As both government and private industry look to exploit the abundant resources of Canada's far north, there is a lingering assumption that the natives lack the social and business acumen to play an active role.

It's an assumption arctic archaeologist Dr. Robert McGhee is out to dispel.

"The image of the Inuit (had by others) is conditioned by what people think their history is," said Dr. McGhee, who was in Dufferin last weekend and spoke at the Orangeville Seniors Centre and Westside Secondary School.

"They are not some stone-aged people who lived in the Arctic since time immemorial. The Inuit moved from the Pacific Northwest around 1200 A.D. They were entrepreneurs seeking a market with the Norse."

The true history, Dr. McGhee attests, proves the Inuit to have long been a sophisticated people who, through the course of time, have proven they possess the skills and knowledge to participate in the present and future commerce of the north.

Dr. McGhee has the background to validate his assertions. He has written extensively on the subject of arctic history, including the award-winning The Last Imaginary Place, an examination of arctic peoples.

In 2000, his research on the subject earned him the Massey Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Dr. McGhee has determined that the Inuit were using iron tools as far back as 2,000 years ago. The tools, he figures, came as a result of trade with China. They later traded for such implements with Norse people who had settled in what is now Labrador; thus proving that, close to a millennium ago, the Inuit had actually succeeded in accessing both European and Asian markets.

Conventional historic accounts led to the impression that the Inuit have traditionally been a peaceful people. Dr. McGhee's research points out that they haven't always been nice guys.

For one thing, as they migrated east across the Arctic, the Inuit played a major role in the eradication of the culture of the Tunit, a people who were living in the region at the time.

As well, there is educated opinion that mutineers who cast explorer Henry Hudson adrift in 1611 were, themselves, victimized by Inuit pirates. The upside for those mutineers who made it back to England was that, during their trial for mutiny, they were successfully able to blame the mutiny on the Inuit's dead victims.

Such a colourful history of the Inuit people, Dr. McGhee feels, should be spread.

"It can be amusing, at first, to see the distortions of Arctic history. But the humour is quickly lost when you think of the people who live there and the image they have to put up with."