Eskimo

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- Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
- Sakha (Yakutia)

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United States
- Alaska

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Canada
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nunavut
- Quebec
- Yukon (formerly)

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Greenland |Regions with significant populations}} | data7 = Russia
- Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
- Sakha (Yakutia)

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United States
- Alaska

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Canada
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nunavut
- Quebec
- Yukon (formerly)

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Greenland

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Non-native European languages:
English, Danish, French, and Russian |Languages}} | data62 = Inuit, Sirenik, and Yupik
Non-native European languages:
English, Danish, French, and Russian | header63 = {{#if:Alaska Native religion, Inuit religion, Shamanism, Animism
Christianity (Russian Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church in America, Roman Catholicism, Anglican Church of Canada, Church of Denmark) |Religion}} | data64 = Alaska Native religion, Inuit religion, Shamanism, Animism
Christianity (Russian Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church in America, Roman Catholicism, Anglican Church of Canada, Church of Denmark) | header65 = {{#if:Aleut, Alaskan Creoles |Related ethnic groups}} | data66 = {{#if:Aleut, Alaskan Creoles |Aleut, Alaskan Creoles Template:Main other }}

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Eskimo (Template:IPAc-en) is a controversial exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Canadian Inuit, and the Greenlandic Inuit) and the Yupik (or Yuit) of eastern Siberia and Alaska. A related third group, Aleuts, who inhabit the Aleutian Islands, are generally excluded from the definition of Eskimo. The three groups share a relatively recent common ancestor, and speak related languages belonging to the family of Eskaleut languages.

These circumpolar peoples have traditionally inhabited the Arctic and subarctic regions from eastern Siberia (Russia) to Alaska (United States), Northern Canada, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and Greenland.

Some Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, and other individuals consider the term Eskimo, which is of a disputed etymology,<ref name="Company2005">Template:Cite book</ref> to be pejorative or even offensive.<ref name="Patrick 2013 p. 2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Dorais2010" /> Eskimo continues to be used within a historical, linguistic, archaeological, and cultural context. The governments in Canada<ref name="publications">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="aboriginal-heritage">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the United States<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> have made moves to cease using the term Eskimo in official documents, but it has not been eliminated, as the word is in some places written into tribal, and therefore national, legal terminology.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Canada officially uses the term Inuit to describe the indigenous Canadian people who are living in the country's northern sectors and are not First Nations or Métis.<ref name="publications" /><ref name="aboriginal-heritage" /><ref name="defe1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="s35">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The United States government legally uses Alaska Native<ref name=":0" /> for enrolled Yupik and Inuit tribal members, and also for non-Eskimos including Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, Eyak, and Tsimshian, in addition to at least nine northern Athabaskan/Dene peoples.<ref name="Who is an American Indian or Alaska Native?">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other non-enrolled individuals also claim Eskimo/Aleut descent, making it the world's "most widespread aboriginal group".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

There are between 171,000 and 187,000 Inuit and Yupik, the majority of whom live in or near their traditional circumpolar homeland. Of these, 53,785 (2010) live in the United States, 70,545 (2021) in Canada, 51,730 (2021) in Greenland and 1,657 (2021) in Russia. In addition, 16,730 people living in Denmark were born in Greenland.<ref name="statscan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="CIAworld">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>People born in Greenland and living in Denmark 1. January by time Statistics Denmark</ref> The Inuit Circumpolar Council, a non-governmental organization (NGO), claims to represent 180,000 people.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the Eskaleut language family, the Eskimo or Eskimoan branch has an Inuit language sub-branch, and a sub-branch of four Yupik languages. Two Yupik languages are used in the Russian Far East as well as on St. Lawrence Island, and two in western Alaska, southwestern Alaska, and western Southcentral Alaska. The extinct Sirenik language also belongs to the Eskimoan branch.

