The Ottawa Islands (

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

: ''Arviliit'' or ''Arqvilliit'' in Inuktitut meaning "place where you see bowhead whales") are a group of currently uninhabited islands situated in the eastern edge of Canada's

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

. The group comprises 24 small islands, located at approximately 60°N 80°W.Columbia Gazetteer of North America
, accessed May 30, 2007 The main islands include Booth Island, Bronson Island,

Eddy Island Eddy Island is an uninhabited island in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Situated in the eastern portion of Hudson Bay, it is one of 24 islands that make up the Ottawa Islands. Other islands in the vicinity include J. Gordon Island, Pa ...

, Gilmour Island, J. Gordon Island, Pattee Island, and

Perley Island Perley Island is an uninhabited island in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of 24 islands that make up the Ottawa Islands, situated in the eastern portion of Hudson Bay. Other islands in the vicinity include Booth Island (Nunavut), ...

. The highest point is on Gilmour Island, which rises to over . Located a short distance off the northwest coast of Quebec's Ungava Peninsula, they, like the other coastal islands in Hudson Bay, were historically part of the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

, and became

Crown Land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

upon the creation of

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

in 1999. Nunavik Inuit have occupied these islands since

time immemorial Time immemorial () is a phrase meaning time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition, indefinitely ancient, "ancient beyond memory or record". The phrase is used in legally significant contexts as well as in common parlance. ...

and gained constitutionally-protected harvest and access rights under the Nunavik Inuit Land Claim Agreement signed in 2007.

Geography

The Ottawa Islands are situated on the barren and rocky east coast of Hudson Bay."Hudson Bay." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003
Answers.com 26 Jan. 2007
Accessed 01-26-2007. By 1610, Hudson Bay had been explored and named by

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

in his quest for a

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

. It was not until 1631 when Luke Foxe (or Fox) on a voyage from " Vltimum Vale" ( Cape Henrietta Maria), near 57° 40' N, indicated that "Mr. Hudson calls those islands by the name of 'Lancaster's Iles. According to historian T.H. Manning, there is no other record of Henry Hudson naming islands in that region.Manning, T.H., "Explorations on the East Coast of Hudson Bay". ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 109, No. 1/3 (Jan. - Mar., 1947), pp. 58-75,
Republished
by JSTOR, Accessed 01-26-2007. A little further north, near 58° 5' N, Capt. Foxe says "Wee came by a small Iland at clocke one, the highest I haue seene since I came from Brook Cobham; the deep 70 fathome. I named the ''Ile Sleepe''." Foxe named the islands just north of Lancaster Isle, "Ile Sleepe". According to Manning, the name, having eventually changed to "Sleeper Island" or "The Sleepers", could be used "for the islands between and including Lancaster and Ottawa Islands." Hudson bay explorer

Further coordinate readings

Geology

According to a survey conducted by

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; ; )Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for natural r ...

in 2007, the Ottawa Islands contain komatiite basalt rocks with various concentrations of

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

from the

Paleoproterozoic The Paleoproterozoic Era (also spelled Palaeoproterozoic) is the first of the three sub-divisions ( eras) of the Proterozoic eon, and also the longest era of the Earth's geological history, spanning from (2.5–1.6 Ga). It is further sub ...

era. Lower concentration of magnesium are found on J. Gordon Island and Pattee Island.

Fauna

The Ottawa Islands and the southwardly Belcher Islands are a breeding ground for "the Hudson Bay subspecies of the Common Eider". In 1765 commercial whaling of bowheads was started by Churchill-based sloops of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

with some whales being harvested in the Ottawa Islands.Government of Canada - Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Harvesting
Chapter 14.5.3, page 14-19. Information originally sourced from (Flaherty 1918; Newspaper Clipping in PAC, MG 29, A58, Vol 8.,File 5 in Reeves and Mitchell 1987). Accessed 06-11-2007 The islands are important habitat for polar bears and many waterfowl. The waters surrounding the islands are important habitat for seals, walrus and bowhead and beluga whales.

References

Bibliography

*Manning, T. H. ''Birds and Mammals of the Belcher, Sleeper, Ottawa and King George Islands, and Northwest Territories''. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service, 1976. *Manning, T.H., "Ruins of Eskimo Stone Houses on the East Side of Hudson Bay". ''American Antiquity'', Vol. 11, No. 3 (Jan., 1946), pp. 201–202. , Republished by JSTOR
Web Link
Accessed 01-26-2007.

External links

Toparama - Topographic Maps from Natural Resources Canada2006 Beluga Statistics From Weekly Reports
(Contains a map of the region)
The Atlas of Canada
map of Ottawa Islands from 1976
Plant and Phytoplankton study of Hudson Bay
{{Islands of the Qikiqtaaluk Region Archipelagoes of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago Islands of Hudson Bay Uninhabited islands of Qikiqtaaluk Region