Kuujjuarapik (also spelled Kuujjuaraapik; iu, ᑰᔾᔪᐊᕌᐱᒃ ''little great river''
) is the southernmost
northern village (
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
community) at the mouth of the
Great Whale River
The Great Whale River () is a river in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. It flows from Lac Saint-Luson through Lac Bienville west to Hudson Bay. While lower section of the river (after Lac Bienville) has very powerful current, with many waterfalls (up t ...
(french: Grande Rivière de la Baleine) on the coast of
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
in
Nunavik
Nunavik (; ; iu, ᓄᓇᕕᒃ) comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homeland of the I ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada. Almost 1000 people, mostly
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
, live in the adjacent village of
Whapmagoostui
Whapmagoostui ( cr, ᐙᐱᒫᑯᔥᑐᐃ/Wâpimâkuštui, "place of the beluga") is the northernmost Cree village in Quebec, Canada, located at the mouth of the Great Whale River (french: Grande Rivière de la Baleine) on the coast of Hudson Ba ...
. The community is only accessible by air,
Kuujjuarapik Airport
Kuujjuarapik Airport is located adjacent to the Inuit community of Kuujjuarapik, Quebec, Canada. It also serves the nearby Cree community of Whapmagoostui
Whapmagoostui ( cr, ᐙᐱᒫᑯᔥᑐᐃ/Wâpimâkuštui, "place of the beluga") is ...
and, in late summer, by boat. The nearest Inuit village is
Umiujaq
Umiujaq ( iu, ᐅᒥᐅᔭᖅ) is a northern village (Inuit community) near the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Nunavik in northern Quebec, Canada. The village was established in 1986 by Inuit from Kuujjuarapik, 160 km to the south, who d ...
, about north-northeast of Kuujjuarapik. The police services in Kuujjuaraapik are provided by the
Nunavik Police Service
The Nunavik Police Service (NPS; french: Service de police du Nunavik, iu, ᓄᓇᕕᒻᒥ ᐳᓖᓰᑦ ᐱᒍᑦᔨᔨᖏᑦ) delivers regular policing services in the 14 remote northern villages of the Kativik Region. The headquarters of the N ...
, formerly the Kativik Regional Police Force.
![Kuujjuarapik Whapmagoostui 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Kuujjuarapik_Whapmagoostui_01.jpg)
Like most other northern villages in Quebec, there is an
Inuit reserved land of the same name,
Kuujjuarapik
Kuujjuarapik (also spelled Kuujjuaraapik; iu, ᑰᔾᔪᐊᕌᐱᒃ ''little great river'') is the southernmost northern village (Inuit community) at the mouth of the Great Whale River (french: Grande Rivière de la Baleine) on the coast of H ...
. However, unlike most other Inuit reserved lands, the Inuit reserved land of Kuujjuarapik is not adjacent to its eponymous northern village; rather, it is located considerably farther north and in fact borders on the Inuit reserved land of
Umiujaq
Umiujaq ( iu, ᐅᒥᐅᔭᖅ) is a northern village (Inuit community) near the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Nunavik in northern Quebec, Canada. The village was established in 1986 by Inuit from Kuujjuarapik, 160 km to the south, who d ...
.
Although the permanent cohabitation of Inuit and Cree at the mouth of the Great Whale River only goes back to the year 1950, the two
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
were rubbing shoulders in this area for a very long time: Inuit close to the coast and the Cree more in the interior lands.
History
While the Inuit have hunted and fished along the
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
coast long before the arrival of Europeans, it was not until 1820 when a
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...
(HBC)
trading post
A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded.
Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...
was built there,
known variously as Great Whale River House, Great Whale River or just Great Whale. On maps of 1851 and 1854, the post is called Whale River House and Whale House.
