NiJq-14 Thunder House
This site is traditionally called the Thunder House and it is said to have been built for shamanistic purposes. Shamanism and spirituality have a large role in Inuit culture.
There was a common story, or legend, told about two young orphans who were left behind at the Netsilik River and became thunder and lightening to seek revenge on the people who deserted them. While the story remained the same, there is much disagreement as to who actually built the Thunder House.
Thunder House
They call it the Thunder House, I’m sure you’ve heard about it. Would you like to know who built that thunder house? Kakooteenik was my great grandfather; he was the one who built it. There were two children who were abandoned. They became thunders.
He made the thunder house exactly where the two children were abandoned. They must have been pitiful. He made them a house, so that is why it is called thunder house. My great grandfather had made the thunder house.
Flint Stones
I am going to talk about flint stones. This certain flint stone is called kukiksait, these ones are the best of all flint stones. They have more flint than a flint stone called uqsuriaq. Kukiksait were used more often. I would really like to make one for myself, using loon’s skin for a bag, put dry moss into the bag. They wouldn’t leave it anywhere because they used it to light fire. Also they use tingaujaq to start the fire easily. Files were also hard to get in the old days. They would use even a small piece of file to strike the flint stone with.
They would make the edge of the file very smooth. Even canvas was very hard to get. This material was easy to make light with. They would burn the edge of the canvas and shut it off right away. Then they’d use it to make fire with. Those people were very smart. They would keep them bagged, even baggage was hard to get. The flint stones kukiksait and uqsuriat were used. Those were the only flint stones they used to make fire with. I had seen people use flint stone to make fire. Also people used to use the mouth drill made out of wood to make fire. They also used that to make fire with.
Matches were another thing that was very hard to get. When someone would finally get matches, they would split the match in order to save matches. They were very careful to use things in those days. One match is not very thick. Even thought the match very thick, they would split the match so that the matches won’t finish right away. White mans things were very hard to get. We even say that we need things, but we don’t even have hard time getting things anymore.
Thunder House
When we were on our way to Qikirtaqtuuq by walking, I was being packed at times because I had injured my hip when I was about two years old. I remember when my mother and my grandmother were holding my hands while we were walking.
When we reached the thunder house my grandmother peeked into the thunder house. This was way before it was broken up. It was made very well. It had a good entrance and a ceiling. When we reached it my grandmother peeked in smiling. She said “I can hear it clearly”. She then said “Atiqqaak (same namesake) peek in with your head”. So I tried to go right inside, but my grandmother stopped me from going inside. She said, “Just peek in with your head”. She asked me if I heard any sound, I told her I did. There was a skeleton head on the side that belonged to a powerful shaman named Kakooteenik.
When the anthropologists came to do research on the thunder house, they were going back and forth with the local people. From there the thunder house was broken. They were going to Netsilik Lake and Josephine Bay to do research. In those days we were not very organized, because jobs were hard to get and we did it to earn little bit of money. The thunder house was broken up and also the skeleton head was taken away, and put to the museum down south. They didn’t even ask us if they can take the skeleton head. They might have brought it down to Toronto museum. People didn’t want the anthropologists to take the human skeleton. It was the skeleton of the late powerful shaman named Kakooteenik.
Site Field Notes
This site is traditionally called the Thunder House and it is said to have been built for shamanistic purposes. It has been reported by A. Malkauskas in a letter to Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, and revisited, in 1982, by Savelle. It was revisited in 2004 by this project.
The site is situated, at about 25 m a.s.l., on the crest of a prominent ridge which runs parallel to the south shore of the lower Netsilik River. It consists of small conical dry masonry structure that resembles the fox traps at NiJq-29 and NiJp-17 which has been built up against the northwest side of a large flat-topped boulder. It has partly collapsed and fallen inwards. Oral tradition and a drawing of the Thunder House, made by a Netsilik Inuk during Rasmussen’s visit, gives it a small entrance on one side but it was not apparent during our visit. The skeleton of a fox is visible between slabs which have fallen in from the top. On the southeast side of the boulder is a single small round tent ring and about 20 m to the southwest, along the crest of the ridge, is a single, unusual inukshuk of carefully balanced rocks.
Site Description
Historic Association: associated with shamanism
and the Thunder Children
Representativeness: recorded as a Dorset
feature, but it may be Thule or traditional Inuit
Type/Function: tent rings, Thunder House,
inukshuk, shamanism
Rarity: rare
Integrity: Thunder House is partly fallen
and collapsed inwards; good for tent ring and inukshuk
Preservation: only bones observed were
fox bones between slabs which have fallen in
Artifact and feature density: low feature
density
Human Remains and Burials: none observed,
but oral tradition holds that burial by exposure took place there.