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The Northern Integration Scheme (Itchalnu: Ukiuqtaqtumi ilaliujjiniq) was a Surrowese government program that lasted from 1953 until 1977. Instituted by President Ted Fisher, the Northern Integration Scheme's stated aims were to "assert Surrowese sovereignty" over Great Island and to "integrate the Itchalnu into the body politic." The program saw the relocation of around 5,000 Itchalnu to fixed settlements, where they faced substantial pressure to abandon their Itchalnu way of life and adopt Surrowese customs.

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Background

An Itchalnu camp near Port Lochlan, August 1931

Great Island has been a part of Surrow from the sixteenth century onward: while Northland County was created in 1563, it lacked any meaningful control over Great Island, with Northland County's seat being at Lombelon Bay. The first Auressian settlement on Great Island was only established in Port Lochlan in 1711 by the Rytheneans, but Port Lochlan only served as a seasonal settlement until 1733.

Following the end of the Eleven Years War in 1759, the number of outports on Great Island increased, although the total Auressian population on the islands were less than 100 people during the summer months, and around 20 during the winter, mostly in Port Lochlan by 1800. In 1823, an official from Holcot Inlet reported that "outside of the nineteen outports, which depend both on the treacherous seas that we back on Holcot Island or even Kikik Island can only fear and on the generosity of the Itchalnu, there is no effective presence on the island."

However, efforts to try and assert Rythenean control over the island during the nineteenth century were hampered due to the geography of Great Island, the harsh environment, and costs, which made it very difficult for permanent settlements to be established on the island. However, Kikik Island would be carved out of Northland County in 1869, with the county seat being subsequently moved to Port Lochlan.

By 1901, the total population of the island according to the Surrowese census was 519 people scattered across twenty settlements, although the enumerators noted that "they were unable to fully count the natives outside of the settlements," and that if they did, "the real population of the island would be twice or thrice as high as it appears on the census."

With the outbreak of the First Great War, fears that Tyrnica may try to attack Great Island led to the Surrowese government beginning to draft plans for "reinforcing the island and asserting Rythenean sovereignty over the island," with these plans including "establishing settlements for the natives to gravitate themselves towards." These plans would only begin to be implemented in 1915 after Surrow was granted self-government, with the first settlement under that plan being established in 1923 at Tuktooit Inlet in what is now Stoney County, and followed by the establishment of Arvittiavak in 1931, with the intention of providing services to the northern Itchalnu populations, such as a school run by Perendist missionaries and a general store that supplied imported goods from Holcot Island.

However, these settlements, although modestly successful at attracting some Itchalnu to settle there, did not attract the hoped-for population growth, with the population of both settlements in 1931 being around 27 people who permanently lived in the settlements. This led to newly-elected Prime Minister Ted Fisher concluding in 1936 that "all the carrots in the world cannot entice the Natives on Great Island to give up on their way of life," and for Ted Fisher to begin planning the scheme.

Planning

In 1942, Ted Fisher's government released a white paper on the state of Northland County and its "complete inability to exert control outside of the string of outports that line its coast." The white paper suggested that Northland County was "inviable" due to it covering "the entire breadth of Great Island" despite its population "only comprising of 650 people who live inside the law, and around five thousand Natives who live outside the laws of Surrow," and proposed abolishing the county in favour of improvement districts that "would better manage those who live in the outports and in the interior than a county."

However, the ongoing Second Great War caused Ted Fisher's government to take little action on the report. Following the war's end in 1943, the Surrowese government began to conduct surveys in Northland County to document the local Itchalnu population and their annual migration patterns, to determine the best sites for new settlements, and to investigate the county government to determine any deficiencies that the existing county had. However, growing calls for Surrowese independence and the government's focus on negotiating with Rythene for full independence meant that these surveys would only be completed by 1951.

