History of Nunavut
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This portion of the article covers the history of what is now Nunavut from the late 20th century. For earlier history of the region, see Northwest Territories: History.
By the mid-20th century most Inuit of the region, then a part of the Northwest Territories, had replaced their seminomadic hunting, fishing, and trapping lifestyle with a more sedentary style of living in settled communities, where dependence on government welfare support became the norm. Nutrition and health care improved, but there also were serious social problems related to alcohol and other substance abuse, unemployment, and crime. Dissatisfaction with those conditions and the wish to participate more directly in the processes of resource development led the Inuit to exert pressure on the federal and territorial governments to grant them greater control over the administration of their own affairs. In the mid-1970s the Inuit began negotiations to settle land claims and proposed the creation of a separate Inuit territory. A plebiscite in the Northwest Territories in 1992 approved the division of the territories. With that mandate, the Inuit and representatives of the federal government reached an agreement that produced two acts of the Canadian Parliament in 1993. The first, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, settled Inuit land claims against the government by giving the Inuit outright control of more than 135,000 square miles (350,000 square km) of territory and providing cash payments from the federal government over a 14-year period; the second, the Nunavut Act, established the territory of Nunavut out of the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. Following a transitional period, Nunavut came into being on April 1, 1999.
After its inception, the Nunavut experiment in ethnic-based territorial government had mixed success. The economy grew, but it remained almost entirely dependent on transfers of income from the federal government. Despite a reawakening of native culture and pride, alienation of the territory’s youth, unemployment, substance abuse, and other social ills common to the peripheral communities of North America persisted. Native elders, the territorial authorities, and the federal government continued to deal with these challenges in the early years of the 21st century.
Kenneth John Rea