Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Gjoa Haven (Nov 20/00) - The day was going along as it usually did for Simon Hiqiniq.
Breakfast out of the way, he packed up his gear and travelled outside Gjoa Haven to check his fish nets at Kakqivaktovik Lake.
Pretty much business as usual.
That changed as he hauled his catch of char out of the water.
"I pulled my nets up and it rolled off, fell off. It was full of grass and really black. I thought it was a rock because it was so black. I went to check it," said Hiqiniq.
Closer examination revealed the object to be a human skull.
Hiqiniq said he felt scared.
"I was kind of afraid," said Hiqiniq, a known hunter in the Kitikmeot community.
"I knew it was a skull, but I didn't really know it was human until somebody came by and told me it was. It had no eyes or nose. It was just the top part of the skull," he said.
As the bone began to warm up, it turned white in colour and Hiqiniq said he put it in an empty box.
That box is still out at the lake he said.
He added that it wasn't the first time he'd found something suspicious there.
"About 11 years ago, almost at the same place, I pulled out an old pair of boots. I don't know where they came from."
Hiqiniq didn't want anyone travelling to the lake to feel shocked by the sight of the human skull in a box so he went on the local radio station and told community members it was there.
He has not gone to the police with his discovery yet.
S/Sgt.Andrew Boland, the officer in charge of Nunavut's outlying detachments, said he was most interested in Hiqiniq's find. He said members of the local detachment would contact the man and ask him about it.
"We'd be really interested in finding out what he fished out of his nets," said Boland.
"Anything that's found and identified as human remains, we look into."
Boland said they received on average six reports a year from residents thinking they found human bones. Most turned out to be other mammals that had similar bone structure.
Boland also said they hadn't had any reports of missing or overdue people in the area and that it might be at least a few decades old.
Analysis will provide more details, he said.
"We're going to get a hold of this guy, get the bone and get it analyzed," said Boland.
The community's mayor, Michael Angotittauraq, had his own speculations about who the skull might have belonged to.
"It's not a modern skull. Something I've been thinking about is what if it was one of Franklin's few hundred men," said Angotittauraq.
Marceline Anguttitauruq had similar ideas about the skull.
"I was thinking it was from a long time ago, before there was a town or anything," said Anguttitauruq.
