Elevated area near a lake.

Todd Paquin of Golder Associates Ltd. completed an archaeological inventory and assessment under NWT Permit 2004-963 for an all-weather access road proposed by Fortune Minerals to service their mine operation near Nico Lake, NWT.  The mine property is located about 10 km east of Hislop Lake in the Marian basin, and the proposed access road will proceed approximately 50 km west and south from this location to an existing access road leading west to the village of Wah Ti.  Edward Williah and Leon Nasken of the Dogrib First Nation and Marcel Lafferty of the North Slave Métis Alliance assisted with the investigations.

Previous archaeological records and studies within the region, as well as environmental and ethnohistorical data, were consulted to aid in providing a basis for structuring field studies.  Map and aerial photograph mosaic analysis served as an orientation to the Project area landforms and their heritage resource potential. 

The all-weather access road is in the preliminary planning stage of development; thus, field investigations focused on a 100 m wide proposed corridor.  The aim of the pedestrian survey and shovel-testing program were to assess landforms considered to exhibit moderate to high potential for heritage resources.  These included river and creek crossings, uplands, ridges and elevated areas adjacent to water bodies.  In addition, a potential conflict was noted with previously recorded heritage resource KjPo-44 at the proposed Marian River crossing.  Emphasis was placed on relocating the site to develop a mitigation strategy should a conflict exist.

Portage at KjPo-44.

In total 225 shovel tests were excavated along the proposed corridor.  No artifacts were recovered from these tests.  The Dogrib First Nation and North Slave Métis assistants indicated that use of the area away from the Marian River was limited and significant heritage resources were not expected.

Heritage resource KjPo-44, an approximately 450 m long portage trail site along the southern bank of the Marian River, occurs in conflict with a proposed bridge location.  Shovel testing immediately adjacent to the trail and in the near vicinity did not result in the identification of intact cultural components.  However, portages are an important component of the Dogrib cultural landscape and considered highly significant.  A recommendation for avoidance of this site has been made to mitigate impacts from construction activities. 

Additionally, visual examinations encountered one claim post, one trail and three small metal traps.  The three metal traps occur along cleared winter roads while the trail exhibits trees cut by chainsaw.  In recent times, Aboriginal harvesters on snowmobile would access these trapping locations.  The claim post lacks an identification plaque but is consistent in size and structure with claim posts from ca. 1968 identified during a 2003 heritage assessment of the Nico Mine property.  None of these areas contains evidence of antiquity greater than 50 years and are not considered archaeological resources under the current provisions of the NWT Archaeological Sites Regulations (GNWT 2001).

All moderate and high potential landforms were examined within the proposed all-weather access road corridor.  The crossing of the Marian River must be rerouted to avoid impacting KjPo-44.  As a result, additional heritage assessment will be required at the new crossing location, once determined.  No heritage concerns were noted for the remainder of the proposed Fortune Minerals all-weather access road corridor. Given that local area traditional users are known to use the region, consultations, directed at determining impacts to local harvesting activities, is recommended.