Abstract

Over a period of three field seasons, nine small pre-contact Inuvialuit sites, believed to be representative of the landuse in the interior of the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, were recorded and tested. The sites tend to be located near the outlet streams of headwater lakes with known fishery potential, and their distribution straddles the historic territories of the Kittigarymiut and the Nuvurugmiut. Artifacts and faunal remains indicate that fish and waterfowl were processed intensively from early spring to mid or late summer, but evidence for caribou hunting is minimal. This raises questions concerning pre-contact Inuvialuit social organization and specialization of resource exploitation. A procedure to resolve these questions is proposed.