Nomenclature

Etymology

File:Inuit conf map.png

Map of the Inuit Circumpolar Council of Eskimo peoples, showing the Yupik (Yup'ik, Siberian Yupik) and Inuit (Iñupiat, Inuvialuit, Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Greenlandic Inuit)

A variety of theories have been postulated for the etymological origin of the word Eskimo.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Hobson2004">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="BackhouseHistory1999">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Steckley2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="McElroy 2007 p. 8">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Dorais2010">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Smithsonian linguist Ives Goddard, etymologically the word derives from the Innu-aimun (Montagnais) word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning 'a person who laces a snowshoe',<ref name="ENBR" /><ref name="kaplannew">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Goddard">Template:Cite book</ref> and is related to husky (a breed of dog).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} means 'she laces a snowshoe' in Innu, and Innu language speakers refer to the neighbouring Mi'kmaq people using words that sound like eskimo.<ref name="goddard">Template:Cite book Cited in Campbell 1997</ref><ref name="campbell">Template:Cite book</ref> This interpretation is generally confirmed by more recent academic sources.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1978, José Mailhot, a Quebec anthropologist who speaks Innu-aimun (Montagnais), published a paper suggesting that Eskimo meant 'people who speak a different language'.<ref name="mailhot1">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="creeml" /> French traders who encountered the Innu (Montagnais) in the eastern areas adopted their word for the more western peoples and spelled it as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in a transliteration.<ref name="EII" />

Some people consider Eskimo offensive, because it is popularly perceived to mean<ref name="creeml">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="mailhot">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="igoddard">Template:Cite book</ref> 'eaters of raw meat' in Algonquian languages common to people along the Atlantic coast.<ref name="kaplannew" /><ref name="natlang">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="bartlebyeskimo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> An unnamed Cree speaker suggested the original word that became corrupted to Eskimo might have been {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (meaning 'he eats it raw'); Inuit are referred to in some Cree texts as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (meaning 'eats something raw').<ref name="natlang" /><ref name="bartlebyeskimo" /><ref name="stern1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="ostg1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="publications" /><ref>Template:Cite dictionary</ref> Regardless, the term still carries a derogatory connotation for many Inuit and Yupik.<ref name="kaplannew" /><ref name="natlang" /><ref name="NPR">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="global">Template:Cite news</ref>

One of the first printed uses of the French word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} comes from Samuel Hearne's A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 first published in 1795.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Usage

File:Кожаный панцирь.jpg

Laminar armour from hardened leather reinforced by wood and bones worn by native Siberians and Eskimos

File:Koryak armor.jpeg

Lamellar armour worn by native Siberians

The term Eskimo is still used by people to encompass Inuit and Yupik, as well as other Indigenous or Alaska Native and Siberian peoples.<ref name="ENBR" /><ref name="NPR" /><ref name="mweb">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the 21st century, usage in North America has declined.<ref name="kaplannew" /><ref name="global" /> Linguistic, ethnic, and cultural differences exist between Yupik and Inuit.

In Canada and Greenland, and to a certain extent in Alaska, the term Eskimo is predominantly seen as offensive and has been widely replaced by the term InuitTemplate:Hsp<ref name="kaplannew" /><ref name="stern1" /><ref name="ostg1" /><ref name="ahdinuit">Usage note, "Inuit", American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000</ref> or terms specific to a particular group or community.<ref name="kaplannew" /><ref name="Waite2013">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="SvartvikLeech2016">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This has resulted in a trend whereby some non-Indigenous people believe that they should use Inuit even for Yupik who are non-Inuit.<ref name="kaplannew" />

Greenlandic Inuit generally refer to themselves as Greenlanders ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) and speak the Greenlandic language and Danish.<ref name="kaplannew" /><ref name="ethno">"Inuktitut, Greenlandic". Ethnologue. Retrieved 6 Aug 2012.</ref> Greenlandic Inuit belong to three groups: the Kalaallit of west Greenland, who speak Kalaallisut;<ref name="ethno" /> the Tunumiit of Tunu (east Greenland), who speak Tunumiit oraasiat ("East Greenlandic"); and the Inughuit of north Greenland, who speak Inuktun.

