by Clayton Duncan

Created on: March 07, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

Who are the Inuit people?
The Inuit are a group of nomadic people who live in the artic region of the world. The areas they have inhabited included northern Canada across Alaska to northern Russia and even in Greenland. Inuit are better known to others as Eskimos which literally means "eater of raw meat" in Native American. They prefer not to be called this as they deem it offensive. In this present day and age we call them what they do prefer, Inuit, which means in their native language of Inuit-Inupiaq "the people or real people". Inuit's meaning is already plural; the singular form is Inuk which means "person".

Where did the Inuit come from?
The Inuit history is not a short one; it starts way back in the beginning of the last millennium. A group of nomadic people, called by anthropologists the Thule culture, emerged from Alaska around 1000 AD. These people began to journey eastward across the Artic and by 1400 they had fully settled into Greenland. There they made contact with traveling Vikings. It is unknown whether the two groups got along but there have been Norse-made (Viking-made) items found at Inuit campsites in Greenland. After 1350 during what is known as the Little Ice Age because of the long decrease in the climate's temperature the Inuit were forced to stop hunting and move more often than usual. In this period is where Igloos were first made, often thought of now as the symbol for Artic culture. There is not enough evidence to determine when the land expansion halted but it is reported that they were still moving into Labrador in the 17th century where they first interacted with North American society. When the Europeans arrived to settle they had a great damaging effect on the Inuit way of life. Many of the explorers had introduced new diseases to the people causing a high increase in death rate. Nonetheless, the Inuit still managed to survive in northern areas throughout the 19th century. The land was of little interest to the Europeans settlers as it had harsh climates for farming and insufficient natural resources for a settlement. However, in the early 20th century Canada began to take an interest into the Inuit land. By the 1920's there were no Inuit who hadn't been contacted by Canadian officials wanting to make deals for territory. In World War II and the Cold War the Artic region of Canada was used for military bases. During this time many public educators taught and enforced foreign customs that went against traditional Inuit culture.

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