Bathurst Inlet (

Inuinnaqtun Inuinnaqtun (, ; natively meaning 'like the real human beings/peoples') is an Inuit language. It is spoken in the central Canadian Arctic. It is related very closely to Inuktitut, and some scholars, such as Richard Condon, believe that Inuinna ...

: ''Qingaut'' Kingaok,

Inuktitut syllabics Inuktitut syllabics (, or , ) is an abugida-type writing system used in Canada by the Inuktitut-speaking Inuit of the Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Nunavut and the Nunavik region of Quebec. In 1976, the Language Commission of ...

: ᕿᙵᐅᓐ), is a small

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

community located in

Bathurst Inlet Bathurst Inlet, officially Kiluhiqtuq, is a deep inlet located along the northern coast of the Canadian mainland, at the east end of Coronation Gulf, into which the Burnside and Western rivers empty. The name, or its native equivalent ''Kingo ...

in the

Kitikmeot Region Kitikmeot Region (; Inuktitut: ''Qitirmiut'' ) is an List of regions of Nunavut, administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the southern and eastern parts of Victoria Island with the adjacent part of the mainland as far as the Boo ...

Nunavut Nunavut 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'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

, Canada, at the mouth of the Burnside River. The Inuit name for the community is ''Kingaun'' (old orthography) or ''Qingaut'' (new orthography), meaning ''nose mountain'', which refers to a hill close to the community. Thus, the people of the area are referred to as "Kingaunmiut" (''miut'' - people of). The traditional language of the area was

, and is written using the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

rather than the syllabics of the

Inuktitut Inuktitut ( ; , Inuktitut syllabics, syllabics ), 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 ...

writing system. Like

Kugluktuk Kugluktuk (, ; Inuktitut syllabics: ; ), known as Coppermine until 1 January 1996, is a hamlet at the mouth of the Coppermine River in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada, on Coronation Gulf, southwest of Victoria Island. It is Nunavut's ...

Cambridge Bay Cambridge Bay (Inuinnaqtun: Inuktitut syllabics, Inuktitut: ; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 population 1,760; Census geographic units of Canada#Population centres, population centre 1,403) is a Hamlet (place)#Canada, hamlet located on Victoria Is ...

and Umingmaktok syllabics are rarely seen and used mainly by the Government of Nunavut. Bathurst Inlet is the traditional birthing grounds of a "key northern species", the large, migratory Bathurst herd of

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

. Over millennia, the Inuit,

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

and

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

depended on the Bathurst Inlet herd for survival. Like other communities in Nunavut, the only access is by aircraft. Although most tourists arrive from

Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

, it is possible to charter an aircraft from

. The community has no local phone service and contact with the outside world is maintained by

satellite phone A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefo ...

. Like its sister community, Umingmaktok, schooling is provided by flying the students to Cambridge Bay and returning them for Christmas and the summer.

History

The first Europeans known to have visited the area was during the first expedition of

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Northern Canada, Canadia ...

in 1821. There was little outside contact until on 27 August 1925, when the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

(HBC) set up an outpost on Banks Peninsula, to the north of the present location. In 1930, the post was relocated to its present location at the mouth of the Burnside River. The post, consisting of a store, staff house, fur warehouse, and workshop, would trade for the fur of arctic fox, wolf, and wolverine, as well as occasional bear, ermine, and seal skins. Caribou skins were usually sent to other trading posts on the

Boothia Peninsula Boothia Peninsula (; formerly ''Boothia Felix'', Inuktitut ''Kingngailap Nunanga'') is a large peninsula in Nunavut's northern Canadian Arctic, south of Somerset Island. The northern part, Murchison Promontory, is the northernmost point of ...

area where caribou were scarce, to be used by local Inuit for clothing. In 1934, a small

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

was built, and a community grew up around the post, growing to more than 100 people by the late 1930s. Trade continued through the 1940s and 1950s, but the Bathurst Inlet Post rarely made a profit. In 1964, the Hudson's Bay Company abandoned the site and moved to Umingmaktok, while the Inuit decided to remain in the area and continued the traditional lifestyle. During the early 1960s, the area was visited by Glen Warner, a sergeant with the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

. Warner, along with his wife Trish, purchased both the Catholic mission house and the HBC post which they turned into the "Bathurst Inlet Lodge". It is operated today as a joint venture between the Warners and Kingaunmiut Ltd., and is open during the short Arctic summer. The lodge is a popular destination for tourists who wish to see a more traditional type Inuit lifestyle and wildlife such as foxes, seals,

Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes, as well as Arctic and subarctic coastal waters in the Holarctic realm, Holarctic. Distribution and habitat It Spaw ...

and

muskox The muskox (''Ovibos moschatus'') is a hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae. Native to the Arctic, it is noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males during the seasonal rut, from which its name derives. This musky odor ha ...

. Also in the area is the Wilberforce Falls, the highest waterfall above the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

. Dr. L.H. Vashon, Dr. Rosalie Garcia, and Dr. Carl Smith visited Bathurst Inlet and the surrounding areas in 1993 to study the

Casimir effect In quantum field theory, the Casimir effect (or Casimir force) is a physical force (physics), force acting on the macroscopic boundaries of a confined space which arises from the quantum fluctuations of a field (physics), field. The term Casim ...

Demographics

In the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Bathurst Inlet had a population of 0 living in 0 of its 0 total private dwellings, no change from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Bathurst herd

Bathurst Inlet is the traditional birthing grounds of the migratory Bathurst herd of

. The herd had experienced a rapid decline from 186,000 animals in 2003 to "approximately 16,000-22,000 animals" in 2015. The herd migrates from the birthing grounds to their winter grounds which extends from southern and central Northwest Territories (NWT). In some years, the herd winters as "far south as northern Saskatchewan." According to Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), "The Bathurst Herd are barren-ground caribou, a key northern species. They have shaped the cultural identity of

, Inuit and

peoples over millennia through mutual relationships built on respect." The Bathurst herd was the lifeblood of the Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation in the N.W.T., but by 2017, they faced "a complete ban on hunting from the Bathurst caribou herd."

Sabina gold and silver project

With hopes of more jobs and the guarantee of state-of-the-art protection for the Bathurst caribou, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association among others, have agreed to the gold mine proposal by Vancouver-based Sabina Gold and Silver in the final hearings. The mine will be

open-pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...

and underground and will be located about south of Bathurst Inlet. Sabina's Matthew Pickard said, "Our objective is to have no impact on caribou herds as a result of this project." According to the

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

, the "proposed mine lies on the eastern fringe of the Bathurst caribou range and in the midst of the range of the Beverly/Ahiak herd, but does not significantly infringe on the calving or post-calving grounds of either herd."

References

External links

Government of Nunavut
{{Authority control Ghost towns in Nunavut Hudson's Bay Company trading posts in Nunavut Populated places in the Kitikmeot Region Road-inaccessible communities of Nunavut