Native Point (

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 ...

: ''Tunirmiut'' or ''Tuneriut'') is a peninsula in the

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

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. It is located on

Southampton Island Southampton Island (Inuktitut: ''Shugliaq'') is a large island at the entrance to Hudson Bay at Foxe Basin. One of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago, Southampton Island is part of the Kivalliq Region in Nunavut, Canada. The area of t ...

Bell Peninsula The Bell Peninsula (previously known as Bell Island) is located on southeastern Southampton Island, in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is close to the small Inuit community of Coral Harbour. The southern shores make up the northern bound ...

at the mouth of Native Bay. It is notable for being the location of an abandoned

Sadlermiut The Sadlermiut (also called Sagdlirmiut, or Sallirmiut in modern Inuktitut spelling, from ''Sadlerk'' now ''Salliq'', the Inuktitut name for the settlement of Coral Harbour, Nunavut) were an Inuit group living in near isolation mainly on and arou ...

settlement, currently an archaeological site.

Archaeological site

The

settlement, situated on the west side of the point, was left empty after the last Sadlermiut perished during the winter of 1902–03, due to an epidemic. Now a notable

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

, it is referred to as "T1" because of the

name, "Tuneriut", for Native Point. T1 is the largest Sadlermiut site on the island. The material culture of the Sadlermiut was limited to chipped

stone tool Stone tools have been used throughout human history but are most closely associated with prehistoric cultures and in particular those of the Stone Age. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a ...

s and various manufactured organic artifacts. Among the artifacts found in the site were human figurines called ''aarnguaq'', which was probably used for a healing ritual. This indicates that the Sadlermiut were

shamanistic Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

. In addition, multiple human remains were found on the site. Merbs and Wilson grouped the burials into three time stages: the "village" graves, which were thought to be the oldest, "peripheral" burials located northeast and southeast of the settlement which were ranked as intermediate in age, and a series of "meat-cache" graves, suggested to primarily represent casualties from the 1902-1903 epidemic which decimated the Sadlermiut population.

References

External links

Stone dwelling photo, mid-1920s
Archaeological sites in Nunavut Ghost towns in Nunavut History of Nunavut Inuit history Peninsulas of Kivalliq Region Former populated places in the Kivalliq Region {{Canada-ghost-town-stub