NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, FLAG OF THE

Canadian territorial flag consisting of vertical blue-white-blue stripes and the shield of the territorial coat of arms on its wide central stripe. The coat of arms of the Northwest Territories was designed by the air force commander Alan B. Beddoe and approved in 1956. Its crest includes a compass rose, two narwhals, and a wreath. The chief (upper portion) of the shield represents the ice fields of the far north and the Northwest Passage, which for centuries lured explorers to the region. The green and red areas of the shield stand for the forests of the Mackenzie River valley and for the tundra of the Canadian Shield area. The northern tree line is reflected in the wavy division between the two areas. The importance of the fur trade in the territory's past is symbolized in the head of a fox, while the yellow billets refer to the mining of gold. Among more than 3,000 flag designs submitted in a 1968 competition, that of Robert Bessant, an 18-year-old student from Manitoba, was chosen as the most appropriate for the territorial flag. His proposal called for a background of three unequal vertical stripes, similar to the ones in the Canadian national flag. White was to symbolize the northern snows, while blue was a reference to the skies and waters of the area and the loneliness of the land. The design was approved by the Territorial Council in January 1969 and established by ordinance on February 18, 1971. Whitney Smith History Vikings probably visited parts of the Canadian Arctic during the Middle Ages, but there are no records of exploration until the voyage in 1576 of the English mariner Martin Frobisher 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 Arctic regions. Interest in finding the route waned in the 18th century, but whaling ships became commonplace in the Arctic waters. The first recorded exploration of the mainland was by Samuel Hearne, who in 177072 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. In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie of the North West Company traveled down the river that bears his name to reach the Arctic Ocean. In the 19th century there was renewed interest in a northwest passage. Sir John Franklin and others explored much of Mackenzie District (now largely the regions of Fort Smith and Inuvik in the Northwest Territories and Kitikmeot in Nunavut) and mapped parts of the northern coastline during the 1820s, work that Thomas Simpson continued in 183839. Searchers for the lost Franklin expedition of 184548 explored and mapped other parts of the eastern Arctic in the following decade. Later a series of expeditions attempted to reach the North Pole; such exploits continued into the 20th century but by then were overshadowed by more practical activities directed at identifying the resource potential of the Canadian North. Settlements were first established to serve the whaling fleets and fur traders. Missionaries became active in the Mackenzie valley in 1852 and in the eastern Arctic toward the end of the century. No resident administrative authorities were established within the present limits of the Northwest Territories until the 20th century. Responsibility for the mainland territories that drain into Hudson Bay, known as Rupert's Land, was vested in the Hudson's Bay Company. The remaining part of the mainland, the North-Western Territory, was under nominal British rule until 1870, at which time both it and Rupert's Land were ceded to Canada. In 1880 the Arctic islands claimed by Britain were also placed under Canadian jurisdiction. Separation of the Yukon Territory, creation of new provinces, and enlargement of other provinces reduced the Northwest Territories to its pre-1999 limits by 1912. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were made responsible for maintaining law and order and for providing whatever governmental administration was required in the area. Fur traders, missionaries, and the police directed the life of the Northwest Territories until the 1920s, when discovery of oil near Fort Norman on the Mackenzie River prompted the Canadian government to establish a territorial administration for the area. Mining replaced the fur trade as the most important industry in Mackenzie District in the 1930s. World War II brought much government-financed construction activity to the territories. In the southern Mackenzie area the Canol pipeline, linking the oil field at Norman Wells to a refinery at Whitehorse in the Yukon, and construction of several large airfields in the eastern Arctic did much to open the Canadian North to further exploration and development. After the war, construction of the Mackenzie Highway to Great Slave Lake and the building of the Distant Early Warning radar network, the DEW line, continued this process. A great expansion of government-sponsored health, education, and welfare services transformed living and social conditions throughout the North. Protracted negotiations between the Inuit and the territorial and federal governments produced the Nunavut Act, which was ratified in 1993. The act created the territory of Nunavut from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. After a transitional period, Nunavut came into being on April 1, 1999. Kenneth John Rea The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica