Buffalo Spirit

The Inuit are the group of native people who live in the Arctic region of Canada. The term Inuit means ‘people’. They were originally known as ‘Eskimos’, a term coined by the Europeans, which is now considered derogatory as it means ‘raw meat eaters’. The Inuit, whose population is around 50,485 people, make up to of 4% of the total Canadian Aboriginal population. Labrador, Ungava, Iglunik, Baffin Island, Netsilik, Copper, Caribou and Western Arctic Inuit are the 8 chief tribal groups of Inuit.

The Inuit were the last group of Indigenous people to have arrived in North America. Inuit are supposed to be the descendants of the Thule culture, which originated in Alaska, and then spread east towards Arctic, around 1050 AD. For 4000 years, the Inuit were the most scattered group of people in the world; from Siberia, to the east along Alaskan coast, across Canada and further to Greenland.

Although the Inuit lived a nomadic lifestyle for thousands of years, their lifestyle has considerably changed over the last century. The harsh climatic conditions and the constant efforts of survival have shaped up the nomadic culture in the Inuit.

The Inuit live in small bands of 2 to5 families and all social and economic activities are shared by all the members of the household. The oldest active member of the family is usually the leader of the band.

The languages spoken by the Inuit of Canada are together termed as “Inuktitut.” According to the Canadian census, there are almost 35,000 people who speak Inuktitut as their first language. Traditionally, the Inuit had no written language and literature as they could not read or write. Writing systems were adopted after the Inuit came into contact with the Christian missionaries in the 1920s. Inuktitut is spoken in territories Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Arctic coast of Yukon and Manitoba. It is also one of the official languages of Northwest Territories and Nunavut.