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Inuit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inuit
Yupik, and
is the only term that includes
Yupik, Iupiat and Inuit. However, Aboriginal peoples in
Canada and Greenland view "Eskimo" as pejorative, and
Total population
118,426[1][2][3]
Greenland
51,365[2]
Canada
50,480[1]
Mtis.[11]
United States
16,581[3]
Languages
Inuit languages, Danish, English, French, and
various others
Religion
Christianity, Inuit religion
Related ethnic groups
Aleut and Yupik peoples[4]
Contents
1 Prehistory
2 Postcontact history
2.1 Canada
2.1.1 Early contact with Europeans
2.1.2 Early 20th century
2.1.3 Second World War to the 1960s
2.1.4 Cultural renewal
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Prehistory
Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture,[14] who emerged from western
Alaska, after crossing from Siberia, around 1000 CE and spread eastwards across the Arctic.[15] They
displaced the related Dorset culture, the last major Paleo-Eskimo culture (in Inuktitut, called the Tuniit).[16]
Inuit legends speak of the Tuniit as "giants", people who were taller and stronger than the Inuit.[17] Less
frequently, the legends refer to the Dorset as "dwarfs".[18] Researchers believe that the Dorset culture lacked
dogs, larger weapons and other technologies that gave the expanding Inuit society an advantage.[19] By
1300, the Inuit had settled in west Greenland, and they moved into east Greenland over the following
century.[20]
Faced with population pressures from the Thule and other surrounding groups, such as the Algonquian and
Siouan to the south, the Tuniit gradually receded.[21] They 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.[22] The Sadlermiut population
survived up until winter 190203, when exposure to new infectious diseases brought by contact with
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expansion. There is evidence that they were still moving into new territory in southern Labrador when they
first began to interact with Europeans in the 17th century.
Postcontact history
Canada
Early contact with Europeans
The lives of Paleo-Eskimos of the far north were largely unaffected by the arrival of visiting Norsemen
except for mutual trade.[30] Labrador Inuit have had the longest continuous contact with Europeans.[31]
After the disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland, the 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.[32][33] The Inuit appear not to have interfered with their operations, but they raided the stations in
winter for tools and items made of worked iron, which they adapted to their own needs. Martin Frobisher's
1576 search for the Northwest Passage was the first well-documented post-Columbian contact between
Europeans and Inuit. Frobisher's expedition landed in Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, not far from the
settlement now called The City of Iqaluit which was long known as Frobisher Bay. Frobisher encountered
Inuit on Resolution Island where five sailors left the ship, under orders from Frobisher, and became part of
Inuit mythology. The homesick sailors, tired of their adventure, attempted to leave in a small vessel and
vanished. Frobisher brought an unwilling Inuk to England, possibly the first Inuk ever to visit Europe.[34]
The Inuit oral tradition, in contrast, recounts the natives helping Frobisher's crewmen, whom they believed
had been abandoned.
The semi-nomadic eco-centred Inuit were fishers 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.[35] In the final years of the
18th century, the Moravian Church began missionary activities in Labrador, supported by the British who
were tired of the raids on their whaling stations. The Moravian missionaries could easily provide the 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 the Inuit was enormous and from then on contacts in
Labrador were far more peaceful.
The European arrival tremendously damaged the Inuit way of life, causing mass death through new diseases
introduced by whalers and explorers, and enormous social disruptions caused by the distorting effect of
Europeans' material wealth. Nonetheless, Inuit society in the higher latitudes had 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 British Naval Expedition of 18213 led
by Admiral William Edward Parry, which twice over-wintered in Foxe Basin, provided the first informed,
sympathetic and well-documented account of the economic, social and religious life of the 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, both published in 1824 were widely read.[36] Captain
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George Comer's Inuit wife Shoofly, known for her sewing skills and
elegant attire,[37] was influential in convincing him to acquire more
sewing accessories and beads for trade with Inuit.
