Nunavut History & Culture

The Inuit have inhabited Nunavut for at least 5,000 years. For most of that time they were nomadic people, subsisting primarily on sea mammals and caribou.

Some of the first Europeans to see the region were part of the expedition led by Sir Martin Frobisher in 1576. Frobisher landed on southern Baffin Island at a bay that now bears his name. Although some attempts at settlement were made, it wasn't until the 1800s that fur traders began to live and hunt in the region.

In 1888, the Hudson Bay Company, which had been managing the region, turned it over to newly confederated Canada.

During this time, large numbers of the native population died from epidemics introduced by outsiders. After territorial boundaries were established in the first decade of the 1900s, the responsibility of governance was handed over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Eventually, administration was passed to a representative civilian government.