English - Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies

The federal government began to actively encourage people to give up their
nomadic way of life. They encouraged permanent settlements because it
seemed to be the easiest and least expensive way of administering social
welfare.
Government services and facilities were greatly expanded within these new
settlements. Cheap housing was made available, and schools, medical facilities,
airports, and modern stores were built. New “micro-urban” communities sprang
into being. A population once spread thinly across an immense landscape was now
concentrated in a small number of communities. By the mid-1960s, nearly all Inuit in
Canada lived in these new settlements.
No longer living on the land, the Inuit became increasingly dependent on social
assistance. Job opportunities were very limited. The Inuit became almost entirely
dependent on the larger outside society.
In the 1950s, children were taken to residential schools and dog sled teams were
slaughtered in an attempt to keep Inuit in their new “communities” and not rely on
their previous hunting lifestyle.
FOUR LAND CLAIM AGREEMENTS
The battle for Inuit self-government dates to at least the 1960s, when “Eskimo Co-ops”
were established in most Arctic settlements. The Co-ops helped the Inuit keep control
of their art sales. They also provided competition to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and
thus helped keep fur prices up and the cost of merchandise down.
An important step toward self-government was taken in 1971, with the founding of the
Inuit Brotherhood, now called Inuit Tapirisat Kanatami. In 1976, the Inuit proposed
the creation of a new territory to be called Nunavut (“our land”). In 1993, the largest
land claims settlement was signed between the Inuit and the Canadian government
and in 1999, the new Canadian territory of Nunavut was born.
Southern Canadians know about Nunavut because it is a territorial government.
There are three other land claim agreements, however, that have been settled and
provide Inuit with specific rights:
> > Inuvialuit encompasses much of the Western Arctic
> > Nunatsivuit encompasses land in Labrador
> > Nunavik encompasses James Bay and Northern Quebec, establishing Inuit
land ownership and other rights in Arctic Quebec
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D. MÉTIS PEOPLES
Ontario is home to the country’s second largest Métis population. The 2006 census
identified 73,605 Métis peoples in Ontario, accounting for 19% of all Métis in Canada.
Métis peoples living in Ontario increased by 242% from 1996 - ​2006, with most of the
Métis population (72%) living in an urban setting. This rapid increase in the Métis