Garry Lake (variant: Garry Lakes;

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

: , meaning "sideways", or "crooked") is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in sub-

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

Kivalliq Region The Kivalliq Region (; Inuktitut syllabics: ᑭᕙᓪᓕᖅ ) is an administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the portion of the mainland to the west of Hudson Bay together with Southampton Island and Coats Island. The regional ce ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

, Canada. As a portion of the Back River waterway, Garry Lake originates directly east of Lake Pelly and drains to the east by the Back River. A set of rapids separate Buliard Lake (directly to the north) from Garry Lake. Two other sets of rapids separate Garry Lake's three sections (Upper Garry Lake, Garry Lake, Lower Garry Lake) which are also differentiated by elevation. Garry Lakes are isolated from nearby communities.

Geography

Garry Lakes are a part of the Churchill craton—

Rae craton 250px, North America cratons and basement rock. The Rae Craton is an Archean craton located in northern Canada north of the Superior Craton. Ungava Peninsula The Ungava Peninsula, situated on the northeast portion of the Canadian Shield, is w ...

geological province. It is a low relief area including

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

/grass meadows along lake shores, and substrates of glacial silts, sands, and gravels.

Fauna

As moulting

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

arrive in late summer, the Canadian Wildlife Service designated the area as a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site.

Ethnography

''Hanningajuq'' is the Inuktitut word for both Garry Lake and the Christian cross. Garry Lake was historically home to

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

who refer to themselves as ''Hanningajurmiut'' or ''Hanningaruqmiut'' or ''Hanningajulinmiut'', meaning "the people of the place that lies across". Inuit to the north (the ''Utkusiksalinmiut'') refer to Garry Lake Inuit as ''Ualininmiut'' ("people from the area of which the sun follows east to west"). The Garry Lake Inuktitut dialect is related to ''Utkuhiksalik'', the dialect of the

Utkuhiksalingmiut The Utkuhiksalingmiut ''Ukukhalingmiut'', ''Utkukhalingmiut'' —the people of the place where there is soapstone—is one of 48 groups of Inuit in what is now Nunavut, Canada. Their traditional land was around Chantrey Inlet (''Tariunnuaq'') ar ...

. Like other

Caribou Inuit Caribou Inuit ( iu, Kivallirmiut/ᑭᕙᓪᓕᕐᒥᐅᑦ), barren-ground caribou hunters, are Inuit who live west of Hudson Bay in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W in Northern Canada. They were originally na ...

, Hanningajurmiut life consisted of tracking

wildlife— Beverly herd of the

barren-ground caribou The barren-ground caribou (''Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus''; but subject to a recent taxonomic revision. See Reindeer: Taxomony.) is a subspecies of the reindeer (or the caribou in North America) that is found in the Canadian territories of ...

, and fishing ( whitefish and

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

). They lived in

igloos An igloo (Inuit languages: , Inuktitut syllabics (plural: )), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow. Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only b ...

in the winter months, and

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

skin tents in the summer months. Between 1948-1955, Hanningajurmiut were able to trade at Kitikmeot

fur trader The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

Stephen Angulalik's outpost located at ''Atanikittuq'' ("little connection") at Sherman Inlet. A

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

mission post was established on an island in Garry Lake in 1949, staffed by Father Joseph Buliard, who disappeared in 1956. The cabin still stands in present day. Suffering from famine in 1958 as the annual caribou migration bypassed their territorial hunting grounds, 58 Garry Lake inhabitants died. The federal government intervened by relocating the 31 survivors to Baker Lake. Most Hanningajurmiut never returned to Garry Lake on a permanent basis. William Noah, Community Liaison Officer for Areva Resources Canada in Nunavut toured around Garry Lake on August 11, 2009 along with Paul Atuutuva, Betsy Aksawnee, Silas Kenalugak, and David Aksawnee. The pilot was with Forest Helicopters, working on contract for Kiggavik camp for Areva Resources Uranium Camp, west of Baker Lake. They found a bag and some small items that were still fresh in the attic of the old Buliard mission.

Minerals

In 1981, Kidd Creek Minerals discovered 19 uraniferous boulders in a train formation, extending approximately along Garry Lake's north shore. In 2007, Uravan Minerals Inc. surveyed Garry Lake's

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

-rich area and made plans for a multi-phased drill program/exploration project for 2008.

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Kivalliq Region Natural history of Nunavut

Geography

Fauna

Ethnography

Minerals

See also

References