Whirl Lake: A Stratified Indian Site near the Mackenzie Delta

Abstract

MjTp-1, the Whirl Lake Site, near the southeast Mackenzie Delta in Canada, consists of upper and lower artefact components. The former represents occupation by Mackenzie Flats Kutchin Indians, and comprises a single family fishing site where nets or traps were employed and caches in permafrost were used for the storage of fish as autumn feed for dogs and for possible human consumption. From the lower level, which represents an earlier Indian occupation, have come tools such as lance points or arrowheads which are much more refined than tools from the Kutchin level. Dating by radiocarbon has placed the Kutchin level as an early 18th century occupation, and the lower microlithic level about 2000 years B.C. judging from its affinities with the Northern Transportation Company Docks/Franklin Tanks complex at Great Bear Lake.