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PAGE 4A
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Thursday, March 25,1999
http://curiocity.com
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Canada’s first inhabitants get a BB
new territory to call their own.
Ice gohgfl
Strange things go on in the land of
the midnight sun, otherwise known
as the Arctic, where no trees grow and
winter temperatures dip to -40°E
’ , Or so the legends go. And maybe
. they’re true.
Poof goes a territory
. -On April 1,1999, the Northwest
Territories (NWT) in Canada’s Arctic
will completely disappear from the map.
• • Forget April Fools - this is no joke. The
’■ people in Canada’s eastern Arctic will be
living in none of it, er, Nunavut.
Say what?
’ Nunavut (noo-na
voot) is a new territo
ry Canada is creating
in the eastern Arctic
. so the Inuit, the
majority of the peo
ple who live there,
can run the local gov
ernment
' The Inuit are the
■‘j first people who
■ arrived on the Arctic
scene. They carved
out away of life
there over 4,000
years ago - long before European set
tlers set foot in North America and
founded Canada and the United States.
Now the Inuit want their own gov
ernment so they can make decisions that
work for Arctic life and have a say in
what happens on their land. In fact, in
Inuktitut, the Inuit’s language, Nunavut
means “our land.”
The eagle has landed
There’s more stuff that’s cool about
Nunavut than just the temperature,
though. This new territory is shaped like
a flying eagle and it’s 1.9 million square
kilometers. That’s one-fifth the size of
Canada and four times as big as
California!
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IMraBIB U I® rm su « the Arctic would be Do * OU th,nk K WOuW 1,0 tO ° cold to livc m ,**
’M ! freezing. Brrrr!!! That is not a COOI -or too cold -to live Region. 1 would misshaving
' funky doodles idea! That in the Arctic region? the summer and all the trees
: JXTUKH If ! Super brrr! eme t 0 death ’ j think that it wou |d be frecz- there aren’t that many malls
;■ -rtteArctic. :r.JSfiXg*
Z •WWffrPsARWFoR ICE ,??; "f I men all year long. You'd eat a . aiw, U, ChteMn.
' -Lest - h 1 I bt of new foods and learn
* WHAT W 5lO “ 5 ! about new cultures. I think that
REawny ipst A hemb&r? I 11 I it would be awesome! You d be
jfiRMA j-E I It would be cool able to play with seals and i think that it would be too
. . CTb&VEUPgoIAETUINIa ' because a lot of people polar ° f c dd to li« in rhe Arctic
w urlVLiiii/C ii -fi. iCT/a >S . don’t live there and you new peoplf and have a lot or 180 not like the
WEAHIHGRjL. 1b g § I could go sledding on new fri nds. Well, the Arctic ■ You
L I ' It • big hills. That would be would be fine by me as long as S have to wear a lot of
gilt BjSTIWNa Since I «o« clothing,and you«dl Mb. .
AAar »o. uneric- Ifb S UttMtown, «• -ate«nM.,V>.
• >AN ARM MUsClf-—KE — > I , PBmwtvßii, .edHtinru
•WiAT you keep toHave ■
H ORPERIb PRIVE! —ICE— =•-«u... A'
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_
Nunavut is the largest land claim ever
settled in Canada - maybe even the
world - with an aboriginal group (a
group of native people). And it didn’t
happen overnight. It took the Canadian
government and the Inuit people about
25 years of talking, brainstorming,
debating and negotiating to work out a
plan.
Other governments around the world
are watching to see how things go. It’s
not every day that land claim agree
ments are reached peacefully and the
borders of an area are redrawn without
HJ
I
about it. A group called the Nunavut
Implementation Commission (NIC) is
designing the new government by talk
ing to the people of Nundvut about
what the government should be and
how it should work. And the people are
voting on some of the key decisions,
such as which city should be the new
territory’s capital.
It’s a real case of democracy in action,
and it’s been like that all along.
In 1982, for instance, the people of
the NWT voted on whether they wanted
to split it up to create Nunavut. Then in
1992, they voted on where the borders
between Nunavut and the remaining ter
ritory should be. Believe it or not, one of
the biggest debates sprung up over
guns going off or a
war being fought.
