Traditional and modern sources of income in the Lancaster Sound region

Abstract

Northern Canadian natives wish to continue their traditional lifestyle by hunting, fishing and trapping. These feelings have, for example, been expressed at the recent Lancaster Sound Regional Study workshops by the native residents of Grise Fiord, Resolute, Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet, in spite of pressure by government and industry for the Inuit to take up wage-earning employment. In comparison with the cash benefits of industrial employment the value of the native or traditional economy is often underestimated. Domestically-used meat and materials cannot be valued in a formal or cash economy and tend to be discounted in planning analyses (Usher, 1980).