IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - Cambridge Bay's Mary Avalak says she's no expert when it comes to archeology, but she knows a good story when she hears one.

Elders gather at Ikaluktuuq near Cambridge Bay in 2001. From left, Ekvana Angulalik, Bessie Emingak. - photo courtesy of Kim Crockatt

Inuit call them Tuniit, archeologists call them Dorset, and the legend of the large but extremely shy race of people has dominated Inuit mythology for generations.

"These Tuniit, they're nice people and they're big people, but if someone talks about them or if you say bad words to them, they'll come after you or tell you to leave," Avalak said.

"I'm not much of a Tuniit (expert) myself, so that's a story I heard."

While Inuit stories clearly state the Tuniit and Inuit existed in the same place at the same time, archeologists were not so sure, University of Toronto archaeologist Max Friesen said.

"A huge and controversial and sort of major issue in the whole Arctic past is whether the two actually did meet," Friesen said.

Now, Friesen and his team have used radiocarbon dating to prove to the scientific community what Inuit say they have known all along -- that the Tuniit and Inuit may have crossed paths as they existed during the same time in history.

While archaeologists knew the Tuniit lived in the Arctic from about 2500 BC, the new radiocarbon data shows they existed in the Cambridge Bay area until around 1350 AD.

Thule Inuit, the ancestors of modern Inuit, moved into what is now the Canadian Arctic from Alaska around 1200 AD, Friesen said. The earliest Thule Inuit site near Cambridge Bay was also occupied until about 1350 AD.

"We have absolute proof that they did overlap and meet," he said.

Friesen has been partnering with the Kitikmeot Heritage Society to perform archaeological research at Ikaluktuuq and other sites in and around Cambridge Bay since 1999. Each summer, the research team spends a few days out on the land with elders hearing traditional stories about the area.

Friesen said elders had a variety of stories about the Tuniit.

"It usually revolves around Tuniit, these earlier people, being very large and strong but also quite shy and reluctant to interact," he said. "Often, it ends up with either some kind of a conflict or with the Tuniit simply leaving because they're worried about interacting or what have you."

He said Tuniit behaviour in the stories often changed depending on where elders were originally from.

"They had stories that had both versions, some with Inuit and Tuniit getting along peacefully for a while and others indicating conflict between them," he said.

In 2000, Friesen interviewed elder Frank Analok about the Tuniit.

"It is said that Tuniit were afraid of the ordinary people and would run away when encountered," Analok said. "Even though the ordinary people did not threaten them they would run away. It is said that the Inuit wanted to have a closer look at them, but couldn't."

Friesen said whether Inuit and Tuniit actually interacted is another mystery he and his team are hoping to solve. There is still very little evidence that proves the two groups were in direct contact with each other, he said.

"One of the things we do want to do is go back to some of these sites that gave us the very late Tuniit dates and also the very early Inuit dates to try to find more evidence and see if we can actually find evidence of interaction," he said.

"For example, a Tuniit house with Inuit artifacts in it showing they lived together or that they traded or something like that. It's not certain that we'd find that, but we're going to take a look anyway."

Inuit legend already knows the answer to that question, Akavak said. Inuit and Tuniit intermarried, which is why Inuit today vary in height.

"That's how come some of our people are tall," she said. "That's how come some people are big, because of that.

"That might be a true story, I heard that a long time ago."