Editing Arctic Archipelago (section)

==History==
Around 2500 BCE, the first humans, the [[Paleo-Eskimo]]s, arrived in the archipelago from the Canadian mainland. Between 1000 and 1500 CE, they were replaced by the [[Thule people]], who are the ancestors of today's [[Inuit]].

British claims on the islands, the [[British Arctic Territories]], were based on the explorations in the 1570s by [[Martin Frobisher]]. Canadian sovereignty was originally (1870–80) only over island portions that drained into [[Foxe Basin]], [[Hudson Bay]] and [[Hudson Strait]]. Canadian sovereignty over the islands was established by 1880 when Britain transferred them to Canada.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Canada.html |title=Canada|publisher=World Statesmen|access-date=30 June 2016}}</ref> The [[District of Franklin]] – established in 1895 – comprised almost all of the archipelago. The district was dissolved upon the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Canada claims all the waterways of the [[Northwest Passage]] as [[Canadian Internal Waters]]; however, most maritime countries view these as [[international waters]].<ref name="dispute">{{cite news|url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=6d4815ac-4fdb-4cf3-a8a6-4225a8bd08df&k=73925|title=Northwest Passage gets political name change|newspaper=[[Edmonton Journal]]|via=Canada.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121021541/http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=6d4815ac-4fdb-4cf3-a8a6-4225a8bd08df&k=73925 |archive-date=21 January 2016}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=May 2023}} Disagreement over the passages' status has raised Canadian concerns about environmental enforcement, national security, and general sovereignty. East of [[Ellesmere Island]], in the [[Nares Strait]], lies [[Hans Island]], ownership of which is now shared between Canada and Denmark, after a decades-long dispute.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/world/what-in-the-world/canada-denmark-hans-island-whisky-schnapps.html|title=Canada and Denmark Fight Over Island With Whisky and Schnapps|last=Levin|first=Dan|date=7 November 2016|work=The New York Times|access-date=26 September 2019|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/canada-and-denmark-whiskey-war-over-hans-island-2016-1|title=2 countries have been fighting over an uninhabited island by leaving each other bottles of alcohol for over 3 decades|last=Bender|first=Jeremy|website=Business Insider|access-date=26 September 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hopper |first=Tristin |date=13 June 2022|title=Canada to get new land border with Denmark as decades-long Hans Island dispute ends |work=National Post |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-to-get-new-land-border-with-denmark-as-decades-long-hans-island-dispute-ends |access-date=18 June 2022}}</ref>