ARCTIC VOL. 60, NO. 1 (MARCH 2007) P. 7–16 Further Documentation Supporting the Former Existence of Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos) in Northern Quebec-Labrador STEPHEN LORING1 and ARTHUR SPIESS2 (Received 7 June 2005; accepted in revised form 2 August 2006) ABSTRACT. The discovery in 1976 of a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) skull in an 18th-century Labrador Inuit midden effectively ended speculation about the former existence of the species in the barrenlands of northern Quebec and Labrador. We analyzed a photograph of a bear skull taken in 1910 at an Innu camp in the Labrador interior (east of the George River), which appears to be that of a grizzly bear. Coupled with previously unpublished historical accounts by Lucien Turner (Smithsonian naturalist in northern Quebec, 1881–83) and William Duncan Strong (anthropologist in Labrador, 1928–29), Innu oral history accounts, and archaeological evidence, this photograph further substantiates the theory that a small number of grizzly bears were present in the Quebec-Labrador peninsula and survived into the 20th century. Key words: Labrador, barren-ground grizzly bear, Ursus arctos, Innu, William Brooks Cabot, Lucien Turner, William Duncan Strong RÉSUMÉ. En 1976, la découverte d’un crâne de grizzli (Ursus arctos) sur un tertre inuit du Labrador remontant au XVIIIe siècle a mis fin à la formulation d’hypothèses à propos de l’existence de cette espèce sur les terres stériles du nord du Québec et du Labrador. Nous avons analysé la photo d’un crâne d’ours prise en 1910 à un camp innu dans l’intérieur du Labrador (à l’est de la rivière George), et il semblerait que ce crâne soit celui d’un grizzli. Cette photographie, alliée aux récits historiques inédits de Lucien Turner (naturaliste du Smithsonian dans le nord du Québec de 1881 à 1883) et de William Duncan Strong (anthropologue au Labrador de 1928 à 1929), aux récits historiques des Innus transmis oralement et à des documents archéologiques, vient étayer davantage la théorie selon laquelle un petit nombre de grizzlis aurait évolué dans la péninsule du Québec-Labrador et aurait survécu jusqu’au XXe siècle. Mots clés : Labrador, grizzli de Richardson, Ursus arctos, Innus, William Brooks Cabot, Lucien Turner, William Duncan Strong Traduit pour la revue Arctic par Nicole Giguère. HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON naturalists, most of whom were apparently aware of the THE LABRADOR GRIZZLY BEAR stories surrounding the rumoured giant “red” bear of the barrenland plateau bordering the George River. However, In the summer of 1975, archaeologist Steven Cox recovered although they contributed to the anecdotal literature, none of the skull of a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) from a test-pit placed these travelers seem to have returned with verifiable remains in the midden in front of a mid to late 18th century Labrador of the barren-ground grizzly bear. This paper presents two Inuit sod house at Kivalekh (Okak-1: HjCl-1) on Okak Island previously overlooked items of evidence: a photograph taken (Spiess, 1976; Spiess and Cox, 1976; Cox, 1977). The discov- in 1910 by American engineer William Brooks Cabot, an ery of the Okak grizzly bear skull effectively confirmed avocational ethnologist and northern explorer, and an ac- reports by Innu (the Algonkian Indians of the Quebec-Labra- count by Smithsonian naturalist Lucien M. Turner. We be- dor peninsula), Hudson’s Bay Company and Moravian fur- lieve these materials make a substantial contribution towards traders, and biologists that a small population of grizzly bears placing a former small but viable population of barren- in Labrador had survived into the early 20th century (Fig. 1). ground grizzlies in the Ungava region of northern Quebec and Before the bear skull was found, a small, disparate literature Labrador. addressed the history of this claim: in addition to citations provided by Spiess and Cox (1976), see also Wallace (1932), WILLIAM BROOKS CABOT Polunin (1949), Anonymous (1953), Elton (1954), Banfield AND THE LONG POND BEAR SKULL (1959), Harington et al. (1962), Wright (1962), and Veitch and Harrington (1996). In the first decade of the 20th century, Between 1899 and 1925, William Brooks Cabot made Labrador attracted a surprising number of explorers and frequent trips into the interior of the Quebec-Labrador 1 Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012, NMNH MRC-112, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, U.S.A.; [email protected] 2 Maine Historic Preservation Commission, 55 Capitol Street, State House Station 65, Augusta, Maine 04333, U.S.A.; [email protected] © The Arctic Institute of North America 8 • S. LORING and A. SPIESS FIG. 1. Map of the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula showing the postulated range of the Labrador