Arctic Journal Part 2: Ikirahak
Southern shoreline of Ikirahak Island
This week, at long last, I bring you photos from our daytrip to Ikirahak island. I apologize for the delay, but school has taken up a lot more of my time than I anticipated. Also I have never put so many photos into a journal before and it took a long time to edit them all. This place really was incredible and I wanted to share all of it.
The Island
Inukshuk on the southern shoreline
Ikirahak Island is located in the southeastern portion of Maguse Lake, Nunavut. It stretches lengthwise from west to east, like most of the landforms in this region. It is covered mostly in low-lying deciduous shrubs and vine-creeping berry plants, not to mention a lot of flowers in the mid-to-late summer. It is a site of many human occupations from what appear to be different culture groups. The importance of this island as a fishing and hunting location can be indicated by the numerous Inukshuks (or standing rock markers) scattered over the island. These markers are usually used to identify important locations on the landscape so they can be found while traveling.
Fireweed growing in the glacial rock scatter
The central portion of the island is covered in glacial rock scatter, some of which are boulder-sized. These rocks made very handy building materials for houses, tent rings and meat caches. These human-made features cover the island almost from end to end and are indicative of the site's importance as a location for resources over what seems to be hundreds of years.
Left: Arctic blueberry. They flower and ripen in late August. Right: Labrador Tea flowers.
Hunting cabins on Ikirhak belonging to the Inuit
Aside from the archaeological features, there are modern hunting cabins located in the central portion of the island. This is because Ikirahak, besides being an excellent fishing location for delicious Arctic Trout, is as it probably was hundreds of years ago a major caribou crossing for one of the large Barrenlands caribou herds. The excavation team in 2009 (which I was sadly not present for) was treated to the site of the annual caribou migration across the island. The photo below only shows a small part of the herd crossing the narrows between the bank of Maguse Lake and the western tip of Ikirahak.
Caribou crossing Maguse Lake via Ikirahak Island, July 2009 (Photo by Sean Pickering)
And of course, since we had to come in two separate trips, we had time to do a little fishing of our own. Sean lost three of his four lures as well as the end of his rod on the final cast, but it turns out that Arctic Trout really is delicious ;)
The Archaeology
Aerial photo: JjKs-7, the Thalthelei house-pit excavations (2008-2009)
Ikirahak is practically littered with archaeological remains, and because there is very little soil deposition in this environment, they are all right on the surface. Above is the site of JjKs-7 (that's its Borden number, which are assigned to all Canadian archaeological sites), a series of semi-subterranean or partially underground house pits which likely would had some sort of tent structure erected over them. These would have to have been dug when the ground was unfrozen, which coincides with the caribou migration in the summer months.
The bare soil ones have already been excavated, but there are two just along the edge of the ridge that are still untouched. From the stone artifacts that were recovered from these house-pits, they are believed to have been left by a First Nations group called the Taltheilei, the ancestors of the Chipewyan Dene. It is really rare to find Taltheilei cultural remains this far above the treeline and it makes this site 1500 years old at the latest.
Aerial Photo: Two stone house-pits in the glacial till, on the ridge in the central portion of the island.
But there are other features of a very different style on the island. These are two house pits with foundations hollowed into the glacial till on the high central ridge of the island. These may represent a different seasonal adaptation in the housing structure, a different time period or even a different culture group altogether. I don't know for sure, as these have not been excavated, but they are surrounded by meat caches and seem to be closer in style to Inuit dwellings. They are maybe a two-minute walk east from JjKs-7.
The same house-pit, view from the ground.
A meat cache not far from the house-pit. The top would be closed over with stones to keep animals out. The two guys in the background are Don and Sean (Sean is the one filming stuff).
What Louis Angalik, the elder who accompanied us here, called "the Grandfather's house", a long rectangular tent ring.
Continuing east, we come to yet another style of dwelling. These are a series of round tent rings made of stones which mark the outline of what was probably hide tents or dwellings. Above is the largest, a rectangular structure that the Inuit Elder who accompanied us to the island called the Grandfather's House, because it was so much bigger and directly faced the water.
A small, circular tent ring next the the rectangular one. There are many of these all over the island.
The ring of stones left by my prof and the excavation team from 2009, which weighed down their big orange cooking tent. Irony, or merely continuing the sequence of occupation at Ikirahak?
Part of a quartz lithic scatter lying on the surface of the ground. There is nearly no soil deposition in this area, so this could easily have been left here hundreds of years ago. The oval-leafed plants beside it are Red Bearberry, the spiny ones above it are Mountain Crowberry, which the Inuit call blackberries. There is a tuft of caribou fur hanging around on the ground from a previous migration.
It isn't just the structures that still show on the surface. Walking over the island, we came across a quartz lithic scatter left by a flint knapper from some unknown time. Some of the larger pieces were partially buried, but the rest was sitting just on top of the moss layer. Below, a surface find of an actual tool. This was all left as it was, all that was taken were photographs.
Surface find: a spokeshave made of a red ferrous siltstone. Spokeshaves were used to straighten the shafts of arrows, spears or possibly harpoons. The plants in this one are Mountain Cranberry, and Reindeer Moss. The caribou that come to the island in the summer feed on the Reindeer Moss, as it is very high in starch.
Last but not least...
Our graceful lady. Such a beautiful machine.
This trip was momentous for one other reason: my very first helicopter ride! This is the lovely creature that flew us out. She was an old little bird, but sturdy and reliable. She got us there and back with nary a hiccup. Her pilot even let my prof fly her for a bit.
And in honor of this occasion, I bring to you a video of my very first ever helicopter takeoff:
The guy filming behind the oil cans is Sean. That small blue building that we briefly fly by to the right is the Arviat airport.
Touching down to pick us up at the end of the day. The guy filming there is my graduate supervisor, Dr. Peter Dawson.
And of course, once we got back to the Arviat airport, this handsome boy was waiting for his turn to fly. Just look at that paint job! Stunning.
That's all, gentle friends. Thanks for being patient with me, I will try to have the Sentry Island journal up once I get out from under some presentations and grant applications. Peace y'all!