ᑭᙵᐃᑦ

History

Kinngait, previously Cape Dorset and Sikusiilaq before that is where the remains of the Thule (Early Inuit) and pre-Inuit Dorset people (Tuniit) were discovered, who lived between 1000 BCE and 1100 CE. The European name of Cape Dorset was given by Captain Luke Foxe after Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, on 24 September 1631. The Inuit originally called the inlet Sikusiilaq, after the area of sea ocean nearby that remains ice-free all winter. Hudson's Bay Company set up a trading post here in 1913, where they traded furs and skins for supplies such as tobacco, ammunition, flour, gas, tea and sugar. In December 2019, the residents of Cape Dorset voted in favour of a request to officially rename the hamlet to its Inuktitut name of Kinngait. Voters chose between Kinngait, Sikusiilaq, and the English name of Cape Dorset.

Most-observed species

• alpine fireweed

  Chamaenerion latifolium (L.) Sweet · Magnoliopsida
  12
• Snow Bunting

  Plectrophenax nivalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9
• Glaucous Gull

  Larus hyperboreus Gunnerus, 1767 · Aves
  8
• Arctic willow

  Salix arctica Pall. · Magnoliopsida
  8
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  7
• Net-leaved Willow

  Salix reticulata L. · Magnoliopsida
  7
• Mountain Sorrel

  Oxyria digyna (L.) Hill · Magnoliopsida
  6
• Marsh Saxifrage

  Saxifraga hirculus L. · Magnoliopsida
  5

Most recent

• M 3.5 — 2018-01-26
  255 km NNW of Salluit, Canada