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National Geographic : 1982 Mar
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Federal approval would still leave the new territory heavily dependent on Ottawa for money, with almost no tax base of its own, Tagak pointed out. Nunavut would have but two high schools, one in Rankin In let and another, along with a hospital, far to the east on Baffin Island. Jobs in many east ern arctic communities are scarce. Where jobs are available, Tagak went on, few Inuit apply: "The government has made it too easy for our people to stay in their vil lages and live off hunting and assistance payments. We have a hard time getting In uit to go where there is work." If life here for Inuit is comfortable now, it has not always been so. Visiting Baker Lake, with a 1981 population of 1,100 and 394 the only inland village in Keewatin, I walked up a low hill outside town to the cemetery. Cairns were piled haphazardly on rows of coffins, many child-size, laid on the impenetrable permafrost. This is a harsh land. But at the end of my winter journey I was certain of one thing-it was not the simple, lifeless desert I thought I saw when I arrived. Any Port in a Storm Charlie Tarkik looked worried. Several of the thwarts on his 24-foot canoe had snapped, the gunwales were splintering, and now the outboard motor was acting up. On this blustery August day there was pack ice in Hudson Strait, at the north end of NationalGeographic, March 1982
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