When They Came Together

Although the Tuyurmiat didn’t like to be called Siglit (IA91-14A2), they had close relations with people from Kittigaryuit Thus, Gerard Siksigaaluk, who was from Qikiqtaruk, was married to a woman from Kittigaryuit. Also, when Reverend Thomas Umauq, who was originally from Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island), left the island he decided to settle in Tuktoyaktuk rather than in Aklavik. Here is what Lily Lipscombe heard from her father:

I guess there were a lot of people that lived like for instance over at Kiññaq (King Point). Lots of peoples lived along there too, but those people were mixed from Tikiraqmiut, Kiññaqmiut and then after that they’ll go to the Kittigaryukmiut. So Kittigaryuit and Kiññaq people, Kittigaryuit and Tikiraq people meet together there. This is how they claimed that they interbreed finally. Because there was these people from Herschel, Qikiqtarukmiut, and they were Tikiraqmiut, and there was Kittigaryukmiut and Qikiqtaqrukmiut, that’s around Tuk. Then when they came together, that’s where they came together. It was at Kiññaq. And that’s where they finally interbreed […] They said years ago, my dad used to say, when they came together, Kittigaryukmiut and these guys here, Qikiqtaqrukmiut and Tikiraqmiut, you know when they go together, when they come together, they said they used to be umiaqs (boats) all around, just about all around the harbour at King Point. (L191-25A-6) 

Notes

Excerpt from Nagy, Murielle Ida. 1994:27. Yukon North Slope Inuvialuit Oral History. Yukon Tourism, Heritage Branch.

Photo Source: courtesy of the Yukon Government.