ESKIMO EARLY 20TH CENTURY VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO FANTASTIC COOKING CANDID For Sale
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ESKIMO EARLY 20TH CENTURY VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO FANTASTIC COOKING CANDID:
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A VERY EARLY VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO OF TWO ALASKA ESKIMO WOMEN FROM LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURY MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 INCHESThe Inuit (/ˈɪnjuɪt/; Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ \'the people\', singular: Inuk, ᐃᓄᒃ, dual: Inuuk, ᐃᓅᒃ)[7][8][9] are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska (United States). The Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut languages also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan and also as Eskaleut.[10] Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.[11]
Inuit live throughout most of Northern Canada in the territory of Nunavut, Nunavik in the northern third of Quebec, Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut in Labrador and in various parts of the Northwest Territories, particularly around the Arctic Ocean, in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.[note 1] With the exception of NunatuKavut these areas are known, primarily by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, as Inuit Nunangat.[1][12] In Canada, sections 25 and 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982 classify Inuit as a distinctive group of Aboriginal Canadians who are not included under either the First Nations or the Métis.[13][14]
The Greenlandic Inuit are descendants of Thule migrations from Canada by 1100 AD.[15] Although Greenland withdrew from the European Communities in 1985, the Inuit of Greenland are Danish citizens and, as such, remain citizens of the European Union.[16][17][18]
In the United States, the Alaskan Iñupiat are traditionally located in the Northwest Arctic Borough, on the Alaska North Slope, and on Little Diomede Island.
Many individuals who would have historically been referred to as \"Eskimo\" find that term offensive, and/or forced upon them in a colonial way; \"Inuit\" is now a common autonym for a large sub-group of these people.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] The word \"Inuit\" (varying forms Inupiak, Inuvialiut, Inughuit, etc.), however, is an ancient self-referential to a group of peoples which includes at most the Iñupiat of northern Alaska, the four broad groups of Inuit in Canada, and the Greenlandic Inuit, and this usage has long been employed to the exclusion of other, closely related groups (e.g. Yupik, Aleut).[5][26][27] Thereby, the Aleut (Unangan) and Yupik peoples (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq, \"Central\" Yup\'ik, Siberian Yupik), who live in Alaska and Siberia, are not Inuit, and do not generally identify as such.[5][28][29]
The Chukchi are, according to genomic research, the closest living relatives of the Siberian Yupik and other indigenous peoples of the Americas.[6]Contents1 History1.1 Pre-contact history1.2 Post-contact history1.2.1 Canada1.2.1.1 Early contact with Europeans1.2.1.2 Early 20th century1.2.1.3 The Second World War to the 1960s1.2.1.4 Cultural renewal1.2.1.5 Inuit cabinet members at the federal level1.2.1.6 Genocide by Canada in the 20th and 21st centuries2 Nomenclature3 Cultural history3.1 Languages3.2 Diet3.3 Transport, navigation, and dogs3.4 Industry, art, and clothing3.5 Gender roles, marriage, birth, and community3.6 Raiding3.7 Suicide, murder, and death3.8 Health3.9 Traditional law4 Traditional beliefs5 Demographics5.1 Canada5.2 Greenland5.3 Denmark5.4 United States6 Governance6.1 Canada6.2 Greenland6.3 Alaska7 Genetics8 Modern culture9 Notes and references9.1 Notes9.2 References10 Further reading11 External linksHistoryPre-contact historyFor earlier pre-contact history, see Indigenous peoples in Canada § Paleo-Indians period.
Dorset, Norse, and Thule cultures 900–1500Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule people,[30] who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 AD. They had split from the related Aleut group about 4000 years ago and from northeastern Siberian migrants. They spread eastwards across the Arctic.[31] They displaced the related Dorset culture, called the Tuniit in Inuktitut, which was the last major Paleo-Eskimo culture.[32]
Inuit legends speak of the Tuniit as \"giants\", people who were taller and stronger than Inuit.[33] Less frequently, the legends refer to the Dorset as \"dwarfs\".[34] Researchers believe that Inuit society had advantages by having adapted to using dogs as transport animals, and developing larger weapons and other technologies superior to those of the Dorset culture.[35] By 1100 AD, Inuit migrants had reached west Greenland, where they settled.[15] During the 12th century, they also settled in East Greenland.[36][37]
Faced with population pressures from the Thule and other surrounding groups, such as the Algonquian and Siouan-speaking peoples to the south, the Tuniit gradually receded.[38] The Tuniit were thought to have become completely extinct as a people by about 1400 or 1500. But, in the mid-1950s, researcher Henry B. Collins determined that, based on the ruins found at Native Point, the Sadlermiut were likely the last remnants of the Dorset culture, or Tuniit.[39] The Sadlermiut population survived up until winter 1902–1903, when exposure to new infectious diseases brought by contact with Europeans led to their extinction as a people.[40]
In the early 21st century, mitochondrial DNA research has supported the theory of continuity between the Tuniit and the Sadlermiut peoples.[41][42] It also provided evidence that a population displacement did not occur within the Aleutian Islands between the Dorset and Thule transition.[43] In contrast to other Tuniit populations, the Aleut and Sadlermiut benefited from both geographical isolation and their ability to adopt certain Thule technologies.[citation needed]
In Canada and Greenland, Inuit circulated almost exclusively north of the \"arctic tree line\", the effective southern border of Inuit society. The most southern \"officially recognized\" Inuit community in the world is Rigolet[44] in Nunatsiavut.
South of Nunatsiavut, the descendants of the southern Labrador Inuit in NunatuKavut continued their traditional transhumant semi-nomadic way of life until the mid-1900s. The Nunatukavummuit people usually moved among islands and bays on a seasonal basis. They did not establish stationary communities. In other areas south of the tree line, non-Inuit indigenous cultures were well established. The culture and technology of Inuit society that served so well in the Arctic were not suited to subarctic regions, so they did not displace their southern neighbours.
Inuit had trade relations with more southern cultures; boundary disputes were common and gave rise to aggressive actions. Warfare was not uncommon among those Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit such as the Nunamiut (Uummarmiut), who inhabited the Mackenzie River delta area, often engaged in warfare. The more sparsely settled Inuit in the Central Arctic, however, did so less often.
Their first European contact was with the Vikings who settled in Greenland and explored the eastern Canadian coast. The sagas recorded meeting skrælingar, probably an undifferentiated label for all the indigenous peoples whom the Norse encountered, whether Tuniit, Inuit, or Beothuk.[45]
After about 1350, the climate grew colder during the period known as the Little Ice Age. During this period, Alaskan natives were able to continue their whaling activities. But, in the high Arctic, Inuit were forced to abandon their hunting and whaling sites as bowhead whales disappeared from Canada and Greenland.[46] These Inuit had to subsist on a much poorer diet, and lost access to the essential raw materials for their tools and architecture which they had previously derived from whaling.[46]
The changing climate forced Inuit to work their way south, pushing them into marginal niches along the edges of the tree line. These were areas First Nations had not occupied or where they were weak enough for Inuit to live near them. Researchers have difficulty defining when Inuit stopped this territorial expansion. There is evidence that the Inuit were still moving into new territory in southern Labrador when they first began to interact with European colonists in the 17th century.
Post-contact history
A European ship coming into contact with Inuit in the ice of Hudson Bay in 1697.CanadaEarly contact with EuropeansThe lives of Paleo-Eskimos of the far north were largely unaffected by the arrival of visiting Norsemen except for mutual trade.[47] The Labrador Inuit have had the longest continuous contact with Europeans.[48] After the disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland, Inuit had no contact with Europeans for at least a century. By the mid-16th century, Basque whalers and fishermen were already working the Labrador coast and had established whaling stations on land, such as the one that has been excavated at Red Bay, Labrador.[49][50] Inuit do not appear to have interfered with their operations, but raided the stations in winter, taking tools and items made of worked iron, which they adapted to their own needs.An anonymous 1578 illustration believed to show Kalicho (left), and Arnaq and Nutaaq (right)Martin Frobisher\'s 1576 search for the Northwest Passage was the first well-documented contact between Europeans and Inuit. Frobisher\'s expedition landed in Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, not far from the settlement now called Iqaluit. Frobisher encountered Inuit on Resolution Island where five sailors left the ship, under orders from Frobisher, with instructions to stay clear of the Inuit. They became part of Inuit mythology. Inuit oral tradition tells that the men lived among them for a few years of their own free will until they died attempting to leave Baffin Island in a self-made boat and vanished.[51] Frobisher, in an attempt to find the men, captured three Inuit and brought them back to England, who were possibly the first Inuit ever to visit Europe.[52]
The semi-nomadic Inuit were fishermen and hunters harvesting lakes, seas, ice platforms and tundra. While there are some allegations that Inuit were hostile to early French and English explorers, fishers and whalers, more recent research suggests that the early relations with whaling stations along the Labrador coast and later James Bay were based on a mutual interest in trade.[53] In the final years of the 18th century, the Moravian Church began missionary activities in Labrador, supported by the British[54] who were tired of the raids on their whaling stations. The Moravian missionaries could easily provide Inuit with the iron and basic materials they had been stealing from whaling outposts, materials whose real cost to Europeans was almost nothing, but whose value to Inuit was enormous. From then on, contacts between the national groups in Labrador were far more peaceful.
The Hudson\'s Bay Company ships Prince of Wales and Eddystone with Inuit boats off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, CanadaHudson\'s Bay Company Ships bartering with Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, 1819The exchanges that accompanied the arrival and colonization by the Europeans greatly damaged Inuit way of life. Mass death was caused by the new infectious diseases carried by whalers and explorers, to which the Indigenous peoples had no acquired immunity. The high mortality rate contributed to the enormous social disruptions caused by the distorting effect of Europeans\' material wealth and introduction of different materials. Nonetheless, Inuit society in the higher latitudes largely remained in isolation during the 19th century.
The Hudson\'s Bay Company opened trading posts such as Great Whale River (1820), today the site of the twin villages of Whapmagoostui and Kuujjuarapik, where whale products of the commercial whale hunt were processed and furs traded. The expedition of 1821–23 to the Northwest Passage led by Commander William Edward Parry twice over-wintered in Foxe Basin.[55] It provided the first informed, sympathetic and well-documented account of the economic, social and religious life of Inuit. Parry stayed in what is now Igloolik over the second winter. Parry\'s writings, with pen and ink illustrations of Inuit everyday life, and those of George Francis Lyon were widely read after they were both published in 1824.[56] Captain George Comer\'s Inuk wife Shoofly, known for her sewing skills and elegant attire,[57] was influential in convincing him to acquire more sewing accessories and beads for trade with Inuit.
Early 20th centuryDuring the early 20th century a few traders and missionaries circulated among the more accessible bands. After 1904, they were accompanied by a handful of North-West Mounted Police (NWMP). Unlike most Aboriginal peoples in Canada, however, Inuit did not occupy lands that were coveted by European settlers. Used to more temperate climates and conditions, most Europeans considered the homeland of Inuit to be a hostile hinterland. Southerners enjoyed lucrative careers as bureaucrats and service providers to the peoples of the North, but very few ever chose to visit there.
