It was created in 1992 with the final ratification of the Gwichʼin Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement with the Government of Canada.

The Gwichʼin people have been present in Alaska, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories since time immemorial.

In 1921, chiefs and headmen representing the Gwichʼin (then known as the Loucheux) population in the Mackenzie-Delta signed Treaty 11, but unresolved differences arose between the interpretation of aboriginal and treaty rights by the Gwichʼin and by Canada, and many obligations were never fulfilled.

To provide certainty and clarity of rights to land ownership, and to ensure various rights and benefits to the Gwichʼin people, the Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement was signed as a modern treaty on April 22, 1992.

[2] In September 2023, the Biden administration cancelled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for which Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, thanked the administration.