Inuit, pronounced IHN yoo iht, are a people who live in and near the Arctic. Their homeland stretches from the northeastern tip of Russia across Alaska and northern Canada to Greenland. Many Inuit live farther north than any other people in the world.
The Inuit believed that all people, animals, things, and forces of nature had spirits. The spirits of people and animals lived in another world after they died. Other spirits included those of the wind, the weather, the sun, and the moon. One of the most important spirits to many groups was a goddess who governed the sea. In some areas, she was called Sedna (pronounced SEHD nuh). She lived at the bottom of the ocean and controlled the seals, whales, and other sea mammals.
The Inuit followed special rules to please the spirits. They believed that if they ignored the rules, the spirits might punish them by causing sickness or other misfortune. In many communities, the wife of a hunter might offer a drink of water to an animal that had been killed. She would do this to satisfy its spirit. In Alaska, the Inuit saved the bladders of the seals they killed. They believed a seal's spirit rested within its bladder. In a special ceremony each year, the community returned the bladders to the sea to ensure good hunting in the year to come.
The death of an Inuk required certain observances. In many regions, the Inuit wrapped the body in skins and left it on the tundra, covered by an arrangement of stones. They often placed tools, weapons, and other items with the body for use in the otherworld.
Inuit communities usually had an individual who they believed had special powers to communicate with the spirit world. Such a person was called an angekok (pronounced ANG guh kahk) by the Inuit and a shaman by Europeans. These individuals could be either men or women. They healed the sick and tried to influence aspects of life over which people had little control. For example, they attempted to communicate with spirits to bring good weather and to ensure a steady supply of game.
Inuit origins
People have lived in the Arctic for thousands of years. The earliest Arctic peoples were not closely related to modern Inuit. They did not hunt large whales or use dogs to pull their sleds, and their tools and weapons were different from those of the Inuit.
Inuit culture developed in what is now the Bering
Sea region about 1,000 years ago. The people there, who were of Asian
origin, developed the technology to hunt huge bowhead whales. This culture
spread eastward and is called the Thule (pronounced THOO lee) culture, after the
place in northern Greenland where archaeologists first discovered it.
The Thule people, the ancestors of the Inuit, had reached present-day northern
Alaska by A.D. 1000. There, they hunted bowhead whales along the shore
during the whales' annual migrations. About A.D. 1000, Thule people began
to spread eastward into what are now the Canadian Arctic and Greenland.
They also moved southward into what are now Hudson Bay and the coast of
Labrador. The Thule people displaced or absorbed earlier residents that
lived in many of these regions. Archaeological evidence indicates that
this expansion occurred rapidly. For example, scientists have found
remarkably similar tools, weapons, and house types at Thule archaeological sites
from the Bering Sea region in the west to Greenland in the east.
Scientists think that warming climates may have been partly responsible for this
rapid spread.
As the Thule people moved throughout this vast Arctic region, they modified
their culture to suit the different environments they found. The Caribou
Inuit of the west coast of Hudson Bay, for example, lived on caribou and
fish. The Inuit of the Labrador coast hunted large whales.
In time, the Inuit in each region of the Arctic
came to recognize themselves as distinct cultural groups with their own
individual dialects. The members of these groups usually called themselves
after the places where they lived. These names end with the suffix -miut,
which means the people of. For example, Aivilingmiut means the people of
the village Aivilik.
The arrival of Europeans. The first Europeans to meet Inuit people were
Norse settlers in what is now northern Newfoundland, Canada. These
settlers lived there for a short time in about A.D. 1000. Beginning in the
1500's, European whalers, fishing crews, and explorers met many Inuit along the
coast of Labrador. The English explorer Martin Frobisher visited an Inuit
village in the Baffin Islands in the 1570's. He and his party wrote
descriptions of the village and made paintings and drawings of some Inuit
people. Russians and other Europeans first met Alaskan Inuit in the
1700's. In the later 1700's, Moravian missionaries from what is now
Germany traded with Labrador Inuit and converted many of them to
Christianity.
In the mid-1800's, whalers began to hunt in the Arctic. Some Inuit worked for whalers and traded with them. The Inuit received firearms, ammunition, wood, iron, and other European goods. Unfortunately, European diseases often accompanied the whalers and traders. These diseases, which included smallpox and measles, completely wiped out some Inuit populations.
The Inuit way of life changed as a result of contact with Europeans. For example, many Inuit began trapping animals only for their furs, which they traded to Europeans for rifles and other goods. Because of the trapping, many animals the Inuit hunted became scarce. This scarcity, in turn, made the Inuit more dependent upon European goods and permanently altered their traditional way of life. Nevertheless, many Inuit continued to follow their traditional ways well into the 1800's.
New ways of life began for most Inuit in the
early and middle 1900's. During that time, the impact of European
societies on the Inuit increased greatly. The industrialized cultures of
Europe were extremely different from traditional Inuit societies, and many Inuit
had difficulty adopting European lifestyles. The Inuit way of life changed
in different ways in Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.
