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- <text id=92TT1126>
- <title>
- May 18, 1992: It's Cold, But It's Ours
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- May 18, 1992 Roger Keith Coleman:Due to Die
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 21
- WORLD
- It's Cold, But It's Ours
- </hdr><body>
- <p>A plebiscite points toward a homeland for Canada's Eskimos
- by 1999
- </p>
- <p> About 15,000 voters in Canada's sparsely settled Northwest
- Territories made it to the polls last week and narrowly approved
- a plan to split the vast region in two. Once a chain of legal
- steps is completed, the new 772,000-sq.-mi. territory, to be
- called Nunavut, will become a national home for the Eskimo --
- or Inuit -- of the country's eastern Arctic. It will encompass
- a huge area of mainland and islands stretching from Manitoba
- almost to the North Pole that is thought to be rich in oil and
- minerals.
- </p>
- <p> Though the plebiscite was not formally binding on the
- Canadian government, Ottawa is going ahead with its plans to set
- up a local administration and hand over political control of
- the area by 1999. In November the residents, 85% of whom are
- Inuit, will be asked to vote again on a complicated land
- settlement. The deal will offer the Inuit outright ownership of
- 135,000 sq. mi. and a cash payment of $1 billion over 14 years.
- If it is accepted, a crash program will begin training the Inuit
- to take over administration of the Nunavut territorial
- government.
- </p>
- <p> Even then Nunavut ("our land") will not come into existence
- until the whole package is submitted to Parliament for
- ratification.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-