There is a very rocky history of discrimination and prejudice against aboriginal people in Canada but until 1939 Inuit peoples were not considered by the Canadian government aboriginals. In 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that, for administrative purposes, the Inuit should be considered as "Indians" and be the responsibility of the federal government. Shortly afterwards, The Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources was mandated with the welfare of the Inuit. They were painted as savages by the government and people that needed to be “westernised”.

In the late 1940’s to the Early 1950’s  the far north took on a strategic advantage for the country when it was discovered that there was even more good mining up in the north by where the present day Northwest Territories and Nunavut are.(Pritzker, 1998) At this point many non-natives began to move up north to begin creating mines and beginning to build houses and communities, but these people also bought drugs and alcohol with them. At this point the government decided that they needed to fix the “Indian problem” in the north because the nomadic Inuit peoples in the north of Canada were “getting in the way” of development. At this point the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources took action in assimilating them into western culture and opened residential schools for inuit children to go to.  The deparment was disbanded in 1966 and was absorbed by the Canadian Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Indian Affairs.