ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK IN ARCTIC CANADA — COLLINS 511 



Sadlermiuts were first encountered by Capt. Lyon in 1824 and where 

 we hoped also to find village sites of the earlier Dorset people. This 

 paper will be in the nature of a narrative account of the expedition, 

 describing the circumstances under which the work was conducted, 

 as well as the results accomplished. 



On June 23 our party, consisting of Dr. J. Norman Emerson, Wil- 

 liam E. Taylor, Jr., Eugene Ostroff, and myself, was flown by the 

 R. C. A. F. from Montreal to Churchill on the west coast of Hudson 

 Bay. Here we stopped overnight and picked up a supply of 5-in-l 

 military rations, tents, and Arctic clothing which the U. S. Quarter- 

 master Corps had kindly provided for our use. The next morning 

 we flew over to Coral Harbour on the south coast of Southampton 

 Island, arriving around noon. Our immediate destination was the 

 Hudson's Bay Company post and Eskimo village 3 miles east of the 

 airstrip, but as most of the snow had disappeared from the ground, 

 making sled travel overland impossible, we had to get there by a 

 roundabout route. Our supplies and equipment were loaded on an 

 Air Force truck and taken to a small Eskimo settlement bearing the 

 strange name of "Snafu," on the coast 3 miles to the south. Here 

 we engaged Eskimos to take us the rest of the way by dog team over 

 the sea ice. It was a short trip of about 7 miles, a new experience for 

 most of the party and a prelude to the much longer sled trip we were to 

 begin next day. The name of this little Eskimo settlement comes from 

 a wrecked oil tanker, referred to as the Snafu, which ran aground there 

 during World War II. The proper tribal name of these Eskimos is 

 Okomiut, but they are now also called "Snafumiut," a designation 

 they cheerfully accept, unaware of its somewhat derogatory connota- 

 tion. The Okomiuts came originally from southern Baffin Island, hav- 

 ing been brought to Southampton when the Hudson's Bay post was 

 established there in 1924. They constitute the minority element in 

 the present Eskimo population of Southampton Island. Most of the 

 Eskimos now living on the island are Aiviliks from the Repulse Bay- 

 Wager Bay area on the mainland to the west, who were brought over 

 by the whalers around 1908. The total Eskimo population is about 

 240, mostly concentrated around the Hudson's Bay post, where we were 

 now headed. 



A. T. Swaffield, the post manager, met us and had our equipment 

 taken up to one of the company storehouses and the neat little 3-room 

 lodge where we were to stay until we left for Native Point. The 

 problem now was how to get down to Native Point. Normally the 

 ice breaks up by July 4th so that boat travel is possible by that time. 

 This year, however, the prospects were that the breakup would be 

 possibly as much as two weeks later. As we were anxious to get to 

 Native Point and begin work as soon as possible, Mr. Swaffield called 



