Inuit Settlement Research Articles

Pigiasilluta oKalagiamik: Culturally Relevant Assessment in Nunatsiavut

Beginning with a story of travelling between northern communities and the shared experiences of the researchers, the environment, and the animals, this research reports the perspectives of teachers, administrators, and parents on how school-based assessment practices impact Inuit learners in Nunatsiavut, the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area. To adjust to current global social, economic, and environmental challenges (Council of Ministers of Education 2018; OECD 2018; United Nations 2010), mainstream jurisdictions are centering their curricular content and assessment measures on competencies (Alberta 2018; British Columbia 2018; Council of Ministers of Education 2018; OECD 2018; Ontario 2016). Our results show that many of these values are already imbedded in community- and land-based experiences in Nunatsiavut and we argue that the development of assessment practices to capture competencies can help reveal the strengths in culturally relevant curriculum and instruction in Nunatsiavut.

Intimate Clips: Sealskin Sewing, Digital Archives and the Mittimatalik Arnait Miqsuqtuit Collective

This article reflects upon the interplay of digital, material, and social relations in the context of a small-scale digital archiving project currently being undertaken by a group of women ethnographers, videographers, and sealskin seamstresses in the Canadian Eastern High Arctic Inuit settlement of Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet). I illustrate the documentation work of our Mittimatalik Arnait Miqsuqtuit Collective, situating it in the new media landscapes that have developed in the Canadian Arctic, and draw on case studies to challenge claims that new communications technology has led to the breakdown of social and environmental relationships. Clips from our digitizing work in progress offer insight into the relational ecologies emergent the making of this archive: illustrating how the unique materiality of sealskin and digital archives, the politics of Inuit hunting, the sensibilities of family and friends, and the challenges of broadband connectivity in Arctic settlements shape this initiative. Technology also emerges here as a key agent, enabling new collaborative relationships, political voice, and forms of knowledge production, but also denying others.

A 550-Year Record of the Disturbance History of White Spruce Forests Near Two Inuit Settlements in Labrador, Canada

Abstract We assessed historical variations in environmental parameters affecting tree growth during the last 550 years in north-central Labrador, Canada, using dendroecological analysis of white spruce forests near two Inuit settlements. Tree surveys of both modern and archaeological wood samples provided data for dendroecological analysis of growth patterns and natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes and enabled more-refined dendrochronological dating of the occupation of archaeological sites. Previous Quebec-Labrador peninsula dendroecological studies have focused on climatic forcing agents; this study's coupling of annual tree-growth records to local-scale historical and archaeological data facilitates examination of multi-causal disturbance patterns over time. Low-intensity human interactions with forest ecosystems were significant factors influencing local-scale subarctic forest dynamics in coastal Labrador and should be taken into consideration in other studies.

Identity markers: Interpreting sod-house occupation in Sandwich Bay, Labrador

Documentary evidence suggests that Inuit were present in the Strait of Belle Isle by the late 16th century, yet the archaeological evidence for Inuit settlement in southern Labrador is sparse. Inuit sites are difficult to recognize south of Nunatsiavut, where 19th-century Inuit-Métis families and seasonal Newfoundland fishers occupied settlements that leave similar archaeological surface-traces. In 2009 a SSHRC-funded Community-University Research Alliance was initiated to examine Inuit history in southern Labrador. One of the primary goals of the research was to develop archaeological criteria to distinguish between these ethnically distinct settlements. This paper presents the results from several seasons of research in Sandwich Bay, Labrador. It uses data from community interviews, archaeological surveys, and excavations at four Inuit settlements, one Inuit-Métis house, and one Newfoundland fishery camp to help resolve the issue of site ethnicity for the area immediately south of Hamilton Inlet. Site location and house and site features are used to increase confidence in Inuit site classification and to provide strategies for targeted test-excavations elsewhere in southern Labrador and on the Quebec North Shore. The results of the research also allow for a better understanding of the nature and extent of Inuit occupation in Sandwich Bay.

