Wapusk

Wapusk, the Cree word for white bear, describes a coastal country of wetlands and tundra on western Hudson Bay. Female polar bears make winter dens inland here, a habit recorded by Samuel Hearne in the eighteenth century. The land has long been used by Cree communities, while the northern coast also forms part of the traditional country of the Sayisi Dene and Inuit. Between Churchill and York Factory, its rivers and shores provided routes through the lowlands.