Canadian Rangers: Sentinels of the North

For more than six decades, a volunteer force of mostly Inuit men and women have quietly stood watch over Canada’s North.

Image of Canadian Ranger Josephie Kiguktak firing his .303 Lee Enfield rifle as Ranger staff and fellow Rangers look on at Grise Fiord, Nunavut, 1988.

Canadian Ranger Josephie Kiguktak fires his .303 Lee Enfield rifle as Ranger staff and fellow Rangers look on at Grise Fiord, Nunavut, 1988.

Image of Canadian Ranger Eli Weetaluktuk bringing back the catch near Inukjuak, Nunavik, along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec.

Canadian Ranger Eli Weetaluktuk brings back the catch near Inukjuak, Nunavik, along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec.

Canadian Rangers on Operation Kigliqaqvik Ranger celebrate reaching the magnetic North Pole off Cape Isaachsen in 2002.

Image of Canadian Rangers Paul Atagootak, Uluriak (Star) Amarualik, and Caleb Sangoya on Operation Nanook, Resolute, Nunavut, August 2010. Women started joining the Rangers in the late 1980s.

Canadian Rangers Paul Atagootak, Uluriak (Star) Amarualik, and Caleb Sangoya on Operation Nanook, Resolute, Nunavut, August 2010. Women started joining the Rangers in the late 1980s.

Image of Canadian Ranger Paul Atagootak instructing members of the Arctic Response Company Group on Operation Nanook 10 in Resolute, Nunavut, August 2010.

Canadian Ranger Paul Atagootak instructs members of the Arctic Response Company Group on Operation Nanook 10 in Resolute, Nunavut, August 2010.

Image of Canadian Ranger TooToo, an Inuk from Churchill, Manitoba, relays information to Mobile Striking Force personnel in a Penguin snow vehicle during Exercise Bulldog II in 1954.

Canadian Ranger TooToo, an Inuk from Churchill, Manitoba, relays information to Mobile Striking Force personnel in a Penguin snow vehicle during Exercise Bulldog II in 1954.

by Nelle Oosterom

Armed with Lee Enfield rifles and dressed in distinctive red ballcaps and sweatshirts, today’s Rangers continue to play an important role in establishing Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic. These photographs highlight some of the activities of the force.

To learn more about the Canadian Rangers, read historian P. Whitney Lackenbauer’s article “Sentinels of Sovereignty.” And for more historical photographs of the Canadian Rangers, see Lackenbauer’s The Canadian Rangers: A Living History UBC Press, March 2013.