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Inuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous
peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Alaska,
Greenland, and Canada. Until fairly recent times, there has
been a remarkable homogeneity in the culture throughout these areas, which have traditionally relied on fish, marine mammals, and land animals for food, pets, transport, heat, light, clothing, tools, and shelter. The
Inuit language is grouped under Eskimo-Aleut
languages.
Inuit live throughout the Canadian Arctic: in Nunavut, the territory whose name means "the land
of the Inuit"; in Nunavik, the northern third of Quebec; in
Nunatsiavut, the coastal region of Labrador; in various
parts of the Northwest Territories; and formerly in Yukon. Alaskan Inupiat live on the North
Slope of Alaska and the Seward Peninsula. Greenland Kalaallit are citizens of Denmark and thus of the European Union.
Eskimo or Inuit?
-
The English word Eskimo is of uncertain origin, but most likely originates
from an Algonquian language. Many Inuit consider Eskimo to be pejorative
because it originated with non-Inuit and is widely believed to mean "eater of raw meat." However, linguists now believe the term
is derived from an Ojibwa word meaning "to net snowshoes."[1]
The term Eskimo is considered pejorative in Canada, where the preferred term is Inuit, which means "people" or
"the people" in most Inuit languages. In the Eastern Arctic of Canada, the language is
often called Inuktitut and in the Western Arctic it is called Inuvialuktun, though other local designations, such as Inuinnaqtun, may be used. The Inuit of Greenland refer to themselves as Greenlanders or, in their
own language, Kalaallit, and to their language as Greenlandic or
Kalaallisut.[1]
The Inuit Circumpolar Conference, representing a circumpolar population
of 150,000 Inuit and Yupik people of Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, defines
Inuit in its charter as including "the Inupiat, Yup'ik (Alaska),
Inuit, Inuvialuit (Canada), Kalaallit (Greenland) and Yupik (Russia)."[2] However,
strictly speaking, Inuit refers only to the Inupiat of northern Alaska, the Inuit of Canada, and the Kalaallit of
Greenland, but not to the Yupik peoples or languages of Alaska and Siberia. This is because the
Yupik languages are linguistically distinct from the Inupiaq and other Inuit languages, and the peoples are ethnically distinct as well. The word
Inuit does not occur in the Yupik languages of Alaska and Siberia.[1] In Alaska, Eskimo continues to be
acceptable, and is the preferred term when speaking of Inupiat and Yupik people collectively or to all Inuit and Yupik people of
the world.[1] The term Alaska Natives is also used in Alaska and the rest of the United
States, though this term is also inclusive of Aleut and American Indian people of Alaska. This term has important legal usage as a result
of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.
The term "Eskimo" is also used in some linguistic or ethnographic works to denote the larger branch of Eskimo-Aleut languages, the smaller branch being Aleut. In this usage, Inuit (together with
Yupik, and possibly also Sireniki), are sub-branches of Eskimo.
Inuit, Yupik, and First Nations People
Distribution of Inuit language variants.
The Inuit Circumpolar Conference, a United Nations-recognised non-governmental
organization (NGO), defines its constituency to include Canada's Inuit and Inuvialuit, Greenland's Kalaallit people,
Alaska's Inupiat and Yup'ik people, and the Siberian Yupik people of Russia.[2] However, the Yupik of Alaska and Siberia are not Inuit in the sense of
being descended from the Thule, and the Yupik languages are linguistically distinct from
the Inuit languages.[1] Yupik people are not
considered to be Inuit either by themselves or by ethnographers, and prefer to be called Yupik or
Eskimo.
Canadian Inuit do not consider themselves, and are not usually considered by others, to be one of the First Nations, a term which normally applies to other indigenous
peoples in Canada. However, Inuit (and the Métis) are collectively
recognised by the Constitution Act, 1982 as Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
The Inuit should not be confused with the Innu, a distinct First Nations people who live in
northeastern Quebec and Labrador.