Protestant and Catholic missions settled there in the 1880s. In 1895, a weather station was set up by the
Federal Government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
. Medical and police services began to be offered in the first half of the 20th century,
yet it was not settled permanently and only used as a summer encampment. The official 1901 census count for Great Whale River numbers 216, making note of all the Inuit and their families who lived in the surrounding area and who came to trade at Great Whale River over the course of several months. However, the census taker notes of this official number: "I should say it does not represent one-third of the
Eskimo
Eskimo () is an exonym used to refer to two closely related Indigenous peoples: the Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Greenlandic Inuit, and the Canadian Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Siberian Yupik, Yuit) of eastern Si ...
s, but I am sending on as many (names) as I could obtain."
In the late 1930s, the Inuit were forced to give up their nomadic way of life and settled in the village. In 1940, the American army opened a military air base here, using Inuit and Cree workers. In 1941, the HBC post closed. After the Second World War in 1948, the military base was transferred to the Canadian government and in 1955, it began operating a
Mid-Canada Line
The Mid-Canada Line (MCL), also known as the McGill Fence, was a line of radar stations running east–west across the middle of Canada, used to provide early warning of a Soviet bomber attack on North America. It was built to supplement the ...
radar station called
RCAF Station Great Whale River.
Though the radar station was not operational for long and closed in 1965, it established the village permanently.
In 1961, when the
Quebec Government
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...
decided to give French names to Nordic places, the name Great Whale River was replaced with Grande-Baleine which itself was replaced a year later with Poste-de-la-Baleine.
When the village was incorporated, it officially adopted its current name, a name the Inuit had already been using for some time to designate this place.
Fearing the impact of
planned large-scale hydroelectric works on the Great Whale River, a referendum was held in 1982 in which the Inuit decided to relocate to a new village (
Umiujaq
Umiujaq ( iu, ᐅᒥᐅᔭᖅ) is a northern village (Inuit community) near the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Nunavik in northern Quebec, Canada. The village was established in 1986 by Inuit from Kuujjuarapik, 160 km to the south, who d ...
) some to the north. A large portion of the Inuit moved there in 1986, causing the population of Kuujjuarapik to drop significantly.
Climate
Predictably, given its northern latitude, Kuujjuarapik has a
subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...
(''Dfc'') under the
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
, but strongly modified by its location on the southeastern (predominantly
windward
Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...
) shore of Hudson Bay, particularly from May/June through November, the primary season when Hudson Bay's surface is unfrozen, i.e. open water. Winters are long and cold; summers are cool, strongly influenced by the chilly open waters of Hudson Bay, with August (the warmest month, on average) mustering an average monthly high temperature of only . Freezing conditions () have occurred every month of the year, although the moderating effect of Hudson Bay may hold off the first fall freeze as late as the second week of October in an occasional year, as in 2015. Year-round, climatic conditions are influenced strongly by Hudson Bay's freeze-thaw cycle. January is the coldest month on average; August, the warmest.
The average annual precipitation cycle demonstrates a minimum from mid-winter (January) to mid-spring (May), with sharply rising average monthly precipitation amounts beginning in June, reaching a peak in September, but with only slowly falling average monthly precipitation amounts from September to November. As such, compared to most Northern Hemisphere sub-Arctic climates (which usually have strong precipitation maximums between June and August, usually July), Kuujjuarapik demonstrates a strong tendency favouring a relatively drier spring and relatively wetter autumn. This pattern is a direct consequence of Kuujjuarapik's location on the lee shore of Hudson Bay. Similar to a pattern evident in heavily "lake-influenced" areas around the U.S.
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
(i.e.
Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
and
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie ( ') is the only city in, and county seat of, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 census, it is the second-most populated city in the Upper Peninsula after Marquette. It i ...
), in spring and early summer, water temperatures are cooler than those of surrounding land areas, encouraging low clouds and fog, but also stable conditions and less precipitation. In fall and early winter, the pattern is reversed: water temperatures are warmer than those of surrounding land areas, encouraging
cumulus cloud
Cumulus clouds are clouds which have flat bases and are often described as "puffy", "cotton-like" or "fluffy" in appearance. Their name derives from the Latin ''cumulo-'', meaning ''heap'' or ''pile''. Cumulus clouds are low-level clouds, gener ...
formation and unstable conditions, meaning low-pressure systems passing from cooler land to warmer water often intensify.
