In April , an Agreement-in-Principle to settle the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement was finalized which affirmed federal, territorial, and Inuit support for the creation of Nunavut "as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Canada, the government of the NWT, and the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut negotiated a political accord separate from the land claim settlement in October which dealt with powers, principles of financing and timing for the establishment of a distinct Nunavut government. The Nunavut Act, which received royal assent in June , establishes the legal framework for the new government.
The historic land claims settlement was signed after 20 years of negotiation in between representatives of the Inuit of central and eastern Arctic and the Governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories. The agreement, the largest native land claim settlement in Canadian history, provides title to the Nunavut Inuit of an area of land one-fifth the size of Canada.
This agreement ensures a stable environment for future economic development in the new territory of Nunavut. In addition to creating five-year economic development programs for each region and encouraging the growth of native development corporations, the agreement also provides for the training and development of a professional bureaucracy to implement the settlement.
For instance, the Sivuliuqtit Nunavut Management Development Program was established to train a core of Inuit leaders needed to effectively manage the new government of Nunavut. One of the most significant parts of the land claims agreement is the creation of the Nunavut Planning Commission NPC which gives the Inuit control over all activities on their settlement lands.
The NPC has already begun mapping wildlife populations, human use, waste sites, and areas of archaeological significance, as Well as examining such land use issues as the potential impact of mineral development on the regions environment. Since members of the NPC are nominated by Inuit organizations and the governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories, the people of Nunavut are directly involved in the management of their settlement area.
On April 1, , the Northwest Territories will divide into two parts, with the eastern portion of a population of about 24, known as Nunavut. In the s, however, concerns arose about potential American claims to the islands of the Archipelago. In , Britain transferred its rights to the islands to Canada. For its part, after , Canada did little to consolidate its administrative or practical control over the Archipelago. By the turn of the century, the activities of foreign explorers in the High Arctic islands and ongoing concerns about the strength of its legal claims prompted the Canadian government to extend its efforts in Arctic North America.
Bernier intercepted and imposed licenses on foreign whalers, collected customs duties, conducted geographical research and planted the flag on many northern islands. As the Canadian government extended its administration throughout Nunavut, it also tried to determine its relationship with Inuit.
Although the collapse of the fur trade in the s led the federal government to initiate relief programs for certain groups of Inuit, in order to save administrative costs, official policy continued to promote a traditional, self-sufficient way of life for Inuit into the s. In , the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Re Eskimo case that, constitutionally, Inuit should be classified as Indians in Canada, which made them the legal responsibility of the federal government.
Still, no comprehensive Inuit policy emerged. In , the government amended the Indian Act to exclude Inuit. As these events went on in Ottawa, most Inuit continued their traditional life, although contact with people from the South slowly increased. During the Second World War , the American military developed several ambitious defence projects for what is now Nunavut, including the Crimson Route, an alternate path for ferrying planes and material to Britain.
Air bases were built, complete with support facilities and the required infrastructure. The presence of large numbers of American military personnel at these installations had a large impact on Inuit living near them.
During the war the Canadian government also started to issue identification disks to Inuit in order to keep track of them — reducing them to a number for administrative ease this practice was only discontinued in , when all Inuit selected surnames.
As relations between the Soviet Union and the United States deteriorated after the Second World War , it became obvious to defence planners that the Arctic would form the front line if another world war broke out. In the years that followed, air bases and military stations were built across Nunavut, culminating in the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line — a radar line that could provide advanced warning of incoming Soviet bombers — in They brought with them buildings, steel towers, oil drums, electronic equipment, paint, wood, wire and all types of construction gear.
This, and the other defence activities that the Cold War inspired, forever changed the face of Nunavut and the lives of Inuit. Military construction became a key impetus for Inuit to settle in permanent communities. The military recruited Inuit to work on construction projects, which caused many to come off the land and settle around military installations.
