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Inuit

This article is about the peoples of Arctic North America. For the Indigenous people of Labrador and Quebec, see Innu. For other uses, see Inuit (disambiguation).
"Inuk" redirects here. For the film, see Inuk (film).

Inuit
Iglulingmiut Inuit women and child in traditional parkas (1999)
Total population
155,792[1][2][3][4]
Regions with significant populations
Canada70,540 (2021)[1]
Greenland51,479 (2023)[2]
United States16,581 (2010)[3]
Denmark17,067 (2023)
Russia125
Languages
Religion
Related ethnic groups
Inu- ᐃᓄ- / nuna ᓄᓇ
"person" / "land"
PersonInuk ᐃᓄᒃ
Dual: Inuuk ᐃᓅᒃ
PeopleInuit ᐃᓄᐃᑦ
LanguageInuit languages
CountryChukotsky District
Alaska
Inuit Nunangat / ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ
(Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut)
Greenland
Indigenous peoples
in Canada
A life-sized bronze statue of an Aboriginal and eagle above him; there is a bear to his right and a wolf to his left, they are all looking upwards towards a blue and white sky
History
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Culture
Demographics
Linguistics
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Index
 Indigenous North Americas
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Inuit (/ˈɪnjuɪt/ IN-ew-it;[5] Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, ᐃᓄᒃ, dual: Inuuk, ᐃᓅᒃ; Iñupiaq: Iñuit 'the people'; Greenlandic: Inuit)[6][7][8] are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon (traditionally[a]), Alaska, and Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut languages, also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and also as Eskaleut.[9] Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.[10]

Canadian 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 and Yukon (traditionally), particularly around the Arctic Ocean, in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.[a] These areas are known, primarily by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, as Inuit Nunangat.[11][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]

Greenlandic Inuit, also known as Kalaallit, are descendants of Thule migrations from Canada by 1100 CE.[15] Although Greenland withdrew from the European Communities in 1985, 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, the Bering Strait and on Little Diomede Island. In Russia, few pockets of diaspora communities of Russian Iñupiat from Big Diomede Island, of which inhabitants were removed to Russian Mainland, remain in Bering Strait coast of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, particularly in Uelen, Lavrentiya, and Lorino.

Many individuals who would have historically been referred to as Eskimo find that term offensive 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] The word Inuit (varying forms Iñupiat, Inuvialuit, Inughuit, etc.), however, is an ancient self-referential to a group of peoples which includes at most the Iñupiat of Bering Strait coast of Chukotka and northern Alaska, the four broad groups of Inuit in Canada, and the Greenlandic Inuit. This usage has long been employed to the exclusion of other, closely related groups (e.g. Yupik, Aleut).[23][24][25][26] Therefore, the Aleut (Unangan) and Yupik peoples (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq, Central Yup'ik, Siberian Yupik), who live in Alaska and Siberia, at least at an individual and local level, generally do not self-identify as Inuit.[23][better source needed]

  1. ^ a b "Indigenous identity by Registered or Treaty Indian status: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Statistics Canada, Government of Canada. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference geinu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference dkinu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference usinu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Inuit". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  6. ^ "Inuit, Inuk (Linguistic recommendation from the Translation Bureau)". Public Works and Government Services Canada. 2021.
  7. ^ "Indigenous peoples of the Arctic". Institut polaire français Paul-Emile Victor. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  8. ^ Alia (2009), p. 151.
  9. ^ "Overview of Comparative Inuit-Yupik-Unangan". Alaska Native Language Archive. University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  10. ^ Schuit, Joke; Baker, Anne; Pfau, Roland. "Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology". ACLC Working Papers. Universiteit van Amsterdam. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  11. ^ "Inuit population by residence inside or outside Inuit Nunangat, 2016". Aboriginal peoples in Canada: Key results from the 2016 Census. Statistics Canada. 2 July 2019.
  12. ^ "Maps of Inuit Nunangat (Inuit Regions of Canada)". Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. 5 September 2008. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Aboriginal rights and freedoms not affected by Charter". Constitution Act, 1982. Department of Justice (Canada). 30 June 2021. [T]his Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to the aboriginal peoples of Canada.
  14. ^ "Rights of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada". Constitution Act, 1982. Department of Justice (Canada). 30 June 2021. In this Act, aboriginal peoples of Canada includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
  15. ^ Park, Robert W. (April 1993). "The Dorset-Thule Succession in Arctic North America: Assessing Claims for Culture Contact". American Antiquity. 58 (2): 203. doi:10.2307/281966. ISSN 0002-7316. JSTOR 281966. Wikidata Q58172671.
  16. ^ "The Greenland Treaty of 1985". Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  17. ^ "The Greenland Treaty of 1985". Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  18. ^ "Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs)". Archived from the original on 25 December 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference NPR was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Kaplan, Lawrence. "Inuit or Eskimo: Which name to use?". Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  21. ^ Purdy, Chris (27 November 2015). "Expert says 'meat-eater' name Eskimo an offensive term placed on Inuit". Global News. The Canadian Press.
  22. ^ Mailhot, José (1978). "L'etymologie de "esquimau" revue et corrigée". Études/Inuit/Studies. 2 (2): 59–70. JSTOR 42869777.
  23. ^ a b Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2021). "Eskimo-Aleut". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (24th ed.). SIL International.
  24. ^ "Eskimo, Inuit, and Inupiaq: Do these terms mean the same thing?". Alaskan-Natives.com.
  25. ^ Rofes, Adrià (18 January 2016). "When 'Eskimo' and 'Inuit' are not the same thing: looking inside words". Mapping Ignorance.
  26. ^ VanStone, James W.; Goddard, Ives. Territorial Groups of West-Central Alaska Before 1898. pp. 556–561. in Sturtevant (1984)


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