That year, palladium was discovered near Stoney Harbour (present-day Tulaktarvik) by General Armaments. This added a greater sense of urgency, as Ted Fisher feared that the "presence of such abundant wealth" and Surrow's lack of effective control over most of Great Island would allow for other countries to establish settlements under the guise of terra nullius.

In response to the perceived threat, Ted Fisher would draft the Northern Integration Act in 1952. The omnibus bill divided Northland County into three improvement districts, pursuant to the 1942 white paper, which had different powers to counties, and outlined the components of the Northern Integration Scheme in order to ensure that "Surrow can demonstrate its sovereignty over the entire Surrowese archipelago, including Great Island." While this legislation was opposed by Wes Anderson, who left the United People's Party to create the Northern Party to advocate for maintaining the status quo, the UPP majority was able to pass the bill into law, with the bill coming into effect on 1 April, 1953.

Program

Registration

An Itchalnu man holding up his registration number at Port Hentze, 1953

The first key component of the Northern Integration Scheme was registration (Itchalnu: atiliurvik). This would register all the Itchalnu who "lived outside the outports on Great Island" as a registration number (Itchalnu: ujamiit), with each number comprised of a letter corresponding to an improvement district, followed by a two digit number indicating the nearest settlement, followed by a three digit number identifying the individual (e.g. C01-043). These registration numbers were required to be displayed at all times by all Itchalnu assigned these numbers, with the Surrowese government providing discs that displayed their registration number to each person.

As settlement progressed, Itchalnu who moved to the settlements and who previously had registration numbers were given Auressian-style names. In most circumstances, first names were based off of school records, while in cases where an Itchalnu person had never attended a school, they were assigned an Auressian-style forename by a bureaucrat. As Itchalnu never had surnames, some bureaucrats assigned Itchalnu Auressian-style surnames, while other bureaucrats would assign Itchalnu names that were rooted in the Itchalnu language. This process of assigning registration numbers was planned to take a period of three to four years, with the Auressian-style names to be given "as the Itchalnu continue to be integrated into the body politic" to replace their registration number.

Settlement

The second key component of the Northern Integration Scheme was settlement (Itchalnu: nunaliit). All Itchalnu who had been registered under the first phase of the Northern Integration Scheme would be encouraged to move to permanent settlements on the coasts of Great Island, with these settlements being designed to resemble Surrowese outports on Holcot Island and Kikik Island. The Itchalnu would be promised government benefits, better food than what they were able to acquire if they continued to live on the land, and better housing.

After a one year grace period, if an Itchalnu who was registered under the first phase of the Northern Integration Scheme refused to move to a settlement, the Surrowese government would warn "refusants" that if they continued to refuse to move a settlement, they would have their children taken away from them, their dogs would be slaughtered so that they would not be able to continue living a nomadic existence, and they may be charged with trespassing on state land. After another one year grace period, those deemed refusants would be arrested by an officer from the Surrowese Constabulary, their children taken away from them, and their dogs slaughtered, and transported to a settlement that the arresting officer decided upon.

As part of the Northern Integration Scheme, in addition to the twenty-two settlements which existed prior to the Northern Integration Scheme, fourteen more were to be established in order to ensure that Itchalnu can "continue to live close to their ancestral lands as they begin to be integrated into the body politic." These settlements were expected to be built between 1953 and 1960, with four to be built in the Northern Improvement District, seven to be built in the Central Improvement District, and three in the Southern Improvement District.

Consolidation

The third key component of the Northern Integration Scheme was consolidation (Itchalnu: katiqsuqsimajut). After all the Itchalnu have been settled into settlements, which was expected to take a six year period between 1954 and 1960, settlements that were deemed to be "prohibitively expensive" for the Surrowese government to provide services to would be declared unsustainable, and residents would be encouraged to move to sustainable settlements, which the government defined as a settlement with more than 150-200 people.