The Inuit archaeology of the Quebec Lower North Shore

This paper summarizes a decade of archaeological research demonstrating evidence for periods of year-round Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Excavations at several winter villages replicate settlement patterns at sod house sites in central Labrador, including continuation of a traditional Inuit subsistence and domestic economy while incorporating European materials and artifacts. Finds at the Hare Harbour site on Petit Mécatina Island suggest active Inuit collaboration with a European (probably Basque) whaling and fishing station. The Hare Harbour site is a unique early instance of Inuit-European economic and social enterprise. In the early 1700s the Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore came to an abrupt end due to economic competition and hostilities with European and Indian groups that forced Inuit to abandon the coast and retreat north to the core area of Inuit settlement on the central Labrador coast.

Thinking through affect: Inuit knowledge on the tundra and in global environmental politics

Inuit residents of the Canadian Arctic balance a commitment to the land and to land-based traditions with full engagement in governance across different scales of decision-making. In this article, I suggest that thinking with and through 'affect' offers a promising approach to conceptualizing the dynamic role of Inuit knowledge across these different scales. Food sharing in remote Inuit settlements tangibly demonstrates the affective dimensions of Inuit knowledge, reflecting practices rooted in social and ethical relations with land, animals, and human community. Affect also informs the role of Inuit knowledge in international environmental negotiations. I explore this relationship in the work of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), an organization that advocated for a ban on persistent organic pollutants (POP) in the negotiations leading up to the Stockholm Convention. Facilitated by the gift of an Inuit carving, ICC shared a moral and ethical perspective that helped connect negotiators to the physical harms caused by pollutants. Drawing on the philosophy of former ICC Chair Sheila Watt-Cloutier and the non-capitalist framework of J.K. Gibson-Graham (2006), I examine the role this gift played in the POPs negotiations. I conclude that thinking through affect offers new ways of conceptualizing the emergent possibilities of environmental politics and practice.

Vulnerability to Freshwater Changes in the Inuit Settlement Region of Nunatsiavut, Labrador: A Case Study from Rigolet

Drawing on vulnerability approaches from the climate change literature, this paper explores the vulnerability of residents of the community of Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Labrador, to changes in freshwater. Our approach emphasizes local preferences and values. We analyze the results from 89 household interviews (88% response) and targeted interviews in Rigolet to consider the human experience of climate variability and change. Residents report that changes in the spatial and temporal distribution of freshwater are currently challenging their ability to access preferred drinking water and food sources and are adding to the financial barriers that restrict their time spent on the land. The results of our study suggest that Rigolet residents are successfully adapting to existing freshwater changes in their watershed, though these adaptations have not come without sacrifice. The adaptive capacity of Rigolet residents has been supported by resource flexibility and experience-based knowledge of freshwater variability within their watershed, among other factors. Findings suggest that the exposure of sub-Arctic and Arctic communities to freshwater changes and their capacity to adapt are largely shaped by the lifeways of residents and the manner and degree to which they are dependent on local freshwater systems.

Settlement, subsistence, and change among the Labrador Inuit: the Nunatsiavummiut experience

On January 22, 2005, Inuit from communities throughout northern and central Labrador gathered in a school gymnasium to witness the signing of the Labrador Inuit Land Claim Agreement and to celebrate the long-awaited creation of their own regional self-government of Nunatsiavut. This historic agreement defined the Labrador Inuit settlement area, beneficiary enrollment criteria, and Inuit governance and ownership rights. Settlement, Subsistence, and Change Among the Labrador Inuit explores how these boundaries u around land, around people, and around the right to self-govern u reflect the complex history of the region, of Labrador Inuit identity, and the role of migration and settlement patterns in regional politics. Comprised of twelve essays, the book examines the way of life and cultural survival of this unique indigenous population, including: household structure, social economy of wildfood production, forced relocations and land claims, subsistence and settlement patterns, and contemporary issues around climate change, urban planning, and self-government.

