District of Keewatin
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and later an administrative district of the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
.
The name "Keewatin" comes from Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
roots—either kīwēhtin (ᑮᐍᐦᑎᐣ) in Cree
Cree language
Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...
or giiwedin (ᑮᐌᑎᓐ) in Ojibwe
Ojibwe language
Ojibwe , also called Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems...
—both of which mean north wind in their respective languages. In Inuktitut
Inuktitut
Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...
, it was called Kivalliq (ᑭᕙᓪᓕᖅ)—a name which persists as the Kivalliq Region in Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal 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, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
.
History as a territory 1876–1905
The District of Keewatin was created by the passage of the Keewatin Act on April 12, 1876 from a portion of Canada's Northwest Territories. The district ceased being an independent territory in 1905 and was returned to the Northwest Territories. At the time of its abolition, it covered 228,160 square miles (590,932 km²1 E11 m²
To help compare orders of magnitude of different geographical regions we list here surface areas between 100,000 km2 and 1,000,000 km2. See also areas of other orders of magnitude.* Areas smaller than 100,000 km2* 100,000 km2 is equal to:...
)—roughly the size of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
. At its establishment in 1876, it encompassed the bulk of what is now Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and north-western Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and southern Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal 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, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
. Its territory had been reduced over the years as areas were added to the two provinces.
The federal government created the District of Keewatin on the advice of Lieutenant Governor Alexander Morris
Alexander Morris
Alexander Morris, PC was a Canadian politician. He served in the cabinet of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald , and was the second Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba...
. Morris convinced the government that the new territorial government of the Northwest Territories would be unable to effectively administer land to the north and east of Manitoba.
Morris was advised of the need for a new territory by James McKay. Morris approved of the idea and began consulting with McKay to determine a proper Aboriginal name for the territory. McKay decided upon Keewatin, which comes from the Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
and Saulteaux languages and means the land of the north wind. The government decided to use an Aboriginal name because they wanted to be sensitive towards Natives who formed the largest demographic and respect their cultural identity.
District of Keewatin government
The District of Keewatin was run by an appointed council. The legislative branch of the government was a unicameral body, known as the Council of KeewatinCouncil of Keewatin
The Council of Keewatin was an unelected legislative body and territorial government for the now-defunct District of Keewatin in Canada. The District of Keewatin was created by the passage of the Keewatin Act on April 12, 1876 from a portion of Canada's North West Territories...
. The council contained six members, all of whom were appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor. Political parties did not exist in the council.
The executive branch of the territory was run by the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba who also doubled as the Lieutenant-Governor of the District of Keewatin. The seat of government for the district was in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
.
The District of Keewatin did not have any representation in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
or the Canadian Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
.
Prohibition
Upon creation of the District of Keewatin, the Government of Canada decreed that intoxicants such as alcohol were forbidden to be imported into the territory. The government made this decision in regards to active law enforcement to curb the whisky trade running rampant in the Northwest Territories. Laws were passed two years earlier by the Council of the Northwest Territories to enforce prohibition in that territory.Law enforcement
The territorial laws created by the Council of Keewatin were enforced by the North-West Mounted Police.The judicial system in the territory consisted of a combined court system of stipendiary magistrates who were appointed to the Council of the Northwest Territories and court proceedings taking place in the courts of Manitoba.
History 1905–1999
In 1905, the District of Keewatin became one of four districts in the Northwest Territories, the other three being the District of UngavaDistrict of Ungava
The District of Ungava was a regional administrative district of Canada's Northwest Territories from 1895 to 1912. It covered the northern portion of what is today Quebec, the interior of Labrador and the offshore islands to the west and north, which are now part of the Nunavut.The continental...
, the District of Mackenzie
District of Mackenzie
The District of Mackenzie was a regional administrative district of Canada's Northwest Territories. The district consisted of the portion of the Northwest Territories directly north of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan on Canada's mainland....
, and the District of Franklin
District of Franklin
The District of Franklin was a regional administrative district of Canada's Northwest Territories. The district consisted of the Canadian high Arctic Islands, notably Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, and Victoria Island...
. Keewatin covered the portion of the Northwest Territories north of Manitoba on the mainland, and all islands within Hudson
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...
, James
James Bay
James Bay is a large body of water on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean. James Bay borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario; islands within the bay are part of Nunavut...
, and Ungava
Ungava Bay
Ungava Bay is a large bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik from Baffin Island. The bay is shaped like a rounded square with a side length of about and has an area of approximately...
Bays. After the boundaries of Ontario and Manitoba were extended northward in 1912, Keewatin largely consisted of treeless lands in the Arctic. Because of the harsh winters and lack of inland roads, settlement of the isolated district by whites was poor, and even the native Inuit population was sparse: in 1950, there were just 2,400 persons in the entire district.
On April 1, 1999, the Keewatin Region was formally dissolved, as Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal 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, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
was created from eastern parts of the Northwest Territories, including all of Keewatin. However, as an administrative district of the NWT it had ceased to function several years prior to division.