In the midst of grappling with the impact of global warming on the Arctic, with a seemingly growing list of nations laying competing claims to maritime access to the Northwest Passage and the riches lying beneath the forbidding landscape, the Inuit are turning towards land claims agreements reached with the Government of Canada to address the environmental challenges faced by their communities.

Faced with a way of life under siege, the Inuit have already begun testing the flexibility and fluidity of northern land claims agreements, having filed a $1-billion suit against the federal government in what may be a foreshadow of long drawn-out legal battles spurred in part by shifting environmental and climatic changes in the north. (more…)