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.

Written by Nelle Oosterom

 — Posted March 11, 2013

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.

  • A Canadian Ranger on watch.
    Courtesy of Whitney Lackenbauer
  • 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.
    Department of National Defence
  • 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 Forces Combat Camera
  • Canadian Ranger Josephie Kiguktak fires his .303 Lee Enfield rifle as Ranger staff and fellow Rangers look on at Grise Fiord, Nunavut, 1988.
    Library and Archives Canada
  • Canadian Ranger Paul Atagootak instructing members of the Arctic Response Company Group on Operation Nanook 10 in Resolute, Nunavut, August 2010.
    Library and Archives Canada
  • Canadian Ranger Eli Weetaluktuk brings back the catch near Inukjuak, Nunavik, along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec.
    Courtesy of 2 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group
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For more historical photographs of the Canadian Rangers, see Lackenbauer’s The Canadian Rangers: A Living History, UBC Press, March 2013.

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