The word Eskimo is a racially charged term in Canada.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Canada's Central Arctic, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the preferred term,<ref name="translate">Template:Cite book</ref> and in the eastern Canadian Arctic {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. The language is often called Inuktitut, though other local designations are also used.

Section 25<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and section 35<ref name="defe">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> of the Constitution Act of 1982 recognized Inuit as a distinctive group of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Although Inuit can be applied to all of the Eskimo peoples in Canada and Greenland, that is not true in Alaska and Siberia. In Alaska, the term Eskimo is still used because it includes both Iñupiat (singular: Iñupiaq), who are Inuit, and Yupik, who are not.<ref name="kaplannew" />

The term Alaska Native is inclusive of (and under U.S. and Alaskan law, as well as the linguistic and cultural legacy of Alaska, refers to) all Indigenous peoples of Alaska,<ref name="Company2005"/> including not only the Iñupiat (Alaskan Inuit) and the Yupik, but also groups such as the Aleut, who share a recent ancestor, as well as the largely unrelated<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Alaskan Athabaskans, such as the Eyak people. The term Alaska Native has important legal usage in Alaska and the rest of the United States as a result of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. It does not apply to Inuit or Yupik originating outside the state. As a result, the term Eskimo is still in use in Alaska.<ref name="Stern2013">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="ENBR">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Alternative terms, such as Inuit-Yupik, have been proposed,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but none has gained widespread acceptance. Early 21st century population estimates registered more than 135,000 individuals of Eskimo descent, with approximately 85,000 living in North America, 50,000 in Greenland, and the rest residing in Siberia.<ref name="ENBR" />

Inuit Circumpolar Council

In 1977, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) meeting in Barrow, Alaska (now Utqiaġvik, Alaska), officially adopted Inuit as a designation for all circumpolar Native peoples, regardless of their local view on an appropriate term. They voted to replace the word Eskimo with Inuit.<ref name="MacKenzie 2014 p. 60">Template:Cite book</ref> Even at that time, such a designation was not accepted by all.<ref name="kaplannew" /><ref name="EII">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As a result, the Canadian government usage has replaced the term Eskimo with {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in singular).

The ICC charter defines Inuit as including "the Inupiat, Yupik (Alaska), Inuit, Inuvialuit (Canada), Kalaallit (Greenland) and Yupik (Russia)".<ref name="ICCcharter">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Despite the ICC's 1977 decision to adopt the term Inuit, this has not been accepted by all or even most Yupik people.<ref name="MacKenzie 2014 p. 60" />

In 2010, the ICC passed a resolution in which they implored scientists to use Inuit and Paleo-Inuit instead of Eskimo or Paleo-Eskimo.<ref name="ICC2010-01">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Academic response

In a 2015 commentary in the journal Arctic, Canadian archaeologist Max Friesen argued fellow Arctic archaeologists should follow the ICC and use Paleo-Inuit instead of Paleo-Eskimo.<ref name="Friesen, 2015">Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2016, Lisa Hodgetts and Arctic editor Patricia Wells wrote: "In the Canadian context, continued use of any term that incorporates Eskimo is potentially harmful to the relationships between archaeologists and the Inuit and Inuvialuit communities who are our hosts and increasingly our research partners."

Hodgetts and Wells suggested using more specific terms when possible (e.g., Dorset and Groswater) and agreed with Frieson in using the Inuit tradition to replace Neo-Eskimo, although they noted replacement for Palaeoeskimo was still an open question and discussed Paleo-Inuit, Arctic Small Tool Tradition, and pre-Inuit, as well as Inuktitut loanwords like {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, as possibilities.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2020, Katelyn Braymer-Hayes and colleagues argued in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology that there is a "clear need" to replace the terms Neo-Eskimo and Paleo-Eskimo, citing the ICC resolution, but finding a consensus within the Alaskan context particularly is difficult, since Alaska Natives do not use the word Inuit to describe themselves nor is the term legally applicable only to Iñupiat and Yupik in Alaska, and as such, terms used in Canada like Paleo Inuit and Ancestral Inuit would not be acceptable.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

