Crossing the Mackenzie River by ferry was an experience to remember. The road is closed for a time in the spring and fall when neither the ferry nor the ice bridge are accessible. The NWT is actually a land of great tragedy. There were four traffic fatalities over Labor Day weekend. Yes, but the NWT has a population of only 50,000, and less than 25,000 of those live in the area accessible by road, making four a large death count indeed.
Smoking seems to be rampant among the aboriginal peoples.
This gap forms a chasm beyond even that which we have with U.S. minorities. This was hammered home to me especially when I bussed back to Edmonton with the Nicotine Queen of the Dogrib. She was a Dogrib woman, must have been about 25, who got off the bus at every opportunity to smoke. She even debussed a couple of times when the driver merely got off to pick up packages, lighting up, taking two long drags, and then putting it out with her fingers and reboarding. Whatever you may have heard of Yellowknife, it is no longer a small town.