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113-396: Ellesmere Island ( Inuktitut : ᐅᒥᖕᒪᒃ ᓄᓇ , romanized :  Umingmak Nuna , lit.   'land of muskoxen '; French : île d'Ellesmere ) is Canada's northernmost and third largest island , and the tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of 196,236 km (75,767 sq mi), slightly smaller than Great Britain , and the total length of the island

226-411: A boreal forest have been reported from Strathcona Fiord . In 2006, University of Chicago paleontologist Neil Shubin and Academy of Natural Sciences paleontologist Ted Daeschler reported the discovery of the fossil of a Paleozoic (ca. 375 Ma) fish, named Tiktaalik roseae , in the former stream beds of Ellesmere Island. The fossil exhibits many characteristics of fish, but also indicates

339-721: A glottal stop when after a vowel (e.g., maꞌna ), or separates an n from an ng (e.g., avin'ngaq ) or an r from an rh (e.g., qar'rhuk ). In April 2012, with the completion of the Old Testament , the first complete Bible in Inuktitut, translated by native speakers, was published. Noted literature in Inuktitut has included the novels Harpoon of the Hunter by Markoosie Patsauq , and Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk . The Inuktitut syllabary used in Canada

452-461: A transitional creature that may be a predecessor of amphibians , reptiles , birds, and mammals , including humans. In 2011, Jason P. Downs and co-authors described the sarcopterygian Laccognathus embryi from specimens collected from the same locality that Tiktaalik was found. The ecosystems of the High Arctic are considered to be young and underdeveloped, having only emerged since

565-670: A 42% loss in surface area. Schei and later Alfred Gabriel Nathorst described the Paleocene - Eocene (ca. 55 Ma) fossil forest in the Stenkul Fiord sediments. The Stenkul Fiord site represents a series of deltaic swamp and floodplain forests. The trees stood for at least 400 years. Individual stumps and stems of >1 m (>3 ft) diameter were abundant, and are identified as Metasequoia and possibly Glyptostrobus . Well preserved Pliocene peats containing abundant vertebrate and plant macrofossils characteristic of

678-472: A few centuries unlike Saqqaq culture which migrated around the same time and lasted for almost 2000 years. The northernmost part of Greenland is the most extreme part of the region. The midnight sun only appears one day at midsummer in the Arctic Circle . In the High Arctic the sun remains above the horizon for around two to four months each year. The coldest months of the year are lit by twilight,

791-463: A massive calving in 1961–1962. Five large ice islands which resulted account for 79% of the calved material. It further decreased by 27% in thickness (13 m (43 ft)) between 1967 and 1999. A 1986 survey of Canadian ice shelves found that 48 km (19 sq mi) or 3.3 km (0.79 cu mi) of ice calved from the Milne and Ayles ice shelves between 1959 and 1974. The breakup of

904-403: A pre-Inuit archaeological site on Peary Land, during the second summer of a multi-year research expedition. At Deltaterrasserne, Knuth discovered evidence of human occupation and artefacts that were different to Inuit cultures, and it was concluded that what he had discovered was a pre-Inuit culture. Knuth named it Independence culture after Independence fjord which was a significant landmark in

1017-469: A root morpheme to which other morphemes are suffixed. Inuktitut has hundreds of distinct suffixes, in some dialects as many as 700. However, it is highly regular, with rules that do not have exceptions like in English and other Indo-European languages , though they are sometimes very complicated. One example is the word qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga ( ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒃᑯᕕᒻᒨᕆᐊᖃᓛᖅᑐᖓ ) meaning 'I'll have to go to

1130-642: A scheme called Qaniujaaqpait or Inuktitut syllabics , based on Canadian Aboriginal syllabics . In the 1860s, missionaries imported this system of Qaniujaaqpait , which they had developed in their efforts to convert the Cree to Christianity , to the Eastern Canadian Inuit. The Netsilik Inuit in Kugaaruk and north Baffin Island adopted Qaniujaaqpait by the 1920s. In September 2019,

1243-562: A separate dialect reputedly much closer to western Inuktitut dialects, spoken in the area around Rigolet . According to news reports, in 1999 it had only three very elderly speakers. Though often thought to be a dialect of Greenlandic , Inuktun or Polar Eskimo is a recent arrival in Greenland from the Eastern Canadian Arctic, arriving perhaps as late as the 18th century. Throughout Inuit Nunaat and Inuit Nunangat

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1356-526: A shipwreck. A bronze set of scales discovered in western Ellesmere Island has been interpreted as indicating the presence of a Norse trader in the region. The Norse artefacts date from c. 1250 to 1400 CE. Between 1400 and 1600 CE, the Little Ice Age developed and conditions for hunting became increasingly difficult, forcing the Thule to withdraw from Ellesmere and the other northern islands of

1469-482: A unified orthography called Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait, based on the Latin alphabet without diacritics, was adopted for all varieties of Inuktitut by the national organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami , after eight years of work. It was developed by Inuit to be used by speakers of any dialect from any region, and can be typed on electronic devices without specialized keyboard layouts. It does not replace syllabics, and people from

1582-468: A vestige of the retroflex consonants of Proto-Inuit . Inuinnaqtun has one fewer consonant, as /s/ and /ɬ/ have merged into /h/ . All dialects of Inuktitut have only three basic vowels and make a phonological distinction between short and long forms of all vowels. In Inuujingajut —Nunavut standard Roman orthography—long vowels are written as a double vowel. All voiceless stops are unaspirated, like in many other languages. The voiceless uvular stop

1695-595: Is 830 km (520 mi). Lying within the Arctic Archipelago , Ellesmere Island is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands . Cape Columbia at 83°06′41″N 069°57′13″W  /  83.11139°N 69.95361°W  / 83.11139; -69.95361  ( Cape Columbia ) is the most northerly point of land in Canada and one of the most northern points of land on the planet (the most northerly point of land on Earth

