Editing Ellesmere Island (section)

==History==

It is believed that each of the pre-contact peoples who migrated through the High Arctic approached Ellesmere Island from the south and west. They were able to travel along Ellesmere's coasts or overland to Nares Strait, and some of them crossed the strait to populate Greenland.{{r|"Dick"|p=9–11}}

The archaeological record of past Arctic cultures is quite complete, as artefacts deteriorate very slowly. Items exposed to the cold, dry winds become naturally freeze-dried while items that become buried are preserved in the permafrost. Artefacts are in a similar condition to when they were left or lost, and settlements abandoned thousands of years ago can be seen much as they were the day their inhabitants left. From these sites and artefacts, archaeologists have been able to construct a history of these cultures.{{r|"McGhee1996"|p=8}} However, the research is incomplete and only a small proportion of the details of excavations have been published.{{r|"Gullason2004"|p=72}}

===Small tool cultures===

The [[Arctic small tool tradition]] peoples ({{a.k.a.}} [[Paleo-Eskimo]]s) in the High Arctic had small populations organized as hunting bands, spread from Axel Heiberg Island to the northern extremity of Greenland,{{r|"Dick"|p=49}} where the [[Independence&nbsp;I culture]] was active from 2700&nbsp;BCE.{{r|"Dick"|p=28}} On Ellesmere, they chiefly hunted in the Eureka Upland and the Hazen Plateau. Six different small-tool cultures have been identified at the [[Smith Sound]] region: Independence I, Independence I / [[Saqqaq culture|Saqqaq]], [[Pre-Dorset]], Saqqaq, early Dorset, and late Dorset.{{r|"Dick"|p=49}} They chiefly hunted [[Muskox|muskoxen]]: more than three-quarters of their known archeological sites on Ellesmere are located in the island's interior and their winter dwellings were skin tents, suggesting a need for mobility to follow the herds. There is evidence at Lake Hazen of a trade network {{circa|1500–1000&nbsp;BCE}}, including soapstone lamps from Greenland and incised lance heads from cultures to the south.{{r|"Dick"|p=50}}

===Thule culture===
[[File:Dorset, Norse, and Thule cultures 900-1500.svg|thumb|alt=Maps|Decline of the [[Dorset culture]] (brown) and expansion of the [[Thule people|Thule]] (green), {{circa|900–1500}}]]
The [[Thule people|Thule]] moved into the High Arctic at the time of a warming trend, c.&nbsp;1000&nbsp;CE.{{r|"Dick"|p=28}} Their major population centre was the Smith Sound area (on both the Ellesmere and Greenland sides) due to its proximity to [[polynyas]] and its position on transportation routes.{{r|"Dick"|p=54}} From settlements at Smith Sound, the Thule sent summer hunting parties to harvest [[marine mammal]]s in Nansen Strait. Their summer camps are evidenced by tent rings as far north as Archer Fiord, with clusters of stone dwellings around Lady Franklin Bay and at Lake Hazen which suggest semi-permanent occupations.{{r|"Dick"|p=28}}

The Thule genetically and culturally completely replaced the [[Dorset people]] some time after 1300 CE.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dorset DNA: Genes Trace the Tale of the Arctic's Long-Gone 'Hobbits' |date=28 August 2014 |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/dorset-dna-genes-trace-tale-arctics-long-gone-hobbits-n191156|publisher=[[NBC News]]}}</ref> The Thule displaced the small-tool cultures, having a number of technological advantages which notably included effective weapons, kayaks and umiaks for hunting marine mammals, and [[sled dog]]s for surface transport and pursuit.{{r|"Dick"|p=51}} The Thule also had an extensive trade network, evidenced by [[Cape York meteorite|meteoritic iron from Greenland]] which was exported through Ellesmere Island to the rest of the archipelago and to the North American mainland.{{r|"Dick"|p=52, 105}}

More than fifty [[Norsemen|Norse]] artefacts have been found in Thule archeological sites on the [[Bache Peninsula]], including pieces of chain mail. It is uncertain if Ellesmere Island was directly visited by [[Norse settlements in Greenland|Norse Greenlanders]] who sailed from the south or if the items were traded through a network of middlemen.{{r|"Dick"|p=54}} It is also possible the items may have been taken from a shipwreck.{{r|"Gullason2004"|p=46}} A bronze set of scales discovered in western Ellesmere Island has been interpreted as indicating the presence of a Norse trader in the region.{{r|"Dick"|p=62}} The Norse artefacts date from c.&nbsp;1250 to 1400&nbsp;CE.<ref name="Sutherland2000"/>

