In the early 1600's a cooling climactic trend effectively ended the Thule culture lifestyle. Colder, longer winters created a shorter ice free summer and the large whales no longer migrated far into the arctic. The Thule people were unable to store enough food during the summer to last through the the winter and were forced to adapt their lifestyle to suit the new conditions.
Several different cultures developed, depending on the local availability of animals.In the eastern Arctic a culture developed based on the hunting of seals at large winter camps on the sea ice. In the spring the large camps broke up and moved closer to shore in smaller family groups hunting seal in open leads. In the summer families moved inland to hunt caribou and fish. There were many of these small camps along the shores of Frobisher Bay.
These camps congregated at the end of Koojessie Inlet in order to fish for char in the Sylvia Grinnell river. Iqaluit, at the mouth of the Sylvia Grinnell, means place of many fish. Inuit always called this location Iqaluit. It was the southerners who named it Frobisher Bay after the explorer Sir Martin Frobisher.
