Rita Carpenter and Dwayne Semple, field assistants, and Eleanor Stoddart, archaeologist (centre); view south to Mackenzie River.

In August, 2001, a team of archaeologists from Jacques Whitford Environment Limited, Calgary, assisted by Rita Carpenter, Tsiigehtchic and Dwayne Semple, Inuvik, conducted preliminary archaeological assessments of the sections of a proposed natural gas pipeline route from the Yukon/NT border to the NT/Alberta border that pass through the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and the Gwich’in Settlement Area. The work was undertaken on behalf of the AGA Consulting Group and the Alaska Gas Producers Pipeline Team. The field team flew the proposed pipeline route by helicopter, noting areas of archaeological potential from visual attributes to complement the zones previously identified during a potential mapping exercise. We then visited all of these areas of potential within the 5 km wide study corridor and conducted pedestrian surveys and subsurface testing. A total of 43 new archaeological, historic and contemporary sites were found in the ISR and GSA study areas, some of which had more than one component from different periods. The site components included seven from the precontact period, 30 from the historic and contemporary period, three most likely from the precontact period, one with components from both the precontact and historic periods, three whose age could not be determined, and several occurrences of palaeontological material. The precontact material included stone tools and materials used for manufacturing tools, some of the undated sites consisted of boulder markers that could have been built in the precontact period, and the historic sites included camps related to fishing, hunting, trapping and travel. Fossil marine shells were noted at several sites; a large section of fossilized tree trunk was found at another site. With the aid of Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Semple, we were able to interpret the function of most of the sites, all of which were recorded and located using GPS. We were also able to identify the owners of some of the contemporary historic sites.

Fish drying rack, Rat River, Site GSA-CT-7. View south to Site GSA-ES-1 on opposite bank.

We concluded that there is potential for the presence of additional sites within the corridor, particularly on bedrock and gravel exposures, ridges, rivers and lakes, especially at confluences, and other areas that offer access to resources, travel routes or a broad view of resource exploitation areas. Some of the sites found are sufficiently close to the proposed route alignment that some form of mitigation would be necessary should that alignment be selected. Mitigation could include avoidance or complete site documentation and excavation, for example. During our surveys we made note of wildlife sightings, and passed these on to other field crews. Included were several grizzly and black bears in groups or alone, eagles, owls, moose and cranes. Once the Mackenzie Valley route has been confirmed, this preliminary survey will be followed in subsequent seasons by more detailed surveys of the ISR and GSA sections and the sections that run through the Sahtu and Deh Cho areas, so that the entire 1500 km route alignment has been assessed.