Between 1400 and 1600 CE, the [[Little Ice Age]] developed and conditions for hunting became increasingly difficult, forcing the Thule to withdraw from Ellesmere and the other northern islands of the archipelago.{{r|"Dick"|p=29}} The Thule who remained in northern Greenland became isolated, specialized at hunting a diminishing number of game animals, and lost the ability to make boats. Thus, the waters around Ellesmere were not navigated again until the arrival of large European vessels after 1800.{{r|"Dick"|p=21}}

===Early European exploration===

Much of the initial phase of European exploration of the [[North American Arctic]] was centred on a search for the [[Northwest Passage]] and undertaken by Britain.{{r|"Fjagesund2014"|p=334}} The 1616 expedition of [[William Baffin]] were the first Europeans to record sighting the then-unnamed Ellesmere Island (Baffin named Jones and Smith Sounds on the island's south and southeast coasts).<ref name="EBbaffin"/> However, the onset of the Little Ice Age interrupted the progress of explorations for two centuries.

In 1818, an ice jam in [[Baffin Bay]] broke, allowing European vessels access to the High Arctic ([[whaler]]s had been active in [[Davis Strait]], about {{cvt|1000|km|disp=sqbr}} southeast of Ellesmere, since 1719).{{r|"Dick"|p=29–30}} Baffin Bay was then navigable in the summers due to the presence of an ice dam in Smith Sound, which prevented Arctic [[drift ice]] from flowing south. The other channels of the archipelago remained congested with ice.{{r|"Dick"|p=37}}

That year<!--1818-->, [[John Ross (Royal Navy officer)|John Ross]] led the first recorded European expedition to [[Cape York (Greenland)|Cape York]],{{r|"Dick"|p=65}} at which time there were reportedly only 140 [[Inughuit]].{{r|"Dick"|p=61}} (The Inughuit of North Greenland, the [[Kalaallit]] of West Greenland, and [[Inuit]] of the archipelago are descendants of the Thule culture, which had diverged during the isolation imposed by the Little Ice Age.) Knowledge of Ellesmere persisted in the oral histories of the Inuit of Baffin Island and the Inughuit of northern Greenland,{{r|"Dick"|p=55}} who each called it {{langnf|iu-Latn|Umingmak Nuna|land of [[muskox]]en}}.<ref name="Science1885"/>

=== Euro-American exploration and contact ===

The search for [[Franklin's lost expedition]] – also searching for the Northwest Passage and to establish claims to the Far North – involved more than forty expeditions to the High Arctic over two decades, and represented the peak period of Euro-American Arctic exploration.{{r|"Fjagesund2014"|p=334}}{{r|"Gullason2004"|p=19}} [[Edward Augustus Inglefield]] led an 1852 expedition which surveyed the coastlines of Baffin Bay and Smith Sound, being stopped by ice in Nares Strait.{{r|"Fjagesund2014"|p=339}} He named Ellesmere Island for the president of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] (1849–1852), [[Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere]].<ref name="canencyc"/> The [[Second Grinnell expedition]] (1853–1855) made slightly further progress before becoming trapped in the ice. Over two winters the expedition charted both sides of [[Kane Basin]] to about 80°N, from where [[Elisha Kent Kane]] claimed to have sighted the conjectured [[Open Polar Sea]].{{r|"Fjagesund2014"|p=339–340}}

During this period, as the Little Ice Age abated and the hunting of marine mammals became more feasible again, Aboriginal peoples began to return to Ellesmere Island. The most well-known of these migrations in both Inuit and European accounts is the journey of Qitlaq, who led a group of Inuit families from Baffin Island to northwestern Greenland, via Ellesmere Island, in the 1850s.{{efn|Qitlaq reportedly met members of Inglefield's 1854 expedition and Sir [[Leopold McClintock]]'s 1857–1859 expedition while on [[Devon Island]]{{r|"Dick"|p=102}} }} This journey reestablished contact between Inuit who had been separated for two centuries and reintroduced vital technologies to the Inughuit.{{r|"Dick"|p=99–101}} Other groups followed and by the 1870s Inuit were living on Ellesmere Island and had regular contact with those on the neighbouring islands.{{r|"Dick"|p=109}}

