Archaeologists to open dead mens’ chest

A team of archaeologists will visit Baker Lake this summer to investigate three unmarked graves and a locked wooden chest.

John Avaala was with a group of hunters that came across the site while fishing and hunting caribou last summer. The group was curious about the metre-square chest, but returned to the hamlet to tell the mayor about their find instead of breaking open the rusty padlock.

“We were joking there was a million dollars in there,” Avaala told a Canadian Press reporter.

Doug Stenton, with the Inuit Heritage Trust, will lead an expedition to the site next month.