Most of our knowledge regarding the Paleoeskimos of Arctic Canada is derived from the “core area” of Paleoeskimo occupation, a rough circle of some 1,000 km diameter including the coasts of Fury and Hecla Strait, Hudson Bay, and Hudson Strait. This is the area in which Dorset culture was first recognized, the source of most of our larger collections, and the area where continuity of development throughout the Paleoeskimo sequence has been demonstrated (Meldgaard 1962; Taylor 1968a; Maxwell 1973). The number and size of archaeological collections from this area suggest that it supported a larger Paleoeskimo population than did other regions of Arctic Canada, while the temporal distribution of components and continuities of style suggests that the region was occupied continuously throughout the Paleoeskimo period.

In the fringe areas surrounding this central core, continuous occupation has not yet been demonstrated through any major segment of the Paleoeskimo sequence. Work in these fringe areas has rapidly progressed during the past decade, and it now seems certain that most of the temporal gaps and cultural discontinuities are not the result of poor archaeological sampling but reflect a situation of sporadic occupation occurring at different times in different regions. One of the striking features of the Paleoeskimo population was its propensity for expanding and retracting its geographical range, and this is the phenomenon which this paper will attempt to document. The primary aim of the paper is to sort out who lived where and when; a secondary aim is to suggest how they may have got there and what happened to them.