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Alaska Highway: A 1,520-mile (2,446 km) road completed in 1942 from Dawson Creek, BC, to Fairbanks, Alaska, as a US supply route for the Second World War. It was opened to the public in 1948.
DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line: Series of radar installations built above the Arctic Circle and extending from Alaska across northern Canada to Greenland that began operation in 1954. It was meant to serve as a warning system for over-the-pole attacks on North America by nuclear-armed bombers from the Soviet Union.
Inukshuk: In Inuit territories, inukshuk are structures made of piled stones that mark sacred places or food storage locations, or are signposts for navigation. The term translates as “to act in the capacity of a human.” In the Baffin Island region, Inukshuk have been found that date to 2400 BCE.
Inuktitut: The original language of Inuit people.
Northwest Passage: Before the actual geography of the northern reaches of North America was fully surveyed, it was hoped that there would be a navigable northern route for international shipping over the top of the continent; however, the Arctic ice conditions proved impossible for shipping to traverse during the historical era. However, today with global warming, it is anticipated that as the Arctic loses its ice, such a passage will be feasible.
Nunavut Act: (1973) The Nunavut Act established a territory known as Nunavut from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories and established its government after a transitional period in 1999.
Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act: (1993) Legislation that paved the way for the creation of the self-governing territory of Nunavut by approving the largest land claim settlement in Canadian history. The Act consists of 42 chapters that address a range of political and environmental rights and concerns of the Inuit people and provided them with title to approximately 350,000 square kilometers of land, including the subsurface mineral rights, and $1.9 billion to be distributed over the next 15 years.
usufructuary right: In Aboriginal law, the legal right to use the resources of land without the ability to transfer that right to anyone but the Crown with the assurance that the owner will not make the land unusable for purposes of the usufructary right. This is the basis for the duty to consult. (See duty to consult and St Catharines Milling and Lumber Co. v. The Queen.)