The Belcher Islands (Inuktitut: ᓴᓪᓚᔪᒐᐃᑦ, romanized: Sanikiluaq) are an archipelago in the southeast part of Hudson Bay near the centre of the Nastapoka arc. The Belcher Islands are spread out over almost 13,000 km2 (5,000 sq mi). Administratively, they belong to the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada.
The hamlet of Sanikiluaq, where the majority of the inhabitants of the Belcher Islands live, is on the north coast of Flaherty Island and is the southernmost in Nunavut. Along with Flaherty Island, the other large islands are Kugong Island, Tukarak Island, and Innetalling Island. Other main islands in the 1,500-island archipelago are Moore Island, Wiegand Island, Split Island, Snape Island, and Mavor Island, while island groups include the Sleeper Islands, King George Islands, and Bakers Dozen Islands.
History
The archaeological evidence present on the islands indicates that they were inhabited by the Dorset culture between 500 BCE and 1000 CE. Centuries later, from 1200 to 1500, the Thule people made their presence on the islands.
The first European to encounter the islands was English sea explorer Henry Hudson, the namesake of Hudson Bay, who sighted the islands in 1610. In 1670, the islands and the entirety of Hudson Bay drainage basin were designated by the English king, Charles II, as Rupert's Land, managed by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The islands are likely named after Captain James Belcher, an HBC employee in the early 18th-century, or after Royal Navy Admiral Sir Edward Belcher (1799–1877).
In the early 19th century, caribou herds which lived on the islands disappeared. In an alternative effort to find warm clothing, the inhabitants of the islands sought the down of eider ducks, seaducks who nest on the island. In 1870, Rupert's Land was ceded to the Northwest Territories.
Before 1914, English-speaking cartographers knew very little about the Belcher Islands, which they showed on maps as specks, much smaller than their true extent. In that year a map showing them, drawn by George Weetaltuk, came into the hands of Robert Flaherty, and cartographers began to represent them more accurately.