Norse–Inuit interaction and landscape change in southern Greenland? A geochronological, Pedological, and Palynological investigation

AbstractRuins representing both medieval Norse and Inuit (Thule culture) settlements can be found together on the coast at Sandhavn (59°59′ N, 44°46′ W), Greenland. The site presents a rare opportunity to investigate the character of past contact and interaction between these two peoples. Soils‐based, radiocarbon, and palynological analyses demonstrate the creation of hortic anthrosols within Norse home‐fields used between the mid‐11th and late 14th centuries A.D. Irrigation channels have been identified within the home‐fields, while rising grass pollen influx reveals intensification in hay production over the period ca. A.D. 1260–1350 despite climatic deterioration setting in around this time. Floor deposits and wall packing from an Inuit winter house returned dates of cal. A.D. 1220–1290 (2σ), yet no direct landscape‐based evidence for Inuit activity could be determined. Although the exact nature of the relationship between Norse and Thule at Sandhavn remains unclear, the role of this site as a harbor and possible trading area may have attracted Inuit settlers keen to participate in European trade networks. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Inuit settlement in the Clyde area during “contact-exploration” times (ca. 1820-1895)

Boas, in his classic The Central Eskimo (1888), strongly implied that at the time of his most northerly journey the Baffin Island coast between northern Home Bay and Eclipse Sound, what is today the Clyde River area, was at most only lightly utilised by Inuit. Ethnohistorical inquiry about Inuit settlement in the area prior to a European presence was frustrated by a lack of temporal referencing for much of the information received from Clyde elders. However, more success was achieved by using temporally situated literature references as cues for informants. This paper relates Clyde Inuit recollections to three reports about 19th century Inuit in the region. The earliest of these (1820) occurred almost at the site of modern Clyde River, while the other two reports are both within a decade of Boas’s journey. These accounts, coupled with Mathiassen’s (1928) information from Inuit at Pond Inlet about their birthplaces and travels, suggest that the Clyde area, while perhaps not intensively occupied, was far from unknown to Inuit.

The Trail as Home: Inuit and Their Pan-Arctic Network of Routes

This paper provides ethnographic and historical evidence for the existence, in time and space, of a network of well-established trails connecting most Inuit settlements and significant places across the Canadian Arctic. The geographic and environmental knowledge relating to trails (and place names associated with the trails) has been orally transmitted through many generations of Inuit. I use historical documents, ethnographic research, and new geographic tools such as GPS, GIS and Google Earth, to show the geographic extent of the network and its historical continuity. I particularly draw on a trip following Inuit along a traditional trail connecting the communities of Iglulik and Naujaat (Repulse Bay). Inuit have made systematic use of the Arctic environment as a whole and trails are, and have been, significant channels of communication and exchange across the Arctic. There are some types of oral history and knowledge that can be accurately transmitted through generations, and I propose that some aspects of Inuit culture are better understood in terms of moving as a way of living.

Sociality, temporality and locality in a contemporary Inuit community

Mauss (1906) suggested that, as a principle of Inuit society, the seasonal societal dichotomy takes shape in movements of population concentration and dispersal into small family groups following the annual migration of game. He argued that these movements and the various social modes thus created inseparably connect temporal, spatial, social, moral, legal, and spiritual dimensions in the construction of Inuit nomadic society. In the mid 20thcentury, the mass and density of Inuit settlement population changed drastically. Inuit groups moved to permanent settlements that were developed and structurally based on Western models of sedentary community life. Under these changed social and physical conditions, does movement and seasonal variations in group composition, and in ways of life, continue to be a central component of Inuit society? Ethnographic evidence from Qikiqtarjuaq (Nunavut) suggests that Inuit integrate modern ways of life into a nomadic lifestyle thus creating, in analogy to Mauss’s model, a continuation of variation in lifestyles and values depending on contexts. This article aims to substantiate and elaborate on this claim of continuity. It makes use of Mauss’s model as a heuristic lens for studying social change in respect to the association of practices and perceptions of seasonal movement in present day Inuit society; thus asking the question: are seasonally varying social modes and associated values part of today’s Inuit community constitution?

Clyde Inuit Settlement and Community: From before Boas to Centralization

Presently, the terms and are used virtually interchange- ably as identifying referents for contemporary Inuit residential places, especially those that are the result of past Euro-Canadian resettlement policy. This paper revisits Chang's (1961) concep- tualization of these terms in which expresses spatial, geographic and, to a degree, temporal provenience, while is conceived of as having strict social meaning with regard to place. Chang's conception of each term is tested through examination of ethnohistoric information about Inuit occupation and use of the Clyde region of eastern Baffi n Island before the formation of modern Clyde River. This examination begins with historical and informant information about the nineteenth century regional presence of Inuit and then is followed by detailed Inuit memories of people and places during Clyde's Contact-Traditional Period (ca. 1923-1970). It concludes that Chang's discriminating use of and are relevant to the history of Inuit occupation in this area during this later time, but that his formulations about Inuit settlement and community within his larger circumpolar typologies are weak and with regard to community inaccurate.

