Inughuit

Last updated
Inughuit
Minik in New York.jpg
Minik Wallace, Inuk,
c. 1890–1918, in New York
Total population
800 (2010) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Greenland
Languages
Greenlandic (Inuktun), Danish
Religion
Inuit religion, Evangelical Lutheran

The Inughuit (also spelled Inuhuit), or the Smith Sound Inuit, historically Arctic Highlanders or Polar Eskimos, are an ethnic subgroup of the Greenlandic Inuit. They are the northernmost group of Inuit and the northernmost people in North America, living in Greenland. Inughuit make up about 1% of the population of Greenland. [2]

Contents

Language

The Inughuit speak Inuktun, also known as North Greenlandic, Thule Inuit, or Polar Eskimo. It is a dialect of Inuktitut, an Eskimo–Aleut language related to the Greenlandic language spoken elsewhere in Greenland. [3] In Kalaallisut, the official dialect of Greenlandic, Inuktun is called Avanersuarmiutut.

Population

Before 1880, their population was estimated to be between 100 and 200 people. From 1880 to 1930, they were estimated to number 250. In 1980, their estimated population was 700, [2] and it rose to 800 in 2010. [1]

History

Early history

The Inughuit are believed to be descended from the Thule people who spread across the North American Arctic around the eleventh century. They used and traded iron from meteorites such as the Cape York meteorite. [4] The earliest discovered Thule settlement is found in modern-day Uummannaq (Dundas). There were also extensive contacts with other Inuit from different regions. Around the 17th century, climate change cooled the northwest areas of Greenland, which cut off the Inughuit from other Inuit and regions. [5]

It was during this time that the Inughuit developed their unique language, culture, and fashion—all of which differ significantly from other Inuit. Around this period, the Inughuit also lost the ability and skills to build kayaks or umiaks, which further restricted travel and contact with other communities. [5]

Modern history

The Inughuit were first contacted by Europeans in 1818, [2] when John Ross led an expedition into their territory. Ross dubbed them "Arctic Highlanders". They are believed to have previously lived in total isolation, to the point of being unaware of other humans, and are cited as one of the rare non-agricultural societies to live without armed feuds or warfare, a state that continued after contact. [6] Erik Holtved, a Dane, was the first university-trained ethnologist to study the Inughuit. [7]

During the mid-19th century, Inuit from Baffin visited and lived with the Inughuits. The Baffin Inuit reintroduced some technologies lost to the Inughuit such as boats, leisters, and bows and arrows. The Inughuit in turn taught the Baffin Inuit a more advanced form of sled technology. American and European explorers in the 19th and early-20th centuries had extensive contacts with the Inughuits. Explorers Robert Peary and Frederick Cook both had Inughuits in their teams acting as guides. However, more sustained contact with outsiders changed many aspects of Inughuit life by creating a dependence on trade goods and introducing new diseases. [5]

Greenlandic anthropologist and explorer Knud Rasmussen established a trading post in Uummannaq (Dundas) in 1910. He also worked to modernize Inughuit society by establishing a governing hunter's council for the Inughuit in 1927. It was during this period that Christian missionaries arrived in the region to evangelize. As a consequence of the relative isolation of the Inughuit, the Inughuit remained absent from growing Greenlandic Inuit nationalism and the nation-building process sweeping the Inuit of western and southern Greenland. The subsequent Cold War era had substantial effects on the Inughuit. In the 1950s, the United States established Thule Air Base close to Uummannaq (Dundas). This forced many Inughuits to move over 116 kilometres (72 mi) north towards Qaanaaq, which proved disastrous to the cultural and social life of the Inughuit. [5]

Settlements

Inughuit people live north of the Arctic Circle on the west coast of Greenland, between 75–80° N and 58–74° W. The northernmost settlement was at the village of Etah (at 78° 19' N), but it was abandoned due to the extremely harsh conditions there. The northernmost constant settlement is now Hiurapaluk.

Pituffik, also known as "Dundas" or "Thule" to Europeans, was the chief settlement of the Inughuit until 1953 when it was displaced by the United States' Thule Air Base, with its residents relocated to Qaanaaq. Established in 1953, Qaanaaq is the largest Inughuit settlement. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

Eskimo is an exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit and the Yupik of eastern Siberia and Alaska. A related third group, the Aleut, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit languages</span> Branch of the Eskaleut language family

The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and the adjacent subarctic regions as far south as Labrador. The Inuit languages are one of the two branches of the Eskimoan language family, the other being the Yupik languages, which are spoken in Alaska and the Russian Far East. Most Inuit people live in one of three countries: Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark; Canada, specifically in Nunavut, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories, the Nunavik region of Quebec, and the Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut regions of Labrador; and the United States, specifically in northern and western Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellesmere Island</span> Island of the Arctic Archipelago in Nunavut, Canada

Ellesmere Island is Canada's northernmost and third largest island, and the tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of 196,236 km2 (75,767 sq mi), slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total length of the island is 830 km (520 mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qaanaaq</span> Place in Greenland, Kingdom of Denmark

Qaanaaq, formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. The town has a population of 646 as of 2020. The population was forcibly relocated from its former, traditional home, which was expropriated for the construction of a United States Air Force base in 1953. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the local Inuktun language and many also speak Kalaallisut and Danish.