While many performed janitorial duties and manual labour, others received training as mechanics, carpenters, drivers and heavy equipment operators. Inuit workers continued to hunt and fish whenever they had a chance, but more families started to supplement country food with whatever rations they could secure from personnel working at the DEW Line stations. The wage economy began to undermine the traditional social organization of the Inuit, changed family life and parenting norms as men left for weeks at a time and altered gender roles.
For many Inuit, the DEW Line brought a dramatic shift from a self-sustaining nomadic life to sedentary community life and a wage-based economy. New clothes, new housing and new technology all led to rapid lifestyle changes in a very short period of time. The construction phase of the DEW Line lasted only a couple of years. While some Inuit workers found full-time work at the stations, more were laid off.
The fur trade still offered some cash income, and many Inuit continued to work their trap lines. For most, however, the fur trade could not provide full-time employment. Some Inuit found work with the various government agencies that moved into the North, while others had to live off casual employment and social assistance. With few jobs available, unemployment persisted as a major problem in every community in the decades ahead.
In the s and s, the Canadian government became even more involved in the everyday lives of Inuit as it sought to expand its administrative activities in the North.
In addition, the government initiated social welfare programs for housing, education, health care and economic development. In order to receive an education, however, many Inuit youth had to attend residential schools and federal hostels far from their communities, where they experienced emotional, physical and sexual abuse, as well as assimilatory practices that assaulted their language, culture and spiritual beliefs.
Housing remained the first and most pressing problem for the expanding communities. Adequate housing could neither keep up with the number of new people migrating into the communities, nor could casually employed and unemployed Inuit afford houses. Overcrowding became a major problem. After reports of the deplorable living conditions arrived in Ottawa, a government-administered housing program was started to send prefabricated houses to the communities in the early s.
As communities developed, traditional methods of subsistence proved increasingly difficult, given the lengthy travel times to available resources and the need to engage in the wage economy. The Canadian government initiated its northern policies without consulting Inuit. Slowly, however, Inuit became more politically active. Inuit became involved in local government and administrative organizations such as town and hamlet councils and housing authorities.
Additional changes came in when the territorial government moved from Ottawa to Yellowknife , but even this was incredibly distant for Inuit living in the Eastern Arctic. In the late s and early s, Inuit across the Canadian Arctic started to organize to discuss land claims and better governance options.
In , the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada was formed and was heavily involved in the preparation of the first Inuit land claims proposal in This proposal called for a land claim and the creation of a new territory, administered by a new government. In this territory, Inuit would have political control through their sheer numbers and voting power. The proposal was soon withdrawn, however, because of its complexity, lack of community input and concern that it had been overly influenced by southern consultants.
In these negotiations, Inuit consistently clashed with the federal government over whether the land claims should include the political division of the Northwest Territories , leading to the creation of a new territory. Only after years of debate was the idea of Nunavut accepted by the federal government, but it was still decided to negotiate the creation of the new territory separate from the land claim.
The concept of a separate Nunavut steadily grew. In , the Northwest Territories was divided into two federal electoral districts, with the new eastern district of Nunatsiaq corresponding to what would become Nunavut. The first member elected in that district, Peter Ittinuar , was also the first Inuk to sit in the House of Commons.
In the eastern Arctic, where the Inuit population was highest, the percentage in favour of division reached 80 per cent. Afterwards, the Nunavut Constitutional Forum was created to plan for the division. While there was much debate over the boundary line between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, in the proposed boundary passed in another plebiscite.
An agreement-in-principle on the land-claims settlement was finally reached in It was then put to a plebiscite in October of and saw a record turnout of voters, who passed the agreement with an overwhelming majority of The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act — the largest Indigenous land-claims settlement in Canadian history — which ratified the agreement, and the Nunavut Act , which created the new territory, were both passed on 10 June the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act came into force on 9 July Inuit were invited to select the parcels of land for each designation.