Shifting Identities in a Shifting World: Food, Place, Community, and the Politics of Scale in an Inuit Settlement

Using the case of an Inuit settlement in Northern Québec I explore the interactions between place, identity, scale, and the construction of community. This case study provides a discussion of what a relational construction of the identity of place means in practice. Focusing on country foods—foods that people catch from the land, water, and sky—I describe how the getting of these foods affects Inuit notions of place and constructions of identity and community. Sharing country foods is required in order to ensure future success in hunting and fishing. Such sharing and the social capital it generates were prerequisites for survival in the days when Inuit were living on the land in communities that were constantly changing as people traveled from one location to another in search of food. The move to settlements has brought about changes in Inuit notions of sharing food and ideas about identity. By using a particular event in one Inuit community, I explore the ways in which Inuit have developed a relational sense of identity as a result of the changing places and scales in which they live as occupants of fixed settlements who retain the mores of life on the land. As they call upon different identities, Inuit are invisibly shifting between places. I argue that there is a distinction between a settlement and a community, and that as people adjust to life in settlements they learn to manage their shifting places and shifting identities strategically so that they are able to benefit maximally from the conventions appropriate to both life on the land and life within settlements.

Niels Otto Christensen (1917-2003)

Niels Otto Christensen (N.O. to his friends) passed away on 19 September 2003 in Denmark, after a very full career there and in Greenland. Following high school, N.O. commenced law studies in 1935, graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1942, and practiced law until 1945. He then affiliated with the Greenland Office (Gronlands Styrelse) in the State Department. In 1947, he and his new bride, Birte Kold-Christensen, went to Godhavn (now Qeqertarsuaq) on Disko Island, Greenland, where N.O. served as Landsfoged (Local Governor) for North Greenland. ... In 1950, the position as Landsfoged was abolished because the North and South regional councils (Landsrad) were merged into one council, situated in Godthaab (Nuuk). N.O. accordingly moved to Nuuk as Director of the Office for the Landshovding (Governor General). In 1955 and 1956, he served as acting Landshovding. In 1951 in Nuuk, the Christensen family met Trevor Lloyd, a professor of geography at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, who had served as Canadian consul in Greenland during World War II. Professor Lloyd, an advocate of increased contact between Arctic Canada and Greenland, organized an invitation for N.O. to spend half a year visiting North America. Initially he would go with Mrs. Christensen to Goose Bay (Labrador), Montreal, and Ottawa; then N.O. would separately visit Dartmouth College and spend several months visiting Inuit settlements throughout Arctic Canada. At home in Greenland in 1955, the family housed Donn Haglund, a young American geographer. Donn was writing his dissertation on the economic geography of the Nuuk District at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he is currently professor emeritus. This stay was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the Governor and a former Chairman of the Board of Governors at the Arctic Institute of North America. From 1957 to 1962, N.O. and Birte lived in Skodsborg, Denmark, while he served as head of office in the Ministry for Greenland. During 1958-62, he was also a member of the Greenland Law Committee (Gronlands Lovudvalg). In 1962 they returned to Nuuk, where N.O. became the Governor General (Landshovding), the highest-ranking Danish State official in Greenland. N.O. held this position until 1972 when he reached 55, the mandatory retirement age for all civil service employees in Greenland. Accordingly, the Christensens promptly returned to their family home in Skodsborg (suburban Copenhagen). ... During his tenure (1976-87) as director of the Danish Arctic Institute, N.O. organized several evening courses about Greenland and its nature, history, culture, and art (where Birte, especially, had a great knowledge). He had the ability to connect the right people with personal experiences from active life in Greenland to the Arctic Institute. Additionally he was internationally engaged during 1975-88 as a member of the Board of the Danish Canadian Society. For many years, he was an honorary member and Corresponding Governor of the Arctic Institute of North America. As a member of Comite Arctique International (CAI), he participated in several of CAI's conferences, including the landmark meeting History of the Discovery of the Arctic Regions held at the Vatican Library in Rome. (The conference proceedings volume, Unveiling the Arctic, was published by the Arctic Institute of North America in 1984.) During 1981-88 he was a member of the advisory board of the Danish Royal Geographic Society. The Danish and international Arctic communities constantly benefited from the work and talents of N.O. Christensen, and in turn he received many expressions of honour and thanks. ...

