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The Ahiarmiut ᐃᓴᓪᒥᐅᑦ or Ihalmiut ("People from Beyond") or ("the Out-of-the-Way Dwellers") are a group of inland
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 lived along the banks of the
Kazan River The Kazan River (Inuktitut ''Harvaqtuuq'', Inuktitut syllabics ᓴᕐᕙᖅᑑᖅ; meaning "strong rapids", "the big drift" or "place of much fast flowing water"), is a Canadian Heritage River located in Nunavut, Canada. The Dene name for the riv ...
,
Ennadai Lake Ennadai Lake is a lake in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is long, and wide. It is drained to the north by the Kazan River. A section of the Kazan River from the outlet of Ennadai Lake to Baker Lake, was designated as a part of the Ca ...
, and Little
Dubawnt Lake Dubawnt Lake is a lake in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is in size and has several islands. It is about north of the Four Corners, about west of Hudson Bay and about south of the Arctic Circle. To the northwest is the Thelon Wildlife ...
(renamed ''Kamilikuak''), as well as north of
Thlewiaza River The Thlewiaza River is a river in Canada. Although some sources define the river as originating out of Nueltin Lake, according to the Canadian Geographical Names Database the river begins at Snyder Lake in northwestern Manitoba. From there the ri ...
("Big River"), in
northern Canada Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, territor ...
's Keewatin Region of the
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
, now the
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 ...
("Barren Lands") of present-day
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'' ...
. Through three decades of research by David Serkoak, an Ahiarmiut elder, who was a child when his family was repeatedly relocated from Ennadai Lake by the federal government under then-prime ministers, Louis St. Laurent and
John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an electio ...
, the story of the Ahiarmiut and their search for justice has been shared. For ten years, starting in 1949, as part of a northern policy regarding Inuit communities, the Ahiarmiut were relocated to
Nueltin Lake Nueltin Lake (Chipewyan: , meaning "sleeping island lake") straddles the Manitoba-Nunavut border in Canada. The lake, which has an area of , is predominantly in Nunavut's Kivalliq Region, and on the Manitoba side there is the Nueltin Lake Airport ...
, then
Henik Lake Henik Lake is located in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. The lake is made up of two lakes, North Henik Lake and South Henik Lake with a narrows separating them. Of the two, North Henik Lake is the smaller with an area of , while South He ...
, and Whale Cove, among other places. In 2018, the Ahiarmiut and the Canadian government came to a settlement agreement of $5 million for forced relocations.


Inland Inuit

The Ahiarmiut,
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 ...
, are inland Inuit who were also "known as the ("People from Beyond" or "the Out-of-the-Way Dwellers"). Until 1957, their home was in the region of
Ennadai Lake Ennadai Lake is a lake in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is long, and wide. It is drained to the north by the Kazan River. A section of the Kazan River from the outlet of Ennadai Lake to Baker Lake, was designated as a part of the Ca ...
. Ahiarmiut were Caribou Inuit, an inland-dwelling people in the Barren Lands region, whose subsistence centred on hunting
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 ...
. The Ahiarmiut "subsisted almost entirely on caribou year-round, unlike other Inuit groups that depended at least partially on harvest of animals from the sea."


