Alaska News

Quebec settles on historic Nunavik sled-dog slaughter

According to Nunavut's Nunatsiaq News, the government of Quebec has officially acknowledged the mass killings by provincial authorities of at least 1,000 Nunavik sled dogs during the 1950's and 1960's. Losing sled teams traumatized traditional society and hastened a rapid transformation of local culture. Quebec signed an agreement Monday acknowledging the slaughter and its huge negative impact on families across Nunavik. The agreement requires $3 million restitution to be paid to Makivik Corp. for efforts to protect and promote the Inuit language and culture, and to install plaques for each of Nunavik's 14 villages commemorating the dog slaughter. Read much more from Nunatsiaq, here, and from The Canadian Press, via CBC News, here.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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