Once its more hospitable lands were largely settled, the government of Canada and entrepreneurs began to take a greater interest in its more peripheral territories, especially the fur and mineral-rich hinterlands. By the late 1920s, there were no longer any Inuit who had not been contacted by traders, missionaries or government agents. In 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada found, in a decision known as Re Eskimos, that Inuit should be considered Indians and were thus under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
Native customs were worn down by the actions of the RCMP, who enforced Canadian criminal law on Inuit. People such as Kikkik often did not understand the rules of the alien society with which they had to interact. In addition, the generally Protestant missionaries of the British preached a moral code very different from the one Inuit had as part of their tradition. Many of Inuit were systematically converted to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries, through rituals such as the Siqqitiq.
The Second World War to the 1960sWorld War II and the Cold War made Arctic Canada strategically important to the great powers for the first time. Thanks to the development of modern long-distance aircraft, these areas became accessible year-round. The construction of air bases and the Distant Early Warning Line in the 1940s and 1950s brought more intensive contacts with European society, particularly in the form of public education for children. The traditionalists complained that Canadian education promoted foreign values that were disdainful of the traditional structure and culture of Inuit society.[58]
In the 1950s, the Government of Canada undertook what was called the High Arctic relocation for several reasons. These were to include protecting Canada\'s sovereignty in the Arctic, alleviating hunger (as the area currently occupied had been over-hunted), and attempting to solve the \"Eskimo problem\", by seeking assimilation of the people and the end of their traditional Inuit culture. One of the more notable relocations was undertaken in 1953, when 17 families were moved from Port Harrison (now Inukjuak, Quebec) to Resolute and Grise Fiord.[59] They were dropped off in early September when winter had already arrived. The land they were sent to was very different from that in the Inukjuak area; it was barren, with only a couple of months when the temperature rose above freezing, and several months of polar night. The families were told by the RCMP they would be able to return to their home territory within two years if conditions were not right. However, two years later more Inuit families were relocated to the High Arctic. Thirty years passed before they were able to visit Inukjuak.[60][61][62][63]
By 1953, Canada\'s prime minister Louis St. Laurent publicly admitted, \"Apparently we have administered the vast territories of the north in an almost continuing absence of mind.\"[64][65] The government began to establish about forty permanent administrative centres to provide education, health, and economic development services.[65] Inuit from hundreds of smaller camps scattered across the north, began to congregate in these hamlets.[66]
Regular visits from doctors, and access to modern medical care raised the birth rate and decreased the death rate, causing a marked natural increase in the population that made it more difficult for them to survive by traditional means. In the 1950s, the Canadian government began to actively settle Inuit into permanent villages and cities, occasionally against their will (such as in Nuntak and Hebron). In 2005 the Canadian government acknowledged the abuses inherent in these forced resettlements.[67] By the mid-1960s, encouraged first by missionaries, then by the prospect of paid jobs and government services, and finally forced by hunger and required by police, most Canadian Inuit lived year-round in permanent settlements. The nomadic migrations that were the central feature of Arctic life had become a much smaller part of life in the North. The Inuit, a once self-sufficient people in an extremely harsh environment were, in the span of perhaps two generations, transformed into a small, impoverished minority, lacking skills or resources to sell to the larger economy, but increasingly dependent on it for survival.
Although anthropologists like Diamond Jenness (1964) were quick to predict that Inuit culture was facing extinction, Inuit political activism was already emerging.
Cultural renewalIn the 1960s, the Canadian government funded the establishment of secular, government-operated high schools in the Northwest Territories (including what is now Nunavut) and Inuit areas in Quebec and Labrador along with the residential school system. The Inuit population was not large enough to support a full high school in every community, so this meant only a few schools were built, and students from across the territories were boarded there. These schools, in Aklavik, Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Inuvik and Kuujjuaq, brought together young Inuit from across the Arctic in one place for the first time, and exposed them to the rhetoric of civil and human rights that prevailed in Canada in the 1960s. This was a real wake-up call for the Inuit, and it stimulated the emergence of a new generation of young Inuit activists in the late 1960s who came forward and pushed for respect for the Inuit and their territories.
The Inuit began to emerge as a political force in the late 1960s and early 1970s, shortly after the first graduates returned home. They formed new politically active associations in the early 1970s, starting with the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (Inuit Brotherhood and today known as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami), an outgrowth of the Indian and Eskimo Association of the \'60s, in 1971, and more region specific organizations shortly afterwards, including the Committee for the Original People\'s Entitlement (representing the Inuvialuit),[68] the Northern Quebec Inuit Association (Makivik Corporation) and the Labrador Inuit Association (LIA) representing Northern Labrador Inuit. Since the mid-1980s the Southern Labrador Inuit of NunatuKavut began organizing politically after being geographically cut out of the LIA, however, for political expediency the organization was erroneously called the Labrador Métis Nation. These various activist movements began to change the direction of Inuit society in 1975 with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. This comprehensive land claims settlement for Quebec Inuit, along with a large cash settlement and substantial administrative autonomy in the new region of Nunavik, set the precedent for the settlements to follow. The northern Labrador Inuit submitted their land claim in 1977, although they had to wait until 2005 to have a signed land settlement establishing Nunatsiavut. Southern Labrador Inuit of NunatuKavut are currently in the process of establishing land claims and title rights that would allow them to negotiate with the Newfoundland Government.
Canada\'s 1982 Constitution Act recognized the Inuit as Aboriginal peoples in Canada.[14] In the same year, the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut (TFN) was incorporated, in order to take over negotiations for land claims on behalf of the Inuit living in the eastern Northwest Territories, that would later become Nunavut, from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which became a joint association of the Inuit of Quebec, Labrador, and the Northwest Territories.
Inuit cabinet members at the federal levelOn October 30, 2008, Leona Aglukkaq was appointed as Minister of Health, \"[becoming] the first Inuk to hold a senior cabinet position, although she is not the first Inuk to be in cabinet altogether.\"[69] Jack Anawak and Nancy Karetak-Lindell were both parliamentary secretaries respectively from 1993 to 1996 and in 2003.
Genocide by Canada in the 20th and 21st centuriesUnbalanced scales.svgThe neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (September 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)In 2019, the final report, Reclaiming Power and Place,[70] by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded that Canada was involved in \"race-based genocide of indigenous peoples\", resulting in more than 1,000 women killed since 1980.[71][72][73]
NomenclatureSee also: Eskimo § NomenclatureThe term Eskimo is still used by people,[19][28][29] but in the 21st century, usage in North America has declined.[20][21]
In the United States the term \"Eskimo\" was, as of 2016, commonly[19] used to describe Inuit and the Siberian and Alaskan Yupik, and Iñupiat peoples. Eskimo is still used by some groups and organizations to encompass the Inuit and Yupik, as well as other Indigenous Alaskan and Siberian peoples.[28][29]
In 2011, Lawrence Kaplan of the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks wrote that \"Inuit\" was not generally accepted as a term for the Yupik, and \"Eskimo\" was often used as the term that applied to the Yupik, Iñupiat, and Inuit peoples.[74] Since then Kaplan has updated this to indicate that the term \"Inuit\" has gained acceptance in Alaska.[20]
Though there is much debate, the word Eskimo likely derives from a Innu-aimun (Montagnais)[75][76][77] exonym meaning \"a person who laces a snowshoe\",[24][25][75][78] but is also used in folk etymology as meaning \"eater of raw meat\" in the Cree language.[22] Though the Cree etymology has been discredited, \"Eskimo\" is considered pejorative by some Canadian and English-speaking Greenlandic Inuit.[22][79][80][81]
In Canada and Greenland, \"Inuit\" is preferred. Inuit is the Eastern Canadian Inuit (Inuktitut) and West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) word for \"the people\".[7] Since Inuktitut and Kalaallisut are the prestige dialects in Canada and Greenland, respectively, their version has become dominant, although every Inuit dialect uses cognates from the Proto-Eskimo *ińuɣ – for example, \"people\" is inughuit in North Greenlandic and iivit in East Greenlandic.
Cultural historyMain article: Inuit cultureLanguagesInuktitut dialect map with labels in Inuktitut inuujingajut or local Roman alphabetDistribution of Inuit dialectsMain article: Inuit languagesInuit speak Inuinnaqtun,[82] Inuktitut,[83] Inuvialuktun, and Greenlandic languages,[84] which belong to the Inuit-Inupiaq branch of the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan language family.[5] The Greenlandic languages are divided into: Kalaallisut (Western), Inuktun (Northern), and Tunumiit (Eastern).[84]
Inuktitut is spoken in Canada and along with Inuinnaqtun is one of the official languages of Nunavut; they are known collectively as the Inuit Language.[85][86][87] In the Northwest Territories, Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut are all official languages.[88] Kalaallisut is the official language of Greenland.[89] As Inuktitut was the language of the Eastern Canadian Inuit[83] and Kalaallisut is the language of the Western Greenlandic Inuit,[84] they are related more closely than most other dialects.[90]
Inuit in Alaska and Northern Canada also typically speak English.[91] In Greenland, Inuit also speak Danish and learn English in school. Canadian Inuit may also speak Québécois French.
Finally, deaf Inuit speak Inuit Sign Language, which is a language isolate and almost extinct as only around 50 people still speak it.[92]
DietMain article: Inuit dietThe Inuit have traditionally been fishers and hunters. They still hunt whales (esp. bowhead whale), seal, polar bears, muskoxen, birds, and fish and at times other less commonly eaten animals such as the Arctic fox. The typical Inuit diet is high in protein and very high in fat – in their traditional diets, Inuit consumed an average of 75% of their daily energy intake from fat.[93] While it is not possible to cultivate plants for food in the Arctic, the Inuit have traditionally gathered those that are naturally available. Grasses, tubers, roots, Plant stems, berries, and seaweed (kuanniq or edible seaweed) were collected and preserved depending on the season and the location.[94][95][96][97] There is a vast array of different hunting technologies that the Inuit used to gather their food.
