Overview of Early Palaeoeskimo Prehistory

Numerous syntheses have brought together data relating to early Palaeoeskimo sites in Alaska and throughout the Canadian Arctic and Greenland (Arnold 1981; Dumond 1977; Maxwell 1985; McGhee 1976; Schledermann 1990). All are in general agreement that the earliest archaeological remains in the Canadian Arctic Islands and Greenland, materials ascribed to the Arctic Small Tool tradition, appeared around 4000 years ago.

An important amount of uncertainty exists, however, over the mechanisms of human movements in the Arctic at this time. Much of this confusion stems in part from the dating of these early sites in different regions of the Arctic. While Proto-Denbigh materials at the Onion Portage site of Alaska are estimated to be 4100 years old (Anderson 1988: 89), accepted Denbigh Flint Complex dates at Cape Denbigh Alaska are on the order of 4000 to 3500 years old (Anderson 1988: 89; Dumond 1977: 86). The earliest archaeological remains in the Canadian High Arctic and adjacent Greenland (artifacts of the Independence I culture) have been dated to about the same time period, and the earliest Arctic Small Tool tradition sites of the Labrador coast are contemporaneous with these or only slightly later (Tuck 1975: 137; Tuck and Fitzhugh 1986: 161). At Saglek Bay in Labrador, Tuck saw strong similarities with Independence I assemblages of the Canadian High Arctic.

The early Palaeoeskimo situation in the neighbouring Ungava Peninsula is complicated. Badgley has documented numerous Pre-Dorset sites on the west coast of the Ungava Peninsula in Hudson Bay, where the earliest date there is 3800 B.P. (I. Badgley 1993: pers. comm.). Related, but clearly different sites, described as reminiscent of Independence I, have been documented along the east shore of the peninsula.

The initial settlement of the Canadian Arctic involved very mobile groups who rapidly occupied much of the coastal reaches of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. Whether the colonization of these different regions occurred sequentially, or whether a number of small groups moved out from an initial centre more or less simultaneously, remains to be adequately determined. Notwithstanding the problems inherent with the radiocarbon dating of organic remains from the Arctic (McGhee and Tuck 1976; Morrison 1989) it is apparent that there is little chronological difference between the earliest Canadian and Greenland dates, and the purported Alaskan source of these migrants. Indeed, the closeness of available Alaskan Denbigh Flint Complex and related High Arctic Independence I radiocarbon dates has led McGhee (1987) to entertain the idea of a migration from the east, through central Siberia and Greenland to the Canadian High Arctic. Supporting evidence for this hypothesis remains, however, to be found.

With the possible exception of the Québec-Labrador Peninsula, much of the Low Arctic appears to have been populated by the Arctic Small Tool tradition in later movements of people derived from the first migrants. This second migration may have been precipitated by harsher climatic conditions which occasionned a shift in the early ASTt range. By 3500 B.P., the High Arctic may have been depopulated, while Pre-Dorset groups shifted their range into the Barrenlands of the Northwest Territories and adjacent portions of the boreal forest. Although a more complex model has been assumed (McGhee 1976) a correlation with general climatic trends is nonetheless apparent.

The economic correlates of the movements into the different parts of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland have been determined or estimated to be similarly complex. Settlement/subsistence patterns in northern Alaska seem to have involved the seasonal use of a wide variety of ecological niches and resources (Anderson 1988: 149; Stewart 1989). Sea mammals were taken along the coastal tundra of northern and northwestern Alaska. Caribou were also hunted in these coastal areas as well as in the forested interior along rivers and lakes. The use of fish resources is also inferred by riparian and lacustrian locations throughout the Denbigh Flint Complex range.

In the High Arctic, various resources were exploited depending upon their availability. The adaptative strategies of the High Arctic Independence and Pre-Dorset groups were similar to the generalized Alaskan model in their flexibility. Musk-oxen were heavily depended upon in northern Greenland, on Ellesmere Island (Knuth 1967; Schledermann 1990) and on Banks Island (Arnold 1981), while seals and caribou were exploited on Devon Island (McCartney and Helmer 1989; McGhee 1979).

The situation in the Barrenlands is markedly different. Gordon (1975) has proposed a discrete association between human groups and caribou herds. This proposition, based on extensive field work, assumes that caribou herds have used essentially the same migration routes over several thousand years, between their wintering ranges within the boreal forest and their widely separated, distant calving grounds on the open tundra. With few other viable resources to exploit, Pre-Dorset groups developed a transhumant pattern which allowed them to exploit caribou during the full yearly cycle, over the course of which hundreds of kilometres of open terrain had to be traversed. Given widely separated calving grounds and migration routes, Gordon has proposed an entrenched relationship whereby discrete hunting groups or bands were associated with discreet caribou herds. A corollary to this hypothesis is that over time communications between adjacent human groups was reduced, leading to lithic tool stylistic variants being associated with each of the four major Barrenlands caribou herd hunting bands.

To summarize, it is clear that present knowledge concerning the first people to inhabit the Canadian Arctic is not, considering the size of area involved, as complete as could be hoped for. However, the economic versatility and adaptability of the Arctic Small Tool tradition is well-known. Furthermore, their capacity to quickly come to know the resources of new regions has been well attested to. In short, they were a highly flexible group who adapted efficiently to new regions, while maintaining long-distance communication networks which covered several hundred kilometres in one of the harshest environmental zones of the world.