Native names for Native places

On 1 January 1987, the municipality of Frobisher Bay became officially known as Iqaluit. The name, meaning "place of fish" in Inuktitut, was long used by the Inuit for their community at this major centre of the eastern Arctic on Baffin Island.

Settlement in the area of Frobisher Bay has its roots in the establishment of a Hudson's Bay Company post on the south side of Frobisher Bay in December 1914, some 125 kilometres southeast of the present municipality. The post, actually a simple 3-metre by 4-metre hut, was moved up the bay to Fletcher Island in the spring of 1915. Five years later it was transferred across the 35-kilometre-wide Frobisher Bay to Waddell Bay. From 1921 to 1949, the post was located on Cormack Bay, some 70 kilometres southeast of present Iqaluit. In the fall of 1949, the Frobisher Bay post was moved to Apex Hill, 6 kilometres southeast of the United States air base, built near the head of the bay in 1942. In 1951, the area of the air base was officially named Frobisher, and that of the trading post was called Frobisher Bay. The latter became Apex in 1965.

In 1971, the municipal hamlet of Frobisher Bay in the area of the air base was incorporated. It became a village in 1974, a town in 1980.

In December 1984, the residents of Frobisher Bay voted 310 to 213 to have the name replaced by Iqaluit. This was subsequently confirmed by the Northwest Territories Executive Council, to take effect on the first day of 1987.

In 1965, the small Inuit community between the townsite and Apex Hill was officially named Ikaluit. As the community is within the town of Iqaluit, this variant spelling was dropped in 1989.

As to the name for the water feature, originally called Frobisher's Strait in 1576 by Martin Frobisher, there are no plans to change Frobisher Bay.

Recognition of Native community names in preference to non-Native names began in the western Arctic, where Tuktoyaktuk replaced Port Brabant in 1950. Vilhjalmur Stefansson reported that "Tuktuyaktok", meaning "place where there are caribou", was in use when he was there in the winter of 1907. However, the Hudson's Bay Company introduced the name Port Brabant in 1936, and this was adopted by the Geographic Board a year later. In 1948, postal officials requested the acceptance of Tuktoyaktuk for the new post office, but HBC and the noted ethnologist Diamond Jenness recommended Tuktuk. The board disliked this popular variation of the native name, and adopted Port Brabant for the post office. Two years later the board accepted the local name Tuktoyaktuk for the community and post office.

Much of the recent work in Native name restoration has been undertaken by the Commission de toponymie du Québec to reflect more closely the usage of the Inuit. Examples were the change of Port Harrison to Inoucdjouac (although Port Harrison remained the postal name), Notre-Dame-d'Ivugivic to Ivujuvik, and Notre-Dame-de-Koartac to Koartac. Even Port Burwell was changed to Killiniq by the Quebec commission, although the community, since abandoned, was in the Northwest Territories.

In 1979 and 1980, the commission decided that the actual names and the romanized spellings used by the native people in their own communities should take precedence. The following year Canada Post agreed to change its postal designations to conform to local preferences. The main changes that resulted in Quebec were:
 

• Inukjuak, from Port Harrison (1908) and Inoucdjouac (1965)
• Kangiqsualujjuaq, from George River (1876) and Port-Nouveau-Québec (1965)
• Kangiqsujuaq, from Wakeham Bay (1930s) and Maricourt (Wakeham) (1965)
• Kangirsuk, from Payne Bay (1940s) and Bellin (Payne) (1965)
• Kuujjuaq, from Fort Chimo (1830-43, 1866) and Fort-Chimo (1965)
• Quaqtaq, from Koartak (1940s) and Notre-Dame-de-Koartac (1961) and Koartac (1965)
• Salluit, from Sugluk (1947) and Saglouc (1965).

As early as 1756 there was a trading post at Great Whale River on the east coast of Hudson Bay. The community was renamed Poste-de-la-Baleine in 1965, and the post office was changed to this in 1979. The Quebec commission officially recognized the Inuit name Kuujjuaraapik in 1979 for the Inuit part of the village, and Whapmagoostui for the Cree part. Canada Post changed the post office to Kuujjuaraapik in 1992.

How well some of the native names are being received throughout the Native communities of the North remains to be seen. In arranging for air travel from Kuujjuaq to other communities, it has been said that some native travellers will use the previous name (George River) to ensure that they get to Kangiqsualujjuaq, if that's where they're going, and not to Kangiqsujuaq.

Elsewhere in Canada, the trend of changing community names to those used by Native people, where they form the majority of residents, is slowly picking up.

In British Columbia, the Indian band council of Port Simpson requested in 1985 that its community be changed to Lax Kw'alaams. Meaning "place of wild roses" in Tsimshian, this name had long been used by the native people. The change was officially made in July 1986, based on agreement by the names committee members for British Columbia and the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Canada Post also renamed its post office. Port Simpson itself was named in 1831 for Capt. Aemilius Simpson, who was then employed in the Nass River area in the marine service of the Hudson's Bay Company.

In 1989, the name of the hamlet Eskimo Point, N.W.T., on the west coast of Hudson Bay, was changed to Arviat. In 1992, Spence Bay, N.W.T., at the south end of Boothia Peninsula, became Taloyoak, and the Dene name {1}utselk'e was substituted for Snowdrift, on the southeastern shore of Great Slave Lake.

By the end of the century there may be few English and French names of native communities left in Canada. As reviews are made of each community name, don't be surprised to see Cambridge Bay become Ikaluktutiak, Coral Harbour change to Salliq, Hall Beach to Sanirajak, Resolute to Qausuittuq, and Chesterfield Inlet to Igluligaarjuk. Some other Dene community names may also be changed, such as Nahanni Butte to Tthenaagoo and Fort Norman to Tulít'a.

Since our adjustment to Tuktoyaktuk is complete, and since references to Inukjuak and Kuujjuaq can usually now be made without adding their former names, we shouldn't worry too much as more and more changes are made from English and French names to native ones.

Source: Natural Resources Canada / Rayburn, Alan (1994): Naming Canada - stories about place names from Canadian Geographic. University of Toronto Press, Toronto