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Kivallirmiut

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Caribou Inuit
Regions with significant populations
Nunavut
Languages
Inuktitut
Religion
Christianity, Shamanism

Caribou Inuit, Barren-ground Caribou hunters, are bands of inland Inuit (Eskimo) who lived west of Hudson Bay in northern Canada's Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories, now the Kivalliq Region (Barren Lands) of present-day Nunavut between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W. They were originally named Caribou Eskimo by the Danish Fifth Thule Expedition of 1921 - 1924 led by Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen.[1][2]

Caribou Inuit are the southernmost subgroup of the "Central Inuit", a group that also includes the Netsilik, the Copper, the Iglulik, and the Baffinland Inuit, the group designation determined by geography and tradition of snowhouses (igloos), fur clothing, and sled dogs.[3][4]

Caribou Inuit bands

  • Harvaqtormiut, or Harvaqtuurmiut, or Ha'vaqtuurmiut ("Whirlpools Aplenty People") were a northern group located along the lower Kazan River, below Yathkyed Lake, below the Kunwak River, and inland to Beverley Lake and the lower Dubawnt River. By the early 1980s, most lived at Baker Lake.[2][5][12]
  • Kangiqliniqmiut, or Hauneqtormiut, or Hauniqtuurmiut ("Dwellers Where Bones Abound") were a smaller band who lived near the coast, south of Qairnirmiuts, around the Wilson River and Ferguson River. By the 1980s, were absorbed into subgroups at Whale Cove and Rankin Inlet.[4][5][12]
  • Paallirmiut ("People of the Willow"), or Padlermiut ("People from the Padlei River", Nunavut region), were the most populous band. They were located south of the Hauniqtuurmiut and Harvaqtuurmiut bands. Paallirmiut were split into a coast-visiting (Arviat) subgroup who spent the hunting season on the lower Maguse River, and an interior subgroup who stayed year round in the Yathkyed Lake to Dubawnt Lake area. By the 1980s, most lived in Eskimo Point (Arviat).[4][5][12][13][14]
  • Qaernermiut ("Dwellers of the Flat Land"), or Qairnirmiut ("Bedrock People"), a northern group, were located from the sea coast between Chesterfield Inlet to Rankin Inlet across to their main area around Baker Lake and some even to Beverley Lake. By the early 1980s, most lived at Baker Lake.[2][4][5][12]
  • Utkuhiksalingmiut ("People who have Cooking Pots"), were located in the Chantrey Inlet area around the Back River, near Baker Lake. They made their pots ("Utkusik") from soapstone found in the area, ergo their name.[11][15]

History

Lacking an early written language, Caribou Inuit pre-history is unclear. Anthropologists believe Caribou Inuit descended from Thule people. Regular contact began around 1717 after the establishment of a permanent settlement in Churchill, Manitoba. The contact included access to guns, along with an introduction to trapping and whaling.

Explorer Joseph Tyrrell estimated the "Caribou Eskimo" numbered nearly 2,000 when he led the Geological Survey of Canada's Barren Lands expeditions of 1893 and 1894. Eugene Arima classifies the Hauniqtuurmiut, Ha'vaqtuurmiut, Paallirmiut, and Qairnirmiut as Caribou Inuit "southern, latter" bands: through the end of the 19th century, they were primarily coastal saltwater hunters, but with firearm ammunition from commercial whalers, they were able to live inland year round hunting caribou without augmenting their diet on sea life.(Arima 1975)[1][3]

Regular trade dates to the early 1900s and missionaries arrived soon thereafter, developing a written language, challenged by a variety of pronounciations and naming rules. In the Arctic spring of 1922, explorer Kaj Birket-Smith and Rasmussen encountered and reported on the lives of Harvaqtuurmiut and Paallirmiut. Some hunting years were better than others as resident caribou and migratory herds grew or declined, but Caribou Inuit populations dwindled through the decades. Starvation was not uncommon. During a bleak period in the 1920s, the Caribou Inuit made their way to Hudson's Bay Company outposts and small, scattered villages on their own. Author/explorer Farley Mowat visited the Ihalimut in the 1940s and 1950s, writing extensively about the Ihalmiut.[7][11][16][17]

Ethnography

Caribou Inuit were nomadic and summers were time of relocation to reach different game and to trade. In addition to hunting, they fished in local lakes and rivers. Caribou Inuit northern bands from as far away as Dubawnt River travelled on trading trips to Churchill via Kugjuaq ("Big River") (Thlewiaza River) for extra supplies. The nomadic nature made the people and their dogs into strong walkers and sleders who carried loads of implements, bedding, and tents. Kayaks portaged people and baggage in rivers and lakes.[2][10]

Kayaks were also used for hunting at water crossings during annual migration. Wounded animals were tied together, brought ashore, and killed there to avoid the struggle of dragging dead animals. Every part of the caribou was important. The antlers were used for tools, such as the ulu (knife) and goggles to prevent snow blindness. The hides were used for footware and clothing, including the anorak and amauti, using caribou sinew to piece the articles together, and worn in many layers. Mittens were lined with fur, down, and moss. While spring-gathered caribou skins were thin, sleek, and handsome, summer-gathered caribou skins were stronger and warmer. Hides were used also for tents, tools, and containers.[2][3][5][18][19]

