The Whalers
In the 1850s, Europeans and Americans began to appreciate the commercial value of the Arctic's animal resources. The North Atlantic commercial whaling industry, operating out of Britain and New England, began large-scale operations in what are now Canadian waters, where they killed thousands of whales. They hired hundreds of Inuit to work on their ships as hunters and seamstresses. A huge range and quantity of manufactured goods entered Inuit society, everything from rifles and tent canvas to whale boats and flour.

At the same time, the Pacific whalers, based in San Francisco, were expanding north through Bering Strait and then east along the Alaskan coast to the Mackenzie River. By 1890, they were well established at Herschel Island. Because of the much longer distances involved, the Pacific whalers routinely stayed over for the winter. The crews of up to 15 ships in a season became involved in local Inuit life.

Disease
In addition to manufactured goods, the whalers brought infectious diseases. The Inuit had no natural immunities to these diseases and hundreds, even thousands, died. The population of the western Canadian Arctic Inuit (called Inuvialuit) fell from an estimated 2000 to 2500 people in 1850, to 150 people in 1910.

In the East, the effects of disease were more sporadic. One local group, the Sadlirmiut of Southampton Island, disappeared entirely during the winter of 1902-03. They caught dysentery, a severe disease, from sailors on the Scottish whaling ship Active.

The Hudson's Bay Company, the Police, and the Church
By 1905, the whaling industry was dying as Arctic whale stocks almost completely collapsed. In addition, new inventions, such as a synthetic substitute for baleen, caused whalers to turn to other livelihoods, including the fur trade. The Hudson's Bay Company and other trading concerns also began to take an active interest in the northern fur trade. In the ten years after the First World War (1914-1918), the commercial fur trade moved north to encompass the entire Arctic. With the fur trade came the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.

By 1925, the Inuit had become subjects if not quite citizens of the Canadian state. Under the missionaries, many traditional beliefs and practices of the Inuit disappeared or went underground. The Inuit lost power over their own lives in the early twentieth century. Many slipped into deep poverty because of fluctuations in fur prices set in distant London or New York.

Government services and facilities were greatly expanded within these new settlements. Cheap housing was made available, and schools, medical facilities, airports, and modern stores were built. New "micro-urban" communities sprang into being. A population once spread thinly across an immense landscape was now concentrated in a small number of communities. By the mid 1960s, nearly all Inuit in Canada lived in these new settlements.

It was a far from ideal solution. No longer living on the land, the Inuit became more and more dependent on social assistance. Job opportunities were very limited. The Inuit became almost entirely dependent on the larger outside society.

Democracy Comes to the Arctic
Democracy came late to the Arctic. Beginning in 1966, the federal government in Ottawa created federal electoral constituencies in parts of the Northwest Territories. In 1967, a resident Commissioner of the Northwest Territories was appointed and many federal programs were transferred to the new territorial government. By the late 1970s, the territorial government had become an elected, representative body.

The Creation of Nunavut
The battle for Inuit self-government dates to at least the 1960s, when "Eskimo Co-ops" were established in most Arctic settlements. The Co-ops helped the Inuit keep control of their art sales. They also provided competition to the Hudson's Bay Company, and thus helped keep fur prices up and the cost of merchandise down.

An important step toward self-government was taken in 1971, with the founding of the Inuit Brotherhood, now called Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. In 1976, the Inuit proposed the creation of a new territory to be called Nunavut ("our land"). The new Nunavut would be made up of the central and eastern portions of the Northwest Territories and it would represent a majority of Inuit citizens. The Nunavut proposal also included a comprehensive land claim. In 1982, a plebiscite, or vote of the people, supported the Nunavut Proposal, and, in 1992, an Agreement in Principle was supported by 85 percent of Inuit voters. In May 1993, the Nunavut Final Agreement was signed, and the new territory of Nunavut was proclaimed on April 1, 1999.