American linguist Lenore Grenoble has also explicitly deferred to the ICC resolution and used Inuit–Yupik instead of Eskimo with regards to the language branch.<ref name="Grenoble, 2016">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

Genetic evidence suggests that the Americas were populated from northeastern Asia in multiple waves. While the great majority of indigenous American peoples can be traced to a single early migration of Paleo-Indians, the Na-Dené, Inuit and Indigenous Alaskan populations exhibit admixture from distinct populations that migrated into America at a later date and are closely linked to the peoples of far northeastern Asia (e.g. Chukchi), and only more remotely to the majority indigenous American type. For modern Eskimo–Aleut speakers, this later ancestral component makes up almost half of their genomes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The ancient Paleo-Eskimo population was genetically distinct from the modern circumpolar populations, but eventually derives from the same far northeastern Asian cluster.<ref name="Raghavan et al 2014"/> It is understood that some or all of these ancient people migrated across the Chukchi Sea to North America during the pre-neolithic era, somewhere around 5,000 to 10,000 years ago.<ref name="Flegontov et al 2017">Template:Cite journal</ref> It is believed that ancestors of the Aleut people inhabited the Aleutian Chain 10,000 years ago.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Dorset longhouse.jpg

Stone remains of a Dorset culture longhouse near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut

The earliest positively identified Paleo-Eskimo cultures (Early Paleo-Eskimo) date to 5,000 years ago.<ref name="Raghavan et al 2014">Template:Cite journal</ref> Several earlier indigenous peoples existed in the northern circumpolar regions of eastern Siberia, Alaska, and Canada (although probably not in Greenland).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Paleo-Eskimo peoples appear to have developed in Alaska from people related to the Arctic small tool tradition in eastern Asia, whose ancestors had probably migrated to Alaska at least 3,000 to 5,000 years earlier.<ref name="Cordell Lightfoot McManamon Milner 2008 p. 3-PA274">Template:Cite book</ref>

The Yupik languages and cultures in Alaska evolved in place, beginning with the original pre-Dorset Indigenous culture developed in Alaska. At least 4,000 years ago, the Unangan culture of the Aleut became distinct. It is not generally considered an Eskimo culture. However, there is some possibility of an Aleutian origin of the Dorset people,<ref name="Raghavan et al 2014"/> who in turn are a likely ancestor of today's Inuit and Yupik.<ref name="Flegontov et al 2017"/>

Approximately 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, apparently in northwestern Alaska, two other distinct variations appeared. Inuit language became distinct and, over a period of several centuries, its speakers migrated across northern Alaska, through Canada, and into Greenland. The distinct culture of the Thule people (drawing strongly from the Birnirk culture) developed in northwestern Alaska. It very quickly spread over the entire area occupied by Eskimo peoples, though it was not necessarily adopted by all of them.<ref name="Greenberg Croft ProQuest (Firm) 2005 p. 379">Template:Cite book</ref>

Languages

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

Language family

File:Welcome to Barrow, Alaska.jpg

English ("Welcome to Barrow") and Iñupiaq (Paġlagivsigiñ Utqiaġvigmun), Utqiaġvik, Alaska, framed by whale jawbones

The Eskimo–Aleut (also known as Eskaleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan) family of languages includes two cognate branches: the Aleut (Unangan) branch and the Inuit–Yupik branch.<ref name="Lyovin Kessler Leben 2017 p. 327">Template:Cite book</ref>

The number of cases varies, with Aleut languages having a greatly reduced case system compared to those of the Inuit–Yupik subfamily. Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages possess voiceless plosives at the bilabial, coronal, velar and uvular positions in all languages except Aleut, which has lost the bilabial stops but retained the nasal. In the Inuit–Yupik subfamily a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is also present.

