Sanikiluaq

Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, incorporated as a hamlet in 1976, population 812 (2011c), 744 (2006c). The Hamlet of Sanikiluaq is located on the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay. It is the territory of Nunavut's most southerly community. The original Inuit inhabitants of the barren Belcher Islands were expert kayakers. Because there were few caribou, they made frequent use of eider duck skins for clothing. The first European in the area was Henry Hudson, who sighted the islands in 1610. Today the Inuit residents of Sanikiluaq have an economy based on domestic fishing, trapping and the production of distinctive soapstone carvings.