Canada's North

CANADA‘S NORTH

The top of North America has been seen as a rich storehouse of minerals and furs. But to the native peoples it is simply home. They put it this way: “The land is just like our blood because we live off the animals that feed off the land.” They had unwritten maps and place-names and established hunting territories. Outsiders described the land as remote, barren, frigid (vzdálená, neúrodná, chladná). Yet (přesto) the north is no longer truly remote. Today there is air service to every hamlet. With aircraft equipped with skies, prospectors and hunters can land virtually anywhere (skutečně prakticky všude). Oil and gas were found on the Arctic islands. Thanks to satellites you can pick up the phone in Canada’s most northerly settlements. The north is being wired. People in the north have access to the world-internet/" class="wiki-link" title="Viac o: internet">Internet, some of them have e-mail addresses. No matter were you are in the north, you can buy almost anything you want. Virtually every home has a TV set. Remote just means everything costs more – a lot more. In the past most native children were sent to residential schools where they were forbidden to speak their own languages, and some reportedly were sexually abused. That brutal chapter is ending. With the creation of Nunavut a new era of great hopes and great changes began. In the north remnants of traditional life remain preserved at outpost camps. In these camps the Inuit live almost year-round far from the established villages. People wear caribou-skin parkas and sealskin boots. They sleep in canvas tents, or snow houses, eat caribou, fish, seal and walrus (=mrož). They faces are smooth and brown and polished. Hunting is the ultimate (=bezpodmínečný, rozhodující) skill. In the past starvation and illnesses hit the Inuit hard. The life was difficult there. Residents endure 19 weeks of total darkness. High suicide and birth rates and limited social services are not the only problem. In the past the Inuit were forced to give up /=abandon/ their nomadic life and settle down. The biggest change in life is the power of money. the money brings greed (=chtivost – greed of gain). There was no cash in early Inuit life. People traded in shared.