The Inuit–Yupik sub-family consists of the Inuit and Yupik language sub-groups.<ref name="FortecueM">Template:Cite book</ref> The Sirenik language, which is virtually extinct, is sometimes regarded as a third branch of the Inuit–Yupik language family. Other sources regard it as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.<ref name="FortecueM"/><ref name="kaplanB">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Inuit languages comprise a dialect continuum, or dialect chain, that stretches from Unalakleet and Norton Sound in Alaska, across northern Alaska and Canada, and east to Greenland. Changes from western (Iñupiaq) to eastern dialects are marked by the dropping of vestigial Yupik-related features, increasing consonant assimilation (e.g., kumlu, meaning "thumb", changes to kuvlu, changes to kublu, changes to kulluk, changes to kulluq,<ref name=livingdict>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>) and increased consonant lengthening, and lexical change. Thus, speakers of two adjacent Inuit dialects would usually be able to understand one another, but speakers from dialects distant from each other on the dialect continuum would have difficulty understanding one another.<ref name="kaplanB"/> Seward Peninsula dialects in western Alaska, where much of the Iñupiat culture has been in place for perhaps less than 500 years, are greatly affected by phonological influence from the Yupik languages. Eastern Greenlandic, at the opposite end of Inuit range, has had significant word replacement due to a unique form of ritual name avoidance.<ref name="FortecueM"/><ref name="kaplanB"/>

Ethnographically, Greenlandic Inuit belong to three groups: the Kalaallit of west Greenland, who speak Kalaallisut;<ref name="ethno"/> the Tunumiit of Tunu (east Greenland), who speak Tunumiit oraasiat ("East Greenlandic"), and the Inughuit of north Greenland, who speak Inuktun.

The four Yupik languages, by contrast, including Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Naukan (Naukanski), and Siberian Yupik, are distinct languages with phonological, morphological, and lexical differences. They demonstrate limited mutual intelligibility.<ref name="FortecueM"/> Additionally, both Alutiiq and Central Yup'ik have considerable dialect diversity. The northernmost Yupik languages – Siberian Yupik and Naukan Yupik – are linguistically only slightly closer to Inuit than is Alutiiq, which is the southernmost of the Yupik languages. Although the grammatical structures of Yupik and Inuit languages are similar, they have pronounced differences phonologically. Differences of vocabulary between Inuit and any one of the Yupik languages are greater than between any two Yupik languages.<ref name="kaplanB"/> Even the dialectal differences within Alutiiq and Central Alaskan Yup'ik sometimes are relatively great for locations that are relatively close geographically.<ref name="kaplanB"/>

Despite the relatively small population of Naukan speakers, documentation of the language dates back to 1732. While Naukan is only spoken in Siberia, the language acts as an intermediate between two Alaskan languages: Siberian Yupik and Central Yup'ik.<ref name="erudit.org">Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Inuktitut dialect map.svg

Distribution of language variants across the Arctic

An overview of the Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages family is given below:

• Inuit–Yupik–Unangan
  • Aleut or Unangan
    • • Western-Central dialects: Atkan, Attuan, Unangan, Bering (60–80 speakers)
      • Eastern dialect: Unalaskan, Pribilof (400 speakers)
  • Inuit–Yupik or Eskimo (Yup'ik, Yuit, and Inuit)
    • Yupik
      • Central Alaskan Yup'ik (10,000 speakers)
      • Alutiiq or Pacific Gulf Yup'ik (400 speakers)
      • Central Siberian Yupik or Yuit (Chaplinon and St Lawrence Island, 1,400 speakers)
      • Naukan (700 speakers)
    • Inuit or Inupik (75,000 speakers)
      • Greenlandic (Greenland, 47,000 speakers)
        • Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic, 44,000-52,000 speakers)
        • Tunumiisut (East Greenlandic, 3,500 speakers)
      • Iñupiaq (northern Alaska, 3,500 speakers)
      • Inuvialuktun (western Canada; together with Siglitun, Natsilingmiutut, Inuinnaqtun and Uummarmiutun 765 speakers)
      • Inuktitut (eastern Canada; together with Inuktun and Inuinnaqtun, 30,000 speakers)
      • Inuktun (Avanersuarmiutut, Thule dialect or Polar Eskimo, approximately 1,000 speakers)
    • Sirenik (Sirenikskiy) Template:Extinct