Some of the Inuit languages were written down a couple of centuries ago, but until the latter half of the twentieth century,
most were not able to read and write in their own language. As long ago as the 1760s, Moravian missionaries arrived in Greenland, where they contributed to
the development of a written system of language called Qaliujaaqpait, based on the Latin
alphabet. The missionaries later brought this system to Labrador, from which it eventually spread as far as
Alaska.[3]
Anthropological analysis
Daily life for the Inuit included peril and hardship. With ferocious animals, hostile storms, deceptive ice, frigid waters,
frequent hunting accidents, and endless bitter temperatures, the Inuit had much to endure and much to be weary of. The typical,
historical Inuit would be lucky to live past 60.
Diet
The Inuit were traditionally hunters and fishermen, living off the Arctic animal life. They hunted, and still hunt,
whales, walruses, caribou,
seals, polar bears, muskoxen, birds, and in lean years any other less commonly eaten animals such as foxes. The Arctic has very little edible vegetation resulting in a
carnivorous diet, although some Inuit did supplement their diet with seaweed and other plants. Lieb et al. (1926) published a case study of anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson who lived with a group of Inuit.[4] The study focused on the fact that the Inuit's extremely low-carbohydrate diet had not had adverse effects on Stefansson's health, nor that of the Inuit.
This study and the Inuit in general have been cited as support for low-carbohydrate diets, but often without taking into account
the climatic and metabolistic circumstances in which those
results were observed.
Transport, navigation, and dogs
Sea animals were hunted from single-passenger, covered seal-skin boats called qajaq[5] which were extraordinarily buoyant, and could easily be righted by
a seated person, even if completely overturned. Because of this property, the Inuit design was copied, along with the Inuit word,
by Europeans who still make and use them under the name kayak. Inuit also made umiak, larger, open boats made out of skins and
bones for transporting people, goods and dogs. In the winter, Inuit would also hunt sea mammals by finding, or sometimes making,
an aglu (breathing hole) in the ice and wait for the air-breathing seals and walruses to use them. According to Inuit
tradition, they learned to do this by observing the polar bear, who hunts by seeking out holes in the ice and waiting nearby.
On land, the Inuit used dog sleds (qamutiit) for transportation. The
husky dog breed comes from Inuit breeding of dogs for transportation. A team of dogs in
either a tandem/side-by-side or fan formation would pull a sled made of animal bones and skins, and in some southern areas a bit
of wood, over the snow and ice. They used landmarks to navigate, and possessed a comprehensive native system of toponymy. Where natural landmarks were insufficient, the Inuit would erect an inukshuk to compensate.
Dogs played an integral role in the annual routine of the Inuit. During the summer they became pack animals, sometimes
dragging up to 20 kilos of baggage. In the winter they pulled the sled and yearlong they assisted with hunting by sniffing out
seal's holes and pestering polar bears. They loyally protected the Inuit villages by barking at bears and strangers. The Inuit
generally favoured and tried to breed the most striking and handsome of dogs, especially ones with bright eyes, healthy coat, and
a curved tail. Common husky dog breeds used by the Inuit were the Samoyed, the
Canadian Eskimo Dog (Qimmiq; Inuktitut for dog), the Greenland Dog and the Alaskan Malamute. When the dog was
newborn, the Inuit would perform rituals on the dog to give the pup favourable qualities. Its legs were pulled to make it grow
strong and its nose was poked with a pin to enhance its sense of smell. Overall, the dogs were not ideal sled-pullers. They were
quarrelsome and often tangled the reins, causing the driver considerable trouble. There are numerous ethnographic reports as well as archaeological evidence which indicate
in many Inuit groups there was a consistent pattern of extremely harsh treatment of their dogs, including beating and
underfeeding them.[6]
Industry, art, and clothing
Inuit industry relied almost exclusively on animal hides 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. Inuit living near the tree line
also had native woodworking traditions. Art is a big part of Inuit history. Small sculptures
of animals and human figures were made out of ivory and bone usually depicting everyday activities
such as hunting and whaling.
Inuit made clothes and footwear from animal skins, sewn together using needles made from animal bones and threads made from
other animal products. The anorak (parka) is in essence made in a similar fashion by
Arctic peoples from Europe through Asia and the Americas,
including by the Inuit. The hoods of Inuit women's parkas (amauti, plural amautiit)
were traditionally made extra large, to protect the baby from the harsh wind when snuggled against the mother's back. Styles vary
from region to region, from shape of the hood to length of the tails. Boots (kamik or mukluk) could be made of caribou or sealskin, and designs varied for men and women. Certain Inuit also lived
in temporary shelters made from snow in winter (the famous igloo), and during the few
months of the year when temperatures were above freezing, they lived in tents made of animal skins and bones.
