The North

People crossed into Yukon from Beringia during the last Ice Age, and Dene and other First Nations — among them the Gwich'in, Tutchone, Tlingit, Tłı̨chǫ and Dehcho Dene — lived by hunting, fishing and trade for thousands of years. In the Arctic, Dorset peoples were followed by the Thule, the ancestors of today's Inuit, from around 1000 AD. Martin Frobisher reached Baffin Island in 1576, the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade spread along the Mackenzie River, and the Franklin expedition vanished in the 1840s searching for the Northwest Passage; its ships were found in 2014 and 2016.

In 1896 George Carmack, Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie found gold on a tributary of the Klondike River. Tens of thousands of stampeders crossed the Chilkoot and White passes in 1897–98, Dawson City grew to about 17,000 people by the summer of 1898, and Yukon became a separate territory in 1898. The Alaska Highway, built in 1942, made Whitehorse the hub, and the capital moved there in 1953.

The 20th century brought mining at Yellowknife, government settlement of Inuit in permanent communities, residential schools, the killing of sled dogs, and the 1953 relocation of Inuit families to the High Arctic, for which the federal government apologised in 2010. Land claims reshaped the region: Yukon's Umbrella Final Agreement in 1993, the Inuvialuit and Tłı̨chǫ agreements, and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement of 1993, which led to the creation of Nunavut from the eastern Northwest Territories on 1 April 1999.

Indigenous peoples make up about half of the North's population: around a fifth in Yukon, about half in the Northwest Territories and more than four in five in Nunavut. The Northwest Territories recognises eleven official languages, nine of them Indigenous, and in Nunavut Inuktut — Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun — is a language of government and schools alongside English and French. Both territories use consensus government, without political parties in the legislature.

Inuit art is known worldwide, particularly the prints and carvings of Kinngait (Cape Dorset), where Kenojuak Ashevak worked. Throat singing, drum dancing and Arctic sports are practised at community gatherings and at the Arctic Winter Games, while Iqaluit's Toonik Tyme festival mixes traditional Inuit activities with modern events. Dene drum dances and hand games are part of community life.

Yukon keeps a frontier flavour from the gold rush: Robert Service's poems, vaudeville shows at Dawson City, the "Sourtoe Cocktail" served with a human toe, and long-distance sled dog racing such as the Yukon Quest. Across the North, sharing game with relatives and elders remains an important custom.

Yukon has about 45,000 people, around three-quarters of them in Whitehorse. The Northwest Territories has a similar number, about half in Yellowknife; Hay River, Inuvik and Fort Smith are the next towns. Nunavut's roughly 40,000 people live in about 25 communities, the largest being Iqaluit with about 8,000, followed by Rankin Inlet and Arviat.

Government is the largest employer. Mining drives the private economy — diamonds north-east of Yellowknife, gold in Nunavut, iron ore at Mary River — along with tourism and construction. The cleanup of arsenic waste at Yellowknife's former Giant Mine is a long-term project.

Seasons shape everything: snowmobiles, ice roads and short winter days give way to summer fishing, hunting and camping under the midnight sun. In Nunavut many families still hunt caribou, seal and char. The high cost of food and the housing shortage are serious issues, alongside climate change, which is thinning sea ice, thawing permafrost under buildings and worsening wildfire seasons.

Country food — meat and fish hunted or caught on the land — is central in Inuit and Dene homes. Inuit eat caribou, seal, Arctic char and whale, often raw or frozen; maktaaq, whale skin with a layer of fat, is prized, and char is also dried or smoked. Bannock, a simple pan-fried or baked bread probably introduced by fur traders, is eaten across the North. Dene cooking uses moose, caribou, whitefish and berries, and dried meat is a staple on the land.

In Yukon, Klondike prospectors kept sourdough starter alive through the winter, and long-time residents are still called "sourdoughs". Restaurants in Whitehorse, Dawson and Yellowknife serve local game, Arctic char and fish from Great Slave Lake, and Yukon Brewing and small breweries in Yellowknife make local beers.

In the smaller Arctic communities, store food is flown in at high prices, and country food shared through community freezers and hunters' networks matters for nutrition as well as tradition.

In Yukon, Whitehorse offers the sternwheeler SS Klondike, the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre and Miles Canyon on the Yukon River. The Klondike Highway leads to Dawson City, with Diamond Tooth Gerties casino, Robert Service's cabin, Bonanza Creek and Dredge No. 4; the Tr'ondëk-Klondike area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. North of Dawson the Dempster Highway crosses Tombstone Territorial Park. In the south-west, Kluane National Park holds Mount Logan and vast ice fields.

In the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife's Old Town, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and houseboats on Great Slave Lake are the daytime sights, and nights from late August to April bring the northern lights, often watched from lodges outside town. Nahanni National Park Reserve, one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites, has Virginia Falls and the canyons of the South Nahanni, and Wood Buffalo National Park, shared with Alberta, protects wood bison. Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk lie on the Mackenzie Delta and the Arctic coast.

In Nunavut, Iqaluit has the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, the igloo-shaped St Jude's Cathedral and Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park. Beyond it, Auyuittuq National Park and the Akshayuk Pass near Pangnirtung, the floe edge at Pond Inlet and the wrecks of Franklin's ships attract expedition travellers.