American linguist Lenore Grenoble has explicitly deferred to the ICC resolution and used Inuit–Yupik instead of Eskimo with regards to the language branch.<ref name="Grenoble, 2016"/>

Words for snow

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} There has been a long-running linguistic debate about whether or not the speakers of the Inuit–Yupik–Unangan language group have an unusually large number of words for snow. The general modern consensus is that, in multiple Inuit–Yupik languages, there are, or have been in simultaneous usage, indeed fifty plus words for snow.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Diet

File:Walrus meat 1 1999-04-01.jpg

Sharing of frozen, aged walrus meat. Inuit are known for their practice of food sharing, where large catches of food are shared with the broader community.<ref name="Damas">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Inuit

File:Eskimo fisherman's summer house, Alaska page 250.png

Eskimo (Yup'ik of Nelson Island) fisherman's summer house

Inuit inhabit the Arctic and northern Bering Sea coasts of Alaska in the United States, and Arctic coasts of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, and Labrador in Canada, and Greenland (associated with Denmark). Until fairly recent times, there has been a remarkable homogeneity in the culture throughout this area, which traditionally relied on fish, marine mammals, and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, and tools. Their food sources primarily relied on seals, whales, whale blubber, walrus, and fish, all of which they hunted using harpoons on the ice.<ref name="ENBR"/> Clothing consisted of robes made of wolfskin and reindeer skin to acclimate to the low temperatures.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They maintain a unique Inuit culture.

Greenland's Inuit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Greenlandic Inuit make up 90% of Greenland's population.<ref name=CIAworld/> They belong to three major groups:

• Kalaallit of west Greenland, who speak Kalaallisut
• Tunumiit of east Greenland, who speak Tunumiisut
• Inughuit of north Greenland, who speak Inuktun or Polar Eskimo.<ref name="ethno"/>

Canadian Inuit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Canadian Inuit live primarily in Inuit Nunangat (lit. "lands, waters and ices of the [Inuit] people"), their traditional homeland although some people live in southern parts of Canada. Inuit Nunangat ranges from the Yukon–Alaska border in the west across the Arctic to northern Labrador.

The Inuvialuit live in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, the northern part of Yukon and the Northwest Territories, which stretches to the Amundsen Gulf and the Nunavut border and includes the western Canadian Arctic Islands. The land was demarked in 1984 by the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.

The majority of Inuit live in Nunavut (a territory of Canada), Nunavik (the northern part of Quebec) and in Nunatsiavut (Inuit settlement region in Labrador).<ref name=statscan/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Alaska's Iñupiat

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File:Inupiat Family from Noatak, Alaska, 1929, Edward S. Curtis (restored).jpg

An Iñupiat family from Noatak, Alaska, 1929

The Iñupiat are Inuit of Alaska's Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs and the Bering Straits region, including the Seward Peninsula.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Utqiaġvik, the northernmost city in the United States, is above the Arctic Circle and in the Iñupiat region. Their language is known as Iñupiaq.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Their current communities include 34 villages across Iñupiat Nunaŋat (Iñupiaq lands) including seven Alaskan villages in the North Slope Borough, affiliated with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; eleven villages in Northwest Arctic Borough; and sixteen villages affiliated with the Bering Straits Regional Corporation.<ref name=medicine>"Inupiaq (Inupiat)—Alaska Native Cultural Profile." Template:Webarchive National Network of Libraries of Medicine. Retrieved 4 Dec 2013.</ref>