Gender roles, marriage, and community
The division of labour in traditional society had a strong gender component. The
men were traditionally hunters and fishermen. The women took care of the children, cleaned huts, sewed and cooked. However, there
are numerous examples of women who learned to hunt out of necessity and more recently as a personal choice. At the same time men,
who could be away from camp for several days, would be expected to know how to sew and cook.
The marital customs among the Inuit were not strictly monogamous: many Inuit relationships
were implicitly or explicitly sexually open marriages; polygamy, divorce and remarriage were fairly common. Formal marriage and
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. Marriage was expected for a man as
soon as he could hunt for himself, and for women at puberty. 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; or 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, an elder or a particularly respected man.
There was also a larger notion of community, generally several families who shared a place where they wintered. Goods were
shared within a household, and to a lesser extent within a whole community in winter. As with most nomadic people, there was no real conception of ownership of land, if a spot was unoccupied, all were free to hunt
or camp there. Animals belonged first to the hunter or trapper, then to his household.
Raiding
Nearly all Inuit cultures have oral traditions of raids by Indians and fellow Inuit,
such as the Bloody Falls Massacre, and of taking vengeance on them in return.
Although these tales are generally not regarded as entirely accurate historical accounts, but more as self-serving myths,
violence against outsiders as justified revenge, it does make clear that there was a history of hostile contact between Inuit and
other cultures. In Alaska, the Inuit became accomplished raiders through constant feuding. Given the narrow margins of survival,
the advantages of supplementing one's hunt by stealing from one's neighbours seem obvious. Even within an Inuit band, breaching
traditional justice and wronging another Inuit was routinely punished by murderous vengeance, as the story of Atanarjuat shows. Within a community, punishments were meted out by community decision, or by the elders, and
a breach meant that the victim and his or her relatives could seek out restitution or revenge.[7]
Suicide, murder, and death
There is a pervasive belief that the Inuit left their elderly on the ice to die. This is not generally true. However,
sometimes elderly Inuit who could no longer hunt or do other useful work might choose, or be convinced to choose, a form of
assisted suicide when food was very scarce. In a culture defined by independence and
self-sufficiency, old age was seen as burdensome for the family and the individual, especially in the Arctic regions. Charity,
even from one's own family was seen as insulting and hard to endure. They were not left to die on the ice, but rather were more
directly dispatched. Often in such circumstances, a small snow house was built as both shelter and deathbed, little supplies were
left and the group moved on without goodbyes. This practice was not universal among the Inuit, some bands never had such
practises, and was only tolerated under truly desperate conditions. Another common suicide tactic among the elderly was that of
hanging, which a favourite child may have even assisted with. Inuit communities were largely ruled by respected elders, and
routine geronticide did not take place.
A far more common response to desperate conditions and the threat of starvation was infanticide, which did sometimes entail abandoning an infant in
hopes that someone less desperate might find and adopt it before the cold or the wildlife finished it off. All Inuit tribes
practised some form of infanticide, although it was most commonly performed on disabled or deformed babies. Female infanticide was especially prevalent among the Copper Inuit and its neighbours who simply
could not keep them due to lack of resources. Also, it was thought that girls contributed less to the family's well being than a
son, who could start hunting by age 10. The widespread female infanticide had a large impact on the population of the Inuit in
the Central Arctic. Specifically, it decreased the number of women able to produce children, which slowed the population of the
next generation. This shortage of women also affected the male population as well as the community dynamics since the males
became very competitive for the few potential mates and often this competition led to murder.
