Excavation Unit at Archaeological Site JcRh-6, located on the north bank of the Island River.

Glen MacKay of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre continued an archaeological survey of Trout Lake, NT under Archaeological Permit 2006-984. Edward Jumbo (Sambaa K’e Elder), Phoebe Punch and Dennis Deneron (project guides/translators) and Jessica Jumbo (research assistant) were partners in this project. Several community students also participated in the fieldwork. I also conducted archaeological work at Sambaa Deh Falls Territorial Park under permit 2006-984.

A collaborative effort between Elders, students and archaeologists, the Sambaa K’e Archaeology Project involved visiting several important cultural places identified by the Elders of the Sambaa K’e Dene Band, and documenting them as archaeological sites. The project had a strong educational component for high school students from the community, with students receiving instruction in archaeological survey methods and learning about important cultural places from community elders.

Sambaa K’e Student Archaeologists at Work

We recorded fourteen archaeological sites, including sacred sites, historic sites, traditional trails and precontact sites, during the Sambaa K’e Archaeology Project. Working in close collaboration with Sambaa K’e Elders, we were also able to document some of the oral histories and traditions associated with these sites. Contextualized in this way, archaeological data illustrates how ‘history is written on the land’ at cultural places, and how these places are linked with other places, to form a cultural landscape.

Highlights of this year’s project include the documentation of a spruce-plank canoe building workshop, used by Sambaa K’e Elder Edward Jumbo in the 1950s, on the north bank of the Paradise River, two sacred moose wallow areas at the southwest end of Trout Lake, a historic camp from which a musket barrel, tentatively identified as a “Northwest Gun”, was recovered, and several precontact sites. We conducted test excavations at two precontact sites in the vicinity of the community of Trout Lake. At the first, located on the south bank of the Island River, we investigated a lithic scatter associated with a small hearth feature containing abundant fish bone. An arrowhead was found associated with this hearth, indicating that this site is less than 1200 years old. Located on the north bank of the Island River, at its confluence with Trout Lake, the second site also consisted of a small lithic scatter associated with a hearth feature containing fish bone. A radiocarbon date obtained for this hearth indicates an age of 825 before present for this site.

Archaeological work at Sambaa Deh Falls Territorial Park, located at the junction of the Trout River with Highway 1, resulted in the initial characterization of a large lithic workshop, which was likely associated with the quarrying of tool stone embedded in the local limestone.

The Sambaa K’e Archaeology Project seeks to integrate cultural and archaeological understandings into an integrated history of the Sambaa K’e cultural landscape. We hope to continue this project in future years.