1808-725: Is administered as part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region in the Canadian territory of Nunavut . Ellesmere Island has three major geological regions. The Grant Land Highlands is a large belt of fold mountains which dominate the northern face of the island. It is part of the Franklinian mobile belt, a zone of Cretaceous volcanic and intrusive rock. South of this is the Greely-Hazen Plateau, a large tableland composed of sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Covering most of

1921-515: Is also the name of a macrolanguage and, in that context, also includes Inuvialuktun , and thus nearly all Inuit dialects of Canada. However, Statistics Canada lists all Inuit languages in the Canadian census as Inuktut. Before contact with Europeans, Inuit learned skills by example and participation. The Inuktitut language provided them with all the vocabulary required to describe traditional practices and natural features. Up to this point, it

2034-459: Is ambiguous in state policy to what degree Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun can be thought of as separate languages. The words Inuktitut , or more correctly Inuktut ('Inuit language') are increasingly used to refer to both Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut together, or "Inuit languages" in English. Nunavut is the home of some 24,000 Inuit, over 80% of whom speak Inuktitut. This includes some 3,500 people reported as monolinguals. The 2001 census data shows that

2147-477: Is an Inuvialuktun dialect. As of the early 2000s, Nunavut has gradually implemented early childhood, elementary, and secondary school-level immersion programs within its education system to further preserve and promote the Inuktitut language. As of 2012 , "Pirurvik, Iqaluit 's Inuktitut language training centre, has a new goal: to train instructors from Nunavut communities to teach Inuktitut in different ways and in their own dialects when they return home." Quebec

2260-688: Is an unstable pattern and cannot be maintained for long periods of time in human history. Inutoqqat Nunaat (formerly known as Pearylandville) is the largest Paleo-Eskimo site in the Peary Land as discovered by Eigil Knuth. The fauna present in Inutoqqat Nunaat is mainly dominated by musk ox but also consists of arctic fox, hare, and arctic char as well as a few avian fauna consisting of geese and gull. The ruins are rich in both lithic debitage and fauna refuse meaning they were probably used as winter dwellings for several months however most of

2373-467: Is associated with Inukjuak , Quebec, and there is an Itivimuit River near the town. The Nunatsiavut dialect ( Inuttitut ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᕗᒻᒥᐅᑐᑦ or, often in government documents, Labradorimiutut ) was once spoken across northern Labrador . It has a distinct writing system, developed in Greenland in the 1760s by German missionaries from the Moravian Church . This separate writing tradition,

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2486-650: Is based on the Cree syllabary devised by the missionary James Evans . The present form of the syllabary for Canadian Inuktitut was adopted by the Inuit Cultural Institute in Canada in the 1970s. Inuit in Alaska, Inuvialuit , Inuinnaqtun speakers, and Inuit in Greenland and Labrador use Latin alphabets. Though conventionally called a syllabary , the writing system has been classified by some observers as an abugida , since syllables starting with

2599-501: Is characterised by “barren deserts, permanent sea- ice cover, several months of extremely low temperatures, and winter darkness”. Independence I people were living in extremely remote and harsh environments and assumedly in isolation. The ecological system in Northern Greenland was unstable and was at risk of worsening environmental conditions and overhunting. This has been provided as a reason why Independence I only lasted

2712-506: Is coarsely made adze heads with ground edges of basalt. Microblades make up a large proportion of the artefacts from Independence I sites. They were narrow slivers of glass-like flint with long straight edges and were made using very specialised techniques. The tools used by Independence I culture was an aspect of the culture’s discovery. When Knuth was excavating Independence I sites, he discovered tiny, chipped tools which were razor edged microblades that didn’t show any resemblance to

2825-437: Is exceeded in this regard only by neighbouring Greenland , which extends about 60 km (37 mi) closer to the north pole. Ellesmere's northernmost point, Cape Columbia (at 83°06′41″N 69°57′13″W  /  83.11139°N 69.95361°W  / 83.11139; -69.95361  ( Cape Columbia ) ), is less than 800 km (500 mi) from the north pole, while its southern coasts at 77°N are well within

2938-533: Is home to roughly 15,800 Inuit, nearly all of whom live in Nunavik . According to the 2021 census, 80.9% of Quebec Inuit speak Inuktitut. The Nunavik dialect ( Nunavimmiutitut , ᓄᓇᕕᒻᒥᐅᑎᑐᑦ ) is relatively close to the South Baffin dialect, but not identical. Because of the political and physical boundary between Nunavik and Nunavut, Nunavik has separate government and educational institutions from those in

3051-630: Is in line with other areas apart from the high amount of arctic fox which is unusual. However, it is likely arctic fox hunting was conducted in winter, and that their diet mainly consisted of muskox which is typical for Independence I culture. Muskoxen were a key part of the Independence I culture as they used all products of the muskox. This included their meat, grease, and marrow as well as long bones for tools and their thick pelts. Therefore, Independence I people used muskoxen for food, clothing, tools, and warmth. No clothing has been preserved from

3164-749: Is located in the British Empire Range on Ellesmere Island. The most northern mountain range in the world, the Challenger Mountains , is located in the northeast region of the island. The northern lobe of the island is called Grant Land . The Arctic willow is the only woody species to grow on Ellesmere Island. In July 2007, a study noted the disappearance of habitat for waterfowl , invertebrates , and algae on Ellesmere Island. According to John Smol of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario , and Marianne S. V. Douglas of

