Thirty-eight years ago last Friday, I celebrated my birthday by assuming the job of editor, of this paper with a mandate to convert it from a local to a territorial newspaper. It was a daunting challenge considering the entire news staff consisted of myself and Jack Adderley, then a part-time sports writer. Coincidentally, it was also 56 years to the day from when I started at the Winnipeg Free Press

When I joined this paper in 1969, it was an interesting time. The capital had moved north less than two years earlier. The territorial government was struggling to establish itself, hampered by the fact most of its senior officials were Southern bureaucrats with much to learn about the North and its people.

Abe Okpik was first Inuit member appointed to the Territorial Council

Things were very different. The population of Yellowknife was just over 4,000 and that of the entire Northwest Territories, including Nunavut, was under 40,000. The North was a colony in the truest sense with a benevolent dictator, Stu Hodgson, as commissioner and government leader. The majority of members of the Territorial Council, forerunner of the Legislative Assembly, were Southern appointees; good people, most of them, but not elected Northerners.

The first Inuit member appointed to the Territorial Council was Abe Okpik, who later headed up Project Surname. The first Inuit elected was Simonie Michaels. John Charlie Tetlichi was the first Dene member appointed. James Rabesca was the first elected Dene member. Next session, after being elected, James Wah-shee and George Barnaby were pressured to resign by the Indian Brotherhood, which refused to recognize the Territorial Council.

The minister of Northern Affairs, Jean Chretien, rejected any thoughts of provincial status or resource revenue sharing, arguing we couldn't afford it. A couple of years later he changed the tune, but not the theme. "There's no way so few people are entitled to such vast resource revenues", he argued.

Aboriginals in the North were starting to unite and organize: The Indian Brotherhood (Dene Nation) was founded late that year. Shortly after, the Inuvialuit formed C.O.P.E. and the Metis established their Association.

In the Eastern Arctic, I recall attending a 1969 council session in Baker Lake where young men like Peter Irniq and Tagak Curley spoke quietly of their dreams of an Inuit homeland. The dreams of these men and many others, led to the formation of Inuit Tapirisat and eventually the establishment of Nunavut.

Socially and economically, major changes were also underway.

In 1969, few aboriginals graduated from high school and even fewer went on to university. Noah Carpenter of Sachs Harbour was studying medicine, but there were no aboriginal law students from the North. In Fort Smith, something interesting was happening. The experimental teachers training program was developing young Inuit and Dene leaders. Some would pursue teaching careers, but more went on to leadership roles. One of them was Ethel Blondin, former Member of Parliament for the NWT.

Politics offered the most opportunities for young people in those days. It was some time before many achieved significant positions in government bureaucracy or business.

Over the past 38 years, like many Northerners, I have been impatient and frustrated by the rate of social, economic and political progress in the North. But looking back, it becomes obvious much has changed; more than we sometimes realize.

Jack (Sig) Sigvaldason is publisher of News/North.