In the 1920s, anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson lived with and studied a group of Inuit.[98] The study focused on Stefansson\'s observation that the Inuit\'s low-carbohydrate diet apparently had no adverse effects on their health, nor indeed, on his own health. Stefansson (1946) also observed that the Inuit were able to get the necessary vitamins they needed from their traditional winter diet, which did not contain any plant matter. In particular, he found that adequate vitamin C could be obtained from items in their traditional diet of raw meat such as ringed seal liver and whale skin (muktuk). While there was considerable skepticism when he reported these findings, the initial anecdotal reports were reaffirmed both in the 1970s,[99] and more recently.[100][101]
Modern Inuit have lifespans 12 to 15 years shorter than the average Canadian\'s, which is thought to be influenced by factors such as their diet[102] and limited access to medical services.[103] The life expectancy gap is not closing.[103][104][105]
Transport, navigation, and dogsPhotograph of an Inuit man seated in a kayak, holding a paddleInupiat man in a kayak, Noatak, Alaska, c. 1929 (photo by Edward S. Curtis)
Urbanization in GreenlandThe Inuit peoples hunted sea animals from single-passenger, covered seal-skin boats called qajaq (Inuktitut syllabics: ᖃᔭᖅ)[106] which were extraordinarily buoyant, and could easily be righted by a seated person, even if completely overturned. Because of this property, the design was copied by Europeans and Americans who still produce them under the Inuit name kayak.Covered Inuit basket, Alaska, undatedInuit also made umiaq (\"woman\'s boat\"), larger open boats made of wood frames covered with animal skins, for transporting people, goods, and dogs. They were 6–12 m (20–39 ft) long and had a flat bottom so that the boats could come close to shore. In the winter, Inuit would also hunt sea mammals by patiently watching an aglu (breathing hole) in the ice and waiting for the air-breathing seals to use them. This technique is also used by the polar bear, who hunts by seeking holes in the ice and waiting nearby.
In winter, both on land and on sea ice, the Inuit used dog sleds (qamutik) for transportation. The husky dog breed comes from the Siberian Husky. These dogs were bred from wolves, for transportation. A team of dogs in either a tandem/side-by-side or fan formation would pull a sled made of wood, animal bones, or the baleen from a whale\'s mouth and even frozen fish,[107] over the snow and ice. The Inuit used stars to navigate at sea and landmarks to navigate on land; they possessed a comprehensive native system of toponymy. Where natural landmarks were insufficient, the Inuit would erect an inukshuk. Also, Greenland Inuit created Ammassalik wooden maps, which are tactile devices that represent the coast line.
Dogs played an integral role in the annual routine of the Inuit. During the summer they became pack animals, sometimes dragging up to 20 kg (44 lb) of baggage and in the winter they pulled the sled. Yearlong they assisted with hunting by sniffing out seals\' holes and pestering polar bears. They also protected the Inuit villages by barking at bears and strangers. The Inuit generally favored, and tried to breed, the most striking and handsome of dogs, especially ones with bright eyes and a healthy coat. Common husky dog breeds used by the Inuit were the Canadian Eskimo Dog, the official animal of Nunavut,[108] (Qimmiq; Inuktitut for dog), the Greenland Dog, the Siberian Husky and the Alaskan Malamute. The Inuit would perform rituals over the newborn pup to give it favorable qualities; the legs were pulled to make them grow strong and the nose was poked with a pin to enhance the sense of smell.[citation needed]
Industry, art, and clothingMain articles: Inuit art and Inuit clothing
Caribou skin parka from Nunavut with hood for carrying a baby
Kalaallit girl\'s clothing from Western GreenlandInuit industry relied almost exclusively on animal hides, driftwood, and bones, although some tools were also made out of worked stones, particularly the readily worked soapstone. Walrus ivory was a particularly essential material, used to make knives. Art played a big part in Inuit society and continues to do so today. Small sculptures of animals and human figures, usually depicting everyday activities such as hunting and whaling, were carved from ivory and bone. In modern times prints and figurative works carved in relatively soft stone such as soapstone, serpentinite, or argillite have also become popular.
Traditional Inuit clothing and footwear is made from animal skins, sewn together using needles made from animal bones and threads made from other animal products, such as sinew. The anorak (parka) is made in a similar fashion by Arctic peoples from Europe through Asia and the Americas, including the Inuit. The hood of an amauti, (women\'s parka, plural amautiit) was traditionally made extra-large with a separate compartment below the hood to allow the mother to carry a baby against her back and protect it from the harsh wind.[109] Styles vary from region to region, from the shape of the hood to the length of the tails. Boots (mukluk[110] or kamik[111]), could be made of caribou or seal skin, and designed for men and women.Group of Inuit people building an iglooDuring the winter, certain Inuit lived in a temporary shelter made from snow called an igloo, and during the few months of the year when temperatures were above freezing, they lived in tents, known as tupiq,[109] made of animal skins supported by a frame of bones or wood.[112][113] Some, such as the Siglit, used driftwood,[114] while others built sod houses.[115]
The Inuit also used the Cape York Meteorite as a primary resource of Iron, using a technique called cold forging, which consisted in slicing a piece of the meteorite and giving it shape by smashing it with rocks until getting the desired shape, for example tools for fishing. They used this meteorite for centuries until Robert E. Peary sold it to the American Natural History Museum in 1883.[116]
Gender roles, marriage, birth, and communitySee also: Eskimo kinship and Inuit women
Inupiat woman, Alaska, circa 1907The division of labor in traditional Inuit society had a strong gender component, but it was not absolute. The men were traditionally hunters and fishermen, and the women took care of the children, cleaned the home, sewed, processed food, and cooked. However, there are numerous examples of women who hunted, out of necessity or as a personal choice. At the same time, men, who could be away from camp for several days at a time, would be expected to know how to sew and cook.[117]
The marital customs among the Inuit were not strictly monogamous: many Inuit relationships were implicitly or explicitly sexual. Open marriages, polygamy, divorce, and remarriage were known. Among some Inuit groups, if there were children, divorce required the approval of the community and particularly the agreement of the elders. Marriages were often arranged, sometimes in infancy, and occasionally forced on the couple by the community.[118]An Inupiat family from Noatak, Alaska, 1929.Marriage was common for women at puberty and for men when they became productive hunters. Family structure was flexible: a household might consist of a man and his wife (or wives) and children; it might include his parents or his wife\'s parents as well as adopted children; it might be a larger formation of several siblings with their parents, wives and children; or even more than one family sharing dwellings and resources. Every household had its head, either an elder or a particularly respected man.[119]
There was also a larger notion of community as, generally, several families shared a place where they wintered. Goods were shared within a household, and also, to a significant extent, within a whole community.
The Inuit were hunter–gatherers,[120] and have been referred to as nomadic.[121] One of the customs following the birth of an infant was for an Angakkuq (shaman) to place a tiny ivory carving of a whale into the baby\'s mouth, in hopes this would make the child good at hunting. Loud singing and drumming were also customary at birth.[122]
RaidingVirtually all Inuit cultures have oral traditions of raids by other indigenous peoples, including fellow Inuit, and of taking vengeance on them in return, such as the Bloody Falls massacre. Western observers often regarded these tales as generally not entirely accurate historical accounts, but more as self-serving myths. However, evidence shows that Inuit cultures had quite accurate methods of teaching historical accounts to each new generation.[123] In northern Canada, historically there were ethnic feuds between the Dene and the Inuit, as witnessed by Samuel Hearne in 1771.[124] In 1996, Dene and Inuit representatives participated in a healing ceremony to reconcile the centuries-old grievances.[125]
The historic accounts of violence against outsiders make it clear that there was a history of hostile contact within the Inuit cultures and with other cultures.[126] It also makes it clear that Inuit nations existed through history, as well as confederations of such nations. The known confederations were usually formed to defend against a more prosperous, and thus stronger, nation. Alternately, people who lived in less productive geographical areas tended to be less warlike, as they had to spend more time producing food.
Justice within Inuit culture was moderated by the form of governance that gave significant power to the elders. As in most cultures around the world, justice could be harsh and often included capital punishment for serious crimes against the community or the individual. During raids against other peoples, the Inuit, like their non-Inuit neighbors, tended to be merciless.[127]
Suicide, murder, and death
Further information: Suicide in Greenland and Suicide among Canadian aboriginal peopleA pervasive European myth about Inuit is that they killed elderly (senicide) and \"unproductive people\",[128] but this is not generally true.[129][130][131] In a culture with an oral history, elders are the keepers of communal knowledge, effectively the community library.[132] Because they are of extreme value as the repository of knowledge, there are cultural taboos against sacrificing elders.[133][134]
In Antoon A. Leenaars\' book Suicide in Canada he states that \"Rasmussen found that the death of elders by suicide was a commonplace among the Iglulik Inuit\".[135]
According to Franz Boas, suicide was \"not of rare occurrence\" and was generally accomplished through hanging.[136] Writing of the Labrador Inuit, Hawkes (1916) was considerably more explicit on the subject of suicide and the burden of the elderly:
Aged people who have outlived their usefulness and whose life is a burden both to themselves and their relatives are put to death by stabbing or strangulation. This is customarily done at the request of the individual concerned, but not always so. Aged people who are a hindrance on the trail are abandoned.
— Leenaars et al., Suicide in Canada[137]When food is not sufficient, the elderly are the least likely to survive. In the extreme case of famine, the Inuit fully understood that, if there was to be any hope of obtaining more food, a hunter was necessarily the one to feed on whatever food was left. However, a common response to desperate conditions and the threat of starvation was infanticide.[138][139] A mother abandoned an infant in hopes that someone less desperate might find and adopt the child before the cold or animals killed it. The belief that the Inuit regularly resorted to infanticide may be due in part to studies done by Asen Balikci,[140] Milton Freeman[141] and David Riches[142] among the Netsilik, along with the trial of Kikkik.[143][144] Other recent research has noted that \"While there is little disagreement that there were examples of infanticide in Inuit communities, it is presently not known the depth and breadth of these incidents. The research is neither complete nor conclusive to allow for a determination of whether infanticide was a rare or a widely practiced event.\"[145] There is no agreement about the actual estimates of the frequency of newborn female infanticide in the Inuit population. Carmel Schrire mentions diverse studies ranging from 15 to 50% to 80%.[146]
Anthropologists believed that Inuit cultures routinely killed children born with physical defects because of the demands of the extreme climate. These views were changed by late 20th century discoveries of burials at an archaeological site. Between 1982 and 1994, a storm with high winds caused ocean waves to erode part of the bluffs near Barrow, Alaska, and a body was discovered to have been washed out of the mud. Unfortunately, the storm claimed the body, which was not recovered. But examination of the eroded bank indicated that an ancient house, perhaps with other remains, was likely to be claimed by the next storm. The site, known as the \"Ukkuqsi archaeological site\", was excavated. Several frozen bodies (now known as the \"frozen family\") were recovered, autopsies were performed, and they were re-interred as the first burials in the then-new Imaiqsaun Cemetery south of Barrow.[147] Years later another body was washed out of the bluff. It was a female child, approximately 9 years old, who had clearly been born with a congenital birth defect.[148] This child had never been able to walk, but must have been cared for by family throughout her life.[149] She was the best preserved body ever recovered in Alaska, and radiocarbon dating of grave goods and of a strand of her hair all place her back to about 1200 CE.[149]
HealthSee also: Indian hospitalDuring the 19th century, the Western Arctic suffered a population decline of close to 90%, resulting from exposure to new diseases, including tuberculosis, measles, influenza, and smallpox. Autopsies near Greenland reveal that, more commonly pneumonia, kidney diseases, trichinosis, malnutrition, and degenerative disorders may have contributed to mass deaths among different Inuit tribes. The Inuit believed that the causes of the disease were of a spiritual origin.[150]
Canadian churches and, eventually, the federal government ran the earliest health facilities for the Inuit population, whether fully segregated hospitals or \"annexes\" and wards attached to settler hospitals. These \"Indian hospitals\" were focused on treating people for tuberculosis, though diagnosis was difficult and treatment involved forced removal of individuals from their communities for in-patient confinement in other parts of the country.
