Abstract

Inuit of the interior District of Keewatin were named 'Caribou Eskimo' by Birket-Smith in 1929, due to their profound reliance on caribou for food, clothing, shelter, and technology. In part because of this adaptation, they have generally been portrayed as among the most primitive and simple societies in the Canadian Arctic. This portrait is based on ethnographic research conducted after major epidemies and drastic reductions in caribou populations had decimated Inuit societies of the Keewatin. This paper, based on two recent archaeological projects in the District of Keewatin, presents Inuit site distributions for two areas: Aberdeen Lake on the Thelon River, and the lower Kazan River. Both areas yielded settlement patterns characterized by significant variability in site size, complexity, and function. These data indicate that the Inuit of interior Keewatin were able to maximize their social interaction in ways more complex than are indicated by the ethnographic record.