In Russia, the Communist government of the Soviet Union took control of all
Inuit communities during the 1920's. Russia was part of the Soviet Union
from 1922 until 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved. The Soviet
Communists provided improved health care, housing, and education for the
Inuit. However, they also forcibly relocated many Inuit groups from their
traditional lands to other areas. The Inuit were grouped with other
Siberian peoples into economic units called collectives. The purpose of
the collectives was to produce goods for sale throughout the country.
Since the Inuit could no longer hunt sea mammals for food, they began to sell
walrus tusks and such handicrafts as bone and soapstone carvings.
In Alaska, hunting with rifles and widespread trapping greatly reduced the quantity of game animals by the late 1800's. As a result, many of the Inuit became unable to survive independently. The United States government brought reindeer from Siberia in an attempt to start a reindeer herding industry. However, the industry failed. The Inuit of Alaska became United States citizens in 1924.
During World War II (1939-1945), many Inuit worked at U.S. military bases in Alaska. After the war, some Inuit found part-time work in commercial fishing, construction, or other businesses run by the rapidly growing white population. But most Inuit could not find jobs. The U.S. government established programs to improve living conditions of the Inuit, but many of them still lived in poverty.
In Canada, the Inuit way of life changed little until the 1950's. At that time, the fur trade declined and the number of caribou decreased sharply after the animals had been hunted with rifles for many years. These developments led more and more Inuit to move to communities that had developed around trading posts, government administrative offices, radar sites, and mission churches. The Inuit could find construction jobs and other temporary work in these communities. But there was not enough work for all the Inuit. As a result, many of them began to receive housing and other assistance from the Canadian government.
In Greenland, many Inuit began fishing
commercially during the early 1900's. This development resulted from a
change in climate that warmed Greenland's coastal waters. The warm water
drove the seals north and attracted cod, salmon, and other fish from the
south.
Greenland was a colony of Denmark from 1380 until 1953, when it became a Danish
province. At that time, the Inuit became Danish citizens. During the
early 1900's and mid-1900's, the Danish government established programs to aid
the Greenland Inuit. These programs provided improved education, housing,
and health care. In addition, the Danish government helped train the Inuit
for jobs in manufacturing, service industries, and other fields.
The Inuit today. The traditional way of life has ended for most Inuit. They live in wooden homes rather than in snowhouses, sod houses, or tents. They wear modern clothing instead of animal skin garments. Most Inuit speak English, Russian, or Danish in addition to their native language. The kayak and umiak have given way to the motorboat, and the snowmobile has replaced the dog team. Christianity has taken the place of most traditional Inuit beliefs.
Today's Inuit must compete in the modern economic world instead of the world of nature. While some Inuit have adjusted to their new ways of life, many suffer from unemployment and other problems. In addition, industrial and nuclear pollution are poisoning their traditional homelands and food sources.
Altogether, more than 100,000 Inuit live in Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. The Inuit population almost doubled between 1950 and 1970, and it continues to grow rapidly. This growth has resulted chiefly from improved health care and better living conditions.
About 1 percent of all Inuit live on the northeastern tip of Siberia. They hunt walruses, whales, seals, and other animals and produce carvings and other handicrafts for sale. They receive education, housing, and other benefits from the government.
Alaska has about 34 percent of the world's Inuit. Some Alaskan Inuit live in towns and cities. But the majority live in small settlements and hunt and fish for most of their food. Some Inuit work in the petroleum or mining industries. However, there is little other industry, so most of the state's Inuit are either unemployed or can find only temporary jobs. They depend on the U.S. government for housing and other assistance. The government has greatly expanded the educational programs for the Inuit, and more than half of the young people complete high school.
In 1971, the United States Congress passed a bill that gave $9621/2 million and 44 million acres (18 million hectares) of Alaskan land to the state's native peoples. These peoples are the Inuit, the Aleuts (a people native to Alaska's Aleutian Islands), and American Indians. Congress passed the bill in response to long-standing land claims made by the Inuit and Indians.
Canada has about 29 percent of the world's
Inuit. Most of them live in towns in housing provided by the
government. They also receive financial aid, health care, and other help
from the government. About half of all Canadian Inuit cannot find
permanent employment. To combat this problem, the government has helped
the Inuit establish commercial fishing and handicraft cooperatives. These
organizations have been especially successful in selling soapstone sculpture and
prints, which have become increasingly popular in Canada and the United
States. Educational opportunities have increased greatly for the Canadian
Inuit since the 1950's, but most Inuit students do not finish high school.
In 1993, Canada's government passed legislation to create a vast new territory
that will be controlled by the Inuit. The territory, called Nunavut, will
cover a large part of northern Canada and will come into being in 1999. At
that time, the government will also give Canada's Inuit title to much of
Nunavut's land.
Greenland has about 36 percent of all Inuit. Almost all these people have mixed Inuit and European ancestry. But most experts classify them as Inuit. In 1979, Denmark granted Greenland home rule status. This allows Greenlanders to control the internal affairs of the province, including Inuit affairs.
Most Greenland Inuit work in towns, chiefly in the fishing industry. Only the Inuit in northern Greenland still live mainly by hunting seals and continue many of their traditional ways. Most Greenland Inuit do not complete high school. Greenland's government provides them with housing, health care, and other assistance.
Contributor: James A. Tuck, Ph.D., Prof. of Archaeology, Memorial Univ. of Newfoundland.