Dr. Kevin Patterson, a physician, wrote an op-ed in The Globe and Mail: \"In October (2017) the federal Minister of Indigenous Services, Jane Philpott, announced that in 2015 tuberculosis ... Was 270 times ... More common among the Canadian Inuit than it is among non-indigenous southern Canadians.\" The Canadian Medical Association Journal published in 2013 that \"tuberculosis among Canadian Inuit has dramatically increased since 1997. In 2010 the incidence in Nunavut ... Was 304 per 100,000 — more than 66 times the rate seen in the general population.[151]
Traditional lawMain article: Inuit QaujimajatuqangitInuit Qaujimajatuqangit or Inuit traditional laws are anthropologically different from Western law concepts. Customary law was thought non-existent in Inuit society before the introduction of the Canadian legal system. In 1954, E. Adamson Hoebel concluded that only \"rudimentary law\" existed amongst the Inuit. No known Western observer before 1970 was aware that any form of governance existed among any Inuit,[152] however, there was a set way of doing things that had to be followed:
maligait refers to what has to be followedpiqujait refers to what has to be donetirigusuusiit refers to what has to be avoidedIf an individual\'s actions went against the tirigusuusiit, maligait or piqujait, the angakkuq (shaman) might have to intervene, lest the consequences be dire to the individual or the community.[153]
We are told today that Inuit never had laws or \"maligait\". Why? They say because they are not written on paper. When I think of paper, I think you can tear it up, and the laws are gone. The laws of the Inuit are not on paper.
— Mariano Aupilaarjuk, Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Perspectives on Traditional Law[154]Traditional beliefsSee also: Inuit religion and Inuit astronomy
Some Inuit (including Alaska Natives) believed that the spirits of their ancestors could be seen in the aurora borealisThe environment in which the Inuit lived inspired a mythology filled with adventure tales of whale and walrus hunts. Long winter months of waiting for caribou herds or sitting near breathing holes hunting seals gave birth to stories of mysterious and sudden appearance of ghosts and fantastic creatures. Some Inuit looked into the aurora borealis, or northern lights, to find images of their family and friends dancing in the next life.[155] However, some Inuit believed that the lights were more sinister and if you whistled at them, they would come down and cut off your head. This tale is still told to children today.[156] For others they were invisible giants, the souls of animals, a guide to hunting and as a spirit for the angakkuq to help with healing.[156][157] They relied upon the angakkuq (shaman) for spiritual interpretation. The nearest thing to a central deity was the Old Woman (Sedna), who lived beneath the sea. The waters, a central food source, were believed to contain great gods.
The Inuit practiced a form of shamanism based on animist principles. They believed that all things had a form of spirit, including humans, and that to some extent these spirits could be influenced by a pantheon of supernatural entities that could be appeased when one required some animal or inanimate thing to act in a certain way. The angakkuq of a community of Inuit was not the leader, but rather a sort of healer and psychotherapist, who tended wounds and offered advice, as well as invoking the spirits to assist people in their lives. Their role was to see, interpret and exhort the subtle and unseen. Angakkuit were not trained; they were held to be born with the ability and recognized by the community as they approached adulthood.
Inuit religion was closely tied to a system of rituals integrated into the daily life of the people. These rituals were simple but held to be necessary. According to a customary Inuit saying, \"The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls\".[158]
By believing that all things, including animals, have souls like those of humans,[159] any hunt that failed to show appropriate respect and customary supplication would only give the liberated spirits cause to avenge themselves.
The harshness and unpredictability of life in the Arctic ensured that Inuit lived with concern for the uncontrollable, where a streak of bad luck could destroy an entire community. To offend a spirit was to risk its interference with an already marginal existence. The Inuit understood that they had to work in harmony with supernatural powers to provide the necessities of day-to-day life.
DemographicsIn total there are about 148,000 Inuit living in four countries, Canada, Greenland, Denmark, and the United States.[1][2][3][4]
CanadaAs of the 2016 Canadian census, there were 65,025 people identifying as Inuit living in Canada. This was up 29.1% from the 2006 Canadian census. Close to three-quarters (72.8%) of Inuit lived in one of the four regions comprising Inuit Nunangat (Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and Inuvialuit Settlement Region). From 2006 to 2016, the Inuit population grew by 20.1% inside Inuit Nunangat.[160]
The largest population of Inuit in Canada as of 2016 live in Nunavut with 30,140[160] Inuit out of a total population of 35,580 residents.[1][161] Between 2006 and 2016, the Inuit population of Nunavut grew by 22.5%.[160] In Nunavut, the Inuit population forms a majority in all communities and is the only jurisdiction of Canada where Aboriginal peoples form a majority.[161]
As of 2016, there were 13,945 Inuit living in Quebec.[161] The majority, about 11,795, live in Nunavik.[1] The Inuit population of Nunavik grew 23.3% between the 2006 and 2016 censuses. This was the fastest growth among all four regions of Inuit Nunangat.[160]
The 2016 Canada Census found there were 6,450 Inuit living in Newfoundland and Labrador[161] including 2,285 who live in Nunatsiavut.[1] In Nunatsiavut, the Inuit population grew by 6.0% between 2006 and 2016.[160]
As of 2016, there were 4,080 Inuit living in the Northwest Territories.[161] The majority, 3,110, live in the six communities of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.[1] Inuit population growth in the region was largely flat between 2006 and 2016.[160]
Outside of Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit population was 17,695 as of 2016.[1] This was a growth of 61.9% between the 2006 and 2016 censuses.[160] The highest populations of Inuit outside of Inuit Nunangat lived in the Atlantic provinces (30.6%) with 23.5% lived in Newfoundland and Labrador. A further 21.8% outside of Inuit Nunangat lived in Ontario, 28.7% lived in the western provinces, 12.1% lived in Quebec, while 6.8% lived in the Northwest Territories (not including the Inuvialuit region) and Yukon.[160]
Included in the population of Newfoundland and Labrador outside of Inuit Nunangat is the unrecognized Inuit territory of NunatuKavut where about 6,000 NunatuKavut people (Labrador Metis or Inuit-metis) reside in southern Labrador.[162]
GreenlandMain article: Greenlandic InuitAccording to the 2018 edition of The World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Inuit population of Greenland is 88% (50,787) out of a total of 57,713 people.[2] Like Nunavut the population lives throughout the region.
DenmarkThe population size of Greenlandic people in Denmark varies from source to source between 15,000 and 20,000. According to 2015 figures from Statistics Denmark there are 15,815 people residing in Denmark of Greenlandic Inuit ancestry.[3] Most travel to Denmark for educational purposes, and many remain after finishing their education,[163] which results in the population being mostly concentrated in the big 4 educational cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and Aalborg, which all have vibrant Greenlandic communities and cultural centers (Kalaallit Illuutaat).
United StatesAccording to the 2000 United States Census there were a total of 16,581 Inuit/Inupiat living throughout the country.[4] The majority, about 14,718, live in the state of Alaska.[164]
Governance
Inuit Circumpolar Conference membersThe Inuit Circumpolar Council is a United Nations-recognized non-governmental organization (NGO), which defines its constituency as Canada\'s Inuit and Inuvialuit, Greenland\'s Kalaallit Inuit, Alaska\'s Inupiat and Yup\'ik, and Russia\'s Siberian Yupik,[165] despite the last two neither speaking an Inuit dialect[74] or considering themselves \"Inuit\". Nonetheless, it has come together with other circumpolar cultural and political groups to promote the Inuit and other northern people in their fight against ecological problems such as climate change which disproportionately affects the Inuit population. The Inuit Circumpolar Council is one of the six group of Arctic indigenous peoples that have a seat as a so-called \"Permanent Participant\" on the Arctic Council,[166] an international high level forum in which the eight Arctic Countries (USA, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland) discuss Arctic policy. On 12 May 2011, Greenland\'s Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist hosted the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council, an event for which the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Nuuk, as did many other high-ranking officials such as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. At that event they signed the Nuuk Declaration.[167]
CanadaSee also: NunatuKavut, Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and NunangitWhile Inuit Nunangat is within Canada, and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami oversees only the four official regions, there remains NunatuKavut in southern Labrador. NunatuKavummuit retain a treaty with the Crown since 1765,[168] and the NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC) oversees governance in this region.[169]Regions of Inuit NunangatThe Inuvialuit are western Canadian Inuit who remained in the Northwest Territories when Nunavut split off. They live primarily in the Mackenzie River delta, on Banks Island, and parts of Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories. They are officially represented by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and, in 1984, received a comprehensive land claims settlement, the first in Northern Canada, with the signing of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.[170]
The TFN worked for ten years and, in September 1992, came to a final agreement with the Government of Canada. This agreement called for the separation of the Northwest Territories into an eastern territory whose Aboriginal population would be predominately Inuit,[171] the future Nunavut, and a rump Northwest Territories in the west. It was the largest land claim agreement in Canadian history. In November 1992, the Nunavut Final Agreement was approved by nearly 85% of the Inuit of what would become Nunavut. As the final step in this long process, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was signed on May 25, 1993, in Iqaluit by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and by Paul Quassa, the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which replaced the TFN with the ratification of the Nunavut Final Agreement. The Canadian Parliament passed the supporting legislation in June of the same year, enabling the 1999 establishment of Nunavut as a territorial entity.
GreenlandSee also: Kalaallit and History of GreenlandIn 1953, Denmark put an end to the colonial status of Greenland and granted home rule in 1979 and in 2008 a self-government referendum was passed with 75% approval. Although still a part of the Kingdom of Denmark (along with Denmark proper and the Faroe Islands), Greenland, known as Kalaallit Nunaat in the Greenlandic language, maintains much autonomy today. Of a population of 56,000, 80% of Greenlanders identify as Inuit. Their economy is based on fishing and shrimping.[172]
The Thule people arrived in Greenland in the 13th century. There they encountered the Norsemen, who had established colonies there since the late 10th century, as well as a later wave of the Dorset people. Because most of Greenland is covered in ice, the Greenland Inuit (or Kalaallit) only live in coastal settlements, particularly the northern polar coast, the eastern Amassalik coast and the central coasts of western Greenland.[173]
AlaskaThe Inuit of Alaska are the Iñupiat who live in the Northwest Arctic Borough, the North Slope Borough and the Bering Strait region. Utqiagvik, the northernmost city in the United States, is in the Inupiat region. Their language is Iñupiaq.
