NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

region of northern and northwestern Canada, encompassing a vast area of forests and tundra. Throughout most of the 20th century the territories constituted more than a third of the area of Canada, and they reached almost from the eastern to the western extremities of the country across the roof of the North American continent. The creation in 1999 of the territory of Nunavut out of the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories reduced the area of the latter by more than half. The Northwest Territories are bordered by Nunavut to the east, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia to the south, and Yukon Territory to the west. In the north the territories extend far above the Arctic Circle to incorporate numerous islands, the largest of which are Banks and Prince Patrick islands; several islands are also divided between the territories and Nunavut, notably Victoria and Melville islands. The capital and largest town is Yellowknife. Area 589,300 square miles (1,526,300 square km). Pop. (1996) 39,672; (1998 est.) 41,400. region, northern Canada, encompassing the territorial administrative regions of Baffin, Keewatin, Kitikmeot, Fort Smith, and Inuvik. The territories have an area of 1,322,910 square miles (3,426,320 square km) and stretch across the roof of the North American continent. They reach into the Arctic Circle and include thousands of islands, the largest of which are Victoria Island in the west and Baffin Island in the east. More than one-half the population are Inuits (Eskimos) and American Indians. Mining is the principal industry and centres on the petroleum and natural-gas fields in the western Arctic coastal regions. Gold is mined at Yellowknife, the territorial capital. The government participates in a consortium with private companies to search for oil and natural gas in the Arctic region. Fur trapping provides income for the native population. Forestry is limited, and sawmills process timber for local use only. Agriculture is inconsequential. Some crops are grown for local consumption, but most foodstuffs are imported, and transportation costs are high. Nearly all passenger and much freight traffic is carried by scheduled and chartered air services. Surface transportation for heavy freight is mainly by water. Snowmobiles have largely replaced the dogsled for overland winter travel. There are serious threats to the region's ecology. The introduction of firearms and, later, oil spills from ships did much to upset the balance of nature in the region. As fuel and game resources near settlements were depleted, the population began to concentrate around trading posts and missions. Most of the population now lives in small settlements along the Mackenzie River and along the Arctic coast. The Indians spoke languages of the Athabaskan language family and consisted of small hunting bands that readily adapted to the fur trade when it reached the Mackenzie area (the western portion of the territories) in the 18th century. No Indian reserves were established. The decline of the fur trade in the 20th century left many Indians unemployed. The Inuits living in the territory can be traced back to a prehistoric maritime culture known as the Thule culture. Their numbers were reduced in the 19th century by European diseases. Inuits learned to adapt to the fur trade in the 20th century and came to depend upon outside sources for necessities. Tourism has increased with the construction of hotels and the development of the vast Wood Buffalo, Nahanni, and Auyittug national parks. Public policies favour the revival of traditional Inuit arts and crafts, and cooperatives have developed to market Inuit craftwork, both to tourists and by shipment to other provinces. Explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries searched for a northwest passage to the Orient. In the 18th century Samuel Hearne journeyed inland as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, as did Alexander Mackenzie for the Northwest Company. European settlements were first established to serve the whaling fleet. Fur traders, missionaries, and police dominated the Northwest Territories until the 1920s, when the Canadian government established a territorial administration after the discovery of oil. The territorial government consists of a Legislative Assembly elected by universal adult suffrage. The chief executive is the commissioner, appointed by the Canadian federal government and responsible to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The executive members of the Legislative Assembly, each of whom heads one or more territorial-government departments, are elected by and from the membership of the 24-member territorial Legislative Assembly. The territorial-government leader serves as the minister responsible for the executive. The territorial judiciary, established in 1963, consists of a supreme court and territorial courts. Police service is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The territorial government retains the same rights as a provincial government, except that the federal government controls and administers the development of resources aside from game, forestry, and fire suppression. Housing, health, social, and educational services are provided by the territorial government, but with heavy federal funding. Free compulsory public elementary, secondary, and vocational education is provided through the 12th grade, and a wide range of special- and adult-education programs have been developed to serve special needs. As the territory has no university, higher education is available for qualified students in the provincial universities and is fully subsidized by the government. Pop. (1991) 57,649. Additional reading Morris Zaslow, The Opening of the Canadian North, 18701914 (1971), and The Northward Expansion of Canada, 19141967 (1988), provide a comprehensive general history of the territories. Ken Coates, Canada's Colonies: A History of the Yukon and Northwest Territories (1985), includes a critical analysis of government policies. Economic history to the early 1960s is treated in K.J. Rea, The Political Economy of the Canadian North (1968). The early whaling industry is treated in W. Gillies Ross, Whaling and Eskimos, Hudson Bay, 18601915 (1975). Diamond Jenness, Eskimo Administration II: Canada (1964), remains a standard historical account of government policy toward the native population. Shelagh D. Grant, Sovereignty or Security: Government Policy in the Canadian North, 19361950 (1988), examines important changes brought about by World War II. The political development of the territories is treated in Gurston Dacks, A Choice of Futures: Politics in the Canadian North (1981); and William R. Morrison, A Survey of the History and Claims of the Native Peoples of Northern Canada (1983). Environmental protection and the impact of economic development are studied in Hugh Brody, The People's Land: Eskimos and Whites in the Eastern Arctic (1975); and Thomas R. Berger, Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland: The Report of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, rev. ed. (1988). Kenneth John Rea