Nunavut or
bust
How do you cre
ate a new territory
and a new govern
ment? There’s no
instruction book to
follow, that’s for
sure. You have to
make it up as you
go along.
And that’s exact
ly what’s exciting
which territory would get to keep the
polar-bear-shaped license plate! (It was
finally decided that they both can keep
Kids make tracks / jf
Thousands of kids in the Arctic and Z||M
around the world are getting in on the Zj£pfts ky
act, too. They’re helping to plan
the new government through. ft| }
the Countdown to Nunavut & zV
mission Web site ftN .
(www.arctic.ca/ ft
LUS/N’unavut.html) at Leo ft „.. NhN-
Ussak Public School m Rankin -
Inlet. B
The mission asks kids to ♦, i Nf’ *
research an important Jg ■ ?<JNNN;/ *
issue like health care or
jobs, write a report on
it and send the report
to the NIC. Bill
Belsey, a teacher at JH
the school, created ft > \
the mission because
he "wanted voting
people to know i
that they have a JEzNV'NyNrB:; W&'f’
place, a voice in ft » . v- ,
all of this.” B'
Nunavut, JS ?' 1 yHLsftgf ,
explains Beisev. is
a chance for the amM. "N A ' * <T‘ t j
Inmt - voting and
old alike - to ft
make footprints in
new snow. ftjßftFlftpktf. ,
And what’s cooler than .g
that? ft J ; ~N . tN?",
Ask Critter
—i —..—. r -——. -*
—~ How many great pandas are there on Earth?
T ~ - Angel P., 11, Georgia
~ ..... -jg - - - —!■■-.■—■» 4 -. ■--•■■ u - i- - --. -ri-1 -I I .11 ■■ I- - ‘ -
Not riiiany, I'm sad to say. There are an estimated 1,000 giant pandas in
the wild, all of them in bamboo forests in southwestern China. A handful
more bxist in zoos around the world, including some reserves in China.
Why so few? Their habitat is being destroyed by spreading human popu- ,
—■ lations, and they are often poached for their fur. Plus humans don’t
understand their behavior well enough to help. ,“
Do you have ■ tough qucutfon tor Crtttor? Send It to MaStona-
B Ask Critter, 730 N. FrankHn, Satta 700, Chicago, K. 00010 or
ft wrnail your aaeatlaa tec CrtttovOcMrtocltjLcovß
ft'- .•■ftk ‘’jksSK B
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1 Inukshuk Guide to *
■Nunavut
Follow that Inukshuk! These stone figures pop up throupi-
B out Nunavut. Ancient Inuit hunters built them to mark good
nsning spots, minting grounds, mgn areas or tana ana
trails home. Now they often help travelers
.. ‘ , a , find their ways.
Some other Nunavut facts:
ft Capital: Iqaluit, the largest community in -
Nunavut. In December. Iqaluit gets as little as
~ „Z ,’/* as, SV « W S ix hours of sunlight a day. But in June, you
■F won't want to be without your shades,
because the sun shines for a full 24 hours a day!
Languages spoken: Inuktitut,
ft Inuinnaqtun. or there
least words for more than
B w ° rds f ° r sn ° w
B Population: 24,665. call Nunavut the
;B ffiBBBBIQgjjIiSSEBB v ' rtual y° uth zone A whopping 40 percent of
ft the population is 15 years old or under!
||| J' ft Location: Nunavut straddles the Arctic
I Circle in the eastern part of Canada's north
fej| It's made up of the most northern and coldest
« PartS ° f Canada - Brrrr!
N;. ft Fastest way to get around: Snowmobile.
ft Although four the
ft California has only
|b Popular grub: Pizza, hamburgers, French fries.
ft Local restaurants also dish up caribou and whale
meat. It may sound gross, but muktuq (whale
blubber) is considered a special treat!
Flag: It’s a mystery blowing in the wind
A to a flag
ft held across Canada. But nobody knows
. ft what the winning design looks like It
won’t be revealed until April 1!
- Keltie Thomas
Celebrate this lend-
, T * j _- s NT.’ mart 4 occasion with
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