3277-675: Is named after Independence Fjord , which is a fjord located in Peary Land . The Independence I people lived at the same time as the Saqqaq culture of southern Greenland. Independence I culture was followed by Independence II culture , which had a similar geographical extent, and lasted from the 8th century BC, roughly 600 years after the disappearance of Independence I. The Independence I occupation of northern Greenland appears to have been much more extensive than that of Independence II. Independence I alongside Saqqaq culture are considered to be

3390-718: Is recognized as an official language in Nunavut alongside Inuinnaqtun and both languages are known collectively as Inuktut . Further, it is recognized as one of eight official native tongues in the Northwest Territories. It also has legal recognition in Nunavik —a part of Quebec—thanks in part to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement , and is recognized in the Charter of the French Language as

3503-761: Is secured in the Northwest Territories Official Language Act . With the split of the territory into the NWT and Nunavut in 1999, both territories kept the Language Act. The autonomous area Nunatsiavut in Labrador made Inuktitut the government language when it was formed in 2005. In Nunavik, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement recognizes Inuktitut in the education system. Nunavut's basic law lists four official languages: English, French, Inuktitut, and Inuinnaqtun . It

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3616-483: Is the nearby Kaffeklubben Island of Greenland). The Arctic Cordillera mountain system covers much of Ellesmere Island, making it the most mountainous in the Arctic Archipelago. More than one-fifth of the island is protected as Quttinirpaaq National Park . In 2021, the population of Ellesmere Island was recorded at 144. There are three settlements: Alert , Eureka , and Grise Fiord . Ellesmere Island

3729-546: Is usually written as q, but sometimes written as r. The voiceless lateral fricative is romanized as ɬ, but is often written as &, or simply as l. /ŋ/ is spelt as ng, and geminated /ŋ/ is spelt as nng. Inuktitut, like other Eskaleut languages , has a very rich morphological system, in which a succession of different morphemes are added to root words to indicate things that, in languages like English, would require several words to express. (See also: Agglutinative language and Polysynthetic language .) All words begin with

3842-557: The American Civil War , respectively. By about 1860, the focus of Arctic exploration had shifted to the North Pole . As earlier attempts at the pole via Svalbard or eastern Greenland had reached impasses, numerous expeditions came to Ellesmere Island to pursue the route through Nares Straight. The United States expedition led by Adolphus Greely in 1881 crossed the island from east to west, establishing Fort Conger in

3955-616: The British Arctic Territories were transferred to Canada. Canada did little to solidify its legal possession of the islands until prompted by foreign action in 1902–03: Otto Sverdrup claimed three islands west of Ellesmere for Norway, the Alaska boundary dispute was settled against Canada's interests, and Roald Amundsen set out to sail the Northwest Passage. To establish an official government presence in

4068-464: The Dorset people some time after 1300 CE. The Thule displaced the small-tool cultures, having a number of technological advantages which notably included effective weapons, kayaks and umiaks for hunting marine mammals, and sled dogs for surface transport and pursuit. The Thule also had an extensive trade network, evidenced by meteoritic iron from Greenland which was exported through Ellesmere Island to

4181-858: The Inuktut is used to refer to Inuktitut and all other dialects. It is used by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami , the Inuit Circumpolar Council , and the Government of Nunavut throughout Inuit Nunaat and Inuit Nunangat . Eastern dialects of Inuktitut have fifteen consonants and three vowels (which can be long or short). Consonants are arranged with six places of articulation : bilabial , labiodental , alveolar , palatal , velar and uvular ; and three manners of articulation : voiceless stops , voiced continuants and nasals , as well as two additional sounds—voiceless fricatives . Natsilingmiutut has an additional consonant /ɟ/ ,

4294-681: The Kalaallit of West Greenland, and Inuit of the archipelago are descendants of the Thule culture, which had diverged during the isolation imposed by the Little Ice Age.) Knowledge of Ellesmere persisted in the oral histories of the Inuit of Baffin Island and the Inughuit of northern Greenland, who each called it Umingmak Nuna ( Inuktitut for 'land of muskoxen '). The search for Franklin's lost expedition – also searching for

4407-557: The Northwest Passage and undertaken by Britain. The 1616 expedition of William Baffin were the first Europeans to record sighting the then-unnamed Ellesmere Island (Baffin named Jones and Smith Sounds on the island's south and southeast coasts). However, the onset of the Little Ice Age interrupted the progress of explorations for two centuries. In 1818, an ice jam in Baffin Bay broke, allowing European vessels access to

4520-503: The Royal Geographical Society (1849–1852), Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere . The Second Grinnell expedition (1853–1855) made slightly further progress before becoming trapped in the ice. Over two winters the expedition charted both sides of Kane Basin to about 80°N, from where Elisha Kent Kane claimed to have sighted the conjectured Open Polar Sea . During this period, as the Little Ice Age abated and

4633-553: The University of Alberta in Edmonton , warming conditions and evaporation have caused low water levels and changes in the chemistry of ponds and wetlands in the area. The researchers noted that "In the 1980s they often needed to wear hip waders to make their way to the ponds...while by 2006 the same areas were dry enough to burn." Ellesmere Island has a tundra climate ( Köppen ET ) and an ice cap climate ( Köppen EF ) with

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4746-484: The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf . In 1906 Robert Peary led an expedition in northern Ellesmere Island, from Cape Sheridan along the coast to the western side of Nansen Sound (93°W). During Peary's expedition, the ice shelf was continuous; it has since been estimated to have covered 8,900 km (3,400 sq mi). The ice shelf broke apart in the 20th century, presumably due to climate change . In 1880,

4859-471: The 1760s that was based on the Latin script. (This alphabet is distinguished by its inclusion of the letter kra , ĸ.) They later travelled to Labrador in the 1800s, bringing the Inuktitut alphabet with them. The Alaskan Yupik and Inupiat (who additionally developed their own syllabary ) and the Siberian Yupik also adopted Latin alphabets. Most Inuktitut in Nunavut and Nunavik is written using

