Editing Northwest Territories (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of the Northwest Territories|History of Northwest Territories capital cities}}
{{See also|Inuvialuit Settlement Region|Inuit Nunangat|Métis}}
{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2017}}<!--4 paragraphs with no citations-->
[[File:Northern athabaskan.svg|thumb|The various [[Dene]] subdivisions including the [[Sahtu|Got'iné]] (labelled here as "North Slavey"), [[Tłı̨chǫ]] ("Dogrib"), [[Gwichʼin]], and others]]

There are multiple Indigenous territories overlapping the current borders of the Northwest Territories. These include '''Denendeh''',<ref name="DeneNation">{{cite web |title=Home |url=https://denenation.com/ |website=Dene Nation |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=May 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523075417/https://denenation.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Inuvialuit Settlement Region]] (''Inuvialuit Nunangit Sannaiqtuaq''), and both [[Métis]] and [[Plains Cree people|Nêhiyawak]] countries (Michif Piyii<ref>{{cite web |title=Michif Piyii |url=https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/metis/ |website=native-land.ca |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=October 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018051341/https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/metis/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and ᓀᐦᐃᔮᓈᕁ ''nêhiýânâhk'',<ref>{{cite web |title=country |url=https://dictionary.plainscree.atlas-ling.ca/#/results |website=Plains Cree Dictionary |publisher=Algonquin Dictionaries Project |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=May 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523075419/https://dictionary.plainscree.atlas-ling.ca/#/help#/results |url-status=live }}</ref> respectively). Of these, Denendeh and [[Dene|the Dene nations]] are the most prominent with the rest of the Dene country ("Dene-ndeh" or Deneland) covering much of what is now [[Alaska]], [[British Columbia]], and the northern regions of the [[prairie provinces]].<ref name="NativeLand">{{cite web |title=Dënéndeh |url=https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/denendeh/ |website=native-land.ca |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=May 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523075418/https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/denendeh/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of its constituent territories include [[Tłı̨chǫ Government|Tłı̨chǫ Country]], [[Sahtu Region|Got'iné Néné]], [[Dehcho Region|Dehchondéh]], and [[Gwichʼin]] Nành, amongst others including those of the [[Chipewyan|Dënë Sųłinë́]] (Nëné, <small>"land"</small>), [[Dane-zaa|Dane-z̲aa]] (Nanéʔ), and the [[Yellowknives|T'satsąot'ınę]] (Ndé). Historically, Dene have lived across Denendeh and what is now the NWT since [[time immemorial]] and the era of [[Canadian Indigenous law#Dene|Yamoria and Yamozha]].<ref name="Yamozha">{{cite web |title=Yamǫǫ̀zha - Dene Laws |url=https://tlichohistory.ca/en/stories/yamoozha |website=Tlicho History |publisher=[[Tłı̨chǫ Government]] |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=October 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005013726/https://tlichohistory.ca/en/stories/yamoozha |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Yamoria">{{cite news |last1=Campbell |first1=Daniel |title=The Hero of the Dene |url=https://www.uphere.ca/articles/hero-dene |access-date=November 7, 2023 |publisher=Up Here Publishing |archive-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231107154014/https://www.uphere.ca/articles/hero-dene |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:NWT-YT Inuvialuit Settlement Locator.svg|thumb|left|Map of the [[Inuvialuit Settlement Region]]: Inuvialuit Nunangit]]

Along the northern coast live one of the [[Inuit]] sudivisions: the [[Inuvialuit]], a conglomerate of several Inuvialuit peoples, including the [[Uummarmiut]], [[Kangiryuarmiut]], and [[Siglit]]. Their country, variously called ''Inuvialuit Nunangit'', ''Inuvialuit Nunungat'', or ''Inuvialuit Nunangat'' corresponds to the [[Inuvialuit Settlement Region]] and belongs to the greater [[Inuit Nunangat]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Inuit Nunangat Map |url=https://www.itk.ca/inuit-nunangat-map/ |website=www.itk.ca |publisher=Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami |date=April 4, 2019 |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=December 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202121233/https://www.itk.ca/inuit-nunangat-map/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Amongst the other Inuit, there are also the [[Copper Inuit]] who inhabit their traditional territory, ''Inuinnait Nunangat'', between the [[Kitikmeot Region|Kitikmeot]] and [[Inuvik Region]]s.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=McGhee |first=Robert |title=Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |date=March 4, 2015 |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/copper-inuit |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=March 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220315102754/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/copper-inuit |url-status=live }}</ref> To the south are the [[Cree]] [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] and [[Métis]].

In 1670, the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) was formed from a royal charter, and was granted a commercial monopoly over [[Rupert's Land]]. Present day Northwest Territories laid northwest of Rupert's Land, and was known as the [[North-Western Territory]]. Although not formally part of Rupert's Land, the HBC made regular use of the region as a part of its trading area. The [[Treaty of Utrecht (1713)|Treaty of Utrecht]] saw the British become the only European power with practical access to the [[North-Western Territory]], with the French surrendering their claim to the Hudson Bay coast.

Europeans have visited the region for the purposes of [[North American fur trade|fur trading]], and exploration for new trade routes, including the [[Northwest Passage]]. Arctic expeditions launched in the 19th century include the [[Coppermine expedition]].

