Colonialism

The Inuit come from a simple but harsh life style living in the Arctic. Because they are hunters and gathers they have remained fairly primitive as the rest of the world has grown by leaps and bounds on a daily basis. Humans have inhabited the northern most regions of modern day Canada for about 12,000 years. Modern Inuit began to disperse all over Canada about 1,000 years ago (Bonesteel). The first interaction Inuits had with colonizers was in the 10th century with the arrival of Erik the Red during his Icelandic voyages. It wasn't until the fifteenth century that a heightened presence of explorers began to frequent the region with the arrival of John Cabot, the explorer searching for the Northwest Passage as well as gold in 1497. Missionaries arrived later and established permanent settlements in order to provide services and religious conversion to the Inuits living in the east (Bonesteel). However, the Inuits remained unaffected by the foreign presence and continued their migrations and ways of life. It was not until the 1840s that the Europeans began to find use for the land that the Inuits possessed and that use was for whaling and to create a whaling industry in the New World. Whale oil became a big business during the 19th century and for Europeans, this would provide a solid base in the West which would bring profit to investors (Bonesteel).

The presence of Europeans encouraged trade and bartering between Inuit and the whalers. Inuit goods were traded for European goods and stemming from that the Inuits were introduced to modern technology. Even though they accepted this new technology, they were still rooted in their culture and traditional tools and techniques. The Europeans they found that the Inuit were tremendous hunters and could help them aboard their boats as they whaled the open arctic waters. The whaling industry began to see huge profits during the height of the whaling industry because these waters were pristine and virtually untouched except by the inhabitants. Unfortunately, with these Europeans came many diseases which were completely foreign to the Inuits and, as a result, the Inuit population suffered greatly. Their numbers which were around 2000 to 2500 in the 1850s dropped to about 150 in 1910(morrison).

Eventually the whaling business lost its steam partly because a synthetic for whale baleen was being produced at half the price and also because whale populations were being depleted from over-hunting. Without the need for whaling the white men turned their attention to the fur trade. This new renewed fur trade was primarily controlled by the Hudson Bay Company. The fur trade encompassed the entire arctic circle.(Morrison). As is always the case, the fur trade generated more attention to the Arctic Circle and thus brought more Americans and Europeans looking to make a profit. Unfortunately for the Inuits, government and religion tagged along. The Government of Canada did not recognize the Inuit as real citizens but more as uncivilized people scratching a living out of nothing, and they were the Inuit’s saviour. With the institution of the Canadian government in their lives the Inuits began feeling pressure from the church which was primarily Anglican or Roman based systems.(Kirmayer).

During the first part of the twentieth century, the Canadian government was unsure of what to do with the Inuits. Were they citizens of Canada? In 1924, the Indian Act was reformed to include Inuits as citizens of Canada, thus including these people in the socio-economic make up of the rest of Canada (Bonesteel). In the years to come, the Inuits would experience increasing pressure from the Canadian government. By the 1950’s and through the 60’s the government and churches really began to take control of the Inuit lives, in what they believed was the right path for the uncivilized to enter modern society and accept a new way of living. Due to the fur trade many Inuit relocated because along with the promise of a chance to make more money the government had also created settlements which they encouraged the Inuit to live in because they could provide them with social welfare.(Morrison). These resettlements of the Inuits were done both out of personal gain by the federal government and also to preserve these people who lived out on the arctic shelf. Due to the new religious practices in these new communities which many Inuit were now living, the younger generations were being targeted by the government in oder to assimilate the youngsters into the modern age society. They did their best to eradicate their language, religion, and nomadic ways of living.

Inuits also experienced a larger human population in their regions. Non-Inuit peoples began to hunt and exist in the lands they once had all to themselves. The inclusion of rifles and advanced trapping equipment made it virtually impossible for the poor Inuits to continue their hunting and gathering techniques because they were unable to compete with modern technology. Inuits now traveled hundreds of miles away from these settlements in search of game they would normally have to travel very few miles if they were to have continued their traditional ways of living.(Morrison). Although the stores are expensive, Inuits who are able to afford it are able to consume and adapt to changing technologies. This provided families with incomes to buy all the necessary hunting equipment and traveling into the harsh arctic environment in search of food. However, since the government provides social welfare for the majority of the Inuit people, many Inuit families find it much easier to just live off the government instead of providing for themselves. By the end of the 1960’s almost all of the Inuits had been relocated or moved to these settlements the government had set up for them. Limited job opportunities in the settlements and in modern society did not provide many opportunities for the uneducated Inuit to make an impression on the new government.

By the mid 1970’s the Federal Government had turned over control of the settlements to the territories of Canada. Eventually the Inuit people were able to form the Inuit Brotherhood which fought for the rights and land of the Inuit people. In 1976 they proposed the idea of a new territory for the Inuit called the Nunavut Territory which stood for “our land”. This new territory would include the central and eastern portions of the Northwest territories and this would encompass the majority of the Inuit people. The land claim was proposed by the brotherhood in 1982, and by 1993 it was recognized by the government and the final agreement was signed on April 1, 1999. The Inuit have been living under Canadian oppression from the beginning not much unlike the American Indians who are still being repressed by the American government. The Inuit people are still underdeveloped compared to the modern world today and therefore are still seen as lesser people in the eyes of Canadians. Their education is still sub par which in turn does not provide them with equal job opportunities in their communities or in the modern world, and this does not allow them to compete or even survive in our technologically advanced economy today. These simple nomadic people were told they were living their lives wrong and forced to try and assimilate to the Canadian way. Taken advantage of because they did not posses the same technology or education or power that the white man did, and therefore were exploited for there goods and land all at the same time.