4972-467: The 1800s through whaling stations and trading posts, which frequently relocated. Euro-American expeditions employed Inughuit, Inuit and west Greenlander guides, hunters and labourers, gradually blending their knowledge with European technology to conduct effective exploration. British and United States Arctic expeditions had been interrupted for some years due to the priorities of the Crimean War and

5085-494: The Arctic Circle. Ellesmere has the highest and longest mountain ranges in eastern North America and is the most mountainous island in the Arctic Archipelago. It has over half of the archipelago's ice cover, with ice caps and glaciers across 40% of its surface. Its extensive coastline includes some of the world's longest fiords. To the west, Ellesmere is separated from Axel Heiberg Island by Nansen and Eureka Sounds ,

5198-612: The Commonwealth Braille and Talking Book Cooperative, developed a Braille code for the Inuktitut language syllabics. This code is based on representing the syllabics' orientation. Machine translation from Unicode UTF-8 and UTF-16 can be performed using the Liblouis Braille translation system<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://liblouis.io/ |title=Liblouis |access-date= which includes an Inuktitut Braille translation table. The book ᐃᓕᐊᕐᔪᒃ ᓇᓄᕐᓗ ( The Orphan and

5311-732: The Ellesmere Ice Shelves has continued in the 21st century: the Ward Ice Shelf experienced a major breakup during the summer of 2002; the Ayles Ice Shelf calved entirely on 13 August 2005; the largest breakoff of the ice shelf in 25 years, it may pose a threat to the oil industry in the Beaufort Sea . The piece is 66 km (25 sq mi). In April 2008, it was discovered that the Ward Hunt shelf

5424-621: The Far North, the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) were sent on sovereignty patrols. A NWMP detachment sailed to the Arctic whaling stations in 1903, where they forbade whalers from killing muskox or trading skins, in order to prevent overhunting and protect the Inuit's ability to sustain themselves. In 1904 a NWMP detachment sailed to Cape Herschel at the east end of Sverdrup Pass, where they could intercept hunters accessing

5537-652: The Greenland National Museum, which translates to Land of the Ancient People. Adam C. Knuth is a large open site with many different ruins including dwellings and lithic workshops. It was discovered on one of the last days of Knuth’s expeditions in 1980 who came across it accidentally and discovered a site littered with debitage and artefacts. It is the second biggest site after Inutoqqat Nunaat. The site holds 14 ruins including well-built midpassages ruins and 10 stone-build caches. Included in

5650-698: The High Arctic ( whalers had been active in Davis Strait , about 1,000 km [620 mi] southeast of Ellesmere, since 1719). Baffin Bay was then navigable in the summers due to the presence of an ice dam in Smith Sound, which prevented Arctic drift ice from flowing south. The other channels of the archipelago remained congested with ice. That year, John Ross led the first recorded European expedition to Cape York , at which time there were reportedly only 140 Inughuit . (The Inughuit of North Greenland,

5763-840: The Independence I sites. However, researchers theorise that they used finely tailored skin clothing . Fragments of broken bone needles were among the artefacts discovered at Independence I sites, which suggests they stitched their garments. Only a few of the Independence I site show evidence of organic matter . However, some evidence of tools used by these people have been discovered. A few tangled harpoon heads have been recovered in some Canadian sites of Independence I however none have been found in Greenland. The tools used by Independence I people were quite distinct. Chert and “flint-like” materials were preferred for example black basalt , agate and black, blue and grey chert . End and side scrapers and large knife blades were part of their tool kit. Another marker of Independence I rather than Saqqaq,

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5876-416: The Inughuit. Other groups followed and by the 1870s Inuit were living on Ellesmere Island and had regular contact with those on the neighbouring islands. Contact between Inuit and Europeans or Americans was often indirect, as the Inuit happened upon shipwrecks or abandoned base camps which provided wood and metal resources. European goods were also obtained through inter-group trade. Long-term contact began in

5989-550: The June thaw. The seasonal shift in daylight is also extreme. The polar night lasts from four-and-a-half months in the north to about three months in the south. Ellesmere's Arctic marine climate is strongly affected in the north by Arctic Ocean currents and the polar vortex, while the climate of the southeastern coast is influenced by the warm Atlantic water of the West Greenland Current . Interior regions shielded by

6102-466: The Northwest Passage and to establish claims to the Far North – involved more than forty expeditions to the High Arctic over two decades, and represented the peak period of Euro-American Arctic exploration. Edward Augustus Inglefield led an 1852 expedition which surveyed the coastlines of Baffin Bay and Smith Sound, being stopped by ice in Nares Strait. He named Ellesmere Island for the president of

6215-480: The Peary Land. Later, Knuth divided Independence culture into Independence I and Independence II based on results from radiocarbon datings and differences in lithic tools. Further archaeological investigations and radiocarbon dates have confirmed Knuth’s discoveries about the age of the Palaeo-Eskimo sites and that there was a division between the two Independence cultures. The northernmost part of Greenland

6328-578: The Pleistocene epoch (>2.6 Ma ) established the overall features of the island. Additional uplift occurred due to isostatic rebound following the last glacial period. Land features were then shaped by erosion from glacial ice, meltwaters, and scouring by sea ice. It is believed that each of the pre-contact peoples who migrated through the High Arctic approached Ellesmere Island from the south and west. They were able to travel along Ellesmere's coasts or overland to Nares Strait, and some of them crossed

6441-580: The Polar Bear ) became the first work ever translated into Inuktitut Braille, and a copy is held at the headquarters of the Nunavut Public Library Services at Baker Lake . Although as many of the examples as possible are novel or extracted from Inuktitut texts, some of the examples in this article are drawn from Introductory Inuktitut and Inuktitut Linguistics for Technocrats . Independence I culture The culture

