Northwest Territories

I

Introduction

Northwest Territories, administrative region of Canada. The Northwest Territories is located in northwestern Canada and occupies nearly 13 percent of the country’s landmass. Two other northern territories, the Yukon Territory and the Territory of Nunavut, flank its western and eastern borders respectively. The Northwest Territories is bounded to the south by three provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. The territory extends from the 60th parallel to the North Pole and includes several large islands located in the Arctic Ocean. Banks and Prince Patrick islands are the largest islands entirely within the boundaries of the Northwest Territories. Melville Island and Victoria Island are divided between the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

On April 1, 1999, the Northwest Territories was split into a western part, still known as the Northwest Territories, and an eastern part, known as the Territory of Nunavut. A new name for the Northwest Territories has yet to be determined. To avoid confusion, many people now refer to the Northwest Territories as the “western” Northwest Territories. For the purpose of this article, the term Northwest Territories refers to the Northwest Territories after the 1999 split.

The Northwest Territories extends over a vast land area that consists of tundra, forest, and prairie. While large in geographic size, the territory is home to few people: In 2008 its population was 43,300. Its large geographic size and small population combine to make the territory one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world. A cold climate and permafrost (permanently frozen ground) prevent agricultural activities and make other economic activities very expensive.

The physical environment of the Northwest Territories also results in uneven population distribution, with most people living in a settlement, town, or city in the Mackenzie River valley or around Great Slave Lake. Yellowknife is the largest city and the capital of the territory. In 2006 Yellowknife had 18,700 residents, or nearly half of the population of the Northwest Territories.

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The population is almost evenly split between nonindigenous Canadians and indigenous Canadians (Indian, Métis, and Inuit). Indians, also called the Dene, represent half a dozen tribes, each with a distinct language based on the Athapaskan root language. The Métis are a mixed-blood people who were originally offspring of unions between Indian women and French or British fur trappers. The Inuit are an indigenous people who inhabit the Arctic coastal regions.

The mainland of the Northwest Territories was part of British North America until 1870, when Canada obtained the Hudson’s Bay Company’s lands from the British government. In 1880 the British government transferred its claim to the islands in the Arctic Ocean (collectively known as the Arctic Archipelago) to Canada. Under Canadian jurisdiction these vast lands were named the Northwest Territories. Over time, the geographic size of the Northwest Territories diminished as some of its lands were transferred to five provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan. The most recent geographical adjustment occurred in 1999, when Nunavut was carved out of the eastern area of the Northwest Territories.

The fur-trading history of the Northwest Territories began in the late 18th century with the arrival of European fur traders. Within 50 years, the fur traders had established a network of trading posts. Until the 1950s indigenous peoples formed the vast majority of the population, supporting themselves by hunting and trapping. While Indian, Métis, and Inuit moved about in search of game and fur-bearing animals, fur traders, missionaries, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police lived in small settlements that were originally fur-trading posts.

In the 1950s resource development—particularly gold mining and oil production—signaled a new economic era. Infrastructure projects during World War II (1939-1945) improved the northern communications and transportation network, laying the groundwork for resource development. At the same time, the government encouraged Indians, Inuit, and Métis to move into settlements. Most chose to settle around fur-trading posts. With the vast majority of residents being indigenous, these places became known as native settlements. In the 1960s the role of the federal and territorial governments began to expand. The combination of these events resulted in three types of settlements: resource towns, native settlements, and administrative centers. Both resource companies and the government needed more skilled workers, so they encouraged southern Canadians to move to the north by creating high-paying jobs and offering extra benefits. Within two decades this northern migration created a large minority of nonindigenous Canadians in the Northwest Territories.

II

Physical Geography

The Northwest Territories extends over an area of 1,346,106 sq km (519,734 sq mi), making it the second largest political unit in Canada (after Nunavut). This huge area has a rectangular shape that begins to narrow north of latitude 65° north. The extreme dimensions of the Northwest Territories are 2,089 km (1,298 mi) from north to south and 1,894 km (1,177 mi) from east to west. The region’s topography ranges from coastal plains to alpine mountains. Consequently, the range of elevations is large, beginning at sea level and rising to 2,773 m (9,098 ft) at the summit of an unnamed mountain along the Yukon border near latitude 62° north.

The Northwest Territories is characterized by long nights during the winter and long days during the summer. This phenomenon is most pronounced north of the Arctic Circle (latitude 66°30’ north). About 20 percent of the Northwest Territories lies north of the Arctic Circle. At the Arctic Circle the sun remains above the horizon for 24 hours on the summer solstice (usually June 21 or 22) and never rises above the horizon on the winter solstice (usually December 21 or 22).

A

Permafrost

Permafrost is ground that remains frozen throughout the year. It is a significant feature of the physical geography of the Northwest Territories, and it has serious economic consequences. Construction firms, for example, must take special precautions in order not to disturb the frozen ground, such as building structures on wooden piles that leave a space between them and the ground. Such a measure is designed to keep the heat from buildings from reaching the frozen ground. Permafrost developed long ago when a very cold climate caused the ground to freeze to great depths. Permafrost is one reason why the Northwest Territories has a cold environment. During the summer, a thin layer of the surface known as the active layer may thaw, although the temperature of the ground beneath the active layer remains below freezing. Some scientists believe that global temperatures are rising, resulting in warmer climates. Such warming of Earth could reduce the amount of permafrost, and perhaps even eliminate it.

B

Natural Regions

The Northwest Territories has a variety of natural regions. The major physiographic regions are the Interior Plains, the Cordillera, the Canadian Shield, and the Arctic Lands. The Interior Plains are flat to gently rolling plains, bordered on the west by the Cordillera and on the east by the Canadian Shield. The Interior Plains extend from the territory’s southern border to the Arctic Ocean. The plains were formed more than 500 million years ago when sediments were deposited on an ancient sea bottom. Over time, these sediments were transformed into layers of sedimentary rock. In more recent geological history (25,000 to 18,000 years ago) a great ice sheet, known as the Wisconsin Ice Sheet, covered most of Canada. Then the climate warmed, causing the ice sheet to melt. As the ice sheet melted and retreated northward, the debris contained in the ice was deposited on these sedimentary rocks, covering the surface of the plains with a thin layer of glacial deposits.

To the west of the Interior Plains lies the Cordillera, a complex region characterized by mountains, plateaus, and valleys. The Mackenzie range was formed 40 to 80 million years ago by the severe bending (folding) and faulting (breaking) of sedimentary rock that was once part of the Interior Plains. During the Wisconsin Ice Age, alpine glaciers covered the Cordillera, and the movement of the glaciers created razor-sharp peaks and ridges in these mountains. The moving glaciers also created broad U-shaped valleys.

To the east of the Interior Plains, the ancient rocks of the Canadian Shield are exposed at the Earth’s surface, resulting in a rough, rolling terrain. The Canadian Shield was formed 2.5 billion years ago as Earth’s crust solidified from a molten, or liquid, state. At the surface the Canadian Shield is a solid rock mass composed of the oldest rocks in the world. The Wisconsin Ice Sheet covered all of the Canadian Shield, and as the ice sheet slowly moved over it, the shield’s hard rock surface was gouged and scratched.

The Arctic Lands lie in the Arctic Ocean in the northern part of the Northwest Territories. Banks, Prince Patrick, and Victoria islands consist of sedimentary rocks that form a series of plains and plateaus. Victoria Island is the second largest island in Canada, while Banks Island is the fifth largest. The Wisconsin Ice Sheet covered all of Victoria Island and part of Banks and Melville islands, but it did not reach Prince Patrick Island to the north.

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