NWT ice patch study

Purpose: The emerging archaeological record of ice patches demonstrates that hunters intercepted and harvested caribou on these features. Ice patches preserve a long-term record of this relationship: as annual net accumulations of winter snow were gradually compressed into permanent ice lenses, ancient remains of caribou (primarily dung deposited on the patch), and hunting weapons lost or discarded by precontact hunters were incorporated and preserved within the ice. These features preserve even the most fragile organic components of hunting artifacts over impressive time spans. Recognizing that ice patches are at risk of impact from changing climate regimes, over the past decade archaeologists in North America have put considerable effort into finding ice patch archaeological sites and collecting and conserving the fragile biological specimens and artifacts melting out of the ice. The Northwest Territories Ice Patch Study combines the physical, biological and social sciences with traditional knowledge to investigate past and present environmental and human change in the Mackenzie Mountains. As repositories of well preserved archaeological artifacts and ancient biological specimens, permanent ice patches provide a long term material record of human hunting practices and data on the diet composition, health, and genetic histories of past caribou populations. By collecting and analyzing these specimens, this study will contribute to our understanding of the human history of the North and the ecology of caribou populations over time. A geophysical study to determine the internal structures and formation processes of ice patches and traditional knowledge research to investigate oral traditions about hunting caribou on ice patches and human adaptation to the alpine environment will compliment these studies. The project was designed in partnership with a northern Aboriginal community, and is a component of the research network organized for endorsed IPY Activity 435: Culturally and Scientifically Significant Materials Recovered from Melting Ice and Cryosols: Recovery, Research, Stabilization and Community Education.