Caribou Inuit lived within a patrilocal social unit. The male elder, the ihumataq ("group leader"), was the centralized authority. There was no other form of authority within subgroups or within the Caribou Inuit in general. Like other Inuit, Caribou Inuit practiced an animist relgion, including beliefs that everything had a soul or energy with a disposition or personality. The protector was Pinga, a female figure, the object of taboos, who brings the dead to Adlivun. The supreme force was Hila ("air"), a male figure and the source of misfortune. Christian missionaries established posts in the Barren Lands between 1910 and 1930, converting (Siqqitiq) most Inuit from animists to Christians, who, nonetheless, maintain remnants of their traditional shamanistic beliefs.[1][20]

Caribou Inuit are Inuktitut speakers. Inuktitut has six dialects; the Caribou Inuit speak the Kivalliq dialect, which is further divided itno four subdialects, Ahiarmiut, Hauniqturmiut, Paallirmiut, and Qairnirmiut. The Utkuhiksalingmiut's dialect, Utkuhiksalingmiutut, is similar to but distinct from their neighbors' Nattilingmiutut. Like other central Canadian Arctic people, Caribou Inuit participated in nipaquhiit ("games done with sounds or with noises"). The Caribou Inuit genre lacked typical katajjaq (throat sounds) but added narration missing amongst other Inuit groups.[5][21][22]

Modern-day adaptation

There are several books written on the hardships and the 1950s federal government re-settlement of Caribou Inuit. With re-settlement to coastal communities, the nomadic nuunamiut ("people of the land") ways ended and Caribou Inuit joined tareumiut ("people of the sea"), the maritime Inuit being a more stable group. Even with federal assistance, adaptating to displacement in fewer and larger towns proved difficult, resulting in high unemployment, domestic violence, sexual abuse, substance addiction, suicide, parental neglect, and lack of motivation. With the acquisition of English, native language loss is the primary threat to their cultural survival, while neither language is being mastered.[23]

On a positive note, artisan skills evolved and Caribou Inuit, such as Jessie Oonark, are notable for their figurines of animal life along with other Inuit art mediums.[23]

About 3,000 Caribou Inuit exist today, located in Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet, Whale Cove, Eskimo Point, and Baker Lake.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Caribou Inuit". everyculture.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Caribou and Iglulik Inuit Kayaks" (PDF). Arctic, Vol. 47, No. 2 (June 1994), P.193-195. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  3. ^ a b c John J. Honigmann. "Faces of the North". google.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Sinews of Survival". google.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Inuit or Eskimo". uarctic.org. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  6. ^ "Sample text for Walking on the land, Farley Mowat". worldcatlibraries.org. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  7. ^ a b Kirsten Madsen. "Project Caribou". taiga.net. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  8. ^ Farley Mowat. "No Man's River". books.google.com. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  9. ^ "Remembering Kikkik". nunatsiaq.com. June 21, 2002. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  10. ^ a b Bill Layman. "Nu-thel-tin-tu-eh and the Thlewiaza River, The Land of the Caribou Inuit and The Barren Ground Caribou Dene". churchillrivercanoe.com. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  11. ^ a b c Darren Keith. "Baker Lake". inuitarteskimoart.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  12. ^ a b c d "Inuit Map of the Canadian Arctic". jimmymacdonald.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  13. ^ "Padlei Topo Map". topozone.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  14. ^ "Community Profile". nativeaccess.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  15. ^ "Tuhaalruuqtut Ancestral Sounds". virtualmuseum.ca. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
  16. ^ "Padlei Diary, 19S0. An Account of the Padleimiut Eskimo in the Keewatin District West of Hudson Bay during the Early Months of 1950 as Witnessed". anthrosource.net. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  17. ^ "People of the Deer". amazon.ca. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  18. ^ "Kivalliq (Inuit)". invitationproject.ca. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
  19. ^ "Want to Stay Warm? Try a Caribou Suit". athropolis.com. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
  20. ^ Richard B. Lee. "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers". google.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  21. ^ "Baby it's cold outside the igloo". blogspot.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  22. ^ "Start of 8.0 Inuktitut dialects". languagegeek.com. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
  23. ^ a b "Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological". google.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  • Arima, E.Y. 1975. A contextual study of the Caribou Eskimo Kayak. Ottawa: National Museum of Man Mercury Series 25 (Ethnology).

Further reading

  • Arima, Eugene Y. A Contextual Study of the Caribou Eskimo Kayak. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1975.
  • Buikstra JE. 1976. "The Caribou Eskimo: General and Specific Disease". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 45, no. 3: 351-67.
  • Gordon, Bryan H. C. People of sunlight, people of starlight Barrenland archaeology in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1996. ISBN 0660159635
  • Oakes, Jill E. Copper and Caribou Inuit Skin Clothing Production. Mercury series. Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1991. ISBN 0660129094
  • Rasmussen, Knud. Iglulik and Caribou Eskimo Texts. New York: AMS Press, 1976. ISBN 0404583008
  • Steenhoven, Geert van den, and Geert van den Steenhoven. Research Report on Caribou Eskimo Law. The Hague: G. van den Steenhoven, 1957.
  • Thule Ekspedition, and Kaj Birket-Smith. The Caribou Eskimos Material and Social Life and Their Cultural Position. Washington, D.C.: Brookhaven Press, 1978.
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