Hall Beach
| Hall Beach | |||
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 Hall Beach from about 400 meters |
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| Location in Nunavut | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Territory : | Nunavut | ||
| Region: | Qikiqtaaluk | ||
| Coordinates : | 68 ° 46 ′ N , 81 ° 13 ′ W | ||
| Residents : | 670 (as of:) | ||
The settlement of Hall Beach ( Inuktitut name : Sanirajak , "flat land along the coast"), Canadian territory Nunavut , Qikiqtaaluk region, is located on the east coast of the Melville Peninsula south of the Fury and Hecla Straits in a traditional, Amittuq ( literally: "it is narrow") named area at Foxe Basin . The Inuit living here and on the island of Iglulik therefore refer to themselves as "Amittumiut". The number of settlement residents is around 670 (95% of them Inuit ).
Relics of people of the Dorset and Thule cultures have been found in the Amittuq region , evidence that the area has been inhabited for over 3,000 years.
Unlike most of the Inuit settlements in Nunavut Territory, Hall Beach was not founded on a pre-existing trading post, whaling station , missionary station or collection of traditional camps. Rather, the reason was the development of the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning System), which began in the mid-1950s and created Hall Beach in 1957, named after the American researcher Charles Francis Hall , who was traveling in this area in the 1860s. Before him, the European explorers William Edward Parry and George Francis Lyon (captain of the "Hecla") had stayed here in 1822/1823 in search of a northwest passage while wintering on the island of Iglulik .
After 1957 and into the 1960s, the Inuit moved from their camps to the vicinity of the DEW Line facilities. However, they have only partially given up their ties to the traditional way of life.
literature
- Miriam Dewar (Ed.): The Nunavut Handbook: Traveling in Canada's Arctic . Ayaya Marketing & Communications, Iqaluit / Ottawa 2004, ISBN 0-9736754-0-3 (English).
