Abstract

Archaeological excavation and ethnohistorical tradition together indicate the existence of a previously unrecognized Mackenzie Inuit group, living in the Franklin Bay area east of Cape Bathurst into the early historic period. They appear to have been decimated by disease and starvation in the early nineteenth century, with survivors fleeing west to Baillie Island. Further east yet, the Amundsen Gulf coast as far as Dolphin and Union Strait was apparently unoccupied during the late prehistoric period, for reasons which remain unknown. Previously, however, it was occupied by a Thule culture population which was very similar to that of the western Coronation Gulf area. This 'Clachan phase' of Thule culture was probably at least in part ancestral to both the Mackenzie and Copper Inuit.