Early 20th century
During the early 20th century a few traders and missionaries
circulated among the more accessible bands, and after 1904 they
were accompanied by a handful of Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Hudson's Bay Company Ships
(RCMP). Unlike most Aboriginal peoples in Canada, however, the
bartering with Inuit off the Upper
lands occupied by the Inuit were of little interest to European settlers
Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, 1819
to the southerners, the homeland of the Inuit was a hostile
hinterland. Southerners enjoyed lucrative careers as bureaucrats and
service providers to the north, but very few ever chose to visit there. Canada, with its more hospitable lands
largely settled, 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 the 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,
such as Kikkik, who often could not understand what they had done wrong, and by missionaries who
preached a moral code very different from the one they were used to. Many of the Inuit were systematically
converted to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries, through rituals like the Siqqitiq.
Second World War to the 1960s
World War II and the Cold War made Arctic Canada strategically important for the first time and, thanks to
the development of modern aircraft, 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, which traditionalists complained instilled foreign values
disdainful of the traditional structure of Inuit society.[38]
In the 1950s the High Arctic relocation was undertaken by the Government of Canada 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", meaning the assimilation
and end of the 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. 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 within two years if conditions were not right. However, two years later more families were relocated
to the High Arctic and it was to be thirty years before they were able to visit Inukjuak.[39][40][41]
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."[42] The government began to
establish about forty permanent administrative centres to provide education, health and economic
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development services.[42] Inuit from hundreds of smaller camps scattered across the north, began to
congregate in these hamlets.[43]
Regular visits from doctors, and access to modern medical care raised the birth rate and decreased the death
rate, causing an enormous natural increase. 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).
These forced resettlements were acknowledged by the Canadian government in 2005.[44] 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 renewal
In 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),[45]
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 Mtis 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 landclaims and title rights that would allow them to negotiate with the
Newfoundland Government.
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Canada's 1982 Constitution Act recognized the Inuit as Aboriginal peoples in Canada, but not First
Nations.[11] 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 level
On 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."[46] Jack Anawak
and Nancy Karetak-Lindell were both parliamentary secretaries respectively from 1993 to 1996 and in 2003.
Nomenclature
In the United States, the term "Eskimo" is still commonly used, because it includes; Inuit, Aleut, Iupiat,
and Yupik peoples - whilst distinguishing them from American Indians. The Yupik do not speak an Inuit
language or consider themselves to be Inuit.[8] However, the term is probably a
Montagnais[47][48][49]exonym as well as being widely used in[47][50][51][52] folk etymology as meaning
"eater of raw meat" in the Cree language.[10][53] It is now considered pejorative or even a racial slur
amongst the Canadian and English-speaking Greenlandic Inuit.[10][53]
In Canada and Greenland, "Inuit" is preferred. Inuit is the Eastern Canadian Inuit (Inuktitut) and West
Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) word for "the people."[5] 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 *iu for example, "people" is inughuit in North Greenlandic and iivit in
East Greenlandic.
Cultural history
Languages
Inuit speak Inuinnaqtun, Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, and Greenlandic Inuktitut, which belong to the InuitInupiaq branch of the Eskimo-Aleut language family.[4] Greenlandic Inuktitut is divided into: Kalallisut
(Western), Inuktun (Northern), and Tunumiit (Eastern).[54]
Inuktitut is spoken in Canada. Kalaallisut is the official language of Greenland.[55] As Inuktitut was the
language of the Eastern Canadian Inuit and Kalaallisut is the language of the Western Greenlandic Inuit,
they are related more closely than most other dialects.[56]
Inuit in Alaska and Canada also typically speak English. In Greenland, Inuit also speak Danish and learn
English in school. Canadian Inuit may also speak Qubcois French.
Diet
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The Inuit have traditionally been fishers and hunters. They still hunt whales (esp. bowhead whale), walrus,
caribou, 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.[57] 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, stems, berries, and seaweed (kuanniq or edible seaweed) were collected and preserved
depending on the season and the location.[58][59][60][61][62] 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.[63] The study
focused on the fact that the Inuit's low-carbohydrate diet had no adverse effects on their health, nor indeed,
Stefansson's 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, they have been borne out in recent studies and
analyses.[64][65] However, the Inuit have lifespans 12 to
15 years shorter than the average Canadian's, which is
thought to be a result of limited access to medical
services.[66] The life expectancy gap is not
closing.[66][67][68]
In winter, both on land and on sea ice, the Inuit used dog sleds (qamutik) for transportation. The husky dog
breed comes from Inuit breeding of dogs and 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
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whale's mouth and even frozen fish,[70] 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.
