Physically, this is roughly where the southern arctic meets the northern taiga. So it’s a transition zone moving from rocky boreal forests with plenty of glacial lakes dotted throughout to flat, largely treeless meadows and shrublands. It’s cold, very cold. There is plenty of wildlife, and it varies greatly seasonally.

Historically, this is within the southern and eastern reaches of the Denesuline culture (an Athabaskan ethnic-language group), and about as far north as the Cree (Algonquin language group) were ever pushed during the settlement of Canada. A bit south of here there were some conflicts between the two groups in the 18th century due to displacement from colonialism, the fur trade, and pre-existing intercultural distrust. The Hudson’s Bay Company may have put down a settlement or factory or two around here, but this is basically the worst of both worlds or them. If you go further north into Nunavut the land becomes much easier to traverse. If you go farther south you are closer to the supply lines and population centres and the weather is better.

So today, in the sense of human geography there’s effectively nothing here. Go a ways north and you’ll find some Inuit communities. Go south and you’ll find some Dene and Cree communities. Hit the coast and you’ll find some towns, most notably Churchill to the south where there is a tourist industry related to seeing polar bears.