The most common causes of death were old age, murder, infanticide, starvation, and accidents. During the 19th century, the
Western Arctic suffered a population decline of close to 90% of their population resulting from foreign 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 cause of the disease came from a spiritual origin, and cures
were said to be possible through confession. (Information from "Inuit: Glimpses of an Arctic Past" by Morrison and Germain)
Traditional law
Inuit traditional laws are anthropologically different to Western law concepts. 'Customary law' was nonexistent in Inuit
society before the introduction of the Canadian legal system. Hoebel, in 1954, concluded that only 'rudimentary law' existed
amongst the Inuit.[8]
- maligait refers to what has to be followed
- piqujait refers to what has to be done
- tirigusuusiit refers to what has to be not done
If someone's action went against the tirigusuusiit, maligait or piqujait, the angakkuq might
have to intervene, lest the consequences be dire to the individual or the community.[9]
-
- 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"[10]
Traditional beliefs
- See also:Inuit mythology and Shamanism among Eskimo peoples
Some Inuit believed that the spirits of their ancestors could be seen in the northern lights
The Inuit people inhabit the land stretching from southeast Alaska to Greenland, an environment that heavily influenced 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, and they relied upon the angakkuq (shaman), while 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, just like 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. His or her role was to see, interpret
and exhort the subtle and unseen. Angakkuqs were not trained, they were held to be born with the ability.
Inuit religion was closely tied to a system of rituals that were 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." 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 randomness of life in the Arctic ensured that Inuit lived in fear of the uncontrollable, where a streak of
bad luck could destroy an entire community. To offend a spirit was to run the risk of having them interfere with an already
marginal existence. The Inuit plead with supernatural powers to provide them with the necessities of day-to-day survival. As
Knud Rasmussen's Inuit guide told him when asked about Inuit religious
beliefs, "We don't believe. We fear!"
Early history
The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, a nomadic people who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 CE and spread eastwards across
the Arctic, displacing the related Dorset culture (in Inuktitut, the Tuniit).
Inuit legends speak of the Tuniit as "giants", people who were taller and stronger than the Inuit, but who were easily scared off
and retreated from the advancing Inuit. Researchers believe that the Dorset culture lacked dogs, boats and other technologies
that gave the expanding Inuit society a large advantage over them. By 1300, the Inuit had settled west Greenland, and finally
moved into east Greenland over the following century.
The Tuniit survived in Aivilik, Southampton and
Coats Islands, until the beginning of the 20th century. They were known as
Sadlermiut (Sallirmiut in the modern spelling). Their population had been ravaged by diseases brought by contact
with Europeans, and the last of them fell in a flu epidemic caught from a passing whaler in 1902. The area has since been
resettled by Inuit. Genetic research suggests that there was little or no intermarriage between the Tuniit and the Inuit over the
thousand years of contact in the Canadian Arctic.
The Inuit were a nomadic culture that circulated almost exclusively north of the timberline, the de facto southern border of Inuit society. To the
south, Native American Indian cultures were well established, and the
culture and technology of Inuit society that served them so well in the Arctic was ill-suited to the subarctic, so they did not displace their southern neighbours. Their relations with southerners were generally
hostile, but at other times cordial enough to support trade.
Warfare, in general, was found only among the Inuit groups with sufficient population density, social structure, and political
organisation. Inuit who inhabited the Mackenzie Delta area experienced common warfare whereas the Central Arctic Inuit lacked the
internal structure to engage in warfare at all. Instead, the Arctic Inuit experienced common internal conflict, namely homicide
which was usually provoked by competition for women or by jealousy. Among Arctic Inuit groups, there was an unspoken tradition to
avenge the death of a family member, which led to endless murder, especially among the Copper Inuit. With no police, courts, or
jails, the individual Copper Inuit depended on ones own definition of justice. Some of the most respected leaders in the
community were murderers. Social crimes such as dishonesty, laziness, stinginess, and bossiness received more disapproval and
condemnation than murder. Overall, in small Inuit communities, communal disapproval was especially isolating and humiliating.
(Information from "Inuit: Glimpses of an Arctic Past" by Morrison and Germain)
Usually tensions between Inuit and Indians were common but raids were rare. One exception is the Copper Inuit who experienced
frequent attacks from the Chipewyan and Yellowknives
from the south. Motivated by revenge and glory, the Indians blamed Inuit magic for mysterious deaths or misfortunes within their
tribes. The two races experienced a history of mutual hatred and suspicion. (Information from "Inuit: Glimpses of an Arctic Past"
by Morrison and Germain)
The first contact with Europeans came from the Vikings, who settled Greenland and explored
the eastern Canadian coast. Norse literature speaks of skrælingar, most likely an undifferentiated label for all the native peoples of the Americas the Norse
contacted, Tuniit, Inuit and Beothuks alike. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Tuniit
had abandoned Greenland around 200 CE. They reoccupied areas in the far north of Greenland sometime around 1000, but the Norse
settlements were in the south and southwest of the island. It is likely that the area of the Norse settlements was unoccupied at
the time they arrived.
