Sadlermiut

Infobox Ethnic group
group=Sadlermiut


popplace=Canada
langs=Eskimo-Aleut languages
related=Aleuts, Inuit, Yupiks
rels=Possibly Shamanism

The Sadlermiut (also called "Sagdlirmiut", [cite web | first=David | last=Dalby | date=1994-2006 | url=http://www.langtag.com/INUITIC_JUNE_2006.pdf | publisher=The LinguaSphere Online | title=Zone [60] Inuitic | accessdate=2008-04-23] or "Sallirmiut" in modern Inuktitut spelling, from "Sadlerk"cite book | last = Petrone | first = Penny | title = Northern Voices: Inuit Writing in English | publisher = University of Toronto Press | date = 1988 | pages = 12-14 | id = ISBN 080207717X] , now "Salliq", the Inuktitut name for the settlement of Coral Harbour, Nunavut) were an Eskimo people living in near isolation mainly on and around Coats Island, Walrus Island, and Southampton Island in Hudson Bay.cite web | first=Jean L. | last=Briggs | coauthors=J. Garth Taylor | publisher=Historica Foundation of Canada | title=The Canadian Encyclopedia: Sadlermiut Inuit| url =http://www.encyclopediecanadienne.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007041| accessdate=2008-03-21] They are sometimes thought to have been the last remnants of the Dorset culture as they had preserved a distinct culture and dialect from the mainland Inuit. However, their culture and local traditions seem to have combined elements of both the Dorset and Thule societies, which may indicate otherwise.cite web | publisher=The Free Library | title=The People Arrive| url =http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+People+Arrive.(history+of+the+Inuit)-a057040631| date=1999-03-01 | accessdate=2008-03-22]

History

In 1824, the HMS Griper, under Captain George Francis Lyon, anchored off Cape Pembroke on Coats Island in Hudson Bay. The whalers then discovered a band of Eskimos who were said to have spoken a "strange dialect" and were called "Sadlermiut".cite news |url=http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut020705/news/editorial/columns.html#nunani_july26 |title=In the bones of the world (Part eight) |work=Nortext Publishing Corporation (Iqaluit) |publisher=Nunatsiaq News |date=2002-07-26 ] Since then, the Sadlermiut continued to establish contact with Westerners. However, as with many North American aboriginals, the Sadlermiut were often susceptible to Western diseases. By 1896, there were only 70 of them remaining. Then, in the fall of 1902, the British tradingcite web | publisher=Library and Archives Canada | title=Aboriginal 7 - Life in Canada| url =http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/art/050602/0506020222_e.html| accessdate=2008-03-21] /whaling vessel named the "Active" had made a stop at Southampton Island. It is said that some of the Sadlermiut caught a disease, possibly an influenzacite web | first=M.A.P. | last=Renouf | publisher=The Rooms | title=Museum Notes - Palaeoeskimo in Newfoundland & Labrador| url=http://www.therooms.ca/museum/mnotes5.asp| date=Fall 1991| accessdate=2008-03-21] , typhoid or typhus, from a sick sailor aboard the "Active", which then spread to the entire community. By winter 1902-03, the entire Sadlermiut population had died as a result.

In 1954 and 1955, Henry B. Collins of the Smithsonian Institution studied Eskimo house ruins in the Canadian Arctic. He determined that these ruins were characteristic of Sadlermiut culture which had once been quite extensive. He also found evidence that the Sadlermiut were the last remnants of the Dorset culture. Recent genetic research has, moreover, supported the continuity between Sadlermiut and the Dorset people.

Origins

The Sadlermiut are most often cited for having maintained a unique culture and dialect apart from other Inuit, similar to the Unangam (Aleut), which is principally the result of an adaptation to environmental and historical constraints, whereas they may have had at least some genetic influx from paleo-Eskimo groups. [cite web | first=NIELS | last=LYNNERUP | coauthors=JØRGEN MELDGAARD, JAN JAKOBSEN, MARTIN APPELT, ANDERS KOCH and BRUNO FRØHLICH | publisher=Arctic Institute of North America | title=Human Dorset Remains from Igloolik, Canada | url =http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic56-4-349.pdf| date=2003 | accessdate=2008-03-21] Because of this, various hypotheses were established in order to try and explain the Sadlermiut's cultural differences. One of the such tries to establish a clear link between the Sadlermiut as direct descendants of the Dorset culture. A second explains that rather than being related to the Dorset, the Sadlermiut were in fact descendants of the Thule, whose geographically isolated culture would have developped idiosyncratically from the mainland Thule culture. A third theory indicates that the Sadlermiut did not necessarily belong to either group, but because of intermarriage, their roots may have in fact been part of both Dorset and Thule cultures.cite web | publisher=Revista de Arqueología Americana | title=Canadian Arctic historical archaeology in review| url =http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-32018819_ITM| date=2004| accessdate=2008-03-21]

Lifestyle

The Sadlermiut were a hunter-gatherer peoples whose subsistence relied primarily on fishing and caribou hunting, although they also hunted seals, polar bears, and walruses. [cite web | first=John N. | last=Harris | date=1999-2004 | url=http://www.spirasolaris.ca/sbb4g1bv2.html | title=The Way West: The Blocked Passage | accessdate=2008-04-23] Unlike the mainland Inuit, the Sadlermiut were reported to show very little interest in hunting whales and trapping and were thus of little use to traders who frequented Coral Harbourcite web | publisher=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada | title=5. Inuit Innovation | url =http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic56-4-349.pdf | date=2006 | accessdate=2008-04-23] . In addition, the Sadlermiut often kept a "vigilant distance" between them and the traders, the explorers and the Aivilingmiut. [cite book | last = Mitchell | first = Marybelle | title = From Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite: The Birth of Class and Nationalism Among Canadian Inuit | publisher = McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP | date = 1996 | pages = 469 | id = ISBN 0773513744] This may be in part due to historical confrontations with the Aivilingmiut who sought Southampton island for its prosperous whaling potential, and the Dene people who moved Northwards during the summer in pursuit of caribou.

References

External links

* [http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/archeo/emercury/119.htm PATTERNS OF ACTIVITY-INDUCED PATHOLOGY IN A CANADIAN INUIT POPULATION] by Charles F. Merbs
* [http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut020705/news/editorial/columns.html In the bones of the world] at the "Nuntsiaq News" website.
* [http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007041 Article on the Sadlermiut from the Canadian encyclopedia]
* [http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/archeo/cvh/arctic/earc7.htm Dorset Paleoeskimo Culture] at Canada.ca.
* [http://www.spirasolaris.ca/sbb4g1bv2.html The Way West: Blocked Passage] , by John N. Harris