Siorapaluk Hiurapaluk | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 77°47′08″N70°38′00″W / 77.78556°N 70.63333°W | |
State | Kingdom of Denmark |
Constituent country | Greenland |
Municipality | Avannaata |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 43 |
Time zone | UTC−02:00 (Western Greenland Time) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−01:00 (Western Greenland Summer Time) |
Postal code | 3971 Qaanaaq |
Siorapaluk (West Greenlandic) or Hiurapaluk (Polar Inuit) 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 (Robertson Fjord). [1] It has a population of 43 [2] 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.[ citation needed ]
Siorapaluk is the northernmost inhabited public settlement in Greenland, and one of the northernmost such settlements in the world, surpassed only by a few villages in Svalbard. It is also the world's northernmost place inhabited by natives.
There is good hunting in the area of the settlement, and the cliffs around it function as breeding grounds for dovekie (UK English: little auk) ( Alle alle ) and the thick-billed murre (UK English: Brünnich's guillemot) ( Uria lomvia ). There are many Arctic foxes and Arctic hares in the area and an abundance of seals and walruses which are hunted.
Siorapaluk has an electrical power plant, direct satellite radio and TV-broadcasting, a well stocked store and telephone service. The settlement's school is combined with its church and a small public library. Although there are no resident medical facilities, the settlement is visited regularly by a physician and a dentist.
Air Greenland operates settlement flights to Qaanaaq Airport and to Savissivik Heliport via Pituffik Space Base. [3] The distance to Qaanaaq is 45 km. The twice-weekly flights are subsidized by the Government of Greenland. Transfers at the airbase are subject to access restrictions by the Danish Foreign Ministry. [4]
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.
Greenland is a North American island autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the larger of two autonomous territories within the Kingdom, the other being the Faroe Islands; the citizens of both territories are full citizens of Denmark. As Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union, citizens of Greenland are European Union citizens. The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk. Greenland lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is the world's largest island, and is the location of the northernmost point of land in the world – Kaffeklubben Island off the northern coast is the world's northernmost undisputed point of land, and Cape Morris Jesup on the mainland was thought to be so until the 1960s.
Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen was a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" and was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled. He remains well known in Greenland, Denmark and among Canadian Inuit.
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.
Ilulissat, formerly Jakobshavn or Jacobshaven, is the municipal seat and largest town of the Avannaata municipality in western Greenland, located approximately 350 km (220 mi) north of the Arctic Circle. With a population of 4,670 as of 2020, it is the third-largest city in Greenland, after Nuuk and Sisimiut. The city is home to almost as many sled-dogs as people.
The culture of Greenland has much in common with Greenlandic Inuit tradition, as the majority of people are descended from Inuit. Many people still go ice fishing and there are annual dog-sled races in which everyone with a team participates.
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.
Sisimiut, formerly known as Holsteinsborg, is the capital and largest city of the Qeqqata municipality, the second-largest city in Greenland, and the largest Arctic city in North America. It is located in central-western Greenland, on the coast of Davis Strait, approximately 320 km (200 mi) north of Nuuk.
Ittoqqortoormiit, formerly known as Scoresbysund, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in eastern Greenland. Its population was 345 as of 2020, and it has been described as one of the most remote settlements on Earth.
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.
Kullorsuaq is a settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is the northernmost settlement in the Upernavik Archipelago, located on Kullorsuaq Island at the southern end of Melville Bay, itself part of the larger Baffin Bay.
Nuussuaq, formerly Kraulshavn, is a settlement in Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is the only mainland settlement in the Upernavik Archipelago, located near the western tip of the Nuussuaq Peninsula, on the northern coast of Sugar Loaf Bay, an indentation of Baffin Bay.
Savissivik or Havighivik (Inuktun) is a settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. Located on Meteorite Island, off the northern shores of Melville Bay, the settlement had 55 inhabitants in 2020.
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.
The Inughuit, 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.
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.
Qaanaaq Municipality was the only municipality in the county of North Greenland (Avannaa). It is now part of the municipality of Avannaata.
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.
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.
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.