Part answer to Brian's questions about Nunavut: The Inuit will have
title (ownership) to perhaps a sixth of Nunavut, not including mineral
rights. Mineral rights have been ceded to a much smaller portion of
that small portion. All the rest of Nunavut remains Crown land (similar
to Federal in the U.S.). What had so many Dene and Metis, and others,
perturbed about this deal with the feds is that the Inuit thereby are
extinguishing all further land claims. On the other hand (and this is
no small matter) they have cut a deal with the feds which seems
satisfactory to themselves. The 54% majority was, however, smaller
than hoped. Still the returns seem to suggest that the vote in favour
of Nunavut came from the eastern portion of the NWT, and that's the
part to be Nunavut.
Maureen Korp, PhD
University of Ottawa
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Note from Gary
Once again, here is the text of an article I posted on this subject just
before Christmas:
** Topic: Inuit gain NWT land (Canada) **
** Written 3:56 am Dec 18, 1991 by gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us in cdp:web.native **
There was a feature story Tuesday evening (17 December) on National
Public Radio's "All Things Considered" describing an agreement just
reached between the government of Canada and the Inuit people of the
Northwest Territories. The agreement, which is reported to be tenta-
tive would establish a new territory, and result in a disbursement of
some CDN$1 billion over the next fourteen years. In exchange, the
Inuit people would give up ancestral claims to other lands, including
areas said to be rich in oil and gas. They would not own the land,
but would merely govern it, like another province. The area would be
larger than Alaska and California combined.
An analyst commenting on the deal said something to the effect that
it could be a ploy by the government to set a certain precedent in
advance of talks with other Native groups which are set to start soon.
The thinking apparently is that if this deal is ultimately successful,
it could act to demoralize the negotiators taking part in the talks
and would be used as an example to them of the generosity of the gov-
ernment - at least that's the impression I got.
Here's a story from Page Two of Tuesday's _Boston_Globe_ (copied without
permission), entitled "Canada agrees to split territory with Inuit":
By William Claiborne - Washington Post
TORONTO - The Canadian government and leaders of the native Inuit in
the central and eastern Arctic reached agreement yesterday on a
massive land settlement that would divide the Northwest Territories
and create a sprawling new territory called Nunavut whose size would
exceed that of California and Alaska combined.
Under the agreement, the 17,000 Inuits in the region would be granted
self-government rights over part of the new territory and would become
the biggest landowners in North America. The Inuit, who have
generally adopted that name to replace the traditional name Eskimos,
also would retain hunting, fishing and other rights elsewhere in
Nunavut, a 772,000-square-mile expanse partly administered by federal
authorities that would represent a fifth of Canada's total land mass.
Under the redrawing of the Canadian map, the Inuit would take legal
title to 136,000 square miles of disputed land stretching from the
Manitoba border to the North Pole. They would also receive nearly $1
billion over 14 years, including interest payments.
In return, the Inuit would relinquish title claims to about 80 percent
of their ancestral land, including areas believed to contain lucrative
oil and gas fields, But they would retain some governing rights in
that area. The region covered by the agreement consists mostly of
frozen tundra and wilderness islands of the Arctic archipelago.
Eighty percent of the population is Inuit.
The land claim settlement, the biggest in Canada's history, was
announced in Ottawa by Native Affairs Minister Thomas Siddon and
leaders of the Tengavik Federation of Nunavut, the political
organization of Arctic Inuit.
The Inuit leaders said they will conduct a plebiscite in March to
ratify the boundaries of Nunavut, whose name means "Land of the
People" in the Inuit language and whose territory would stretch from
the northern reaches of the tree line of the Northwest Territories
to the North Pole.
The two sides agreed to negotiate a political accord creating the
territory of Nunavut and establishing the terms of its financing.
Nunavut would join the Yukon and the Northwest Territories as the
third of Canada's nominally self-governing territories without
provincial status.
Siddon said the agreement means the end of decades of legal wrangling
over all of Canada's Arctic and sub-Arctic wilderness north of the
60th Parallel, which separates the Northwest Territories from Manitoba
and other western provinces. He termed it "a giant step forward" in
relations between the federal government and aboriginals.
"It is a new partnership between the Inuit of the eastern Arctic and
the people of Canada... It establishes certainty over title and
territory in the region," Siddon said, adding that he hoped the accord
would be ratified by Parliament by the middle of next year.
Although Siddon said on Canadian television that the agreement would
result in a "stronger, more unified Canada, both socially and
economically," the accord also appeared to hold the potential for
achieving one of the goals of several leftist groups that advocate
transformed Canada into three separate nations - French-speaking
Quebec, the aboriginal community and the rest of English-speaking
Canada.
The Action Canada Network, an alliance of labor organizations, women's
groups and nationalists, has said that creation of an aboriginal
"nation" is an essential part of its three-nation concept aimed at
resolving Canada's ongoing constitutional crisis.