In 1972 the Canadian government launched its first domestic communications satellite, Anik A, which relays direct broadcast television and telephone messages to northern communities. The impact of television on Inuit life has raised issues and concerns pertaining to native language broadcasting, media access and control, and cultural identity among the Inuit people. In the past, without native-language information, Inuit could neither adapt their own institutions nor those brought north by southern Canadians. Two experimental communications satellites, Anik B and Hermes, now provide interactive audio and video links, and Inuit communities are being encouraged to experiment with interactive broadcasting as a means of controlling their acculturation and development through local-level initiative, integration, and cohesion. These experiments with communications satellites among the Inuit may re-direct patterns of institutional communication which have cemented over time and maintained outside control in northern communities. Twelve references are listed. (Author/MER)