Yupik

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File:AlutiiqDancer.jpg

Alutiiq dancer during the biennial "Celebration" cultural event

The Yupik are indigenous or aboriginal peoples who live along the coast of western Alaska, especially on the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta and along the Kuskokwim River (Central Alaskan Yup'ik); in southern Alaska (the Alutiiq); and along the eastern coast of Chukotka in the Russian Far East and St. Lawrence Island in western Alaska (the Siberian Yupik).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Yupik economy has traditionally been strongly dominated by the harvest of marine mammals, especially seals, walrus, and whales.<ref>"Yupik". (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 13, 2008, from: Encyclopædia Britannica Online Retrieved August 30, 2012.</ref>

Alutiiq

The Alutiiq language is relatively close to that spoken by the Yupik in the Bethel, Alaska area. But, it is considered a distinct language with two major dialects: the Koniag dialect, spoken on the Alaska Peninsula and on Kodiak Island, and the Chugach dialect, spoken on the southern Kenai Peninsula and in Prince William Sound. Residents of Nanwalek, located on southern part of the Kenai Peninsula near Seldovia, speak what they call Sugpiaq. They are able to understand those who speak Yupik in Bethel. With a population of approximately 3,000, and the number of speakers in the hundreds, Alutiiq communities are working to revitalize their language.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Central Alaskan Yup'ik

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Yup'ik, with an apostrophe, denotes the speakers of the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, who live in western Alaska and southwestern Alaska from southern Norton Sound to the north side of Bristol Bay, on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, and on Nelson Island. The use of the apostrophe in the name Yup'ik is a written convention to denote the long pronunciation of the p sound; but it is spoken the same in other Yupik languages. Of all the Alaska Native languages, Central Alaskan Yup'ik has the most speakers, with about 10,000 of a total Yup'ik population of 21,000 still speaking the language. The five dialects of Central Alaskan Yup'ik include General Central Yup'ik, and the Egegik, Norton Sound, Hooper Bay-Chevak, and Nunivak dialects. In the latter two dialects, both the language and the people are called Cup'ik.<ref name="centralyup'ik">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Siberian Yupik

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File:FMIB 37576 Siberian Eskimos aboard the steamer bowhead, showing their furs to trade after indulging in a lunch of whale blubber.jpeg

Siberian Yupik aboard the steamer Bowhead

Siberian Yupik reside along the Bering Sea coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in Siberia in the Russian Far East<ref name="kaplanB"/> and in the villages of Gambell and Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska.<ref name="siberianyupik">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Central Siberian Yupik spoken on the Chukchi Peninsula and on St. Lawrence Island is nearly identical. About 1,050 of a total Alaska population of 1,100 Siberian Yupik people in Alaska speak the language. It is the first language of the home for most St. Lawrence Island children. In Siberia, about 300 of a total of 900 Siberian Yupik people still learn and study the language, though it is no longer learned as a first language by children.<ref name="siberianyupik"/>

Naukan

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About 70 of 400 Naukan people still speak Naukanski. The Naukan originate on the Chukot Peninsula in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Siberia.<ref name="kaplanB"/> Despite the relatively small population of Naukan speakers, documentation of the language dates back to 1732. While Naukan is only spoken in Siberia, the language acts as an intermediate between two Alaskan languages: Siberian Yupik Eskimo and Central Yup'ik Eskimo.<ref name="erudit.org"/>

Sireniki

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File:Model of an Ice Scoop, 1900-1930, 36.83.jpg

Model of an ice scoop, Alaska Native, 1900–1930, Brooklyn Museum

Some speakers of Siberian Yupik languages used to speak a divergent Inuit–Yupik variant in the past, before they underwent a language shift. These former speakers of the Sirenik language inhabited the settlements of Sireniki, Imtuk, and some small villages stretching to the west from Sireniki along south-eastern coasts of Chukchi Peninsula.<ref name=VES>Vakhtin 1998: 162</ref> They lived in neighborhoods with Siberian Yupik and Chukchi peoples.