After ratification of the two acts in , attention turned toward implementation. Over the next few years, these groups created new government departments and trained employees. On 15 February , the first election was held in Nunavut to vote in the first members of the legislative assembly.
On 1 April , Nunavut officially separated from the Northwest Territories to become the newest Canadian territory. Until , Nunavut was the least inhabited province or territory in Canada, a title it has since lost to Yukon. Currently, the territory has the strongest population growth in the country, reporting a Most of this population increase is the result of Nunavut possessing the highest fertility rate in Canada — an average of 2. This rapid growth has earned Nunavut another important distinction: it has the youngest population in Canada, with about 30 per cent of Nunavummiut being under the age of 14 in There are four official languages spoken in Nunavut — Inuktitut , Inuinnaqtun a dialect of Inuktitut spoken in Kitikmeot , English and French.
Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun is the mother tongue of While English is spoken throughout the territory, Iqaluit is also home to a large francophone community. According to the census, nearly 84 per cent of Nunavut residents are Inuit. Following Inuit, the two most commonly cited ethnicities were Scottish and Irish, accounting for 9. In , the last year statistics are available, over 93 per cent of Nunavummiut identified as Christian. Most of these communities are geographically isolated and accessible only by air and sea.
These communities are split into three administrative regions: Qikiqtaaluk, Kivalliq and Kitikmeot. Qikiqtaaluk is the most populated and spans the northernmost, easternmost and southernmost areas of Nunavut. The establishment of that territory allowed for the official recognition of public, cultural and social symbols of Inuit tradition, which then became visible in Nunavut.
Third of all, the creation of Nunavut had also a great political impact as with its creation, the eastern part of the Northwest Territories became an autonomous political entity. Even though the political power they have is very limited, it is still very important as many Native populations around Canada and the world stride for political power, and the chance to govern themselves.
In brief, this event had a great significance for Inuit people and Canada. The geographical change that introduced Nunavut in the eastern part of the Northwest Territories gave land to a minority overall in Canada, but who was a majority on that specific region. This allowed the people in that community to evolve and live based on their traditional values, language and culture which is a crucial element of any community.
This is even more important for the ones that are representing a minority as without proper governance that gives importance to certain traditions, these can easily be lost through the process of assimilation.
The creation of Nunavut allowed the Inuit population to have their say in their local area through social and political means, which in the end allows them to preserve their values and history going forward as a present population in Canada. In conclusion, the entrance of Nunavut into the Canadian federation as a territory was perhaps one of the most important events in Canadian history of recent memory. Taking outside influences from movements in Quebec and Greenland, the residents of Nunavut were able to obtain measures which allowed for financial compensation, a native-controlled government, as well as being able to determine their own future.
The existence of a province which has both its government and its culture controlled by its original inhabitants is proof that it is possible to go forward with reconciliation, and even return to the First Nations peoples what was taken from them centuries ago.
The geographical change that introduced Nunavut in the eastern part of the Northwest Territories gave land to a people who are a minority in Canada, but who are a majority in that specific region. This allows the people in that community to evolve and live based on their traditional values, language and culture which is a crucial element of any community. This moment is significantly more important for the ones that are representing a minority. Without proper governance that emphasizes the importance to certain traditions, the traditions, values and culture can easily be lost through the process of assimilation.
Therefore, all things mentioned previously considered, the creation of Nunavut in Canada is truly a moment that matters because of the social, political, and geographic implications it had on Canada as a whole, as well as its Indigenous population. Government of Canada, August 9, Retrieved from. Government of Canada, February 7, Government of Canada, March 23, Carrothers was appointed by the federal government to head up a commission to study the development of government in the Northwest Territories.
After the completion of the study in , the Commission recommended that the NWT should not divide into two territories. This slowed the discussion of the issue for a few years.
In , the issue was re-ignited when the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada the main political Inuit organization of the time proposed the creation of Nunavut as part of the comprehensive Inuit land claim settlement, including the Inuvialuit area of the Beaufort Sea.
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