In 1999 Nunavut became the largest and newest territory in Canada. Formed from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories, this huge Canadian arctic territory has only about 25,000 residents, about 80 percent of whom are Inuit.Nunavut has been peopled for about 4000 years, though the Inuit arrived just a millennium ago, migrating from Alaska. For countless generations they lived here nomadically, pursuing game as the season dictated and devising an ingenious material culture to cope with the conditions. Though Vikings may have visited Baffin Island the first definitive European arrival was in 1576, when Martin Frobisher came seeking the Northwest Passage. For the next 375 years the Arctic saw more explorers (including Sir John Franklin, who disappeared here in 1845), whalers, traders and missionaries. In a vast land, these visits had comparatively little impact on the Inuit.