In Kuujjuarapik, this pattern means average monthly precipitation peaks in September – when increasingly cold air masses passing eastward and southeastward across the open waters of Hudson Bay are warmed and destabilized by their over-water passage, producing thick clouds and frequent, often-heavy instability rain (and from October to December, snow) showers. This pattern also results in the heaviest average monthly average snowfall amounts coming from October to January, but concentrated in November and December, with "Hudson-Bay effect" snows most common, and markedly less average monthly snowfall from February to May. From late November into December, Hudson Bay freezes, and by January, its frozen surface provides little modification to
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
air mass
In meteorology, an air mass is a volume of air defined by its temperature and humidity. Air masses cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles, and adapt to the characteristics of the surface below them. They are classified according to la ...
es, and less moisture, i.e. snow, to Kuujjuarapik. Also, because Hudson Bay in the fall is open water into mid to late November when freezing begins, the speed of temperature fall during the autumn months is relatively slight from August to October, and steepest from November to January (by which time the bay is fully frozen over).
Overall, Kuujjuarapik's climate is severe and sub-Arctic, but with a relatively slow temperature fall from summer to November due to water influence and delayed freezing of Hudson Bay (late November into December), and a dry spring and wet and stormy fall. Further evidencing these patterns is monthly sunshine data (as a percentage of daylight hours), which shows a marked maximum most months from February to July, and a marked minimum from September to December, when "Bay-induced" cloud cover is highest; in November, the cloudiest month, average sunshine bottoms out at only 13.5% of available daylight hours. Considering its marine position on the
55th parallel, the climate is extremely cold when compared with cities like
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
in northern Europe and
Chinook-affected areas further to the west in Canada's interior.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
, Kuujjuarapik had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Population trend:
* Population in 2021: 792 (2016 to 2021 population change: 21.1%)
* Population in 2016: 686 (2011 to 2016 population change: 4.4%)
* Population in 2011: 657
* Population in 2006: 568
* Population in 2001: 555
* Population in 1996: 579
* Population in 1991: 605
Education
The
Kativik School Board
The Kativik School Board (KSB; french: Commission scolaire Kativik, iu, ᑲᑎᕕᒃ ᐃᓕᓴᕐᓂᓕᕆᓂᖅ Kativik Ilisarniliriniq) is a school district with territory in Nunavik in northern Quebec; it has an office in the Saint-Laurent ar ...
operates the Asimauttaq School.
[Our Schools]
" Kativik School Board
The Kativik School Board (KSB; french: Commission scolaire Kativik, iu, ᑲᑎᕕᒃ ᐃᓕᓴᕐᓂᓕᕆᓂᖅ Kativik Ilisarniliriniq) is a school district with territory in Nunavik in northern Quebec; it has an office in the Saint-Laurent ar ...
. Retrieved on September 23, 2017.
Notable people
*
Mina Napartuk (1913–2001), artist
See also
*
North West River
North West River is a small town located in central Labrador. Established in 1743 as a trading post by French Fur Trader Louis Fornel, the community later went on to become a hub for the Hudson's Bay Company and home to a hospital and school s ...
/
Sheshatshiu
Sheshatshiu () is an Innu federal reserve and designated place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The reserve is approximately north of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Some references may spell the community's name as Sheshatshit, ...
, adjacent Inuit/Cree (Innu) communities in
Labrador
, nickname = "The Big Land"
, etymology =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Canada
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 ...
.
References
External links
{{Commons category
Kuujjuarapik official siteWhapmagoostui official site
Inuit communities in Quebec
Hudson's Bay Company trading posts
Populated places on Hudson Bay
Road-inaccessible communities of Quebec
1980 establishments in Quebec
Populated places established in 1980