Using historical and ethnographic records, an attempt is made to reconstruct the traditional economic and social patterns of the Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea coast, focussing on the Kittegaryumiut of the East Channel area. Two seasons of archaeological work at the large village of Kittigazuit, and at smaller related sites, are reported. The cultural pattern and way of life reconstructed for the nineteenth century Kittegaryumiut appears to extend at least 500 years into the past, and to be centred on the hunting of beluga in a unique natural trap. Published in English.