A Bit Of History...

History

The Northwest Territories were created in 1870, when the Hudson's Bay Company transferred Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to the government of Canada. These formed the Northwest Territories. This immense region comprised all of modern Canada except British Columbia, the coast of the Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence River valley and the southern third of Quebec, the Maritimes, Newfoundland, and the Labrador coast. It also excluded the Arctic Islands except the southern half of Baffin Island; these remained under direct British rule until 1880.

The name of the territory is traced to the North-Western Territory, a region named for the geographical location relative to Rupert's Land.

After the transfer, the Territories were gradually whittled away. The province of Manitoba was created in 1870, a tiny square around Winnipeg, and then enlarged in 1881 to a square region composing the modern province's south. By the time British Columbia joined confederation in 1871, it had already been granted the portion of the North-Western Territory south of 60 degrees north and west of 120 degrees west. In 1882 Regina in the then-District of Assiniboia became the territorial capital; after Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905 Regina became the provincial capital of the new province of Saskatchewan.

The North-Western Territory in 1859In 1876, the District of Keewatin, at the centre of the territory, was separated from it. In 1882 and again in 1896, the remaining portion was divided into the following districts (corresponding to the following modern-day areas):

Alberta (southern Alberta);
Assiniboia (southern Saskatchewan);
Athabaska (northern Alberta and Saskatchewan);
Franklin (the Arctic islands and Boothia and Melville Peninsulas);
Mackenzie (mainland NWT and western Nunavut);
Saskatchewan (central Saskatchewan);
Ungava (modern-day northern Quebec and inland Labrador, as well as an offshore area in Hudson Bay);
Yukon (modern Yukon Territory).
Keewatin would be returned to the NWT in 1905.

In the meantime, Ontario was enlarged northwestward in 1882. Quebec was also extended, in 1898, and Yukon was made a separate territory in the same year to deal with the Klondike Gold Rush, and remove the NWT government from administering the sudden boom of population, economic activity and influx of non-Canadians.

Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, and Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec acquired the last of their modern territories from the NWT in 1912. This left only the districts of Mackenzie, Franklin (which absorbed the remnants of Ungava in 1920), and Keewatin. However, in 1925 the boundaries of the NWT were extended all the way to the North Pole on the sector principle, vastly expanding its territory onto the northern ice cap.

In 1912 the Government of Canada dropped the hyphen in the North-West Territories name to Northwest Territories. Between 1925 and 1999, the Northwest Territories measured 3 439 296 km² – larger than India.

Finally, on April 1, 1999, the eastern three-fifths of the Northwest Territories (including all of Keewatin district and much of Mackenzie and Franklin) became a separate territory called Nunavut.

There was some discussion of changing the name of the Northwest Territories after the separation of Nunavut, possibly to a term from an Aboriginal language. One proposal is "Denendeh" ("our land" in Dene). The idea is favoured by former premier Stephen Kakfwi among others, but a poll conducted prior to division showed strong support for retaining the name "Northwest Territories". This name arguably became more appropriate following division, than it was when the territory extended far into Canada's northeast. In Inuktitut, the Northwest Territories are referred to as Nunatsiaq, "beautiful land."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Territories