 In 1992, the residents of the Northwest Territories voted to divide the territory along ethnic lines, with the Inuit on the east and the Dene to the west.The new territory of Nunavut, dominated by the Inuit, came into existence on April 1, 1999.This split the Northwest Territories along a ziz-zag path running from the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border through the Arctic Archipelago on the North Pole.