GeneticsSee also: Saqqaq culture § Genetics, Dorset culture § Genetics, Birnirk culture § Genetics, Thule people § Genetics, and Sadlermiut § GeneticsA genetic study published in Science in August 2014 examined a large number of remains from the Dorset culture, Birnirk culture and the Thule people. Genetic continuity was observed between the Inuit, Thule and Birnirk, who overwhelmingly carried the maternal haplogroup A2a and were genetically very different from the Dorset. The evidence suggested that the Inuit descend from the Birnirk of Siberia, who through the Thule culture expanded into northern Canada and Greenland, where they genetically and culturally completely replaced the indigenous Dorset people some time after 1300 AD.[174]
Modern culture
Two Inuit elders share Maktaaq in 2002Inuit art, carving, print making, textiles and Inuit throat singing, are very popular, not only in Canada but globally, and Inuit artists are widely known. Canada has adopted some of the Inuit culture as national symbols, using Inuit cultural icons like the inuksuk in unlikely places, such as its use as a symbol at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Respected art galleries display Inuit art, the largest collection of which is at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Their traditional New Year is called Quviasukvik.[175]
Some Inuit languages, such as Inuktitut, appears to have a more secure future in Quebec and Nunavut. There are a surprising number of Inuit, even those who now live in urban centres such as Ottawa, Montreal and Winnipeg, who have experienced living on the land in the traditional life style. People such as Legislative Assembly of Nunavut member, Levinia Brown and former Commissioner of Nunavut and the NWT, Helen Maksagak were born and lived the early part of their life \"on the land\". Inuit culture is alive and vibrant today in spite of the negative impacts of recent history.
An important biennial event, the Arctic Winter Games, is held in communities across the northern regions of the world, featuring traditional Inuit and northern sports as part of the events. A cultural event is also held. The games were first held in 1970, and while rotated usually among Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, they have also been held in Schefferville, Quebec, in 1976, in Slave Lake, Alberta, and a joint Iqaluit, Nunavut-Nuuk, Greenland staging in 2002. In other sporting events, Jordin Tootoo became the first Inuk to play in the National Hockey League in the 2003–2004 season, playing for the Nashville Predators.An Inuit woman uses a traditional amauti and a modern western strollerAlthough Inuit life has changed significantly over the past century, many traditions continue. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, or traditional knowledge, such as storytelling, mythology, music, and dancing remain important parts of the culture. Family and community are very important. The Inuktitut language is still spoken in many areas of the Arctic and is common on radio and in television programming.
Well-known Inuit politicians include Premier of Nunavut, Peter Taptuna, Nancy Karetak-Lindell, former MP for the riding of Nunavut, and Kuupik Kleist, Prime Minister of Greenland. Leona Aglukkaq, current MP, was the first Inuk to be sworn into the Canadian Federal Cabinet as Health Minister in 2008. In May 2011 after being re-elected for her second term, Ms. Aglukkaq was given the additional portfolio of Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency. In July 2013 she was sworn in as the Minister of the Environment.[176]Inuit seal hunter in a kayak, armed with a harpoonVisual and performing arts are strong features of Inuit culture. In 2002 the first feature film in Inuktitut, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, was released worldwide to great critical and popular acclaim. It was directed by Zacharias Kunuk, and written, filmed, produced, directed, and acted almost entirely by the Inuit of Igloolik. In 2009, the film Le Voyage D\'Inuk, a Greenlandic-language feature film, was directed by Mike Magidson and co-written by Magidson and French film producer Jean-Michel Huctin.[177] One of the most famous Inuit artists is Pitseolak Ashoona. Susan Aglukark is a popular singer. Mitiarjuk Attasie Nappaaluk worked at preserving Inuktitut and wrote one of the first novels ever published in that language.[178] In 2006, Cape Dorset was hailed as Canada\'s most artistic city, with 23% of the labor force employed in the arts.[179] Inuit art such as soapstone carvings is one of Nunavut\'s most important industries.
Recently, there has been an identity struggle among the younger generations of Inuit, between their traditional heritage and the modern society which their cultures have been forced to assimilate into in order to maintain a livelihood. With current dependence on modern society for necessities, (including governmental jobs, food, aid, medicine, etc.), the Inuit have had much interaction with and exposure to the societal norms outside their previous cultural boundaries. The stressors regarding the identity crisis among teenagers have led to disturbingly high numbers of suicide.[180]
A series of authors have focused upon the increasing myopia in the youngest generations of Inuit. Myopia was almost unknown prior to the Inuit adoption of Western culture. Principal theories are the change to a Western style diet with more refined foods, and extended education.[181][182][183]
David Pisurayak Kootook was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross, posthumously, for his heroic efforts in a 1972 plane crash. Other notable Inuit include the freelance journalist Ossie Michelin, whose iconic photograph of the activist Amanda Polchies went viral after the 2013 anti-fracking protests at Elsipogtog First Nation.[184]
Notes and references
The term Inuit refers broadly to the Arctic indigenous population of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Inuit means “people,” and the language they speak is called Inuktitut, though there are regional dialects that are known by slightly different names. Today, the Inuit communities of Canada live in the Inuit Nunangat—loosely defined as “Inuit homeland”—which is divided into four regions.
For centuries these communities have relied on their natural resources, strong leaders, and innovative tools and skills to adapt to the cold, harsh environments of the Arctic north. The Inuit people survived primarily on fish and sea mammals such as seals, whales, caribou, and walruses. Out of respect for the land and ocean that provided for them, they, like other Indigenous Peoples, used all parts of the animal efficiently for food, clothes, and tools, creating innovative spears and harpoons, parka coats, blankets, and boats. Therefore, to this day, the Inuit place high value on inclusiveness, resourcefulness, collaboration, and “decision making through discussion and consensus.” While individuals are expected to be self-reliant and fulfill their role in society, each member is also expected to support and help the others.
The Inuit have used naming, or renaming, to resist the colonial legacy and practice by choosing names in their own language. When the Canadian government formally recognized the Inuit claims to the land, the inhabitants changed the name of the region to Nunavut, which means “our land” in Inuktitut. Beyond the literal definition, Nunavut connotes home and a deep relationship and interconnectedness with the land.
Nunavut is the largest and most northern territory in Canada. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European traders, fishermen, and whalers began to make routine trips to set up summer posts in the vast region. From the beginning of the eighteenth century and as late as the 1930s, a lively fur trade thrived between the Europeans and the Inuit. The territory is far from Ottawa, however, and has historically received little investment or attention. With the end of the fur trade and the depletion of important ocean resources such as whales, many Inuit communities were left without the means to thrive. By the 1940s, the government began to settle the Inuit in permanent communities, and the pressure to adapt to Western ways increased. The traditional ways were discarded and the Inuit became dependent on the government for education, health care, and other services. The majority of Canada’s 60,000 Inuit live in small communities of no more than 1,000 people. These are often poor communities, located thousands of kilometres away from each other, which creates vast transportation and communication problems. Some communities, at least for part of the year, are accessible only by airplane. The Inuit formed the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), formerly Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, in 1971. The ITK represents four distinct regional homelands: Inuvialuit (Northwest Territories), Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador), and Nunavut, which became its own territory in 1999. After years of hard-fought negotiations, each region has successfully settled its own constitutionally protected aboriginal rights agreements. In these regions, the Inuit received titles to the land and, under several self-government agreements, expanded administrative powers to govern according to their worldview.
Inuit — Inuktitut for “the people” — are an Indigenous people, the majority of whom inhabit the northern regions of Canada. An Inuit person is known as an Inuk. The Inuit homeland is known as Inuit Nunangat, which refers to the land, water and ice contained in the Arctic region.
InukshukInukshukInuksuit were stone cairns erected by the Inuit to serve as landmarks or to fool the caribou in hunting.(Corel Professional Photos)PrevNext12345TerminologyInuit — Inuktitut for “the people” — are an Indigenous people, the majority of whom inhabit the northern regions of Canada. An Inuit person is known as an Inuk. (See also Arctic Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)
Territory and DemographyThe Inuit homeland is known as Inuit Nunangat, which refers to the land, water and ice contained in the Arctic region. The term Inuit Nunangat may also be used to refer to land occupied by the Inuit in Alaska and Greenland. By 2016, according to Statistics Canada, the Inuit population grew to 65,025, an increase of 29.1 per cent since 2006. The Inuit represent 3.9 per cent of the total Indigenous population of Canada.
In 2016, approximately 73 per cent of all Inuit in Canada lived in Inuit Nunangat, with more than half (63.7 per cent) living in Nunavut, followed by Nunavik (in northern Québec), the western arctic (Northwest Territories and Yukon), known as Inuvialuit, and Nunatsiavut (located along the northern coast of Labrador).
Language and Ethnic GroupsThere are eight main Inuit ethnic groups: the Labradormiut (Labrador), Nunavimmiut (Ungava), Baffin Island, Iglulingmuit (Iglulik), Kivallirmiut (Caribou), Netsilingmiut (Netsilik), Inuinnait (Copper) and Inuvialuit or Western Arctic Inuit (who replaced the Mackenzie Inuit).
Inuktitut, the Inuit language, has five main dialects in Canada: Inuvialuktun (Inuvialuit region in the Northwest Territories); Inuinnaqtun (western Nunavut); Inuktitut (eastern Nunavut dialect); Inuktitut (Nunavik dialect); and Nunatsiavumiuttut (Nunatsiavut). (See also Indigenous Languages in Canada.)
In 2016, 41,650 Inuit reported having conversational knowledge of an Inuit language or dialect. In Inuit Nunangat as a whole, 83.9 per cent of Inuit reported conversational ability in an Inuit language. Inuktitut usage was strongest in Nunavik, where the ability to converse in that language was 99.2 per cent. In Nunavut, 89.1 per cent reported the ability to converse in an Inuit language. In contrast, the figures for speaking an Inuit language (mainly Inuvialuktun and Inuinnaqtun) were 21.4 per cent in Nunatsiavut and 22 per cent in the Inuvialuit region.
Declining usage of Inuktitut prompted the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami(ITK) — the national voice of Inuit in Inuit Nunangat, founded in 1971 — to establish Inuktitut curriculum in schools. Beginning in the 1960s, federal and territorial governments also worked to establish Inuktitut language programs, though for some, justification was partly based on the assumption that establishing such educational traditions would facilitate transition to English or French.
Culture and LifeTraditionally, the Inuit were hunters and gatherers who moved seasonally from one camp to another. Large regional groupings were loosely separated into smaller seasonal groups, winter camps (called \"bands\") of around 100 people and summer hunting groups of fewer than a dozen. Each band was roughly identified with a locale and named accordingly — the Arvirtuurmiut of Boothia Peninsula were called \"baleen whale-eating people.\" (See also Igloo and Inuksuk.)
In contemporary northern communities, many types of food such as fruit, vegetables, and milk must be transported long distances, resulting in higher costs, limited availability and food that is not fresh. However, the availability of \"country food\" through harvesting and sharing partially explains the high percentage of Inuit who consume country food. A report released in 2005 found that a majority (68 per cent) of Inuk adults living in Inuit Nunangat harvested country food, which includes seal, whale, duck, caribou, fish and berries. Country food remains an important food source for many Inuit, with 65 per cent of households getting at least half their meat and fish from country food, and approximately 80 per cent of Inuit Nunangat families sharing country food with people in other households. (See also Food Insecurity in Canada.)
