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Northwest Territories

By Susan Munroe, About.com

Definition: The Northwest Territories is one of the three territories and ten provinces that make up Canada.

Variations of the name Northwest Territories have been used to describe lands in the west and north of what is now Canada. Originally the term was applied to all lands north and west of Lake Superior. From 1870 to 1905, North-West Territories was used for the region formed from the union of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory. Since then, large parts of the area have been removed to form Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, the Yukon and Nunavut.

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