History

During
Joseph Tyrrell Joseph Burr Tyrrell, FRSC (November 1, 1858 – August 26, 1957) was a Canadian geologist, cartographer, and mining consultant. He discovered dinosaur (''Albertosaurus sarcophagus'') bones in Alberta's Badlands and coal around Drumheller in 1884 ...
's Barren Lands expeditions of 1893 and 1894 on behalf of the
Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; french: Commission géologique du Canada (CGC)) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country, developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the en ...
, he reported that there were approximately 2,000
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 ...
, then known as
Eskimo Eskimo () is an exonym used to refer to two closely related Indigenous peoples: the Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Greenlandic Inuit, and the Canadian Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Siberian Yupik, Yuit) of eastern Si ...
. By 1934, Ahiarmiut numbered 80, with 11 considered as heads of families. Their contact with Europeans was limited, but included
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...
's post managers at the company's Windy Post, located in 1936 on a portion of Windy River called Simmons Lake and later moved to
Nueltin Lake Nueltin Lake (Chipewyan: , meaning "sleeping island lake") straddles the Manitoba-Nunavut border in Canada. The lake, which has an area of , is predominantly in Nunavut's Kivalliq Region, and on the Manitoba side there is the Nueltin Lake Airport ...
. Ahiarmiut traded their outer parkas, deerskin boots, and fur pelts at the post for guns, ammunition, and tea.
Chipewyan The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene Indigenous Canadian people of the Athabaskan language family, whose ancestors are identified ...
and
Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...
traded here as well. In their 1994 publication, ''Tammarniit (Mistakes), Inuit Relocation in the Eastern Arctic, 1939-63'', F.J. Tester and Peter Kulchyski accessed archival documents, including the Alex Stevenson Collection, which had been in storage in the Archives of the Northwest Territories, many of which had not been previously available to researchers. They wrote that the Inuit whose camp was located on the Kazan River near Ennadai Lake and hunted caribou between Kazan River and Nueltin Lake, were known as Ennadai Lake Inuit. They hunted caribou between Kazan River and Nueltin Lake. In the summer of 1956 there were 30 men and women and 25 children. Twelve of the children were under five years old.


Relocation

In the late mid-20th century, the Ahiarmiut began a series of federal government sponsored relocations in order to "clear the land for government operations and to centralize Inuit populations under government control and surveillance". * 1949, Ahiarmiut were relocated against their will from Ennadai Lake to
Nueltin Lake Nueltin Lake (Chipewyan: , meaning "sleeping island lake") straddles the Manitoba-Nunavut border in Canada. The lake, which has an area of , is predominantly in Nunavut's Kivalliq Region, and on the Manitoba side there is the Nueltin Lake Airport ...
, but the relocation did not last as hunting was poor, precipitating the band's return to Ennadai Lake. * In May 1957, Ahiarmiut were airlifted from Ennadai Lake to
Henik Lake Henik Lake is located in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. The lake is made up of two lakes, North Henik Lake and South Henik Lake with a narrows separating them. Of the two, North Henik Lake is the smaller with an area of , while South He ...
, from the
Padlei Padlei is a former community in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located on the mainland on the north shore of Kinga (Kingarvalik) Lake at the juncture of the Maguse River. Whale Cove is to the east, while the Henik Lakes are to the ...
trading post, a distance considered reasonable by the
Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...
. Many Ahiarmiut starved.Damas, David
''Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic''
Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.
* Later in 1957, Ahiarmiut were moved to Whale Cove where some began carving figurines for income. * In 1958, 29 Ahiarmiut went to Padlei because of its
trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...
, 39 were at Yathkyed Lake, and the majority were brought to Eskimo Point, now
Arviat Arviat (, syllabics: ᐊᕐᕕᐊᑦ; formerly called Eskimo Point until 1 June 1989) is a predominantly Inuit hamlet located on the western shore of Hudson Bay in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. Arviat ("place of the bowhead whale") is ...
, by the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
. * In 1959, the Padlei trading post closed, and the remaining Ahiarmiut were relocated.


Apology by the Government of Canada

In 2018 the Ahiarmiut and the Canadian government came to a settlement agreement of $5 million for forced relocations of the Ahiarmiut between 1949 and 1959. On January 22, 2019, the Canadian Government formally apologized to 21 survivors and their families in Arviat. Nunavut. Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett delivered the apology in the community, saying the forced relocations were because of a "colonial mindset" and caused "indignity, starvation and death":
This apology is a tribute to their spirits and their memories. It is also an opportunity for all Canadians to learn about and reflect upon a dark chapter in our history. I humbly and sincerely offer these words to all Ahiarmiut past and present. We are sorry.
Bennett also apologized for the amount of time it took to get an apology—when the legal claim was first filed, 27 relocated Ahiarmiut were still alive, at the time of the apology there were only 21.