Book Reviews/Comptes rendus

RONALD J. BERGER, Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems ApproachREGINALD W BIBBY, Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in CanadaBRUCE CURTIS, The Politics of Population: State Formation, Statistics, and the Census of Canada, 1840–1875DAVID DAMAS, Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers: The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central ArcticFAWZIA AFZAL‐KHAN and KALPANA SESHADRI‐CROOKS (eds.), The Pre‐Occupation of Post‐Colonial StudiesMICHAEL R. HAINES and RICHARD H. STECKEL (eds.), A Population History of North AmericaWILL C. VAN DEN HOONAARD (ed.), Walking the Tightrope: Ethical Issues for Qualitative ResearchersMEG LUXTON and JUNE CORMAN, Getting By in Hard Times: Gendered Labour at Home and on the JobHEATHER MONTGOMERY, Modern Babylon?: Prostituting Children in ThailandELIZABETH A. POVINELLI, The Cunning of Recognition: Indigenous Alterities and the Making of Australian MulticulturalismSTEPHEN E REYNA, Connections: Brain, Mind, and Culture in a Social AnthropologyLYN SCHUMAKER, Africanizing Anthropology: Fieldwork, Networks, and the Making of Cultural Knowledge in Central Africa

Polynyas and Ice Edge Habitats in Cultural Context : Archaeological Perspectives from Southeast Baffin Island

A combination of paleoclimatic proxies, zooarchaeological data from historic Inuit habitation sites, and Geographic Information System (GIS) studies of modern sea-ice extremes were used to track the changing size and shape in modern times of a polynya situated in outer Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island. From these data, inferences were drawn about historic Inuit settlement patterns and subsistence strategies in the region over the last 500 years. Results of the analysis show that during episodes of cooling temperatures and increased ice severity, the polynya decreases in size and is more localized in outer Frobisher Bay. During warmer periods, the polynya increases in size, extending its ice edge habitat significantly towards the head of Frobisher Bay. These findings, as well as zooarchaeological studies from the outer Bay region that show extensive use of the floe edge habitat, suggest that the present-day polynya was an important factor in attracting various migrations of people to this area, beginning as early as the 14th century. The polynya represented not only a predictable food source on which Inuit could depend during periods of high climatic variability, but also a reliable economic base that allowed them to maintain a high degree of autonomy throughout the different phases of European contact history. The findings discussed in this study are presented at two spatial scales in order to draw connections between regional patterns of sea-ice distribution and Inuit settlement and more local patterns of human response and adaptation.

Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers: The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic, by David Damas

Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers: The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic, by David Damas

Amatørarkæologer i Danmark

Amatørarkæologer i Danmark

Living in the Narrows: Subsistence economy and culture change in Labrador Inuit society during the contact period

This paper presents zooarchaeological analyses of several contact period Inuit winter settlement sites in Hamilton Inlet, Labrador. These sites span the history of Inuit settlement in the region (from about ad 1600 to 1900) and provide an ideal opportunity to examine the relationship of changing patterns of Inuit settlement organization to changing subsistence, social relations and environmental fluctuations. Two of the most conspicuous changes of the contact period came in the eighteenth century, when most winter settlements were relocated to sheltered coastal locations and communal winter houses were adopted. The role played by environmental factors in these changes are discussed in light of new palaeoenvironmental data and zooarchaeological focused on Hamilton Inlet. Environmental changes do seem to have influenced hunting practices. However, this analysis does not support the proposition that the adoption of communal houses was associated with a colder climate or with more severe ice conditions. Rather, it demonstrates a notable increase in importance of open water seal hunting in Hamilton Inlet during the eighteenth century, and links the communal house to increased need for organized hunting labour.