The Ottawa Islands (
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 ...
: ''Arviliit'' or ''Arqvilliit'' in Inuktitut meaning "place where you see bowhead whales") are a group of currently uninhabited islands situated in the eastern edge of
Canada's
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...
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 ...
. The group comprises 24 small islands, located at approximately 60N 80W.
[Columbia Gazetteer of North America](_blank)
, accessed May 30, 2007 The main islands include
Booth Island
Booth Island (or Wandel Island) is a rugged, Y-shaped island, long and rising to off the northwest coast of Kyiv Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica in the northeastern part of the Wilhelm Archipelago. The narrow passage between the island a ...
,
Bronson Island
Bronson Island is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of 24 islands that make up the Ottawa Islands, situated in the eastern portion of Hudson Bay.
Other islands in the vicinity include Booth Island, Gil ...
,
Eddy Island
Eddy Island is an uninhabited island in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Situated in the eastern portion of Hudson Bay, it is one of 24 islands that make up the Ottawa Islands.
Other islands in the vicinity include J. Gordon Island, Pattee ...
,
Gilmour Island
Gilmour Island is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of 24 islands that make up the Ottawa Islands, situated in the eastern portion of Hudson Bay. The highest point is over .
Other islands in the vicinity ...
,
J. Gordon Island,
Pattee Island
Pattee Island is an uninhabited island in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of 24 islands that make up the Ottawa Islands, situated in the eastern portion of Hudson Bay.
Other islands in the vicinity include Booth Island (Nunavut), B ...
, and
Perley Island
Perley Island is an uninhabited island in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of 24 islands that make up the Ottawa Islands, situated in the eastern portion of Hudson Bay.
Other islands in the vicinity include Booth Island, Bronson Is ...
. The highest point is on Gilmour Island, which rises to over .
Located a short distance off the northwest coast of Quebec's
Ungava Peninsula
The Ungava Peninsula of Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, is bounded by Hudson Bay to the west, Hudson Strait to the north, and Ungava Bay to the east. This peninsula is part of the Labrador Peninsula, and covers about . Its northernmost point is Cape W ...
, they, like the other coastal islands in Hudson Bay, were historically part of the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
, and became
Crown Land
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...
upon the creation of
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
in 1999. Nunavik Inuit have occupied these islands since time immemorial and gained constitutionally-protected harvest and access rights under the Nunavik Inuit Land Claim Agreement signed in 2007.
Geography
The Ottawa Islands are situated on the barren and rocky east coast of Hudson Bay.
["Hudson Bay." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003]
Answers.com 26 Jan. 2007
Accessed 01-26-2007. By 1610 Hudson Bay had been explored and named by
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.
In 1607 and 160 ...
in his quest for a
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...
.
It wasn't until 1631 when
Luke Fox
Luke Foxe (or Fox) (20 October 1586 – c. 15 July 1635) was an English explorer, born in Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire, who searched for the Northwest Passage across North America. In 1631, he sailed much of the western Hudson Bay before ...
e (or Fox) on a voyage from "
Vltimum Vale" (
Cape Henrietta Maria
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. The ...
), near 57° 40', indicated that "Mr. Hudson calls those islands by the name of 'Lancaster's Iles.' " According to historian
T.H. Manning, there is no other record of Henry Hudson naming islands in that region.
[Manning, T.H., "Explorations on the East Coast of Hudson Bay". ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 109, No. 1/3 (Jan. - Mar., 1947), pp. 58-75, ]
Republished
by JSTOR, Accessed 01-26-2007. A little further north, near 58° 5',
Capt.
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Foxe says "Wee came by a small Iland at clocke one, the highest I haue seene since I came from Brook Cobham; the deep 70 fathome. I named the ''Ile Sleepe''." Foxe named the islands just north of Lancaster Isle, "Ile Sleepe". According to Manning, the name, having eventually changed to "Sleeper Island" or "The Sleepers", could be used "for the islands between and including Lancaster and Ottawa Islands."
Further coordinate readings
*
Fauna
The Ottawa Islands and the southwardly
Belcher Islands
The Belcher Islands ( iu, script=latn, ᓴᓪᓚᔪᒐᐃᑦ, Sanikiluaq) are an archipelago in the southeast part of Hudson Bay near the centre of the Nastapoka arc. The Belcher Islands are spread out over almost . Administratively, they belon ...
are a breeding ground for "the Hudson Bay subspecies of the
Common Eider
The common eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria mollissima''), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large ( in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It bree ...
". In 1765 commercial whaling of
bowhead
The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus'') is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and the only living representative of the genus ''Balaena''. They are the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, an ...
s was started by Churchill-based
sloops
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
of the
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 ...
with some whales being harvested in the Ottawa Islands.
[Government of Canada - Fisheries and Oceans Canada.]
Harvesting
Chapter 14.5.3, page 14-19. Information originally sourced from (Flaherty 1918; Newspaper Clipping in PAC, MG 29, A58, Vol 8.,File 5 in Reeves and Mitchell 1987). Accessed 06-11-2007 The islands are important habitat for polar bears
and many waterfowl. The waters surrounding the islands are important habitat for seals, walrus and bowhead and beluga whales.
See also
*
Arctic Archipelago
The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark).
Situated in the northern extremity of No ...
*
Glacial landform
Glacial landforms are landforms created by the action of glaciers. Most of today's glacial landforms were created by the movement of large ice sheets during the Quaternary glaciations. Some areas, like Fennoscandia and the southern Andes, have ...
References
Bibliography
*Manning, T. H. ''Birds and Mammals of the Belcher, Sleeper, Ottawa and King George Islands, and Northwest Territories''. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service, 1976.
*Manning, T.H., "Ruins of Eskimo Stone Houses on the East Side of Hudson Bay". ''American Antiquity'', Vol. 11, No. 3 (Jan., 1946), pp. 201–202. , Republished by JSTOR
Web Link Accessed 01-26-2007.
External links
Toparama - Topographic Maps from Natural Resources Canada2006 Beluga Statistics From Weekly Reports(Contains a map of the region)
The Atlas of Canada map of Ottawa Islands from 1976
Plant and Phytoplankton study of Hudson Bay
{{Islands of the Qikiqtaaluk Region
Archipelagoes of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Islands of Hudson Bay
Uninhabited islands of Qikiqtaaluk Region