Dubawnt Lake

Dubawnt Lake is a lake in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is in size and has several islands. It is about north of the Four Corners, about west of Hudson Bay and about south of the Arctic Circle. To the northwest is the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary. Its main inlet and outlet is the north-flowing Dubawnt River which joins the Thelon River at Beverly Lake. The Thelon flows east to Hudson Bay at Chesterfield Inlet. It is on the line of contact between the Sayisi Dene band of Eastern Caribou-Eater Chipewyan people and the Harvaqtuurmiut and Ihalmiut bands of Caribou Inuit. The first recorded European to reach the lake was Samuel Hearne in 1770, but it remained largely unknown to outsiders until it was explored by Joseph Tyrrell in 1893. There are no permanent settlements but there are fly-in fish camps where large lake trout can be caught during the two month ice-free season.

Dubawnt River

The Dubawnt River is long and begins in the Northwest Territories from a tributary of Wholdaia Lake northwest of the Four Corners. There is a portage from the Flett Lake tributary of Wholdaia Lake to Selwyn Lake which drains southwest to Lake Athabasca. In 1893 Joseph Tyrrell canoed from Lake Athabasca down the Dubawnt to Chesterfield Inlet. Lakes along the river are Wholdaia, Barlow, Cary, Markham, Nicholson, Dubawnt,, Grant, Wharton and Beverly. East of the Dubawnt, the Kazan River also flows north to join the Thelon.

Ethnography

The area of the lake was once home to Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit group.

Wildlife

Dubawnt Lake is home to many animals, including blackflies, foxes, wolves and many birds of prey.