Dogs played an integral role in the annual routine of the Inuit.
During the summer they became pack animals, sometimes dragging
up to 20kg (44lb) 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,[71] (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.
Urbanization in Greenland
Inuit made clothes and footwear 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. Styles vary from region to
region, from the shape of the hood to the length of the tails. Boots (mukluk or kamik[72]), could be made of
caribou or seal skin, and designed for men and women.
During the winter, certain Inuit lived in a temporary shelter made from snow called an iglu, and during the
few months of the year when temperatures were above freezing, they lived in tents, known as tupiq,[73]
made of animal skins supported by a frame of bones or wood.[74][75] Some, such as the Siglit, used
driftwood,[76] while others built sod houses.[77]
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birth.[83]
Raiding
Virtually 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.[84]
In northern Canada, historically there were ethnic feuds between the
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Igloo.
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Traditional law
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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. Hoebel, in 1954,
concluded that only 'rudimentary law' existed amongst the Inuit. Indeed, prior to about 1970, it is impossible
to find even one reference to a Western observer who was aware that any form of governance existed among
any Inuit,[112] however, there was a set way of doing things that had to be followed:
maligait refers to what has to be followed
piqujait refers to what has to be done
tirigusuusiit refers to what has to be avoided
If 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.[113]
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[114]
Traditional beliefs
The 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.[115] 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.[116]
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The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls.
By believing that all things, including animals, have souls like those of humans, 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. Before the 1940s, Inuit had minimal
contact with Europeans, who passed through on their way to hunt whales or trade furs but seldom had any
interest in settling down on the frozen land of the Arctic. So the Inuit had the place to themselves. They
moved between summer and winter camps to always be living where there were animals to hunt.
But that changed. As World War II ended and the Cold War began, the Arctic became a place where
countries that did not get along were close to each other. The Arctic had always been seen as inaccessible,
but the invention of aircraft made it easier for non-Arctic dwellers to get there. As new airbases and radar
stations were built in the Arctic to monitor rival nations, permanent settlements were developed around
them, including schools and health care centres. In many places, Inuit children were required to attend
schools that emphasized non-native traditions. With better health care, the Inuit population grew too large to
sustain itself solely by hunting. Many Inuit from smaller camps moved into permanent settlements because
there was access to jobs and food. In many areas Inuit were required to live in towns by the 1960s.
Demographics
In total there are about 118,426 Inuit living in three countries, Canada, Greenland and the United
States.[1][2][3]
Canada
Although the 50,480[1] Inuit listed in the 2006 Canada Census can be found throughout Canada the
majority, 44,470, live in four regions.[118][119][120][121]
As of the 2006 Canada Census there were 4,715 Inuit living in Newfoundland and Labrador[118] and about
2,160 live in Nunatsiavut.[122] There are also about 6,000 NunatuKavut people (Labrador Metis or Inuitmetis) living in southern Labrador in what is called NunatuKavut.[123]
As of the 2006 Canada Census there were 4,165 Inuit living in the Northwest Territories.[119] The majority,
about 3,115, live in the six communities of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.[124]
As of the 2006 Canada Census there were 24,640 Inuit living in Nunavut.[120] In Nunavut the Inuit
population forms a majority in all communities and is the only jurisdiction of Canada where Aboriginal
peoples form a majority.
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As of the 2006 Canada Census there were 10,950 Inuit living in Quebec.[121] The majority, about 9,565, live
in Nunavik.[125]
Greenland
According to the 2013 edition of The World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, the
Inuit population of Greenland is 89% (51,365) out of a total of 57,714 people.[2] Like Nunavut the
population lives throughout the region.
United States
According to the 2000 United States Census there were a total of 16,581 Inuit/Inupiat living throughout the
country.[3] The majority, about 14,718, live in the state of Alaska.[126]
Russia
According to the 2010 Russian Census there were a total of 1,738 Inuit/Eskimo living throughout the
country, mostly in the East of the Far Eastern Federal District.