The Inuit have a rich and diverse culture. Inuit art, from carving to printmaking and more, demonstrates highly-skilled craftsmanship and artistry. Some well-known Inuit artists include Kenojuak Ashevak, Shuvinai Ashoona and Annie Pootoogook. Another popular cultural activity is Inuit vocal games, also known as throat singing. This is usually performed by two women producing a wide range of sounds from deep in the throat and chest. Many Inuit also compete in traditional games and sports such as high-kick (one and two foot varieties) and kneel-jump. Such games are featured in the Arctic Winter Games, held every two years.
HistoryDuring roughly 4,000 years of human history in the Arctic, the appearance of new people has brought continual cultural change. The ancestors of the present-day Inuit, who are culturally related to Inupiat (northern Alaska), Katladlit (Greenland) and Yuit (Siberia and western Alaska), arrived about 1050 CE.
As early as the 11th century the Norse exerted an undetermined influence on the Inuit. The subsequent arrival of explorers, whalers, traders, missionaries, scientists and others began irreversible cultural changes. The Inuit themselves participated actively in these developments as guides, traders and models of survival. (See also Eenoolooapik and Tookoolito.)
The effects of colonization have seriously impacted Inuit culture and life. Though largely ignored by the Canadian federal government until 1939, when a court decision ruled that they were a federal responsibility (though still not subject to the Indian Act) the Inuit were still subjected to policies that enforced assimilation into a “Canadian” way of life. Many Inuit children attended residential schools in Canada. (See also Inuit Experiences at Residential School.) Formerly nomadic peoples were transformed, sometimes through forced relocation (see also Inuit High Arctic Relocations in Canada), into sedentary communities, and disc numbers were introduced to supersede an Inuit naming system that did not correspond to administrative needs. Disc numbers — so-called because they were distributed on small leather or pressed-fibre discs initially meant to be worn on one’s person — imposed a government sanctioned name on Inuit who may have been known by several names throughout their lives and depending on context. The system used location-based serial numbers. For example, filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk’s disc number is E51613. The imposition of disc numbers remains a culturally traumatic event, and has been criticized as fostering structural inequality. (See also Project Surname.)
Despite adjustments made by the Inuit over the past three centuries and the loss of some traditional features, Inuit culture persists — often with a greater reflective awareness. Inuit maintain a cultural identity through language, family and cultural laws, attitudes and behaviour, and through much acclaimed Inuit art.Moving Toward Self-GovernmentIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, Inuit began organizing politically in response to assimilative policies and government restrictions on traditional lands. In order to lobby effectively for land claims, Indigenous rights and self-government, a group of Inuit people formed Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami or ITK (then known as Inuit Tapirisat of Canada) in 1971. The organization supports and advocates for the interests of all Inuit living in 53 communities across Inuit Nunangat. Such interests represent an array of interconnected issues and challenges, including social, cultural, political, and environmental concerns.
First proposed by ITK in 1976, and supported by plebiscite in 1982, the Nunavut territory was agreed to in principle in a land claim in 1990, and formalized with the Nunavut Act in 1993.A strong base of politically experienced leaders allowed for a relatively smooth transition to official territory status in 1999. Three other land claim agreements in Inuit Nunangat support some level of Inuit self-government. The Makivik Corporation, through the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, is working toward a self-governing Nunavik, as is the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation for Inuvialuit. Nunatsiavut has been self-governed since 1 December 2005 after the implementation of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement and the Labrador Inuit Constitution.
Did You Know?On 27 January 2020, Inuit elder Qapik Attagutsiak was recognized by Parks Canada as a “Hometown Hero” for her “significant” contributions to Canada’s Second World War effort. Qapik was part of a nationwide effort to recycle bones, fats, metals and rubber for wartime production. Living on an island near Igloolik, west of Baffin Island ( Nunavut), Qapik collected walrus and seal bones which were used to make aircraft glue, fertilizer, and cordite (a type of explosive used in bullets). Qapik, 99, was honoured by Nunavut Commissioner Nellie Kusugak and Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.
Contemporary ChallengesDespite gains made in self-government and other fields like business, teaching, transportation, medicine and broadcasting (see also Inuit Broadcasting Corporation), many Inuit in northern communities face significant challenges, such as living in some of the most crowded conditions in Canada. Since being moved to permanent settlements in the 1950s and 1960s, Inuit have lacked adequate housing and have suffered related health problems. (See also Health of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.) In 2016, 51.7 Inuit in Inuit Nunangat reported living in over-crowded conditions, compared to 8.5 per cent of non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. Living conditions and lack of access to healthcare partially contribute to an increase in chronic health conditions, including obesity, diabetes and respiratory infections. (See also Social Conditions of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.) The suicide rate among Inuit youth is markedly higher than for the rest of Canada, making suicide prevention a key priority for continued cultural growth. (See also Suicide among Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)
Eskimo (/ˈɛskɪmoʊ/ ESS-kih-moh) or Eskimos is a collective term used to refer to the Inuit (including the Alaskan Iñupiat, the Greenlandic Inuit, and the Inuit peoples of Canada) and the Yupik (or \"Yuit\") of eastern Siberia[1] and Alaska. A third group, the Aleut, which inhabit the Aleutian Islands, are closely related to both, but are generally excluded from the definition of Eskimo. The three groups share a relatively recent common ancestor, and speak related languages belonging to the Eskimo–Aleut language family.
Many Inuit, Yupik, Aleut and other individuals consider the term Eskimo to be unacceptable.[2] The word has no exact synonym,[3] and stems from the Montagnais word ayas̆kimew: \"netter of snowshoes\".[4]
The non-Inuit sub-branch of the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut language family consists of four distinct Yupik languages, two used in the Russian Far East and St. Lawrence Island, and two used in western Alaska, southwestern Alaska, and the western part of Southcentral Alaska. The extinct language of the Sirenik people is sometimes argued to be related to these.
According to recent genomic research, the Chukchi people of eastern Siberia are the closest living relatives of the Siberian Yupik and other the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[5]
There are more than 183,000 Eskimo people alive today,[6][7][8][9] of which 135,000 or more live in or near the traditional circumpolar regions.[10] The NGO known as the Inuit Circumpolar Council claims to represent 180,000 people.[11]
The governments in Canada[12][13][14] and the United States[15][16] have made moves to cease using the term Eskimo in official documents, but it has not been entirely eliminated, as the word is in some places written into tribal, and therefore national, legal terminology.[17] Canada officially uses the term Inuit to describe the Native people living in the country\'s northernmost sector.[12][13] The United States government legally uses Alaska Native[16] for the Yupik, Inuit, and Aleut, but also for non-Eskimo indigenous Alaskans including the Tlingit, the Haida, the Eyak, and the Tsimshian, in addition to at least nine separate northern Athabaskan/Dene peoples. The designation Alaska Native applies to enrolled tribal members only,[18] in contrast to individual Eskimo/Aleut persons claiming descent from the world\'s \"most widespread aboriginal group\".[19][20][21]Contents1 History2 Nomenclature2.1 Etymology2.2 Usage2.3 Inuit Circumpolar Council2.3.1 Academic response3 Languages3.1 Language family3.2 Words for snow4 Diet5 Inuit5.1 Greenland\'s Inuit5.2 Canadian Inuit5.3 Alaska\'s Iñupiat6 Yupik6.1 Alutiiq6.2 Central Alaskan Yup\'ik6.3 Siberian Yupik6.4 Naukan7 Sirenik Eskimos8 See also9 References10 Sources10.1 Cyrillic11 Further reading12 External linksHistoryA distinct Asian lineage exists for Siberian Yupik people and the North American speakers of the Eskimo-Aleut language group, who have up to 43% of their DNA in common with an ancient people or set of ancient peoples of otherwise unknown origin.[22] It is understood that some or all of these ancient people underwent a stream of migration from Asia to North America during the pre-neolithic era, somewhere between 5,000 and 12,600 years ago.[23] It is believed that ancestors of the Aleut people inhabited the Aleutian Chain 10,000 years ago.[24]Inuit building an iglu, by George Francis Lyon, 1824The earliest positively identified Paleo-Eskimo cultures (Early Paleo-Eskimo) date to 5,000 years ago.[25] Several earlier indigenous peoples existed in the northern circumpolar regions of eastern Siberia, Alaska, and Canada (although probably not in Greenland).[26] The Paleo-Eskimo peoples appear to have developed in Alaska from people related to the Arctic small tool tradition in eastern Asia, whose ancestors had probably migrated to Alaska at least 3,000 to 5,000 years earlier. Similar artifacts have been found in Siberia that date to perhaps 18,000 years ago.
The Yupik languages and cultures in Alaska evolved in place, beginning with the original pre-Dorset Indigenous culture developed in Alaska. At least 4,000 years ago, the Unangan culture of the Aleut became distinct. It is not generally considered an Eskimo culture. However, there is some possibility of an Aleutian origin of the Dorset people,[25] who in turn are a likely ancestor of Inuit and Yupik people today.[23]
Approximately 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, apparently in northwestern Alaska,[citation needed] two other distinct variations appeared. Inuit language became distinct and, over a period of several centuries, its speakers migrated across northern Alaska, through Canada, and into Greenland. The distinct culture of the Thule people (drawing strongly from the Birnirk culture) developed in northwestern Alaska. It very quickly spread over the entire area occupied by Eskimo peoples, though it was not necessarily adopted by all of them.
Nomenclature
Illustration of a Greenlandic Inuit manEtymologyFurther information: Native American name controversyThere exists a scholarly consensus that etymologically the word Eskimo derives from the Innu-aimun (Montagnais) word ayas̆kimew, meaning \"a person who laces a snowshoe\" (an origin proposed by Ives Goddard at the Smithsonian Institution),[27], and is related to husky (a breed of dog).[10][2][27][28] The word assime·w means \"she laces a snowshoe\" in Innu, and Innu language speakers refer to the neighbouring Mi\'kmaq people using words that sound like eskimo.[29][30]
In 1978, José Mailhot, a Quebec anthropologist who speaks Innu-aimun (Montagnais), published a paper suggesting that Eskimo meant \"people who speak a different language\".[31][32] French traders who encountered the Innu (Montagnais) in the eastern areas adopted their word for the more western peoples and spelled it as Esquimau or Esquimaux in a transliteration.[33]
Some people consider Eskimo offensive, because it is popularly perceived to mean[27][32][34][35] \"eaters of raw meat\" in Algonquian languages common to people along the Atlantic coast.[2][36][37] An unnamed Cree speaker suggested the original word that became corrupted to Eskimo might have been askamiciw (which means \"he eats it raw\"); the Inuit are referred to in some Cree texts as askipiw (which means \"eats something raw\").[36][37][38][39] This etymology, which some people still believe, has been discredited.[12][37][40] Regardless, the term still carries a derogatory connotation for many Inuit and Yupik.[2][36][41][42][43]
One of the first printed uses of the French word Esquimaux comes from Samuel Hearne\'s A Journey from Prince of Wales\'s Fort in Hudson\'s Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 first published in 1795.[44]
Usage
Laminar armour from hardened leather reinforced by wood and bones worn by native Siberians and Eskimos
Lamellar armour worn by native SiberiansThe term Eskimo is still used by people to encompass the Inuit and Yupik, as well as other Indigenous Alaskan and Siberian peoples.[10][41][3] In the 21st century, usage in North America has declined.[2][42] Linguistic, ethnic, and cultural differences exist between Yupik and Inuit.