In 1867, the first [[Canadian Indian residential school system|Canadian residential school]] opened in the region in Fort Resolution. The opening of the school was followed by several others in regions across the territory, thus contributing to it reaching the highest percentage of students in residential schools compared to other area in Canada.<ref>{{cite web |title=Residential Schools Education |url=https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/sites/ece/files/resources/residential_schools_education_fact_sheet.pdf |website=www.ece.gov.nt.ca |access-date=March 20, 2019 |archive-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307204616/https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/sites/ece/files/resources/residential_schools_education_fact_sheet.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Franklin's canoes in gale.jpg|thumb|Members of the [[Coppermine expedition]] caught by a storm in [[Coronation Gulf]], August 1821]]
[[File:North-western-territory.png|thumb|Map of the [[North-Western Territory]] and [[Rupert's Land]], 1859]]

The present-day territory came under the authority of the [[Government of Canada]] in July 1870, after the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] transferred [[Rupert's Land]] and the [[North-Western Territory]] to the British Crown, which subsequently transferred them to Canada, giving it the name the North-West Territories. This immense region comprised all of today's Canada except British Columbia, an early form of [[Manitoba]] (a small square area around [[Winnipeg]]), early forms of present-day Ontario and Quebec (the coast of the [[Great Lakes]], the [[Saint Lawrence River]] valley and the southern third of modern [[Quebec]]), the [[Maritimes]] (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick), [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]], the [[Labrador]] coast, and the [[British Arctic Territories|Arctic Islands]] (except the southern half of [[Baffin Island]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/101/119-eng.cfm |title=Canadian Heritage – Northwest Territories |publisher=Pch.gc.ca |date=July 13, 2010 |access-date=February 22, 2011 |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227020948/https://www.canada.ca/home.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Canada provinces map|border=none|align=left|prefix =History of|the=the|map=Canada provinces evolution 2.gif|caption=Timeline of the divisions of Canada; size of the Northwest Territories changes throughout 1870 to 1999}}
After the 1870 transfer, some of the North-West Territories was whittled away. The province of [[Manitoba]] was enlarged in 1881 to a rectangular region composing the modern province's south. By the time British Columbia joined Confederation on July 20, 1871, it had already (1866) been granted the portion of North-Western Territory south of [[60th parallel north|60 degrees north]] and west of [[120th meridian west|120 degrees west]], an area that comprised most of the [[Stickeen Territories]] (and a portion of the Peace River country).{{Citation needed|date = April 2016}}
[[File:Northwest Territories Proclamation.jpg|thumb|upright|A proclamation concerning the formation of the North-West Territories, from recently transferred territories to the Canadian government]]
The North-West Territories Council was created in 1875 for more local government in the North-West Territories.<ref>{{Cite canlaw |short title=The North-West Territories Act, 1875 |abbr=SC |year=1875 |chapter=49 |section=3, 7. |link=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_08051_4_1/466}}</ref> At first wholly made up of appointed members, it got its first elected members in 1882 and became wholly elected in 1888 when the council was reorganized as the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories. [[Frederick Haultain]], an Ontario lawyer who practised at Fort Macleod from 1884, became its chairman in 1891 and Premier when the Assembly was reorganized in 1897. The modern provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were created in 1905. Contemporary records show Haultain recommended that the NWT become a single province, named Buffalo, but the Canadian government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier acted otherwise.<ref>[https://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208163028/http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/people/prem_haultain.html Alberta Online Encyclopedia biography of Frederick Haultain]</ref><ref>Mardon and Mardon, Alberta Election Results, 1882-1992, p. 195</ref>

In the meantime, the [[British Arctic Territories]] were transferred to Canada and added to the North-West Territories in 1880. The province of [[Ontario]] was enlarged north-westward in 1882. Quebec was also extended northwards in 1898. Yukon was also made a separate territory that year and eventually gained additional territorial powers with the 2003 ''[[Yukon Act]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tattrie |first1=Jon |title=Yukon and Confederation |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/yukon-and-confederation |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=4 June 2024 |archive-date=May 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220506002249/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/yukon-and-confederation |url-status=live }}</ref> One year after the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, the [[Parliament of Canada]] renamed the "North-West Territories" as the ''Northwest Territories'', dropping all [[hyphen]]ated forms of it.<ref name="PWNHC">{{cite web |title=History of the Name of the Northwest Territories |work=Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre |url=http://www.pwnhc.ca/territorial-evolution-of-the-northwest-territories/ |access-date=October 17, 2015 |archive-date=October 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020031607/https://www.pwnhc.ca/territorial-evolution-of-the-northwest-territories/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/revisedstatuteso02cana#page/1150/mode/2up |title=c.62, RSC 1906 |year=1906}}</ref>

Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec acquired the last addition to their modern landmass from the Northwest Territories in 1912. This left only the districts of [[District of Mackenzie|Mackenzie]], [[District of Franklin|Franklin]] (which absorbed the remnants of [[District of Ungava|Ungava]] in 1920) and [[Keewatin Region|Keewatin]] within what was then given the name Northwest Territories. In 1925, the boundaries of the Northwest Territories were extended all the way to the [[North Pole]] on the [[sector principle]], vastly expanding its territory onto the northern [[ice cap]].{{Citation needed|date = April 2016}} Between 1925 and 1999, the Northwest Territories covered a land area of {{cvt|3439296|km2}}—larger than one-third of Canada in terms of area.{{Citation needed|date = April 2016}}

On April 1, 1999, a separate [[Nunavut]] territory was formed from the eastern Northwest Territories to represent the Inuit.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.assembly.gov.nt.ca/visitors/creation-new-nwt |title=Creation of a new Northwest Territories |date=November 6, 2012 |publisher=[[Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories]] |access-date=January 27, 2017 |archive-date=July 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722200332/https://www.assembly.gov.nt.ca/visitors/creation-new-nwt |url-status=live }}</ref>