Governance
The Inuit Circumpolar Council is a United Nationsrecognized 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,[127] despite the
last two neither speaking an Inuit dialect[8] 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,[128] an international high level forum in which
the eight Arctic Countries (USA, Canada, Russia,
Map showing the members of the Inuit Circumpolar
Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and
Conference.
Russia) 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 Stre. At that
event they signed the Nuuk Declaration.[129]
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Inuit,[131] the future Nunavut, and a rump Northwest Territories in the west. It was the largest land claims
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.
With the establishment of Nunatsiavut in 2005, almost all the traditional Inuit lands in Canada, with the
exception NunatuKavut in central and South Labrador, are now covered by some sort of land claims
agreement providing for regional autonomy.
Alaska
Currently Alaska is governed as a State within United States with very limited autonomy for Alaska Native
peoples. European Colonization of Alaska started in the 18th century by Russia. By the 1860s, the Russian
government was considering ridding itself of its Russian America colony. Alaska was officially
incorporated to United States on January 3, 1959.
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The Inuit of Alaska are the Inupiat (from Inuit- people and piaq/piat real, i.e. 'real people') who live in the
Northwest Arctic Borough, the North Slope Borough and the Bering Straits region. Barrow, the
northernmost city in the United States, is in the Inupiat region. Their language is Iupiaq (which is the
singular form of Inupiat).
Modern culture
Inuit 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 inukshuk 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.
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.
Municipalities of Greenland
An important
biennial event,
the Arctic
Winter Games,
is held in
communities
across the
northern regions
of the world,
featuring
traditional Inuit
and northern
Alaska Native Regional Corporations
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
200304 season, playing for the Nashville Predators.
Although 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.
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Well-known Inuit politicians include Premier of Nunavut, Eva Aariak, 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.[134]
Mike Magidson and co-written by Magidson and French film producer Jean-Michel Huctin.[135] One of the
most famous Inuit artists is Pitseolak Ashoona. Susan Aglukark is a popular singer. Mitiarjuk Attasie
Nappaaluk works at preserving Inuktitut and has written the first novel published in that language.[136] In
2006, Cape Dorset was hailed as Canada's most artistic city, with 23% of the labor force employed in the
arts.[137] 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.[138]
A series of authors has 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.[139][140][141]
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58. Kuhnlein, Harriet (1991) [1991]. "Chapter 4. Descriptions and Uses of Plant Foods by Indigenous Peoples"
(http://books.google.com/books?
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Nutrition, Botany and Use (Food and Nutrition in History and Anthropology) (http://books.google.com/?
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(http://web.archive.org/web/20070813015442/http://www.itk.ca/environment/wildlife-index.php). Archived from
the original (http://www.itk.ca/environment/wildlife-index.php) on 2007-08-13. Retrieved 2007-11-20. "Not
included are the myriad of other species of plants and animals that Inuit use, such as geese, ducks, rabbits,
ptarmigan, swans, halibut, clams, mussels, cod, berries and seaweed."
60. Bennett, John; Rowley, Susan (2004). "Chapter 5. Gathering" (http://books.google.com/books?
id=6cjGnMRRrcEC&pg=PA84&dq=inuit+seaweed&sig=zIqIahWu8leC3FoRhzMnufW_QsU#PPR9,M1).
Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut (http://books.google.com/?
id=6cjGnMRRrcEC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=inuit+seaweed). McGill-Queen's University Press. pp.8485.
ISBN978-0-7735-2340-1. "...shorelines, Inuit gathered seaweed and shellfish. For some, these foods were a
treat;..."
61. "kuanniq" (http://www.livingdictionary.com/term/viewTerm.jsp?term=132285700004). Asuilaak Living
Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
62. Bennett, John; Rowley, Susan (2004). "Chapter 5. Gathering". Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut
(http://books.google.com/?
id=6cjGnMRRrcEC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=%22in+the+land+where+it+was+flat%22). McGill-Queen's
University Press. pp.7885. ISBN978-0-7735-2340-1.
