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.
Pre-European Contact History
The Inuit are the descendants of the people who had crossed the Bering Land Bridge 50,000-17,000 years back during the Wisconsin glaciation. These people slowly moved across to the Arctic region of Canada. Archaeologists call them the pre-Dorset Culture. After the Dorset culture, a second wave of people arrived to the Arctic, from the west, known as the Dorset culture. Referred as Tuniit by the Inuit, these people were very tall and strong. But they were displaced by the third wave of people, came to be known as Inuit, which had migrated to the Arctic. Although being smaller than the Tuniit, the Inuit had the advantage of trained dogs, boats, weapons and other technologies.
Around 11th century, the Inuit had the first European contact, when the Vikings, who were settled in Greenland, arrived on the east Canadian coast for exploring. The Norse Culture exerted an irreversible influence on the Inuit with their traders, explorers, scientists, missionaries and others getting into contact with the Inuit. In the 13th century, Inuit started arriving in Greenland and by 14th century they had conquered Greenland forcing the Vikings to abandon Greenland.
Meanwhile due to the Little Ice Age in 1350, the Inuit had to move southwards due to extreme cold climatic conditions in the Arctic. They had established their settlement in Southern Labrador province and it was then, by 17th century, that the Inuit started interacting with the colonial North Americans.
Post European Contact History
After the Vikings (Norsemen) vanished from Greenland, the Inuit had no European contact till almost a century. The Inuit who had settled in Labrador came in contact with the Europeans in the 16th century and they had the longest continuous contact with the Europeans.
The arrival of Europeans had a very bad effect on the Inuit, changing their way of life, causing huge number of deaths due to the diseases, social disruptions and other problems. But the Inuit living far north could remain fairly isolated from the Europeans during the 19th century. Even in the 20th century, only the missionaries and few traders had some contact with the accessible Inuit. During this time, many Inuit were also systematically converted to Christianity by these missionaries
The Arctic Canada for the first time gained importance during the Second World War for constructing air bases and Distant Early Warning Line. The use of airplanes made the isolated Arctic region more accessible and this led to more contact with the Inuit and also brought their development in the form of education, health facilities and settlements. But along with the developments, there was a lot of interference in the Inuit’s culture and lifestyle, many times forcing them to adopt the Canadian culture and ways of living.