6554-568: The airport: The western part of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories use a Latin alphabet usually called Inuinnaqtun or Qaliujaaqpait , reflecting the predispositions of the missionaries who reached this area in the late 19th century and early 20th. Moravian missionaries, with the purpose of introducing Inuit to Christianity and the Bible , contributed to the development of an Inuktitut alphabet in Greenland during

6667-473: The archipelago. The Thule who remained in northern Greenland became isolated, specialized at hunting a diminishing number of game animals, and lost the ability to make boats. Thus, the waters around Ellesmere were not navigated again until the arrival of large European vessels after 1800. Much of the initial phase of European exploration of the North American Arctic was centred on a search for

6780-549: The area that the Independence I people resided was extreme and therefore their dwellings reflected this with a focus on keeping warm. Independence I dwellings were characterised by mid passages and a central hearth. The tools they used were also distinct from other cultures from the same era especially the use of microblades. The extreme conditions of the region restricted Independence I people's diet to mainly muskox . The Independence I culture disappeared around 1900-1700 BC for unknown reasons. Scientists have considerably debated

6893-527: The aurora, and the circling moon. The warmest month of the year is only slightly above freezing, and the coldest month has an average temperature of below 30 degrees. Archaeological experiments have shown that it was possible for Independence I people to live in the High Arctic with a degree of comfort. Independence I people lived a nomadic way of life and therefore their dwellings needed to be relatively light so they could be transported easily. Independence I dwellings like other Palaeo-Eskimo dwellings during

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7006-585: The biggest settlements and most likely where the Independence I people spent longer periods of time. These sites contained ruins of the dwelling that Independence I people resided in giving an insight into how they survived the extreme temperatures of the High Arctic. The earliest known culture in Northern Greenland, Independence I existed from around 2500BC to 1900BC. It coexisted with Saqqaq culture in Southern Greenland which existed from 2500BC to 800BC. Unlike Saqqaq culture, Independence I culture

7119-473: The central-east side of the island, and the Northern Ellesmere icefields (24,400 km (9,400 sq mi)). The northwest coast of Ellesmere Island was covered by a massive, 500 km (310 mi) long ice shelf until the 20th century. The Ellesmere Ice Shelf shrank by 90 per cent in the 20th century due to warming trends in the Arctic, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, a period when

7232-427: The day their inhabitants left. From these sites and artefacts, archaeologists have been able to construct a history of these cultures. However, the research is incomplete and only a small proportion of the details of excavations have been published. The Arctic small tool tradition peoples ( a.k.a. Paleo-Eskimos ) in the High Arctic had small populations organized as hunting bands, spread from Axel Heiberg Island to

7345-402: The earliest known cultures in Greenland. The first Palaeo-Eskimo migrants are thought to have migrated from the Canadian High Arctic and have a connection to the Arctic small tool tradition . Radiocarbon dates and typologies of dwellings and tools do not allow distinguishing any chronological changes in the Independence I culture over its long existence (Grønnow 2016:728). The topography of

7458-412: The floor. Another kind of dwelling linked to Independence I culture which wasn’t part of Knuth’s original research was discovered at Adam C. Knuth site. This kind of dwelling had a central fireplace with four sides. Three of the sides were surrounded by a kind of platform and the fourth side was an open space towards the entrance. The dwelling was divided into three sections: a living area on each side,

7571-609: The glacial retreat of 8,000 to 6,000 BCE. There is a lack of species diversity, with a small number of animal species and short food chains. These species have adapted to take advantage of the productive summer while surviving through winter scarcity. Zooplankton, for example, grow to a larger body size and produce larger eggs in greater numbers than in other regions. Inuktitut language Inuktitut ( / ɪ ˈ n ʊ k t ə t ʊ t / ih- NUUK -tə-tuut ; Inuktitut: [inuktiˈtut] , syllabics ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ ; from inuk , 'person' + -titut , 'like', 'in

7684-463: The government amended the Northwest Game Act to prohibit the killing of muskoxen except for Native inhabitants who otherwise faced starvation. In 1920, the government learned that Inughuit from Greenland had been annually visiting Ellesmere Island for polar bear and muskox hunting – in violation of Canadian law – selling the skins at Knud Rasmussen 's trading post at Qaanaaq , formerly known as Thule. The Danish government stated that North Greenland

7797-460: The hunting of marine mammals became more feasible again, Aboriginal peoples began to return to Ellesmere Island. The most well-known of these migrations in both Inuit and European accounts is the journey of Qitlaq, who led a group of Inuit families from Baffin Island to northwestern Greenland, via Ellesmere Island, in the 1850s. This journey reestablished contact between Inuit who had been separated for two centuries and reintroduced vital technologies to

7910-466: The interior of Ellesmere. While the fur trade was brought under control, American exploration parties to the Far North had acted with autonomy and intensively hunted terrestrial mammals to sustain their expeditions. Peary's parties had heavily hunted muskoxen on Ellesmere and had nearly brought the extinction of caribou in northern Greenland; the Crocker Land Expedition (1913–1916) also extensively hunted muskoxen. In response to these and other trespasses,

8023-424: The interior. At Lake Hazen, Peary's expedition recorded daytime temperatures of −53 °C (−64 °F) in February 1900, and a Defence Research Board party recorded temperatures as low as −56.2 °C (−69.2 °F) in the winter of 1957–58. Nonetheless, there are archaeological remains of winter dwellings of both Independence and Thule cultures in the interior. A paleolimnological study of algae in

8136-639: The island's high mountain ranges experience distinctive quasi-continental microclimates . The highest precipitation is on the northern coast, averaging 80 to 100 mm (3.1 to 3.9 in). On the south side of the Grant Land mountains, only 20 mm (0.79 in) reaches the Hazen Plateau. The average number of snow-free days varies from 45 days on the north coast to 77 days in the Eureka–Tanquary corridor. Winters are considerably colder in

