mythology and supernatural beliefs. Within the Beverly caribou (R. t. groenlandicus) range in the Canadian Barrenlands, investigation of 1002 archaeological sites points to long-term stability of human band and caribou herd interaction. Caribou bone and hunting tools occur in multiple levels, the earliest to 8000 years, based on 131 radiocarbon dates. Through time, specific hunting bands aligned with specific migratory barren-ground caribou herds. This relationship helps to explain observed archaeological and ethnological differences within different caribou ranges for these hunting bands. In general, biological evidence concurs with ethnographic and archaeological evidence. But short-term variations in migration routes between northern boreal forest, taiga and tundra may have followed changes in herd size and environment, e.g., unfavorable snow and ice conditions or forest fires. However, such influences were not discernible archaeologically.
Highlights
Introduction and backgroundAs a graduate student in archaeology in the late with almost 5000 artifacts, three smaller shallow1960s, I was asked to investigate stone tools collected downriver sites with several hundred artifacts, and by a team from the Calgary Zoo (Calgary, Alberta, the rest, surface sites (Gordon, 1975: 4)
The sanc¬ compared with similar ones from sites in the Kamintuary is located roughly in the north-central tundra uriak, Bathurst, and Bluenose caribou herd ranges, part of the Beverly caribou (Rangifer tarandus groen-as defined by the Canadian Wildlife Service (Fig. 2: landicus) range (e.g., Miller et al, 1988; Hall, 1989)
The names of these Dene tribes have been replaced by the names of smaller local bands; e.g., the Eastern Chipewyan with the Duck Lake, Barrenlands and Hatchet Lake bands; the Western Chipewyan with Caribou-Eater bands at Stoney Rapids and Black Lake; while the Yellowknives were assimilated by the Dogrib (Smith, 1978: 71)
Summary
As a graduate student in archaeology in the late with almost 5000 artifacts, three smaller shallow. One of the Canada) capturing muskox (Ovibos moschatus) calves intwo 2-m deep sites, KjNb-6, had six major levels One of its lowest levels, Pre-Dorset or ASTt (Nunavut, as of 1999), Canada. The sanctuary is in (Arctic Small Tool tradition; op.cit.: 125-133), had the central Barrenlands between Great Slave Lake recognizable tools because they had been iden¬. Provinces (Saskatchewan & Manitoba) to the south, ASTt tools, dating from 3450 to 2650 years ago, were and the Arctic Ocean to the north (Fig. 1). The sanc¬ compared with similar ones from sites in the Kamintuary is located roughly in the north-central tundra uriak, Bathurst, and Bluenose caribou herd ranges, part of the Beverly caribou (Rangifer tarandus groen-as defined by the Canadian Wildlife Service (Fig. 2: landicus) range (e.g., Miller et al, 1988; Hall, 1989). The sanc¬ compared with similar ones from sites in the Kamintuary is located roughly in the north-central tundra uriak, Bathurst, and Bluenose caribou herd ranges, part of the Beverly caribou (Rangifer tarandus groen-as defined by the Canadian Wildlife Service (Fig. 2: landicus) range (e.g., Miller et al, 1988; Hall, 1989). Kelsall, 1968; Thomas, 1969; Parker, 1972)
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