Pallirmiut

Last updated April 30, 2019

Pallirmiut were a geographically defined Copper Inuit group in the Canadian Arctic territory of Nunavut.^[1] They were located by the mouth of the Rae River (Pallirk) during the spring. Some stayed there during summers, while others joined the Kogluktogmiut at the Bloody Falls summer salmon fishery. Pallirmiut wintered on west central Coronation Gulf, and went inland when the snow was gone, carrying packs rather than using sleds.^[2]

Copper Inuit are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region and the Northwest Territories's Inuvik Region. Most historically lived in the area around Coronation Gulf, on Victoria Island, and southern Banks Island.

Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Similarly, the Far North may refer to the Canadian Arctic: the portion of Canada that lies north of the Arctic Circle, east of Alaska and west of Greenland. This area covers about 39 percent of Canada's total land area, but has less than 1 percent of Canada's population.

Nunavut is the newest, largest, and most northerly territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the boundaries had been drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map since the incorporation of the province of Newfoundland in 1949.

Ethnology

While some Copper Inuit did not eat seal and caribou at the same meal, Pallirmiut did, as did Akuliakattagmiut, Kangiryuarmiut, Kogluktogmiut, Nagyuktogmiut, Noahonirmiut, and Puiplirmiut. Pallirmiut traded with white men more so than other Copper Inuit for items such as guns.^[2]

Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae, Otariidae, and Phocidae. There are 33 extant species of pinnipeds, and more than 50 extinct species have been described from fossils. While seals were historically thought to have descended from two ancestral lines, molecular evidence supports them as a monophyletic lineage. Pinnipeds belong to the order Carnivora and their closest living relatives are believed to be bears and the superfamily of musteloids, having diverged about 50 million years ago.

The reindeer, also known as the caribou in North America, is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, sub-Arctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. Rangifer herd size varies greatly in different geographic regions. The Taimyr herd of migrating Siberian tundra reindeer in Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world, varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000. What was once the second largest herd is the migratory boreal woodland caribou George River herd in Canada, with former variations between 28,000 and 385,000. As of January 2018, there are fewer than 9,000 animals estimated to be left in the George River herd, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The New York Times reported in April 2018 of the disappearance of the only herd of southern mountain caribou in the lower 48 states, with an expert calling it "functionally extinct" after the herd's size dwindled to a mere three animals.

Akuliakattagmiut were a geographically defined Copper Inuit subgroup in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. They were located near Cape Bexley on the south shore, mainland side of Dolphin and Union Strait, and in the vicinity of the Melville Hills' Akuliakattak Lake, the source of the Rae River.

Studies by anthropologist Diamond Jenness showed that the Akuliakattagmiut, Haneragmiut, Kogluktogmiut, Pallirmiut, Puiplirmiut, and Uallirgmiut intermarried and mixed through family shifting.^[3]

Anthropology is the scientific study of humans and human behavior and societies in the past and present. Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans.

Diamond Jenness, was one of Canada's greatest early scientists and a pioneer of Canadian anthropology.

Haneragmiut were a geographically defined Copper Inuit subgroup in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. They were the most westerly band of those that hunted in southern Victoria Island. They were generally located on the north shore of Dolphin and Union Strait, north of Cape Bexley, and south of Prince Albert Sound, on Victoria Island. Though they migrated seasonally both north and south for hunting, fishing, and trade, they were unaware that Victoria Island was an island.

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Vilhjalmur Stefansson was an Icelandic American Arctic explorer and ethnologist.

The Thelon River stretches 900 kilometres (560 mi) across northern Canada. Its source is Whitefish Lake in the Northwest Territories, and it flows east to Baker Lake in Nunavut. The Thelon ultimately drains into Hudson Bay at Chesterfield Inlet.

Dolphin and Union Strait lies in both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada, between the mainland and Victoria Island. It links Amundsen Gulf, lying to the northwest, with Coronation Gulf, lying to the southeast. The southeastern end of the strait is marked by Austin Bay. It gets its name from the two boats used by John Richardson (naturalist) who first explored it in 1826.

Blonde Eskimos or Blond Eskimos is a term first applied to sightings and encounters of light haired Inuit peoples of Northern Canada from the early 20th century, particularly around the Coronation Gulf between mainland Canada and Victoria Island. Sightings of light haired natives of the Arctic however stretch back to written accounts from the 17th century.

