Preservation of Archaeological Sites-Canada— Jenness 61 



In the middle of the decade 1920—1930 I was greatly per- 

 turbed by the spoliation of Eskimo ruins in the Hudson Bay 

 region, not by white persons so much as by the Eskimos them- 

 selves, who were finding a profitable and growing market among 

 traders, missionaries, and the handful of tourists who travelled 

 on the vessels that carried supplies each summer to the posts of 

 the two trading companies then operating in the region, Revi- 

 llon Freres and the Hudson's Bay Company. In one year, it 

 was reported to me, 14 boxes of archaeological specimens were 

 collected and shipped from two islands alone, Coats and Man- 

 sell, just inside the entrance to Hudson Bay. Now it so hap- 

 pened that during this same period an archaeological committee 

 appointed by the old League of Nations had drawn up a series 

 of regulations for the protection of archaeological remains, and 

 the League was recommending their adoption by its various 

 member nations. The eyes of the committee, it is true, had been 

 focussed largely on the Mediterranean area, and its regulations 

 were especially designed for countries like Greece and Egypt. 

 However, with minor modifications, they seemed applicable to 

 Canada also; and I therefore recommended their adoption by 

 the Canadian government. Thus came into being Canada's 

 "Ordinance Respecting the Care and Protection of Archaeologi- 

 cal Sites in the North West Territories," an ordinance whose 

 wording has been altered a little since it was first promulgated 

 twenty odd years ago, but whose substance has remained prac- 

 tically unchanged. It represents an attempt to protect all archae- 

 ological, and historical, remains throughout northern Canada 

 from its Arctic Alaskan boundary to Hudson Bay; but being 

 a federal government ordinance, it offers no protection, as I 

 have already stated, to Eskimo and Indian remains in the Labra- 

 dor Peninsula. 



I will not read the whole ordinance. Its meat is contained in 

 five sections, 3, 12, 13, 14, and 16. Section 3 reads; 



No person shall excavate or investigate any archaeological site 

 in the Territories or export from the Territories or collect any 

 archaeological specimens unless he is the holder of a permit. 