In Canada and Greenland, and to a certain extent in Alaska, the term Eskimo is predominantly seen as offensive and has been widely replaced by the term Inuit[2][38][39][45] or terms specific to a particular group or community.[2][46][47] This has resulted in a trend whereby some Canadians and Americans believe that they should use Inuit even for Yupik who are a non-Inuit people.[48]
The Inuit of Greenland generally refer to themselves as Greenlanders (\"Kalaallit\" or \"Grønlændere\") and speak the Greenlandic language and Danish.[2][49] The Inuit of Greenland belong to three groups: the Kalaallit of west Greenland, who speak Kalaallisut;[49] the Tunumiit of Tunu (east Greenland), who speak Tunumiit oraasiat (\"East Greenlandic\"); and the Inughuit of north Greenland, who speak Inuktun.
The word \"Eskimo\" is a racially charged term in Canada.[50][51] In Canada\'s Central Arctic, Inuinnaq is the preferred,[52] and in the eastern Canadian Arctic Inuit. The language is often called Inuktitut, though other local designations are also used.
Section 25[53] of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and section 35[54] of the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 recognized the Inuit as a distinctive group of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Although Inuit can be applied to all of the Eskimo peoples in Canada and Greenland, that is not true in Alaska and Siberia. In Alaska, the term Eskimo is still used (has been commonly used but is decreasing in prevalence) because it includes both Iñupiat (singular: Iñupiaq), who are Inuit, and Yupik, who are not.[2]
Alaskans also use the term Alaska Native, which is inclusive of (and under U.S. and Alaskan law, as well as the linguistic and cultural legacy of Alaska, refers to) all Indigenous peoples of Alaska,[55] including not only the Iñupiat (Alaskan Inuit) and the Yupik, but also groups such as the Aleut, who share a recent ancestor, as well as the largely unrelated[56] indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Alaskan Athabaskans, such as the Eyak people. The term Alaska Native has important legal usage in Alaska and the rest of the United States as a result of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. It does not apply to Inuit or Yupik originating outside the state. As a result, the term Eskimo is still in use in Alaska.[57] Alternative terms, such as Inuit-Yupik, have been proposed,[58] but none has gained widespread acceptance. Recent (early 21st century) population estimates registered more than 135,000 individuals of Eskimo descent, with approximately 85,000 living in North America, 50,000 in Greenland, and the rest residing in Siberia.[10]
Inuit Circumpolar CouncilIn 1977, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) meeting in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, officially adopted Inuit as a designation for all circumpolar Native peoples, regardless of their local view on an appropriate term. They voted to replace the word Eskimo with Inuit.[59][better source needed] Even at that time, such a designation was not accepted by all.[2][33] As a result, the Canadian government usage has replaced the term Eskimo with Inuit (Inuk in singular).
The ICC charter defines Inuit as including \"the Inupiat, Yupik (Alaska), Inuit, Inuvialuit (Canada), Kalaallit (Greenland) and Yupik (Russia)\".[60] Despite the ICC\'s 1977 decision to adopt the term Inuit, this was never accepted by the Yupik, who likened it to calling all American Indians as Navajo simply because the Navajo felt that that was what all tribes should be called.[citation needed]
In 2010, the ICC passed a resolution in which they implored scientists to use Inuit and Paleo-Inuit instead of Eskimo or Paleo-Eskimo.[61]
Academic responseIn a 2015 commentary in the journal Arctic, Canadian archaeologist Max Friesen argued fellow Arctic archaeologists should follow the ICC and use Paleo-Inuit instead of Paleo-Eskimo.[62] In 2016, Lisa Hodgetts and Arctic editor Patricia Wells wrote: \"In the Canadian context, continued use of any term that incorporates Eskimo is potentially harmful to the relationships between archaeologists and the Inuit and Inuvialuit communities who are our hosts and increasingly our research partners.\"
Hodgetts and Wells suggested using more specific terms when possible (e.g., Dorset and Groswater) and agreed with Frieson in using the Inuit tradition to replace Neo-Eskimo, although they noted replacement for Palaeoeskimo was still an open question and discussed Paleo-Inuit, Arctic Small Tool Tradition, and pre-Inuit, as well as Inuktitut loanwords like Tuniit and Sivullirmiut, as possibilities.[63]
In 2020, Katelyn Braymer-Hayes and colleagues argued in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology that there is a \"clear need\" to replace the terms Neo-Eskimo and Paleo-Eskimo, citing the ICC resolution, but finding a consensus within the Alaskan context particularly is difficult, since Alaska Natives do not use the word Inuit to describe themselves nor is the term legally applicable only to Iñupiat and Yupik in Alaska, and as such, terms used in Canada like Paleo Inuit and Ancestral Inuit would not be acceptable.[64]
American linguist Lenore Grenoble has also explicitly deferred to the ICC resolution and used Inuit–Yupik instead of Eskimo with regards to the language branch.[65][66]
LanguagesMain article: Eskimo–Aleut languages
English (\"Welcome to Barrow\") and Iñupiaq (Paġlagivsigiñ Utqiaġvigmun), Utqiaġvik, Alaska, framed by whale jawbonesLanguage familyThe Eskimo–Aleut family of languages includes two cognate branches: the Aleut (Unangan) branch and the Eskimo branch.
The number of cases varies, with Aleut languages having a greatly reduced case system compared to those of the Eskimo subfamily. Eskimo–Aleut languages possess voiceless plosives at the bilabial, coronal, velar and uvular positions in all languages except Aleut, which has lost the bilabial stops but retained the nasal. In the Eskimo subfamily a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is also present.
The Eskimo sub-family consists of the Inuit language and Yupik language sub-groups.[67] The Sirenikski language, which is virtually extinct, is sometimes regarded as a third branch of the Eskimo language family. Other sources regard it as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.[67][68]
Inuit languages comprise a dialect continuum, or dialect chain, that stretches from Unalakleet and Norton Sound in Alaska, across northern Alaska and Canada, and east to Greenland. Changes from western (Iñupiaq) to eastern dialects are marked by the dropping of vestigial Yupik-related features, increasing consonant assimilation (e.g., kumlu, meaning \"thumb\", changes to kuvlu, changes to kublu, changes to kulluk, changes to kulluq,[69][dead link]) and increased consonant lengthening, and lexical change. Thus, speakers of two adjacent Inuit dialects would usually be able to understand one another, but speakers from dialects distant from each other on the dialect continuum would have difficulty understanding one another.[68] Seward Peninsula dialects in western Alaska, where much of the Iñupiat culture has been in place for perhaps less than 500 years, are greatly affected by phonological influence from the Yupik languages. Eastern Greenlandic, at the opposite end of the Inuit range, has had significant word replacement due to a unique form of ritual name avoidance.[67][68]
Ethnographically, Inuit of Greenland belong to three groups: the Kalaallit of west Greenland, who speak Kalaallisut;[49] the Tunumiit of Tunu (east Greenland), who speak Tunumiit oraasiat (\"East Greenlandic\"), and the Inughuit of north Greenland, who speak Inuktun.
The four Yupik languages, by contrast, including Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Central Alaskan Yup\'ik, Naukan (Naukanski), and Siberian Yupik, are distinct languages with phonological, morphological, and lexical differences. They demonstrate limited mutual intelligibility.[67] Additionally, both Alutiiq and Central Yup\'ik have considerable dialect diversity. The northernmost Yupik languages – Siberian Yupik and Naukan Yupik – are linguistically only slightly closer to Inuit than is Alutiiq, which is the southernmost of the Yupik languages. Although the grammatical structures of Yupik and Inuit languages are similar, they have pronounced differences phonologically. Differences of vocabulary between Inuit and any one of the Yupik languages are greater than between any two Yupik languages.[68] Even the dialectal differences within Alutiiq and Central Alaskan Yup\'ik sometimes are relatively great for locations that are relatively close geographically.[68]
Despite the relatively small population of Naukan speakers, documentation of the language dates back to 1732. While Naukan is only spoken in Siberia, the language acts as an intermediate between two Alaskan languages: Siberian Yupik Eskimo and Central Yup\'ik Eskimo.[70]
The Sirenikski language is sometimes regarded as a third branch of the Eskimo language family, but other sources regard it as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.[68]Iñupiat woman, Alaska, circa 1907
An Inuit family, c.1917An overview of the Eskimo–Aleut languages family is given below:
AleutAleut languageWestern-Central dialects: Atkan, Attuan, Unangan, Bering (60–80 speakers)Eastern dialect: Unalaskan, Pribilof (400 speakers)Eskimo (Yup\'ik, Yuit, and Inuit)YupikCentral Alaskan Yup\'ik (10,000 speakers)Alutiiq or Pacific Gulf Yup\'ik (400 speakers)Central Siberian Yupik or Yuit (Chaplinon and St Lawrence Island, 1,400 speakers)Naukan (700 speakers)Inuit or Inupik (75,000 speakers)Iñupiaq (northern Alaska, 3,500 speakers)Inuvialuktun (western Canada; together with Siglitun, Natsilingmiutut, Inuinnaqtun and Uummarmiutun 765 speakers)Inuktitut (eastern Canada; together with Inuktun and Inuinnaqtun, 30,000 speakers)Kalaallisut (Greenlandic (Greenland, 47,000 speakers)Inuktun (Avanersuarmiutut, Thule dialect or Polar Eskimo, approximately 1,000 speakers)Tunumiit oraasiat (East Greenlandic known as Tunumiisut, 3,500 speakers)Sirenik Eskimo language (Sirenikskiy) (extinct)American linguist Lenore Grenoble has explicitly deferred to this resolution and used Inuit–Yupik instead of Eskimo with regards to the language branch.[65]
Words for snowMain article: Eskimo words for snowThere has been a long-running linguistic debate about whether or not the speakers of the Eskimo-Aleut language group have an unusually large number of words for snow. The general modern consensus is that, in multiple Eskimo languages, there are, or have been in simultaneous usage, indeed fifty plus words for snow.[71]
DietMain article: Inuit cuisineThe traditional Eskimo and Aleut diets are very high in fat and low in carbohydrates.
Inuit
Eskimo (Yup\'ik of Nelson Island) fisherman\'s summer houseFurther information: Inuit and Lists of InuitNot to be confused with the Innu, a First Nations people in eastern Quebec and Labrador..The Inuit inhabit the Arctic and northern Bering Sea coasts of Alaska in the United States, and Arctic coasts of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, and Labrador in Canada, and Greenland (associated with Denmark). Until fairly recent times, there has been a remarkable homogeneity in the culture throughout this area, which traditionally relied on fish, marine mammals, and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, and tools. Their food sources primarily relied on seals, whales, whale blubber, walrus, and fish, all of which they hunted using harpoons on the ice.[10] Clothing consisted of robes made of wolfskin and reindeer skin to acclimate to the low temperatures.[72] They maintain a unique Inuit culture.
