Early millennia Copper Inuit, like all Inuit, are descendants of the
Thule people. Changes in the environment may have resulted in the transition from prehistoric Thule culture to Copper
Inuit culture. the Copper Inuit were
hunter-gatherer nomads. Their settlement and acculturation to some European-Canadian ways has occurred only since the 1940s, and they have also continued the hunting and gathering lifestyle. They lived in communal
snowhouses during the winter and engaged in breathing-hole (
mauliqtoq) seal hunting. In the summer, they spread out in smaller, family groups for inland
caribou hunting and fishing. Other trade partners included
Inuvialuit from the
Avvaq Peninsula and
Caribou Inuit to the south. Many Copper Inuit gathered in the
Cambridge Bay area in the summertime because of plentiful game.
Post-Euro-Canadian contact According to
Robin McGrath, there are Inuit stories that show there was a history of conflict between the Inuit and the
Dene, as well as others which may have involved Europeans. This conflict seems to have been instigated by both the Dene and the Inuit and possibly was caused by trade disputes but sometimes due to raids for women. One of the better known of these battles was recorded by European explorer
Samuel Hearne. In 1771, Samuel Hearne was the first European to explore the Coppermine River region. It was here that
Matonabbee, leader of Hearne's
Chipewyan Dene guides, and his companions
massacred a Copper Inuit group at
Bloody Falls. During the
McClure Arctic expedition, Irish explorer,
Robert McClure abandoned his ship, , at
Mercy Bay on Banks Island in 1853 during his search for
Franklin's lost expedition. It provided extensive amounts of wood, copper, and iron which the Copper Inuit used for years.
Richard Collinson explored the area in 1850–1855.
20th century In the belief that the Copper Inuit had migrated to
Hudson Bay for trading at various outposts, the Canadian government's 1906 map marked Victoria Island as "uninhabited". from his
Arctic exploration of 1908–1912. During the
Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1916, Canadian ethnographer
Diamond Jenness spent two years living with and documenting the lives of Copper Inuit. He sent thousands of artifacts of their material culture to the
Geological Survey of Canada. Along with trade, European contact brought
influenza and
typhoid. These newly introduced infectious diseases likely weakened resistance of the natives. Between 1929 and 1931, one in five Copper Inuit died from a
tuberculosis epidemic. Around the same time, the
whaling industry deteriorated. Alaskan
Iñupiat and
Mackenzie Delta Inuvialuit came into the Coronation Gulf area to co-exist with the Copper Inuit. The first
Holman-area (Ulukhaktok)
trading post was established in 1923 at Alaervik, on the north shore of
Prince Albert Sound, but it closed five years later. The post relocated to
Fort Collinson on Walker Bay, north of
Minto Inlet. Two other stores opened in Walker Bay but closed by 1939, in the years of the
Great Depression.
Settlement In 1960, the federal government shipped three
housing units to Holman, and another four in 1961. In the years to follow, some families moved to Holman permanently, while others lived there seasonally. Some Copper Inuit moved to the communities of
Coppermine (Kugluktuk) or Cambridge Bay. Still others gravitated to outposts along
Bathurst Inlet,
Contwoyto Lake,
Coronation Gulf, and on Victoria Island. The Copper Inuit have gradually adopted
snowmobiles,
satellite dish television service, and Christian churches. Many young people now speak English rather than
Inuinnaqtun. Together, these introductions have created social change among the Copper Inuit. == Culture ==