8249-421: The island's interior and their winter dwellings were skin tents, suggesting a need for mobility to follow the herds. There is evidence at Lake Hazen of a trade network c.  1500–1000 BCE , including soapstone lamps from Greenland and incised lance heads from cultures to the south. The Thule moved into the High Arctic at the time of a warming trend, c. 1000 CE. Their major population centre

8362-736: The island, the coastal sedimentary plateau is a succession of highly eroded sedimentary peaks which are part of the Franklinian Shield with an extension of the Canadian Shield (Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks) in the island's southeastern corner. In addition, there are syntectonic clastics which comprise the Ellesmere Island Volcanics of the Sverdrup Basin Magmatic Province . A period of uplift and faulting prior to

8475-418: The language of instruction. As the government's interests in the north increased, it started taking over the education of Inuit. After the end of World War II, English was seen as the language of communication in all domains. Officials expressed concerns about the difficulty for Inuit to find employment if they were not able to communicate in English. Inuit were supposed to use English at school, work, and even on

8588-450: The largest ice islands (the 520 km (200 sq mi) T1 and the 780 km (300 sq mi) T2 ice islands) were formed leaving the separate Alfred Ernest , Ayles, Milne, Ward Hunt, and Markham Ice Shelves. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf , the largest remaining section of thick (>10 m, >30 ft) landfast sea ice along the northern coastline of Ellesmere Island, lost almost 600 km (230 sq mi) of ice in

8701-637: The latter of which narrows to 13 km (8.1 mi). Devon Island is to the south across Jones Sound ; at the west end of the sound, they are separated by North Kent Island and two channels which narrow to 4 and 10 km (2.5 and 6.2 mi). Greenland is to the east across Nares Strait ; the strait narrows to 46 km (29 mi) at Cape Isabella on Smith Sound and further north narrows to 19 km (12 mi) at Robeson Channel . These channels and straits typically freeze over in winter, though winds and currents leave pockets of open water (temporary leads and persistent polynyas ) in Nares Strait. To

8814-801: The major air systems strengthen towards their annual peak in winter, the Arctic and Atlantic air masses collide in autumn to produce severe storms at Ellesmere. The storm season peaks in October and persists until the sea freezes. The polar vortex strengthens during the polar night and gives rise to easterly winds which are major hazards for populations, especially given the very low temperatures. January winds have been recorded at 104 km/h (65 mph) with gusts to 130–145 km/h (81–90 mph) at Fort Conger and 65–80 km/h (40–50 mph) at Lake Hazen. Very cold temperatures continue until April and no month passes without experiencing freezing temperatures. Snowfall begins in late August and does not melt until

8927-505: The manner of'), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut , is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line , including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador , Quebec , to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut . It is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics . It

9040-524: The midpassage and a central hearth. The only source of heat in these tents came from the hearth as no evidence has been found of the use of oil/blubber lamps. Some of the hearths in these dwellings were hearths in a midpassage built within a tent ring and other hearths were box-hearths that were around 40 cm x 40 cm and built of slabs. The Independence I culture was a hunter-gatherer culture. Remains discovered at Deltaterrasserne of musk ox and fish bones suggests that Independence I people used

9153-496: The mother tongue. This set off the beginning of bilingual schools. In 1969, most Inuit voted to eliminate federal schools and replace them with programs by the General Directorate of New Quebec  [ fr ] ( Direction générale du Nouveau-Québec, DGNQ ). Content was now taught in Inuktitut, English, and French. Inuktitut became one of the official languages in the Northwest Territories in 1984. Its status

9266-501: The north of Ellesmere is the Arctic Ocean , with Lincoln Sea to the northeast. More than one-fifth of the island is protected as Quttinirpaaq National Park (formerly Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve), which includes seven fjords and a variety of glaciers , as well as Lake Hazen , North America's largest lake north of the Arctic Circle . Barbeau Peak , the highest mountain in Nunavut (2,616 m [8,583 ft])

9379-674: The northern extremity of Greenland, where the Independence ;I culture was active from 2700 BCE. On Ellesmere, they chiefly hunted in the Eureka Upland and the Hazen Plateau. Six different small-tool cultures have been identified at the Smith Sound region: Independence I, Independence I / Saqqaq , Pre-Dorset , Saqqaq, early Dorset, and late Dorset. They chiefly hunted muskoxen : more than three-quarters of their known archeological sites on Ellesmere are located in

9492-781: The northern part of the island. The Greely expedition found fossil forests on Ellesmere Island in the late 1880s. Stenkul Fiord was first explored in 1902 by Per Schei, a member of Otto Sverdrup 's 2nd Norwegian Polar Expedition. The Ellesmere Ice Shelf was documented by the British Arctic Expedition of 1875–76, in which Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich 's party went from Cape Sheridan ( 82°28′N 061°30′W  /  82.467°N 61.500°W  / 82.467; -61.500  ( Cape Sheridan ) ) west to Cape Alert ( 82°16′N 85°33′W  /  82.267°N 85.550°W  / 82.267; -85.550  ( Cape Alert (Ellesmere Island) ) ), including

9605-629: The official language of instruction for Inuit school districts there. It also has some recognition in NunatuKavut and Nunatsiavut —the Inuit area in Labrador —following the ratification of its agreement with the government of Canada and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The 2016 Canadian census reports that 70,540 individuals identify themselves as Inuit, of whom 37,570 self-reported Inuktitut as their mother tongue. The term Inuktitut