Bloody Falls is a waterfall in the Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park in Nunavut, Canada. It was the site of the Bloody Falls Massacre in 1771 and the murder of two priests by Copper Inuit Uloqsaq and Sinnisiak in 1913.

The Rae River (Pallirk) is a waterway that flows from Akuliakattak Lake into Richardson Bay, Coronation Gulf. Its mouth is situated northwest of Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Its shores were the ancestral home of Copper Inuit subgroups: the Kanianermiut and the Pallirmiut.

Albert Edward Bay is a bay on the southeast side of Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. If faces Victoria Strait to the east. There are several islands in the bay, the largest of which is Admiralty Island at its mouth. Its north side is the Collinson Peninsula.

Ekalluktogmiut were a geographically defined Copper Inuit subgroup in Canada's Nunavut territory. They were located along the Ekalluk River near the center of Victoria Island, Albert Edward Bay in western Victoria Strait, and Denmark Bay. According to the Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Ekalluktogmiut winter hunt on Dease Strait.

Kogluktogmiut were a geographically defined Copper Inuit subgroup in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. They were located by Bloody Falls, a waterfall on the lower course of the Coppermine River in the Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park, notable for the Bloody Falls Massacre.

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Cape Bexley is a headland in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is located on the mainland, on the south shore of Dolphin and Union Strait, and bounded on the south by Souths Bay.

Kaernermiut were a Copper Inuit subgroup. They were located on the Back River, and, they frequented the Thelon River. The Kaernermiut remained inland through all the seasons, coming to the sea only as single families visiting other tribes. For this reason, they did not kill seals, living instead on caribou and muskoxen. Their land was east and south of the Ahiagmiut. Because the Haningayogmiut were in the same general area, they may have been the same people, with a different name.

The Umingmuktogmiut are a geographically defined Copper Inuit band in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, Kitikmeot Region. They were located on the western coast of Kent Peninsula, and also further south in eastern Bathurst Inlet around Everitt Point by the Barry Islands. Umingmuktogmiut were notable amongst other Copper Inuit as they had a permanent community, Umingmuktog. They could hunt and fish for Arctic char, Arctic fox, barren-ground caribou, fur seals, and muskox prevalent in the area.

The Ugyuligmiut were a geographically defined Copper Inuit band in the Canadian Arctic's Northwest Territories. They were located on Victoria Island north of Minto Inlet, and on Banks Island in the Aulavik National Park region.

The Kugaryuagmiut are a geographically defined Copper Inuit band in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, on the mainland, in Kitikmeot Region. According to Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson's 1908-1912 ethnographic journals, they numbered about 25 at the time. In the summer, they hunted in the region of the Kugaryuak River, which flows into the Coronation Gulf, where they subsisted during the winter, the same as other Copper Inuit of that region.

The Pingangnaktok are a geographically defined Copper Inuit band in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, on the mainland, in Kitikmeot Region. According to Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson's 1908-1912 ethnographic journals, they numbered about 30 at the time. In the summer, they hunted to the west of Tree River, which flows into the Coronation Gulf, where they hunted during the winter, the same as other Copper Inuit of that region.

References

↑ Stefansson, Vilhjalmur (1914). The Stefánsson-Anderson Arctic Expedition of the American Museum: Preliminary Ethnological Report. New York: The Trustees of the American Museum. pp. 26–31. OCLC 13626409.
1 2 Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. New York, NY: American Museum of Natural History. 1919. pp. 4–303. OCLC 1116815.
↑ "Anthropology in the Canadian Arctic Expedition". Anthropologic Miscellanea. American Anthropological Association. 17 (4): 776–780. 1915. JSTOR 660004.

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[1] Stefansson, Vilhjalmur (1914). The Stefánsson-Anderson Arctic Expedition of the American Museum: Preliminary Ethnological Report. New York: The Trustees of the American Museum. pp. 26–31. OCLC 13626409.

[museum-2] 1 2 Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. New York, NY: American Museum of Natural History. 1919. pp. 4–303. OCLC 1116815.

[3] "Anthropology in the Canadian Arctic Expedition". Anthropologic Miscellanea. American Anthropological Association. 17 (4): 776–780. 1915. JSTOR 660004.