Editing Northern Canada (section)

====Near north====
[[File:Taiga in Yellowknife, NT.jpg|thumb|Outside [[Yellowknife]], [[Northwest Territories]]]]
[[File:Sheep Slot Rapids, Firth River, Ivvavik National Park, YT.jpg|thumb|left| Sheep Slot Rapids on the [[Firth River]] in [[Yukon]]'s [[Ivvavik National Park]]]]

The "near north" or [[sub-Arctic]] is mostly synonymous with the [[boreal forest of Canada|Canadian boreal forest]], a large area of [[evergreen]]-dominated forests with a [[subarctic climate]]. This area has traditionally been home to the [[Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic]], that is the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]], who were [[hunter-gatherer|hunters]] of [[moose]], freshwater [[fisherman|fishers]] and [[Trapping|trappers]]. This region was heavily involved in the [[North American fur trade]] during its peak importance, and is home to many [[Métis people in Canada|Métis people]] who originated in that trade. The area was mostly part of [[Rupert's Land]] under the nominal control of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) from 1670 to 1869, who regarded Rupert's Land as their proprietary colony.

In 1670, [[King Charles II of England]] in his grant creating the proprietary colony Rupert's Land defined its frontiers as all the lands adjudging [[Hudson Strait]], [[Hudson Bay]] or rivers flowing into Hudson Bay, in theory giving control of much of what is now Canada to the HBC.<ref>Newman, Peter ''Empire of the Bay'', London: Penguin, 1989 p.78-79.</ref> Under the royal charter of 2 May 1670, the HBC received the theoretical control of {{convert|1.5|e6sqmi|abbr=off}} making up 40% of what is now Canada.<ref>Dolin, Eric Jay ''Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America'', New York: W.W. Norton, 2011 p.102</ref> Despite its claim that Rupert's Land was a proprietary colony, the HBC controlled only the areas around its forts ([[trading post|trading posts]]) on the shores of [[James Bay]] and Hudson Bay, and never sought to impose political control on the First Nations peoples, whose co-operation was needed for the fur trade. For its first century, the HBC never ventured inland, being content to have the First Nations peoples come to its forts to trade fur for European goods.<ref>Newman, Peter ''Empire of the Bay'', London: Penguin, 1989 p.167-168.</ref> The HBC started to move inland only in the late 18th century to assert its claim to Rupert's Land in response to rival fur traders coming out of [[Montreal]] who were hurting profits by going directly to the First Nations.<ref>Newman, Peter ''Empire of the Bay'', London: Penguin, 1989 p.252.</ref>

The HBC's claim to Rupert's Land, which, as the company was the de facto administrator, included the [[North-Western Territory]], was purchased by the Canadian government in 1869.<ref>Newman, Peter ''Empire of the Bay'', London: Penguin, 1989 p.575-576.</ref> After buying Rupert's Land, Canada renamed the area it had purchased the [[Northwest Territories]]. Shortly thereafter the government made a [[Numbered Treaties|series of treaties with the local First Nations]] regarding land title. This opened the region to non-Native settlement, as well as to forestry, mining, and oil and gas drilling. In 1896, gold was discovered in the Yukon, leading to the [[Klondike Gold Rush]] in 1896-1899, and the first substantial white settlements were made in the near north. To deal with the increased settlement in the [[Klondike, Yukon|Klondike]], the Yukon Territory was created in 1898.

Today several million people live in the near north, around 15% of the Canadian total. Large parts of the near north are not part of Canada's territories, but rather are the northern parts of the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, meaning they have very different political histories as minority regions within larger units. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canada reduced the size of the Northwest Territory by carving new provinces out of it such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, together with the new territory of the Yukon, while transferring other parts of the Northwest Territory to Ontario and Quebec.