Inuit

I

Introduction

Inuit, also referred to as Eskimo, several Arctic peoples inhabiting Nunavut and small enclaves in the coastal areas of Greenland, Alaska, and extreme north-eastern Siberia. Their name for themselves is Inuit (in Siberian and some Alaskan speech, Yuit), meaning “the people”. Inuit is a plural word, the singular of which is Inuk and means “person”. The name Eskimo, considered derogatory, comes from the descriptive term for “eaters of raw flesh”, inaccurately applied to them by an Algonquian people.

II

Physical Characteristics and Regional Groupings

The Inuit people display metabolic, circulatory, and other adaptations to the Arctic climate (see Human Ecology). Inhabiting an area spanning almost 5,150 km (3,200 mi), Inuit have a wider geographical range than any other indigenous people and are the most sparsely distributed people on Earth. They fall generally into the following geographical (and cultural) divisions, moving from east to west: (1) Greenland Inuit, living on the eastern and western coasts of southern Greenland, who have adopted many European ways and are known as Greenlanders or Kalaallitt (Kalâtdlit); (2) Labrador Inuit, occupying the coast from the southern Labrador Peninsula to Hudson Bay, with a few settlements on southern Baffin Island; (3) Central Inuit, including those of far northern Greenland and, in Canada, Baffin Island and western Hudson Bay; (4) Banks-Island Inuit, on Banks Island, Victoria Island, and other large islands off the central Arctic coast; (5) Western-Arctic Inuit or Inuvialuit, along the western Arctic coast of Canada; (6) Alaskan Inuit; (7) Alaskan Yuit; and (8) Siberian Yuit.

III

History

From archaeological, linguistic, and physiological evidence, most archaeologists and anthropologists have concluded that the Inuit migrated across the Bering Strait from Siberia to Arctic North America. A later arrival to the New World than most Native Americans, the Inuit share many cultural traits with Siberian Arctic peoples and with their own closest relatives, the Aleuts. The oldest archaeological sites identifiable as Inuit, in south-west Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, date from about 2000 bc and are somewhat distinct from later Inuit sites. By about 1800 bc the highly developed Old Whaling or Bering Sea culture and related cultures had emerged in Siberia and in the Bering Strait region. In eastern Canada the Old Dorset culture flourished from about 1000 to 800 bc until about ad 1000-1300. The Dorset people were overrun by the Thule Inuit, who by ad 1000 to 1200 had reached Greenland. There, Inuit culture was influenced by medieval Norse colonists and, after 1700, by Danish settlers.

IV

Language and Literature

The languages of the Inuit peoples constitute a subfamily of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. A major linguistic division occurs in Alaska, according to whether the speakers call themselves Inuit (singular, Inuk) or Yuit (singular, Yuk). The Inuit branch of the family stretches from eastern Alaska across Canada and through northern into southern Greenland. It includes the Inupiaq (this term is also used to refer to the people who speak it [plural: Inupiat]) and Inuktitut languages and dialects, and Greenlandic (or Kalaallisut). These various languages are used as part of bilingual education (with English) in schools under Inuit jurisdiction in Alaska, and in schools and communications media in Nunavut, Canada, and Greenland.

Few explorers or traders ever learned these languages; instead, they relied on a jargon composed of Danish, Spanish, Hawaiian, and Inupiaq and Yupik (the other branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family) words. The Inupiaq and Yupik languages themselves have a rich oral literature, and a number of Greenland authors have written in Greenland Inupiaq. In August 2002, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference established a language commission to preserve and promote the use of Inuit languages, and to make recommendations for a common writing system for the languages.