A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North
NORTHERN LIGHTS SERIES
Copublished with the Arctic Institute of North America
issn 1701-0004 (print) issn 1925-2943 (online)
This series takes up the geographical region of the North (circumpolar regions within the zone of discontinuous permafrost) and publishes works from all areas of northern scholarship, including natural sciences, social sciences, earth sciences, and the humanities.
No. 1 Nunavik: Inuit-Controlled Education in Arctic Quebec Ann Vick-Westgate Copublished with the Katutjiniq Regional Development Council
No. 2 Many Faces of Gender: Roles and Relationships through Time in Northern Indigenous Communities Edited by Lisa Frink, Rita S. Shepard, and Gregory A. Reinhardt Copublished with University Press of Colorado
No. 3 New Owners in their Own Land: Minerals and Inuit Land Claims Robert McPherson
No. 4 War North of 80: The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II Wilhelm Dege, translated and edited by William Barr Copublished with University Press of Colorado
No. 5 Writing Geographical Exploration: Thomas James and the Northwest Passage 163133 Wayne K.D. Davies
No. 6 As Long as This Land Shall Last: A History of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, 18701939 Ren Fumoleau
No. 7 Breaking Ice: Renewable Resource and Ocean Management in the Canadian North Edited by Fikret Berkes, Rob Huebert, Helen Fast, Micheline Manseau, and Alan Diduck
No. 8 Alliance and Conflict: The World System of the Inupiaq Eskimos Ernest S. Burch Copublished with the University of Nebraska Press
No. 9 Tanana and Chandalar: The Alaska Field Journals of Robert A. McKennan Edited by Craig Mishler and William E. Simeone Copublished with University of Alaska Press
No. 10 Resurrecting Dr. Moss: The Life and Letters of a Royal Navy Surgeon, Edward Lawton Moss, MD, RN, 18371880 Paul C. Appleton, edited by William Barr
No. 11 Lands that Hold One Spellbound: A Story of East Greenland Spencer Apollonio
No. 12 Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Human Ecology in the Arctic Karim-Aly S. Kassam
No. 13 Arctic Scientist, Gulag Survivor: The Biography of Mikhail Mikhailovich Ermolaev, 19051991 A.M. Ermolaev and V.D. Dibner, translated and edited by William Barr
No. 14 The Reindeer Botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 19011977 Wendy Dathan
No. 15 The Fast-Changing Arctic: Rethinking Arctic Security for a Warmer World Edited by Barry Scott Zellen
No. 16 Shipwreck at Cape Flora: The Expeditions of Benjamin Leigh Smith, Englands Forgotten Arctic Explorer P.J. Capelotti
No. 17 A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North: Terrestrial Sovereignty, 18701939 Gordon W. Smith, edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer
Tom and Nell Smith, 2014
Editors Note P. Whitney Lackenbauer, 2014
University of Calgary Press
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This book is available as an ebook which is licensed under a Creative Commons license. The publisher should be contacted for any commercial use which falls outside the terms of that license.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Smith, Gordon W., 1918-2000, author
A historical and legal study of sovereignty in the Canadian north : terrestrial sovereignty, 18701939 / Gordon W. Smith ; edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer.
(Northern lights series, 1701-0004 ; no. 17)
Co-published by the Arctic Institute of North America.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-55238-720-7 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-55238-774-0 (open access pdf).
ISBN 978-1-55238-776-4 (epub).ISBN 978-1-55238-775-7 (pdf).
ISBN 978-1-55238-777-1 (mobi)
1. Canada, NorthernInternational statusHistory. 2. Jurisdiction, TerritorialCanada, NorthernHistory. 3. SovereigntyHistory. 4. Canada, NorthernHistory. 5. CanadaForeign relations1867-1918. 6. CanadaForeign relations1918-1945. I. Lackenbauer, P. Whitney, editor II. Arctic Institute of North America, issuing body III. Title. IV. Series: Northern lights series; no. 17
FC3956.S58 2014 971.9 C2014-902964-0 C2014-902965-9
The University of Calgary Press acknowledges the support of the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Media Fund for our publications. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis
This book is printed on FSC Silva Enviro paper
Cover design, page design, and typesetting by Melina Cusano
E-book conversion by Human Powered Design
Contents
Editors Note P. Whitney Lackenbauer
Introduction: Territorial Sovereignty before 1870
1: The Transfers of Arctic Territories from Great Britain to Canada, 187080
2: Period of Relative Inactivity and Unconcern, 188095
3: Organization and Administration of the NWT, 18951918
4: Whaling and the Yukon Gold Rush
5: The Alaska Boundary Dispute
6: Foreign Explorers in the Canadian North, 18771917
7: Canadian Government Expeditions to Northern Waters, 18971918
8: The Sector Principle and the Background of Canadas Sector Claim
9: Vilhjalmur Stefansson and His Plans for Northern Enterprise after the First World War
10: Danish Sovereignty, Greenland, and the Ellesmere Island Affair of 191921
11: The Wrangel Island Affair of the Early 1920s
12: The Question of Sovereignty over the Sverdrup Islands, 192530
13: The Eastern Greenland Case and Its Implications for the Canadian North
14: American Explorers in the Canadian Arctic and Related Matters, 191839
15: The Eastern Arctic Patrol, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Other Government Activities, 192239
16: Epilogue: Henry Larsen, the St. Roch, and the Northwest Passage Voyage of 194042
Notes
Bibliography
Additional Readings
Index
Foreword: Gordon W. Smith
Tom W. Smith and Nell Smith
Gordon Ward Smith is our uncle and we are the trustees of his lifes work, A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North and Related Law of the Sea Problems.
We, like him, love Canada and wish to act only in Canadas best interest. By making this work available to scholars and policy makers, we honour and acknowledge his legacy, represented by this comprehensive body of scrupulous research and unfailing historical accuracy that only a historian of Gordons calibre could have produced.
