But there was no sign of the Inuit, who would guide her in their traditional kayaks.
The Inuit are not against development, but want to ensure that it happens on their terms.
Yet elsewhere the Inuit by the admittedly miserable standards of indigenous peoples are pretty well off.
Because Europeans came late to the Arctic, the Inuit got rights, not smallpox-infected blankets.
Nunavut, a vast northern territory in Canada, was created a decade earlier by a settlement with the Inuit.
Recent days have seen a spike in H1N1 flu among the Inuit and the country's isolated indigenous communities.
They have amplified their power by banding together in the Inuit Circumpolar Council, (ICC), a body created in 1977.
The Inuit represent less than half the Arctic's indigenous people, who in turn account for only 10% of the region's population.
Canada's federal health minister, Leona Aglukkaq, who is herself Inuit, said additional personnel and supplies have been sent to the Inuit communities.
The Vikings tossed logs, the Scots threw sheaves of straw, the ancestors of the Inuit are rumored to have carried walruses around.
In particular the Inuit live in areas where natural resources are plentiful.
What is more, the Inuit are determined not to be bowled over.
Yet it was the Inuit success stories that most grabbed delegates.
What few pods were built above the Arctic Circle, in the Inuit town of Kangiqsujuaq, remain in use today, despite almost 30 years of unforgiving weather.
The pact "is at the heart of our desire to promote, as never before, the socio-economic development of the Inuit communities, " said Quebec Premier Jean Charest.
BBC: The overwhelming majority of Nunavik residents are Inuit
When the Inuit first explored the Arctic in their kayaks, they faced freezing temperatures, angry polar bears and the risk of being crushed between shifting ice flows.
CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch | How to See Paradise with the Help of a Paddle
It turned out that the Inuit had been up all night celebrating the prospect of seeing their relatives on Big Diomede for the first time in nearly 50 years.
Obviously the Arctic Ocean was nearly or completely ice-free at the end of summer for centuries or even millennia, and still the polar bear survived and the Inuit culture radiated.
Carr discussed the indigenous people of Alaska, the Inuit, who traditionally passed down geographic knowledge (wayfinding) and taught younger generations how to read snow drift patterns and changes in their environment visually.
Terry Audla, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said he was very proud and happy that the international community had agreed that the way the Inuit manage the polar bear is working.
Climate change is turning the spotlight on the Arctic, and hopefully that will mean federal government help where it is needed to aid the Inuit in making wise choices for their future.
The Inuit know that they will not always get what they want in Russia, say, where the rights of the Yupik, another Inuit group, are enshrined in the constitution but are being eroded by the government.
This was the case with the Cree over the massive James Bay hydroelectric dams in northern Quebec, the Innu over the Voisey's Bay nickel mine in Labrador, the Inuit over diamond mines in the Northwest Territories, and the 1999 creation of the new territory of Nunavut, the largest land-claim settlement in Canadian history.
Inside, keep your body off the ice or ground (the Inuit put their sleeping blankets on top of a bed of sticks and reeds) and create heat-trapping "loft" (it's what keeps you warm in a sleeping bag) by layering a few small blankets or big trash bags, with leaves or crumpled newspapers in between.
Pita Aatami, president of the non-profit organization Makivik, expressed the hope for a "better Nunavik" and that the violence, suicides and drug abuse that have blighted the 14 Inuit villages in the region would be alleviated.
BBC: The overwhelming majority of Nunavik residents are Inuit
This year, however, the family headed further west and dropped anchor outside the remote Inuit town of Grise Fiord in the Canadian Arctic.
CNN: Arctic vagabonds: French family makes home on polar yacht
But the sparse mostly Inuit populations dotted along the coastline find that ice floes are often so thin that hunters can no longer use dog sledges, reports say.
Seal hunt co-ordinator Roger Simon, while acknowledging it is not a main source of revenue for people in Atlantic Canada, still characterises the commercial hunt as important for fishing communities and for the aboriginal Inuit people further north.
Support rises to 75% for those Quebeckers with the strongest and geographically the widest claims for self-determination, the Cree, Inuit and Innu who occupy the resource-rich northern two-thirds of the province.
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