The Thule or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture that had previously inhabited the region. The appellation "Thule" originates from the location of Thule in northwest Greenland, facing Canada, where the archaeological remains of the people were first found at Comer's Midden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalaallit</span> Greenlandic Inuit ethnic group

Kalaallit are a Greenlandic Inuit ethnic group, being the largest group in Greenland, concentrated in the west. It is also a contemporary term in the Greenlandic language for the Indigenous of Greenland. The Kalaallit are a part of the Arctic Inuit. The language spoken by Inuit in Greenland is known as Kalaallisut, known in English as Greenlandic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Eskimo Dog</span> Dog breed

The Canadian Eskimo Dog or Canadian Inuit Dog is a breed of working dog from the Arctic. Other names include qimmiq or qimmit. The Greenland Dog is considered the same breed as the Canadian Eskimo Dog since they have not yet diverged enough genetically to be considered separate breeds, despite their geographic isolation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape York meteorite</span> Very large iron meteorite from Greenland

The Cape York meteorite, also known as the Innaanganeq meteorite, is one of the largest known iron meteorites, classified as a medium octahedrite in chemical group IIIAB. In addition to many small fragments, at least eight large fragments with a total mass of 58 tonnes have been recovered, the largest weighing 31 tonnes. The meteorite was named after Cape York, a prominent geographic feature located approximately 30 miles (48 km) west of the east coast of Meteorite island and the nearby peninsulas in northern Melville Bay, Greenland, where the first meteorite fragments were discovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pituffik</span> Place in Greenland, Kingdom of Denmark

Pituffik is a former settlement in northern Greenland, located at the eastern end of Bylot Sound by a tombolo known as Uummannaq, near the current site of the American Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base. The former inhabitants were relocated to the present-day town of Qaanaaq. The relocation and the fallout from the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash in the vicinity are a contentious issue in Greenland's relations with Denmark and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siorapaluk</span> Place in Greenland, Kingdom of Denmark

Siorapaluk or Hiurapaluk is a settlement in the Qaanaaq area of the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. The settlement is located in the northern shore of the Siorapaluup Kangerlua. It has a population of 43 who speak the Inuktun language of the Polar Inuit as well as the Kalaallisut dialect of Greenlandic. Many of the inhabitants are direct descendants of the last migration of Inuit from Canada in the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuktun</span> Inuit language of northwestern Greenland

Inuktun is the language of approximately 1,000 indigenous Inughuit, inhabiting the world's northernmost settlements in Qaanaaq and the surrounding villages in northwestern Greenland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Etah, Greenland</span> Place in Greenland, Kingdom of Denmark

Etah is an abandoned settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. It was a starting point of discovery expeditions to the North Pole and the landing site of the last migration of the Inuit from the Canadian Arctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit</span> Indigenous peoples of northern North America

Inuit 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), 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. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.

Comer's Midden was a 1916 archaeological excavation site near Thule, north of Mt. Dundas in North Star Bay in northern Greenland. It is the find after which the Thule culture was named. The site was first excavated in 1916 by whaling Captain George Comer, ice master of the Crocker Land Expedition's relief team, and of members of Knud Rasmussen's Second Danish Thule Expedition who were in the area charting the North Greenland coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qaasuitsup</span> Former municipality of Greenland

Qaasuitsup was a municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2017. As of January 2015, its population was 17,168. The administrative centre of the municipality was in Ilulissat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenlandic Inuit</span> Ethnic group indigenous to Greenland

The Greenlandic Inuit are the indigenous and most populous ethnic group in Greenland. Most speak Greenlandic and consider themselves ethnically Greenlandic. People of Greenland are both citizens of Denmark and citizens of the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Malaurie</span> French anthropologist and physicist (1922–2024)

Jean Malaurie was a French cultural anthropologist, explorer, geographer, physicist, and writer. He and Kutsikitsoq, an Inuk, were the first two men to reach the North Geomagnetic Pole on 29 May 1951.

Upernavik Archipelago is a vast coastal archipelago in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, off the shores of northeastern Baffin Bay. The archipelago extends from the northwestern coast of Sigguup Nunaa peninsula in the south at approximately 71°50′N56°00′W to the southern end of Melville Bay in the north at approximately 74°50′N57°30′W.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunumiit</span> Group of Greenlandic Inuit

Iivit or Tunumiit are Indigenous Greenlandic Inuit from Iivi Nunaa, Tunu in the area of Kangikajik and Ammassalik, the eastern part of Inuit Nunaat. The Iivit live now mainly in Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit and are a part of the Arctic people known collectively as the Inuit. The singular for Iivit is Iik or for Tunumiit version it is Tunumiu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avannaata</span> Municipality of Greenland

Avannaata is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Leonard, Stephen Pax. "The disappearing world of the last of the Arctic hunters." The Guardian. 2 Oct 2010. Retrieved 25 Feb 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 "Inughuit: Orientation." Countries and Their Cultures. Retrieved 25 Feb 2012.
  3. "Inuktitut, Greenlandic." Ethnologue. Retrieved 25 Feb 2012.
  4. Martin Appelt; Jens Fog Jensen; Mikkel Myrup; Henning Haack; Mikkel Sørensen; Michelle Taube (2014). The cultural history of the Innaanganeq/Cape York meteorite (PDF) (Report). The Greenland National Museum & Archives. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Stern, Pamela (2009). The A to Z of the Inuit. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN   978-0-8108-6822-9.
  6. Keely, Lawrence (1996). War Before Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 30. ISBN   978-0-19-976153-1.
  7. Malaurie, Jean (2003). Ultima Thulé: Explorers and Natives of the Polar North. Norton. pp. 323–325. ISBN   978-0-393-05150-6.