9718-459: The playground. Inuit themselves viewed Inuktitut as the way to express their feelings and be linked to their identity, while English was a tool for making money. In the 1960s, the European attitude towards the Inuktitut language started to change. Inuktitut was seen as a language worth preserving, and it was argued that knowledge, particularly in the first years of school, is best transmitted in

9831-539: The reasons for why Independence I and II emerged in the isolated northeastern part of Greenland, as well as how these cultures flourished and disappeared. Danish explorer Eigil Knuth first recognised the existence of both Independence I and II. Eigil Knuth’s intensive archaeological investigations led to numerous sites being concluded as Independence I which was confirmede by later archaeologists and researchers. However, Inutoqqat Nunaat (formerly Pearylandville), Adam C. Knuth site and Deltaterasserne are considered to be

9944-449: The regions are not required to stop using their familiar writing systems. Implementation plans are to be established for each region. It includes letters such as ff , ch , and rh , the sounds for which exist in some dialects but do not have standard equivalents in syllabics. It establishes a standard alphabet but not spelling or grammar rules. Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel (e.g., aa , ii , uu ). The apostrophe represents

10057-443: The remoteness of Nunatsiavut from other Inuit communities, has made it into a distinct dialect with a separate literary tradition. The Nunatsiavummiut call their language Inuttut ( ᐃᓄᑦᑐᑦ ). Although Nunatsiavut claims over 4,000 inhabitants of Inuit descent, only 550 reported Inuktitut to be their native language in the 2001 census, mostly in the town of Nain . Inuktitut is seriously endangered in Labrador. Nunatsiavut also had

10170-493: The resources of the land and inland waters of Greenland to sustain their livelihood. Their diet was slightly different depending which site they were located at as the population of various hunting animals differed. In the Adam C. Knuth site, it was calculated that the distribution was Arctic fox (45.1%), muskox (31.6%), rock ptarmigan (7.7%), arctic char (4.4%), arctic hare (4.4%), brent goose (2.25%), and ringed seal (1.3%) This

10283-546: The rest of the Inuktitut-speaking world, resulting in a growing standardization of the local dialect as something separate from other forms of Inuktitut. In the Nunavik dialect, Inuktitut is called Nunavimmiutut ( ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑐᑦ ). This dialect is also sometimes called Tarramiutut or Taqramiutut ( ᑕᕐᕋᒥᐅᑐᑦ or ᑕᖅᕐᕋᒥᐅᑐᑦ ). Sub dialects of Inuktitut in this region include Tarrarmiut and Itivimuit. Itivimuit

10396-488: The rest of the archipelago and to the North American mainland. More than fifty Norse artefacts have been found in Thule archeological sites on the Bache Peninsula , including pieces of chain mail. It is uncertain if Ellesmere Island was directly visited by Norse Greenlanders who sailed from the south or if the items were traded through a network of middlemen. It is also possible the items may have been taken from

10509-468: The ruins are some well-preserved midpassages with boulder tent ring and midpassages with round boulders. Some of the ruins in this site had the qualities of winter dwellings. This conclusion was drawn as result of a field team finding clear distinction between dwellings at this site. Some of the dwellings were large more solidly built dwellings which were theorised as being used as winter dwellings. The tent rings that were found were theorised as being used in

10622-402: The ruins have less than 100 tools associated with it concluding that they probably were used for short periods of time. Researchers and archaeologists have noted that it is difficult to determine how long this site was used for as there is great difficulty in separating old remains from new ones. It has also been suggested the reason for the large number of ruins at Inutoqqat Nunaat is because it

10735-876: The same consonant have related glyphs rather than unrelated ones. All of the characters needed for the Inuktitut syllabary are available in the Unicode block Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics . The territorial government of Nunavut , Canada, has developed TrueType fonts called Pigiarniq ( ᐱᒋᐊᕐᓂᖅ [pi.ɡi.aʁ.ˈniq] ), Uqammaq ( ᐅᖃᒻᒪᖅ [u.qam.maq] ), and Euphemia ( ᐅᕓᒥᐊ [u.vai.mi.a] ) for computer displays. They were designed by Vancouver -based Tiro Typeworks. Apple Macintosh computers include an Inuktitut IME (Input Method Editor) as part of keyboard language options. Linux distributions provide locale and language support for Iñupiaq , Kalaallisut and Inuktitut. In 2012 Tamara Kearney, Manager of Braille Research and Development at

10848-520: The same era generally have an emphasis on an axial element. Their dwellings were often a tent rather than house construction and access to firewood was limited. There are various Independence I dwelling types, one being the “elliptical double platform dwelling”. A distinct feature in this kind of dwelling is the stone build midpassage with a box fireplace inside two parallel walls. Eigil Knuth theorised these dwellings were most likely winter dwellings and that Muskox hides were potentially used to cover

10961-490: The sediments of shallow ponds on Cape Herschel (which faces Smith Sound on Ellesmere's eastern coast) found that the ponds had been permanent and relatively stable for several millennia until experiencing ecological changes associated with warming, beginning around 1850 and accelerating in the early 2000s. During the 23-year study period, an ecological threshold was crossed as several of the study ponds had completely desiccated while others had very reduced water levels. In addition,

11074-421: The strait to populate Greenland. The archaeological record of past Arctic cultures is quite complete, as artefacts deteriorate very slowly. Items exposed to the cold, dry winds become naturally freeze-dried while items that become buried are preserved in the permafrost. Artefacts are in a similar condition to when they were left or lost, and settlements abandoned thousands of years ago can be seen much as they were

11187-545: The summer months as they didn’t have as sound construction. The distribution of artefacts along the midpassage indicate that these dwellings could be divided by gender with female seatings in one area and a working area on the other side. Deltaterasserne is one of the larger sites discovered by Eigil Knuth. The artefacts and ruins discovered at Deltaterasserne aided Knuth in discovering the existence of Independence I and Independence II culture in Greenland. The site has several ruins of dwellings and open-air hearths and therefore

