Translated as “Our Land,” Nunavut is the self-governing homeland for the Inuit people of northern Canada. In a public referendum held in 1992, Canadian voters in the Northwest Territories approved the plan to create an Inuit territory. Following a transitional period, Nunavut officially came into existence on April 1, 1999. Inuit leaders and Canadian officials supported the creation of Nunavut to promote cultural and political autonomy among the ethnic Inuit people, who were formerly referred to as Eskimos.

Land

Nunavut comprises two distinct physiographic regions: the Canadian Shield, comprising the mainland and the islands around Hudson Bay, and the Arctic Archipelago in the north. The flat, often poorly drained lowlands of the Canadian Shield are underlain with ancient Precambrian rock more than 540 million years old. Thousands of lakes dot the heavily glaciated surface. The Arctic Archipelago consists of lowlands in the south that rise to the Innuitian Mountains in the north and along the eastern side of Baffin Island. Much of the archipelago is permanently covered in snow and ice, especially in the north and east.

The territory is located entirely within the Arctic climatic zone, with bitterly cold winters and cool to cold summers. Average daily January temperatures rise above −22° F (−30° C) only in the eastern coastal areas, and in the far north and northwest of Hudson Bay they reach only −31° F (−35° C). Average temperatures in July above 50° F (10° C) are limited to the area west of Hudson Bay, while in the far north and along the northeastern coast of Baffin Island they do not exceed 41° F (5° C).

Nunavut lies above the northern limit of tree growth, and the timberline—which extends northwest–southeast just within the Northwest Territories and roughly parallels the border with Nunavut—is the traditional boundary between the culture areas of the Inuit to the north and the northern American Indians (Dene) to the south. Tundra vegetation consists of lichens, mosses, a variety of flowering plants, and small, hardy shrubs, notably dwarf birches. The plant life supports small mammals, caribou, and musk oxen. Land predators include red and Arctic foxes, wolves, and grizzly bears. Seals, walrus, and polar bears inhabit the coasts, while beluga and bowhead whales and narwhals are found in coastal waters.

Economy

Nunavut's greatest economic asset is its mineral wealth, which includes reserves of iron and nonferrous ores, precious metals and diamonds, and petroleum and natural gas. Exploitation of these resources is hampered, however, by high production costs and transportation difficulties. The federal government has participated in resource development mainly by providing infrastructure and assisting in the search for minerals. In addition, government agencies produce and distribute electric power throughout the territory.

Mining is the principal industry in the territory. Lead and zinc are mined on Little Cornwallis Island and on Baffin Island near Arctic Bay, while gold deposits are worked on the mainland at Contwoyto Lake, southwest of Bathurst Inlet. Government, however, is the largest source of employment. Trapping continues to provide income for some Inuit, and fishing and hunting of sea mammals also provides some employment. A large source of cash income is derived from carving soapstone sculptures or using traditional Inuit designs in drawings and prints. Sport fishing and hunting are major attractions for the small but growing number of tourists who visit each year.

Government and History

Nunavut's territorial government consists of a Legislative Assembly of 19 members elected by the people to serve a five-year term. The premier and his seven-member Cabinet are responsible for administering the territory's limited self-government. Although the ultimate constitutional responsibility for government in the territories is the authority of the federal government, the concerns closest to the people—economic development, social services, education, the environment, land use, and wildlife management—are assigned to the Cabinet ministers in Nunavut.

The origins of the Inuit living in Canada are obscure, but Inuit peoples have been living in the region for more than 4,000 years. Nomadic in lifestyle, they hunted seal, whale, and walrus and fished the icy waters of Hudson Bay and the Arctic archipelago. The several dialect groups of the Inuktitut language now spoken by the Inuit are all apparently descended from what is known as the Thule culture, a prehistoric maritime society.

Thule peoples first arrived in the region around AD 1000. Vikings probably visited parts of present-day Nunavut during the Middle Ages, but there are no records of exploration until the voyage in 1576 of the English mariner Martin Frobisher to southern Baffin Island in search of a Northwest Passage to the Orient. Other expeditions in the 17th century also failed to find the route, but they added to knowledge of the coastal areas of Baffin Island and Hudson Bay. During the 18th century, whaling ships became commonplace in the Arctic waters.

The first recorded exploration of the mainland was by the English explorer Samuel Hearne, who in 1770–72 journeyed from the west coast of Hudson Bay to the mouth of the Coppermine River on the northern coast. Other inland explorations were mainly the work of Montreal-based fur traders. By the 19th century much of the area was under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company. After 1870 the Inuit lands became a part of Canada's Northwest Territories. Population (2001 census), 26,745.