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The Northern Integration Scheme (Itchalnu: Ukiuqtaqtumi ilaliujjiniq) was a program launched by Surrowese government under Ted Fisher in 1953 to "integrate the Itchalnu into the body politic."

Background

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 costs, the technological capabilities of the day, and the geography of Great Island, 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 Itchalnu 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 Itchalnu 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 Uangnaq in 1917.

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