Native American Nations in The Canadian Territories

In Russia, there are those known popularly only as "The People of the North" and they are also living in the northernmost parts of Canada.

I am totally in awe of people that can survive without modern conveniences in temperatures of 75 degrees below zeor Fahrenheit. People that can survive Mother Nature at Her worst can surely survive anything and win any battle or challenge.

Some of these First Nation individuals in Canada are the Canadian Inuit ("The People") and they are related closely to the Russian Inuit and the Greenland Inuit. On the Circumpolar Map below, the "Others" are additional groups living in the Artic and these may be closely related to the Innuit.

One item that does, in fact, relate of the the Artic Peoples, whether they be Scandinavian, Russian, Asian, or First Nation, is the legend of the sunrise. In the western part of the Eastern Hemisphere, reindeer are said to pull the sum up every morning to begin a new day. As we travel eastward, the reindeer becomes a dragon that pulls up the sun each day.

All of the People of the North around the globe live by catching sea mammals, caribou, and fish for food and sales. Snow and ice Igloos are their primary winter residence, along with some wood huts. Summer reveals tents of caribou skins for housing. Dogsleds and huskiets or malamutes are used for hunting. Weapons were were first made form ivory and bones, with metals added later. In more modern areas of the Artic, the Inuit actually use snowmobiles and rifles.

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Other Pages in the Series:

• Native Americans Part I

• Native Americans Part II

• Native Americans Part III

• Native Americans Part IV

• Native Americans Part V

• National Pow Wow of the United States

• Native Americans in Western Novels

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This is likely the most interesting and awe-inspiring place in Canada.

Nunavut is the largest and newest (4/1/1999) of the organized territories in Canada, and home to Inuits. Baffin Island in Nunavut is Canada's largest island and home to the provincial capital of Iqaluit. The province was formed with the thought of returning land and government to the First Nation, specifically the Inuits.

Baffin Island has been home to first nation peoples for over 4,000 years, some of whom may have met visiting Norse explorers and vikings around 1,000 AD, but this is uncertain.

In Nunavut, the Inuits speak Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English, and French as officially recognized languages. 85% of the people (about 23,000) call themselves Inuit, so this province is predominantly a First Nation province. The proivince covers nearly 2,000,000 square kilometers.

The Inikshuk picutresd in the opening phot is a tall stone landmarker that reminds us of Stonehange in a way, built of stones piled on atop another. The Inukshuk is used as a directional marker by the Inuit, because there are few landmarks to use as reference in the land of permafrost and snow.

These directional markers are important to the culture of the Inuit and they take them very seriously. They are built only with good reason and they are scrupulously maintained inorder for travelers to have reference points to guide them in the wilderness. Inukshuk means "to stand in for a person" and even looks like a man or staute of a man, pointing directions. It is important enough to take center place in the Nunavut flag.

The Yellowknife Indians are also known as the Tatsanottine. They are Athabaskan-speaking (related to Alaska) that have lived northeast of the Great Bear and Great Slave lakes. The name Yellowknife comes from the copper knives and tools that this natuion has used in history.

Major Organized First Nations in Northwest Territories (NT)

• Acho Dene Koe. Fort Liard NT
• Aklavik First Nation. Aklavik, NT
• Dene Cultural Institute. Hay River NT
• Dene Nation. Yellowknife, NT
• Metis Association of the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, NT

Major First Nation Bands

• Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. Yukon Territory
• Council for Yukon Indians.Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
• Kaska Tribal Council.Watson Lake, Yukon Territory Y0A 1C0
• Dease River and Yukon bands and Teslin Tlingit Counci. Teslin Yukon Territory
• Yukon Indian Cultural Education Society.Whitehorse Yukon Territory
• Vuntut Gwitch'in First Nation. Old Crow, Yukon Territory

The Han People

The han were displaced by the Klondike Goldrush in the 1900s. Chief Isaac of the Han led his people in the Yukon after they were displaced by the Goldrush. The band following Chief Isaac and their descendants havr recently formed a commercial arm, known as Chief Isaac, Inc. Thsi entity has legitimate shareholders, 100% of whom are all from Dawson City in the Yukon.

Land of the Midnight Sun

On June 21 every year, the summer solstice, the sun never sets at all in parts of Yukon. The "midnight sun" creates longer summer days with red and magenta skyscapes that hypnotize the onlooker.

Poet Robert W. Service

Sometimes called The Bard of the Yukon, Robert Service went with the Yukon Goldrushers and lived in a cabin in Dawson City. He wrote volumes of poetry, including an ode to the full moon that saved him out in the wilderness one cold night with it's directional glow. He wrote such famous poems as Song of the Sourdough, The Men that Don;t fit In and many others. RWS's WWI poetry was used in trauma clinics with the return home of injured Vietnam Veterans.