Sometime in the 13th century, Inuit began arriving from what is now Canada. Norse accounts are scant, and there is no Inuit
oral history discussing contact with the Norse. However, Norse made items have been found at Inuit campsites in Greenland. It is
unclear whether they are the result of trade or plunder. One old account speaks of "small people" with whom the Norsemen fought.
Ívar Bárðarson's[11] 14th
century account mentions that one of the two Norse settlement areas, the western settlement, had been taken over by the
skrælings. The reason why the Norse settlements failed is unclear, but the last record of them is from 1408, roughly the
same period as the earliest Inuit settlements in east Greenland.
After roughly 1350, the climate grew colder during the Little Ice Age and the Inuit
were forced to abandon hunting and whaling sites in the high Arctic. Bowhead whaling
disappeared in Canada and Greenland (but continued in Alaska) and the Inuit had to subsist on a much poorer diet. Without whales,
they lost access to essential raw materials for tools and architecture that were derived from whaling. Although the Inuit had
always been nomadic, they were forced to move more and more often to maximise their return from hunting. In Greenland and the
Canadian Arctic semi-permanent sod and whalebone dwellings were replaced by what has now become the symbol of the Inuit in many
minds: temporary snow houses known as igloos.
The changing climate forced the Inuit to also look south, pressuring them into the marginal niches along the edges of the tree
line that Indians had not occupied, or where they were weak enough to coexist with. It is hard to say with any precision when the
Inuit stopped their territorial expansion. There is evidence that they were still moving into new territory in southern Labrador
in the 17th century, when they first began to interact with colonial North American civilisation.
Since the arrival of Europeans
Canada
The lives of Paleo-Eskimos of the far north were largely unaffected by the arrival of visiting Norsemen except for mutual
trade (McGhee 1992:194). Labrador Eskimo have had the longest continuous contact with Europeans (Kleivan 1966:9). 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 fishermen were already working the Labrador coast and had established
whaling stations on land, such as been excavated at Red Bay. The
Inuit appear not to have interfered with their operations, but they raided the stations in winter for tools, and particularly
worked iron, which they adapted to native 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 on Baffin Island, not far from the town
now called Iqaluit, but long known as Frobisher Bay. This first contact went poorly.
Martin Frobisher, attempting to find the Northwest Passage, encountered Inuit on Resolution Island. Five sailors jumped ship 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, doubtless the first Inuk ever to visit Europe. 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 (Mitchell 1996:49-62). 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 caused a great deal of damage to 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 persisted in isolation in 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 (1821-3) led by Admiral William Edward Parry, which twice
overwintered 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 (1824) and those of Lyon (1824) were widely read (D'Anglure 2002:205). Captain Comer's Inuit wife Shoofly known for her
sewing skills and elegant attire (Driscoll 1980:6) was influential in convincing him to acquire more sewing accessories and beads
for trade with Inuit. A few traders and missionaries circulated among the more accessible bands, and after 1904 they were
accompanied by a handful of policemen. Unlike most Aboriginal peoples in
Canada, however, the lands occupied by the Inuit were of little interest to European settlers. While southerners consider
the Arctic as a hostile hinterland, to the Inuit it is their homeland. Southerners enjoyed
lucrative careers as bureaucrats and service providers in the north, but very few southerners chose to retire there. In the early
years of the 20th century, 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 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 Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, who enforced Canadian criminal law on Inuit 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.
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 airbases and radar stations in the 1940s and 50s brought more intensive contacts with European society,
particularly in the form of public education, which instilled and enforced foreign values disdainful of the traditional structure
of Inuit society. 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." (Parker 1996:32) The government began to establish about forty permanent
administrative centres to provide education, health and economic development services for Inuit (Parker 1996:32). Inuit from
hundreds of smaller camps scattered across the north, began to congregate in these hamlets (Mitchell 1996:118).