Media coverage

A photo of
Stephen Angulalik Stephen Angulalik (ca. 1898–1980) was an internationally known Ahiarmiut Inuit from northern Canada notable as a Kitikmeot fur trader and trading post operator at Kuugjuaq ( Perry River), Northwest Territories. His stories and photos were carri ...
and his wives appeared in ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine, in October 1937. An Ennadai Lake family were on the cover of the February 27, 1956, issue of ''Life'' magazine, with the caption "Stone Age Survivors", selected by the magazine as representing the most primitive of the Canadian Inuit. (King, 1998). Decades later, Ahiarmiut again gained attention in Ihalmio Elisapee (née Nurrahaq) Karetak's 2000 (English) and 2002 (
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 ...
) documentaries about her people's struggle and starvation during their 1950s relocation and the story of her mother
Kikkik Kikkik was an Inuit woman who in 1958 was charged with, but acquitted of, murder, child neglect and causing the death of one of her children. Her story was told by Farley Mowat. Relocation Kikkik was a member of the Ihalmiut (Ahiarmiut), a Cari ...
at Henik Lake.


Farley Mowat's "creative non-fiction"

The writings of
Farley Mowat Farley McGill Mowat, (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Can ...
, who was not a historian, has been described as "creative non-fiction." Mowat, who advocated for the "people of the deer", was a popular, though controversial figure, who admitted that facts were not as important as the story itself.Globe and Mail obituary: "He was frequently criticized for playing fast and loose with facts in order to create compelling stories. At the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, Mowat once declared: “F–k the facts. The truth is what is important." Four of Mowat's books were inspired by the Ahiarmiut. He wrote the first, ''
People of the Deer ''People of the Deer'' (published in 1952, revised in 1975) is Canadian author Farley Mowat's first book, and brought him literary recognition. The book is based upon a series of travels the author undertook in the Canadian barren lands, of Kee ...
'' in 1952,Mowat, Farley. ''People of the Deer''. Little, Brown and Co., 1952.
(Excerpt; Table of Contents)
/ref> shortly after a field trip to the
Canadian Arctic Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and N ...
while attending the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
. He wrote ''The Desperate People'' in 1959,Mowat, Farley. ''The Desperate People''. Little, Brown and Co., 1959. ''Death of a People—the Ihalmiut'' in 1975,Mowat, Farley. ''Death of a People-the Ihalmiut''. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1975. ''Walking on the Land'' in 2001,''Walking on the Land''. South Royalton, Vt: Steerforth Press, 2001.
(Excerpt)
/ref>Mowat revisited the Ihalmiut and wrote his follow-up book ''Walking on the Land'', in which he criticized the federal government, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Catholic missionaries. and ''No Man's River'' in 2004.Mowat, Farley. ''No Man's River''. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2004.

/ref> In their 1994 book ''Tammarniit (Mistakes)'', F. J. Tester and Peter Kulchyski acknowledge contributions to Ennadai Lake people's history by Farley Mowat, but they note that although some of his statements may be accurate, his books cite no sources and therefore they use only archival material for their book. Mowat misspelled the name ''Ahiarmiut'' as ''Ihalmiut''.


Notes


References


Further reading

*


External links



* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=t9TA7Cq9E6wC&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=padlei+hbc+post&source=web&ots=9pNxZKlIQB&sig=qMb2FGUzYvpz-F3-xw33TzkirVI#PPA191,M1 1956 ''Life Magazine'' photosKing, J. C. H., and Henrietta Lidchi. ''Imaging the Arctic''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998. {{Authority control Indigenous peoples in Northern Canada Inuit groups Kivalliq Region