63. Lieb et al. (1926). "The Effects of an Exclusive Long-Continued Meat Diet." JAMA, July 3, 1926
64. Fediuk, Karen. 2000 Vitamin C in the Inuit diet: past and present
(http://members.shaw.ca/karen.fediuk/VitaminCintheInuitdiet.pdf). MA Thesis, School of Dietetics and Human
Nutrition, McGill University 57; 95. Retrieved on: December 8, 2007.
65. Kang-Jey Ho, Belma Mikkelson, Lena A. Lewis, Sheldon A. Feldman, and C. Bruce Taylor (1972). "Alaskan
Arctic Eskimo: responses to a customary high fat diet" (http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/25/8/737) (PDF). Am J
Clin Nutr. 25 (8): 737745. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
66. Inuit lifespan stagnates while Canada's rises (http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/23/us-inuitidUSN2362426520080123)
67. https://www.itk.ca/sites/default/files/private/factsheet-seriesFINAL2.pdf
68. Wilkins, R.; Uppal, S.; Fins, P.; Sencal, S.; Guimond, E.; Dion, R. (2008). "Life expectancy in the Inuitinhabited areas of Canada, 1989 to 2003". Health reports / Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Health
Information = Rapports sur la sante / Statistique Canada, Centre canadien d'information sur la sante 19 (1): 7
19. PMID18457208 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18457208).
69. "Qajaq" (http://www.livingdictionary.com/term/viewTerm.jsp?term=49141890685). Asuilaak Living Dictionary.
Retrieved 2007-05-12.
70. Hegener, Helen (2008-12-30). "The Inuit Sled Dog" (http://mushinghistory.blogspot.com/2008/12/inuit-sleddog.html). Mushinghistory.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
71. "Legislative Assembly of Nunavut. "The Canadian Inuit Dog" (http://www.assembly.nu.ca/about-legislativeassembly/official-animal-nunavut). Assembly.nu.ca. 2011-01-24. Retrieved 2011-02-25.
72. kamik (http://www.livingdictionary.com/search/viewResults.jsp?resultsId=1373960547489ri) Inuktitut Living
Dictionary. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
73. Ohokak, G.; M. Kadlun; B. Harnum. Inuinnaqtun-English Dictionary
(http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/nac/nac_dictionary/nac_dictionary.pdf) (PDF). Kitikmeot Heritage Society.
Retrieved 2013-03-20.
74. Larsen, Olga Popovi; Tyas, Andy (2003-01-01). "3". Conceptual Structural Design: Bridging the Gap Between
Architects and Engineers (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=8H2q0KUZeOsC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=tupiq+seal&source=bl&ots=NW3KObfB_s&sig=2Q54cWGM6tG6azLMLYG0sojv9Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YAdKUYjQEKroiwK814DwAw&ved=0CHgQ6AEwCQ#v=onep
age&q=tupiq%20seal&f=false). ICE Publishing. p.19. ISBN978-0727732354. Retrieved 2013-03-20.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Canada
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Canada
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Further reading
Alia, Valerie (2009). Names and Nunavut: Culture and Identity in Arctic Canada (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=rVoNxuS4n1gC&lpg=PA118&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). Berghahn Books. ISBN978-184545-165-3.
Billson, Janet Mancini; Kyra Mancini (2007). Inuit women: their powerful spirit in a century of change
(http://books.google.ca/books?id=8M8aihnBACwC&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true).
Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN978-0-7425-3596-1.
Briggs, Jean L. (1971). Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=A9QuJjQbh7MC&lpg=PP1&dq=Never%20in%20Anger%3A%20Portrait%20of%20an%20Eskimo%20Fami
ly&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN0-674-608283.
Forman, Werner; Burch, Ernest S. (1988). The Eskimos (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=BUDUvjJpnzUC&lpg=PA7&dq=The%20Eskimos&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press. ISBN0-8061-2126-2.
CBC. History of the Thule Migration
(http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/inuitodyssey/history.html), The Nature of Things,
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Informational webpage related to the TV documentary, Inuit Odyssey,
shown below in the External links section.
Crandall, Richard C (2000). Inuit Art: A History (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=M4p8ZrkbSCkC&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). McFarland. ISBN0-7864-0711-5.
