| |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Proactive disclosure Print version   | |  Community name changes
Contents of this page:
As of 1 June 1989, the Hamlet of Eskimo Point, N.W.T., officially changed its name to Arviat. The community of approximately 1200 people is located on the west side of Hudson Bay at 61° 06' 40" N - 94° 03' 30" W. For over 500 years before permanent settlement in the 1920s, the Inuit of the area used this location as a summer camp. Arviat means literally "place of the bowhead whale". Dél{10}ne, N.W.T. (Note on character sets) On 1 June 1993, the community of Fort Franklin, N.W.T. officially changed its name to Dél{10}ne. This community of approximately 550 people is located near the southwest extremity of Great Bear Lake, at 65° 11' 20" N - 123° 25' 15" W. The area around the west end of Keith Arm has traditionally been occupied by the Sahtu Dene, who for generations have applied the name Dél{10}ne (meaning "where the water flows") to the place where the Great Bear River flows out of the lake. Dél{10}ne grew from a few log cabins occupied on a seasonal basis, a short distance to the east of the Hudson's Bay Post constructed to support the over-wintering of Sir John Franklin's Second Arctic Land Expedition of 1825-27. The community of Gitwinksihlkw is situated on the west bank of the Nass River, at 55° 12' N - 129° 13' W, some 160 km north of Terrace, British Columbia. On 17 July 1989 the CPCGN (now the GNBC) officially recognized the change of the community name from Canyon City to Gitwinksihlkw, to reflect the name of the local Indian Band and their community. "Gitwinksihlkw" means the "people of the lizard's place" ("Git" being "the people of"; "ksihlkw" being the "lizard"; and "win" being added for the sound of the word). The lizard once inhabited the bay area of the community. However, in the 1700s a volcanic eruption caused lava flows to bury the two neighbouring communities of "Lax Wii Laxk'abit" and "Lax Ksiluux". Since that time the "ksihlkw" has either become extinct or has disappeared. On 1 January 1987 the Municipality of Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories, officially changed its name to Iqaluit. Iqaluit, having a population of approximately 3500, is located at the head of Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island (63° 45' N - 68° 31'W). This Inuktitut name means "place of many fish". On 1 January 1996, the Hamlet of Lake Harbour, at the head of Lake Harbour on Baffin Island, became Kimmirut. It is located at 62° 50' 48" - 69° 52' 19". As with many geographical names used by the Inuit, the name Kimmirut is descriptive and means "looks like a heel". It describes a large rock near the community and resembles an inverted human heel. On 3 December 1999, the Government of Nunavut changed the name of Pelly Bay (Hamlet) to Kugaaruk. Kugaaruk, on the west side of Simpson Peninsula, is located at 68° 32' 05" N - 89° 49' 30" W. The name refers to a river flowing through this community, used as a water supply and for fishing. Situated on Coronation Gulf at the mouth of the Coppermine River, is Coppermine at 67° 49' 36" N - 115° 05' 36" W. On 1 January 1996, the community's name became Kugluktuk which means, literally, "place of rapids". It probably refers to Bloody Fall, where the Chipewyan Dene, who accompanied Hearne on his historic trip to this area, massacred a group of Inuit. {1}utselk'e, N.W.T. (Note on character sets) On 1 July 1992, the unorganized settlement of Snowdrift, N.W.T., officially changed its name to {1}utselk'e. The community of approximately 300 people is located on the southeast shore of Great Slave Lake at 62° 24' 18" N - 110° 44' 25" W. This Chipewyan name has remained in common use despite the existence of an English-language name. {1}utselk'e means "place of the {2}utsel" (a small fish) and has been used for generations. On 16 May 1986, the Winisk River became a raging torrent, sweeping huge chunks of ice through the village of Winisk. Damage to the community was extensive and two community residents were drowned. Aware of the danger of flooding, the Winisk Band and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development had already begun plans for relocation of the community to a new site, to be called Peawanuck, approximately 45 kilometres upstream. The name was officially approved 16 May 1988. The site is on higher ground and was chosen by the community for the abundant game and fishing. Peawanuck means "flintstone" in Cree; the site was important many years ago as a source of flint. Broughton Island (Hamlet) changed its name to Qikiqtarjuaq on 1 November 1998. The Hamlet is located on Baffin Island's east coast at 67° 01' 41" W - 64° 01' 41" W. The name means "big island". On 1 July 1992, the hamlet of Spence Bay, N.W.T., officially changed its name to Taloyoak. This community of approximately 500 people is located north of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of the Boothia Isthmus at 69° 32' 10" N - 93° 31' 15" W. The Inuktitut name Taloyoak has been in use for generations. Its means "caribou blind" and refers to a pile of stones on each side of a path; at the end of the path is a place for hunters to spear caribou. The stone piles have been locally restored for a historic site. On 1 April 1994, the Charter Community of Arctic Red River, N.W.T., officially changed its name to Tsiigehtchic. This community of approximately 145 people is located at the confluence of the Arctic Red River with the Mackenzie River, at 67° 27' N - 133° 44' W. The site of the community has been used by many generations of the Gwichya Gwich'in as a seasonal fishing camp. Each fall they would travel up the Arctic Red River to hunt and trap in the mountains; in the spring they would return to spend the summer fishing. Tsiigehtchic means "mouth of the iron river" in the Gwich'in language. Non-traditional use of the site first occurred when the Oblate Fathers established a mission there in 1868. In 1901 Hislop and Nagle set up a trading post, which was followed in 1902 by the construction of a Hudson's Bay Company post. Tsiigehtchic (pronounced Ts'ee-geh-chik) became a permanent settlement for the Gwichya Gwich'in in the 1950s, and in the late 1970s the community's transportation links were strengthened with the completion of the Dempster Highway and establishment of a ferry crossing the Mackenzie River. On 1 January 1996, Fort Norman at the confluence of Great Bear River and Mackenzie River changed its name to Tulita. This community is found at 64° 54' 06" N - 125° 34' 41" W. Tulita, in the Slavey language, means "where the waters meet". On 1 November 1998, the settlement of Snare Lakes changed its name to Wekweti. It lies north of Great Slave Lake on the Snare River at 64° 11' 22" N - 114° 10' 45" W. The name may mean "rock lake".
On 1 January 1996, Lac la Martre, northwest of Yellowknife, changed its name to Wha Ti. The community is located at 63° 08' 38" N - 117° 16' 22" W. Wha Ti and Lac la Martre both mean "marten lake".
Geographical names data provided here uses the 8-bit ASCII character set ISO 8859, which includes all accents used in French-language geographical names. (Please note that proper display of these accented characters may depend on the hardware that you are using.) Some Canadian Aboriginal language geographical names include diacritics which have not yet been incorporated into international data standards. Until that time, we are representing these "hard-to-construct" characters by numbers surrounded by brace brackets. Examples:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