grizzly bear in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (within dashed line). Numbers show locations of purported grizzly bear records: 1) R.C.A.F. sighting in 1948 (Wright, 1962), 2) footprints seen by A.P. Low in 1894 (Low, 1897); 3) Grizzly bear killed in 1894 according to Prichard (1911); and 4) Koehler’s big bear, 1928 (Michelin, 1976). peninsula (Cabot, 1920; Loring, 1986–87, 1987, 1997). with three white companions. Returning from the Innu Cabot was fascinated by the opportunities to meet and camp at Tshinutivish on Mushuau-nipi (Indian House travel with Innu families, who still practiced a caribou- Lake/Lac Hutte Sauvage), Cabot made a brief overland based subsistence lifestyle. In 1910, Cabot traveled inland trek to the shores of Kameshtashtan (Lake Mistastin) to GRIZZLY BEARS IN NORTHERN QUEBEC-LABRADOR • 9 FIG. 2. William Brooks Cabot’s “Split-Rock camp” at Kaiaukuapiskasts (Cabot’s Long Pond) on the Innu travel route from Emish (Voisey’s Bay) to Mushuau- shipu (the George River), WBC1905.105. William Brooks Cabot collection, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. investigate the prominent headland at the western end of would take my past with them as standing for more than it the lake where, he had been told, “the old-time Indians got did.” Cabot was deeply troubled with this rejection deliv- their arrow-head material” (Cabot, 1920:285). On their ered by the Innu. His book contains no mention of it, nor return to the Innu travel route between Tshinutivish and does any explanation accompany a distant photograph of Emish (Voisey’s Bay), the party fell in with a small group the bear skull offering that appears there (Cabot, 1920). In of Innu hunters returning from a trading trip to Nain. They the process of curating and cataloging Cabot’s papers at lunched together at the beginning of the long portage to the the National Anthropological Archives, the senior author west end of Kaiaukuapiskasts (Cabot’s Long Pond). Un- identified a series of previously unpublished images of like the Innu Cabot had encountered earlier, these hunters this bear skull offering. seemed agitated and glum, and the two groups soon parted. Cabot later noted in his diary (1910): “At the end of the The Long Pond Skull Analysis portage we found the ground smoking from quite a fire, which had run over the moss and among the dry wood for The Cabot photograph (Fig. 4) is a left oblique view of some acres. Our cache of some flour, clothes, cartridges, a defleshed bear skull tied near the top of a spruce pole. and bacon were in a tree visible from the split rock & in the The viewpoint is about 45˚ anterior of a direct lateral view burned area. My strong first thought was that the Indians and perhaps 20˚ or 30˚ below horizontal. There is a good had burned the cache, at any rate it was destroyed…I view of the anterior dentition and the left upper premolar- thought they might have lighted the knoll as an offering to molar row from the lateral aspect. The mandible is at- a fine bear skull on a long pole there” (Figs. 2 and 3). tached with sinew or twine to the skull, in its proper Farther along, at the base of the high portage where Cabot anatomical position. The base of the occipital bone ap- had earlier cached the canoe used on their upstream travel, pears to have been removed, perhaps to access and remove they found the canoe had been damaged and tobacco taken. the brains of the animal. Interestingly, this same bone Cabot (1910: 18 August) notes, “They had taken the breakage pattern was observed on the Okak grizzly bear tobacco but nothing else. The two manifestations were skull, as well as on black bear (Ursus americanus) skulls simply a message that we were not welcome. I was a good hung in the trees at more recent Innu camps (Fig. 5). deal jarred, after the good relation of the past years… I While it is difficult to judge the size of the skull without think the large party alarmed them. They must protect this an accurate scale indicator in the photograph, the spruce country from white usage, with its furs, game distribution pole to which it is attached suggests the skull size is & possible occupation for mining. Yet I did believe they modest. Without the specimen in hand, it is not possible to 10 • S. LORING and A. SPIESS FIG. 4. Close-up of the Kaiaukuapiskasts bear skull, WBC1910.161. William Brooks Cabot collection, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Kaiaukuapiskasts/Long Pond skull. We could use only the general shape of the skull in lateral aspect to make a specific species determination. The skull in the Cabot photograph demonstrates a clear upward concavity in the frontal-nasal region. In Merriam’s (1918) terms, the frontal shield is moderately sulcate and the frontal-nasal region is slightly dished, exactly matching the Okak specimen in the form of the frontal-nasal region.