Furthermore, regular visits from doctors and access to modern medical care raised the birth rate enormously. Before long, the
Inuit population was beyond what traditional hunting and fishing could support. 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, all
Canadian Inuit lived year-round in permanent settlements. The nomadic migrations that were the central feature of Arctic life had
for the most part disappeared. 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 day to day survival.
Although anthropologists like Diamond Jenness (1964) were quick to predict that Inuit
culture was facing extinction, Inuit political activism was already emerging as he wrote those words.
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 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 Tapiriit Kanatami in 1971, and more region specific organisations shortly afterwards,
including the Northern Quebec Inuit Association (Makivik Corporation) and the
Labrador Inuit Association. These 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 Labrador Inuit submitted their land claim in 1977, although they had to wait until 2005 to have a signed land
settlement establishing Nunatsiavut.
In 1982, the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut (TFN) was incorporated,
in order to take over negotiations for land claims on behalf of the Northwest
Territories Inuit from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which became a joint
association of the Inuit of Quebec, Labrador and the Northwest Territories.
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,[12] 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 percent 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.
The 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 in parts of Victoria Island in the Northwest
Territories. They are officially represented by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and received
a comprehensive land claims settlement in 1984, with the signing of the Inuvialuit Final
Agreement.
With the establishment of Nunatsiavut in 2005, all the traditional Inuit lands in Canada
are now covered by some sort of land claims agreement providing for regional autonomy.
Inuit communities in Canada continue to suffer under crushing unemployment, overcrowded housing, substance abuse, crime,
violence and suicide. The problems Inuit face in the 21st century should not be underestimated. However, many Inuit are upbeat
about the future. Arguably, their situation is better than it has been since the 14th century. Inuit
arts, carving, print making, textiles and throat singing, are very popular,
not only in Canada but globally, and Inuit artists are widely known. Indeed, Canada has, metaphorically, adopted some of the
Inuit culture as a sort of national identity, using Inuit symbols like the inukshuk in unlikely
places, such as its use as a symbol in the upcoming 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 (b. 1947) and former Commissioner of
Nunavut and the NWT, Helen Maksagak (b. 1931) 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.
Greenland
- See also: History of
Greenland
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.
Alaska
- See also: List of Alaska Native
Tribal Entities
The Inuit people of Alaska are known as the Inupiat.
International issues
In recent years, circumpolar cultural and political groups like the Inuit
Circumpolar Conference have come together to promote the Inuit and other northern people and to fight against
ecological problems, such as global warming, which
disproportionately affects the Inuit population. Global warming may cause Arctic mammal populations to decline. However, a recent
study by Mitch Taylor shows that, contrary to the dire predictions, eleven of thirteen polar bear populations have remained
stable or increased. The study also shows that the number of polar bears in western Hudson
Bay is decreasing due to the effect of global warming, while the decrease of the population in Baffin Bay is directly associated with the over hunting of the bears by Greenland hunters.[13][14]
Culture today
Well-known Inuit politicians include Premier of Nunavut, Paul Okalik, and Nancy Karetak-Lindell, MP for the
riding of Nunavut.
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 2003-04
season, playing for the Nashville Predators.
Visual and performing arts are strong. In 2002 the first feature film in Inuktitut,
Atanarjuat, 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 Inuit of Igloolik. 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.[15] In 2006, Cape
Dorset was hailed as Canada's most artistic city, with 23% of the labour force employed in the arts.[16] 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 tribes 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 people 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. The cases are so frequent that unfortunately suicide has become a sort of cultural
norm.[citation needed]
A series of publications has focused upon increasing myopia in the youngest generations of
Inuit. Myopia was almost unknown prior to the Inuit adoption of western culture. This phenomenon is also seen in other cultures
(for example, Vanatu). Principal theories are the change to a less nutritious western style
diet, and exposure to over-illumination in intense early grade education.[17]
Economy today
Today, Inuit work in all sectors of the economy, including mining, oil and gas, construction, government and administrative
services. Many Inuit still supplement their income through hunting. Tourism is a growing industry in the Inuit economy. Inuit
guides take tourists on dogsled and hunting e
