1927 - 1959
Aklavik, NWT, is located on the west side of the Mackenzie River Delta (Peel Channel), about 110 km upstream from the Arctic coast. The community formally dates from 1912 when the Hudson’s Bay Company established a trading post to serve the Inuvialuit, Gwich’in and Métis peoples in the region. Aklavik enjoyed a close proximity to the sea and Yukon’s North Slope area, which, until the 1980s, provided much of the community with good livelihoods through trapping, hunting and fishing. Due to its strategic location, Aklavik became the western Arctic’s main commercial and government administrative centre in the 1920s. By 1930 its population reached 400 and by 1952 it had peaked at about 1600, with an influx of several hundred more in summer. The community is located in the Gwitch’in Settlement Area, established in 1993 as part of the Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement signed by Ottawa and the Gwich’in peoples of the lower Mackenzie region.
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