11300-763: The temperature being cold year-round. Two semi-permanent air systems dominate the weather: the high-pressure northern polar vortex and a low-pressure area which forms in different sites between Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea. Prevailing winds on Ellesmere are northwesterly, cold, and of low humidity due to ice cover over the Arctic Ocean. Seasonal shifts on Ellesmere are sudden and striking: winters are long and harsh, summers short and relatively abundant, with spring and autumn being brief intervals of transition. Fog regularly occurs near open water in September. While

11413-608: The tools of the traditional Inuit and, alongside other evidence, he used this to conclude that he had discovered a pre-Inuit culture. Over six decades, Eigil Knuth recorded over 51 Independence I sites however only a few of these sites insinuate occupation for an extended period of time rather than for a couple of seasons. These sites include Inutoqqat Nunaat (Pearylandville), Adam C. Knuth site and Deltaterasserne. The small number of significant sites can be attributed to constant abandoning of sites and moving to new hunting grounds which would provide them with better resources however, this

11526-618: The use of Inuktitut, while lower among the young than the elderly, has stopped declining in Canada as a whole and may even be increasing in Nunavut. The South Baffin dialect ( Qikiqtaaluk nigiani , ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ᓂᒋᐊᓂ ) is spoken across the southern part of Baffin Island , including the territorial capital Iqaluit . This has in recent years made it a much more widely heard dialect, since a great deal of Inuktitut media originates in Iqaluit . Some linguists also distinguish an East Baffin dialect from either South Baffin or North Baffin dialect , which

11639-526: The western side of Ellesmere. In addition to intercepting illegal hunting and fur-trading, the RCMP conducted patrols and encouraged the Inuit to maintain their traditional lifestyle. The posts were closed in the mid-1930s, after the sovereignty issues had been settled. Ellesmere Island is the northernmost island of the Arctic Archipelago in Canada's Far North and one of the world's northernmost land masses . It

11752-437: The wetlands surrounding the ponds were severely affected and dried vegetation could be easily burned. Large portions of Ellesmere Island are covered with glaciers and ice, with Manson Icefield (6,200 km (2,400 sq mi)) and Sydkap (3,700 km (1,400 sq mi)) in the south; Prince of Wales Icefield (20,700 km (8,000 sq mi)) and Agassiz Ice Cap (21,500 km (8,300 sq mi)) along

11865-407: Was a "no man's land" outside their administration and Rasmussen, as the de facto sole authority, refused to stop the trade which the Inughuit needed to support themselves. In response, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) detachments were established on Ellesmere Island at Craig Harbour in 1922 and at Bache Post in 1926, positioned to guard the coastal and overland routes to the hunting grounds on

11978-505: Was fairly short lived. After Independence I culture disappeared, Independence II culture appeared. Greenland did not have human inhabitants until remarkably late because of its geographical position restricting human access. Using traditional means of transport, Greenland could only be accessed through High Arctic Canada or by crossing the Nares Strait , which is considered to be one of the most extreme environments. Once Greenland

12091-505: Was fractured, with dozens of deep, multi-faceted cracks and in September 2008 the Markham shelf (50 km (19 sq mi)) completely broke off to become floating sea ice . A 2018 study measured a 5.9% reduction in area amongst 1,773 glaciers in Northern Ellesmere island in the 16-year period 1999–2015 based on satellite data. In the same period, 19 out of 27 ice tongues disintegrated to their grounding lines and ice shelves suffered

12204-596: Was linked with the Pearylandville site as the microblade ruins discovered at both sites were the same therefore showing these sites were most likely inhabited by the same people. This site has evidence of both Independence I and Independence II culture however the formers settlement was more intense than the latter. The Independence I culture lived in Greenland for approximately 500–700 years and disappeared with Independence II culture appearing roughly 600 years later. The extreme temperatures of northern Greenland and

12317-472: Was reached by human inhabitants, they spread into other regions of Greenland quite quickly and Greenland was settled through a short series of migrations. Archaeologists estimate the initial migration occurred around 2500BC and they continued to migrate to Greenland through to around 2000BC/1900BC.   They migrated mainly to the northernmost part of Greenland, around Peary Land. In September 1948, Danish explorer Eigil Knuth discovered Deltaterrasserne ,

12430-455: Was solely an oral language . However, European colonialism brought the schooling system to Canada. The missionaries of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches were the first ones to deliver formal education to Inuit in schools. The teachers used the Inuktitut language for instruction and developed writing systems. In 1928 the first residential school for Inuit opened, and English became

12543-637: Was the Smith Sound area (on both the Ellesmere and Greenland sides) due to its proximity to polynyas and its position on transportation routes. From settlements at Smith Sound, the Thule sent summer hunting parties to harvest marine mammals in Nansen Strait. Their summer camps are evidenced by tent rings as far north as Archer Fiord, with clusters of stone dwellings around Lady Franklin Bay and at Lake Hazen which suggest semi-permanent occupations. The Thule genetically and culturally completely replaced

12656-423: Was theorised to be used for autumn and winter. The existences of larger dwellings in this site suggest they were main settlements during pitch dark winter when the Independence I people mainly relied on stored supplies. However other researchers have theorised that Deltaterasserne would have been the preferred summer site for Independence I people as they discovered a relatively large amount of bird bones. This site

12769-420: Was used as a place for gathering for Independence I people. Inutoqqat Nunaat is considered one of the largest Independence I sites and the most extensively investigated. Knuth led major excavations there in 1964, 1966, 1968, and 1969, wherein he was able to successfully recover 820 lithic tools, 5312 flakes and a total of 2274 animal bones. Inutoqqat Nunaat was renamed from "Pearylandville" in 2022 by members of

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