Greenland\'s InuitMain article: Greenlandic InuitGreenlandic Inuit make up 90% of Greenland\'s population.[7] They belong to three major groups:
Kalaallit of west Greenland, who speak KalaallisutTunumiit of east Greenland, who speak TunumiisutInughuit of north Greenland, who speak Inuktun or Polar Eskimo.[49]Canadian InuitMain article: InuitCanadian Inuit live primarily in Inuit Nunangat (lit. \"lands, waters and ices of the [Inuit] people\"_, their traditional homeland although some people live in southern parts of Canada. Inuit Nunangat ranges from the Yukon–Alaska border in the west across the Arctic to northern Labrador.
The Inuvialuit live in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, the northern part of Yukon and the Northwest Territories, which stretches to the Amundsen Gulf and the Nunavut border and includes the western Canadian Arctic Islands. The land was demarked in 1984 by the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.
The majority of Inuit live in Nunavut (a territory of Canada), Nunavik (the northern part of Quebec) and in Nunatsiavut (the Inuit settlement region in Labrador).[6][73][74][75]
Alaska\'s Iñupiat
An Iñupiat family from Noatak, Alaska, 1929Main article: IñupiatThe Iñupiat are the Inuit of Alaska\'s Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs and the Bering Straits region, including the Seward Peninsula. Utqiaġvik, the northernmost city in the United States, is above the Arctic Circle and in the Iñupiat region. Their language is known as Iñupiaq.[76]
Yupik
Alutiiq dancer during the biennial \"Celebration\" cultural eventMain article: Yupik peoplesThe Yupik are indigenous or aboriginal peoples who live along the coast of western Alaska, especially on the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta and along the Kuskokwim River (Central Alaskan Yup\'ik); in southern Alaska (the Alutiiq); and along the eastern coast of Chukotka in the Russian Far East and St. Lawrence Island in western Alaska (the Siberian Yupik).[77] The Yupik economy has traditionally been strongly dominated by the harvest of marine mammals, especially seals, walrus, and whales.[78]
AlutiiqMain article: AlutiiqThe Alutiiq, also called Pacific Yupik or Sugpiaq, are a southern, coastal branch of Yupik.[citation needed] They are not to be confused with the Aleut, who live further to the southwest, including along the Aleutian Islands. They traditionally lived a coastal lifestyle, subsisting primarily on ocean resources such as salmon, halibut, and whales, as well as rich land resources such as berries and land mammals.[citation needed] Alutiiq people today live in coastal fishing communities, where they work in all aspects of the modern economy. They also maintain the cultural value of a subsistence lifestyle.[citation needed]
The Alutiiq language is relatively close to that spoken by the Yupik in the Bethel, Alaska area. But, it is considered a distinct language with two major dialects: the Koniag dialect, spoken on the Alaska Peninsula and on Kodiak Island, and the Chugach dialect, spoken on the southern Kenai Peninsula and in Prince William Sound. Residents of Nanwalek, located on southern part of the Kenai Peninsula near Seldovia, speak what they call Sugpiaq. They are able to understand those who speak Yupik in Bethel. With a population of approximately 3,000, and the number of speakers in the hundreds, Alutiiq communities are working to revitalize their language.[79]
Central Alaskan Yup\'ikMain article: Yup\'ikYup\'ik, with an apostrophe, denotes the speakers of the Central Alaskan Yup\'ik language, who live in western Alaska and southwestern Alaska from southern Norton Sound to the north side of Bristol Bay, on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, and on Nelson Island. The use of the apostrophe in the name Yup\'ik is a written convention to denote the long pronunciation of the p sound; but it is spoken the same in other Yupik languages. Of all the Alaska Native languages, Central Alaskan Yup\'ik has the most speakers, with about 10,000 of a total Yup\'ik population of 21,000 still speaking the language. The five dialects of Central Alaskan Yup\'ik include General Central Yup\'ik, and the Egegik, Norton Sound, Hooper Bay-Chevak, and Nunivak dialects. In the latter two dialects, both the language and the people are called Cup\'ik.[80]
Siberian Yupik
Siberian Yupik aboard the steamer BowheadMain article: Siberian YupikSiberian Yupik reside along the Bering Sea coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in Siberia in the Russian Far East[68] and in the villages of Gambell and Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska.[81] The Central Siberian Yupik spoken on the Chukchi Peninsula and on St. Lawrence Island is nearly identical. About 1,050 of a total Alaska population of 1,100 Siberian Yupik people in Alaska speak the language. It is the first language of the home for most St. Lawrence Island children. In Siberia, about 300 of a total of 900 Siberian Yupik people still learn and study the language, though it is no longer learned as a first language by children.[81]
NaukanMain articles: Naukan people and Naukan Yupik languageAbout 70 of 400 Naukan people still speak Naukanski. The Naukan originate on the Chukot Peninsula in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Siberia.[68] Despite the relatively small population of Naukan speakers, documentation of the language dates back to 1732. While Naukan is only spoken in Siberia, the language acts as an intermediate between two Alaskan languages: Siberian Yupik Eskimo and Central Yup\'ik Eskimo.[70]
Sirenik Eskimos
Model of an Ice Scoop, Eskimo, 1900–1930, Brooklyn MuseumMain article: Sirenik EskimosSome speakers of Siberian Yupik languages used to speak an Eskimo variant in the past, before they underwent a language shift. These former speakers of Sirenik Eskimo language inhabited the settlements of Sireniki, Imtuk, and some small villages stretching to the west from Sireniki along south-eastern coasts of Chukchi Peninsula.[82] They lived in neighborhoods with Siberian Yupik and Chukchi peoples.
As early as in 1895, Imtuk was a settlement with a mixed population of Sirenik Eskimos and Ungazigmit[83] (the latter belonging to Siberian Yupik). Sirenik Eskimo culture has been influenced by that of Chukchi, and the language shows Chukchi language influences.[84] Folktale motifs also show the influence of Chuckchi culture.[85]
The above peculiarities of this (already extinct) Eskimo language amounted to mutual unintelligibility even with its nearest language relatives:[86] in the past, Sirenik Eskimos had to use the unrelated Chukchi language as a lingua franca for communicating with Siberian Yupik.[84]
Many words are formed from entirely different roots from in Siberian Yupik,[87] but even the grammar has several peculiarities distinct not only among Eskimo languages, but even compared to Aleut. For example, dual number is not known in Sirenik Eskimo, while most Eskimo–Aleut languages have dual,[88] including its neighboring Siberian Yupikax relatives.[89]
Little is known about the origin of this diversity. The peculiarities of this language may be the result of a supposed long isolation from other Eskimo groups,[90][91] and being in contact only with speakers of unrelated languages for many centuries. The influence of the Chukchi language is clear.[84]
Because of all these factors, the classification of Sireniki Eskimo language is not settled yet:[92] Sireniki language is sometimes regarded as a third branch of Eskimo (at least, its possibility is mentioned).[92][93][94] Sometimes it is regarded rather as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.[95][96]
See alsoEskimologyAlaska Native religionBlond EskimosDisc numberEskimo archeryEskimo kinshipEskimo kissingEskimo yo-yoInuit religionKudlikMaupukNanook of the North, 1922 documentarySaqqaq culture
Eskimo, any member of a group of peoples who, with the closely related Aleuts, constitute the chief element in the indigenous population of the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Canada, the United States, and far eastern Russia (Siberia). Early 21st-century population estimates indicated more than 135,000 individuals of Eskimo descent, with some 85,000 living in North America, 50,000 in Greenland, and the remainder in Siberia.
The self-designations of Eskimo peoples vary with their languages and dialects. They include such names as Inuit, Inupiat, Yupik, and Alutiit, each of which is a regional variant meaning “the people” or “the real people.” The name Eskimo, which has been applied to Arctic peoples by Europeans and others since the 16th century, originated with the Innu (Montagnais), a group of Algonquian speakers; once erroneously thought to mean “eaters of raw flesh,” the name is now believed to make reference to snowshoes.
Arctic OceanREAD MORE ON THIS TOPICArctic: Seasonally migratory peoples: the northern Yupiit and the InuitThe seasonally organized economy of these peoples derived from that of their Thule ancestors and focused on the exploitation of both sea...Despite that finding, the name Eskimo—widely used in Alaska—is nevertheless considered by some to be offensive. In Canada and Greenland the name Inuit is preferred for all indigenous peoples there. However, the indigenous peoples of Alaska include the Yupik and the Aleuts, both of whom are distinct from the Inuit. Other proposed names for the inhabitants of Alaska present different problems; Alaska Natives, for example, includes Athabaskan and other unrelated Native Americans.
One of the oldest known Eskimo archaeological sites was found on Saglek Bay, Labrador, and dates to approximately 3,800 years ago. Another was found on Umnak Island in the Aleutians, for which an age of approximately 3,000 years was recorded.
Eskimo people are culturally and biologically distinguishable from neighbouring indigenous groups including American Indians and the Sami of northern Europe. Studies comparing Eskimo-Aleut languages to other indigenous North American languages indicate that the former arose separately from the latter. Physiologically, an appreciable percentage of Eskimo people have the B blood type (ABO system), which seems to be absent from other indigenous American groups. Because blood type is a very stable hereditary trait, it is believed that at least a part of the Eskimo population is of a different origin from other indigenous American peoples.
Culturally, traditional Eskimo life was totally adapted to an extremely cold, snow- and icebound environment in which vegetable foods were almost nonexistent, trees were scarce, and caribou, seal, walrus, and whale meat, whale blubber, and fish were the major food sources. Eskimo people used harpoons to kill seals, which they hunted either on the ice or from kayaks, skin-covered, one-person canoes. Whales were hunted by using larger boats called umiaks.
Young Alaskan Eskimo (Inuit)Young Alaskan Eskimo (Inuit)Young Alaskan Eskimo (Inuit) wearing a caribou skin parka.Caroline Penn—Impact Photos/Imagestatetraditional semisubterranean dwelling of the North American Arctic and subarctic peoplestraditional semisubterranean dwelling of the North American Arctic and subarctic peoplesCross section of a traditional semisubterranean dwelling of the North American Arctic and subarctic peoples.Eskimo familyEskimo familyEskimo (Inuit) family from Alaska wearing fur parkas, early 19th century.Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsc-02276)In the summer most Eskimo families hunted caribou and other land animals with bows and arrows. Dogsleds were the basic means of transport on land. Eskimo clothing was fashioned of caribou furs, which provided protection against the extreme cold. Most Eskimo wintered in either snow-block houses called igloos or semisubterranean houses built of stone or sod over wooden or whalebone frameworks. In summer many Eskimo lived in animal-skin tents. Their basic social and economic unit was the nuclear family, and their religion was animistic.
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