The Inuit began to emerge as a political force in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the struggle for control over natural resources.
They began networking with one another across the Northwest Territories, Quebec and Labrador and in 1982, the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut, or "TFN" had been incorporated to take over the claim negotiation mandate from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
TFN worked for ten years and, in September 1992, came to a final agreement with the government of Canada.
As the final step in this long process, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was signed on May 25, 1993 in Iqaluit by the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and by Paul Quassa, the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which replaced the TFN upon the ratification of the Nunavut Final Agreement.
The Canadian Parliament passed the supporting legislation in June of the same year, enabling the eventual establishment of Nunavut as a territorial entity.