NiJq-32 Taloyoak Talut
This traditional Inuit or Thule site is a caribou pound located on the hillside on the east side of Taloyoak harbour.
The Talut was basically two walls of stones that funnel into a "V" to conceal hunters as the caribou were herded into narrow outlets. The hidden hunters could kill many caribou is succession as they tried to pass through.
Caribou Hunting
The mountains that are called Aqarijats, when the caribou are coming from these mountains, people used to watch the caribou and wait across the river in the uqutaqs, where there are a lot of uqutaqs (a hiding place, made of rocks). The Inuit at that time would go and wait in the uqutaqa, and they would catch more than one caribou. When they went to the uqutaqs they would have to wade through the water to get there because they wanted the caribou to come their way.
When my grandpa was in his middle age, after he got a wife, my mother went to Qitinguraq for a visit, my grandpa told my mom to go up and walk by the shore, he wanted her to just walk by the water, he didn’t want her to walk by the land because of the caribou that might be passing by. After visiting her cousin Quliuq, she used to love visiting her cousin. When she was told to head home because her parents might worry, she walked by the same path. When she was walking home she could see her parents camp, she saw her dad standing and her step mom working outside. She decided to stand and wait for her dad to come and get her, after a while her dad came and picked her up. When her dad came she went in the kayak and lay on her stomach. And when they got to the camp she got out of the kayak and saw her step mom working on caribou. She was very surprised. My mother was so surprised because at that time there was not much caribou that were crossing.
When she got out she said “Caribou!” and her step mother replied “Yes caribou, I thought you would be happy that caribou were caught. Someone should have said something”. Because she loved her stepdaughter she wanted her husband to tell her but he never said anything to his daughter.
Caribou Hunting
During the fall in Qikirtaqtuuq my father had caught a caribou, during the fall when there was snow. In those days we didn’t have frames for caribou skins. My mother had cleaned the skin my father had caught. I didn’t even know when my father went out caribou hunting. He had gone caribou hunting to Qikirtaqtuuq. I didn’t know because I was only a child at that time so as my little brother Mangak.
My older brother Aqqaq was always with our grandfather. He wasn’t with us much because he had to help our grandfather. I wasn’t thinking of anything because I was just a child, my mother said “I think your father had caught a caribou, he didn’t even take his rifle with him, and he’s coming home.” I couldn’t believe it; I didn’t even know when he went caribou hunting. I was trying to do something when my mother told me about my father. I thought my mom was very smart that time. I used to think like this, my mother is very smart, she can think like that, that’s how I used to think. When my father came and said he had caught a caribou. So he harnessed two of his dogs and took the sled. When we got to Qikirtaqtuuq where he caught a caribou, he skinned the caribou and then we went home.
Site Field Notes
This traditional caribou pound is located on the hillside on the east side of Taloyoak harbour at the end of the road about 300 m east of the Northern Store. The talut consists of two stone walls, about one metre high, each about 60 m long which funnel into a “V” about 50 m from the shore and about 20 m a.s.l.
In operation, people first hid behind these walls and then, after caribou had entered the pound, they drove the herd uphill to a narrow outlet at the top where two small circular stone wells have been constructed, also of stones and boulders, on each side to conceal hunters who lanced many caribou in succession as they passed through the outlet while others shot arrows from the fence. There is a traditional 20th century archaeological site on the hill top near the outlet of the pound marked by rectangular clearings for tent frames and small scattered middens of tin cans around boulders on the break-in-slope around the camp. These cultural features date to pre-1960s traditional Inuit period. At the bottom of the hill, quite close to the shore, the road, and northern talut fence, is a barely discernable, mossy, tent ring with a raised sleeping platform at the back and an entrance passage lower than the kitchen half of the feature. This older dwelling is more likely associated with the talut. According to Bob Lyall, there is another, larger talut, a short distance inland from the hamlet.
Site Description
Historic Association: unknown
Representativeness: Thule or traditional
Inuit
Type/Function: talut, caribou pound
Rarity: rare
Integrity: good
Preservation: stone features are well
preserved
Artifact and feature density: includes
a possible tent ring at the bottom, a caribou pound and historic tent
rings on the hill top
Human Remains and Burials: none observed