The purpose of consolidation was to "avoid the mistakes of early settlement of Surrow" where the number of outports had proliferated, "through consolidating the number of settlements from thirty-six settlements to a more manageable number." Consolidation would also "ensure that when these improvement districts become counties, these settlements will be better able to remain sustainable in not just the final quarter of this century, but throughout the next century."

Personal integration

The fourth key component of the Northern Integration Scheme was personal integration (Itchalnu: imminnuungajut ilaliujjiniq), which would involve heavy investment into education, through the establishment of government-run schools that would replace the Perendist mission schools, and through the establishment of adult education programs targeting the Itchalnu.

Ted Fisher said that "if we want the Natives on Great Island to become as Surrowese as the Tyrnican in Tuckamore County or the Rythenean in Disappointment County, the government must take over education from the Perendist missionaries so that the Natives may learn how to live in the Surrow of today." The curriculum for the government-run schools would involve teaching the "values and mores of the body politic" and practical skills that were needed in "modern Surrowese society," such as literacy in Rythenean, mathematics, and science, so that when they graduated, they would become "fully integrated into Surrowese society."

Adult education would focus on teaching Itchalnu both the values and mores of the broader Surrowese culture and practical skills so that they would "become a productive part of the modern Surrowese workforce" and allow them to have the skills needed to "function in today's Surrow, rather than the Surrow of yesterday." This would include teaching them Rythenean so that they could fully participate in society.

Other parts of personal integration included imposing regulations on housing, with houses in the fourteen settlements being designed to be more like houses in Surrowese outports "to promote assimilation into the body politic"; a crackdown on traditional hunting and fishing practices that would "cause the Natives on Great Island to abandon civilisation," and restricting the number of dogs they could own to a "manageable number."

Political integration

The fifth and final key component of the Northern Integration Scheme was political integration (Itchalnu: gavamalirinirmut ilaliujjiniq). Due to Northland County's lack of ability to exert control over Great Island, the county was to be abolished and divided into three improvement districts, which would have power over day-to-day operations of trial courts and determining whether a given settlement was sustainable or unsustainable. Each district would receive one member of Parliament from the 1954 election onward.

The improvement districts were planned to last for a minimum of twenty-one years from when the bill went into effect, with the Northern Integration Act saying that if any of the improvement districts reached a population over 5,000 people by the 1971 census, the relevant district(s) would be "considered fully integrated and should be given county status no later than 1 April, 1975, with all the responsibilities thereof." Government officials from the early 1950s expected that both the Central Improvement District and Southern Improvement District would become counties by 1975, while it was expected that the Northern Improvement District "will never reach the population threshold to become a county."

Implementation

Registration, settlement and consolidation

An Itchalnu family being allocated a home in Berentson Harbour, 1954

Following the passage of the Northern Integration Act, the Surrowese government began immediately on registering the Itchalnu population living outside the settlements, even before the act went into effect. By 1956, the Ministry of Northern Integration "successfully registered every native who did not previously reside in any settlement," with 4,983 Itchalnu registered as part of the first component of the Northern Integration Scheme.

In 1953, the second component of the Northern Integration Scheme began to be implemented, with the fourteen settlements outlined in the Northern Integration Scheme beginning to be constructed. The houses built in the fourteen settlements proved to be ill-suited to the local climate, partially due to the houses being prefabricated housing that were built as cheaply as possible in order to settle the Itchalnu into the settlements as quickly as possible, and because of the architecture of the Surrowese-style houses lacked the necessary insulation to keep the interior warm during the cold Great Island winters. In addition, the stores established in the settlements sold imported low-quality Albrennian food at what Charles Aklack said was "extortionate prices," with prices being "at least three times as high as in Holcot Inlet, and six times as in Sherborn."