De Poncins, Gontran. Kabloona. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1996 (originally 1941). ISBN 1-55597-249-7
Eber, Dorothy (1997). Images of Justice: A Legal History of the Northwest Territories and Yellowknife
(http://books.google.ca/books?id=g7Qcr7vzQbQC&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true).
McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN0-7735-1675-1.
Eber, Dorothy (2008). Encounters on the Passage: Inuit meet the explorers (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=zG50985kCSUC&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). University of Toronto Press.
ISBN978-1-4426-8798-1.
Hauser, Michael; Erik Holtved; Bent Jensen (2010). Traditional Inuit songs from the Thule area, Volume 2
(http://books.google.ca/books?id=NjgysV2UGygC&lpg=PA1&dq=Inuit&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=true).
Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN978-87-635-2589-3.
Hessell, Ingo (2006). Arctic Spirit: The Albrecht Collection of Inuit Art at the Heard Museum. Vancouver:
Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN1-55365-189-8.
Hund, Andrew (2012). Inuit. SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN978-1412992619.
Kulchyski, Peter Keith; Frank J. Tester (2007). Kiumajut (talking back): game management and Inuit rights,
190070 (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=RGB7w2x0sa0C&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). UBC Press. ISBN978-0-7748-12412.
King, J. C. H; Birgit Pauksztat; Robert Storrie (2005). Arctic clothing of North AmericaAlaska, Canada,
Greenland (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=ZD2_7LRxGwsC&lpg=PA132&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). McGill-Queen's University
Press. ISBN0-7735-3008-8.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Canada
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McGrath, Melanie (2007). The long exile: a tale of Inuit betrayal and survival in the high Arctic. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN1-4000-4047-7.
Paver, Michelle (2008). Chronicles of Ancient Darkness Omnibus Edition (Volume 1, 2, and 3). London: Orion.
ISBN1-84255-705-X.
Ruesch, Hans (1986). Top of the World. New York: Pocket. ISBN950-637-164-4. (Hebrew version
(http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/proppentrecker/ernenek-00.html&date=200910-26+01:03:35))
Sowa, F. 2014. Inuit. in: Hund, A. Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earths
Polar Regions. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, pp.390-395.
Stern, Pamela R; Lisa Stevenson (2006). Critical Inuit studies: an anthology of contemporary Arctic ethnography
(http://books.google.ca/books?id=71lBFUBkrMwC&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true).
University of Nebraska Press. ISBN0-8032-4303-0.
Steckley, John (2008). White Lies about the Inuit (http://books.google.ca/books?id=iosjdNH3g8C&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). Broadview Press. ISBN978-1-55111-8758.
Stern, Pamela R (2004). Historical dictionary of the Inuit (http://books.google.ca/books?
id=Xa_Pq8X_MIsC&lpg=PP1&dq=Inuit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true). Scarecrow Press. ISBN0-81085058-3.
Walk, Ansgar. (1999). Kenojuak: the life story of an Inuit artist. Manotick, Ontario: Penumbra Press. ISBN0921254-95-4.
External links
National Inuit Organization in Canada (http://www.itk.ca)
Inuit
(https://www.dmoz.org/Society/Ethnicity/The_Americas/Indigenous/Inuit) at DMOZ
Inuktitut Living Dictionary
(http://www.livingdictionary.com/index.jsp;jsessionid=6451902113FC1DE7E2CF0B986F7B923E)
Inuit Odyssey (http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/inuitodyssey/), produced by The
Nature of Things and first broadcast 29 June 2009 on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
network. This is a documentary on the Inuits' ancestors, the Thule people and their eastward migration
across the Arctic to Greenland. The webpage contains a link to view the documentary online here
(http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/The+Nature+of+Things/ID/1233750269/) (length: 44:03; may not
be viewable online outside of Canada). Note: Nature of Things episodes are also viewable on iTunes.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inuit&oldid=662338720"
Categories: Aboriginal peoples in Atlantic Canada Aboriginal peoples in Canadian territories
Aboriginal peoples in Quebec Indigenous peoples of North America
History of indigenous peoples of North America Hunter-gatherers of the Arctic
Hunter-gatherers of Canada Hunter-gatherers of the United States Eskimos Inuit
Aboriginal peoples in the Arctic
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