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The District of Ungava was a regional administrative district of
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world ...
's
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal provinces and territo ...
from 1895 to 1920, although it effectively ceased operation in 1912. It covered the northern portion of what is today
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen ...
, the interior of
Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...
, and the offshore islands to the west and north of Quebec, which are now part of
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'', ...
. The name "Ungava" is of
Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...
origin, meaning "towards the open water". It is believed to be in reference to the lands inhabited by the Ungava
Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...
, who lived at the mouth of the
Arnaud River The Arnaud River (formerly known as the Payne River) is a river in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, flowing from the low plateaux of the Ungava Peninsula through a series of glacial lakes to Ungava Bay. Its mean discharge is approximately 15 km³ per ...
which flows into
Ungava Bay Ungava Bay (french: baie d'Ungava, ; iu, ᐅᖓᕙ ᑲᖏᖅᓗᒃ/) is a bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik (far northern Quebec) from Baffin Island. Although not geographically apparent, it is considered to be a marginal sea of the A ...
.


Political history

When created in 1895, the District of Ungava covered all of modern-day northern Quebec, the interior of modern-day Labrador, and all the islands in
James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost p ...
, the
Hudson Strait Hudson Strait (french: Détroit d'Hudson) links the Atlantic Ocean and Labrador Sea to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Newfoundland and Labrador and ...
, Ungava Bay, and the eastern side of
Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
. Ungava's southern continental boundaries initially ranged as far south as
Lake Timiskaming Lake Timiskaming or Lake Temiskaming (french: Lac Témiscamingue) is a large freshwater lake on the provincial boundary between Ontario and Quebec, Canada. The lake, which forms part of the Ottawa River, is in length and covers an area of a ...
, well below James Bay on the modern Ontario/Quebec border. Note, however, that a dispute over the location of the boundary between Canada and Labrador (a dependency of the
Dominion of Newfoundland Newfoundland was a British dominion in eastern North America, today the modern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was established on 26 September 1907, and confirmed by the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Wes ...
) meant both Canada and Newfoundland claimed the far eastern portion of Ungava, an area shown in shaded red on the accompanying maps. This boundary dispute would not be settled during the time the district of Ungava was in existence. At the time of its creation, Ungava covered over , although just under 15% of its area was also claimed by Newfoundland. However, just three years later with the adoption of the
Quebec Boundary Extension Act, 1898 The ''Quebec Boundary Extension Act, 1898'' was an Act of the Parliament of Canada that expanded the territory of the province of Quebec. The province's northern boundary was set along the eastern shore of James Bay to the mouth of the Eastmain Ri ...
, the southernmost portion of the District of Ungava (excluding offshore islands) was transferred by the
Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada (french: Parlement du Canada) is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and is composed of three parts: the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, t ...
to Quebec. All told, the act transferred approximately of Ungava to Quebec, the majority of which now lies in the modern-day Jamésie region of the province. After the transfer was complete, the mainland area of the District of Ungava reached no further south than the mouth of the
Eastmain River The Eastmain River, formerly written East Main, is a river in west central Quebec. It rises in central Quebec and flows west to James Bay, draining an area of . The First Nations Cree village of Eastmain is located beside the mouth. Name Eastm ...
—about halfway down James Bay, as shown on the accompanying map. With the
Quebec Boundaries Extension Act, 1912 The ''Quebec Boundaries Extension Act, 1912'' was passed by the Parliament of Canada on April 1, 1912. It expanded the territory of the Province of Quebec, extending the northern boundary to its present location. The act transferred to the provin ...
, all of Ungava's remaining continental land was transferred to Quebec. The almost entirely uninhabited offshore islands of Ungava (over 1,500 of them) were not officially transferred to the
District of Keewatin The District of Keewatin was a territory of Canada and later an administrative district of the Northwest Territories. It was created in 1876 by the ''Keewatin Act'', and originally it covered a large area west of Hudson Bay. In 1905, it became a ...
in the
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal provinces and territo ...
until 1920, at which point the District of Ungava (which had not functioned in any administrative capacity for eight years) formally ceased to exist.