These factors, in addition to fears among the Itchalnu that they would lose their culture, meant that while the number of refusants only comprised 5%-10% of those who were resettled in 1953 and 1954, by 1959 and 1960, the proportion of refusants grew to around 60%-70% of those resettled in both of those years. Despite the proportion of refusants who wound up being forcefully resettled, the second component of the Northern Integration Scheme was completed by 1960, with the Ministry of Northern Integration reporting that of the 5,119 registered people, 3,143 "voluntarily moved to settlements," while 1,976 refusants were relocated, either to Tulaktarvik, Port Lochlan, or Holcot Inlet.

In 1960, the third component of the Northern Integration Scheme began, with two settlements in the Southern Improvement District being declared unsustainable. From the 1960s until the mid-1980s, all of the fourteen settlements built under the scheme, in addition to eighteen of the twenty-two settlements built prior to the scheme's inception were declared unsustainable, and residents of those settlements were encouraged to move to a sustainable settlement by closing schools, clinics, stores, and community centres in those settlements and refusing to provide more than basic emergency services to unsustainable settlement. Although the Surrowese government expected that most of those in the unsustainable settlements would "funnel down to the administrative centres of the improvement districts," most would move to Tulaktarvik due to economic opportunities.

Integration

The Northern Integration Scheme would bring about a radical change in education: from 1953 onward, the national government took control of all schools on Great Island from the Perendist missions, and began building new schools across the island. Most schools that were built as part of the Northern Integration Scheme were designed to only be primary schools, with secondary schools only being built in Port Lochlan and Tulaktarvik to "further the integration of Native children into the body politic" and to save money. In order to further integration, virtually all schools on the island banned the use of Itchalnu and the practice of Itchalnu culture. By 1964, virtually all children on Great Island attended school, although most children on Great Island were taught a basic vocational education.

Although children's education was well-funded, adult education was rudimentary in comparison, with Charles Aklack saying that "all we were taught were how to speak Rythenean, how to maintain a 'modern home,' and how to use modern industrial equipment." Statistics from the Ministry of Northern Integration in 1970 reported that middle-aged Itchalnu and old-aged Itchalnu "lacked the skills necessary to participate in the Surrowese economy, even among those who entered the adult education programs," although it praised the increasing use of Rythenean as a "day-to-day language" among the Itchalnu in all three improvement districts.

Other major policies designed to promote "personal integration" included the mass slaughter of dogs between 1954 and 1974 to prevent Itchalnu from using dogs to either hunt or for transportation, which Ted Fisher justified in 1956 as being "in the best interests of animal welfare;" forcing Itchalnu fishermen to get fishing licenses in order to fish in the seas surrounding Great Island, with these licenses conditional on Itchalnu fishermen adopting Surrowese fishing techniques, and instituting building codes for all housing that was similar to the building codes in other Surrowese communities.

Politically, Northland County was dissolved in 1953 as was scheduled, with the three improvement districts being established. Although it was envisaged by the Surrowese government that the Central and Southern Improvement Districts would become counties by 1975, the development of the Tulaktarvik palladium mine and the establishment of government offices led to rapid population growth for the Central Improvement District due to more economic opportunities, while the Southern Improvement District's population declined between 1951 and 1971. Thus, as the Central Improvement District was the only improvement district to exceed 5,000 people by the 1971 census, the Stoney County Act, passed in 1974, promoted the Central Improvement District to county status on 1 April, 1975, with the county adopting the name Stoney County on that date.

End of the program

President Griffith Davidson, 1980

While the Northern Integration Scheme had wide support in its early years from the United People's Party and from both the Workers' Party and the Fishermen's Protective Union, which merged into the Alliance of Cooperativists and Trade Unionists in 1965, after President Ian Withers lost the 1971 general election, Isaac Rosenhain commissioned a report on the Northern Integration Scheme's successes and shortcomings.