Contact between Inuit and Europeans or Americans was often indirect, as the Inuit happened upon shipwrecks or abandoned base camps which provided wood and metal resources. European goods were also obtained through inter-group trade. Long-term contact began in the 1800s through whaling stations and trading posts, which frequently relocated.{{r|"Gullason2004"|p=12}} Euro-American expeditions employed Inughuit, Inuit and west Greenlander guides, hunters and labourers, gradually blending their knowledge with European technology to conduct effective exploration.{{r|"Dick"|p=30}}
[[File:Ship under Cape Prescott (Ellesmere Island) - 1875.jpg|thumb|[[HMS Alert (1856)|HMS ''Alert'']] off [[Cape Prescott]] in 1875]]
British and United States Arctic expeditions had been interrupted for some years due to the priorities of the [[Crimean War]] and the [[American Civil War]], respectively.{{r|"Fjagesund2014"|p=340}} By about 1860, the focus of Arctic exploration had shifted to the [[Arctic exploration#The North Pole|North Pole]]. As earlier attempts at the pole via [[Svalbard]] or eastern Greenland had reached impasses, numerous expeditions came to Ellesmere Island to pursue the route through Nares Straight.{{r|"Fjagesund2014"|p=334}}
[[File:Fort_Conger,_Grinnell_Land,_May_20,_1883.jpg|thumb|[[Fort Conger]] in Grinnel Land, May 1883]]
The United States expedition led by [[Adolphus Greely]] in 1881 crossed the island from east to west,{{r|"Dick"|p=631}} establishing [[Fort Conger]] in the northern part of the island. The Greely expedition found [[Petrified wood|fossil forests]] on Ellesmere Island in the late 1880s. Stenkul Fiord was first explored in 1902 by Per Schei, a member of [[Otto Sverdrup]]'s 2nd Norwegian Polar Expedition.

The [[Ellesmere Ice Shelf]] was documented by the [[British Arctic Expedition]] of 1875–76, in which Lieutenant [[Pelham Aldrich]]'s party went from [[Cape Sheridan]] ({{Coord|82|28|N|061|30|W|region:CA-NU_scale:500000|notes=<ref>{{Cite cgndb|OAOVZ|Cape Sheridan}}</ref>|display=inline|name=Cape Sheridan}}) west to Cape Alert ({{coord|82|16|N|85|33|W|type:landmark_scale:600000_region:CA-NU|name=Cape Alert (Ellesmere Island)}}), including the [[Ward Hunt Ice Shelf]]. In 1906 [[Robert Peary]] led an expedition in northern Ellesmere Island, from Cape Sheridan along the coast to the western side of [[Nansen Sound]] (93°W). During Peary's expedition, the [[ice shelf]] was continuous; it has since been estimated to have covered {{cvt|8900|km2}}.<ref name="Jeffries1986"/> The ice shelf broke apart in the 20th century, presumably due to [[climate change]].

=== Establishment of Canadian sovereignty ===

In 1880, the [[British Arctic Territories]] were transferred to Canada.<ref name="Smith1961"/> Canada did little to solidify its legal possession of the islands until prompted by foreign action in 1902–03: Otto Sverdrup claimed [[Sverdrup Islands|three islands west of Ellesmere]] for Norway, the [[Alaska boundary dispute]] was settled against Canada's interests, and [[Roald Amundsen]] set out to sail the Northwest Passage.{{r|"Schledermann2003"|p=101–104}} To establish an official government presence in the Far North, the [[North-West Mounted Police]] (NWMP) were sent on sovereignty patrols. A NWMP detachment sailed to the Arctic whaling stations in 1903, where they forbade whalers from killing muskox or trading skins, in order to prevent overhunting and protect the Inuit's ability to sustain themselves. In 1904 a NWMP detachment sailed to Cape Herschel at the east end of Sverdrup Pass, where they could intercept hunters accessing the interior of Ellesmere.{{r|"Schledermann2003"|p=101–104}}

While the fur trade was brought under control, American exploration parties to the Far North had acted with autonomy and intensively hunted terrestrial mammals to sustain their expeditions. Peary's parties had heavily hunted muskoxen on Ellesmere and had nearly brought the extinction of caribou in northern Greenland; the [[Crocker Land Expedition]] (1913–1916) also extensively hunted muskoxen. In response to these and other trespasses, the government amended the ''Northwest Game Act'' to prohibit the killing of muskoxen except for Native inhabitants who otherwise faced starvation.{{r|"Schledermann2003"|p=102}}

In 1920, the government learned that [[Inughuit]] from Greenland had been annually visiting Ellesmere Island for polar bear and muskox hunting – in violation of Canadian law – and selling the skins at [[Knud Rasmussen]]'s trading post at [[North Star Bay]] (known as Thule). The Danish government stated that North Greenland was a "no man's land" outside their administration and Rasmussen, as the ''de facto'' sole authority, refused to stop the trade, which the Inughuit needed to support themselves. In response, [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] (RCMP) detachments were established on Ellesmere Island at [[Craig Harbour]] in 1922 and at Bache Post in 1926, positioned to guard the coastal and overland routes to the hunting grounds on the western side of Ellesmere.{{r|"Schledermann2003"|p=102–104}}{{r|"Pharand1983"|p=315–316}} In addition to intercepting illegal hunting and fur-trading, the RCMP conducted patrols and encouraged the Inuit to maintain their traditional lifestyle.{{r|"Gullason2004"|p=25–26}} The posts were closed in the mid-1930s, after the sovereignty issues had been settled.{{r|"Schledermann2003"|p=105}}