Until 1957, Ennadai Lake was home to the Ahiarmiut (Ihalmiut) Inuktitut syllabics ᐃᐦᐊᓪᒥᐅᑦ [ihalmiˈut], Caribou Inuit.

[7][8][9] The Ahialmiut "subsisted almost entirely on caribou year-round, unlike other Inuit groups that depended at least partially on harvest of animals from the sea.

When the Dene joined the fur trade, and stopped following caribou onto the tundra each summer, the Ahialmiut moved farther inland, pushing south to the treeline by about 1850.

However, they experienced years of famine "when caribou wintered primarily in the southern forest, rather than on the tundra, or when they were unable to cache sufficient food supplies in the fall.

Government encouraged them to do so to allow their children to attend school, and to have access to medical care at nursing stations.

The plane departed Points North Landing, Saskatchewan with 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) of cargo on board for building materials for the construction of a lodge.

[22] In an article in Inuktitut, David Serkoak,[23] who was a child at the time of the relocation, attempted to understand the reasoning behind decision to move the Ahiarmiut.

I think the government wanted the Ihalmiut to move to the coast so that we might become fishermen and make ourselves useful.A workshop was held in Arviat in 2003 with Ahiarmiut elders on 'Survival and Angakkuuniq' in which "Ahiarmiut elders Job and Eva Muqyunnik, Luke and Mary Anautalik often reflected on the events that almost fifty years ago had disrupted their lives and still affected them.

"[24] This was followed by a second workshop in 2006 held at Ennadai Lake with Ahiarmiut originally from Ennadai Lake, including Eva Muqyunnik, Job Muqyunnik, Mary Anautalik, John Aulatjut, Silas Ilungiyajuk, Geena Aulatjut then living in Arviat, Andrew Alikashuak living in Whale Cove, and Mary Whitmore from Churchill, Manitoba.

One of their requests was an official apology from the federal government "for the unbelievable hardship the Ahiarmiut suffered" during the repeated relocations from Ennadai Lake.

[10]: 55  According to Arviat elders, for the first time since the late 1960s Qamanirjuaq caribou began their spring migration where the Seal River flows into the Hudson Bay.

"[10]: 42  In late March / early April when tens of thousands of caribou occupy these areas just before their spring migration "east as far as the Hudson Bay coast, then north to their calving grounds.

In 2000 Karetak with Montreal-based filmmaker Ole Gjerstad, produced a one-hour documentary entitled Kikkik about her mother.

Kikkik trekked for days across the Barrens carrying one-and-a-half-year-old Elisapee in her amauti and with three other children in tow.

Her three surviving children didn’t learn of it until they read the tale in Farley Mowat’s 1959 book The Desperate People.

The new film focuses on Kikkik’s hardships, but takes a deeper look at the devastation government officials inflicted on Inuit in the 1950s.