In 1975, the report was released: although it praised the Northern Integration Scheme for "extending Surrowese sovereignty onto Great Island in a time when the discovery of palladium deposits made the island vulnerable to foreign intrigues," the process of settling the Itchalnu into communities, and the process of consolidating unsustainable settlements, the report noted that:

"Certain aspects of the Northern Integration Scheme, such as forcing Itchalnu to adopt registration numbers because administrators could not or were unwilling to understand and pronounce Itchalnu names; prohibiting Itchalnu from hunting and fishing in accordance with their traditional customs; prohibiting the Itchalnu language from being spoken in educational institutions; constructing buildings that are poorly designed for the local climate, and charging imported food at an extortionate markup, call into question whether or not the methods used to integrate the Itchalnu into the body politic were heavy-handed."

The report concluded that despite those flaws, the Northern Integration Scheme "accomplished virtually all of its goals," and recommended that the program be "gradually wound down" while keeping the existing improvement districts with their powers as they are.

President Isaac Rosenhain would begin the process of ending the Northern Integration Scheme, by passing legislation in late 1975 that permitted Itchalnu to be used in radio and television broadcasts for "up to an hour per day," and permitted schools to teach Itchalnu as a subject. However, Rosenhain's proposal to replace Surrowese outports with more centralised towns led to Rosenhain's ouster, with his successor, Griffin Davidson, saying that Rosenhain "sought to end the Northern Integration Scheme on one hand, he sought to use one of its precepts to destroy the traditional Surrowese way of life."

In 1977, Griffin Davidson abolished the Ministry of Northern Integration, declaring that "the Itchalnu on Great Island have become an integral part of the Surrowese nation, and it is unjust to continue to treat the Itchalnu as children unable to decide their futures." Although the Ministry of Northern Integration was abolished, and the Northern Integration Scheme officially ended, certain aspects of the program continued under the guidance of the Ministry of Northern Development, namely the processes of political integration and consolidation, with one settlement, Kippenburg Inlet in present-day Iqittiniq District, declared to be unsustainable in 1998.

Most of the final vestiges of the Northern Integration Scheme were abolished in 2015 under President Wyatt Martel as part of his vision to improve relations with the indigenous peoples of Surrow. The two improvement districts were renamed to districts, with the districts receiving increased powers over their own governance, and the district councils being mostly elected instead of being appointed by the central government. However, the districts still have the power to declare settlements unsustainable.

Legacy

As a result of the Northern Integration Scheme, poverty rates among the Itchalnu population have exceeded the national average: While in the 2021 census, the national poverty rate was at 8.1% of the population, the United Itchalnu Organisation reported that 41.5% of all Itchalnu lived in poverty as of 2021, meaning that 26.5% of all people in poverty in Surrow were Itchalnu. Charles Aklack said in 1982 that "the cause of poverty among our people" were the resettlement programs and the education system which "deprived Itchalnu of the ability to live with dignity" and "made the Itchalnu into a perpetual underclass like our Chequan brothers to the south."

The Northern Integration Scheme has been blamed for the destruction of traditional Itchalnu culture, both through the introduction of Western lifestyles that Itchalnu had generally not been exposed to, and through government policies that destroyed Itchalnu culture, such as banning the use of Itchalnu in schools, slaughtering dogs owned by Itchalnu, and cracking down on traditional hunting and fishing practices. In 2003, linguist Mark Harris noted that prior to the 1950s, the Itchalnu language had "significant dialectal variation across Great Island and Kikik Island," but because of the Northern Integration Scheme exposing Itchalnu to those who spoke different dialects of Itchalnu, combined with the standardisation of Itchalnu from the 1960s onward, "younger Itchalnu who speak the language sound more alike than their grandparents."

However, the Northern Integration Scheme led to the development of Itchalnu political movements. The first Itchalnu political organisation to emerge was the Northern Party, founded by Boyd Shields in 1971, which advocated for greater autonomy to Great Island, for indigenous rights, and to end the Northern Integration Scheme. However, the Northern Party was supplanted by Nangiqpugut Utessit in 1979, which was explicitly pro-indigenous rights and advocated for democratic socialist policies. In 1982, the United Itchalnu Organisation was formed to advocate for the interests of Itchalnu people.