Nunavut

Article Outline

Introduction; Physical Geography; Economic Activities; The People of Nunavut; Culture and Education ; Recreation; Government; History

Social Services

The territorial government is responsible for social services and health care. The Department of Health and Social Services delivers these services through Baffin Regional Hospital (the only hospital in Nunavut), community health centers, nursing stations, and social services offices. The main headquarters of this government department is in Iqaluit, but there are local boards in each region.

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History

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Early Inhabitants

People probably first came to Nunavut across the Bering Strait from Asia some 5,000 years ago. These early Paleo-Eskimo peoples, known as Denbigh, were marine hunters who migrated along the Arctic coast searching for seal. They were later displaced by the Dorset people about 500 bc. About 1000 ad the Thule from the coastal areas of Alaska replaced the Dorset culture. The Thule were the ancestors of the Inuit. They developed marine technology that enabled them to hunt the bowhead whale. See also Native Americans of North America: Arctic

Exploration

Vikings probably explored the shores of Nunavut from their Greenland colony, but the first European to reach Nunavut was English explorer Sir Martin Frobisher, who was seeking the Northwest Passage to Asia. Frobisher landed on Baffin Island near Iqaluit in 1576, and he made two more voyages to the area looking for gold. The search for the Northwest Passage brought many explorers to the Arctic. English explorer John Davis followed in Frobisher’s footsteps in the 1580s, although the ice around Baffin Island prevented him from exploring west of the island. Davis wrote about the Inuit living along the Arctic coast, and the strait between Greenland and Baffin Island is named for him. In 1610 English navigator Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Strait (between Québec and Baffin Island), and during the 17th century a number of explorers unsuccessfully searched the strait and Hudson Bay for possible passages through the Arctic.

After learning of the presence of whales in these Arctic waters from the explorers, whaling ships soon appeared off the coast of Nunavut. Commercial whaling took place along the east coast of Nunavut as early as the 17th century, but whalers did not have much contact with the Inuit until the middle of the 19th century, when the practice known as “wintering over” began. The establishment of whaling camps facilitated contact between the whalers and the Inuit, and trade and working arrangements ensued. Since the Inuit had hunted whales for food, they were able to join the whalers as crewmen and harpooners. Inuit women made winter clothing for the whalers.

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In the 18th century, British explorer Samuel Hearne, an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was instructed to search for the source of rich copper deposits reported near the Arctic Ocean. In December 1770 Hearne began a journey with a group of Chipewyan Indians, whose chief, Matonabbee, knew the route to the copper deposits. By the following summer they had reached the shores of the Arctic Ocean. On their return from the Arctic coast, Hearne and the Chipewyan spent several months at Great Slave Lake in the winter of 1771 and 1772 before returning to Prince of Wales Fort (now Churchill, Manitoba) at the mouth of the Churchill River in June 1772.

The British navy launched a series of expeditions in the 19th century searching for the Northwest Passage. British naval officer and explorer Sir Edward Parry sought the Northwest Passage early in the century, making it as far as Melville Island. Sir John Ross explored the area along the north coast of Baffin Island during the early 1830s, discovering Boothia Peninsula, the Gulf of Boothia, and King William Island. In 1845 Sir John Franklin, who had explored the Arctic coast twice before, was selected to search for the Northwest Passage. After entering the Arctic Ocean, Franklin’s ships were locked into heavy ice, and he and his men perished. During the massive searches for Franklin that ensued, the British admiralty mapped most of the islands in the Arctic Archipelago.

On his first voyage, between 1903 and 1906, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to successfully navigate a single ship through the Northwest Passage. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a Canadian-born explorer, anthropologist, and writer, made the last major discoveries in the north Arctic. Between 1906 and 1918 Stefansson made three expeditions into the western and northern Arctic. He discovered several islands in the Arctic Ocean, including Borden, Meighen, Brock, and Lougheed islands.

Colonial Status and Confederation

Between 1670 and 1870 the area that is now Nunavut was part of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory, a vast area owned by Britain. The Hudson’s Bay Company, a British firm, controlled these lands and the northern fur trade. In 1870 Canada purchased the land from Britain. It became part of the Confederation of Canada and was renamed the North-West Territories. There were no British settlements in the territory, except for a number of whaling camps. In 1880 the British government transferred its claim to the Arctic Archipelago to Canada.

These geopolitical changes had little impact on the people in the Canadian north. More important were the European whalers, who in the 19th century employed the Inuit as pilots and hunters. Contact with Europeans brought foreign diseases to the native populations, killing many. The large number of whaling ships also wiped out herds of animals to feed the increased numbers of people. These changes caused many Inuit to start relying on Europeans for food and clothing.

20th Century

By the beginning of the 20th century, economic activity in Nunavut was shifting from whaling to the fur trade. The whaling industry eventually collapsed as petroleum products replaced whale oil. The Nunavut population at the turn of the century consisted of the Inuit and a few white traders, missionaries, and North-West Mounted Police. The Inuit hunted seals and caribou and trapped fur-bearing animals such as the arctic fox.

Cultural change accelerated as Anglican and Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in the wake of whalers and fur traders, converting most of the aboriginal people to Christianity. The churches undertook the task of assimilating the Inuit into the European world. The Canadian government helped this assimilation process by turning over the education of the Inuit to the churches. Both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches established residential schools in Nunavut. These were boarding schools where Inuit children lived and worked, separated from their families. Protests by native peoples regarding harsh conditions in the residential schools led to their closure in 1969.

By the middle of the 20th century, the Inuit had come into closer contact with outsiders, at first as a result of military activity. During World War II the region was an important military air route to the United Kingdom. The United States built a number of American air bases, including one at Iqaluit (then called Frobisher Bay). The Cold War followed World War II, and the United States constructed a number of Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar stations across the Canadian Arctic. Inuit were involved in constructing these military facilities.

Attracted by wage employment and the services associated with these military construction sites, the Inuit began to build shacks around the edges of the sites. Other Inuit remained on the land, practicing a more traditional lifestyle. By the 1950s the Canadian government began sponsoring the massive movement into settlements.