Today in History—April 1: The Creation of Nunavut

Under a blue moon, at 45 degrees below zero, on this night in 1999, the map of Canada split.

For the first time in modern Canadian history, two things happened: A new territory was born, and a majority Indigenous population was granted self-government.

Canada’s Northwest Territories were cleaved in two: The west remained, and the east became Nunavut, spanning one-fifth of Canada, nearly 800,000 square miles, the traditional home of the Inuit.

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Most of the headlines from this day stumbled, calling the people “Eskimo,” an outsider’s word, instead of Inuit, the group’s preferred name—a reminder that recognition doesn’t rewrite history or rewire humanity.

But this moment had been a long time coming.

For generations, the Inuit had lived largely on their own terms. Nineteenth-century whaling brought seafarers to the area, along with the first attempts to Christianize the Inuit children.

Active governance from Ottawa started in 1921, with the Inuit declared legally part of the Indigenous community in 1939. About this time, residential schools, forced relocation, and other assimilation efforts ramped up, causing profound disruption to the Inuit way of life. In the ’60s the first Inuit leaders began to take part in government. The Inuit Tapirisat of Canada began lobbying for the creation of Nunavut in 1976.

It took decades of negotiating: with the federal government, the provincial governments of Northwest Territories and nearby Yukon Territory, and the Métis, who also claimed some of the land. Several proposals fell short.

Finally, in 1993 the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, the largest Indigenous land settlement in Canada’s history, passed. Work began on logistics, everything from license plates and a flag to electing the new legislative assembly.

With its birth on this day, Nunavut gained a governance that looks more like a framework for living: Establishes Inuktitut as a working language of the new government. Protects the rights to hunt, harvest, and share food (including mandated time off for hunting). Specifies Inuit control over land use and priority in renewable resource development. Settles land claims with the Canadian government.

To the Inuit, the creation was the fulfillment of a dream that stretched back decades.

The map had changed, and whatever came next would be decided there.

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