Map showing land use of the Iglulik Inuit

Get Adobe Reader

Tookillkee wearing his caribou skin clothing while hunting polar bear at -50°C. Jones Sound, between Devon Island and the Southern end of Ellesmere Island.
March, 1971
Photograph by Rick Riewe

Iglulik Inuit

Anthropologists use the term Iglulik to refer to Inuit from Melville Peninsula, Southampton Island, and the northern third of Baffin Island. Iglulik Inuit also have communities further north in Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island and Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island who originally came from northern Baffin Island.

The region extending from Southampton Island, north to Ellesmere Island is geographically diverse and spectacular, with small ice caps, glaciers, turbulent streams, mountains and fiords. The northern part of the region is considered a polar desert with small areas of stunted arctic willows and some grasses. Only a few types of animals live here including musk ox, Peary's caribou, arctic fox and a few species of birds.

The southern part of the region has much more vegetation. It is carpeted with arctic grasses and supports a diverse range of animals such as barren ground caribou, arctic hare, arctic wolf and migratory birds. The marine environment is much richer than the land and hosts populations of ringed seal, bearded seal, harp seal, walrus, polar bear and sea birds as well as several species of fish.

continue