Population

The 1901 census of Canada records 843 people living in the Ungava district. However, one census taker of the time notes that for the Ungava trading post of Great Whale River, there was extreme difficulty in making an accurate count of the area's population, due to the nomadic nature of its residents, as well as their extreme isolation. The official 1901 census count for Great Whale River numbers 216, but the census taker notes of this figure: "I should say it does not represent one-third of the Eskimos, but I am sending on as many (names) as I could obtain." A similar case could be made for the 1901 census figures for Ungava as a whole, giving the district an effective population of upwards of 3,000. The 1911 Census of Canada enumerated only two population centres in Ungava:
Nitchequon Nitchequon (pronounced NITCH-e-kun) is a ghost town that was an inland trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company in the remote geographic centre of Quebec, Canada. It is believed to have operated during 1816–22, 1825 and 1834–1943. History Hist ...
, which had a population of 62, and
Charlton Island Charlton Island (Sivukutaitiarruvik) is an uninhabited island located in James Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Located northwest of Rupert Bay, it has an area of . Thomas James, who gave his name to James Bay, wintered here in 1631 a ...
, the southernmost of the offshore islands in James Bay, which had a population of 27. No other parts of Ungava were listed in the 1911 census records, although it is reasonable to assume an overall 1911 population similar to 1901. The Ungava district was largely inhabited by the aboriginal
Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...
,
Innu The Innu / Ilnu ("man", "person") or Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh ("people"), formerly called Montagnais from the French colonial period ( French for " mountain people", English pronunciation: ), are the Indigenous inhabitants of territory in th ...
(called "Montagnais" by French people),
Naskapi The Naskapi (Nascapi, Naskapee, Nascapee) are an Indigenous people of the Subarctic native to the historical country St'aschinuw (ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ, meaning 'our nclusiveland'), which is located in northern Quebec and Labrador, neighb ...
, and
Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...
. The northernmost inhabited area of the district,
Akpatok Island Akpatok Island is one of the uninhabited Canadian Arctic islands in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is the largest island in Ungava Bay on the northern coast of Quebec. The island is named for the Akpat, the thick-billed murre (''U ...
in Ungava Bay, was infamous for its widespread cannibalism, which ended around 1900 as the inhabitants moved to the mainland.


Post-district history

In 1927, the long-standing dispute over the location of the boundary between
Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...
and the former District of Ungava (by then part of Quebec) was taken to the arbitration of the British
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 August ...
, which ruled in favour of Newfoundland. This means that Ungava's former continental territory is now split between Quebec and the modern-day province of
Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
, with the Quebec portion falling within the administrative regions of
Nord-du-Québec Nord-du-Québec (; en, Northern Quebec) is the largest, but the least populous, of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. With nearly of land area, and very extensive lakes and rivers, it covers much of the Labrador Peninsul ...
and
Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (, ; ; land area ) is the second-largest administrative region by land area in Quebec, Canada, after Nord-du-Québec. It covers much of the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River estuary and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence past Tadous ...
. The offshore islands of the former District of Ungava remained part of the Northwest Territories until the creation of
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'', ...
in 1999. The name "Ungava" was revived as a political district with the creation of the provincial riding of Ungava in 1981. This Quebec riding has similar (though not exactly identical) boundaries with the original 1895 Ungava district—notably, it does not extend into Labrador, nor into the offshore islands that are now part of Nunavut.


See also

*
History of Canada The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia ...
*
Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914) Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914) is history of Canada from the formation of the Dominion to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Canada had a population of 3.5 million, residing in the large expanse from Cape Breton to just beyond the G ...
* Canada in the World Wars and Interwar Years


References


Further reading

* Ballantyne, R. M. ''Ungava, A Tale of Esquimaux Land''. London: J.M. Dent, 1908. * Bergerud, A. T., Stuart N. Luttich, and Lodewijk Camps. ''The Return of Caribou to Ungava''. McGill-Queen's native and northern series, 50. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007. * Chown B, and M Lewis. 1956. "The Blood Group Genes of the Cree Indians and the Eskimos of the Ungava District of Canada". ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology''. 14, no. 2: 215-24. * Dana, Leo Paul 2010, "Nunavik, Arctic Quebec: Where Co-operatives Supplement Entrepreneurship," Global Business and Economics Review 12 (1/2), January 2010, pp. 42–71. * Harper, Francis. ''The Friendly Montagnais and Their Neighbors in the Ungava Peninsula''. Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1964. * Harper, Francis. ''Birds of the Ungava Peninsula''. Lawrence, Kan: University of Kansas, 1958. * Lajoie, Paul G. ''Exploratory Soil Survey of the Fort Chimo District (Ungava Bay, Quebec)''. Ottawa: Experimental Farms Service, Canada Dept. of Agriculture, 1954. * Murray, W. H. H. ''Mamelons, and Ungava, A Legend of the Saguenay''. Boston: De Wolfe, Fiske & Co, 1890. * Power, Geoffrey. ''The Salmon of Ungava Bay''. ontreal Arctic Institute of North America, 1969. * Turner, Lucien M. ''Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory''. Classics of Smithsonian anthropology. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. * Twomey, Arthur C., and Nigel Herrick. ''Needle to the North, The Story of an Expedition to Ungava and the Belcher Islands''. Houghton Mifflin, 1942. {{coord missing, Northwest Territories Districts of the Northwest Territories History of Quebec by location Nord-du-Québec