Northwest Alliance (1983: Doomsday)

The Northwest Alliance is an alliance of settlements in the former Northwest Territories of Canada.

Background
The present-day territory was created in June 1870, when the Hudson's Bay Company transferred Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory to the government of Canada. This immense region comprised all of non-confederation Canada except British Columbia, the coast of the Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence River valley and the southern third of Quebec, the Maritimes, Newfoundland, and the Labrador coast. It also excluded the Arctic Islands except the southern half of Baffin Island; these remained under direct British claim until 1880.

After the transfer, the territories were gradually whittled away. The province of Manitoba was created on 15 July 1870, a tiny square around Winnipeg, and then enlarged in 1881 to a rectangular region composing the modern province's south. By the time British Columbia joined Confederation on July 20, 1871, it had already (1866) been granted the portion of North-Western Territory south of 60 degrees north and west of 120 degrees west, an area that had comprised most of the Stikine Territory. In 1882, Regina in the District of Assiniboia became the territorial capital; after Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905, Regina became the provincial capital of Saskatchewan.

In 1876, the District of Keewatin, at the centre of the territory, was separated from it. In 1882 and again in 1896, the remaining portion was divided into smaller districts for administrative purposes.

Keewatin was returned to the NWT in 1905.

In the meantime, Ontario was enlarged northwestward in 1882. Quebec was also extended, in 1898, and Yukon was made a separate territory in the same year to deal with the Klondike Gold Rush and to remove the NWT government from administering the sudden boom of population, economic activity and influx of non-Canadians.

The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, and Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec were further expanded from the NWT in 1912. In 1925, the boundaries of the NWT were extended all the way to the North Pole on the sector principle, vastly expanding its territory onto the northern ice cap.

After the loss of territory to the provinces in the early part of the century, the capital was moved to Fort Smith for the administration, and the federal capital of Ottawa for the legislature. The capital, after a fact-finding commission, would be permanently moved to the town of Yellowknife in 1967. Many of the administrative functions would, however, remain in Fort Smith for a number of years thereafter until they could be established in Yellowknife.

Aftermath
Despite there being no known impacts of nuclear weapons in the territory, life became very difficult shortly after the events of Doomsday. Food quickly became quite scarce in the larger settlements, and while in many of these places smaller populations meant that while food was scarce, they could keep themselves alive - somewhat - over the winter. However, in the capital of Yellowknife, this was not an option, for there was too many people in the immediate region for it to be possible to feed them using the methods that worked elsewhere in the territory.

Contact was established between the capital and outlying regions of the western half of the territory within a couple weeks of the event. As such, the government and the people in Yellowknife held knowledge that the rest of the western portions of the territory were intact; however, due to great distances and a lack of roads in that direction, they were unable to establish contact were the eastern regions at the time.

Interim
After two months with no outside contact, and with famine conditions now appearing in the capital, people began to slowly leave for other communities, hoping to find somewhere where they could survive, despite government pronouncements to stay put and wait for outside contact, or at least the end of winter, when travel would be easier and hold a higher chance of survival. But, this flow of people would slowly increase, and by the end of the year, riots would begin to occur over food - while it looked like they would survive the winter, all were still hungry, being on greatly reduced rations. Soon, these riots took a turn for the worse, and degenerated into fighting, both against each other and against the government they viewed - locally - as being responsible for the crisis. This caused the government to flee the area, along with the remaining RCMP and militia under their control. They chose to relocate southward, towards the direction of Fort Smith, as it was both closer than other stable areas of the territory, and better equipped for their presence, having previously been the administrative capital of the territory for much of the century, yet was far enough away to be safe from anything coming out of Yellowknife. Most of the members of government and their escorts would survive the trip southward, as despite having left the capital in a hurry, they had been prepared for it, with adequate provisions.

Mere days later, the rioters had realized that the government had fled the region. This caused mass panic, and the majority of the populace that was left in the city left in mass droves, despite it being the dead of winter, for as a result of the violence, all of the remaining food was now effectively gone. This mass of people would soon overwhelm other neighboring communities, such as the village of Behchoko, causing the residents there to join the exodus. Some residents would remain, and when the government returned to the town in 1985, a hardy population of about 500 individuals had survived on the eastern edge of the town.

Outside of those who had left prior to the violence, along with the government expedition, very few of a once thriving population that had been in Yellowknife and the surrounding area had survived, with only some 700 people managing to make the journey around the Great Slave Lake to Fort Providence or over the ice of the lake to Fort Resolution, where they were able to safely ride out the winter. At the time, there was also reports of some small bands - maybe some 200 people total in number - who remained wandering in the region, following the rivers hunting game, though no proof was found at the time.

Contraction and Re-Organization
Come spring, the territorial government sent out messengers across the territory, as well as to settlements just across the Alberta and Saskatchewan borders, suggesting that they abandon smaller, isolated, settlements, and move to consolidate in more settled areas, where they could receive some aid. They also realized that communications and travel would be much more difficult than previously, so the messengers were told to invite delegates to travel back to Fort Smith to arrange some sort of new government structure for the area. Delegates traveled back to Fort Smith from major towns in the territory such as the regions around Inuvik, towns along the Mackenzie River, from Fort Liard in the southwest of the territory, the hamlet of Fort Franklin along the shore of Great Bear Lake, and the towns in the area south of Great Slave Lake. Most of these towns also received the residents of the extremely small and isolated settlements, and were promised that these new people would leave when conditions were more favorable for re-settlement of the abandoned hamlets. Representative were also received from the Alberta towns of Fort Chipewyan, High Level, Fort Vermilion and the surrounding areas, as well as the Saskatchewan town of Uranium City.

These delegates would spend much of the spring and summer debating over what this new government would consist of, and who would join; the towns, villages and hamlets of the territory were not in question. Rather, it was the provincial towns that were. In the end, it was decided that each general region of the towns that remained populated in the territories would have an deputy commissioner, and an RCMP detachment of some sort, to govern and maintain order, but each retain some degree of independence due to the distance. The regions (or the towns themselves, in some cases) would then send representatives to Fort Smith, in order to make decisions through consensus, like the territorial assembly had done previously, that would effect them all, in a sort of alliance. This would be called the "Northwest Alliance" in recognition of the territory and their alliance. They would meet like this through the summer, using spring and fall to travel and spending the winters in their homes.

The delegates from the villages of Fort Chipewyan and Uranium City opted to join the government, while those from Fort Vermilion and High Level opted to merely associate with the alliance, where they would technically ally with them, but not send delegates to Fort Smith with any degree of regularity.

As a result of this, along with no contact being made with the outside world since the event, led to a provisional declaration of independence on January 1st, 1985, which was meant to last until contact with a Canadian government could be established.