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Canadian Theme Unit

Nunavut and Confederation

Nunavut and Confederation
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.71

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    caribou, nineteenth, tundra, violent, natural, inland, schools, whales, posts, longer, seals, government, meant, history, stayed, extra
     content words:    Bering Land Bridge, Then Inuit, Northwest Territories, Nunavut Land Claims Project

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Nunavut and Confederation
By Mary Lynn Bushong 		  
1     What would you do if someone took over your country? Sometimes it is violent. Sometimes it is slow. Sometimes people don't know it has happened until it is over. Then it is too late.
 
2     Nunavut has had a long history of people. About 4,000 years ago the Dorset or Tuniit people moved across the tundra. They were thought to have crossed over from Russia. They may have used the Bering Land Bridge. It has since disappeared.
 
3     Then about 1,000 years ago, a new people moved to the Arctic. They were called the Thule. They hunted whales and traded with Vikings. From this trade they got metal tools.
 
4     About 500 years after they began hunting in the high Arctic, the Thule changed. Instead of hunting whales, they moved inland in smaller family groups. Instead of depending on whales, they hunted caribou and seals as well. The called themselves the Inuit.
 
5     When explorers went to the Arctic, they met these people. They changed the lives of the Inuit forever.
 
6     Life in the Arctic meant lots of hunting. Since the animals moved around, the people did too. The explorers did not stay long. Soon fur traders came. They stayed and learned the Inuit language.
 
7     The traders told the Inuit what furs they wanted. Then Inuit traded the furs for new things. Hunting had gotten them what they needed to survive. Now it could get them extra things, too.
 
8     Soon the Inuit were no longer following the animals. They chose to live near the trading posts. Soon the old ways were forgotten.
 
9     Over the years, different groups claimed control of Inuit land. They did not ask the Inuit. They just took it.

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