As early as in 1895, Imtuk was a settlement with a mixed population of Sireniki and Ungazigmit<ref>Menovshchikov 1964: 7</ref> (the latter belonging to Siberian Yupik). Sirenik culture has been influenced by that of Chukchi, and the language shows Chukchi language influences.<ref name=linfranc>Menovshchikov 1990: 70</ref> Folktale motifs also show the influence of Chuckchi culture.<ref name=rein-rape>Menovshchikov 1964: 132</ref>

The above peculiarities of this (already extinct) Inuit–Yupik language amounted to mutual unintelligibility even with its nearest language relatives:<ref>Menovshchikov 1964: 6–7</ref> in the past, Sireniki had to use the unrelated Chukchi language as a lingua franca for communicating with Siberian Yupik.<ref name=linfranc/>

Many words are formed from entirely different roots from in Siberian Yupik,<ref name=diff-root>Menovshchikov 1964: 42</ref> but even the grammar has several peculiarities distinct not only among Inuit–Yupik languages, but even compared to Aleut. For example, dual number is not known in Sirenik, while most Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages have dual,<ref name=only2>Menovshchikov 1964: 38</ref> including its neighboring Siberian Yupikax relatives.<ref name=verb2>Menovshchikov 1964: 81</ref>

Little is known about the origin of this diversity. The peculiarities of this language may be the result of a supposed long isolation from other Inuit and Yupik groups,<ref>Menovshchikov 1962: 11</ref><ref>Menovshchikov 1964: 9</ref> and being in contact only with speakers of unrelated languages for many centuries. The influence of the Chukchi language is clear.<ref name=linfranc/>

Because of all these factors, the classification of the Sirenik language is not settled yet:<ref name=VE3>Vakhtin 1998: 161</ref> Sireniki language is sometimes regarded as a third branch of Inuit–Yupik (at least, its possibility is mentioned).<ref name="VE3"/><ref name=Vakh-Sir>Linguist List's description about Nikolai Vakhtin Template:Webarchive's book: The Old Sirinek Language: Texts, Lexicon, Grammatical Notes Template:Webarchive. The author's untransliterated (original) name is "Н.Б. Вахтин Template:Webarchive".</ref><ref name=icc-ch-lan>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sometimes it is regarded rather as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.<ref name=siryup>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=kapyup>Kaplan 1990: 136</ref>

See also

• Alaska Native religion
• Blond Eskimos
• Disc number
• Eskimo archery
• Eskimo kinship
• Eskimo kissing
• Eskimo yo-yo
• Eskimology
• Inuit religion
• Kudlik
• Maupuk
• Nanook of the North, 1922 documentary
• Saqqaq culture

General and cited sources

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

Cyrillic

• Template:Cite book

Further reading

• Adapting to climate change: social-ecological resilience in a Canadian western arctic community. Conservation Ecology 5(2)
• Canadian Council on Learning, State of Inuit Learning in Canada Template:Webarchive
• Contemporary Food Sharing: A Case Study from Akulivik, PQ. Canada.
• Internet Sacred Text Archive: Inuit Religion
• Inuit Culture
• Inuit Exposure to Organochlorines through the Aquatic Food Chain. Environmental Health Perspectives 101(7)
• Inuit Women and Graphic Arts: Female Creativity and Its Cultural Context. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 9(2)Template:Dead link
• We the People: American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States. Census 2000 Special Reports February 2006
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Frank H. Nowell Photographs Photographs documenting scenery, towns, businesses, mining activities, Native Americans, and Eskimos in the vicinity of Nome, Alaska from 1901 to 1909.
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Alaska and Western Canada Collection Images documenting Alaska and Western Canada, primarily Yukon and British Columbia, depicting scenes of the Gold Rush of 1898, city street scenes, Eskimo and Native Americans of the region, hunting and fishing, and transportation.
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Arthur Churchill Warner Photographs Includes images of Eskimos from 1898 to 1900.
• Inuit Myopia: an environmentally induced "epidemic"?

External links

• Some Psychological Aspects of the Impact of the White Man upon the Labrador Eskimo Manuscript at Dartmouth College Library
• The Traditional Labrador Eskimos (1960) Manuscript at Dartmouth College Library
• Victor Levine Manuscripts on origins of the Eskimos at Dartmouth College Library