Inuit history: climatic change and historical connections in Arctic Canada AD 1000-1900

• Main Authors: Sutherland, Patricia D., Arnold, Charles D., Savelle, James, Smol, John P., Douglas, Marianne S. V., McGhee, Robert
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2012
• Subjects: Climate change; Climate history; Environmental impacts; Indigenous peoples; Traditional Knowledge; Whaling; International Polar Year-Inuit history climatic change and historical connections in Arctic Canada AD 1000-1900; Arctic; Canada; Greenland; Endeavour; Helluland; Banks Island; Beaufort Sea; Dorset culture; eskimo*; International Polar Year; inuit; Thule; Thule culture; Tuniit
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5443/11359; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=11359

Objectives: The Inuit History Project is designed with two broad objectives in mind: o to determine to what extent Inuit cultural development over the past millennium has been influenced by efforts to gain access to materials and technologies produced by world economies. This endeavour provides a historical critique of the stereotypical view of traditional Inuit society and culture as isolated, static, and influenced solely by processes of adaptation to environmental change; and o to clarify the process through which environmental change has influenced the social and cultural development of Arctic societies over the past 1000 years, and the implications of these findings for understanding potential responses to future episodes of climatically driven environmental change. In order to attain these objectives, the Inuit History project coordinates the work and findings of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental researchers working in collaboration with northern communities, in order to address these objectives. It is organized as four sub-projects. ¿ Helluland Archaeology Project ¿ High Arctic Thule Project ¿ Banks Island (Beaufort Sea) Archaeological Research Project Archaeology/Palaeolimnology Project The archaeologists and palaeoenvironmental researchers are collaborating in investigating a small number of carefully selected archaeological sites across Arctic Canada. These sites variously represent the remains of occupations by Dorset culture Palaeo-Eskimos, Thule culture Inuit, and possibly medieval Europeans, and have been chosen in order to provide information on the nature of human occupation, interaction, and environmental conditions in the centuries between approximately AD 1000 and 1900 : Purpose: The Inuit of Arctic Canada and Greenland have long been known to derive from an eastward migration of their Alaskan ancestors. This movement of Thule culture Inuit has generally been interpreted as a response to climatic warming during the centuries around 1000 AD, and ancestral Inuit are thought to have moved into an uninhabited territory or one that was sparsely occupied by a remnant Dorset culture aboriginal population. The subsequent development of Inuit society and culture in Arctic Canada and Greenland is considered to have been influenced primarily by a cooling climate that began during the thirteenth century and culminated between the seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. It has been generally assumed that Inuit culture developed in relative isolation, and primarily through processes of adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Recent discoveries suggest a much more complex picture of Arctic history during the past millennium, and the International Polar Year provides a timely opportunity to assemble several research projects that are contributing to different aspects of this perspective. A re-interpretation of Arctic history now appears to be essential. and must incorporate consideration of the following recent developments: : Summary: The aim of this project is to determine if environmental change and/or historical contacts with other societies have influenced the social and cultural development of Arctic societies over the past 1,000 years. Archaeologists and palaeo-environmental researchers are collaborating by investigating archaeological sites occupied during the period between AD 1000 and 1900, when ancestral Inuit first arrived in eastern Arctic Canada. The sites were selected in order to shed light on the interactions between Inuit, their Tuniit (Dorset culture) predecessors, and early Europeans. At the same time, ponds were sampled to create a picture of local environmental conditions when these sites were occupied, allowing researchers to explore the effects of environmental change on societal development.