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79-664: Copper Inuit , also known as Inuinnait and Kitlinermiut , are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line , in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories . Most of them historically lived in the area around Coronation Gulf , on Victoria Island , and southern Banks Island . Their western boundary

158-675: A Innu-aimun (Montagnais) exonym meaning 'a person who laces a snowshoe', but is also used in folk etymology as meaning 'eater of raw meat' in the Cree language . Though the Cree etymology has been discredited, "Eskimo" is considered pejorative by some Canadian and English-speaking Greenlandic Inuit. In Canada and Greenland, Inuit is preferred. Inuit is the Eastern Canadian Inuit (Inuktitut) and West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) word for 'the people'. Since Inuktitut and Kalaallisut are

237-586: A colonial way; Inuit is now a common autonym for a large sub-group of these people. The word Inuit (varying forms Iñupiat , Inuvialuit , Inughuit , etc.), however, is an ancient self-referential to a group of peoples which includes at most the Iñupiat of Bering Strait coast of Chukotka and northern Alaska, the four broad groups of Inuit in Canada, and the Greenlandic Inuit. This usage has long been employed to

316-527: A few years before. Various activist movements began to change the direction of Inuit society in 1975 with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement . This comprehensive land claims settlement for Quebec Inuit, along with a large cash settlement and substantial administrative autonomy in the new region of Nunavik, set the precedent for the settlements to follow. The northern Labrador Inuit submitted their land claim in 1977, although they had to wait until 2005 to have

395-574: 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

474-737: A population displacement did not occur within the Aleutian Islands between the Dorset and Thule transition. However a subsequent 2012 genetic analysis showed no genetic link between the Sadlermiut and the Dorset or Tuniit people. In contrast to other Tuniit populations, the Aleut and Sadlermiut benefited from both geographical isolation and their ability to adopt certain Thule technologies. In Canada and Greenland, Inuit circulated almost exclusively north of

553-399: A seated person, even if completely overturned. Because of this property, the design was copied by Europeans and Americans who still produce them under Inuit name kayak . Inuit also made umiaq ("woman's boat"), larger open boats made of wood frames covered with animal skins, for transporting people, goods, and dogs. They were 6–12 m (20–39 ft) long and had a flat bottom so that

632-607: A signed land settlement establishing Nunatsiavut . Southern Labrador Inuit of NunatuKavut is currently in the process of establishing land claims and title rights that would allow them to negotiate with the Newfoundland Government. Canada's 1982 Constitution Act recognized Inuit as Aboriginal peoples in Canada. In the same year, the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut (TFN) was incorporated, in order to take over negotiations for land claims on behalf of Inuit living in

711-417: Is a language isolate and is almost extinct as only around 50 people still use it. Inuit have traditionally been fishermen and hunters. They still hunt whales (esp. bowhead whale ), seal , (esp. ringed seal , harp seal , common seal , bearded seal ), polar bears , muskoxen , caribou , birds , and fish and at times other less commonly eaten animals such as the Arctic fox . The typical Inuit diet

790-779: Is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut. Canadian Inuit live throughout most of Northern Canada in the territory of Nunavut, Nunavik in the northern third of Quebec, the Nunatsiavut in Labrador, and in various parts of the Northwest Territories and Yukon (traditionally), particularly around the Arctic Ocean , in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region . These areas are known, primarily by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami , as Inuit Nunangat . In Canada, sections 25 and 35 of

869-483: Is high in protein and very high in fat – in their traditional diets, Inuit consumed an average of 75 percent of their daily energy intake from fat. While it is not possible to cultivate plants for food in the Arctic, Inuit have traditionally gathered those that are naturally available. Grasses , tubers , roots , plant stems , berries , and seaweed ( kuanniq or edible seaweed) were collected and preserved depending on

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948-530: Is spoken in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region , Northwest Territories , with official language status from the territorial government. Inuinnaqtun is spoken across the Northwest Territories and the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut with official language status from both territories. Inuktitut, the most widely spoken Inuit language in Canada, however, is an official, and one of two main languages, alongside English, of Nunavut and has its speakers throughout Nunavut, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (Labrador), and

1027-582: Is still used by people; however in the 21st century, usage in North America has declined. In the United States the term Eskimo was, as of 2016, commonly used to describe Inuit and the Siberian and Alaskan Yupik, and Iñupiat peoples. Eskimo is still used by some groups and organizations to encompass Inuit and Yupik, as well as other Indigenous Alaskan and Siberian peoples. In 2011, Lawrence Kaplan of

1106-485: The tupilaq is similar to the Christian concept of the devil . The angakkuit ( shamans ) could be male or female. They warded off evil spirits, functioned as intermediaries between people and the spirit world, healed illness or taboo violations, and controlled weather. Copper Inuit lived within geographically defined subgroups well documented by Stefansson, Franz Boas , and others: Inuit Inuit are

1185-626: The Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks wrote that Inuit was not generally accepted as a term for the Yupik, and Eskimo was often used as the term that applied to the Yupik, Iñupiat, and Inuit. Since then Kaplan has updated this to indicate that the term Inuit has gained acceptance in Alaska. Though there is much debate, the word Eskimo likely derives from

1264-459: The Arctic tree line , with the exception of Inuit in Labrador where there are large swaths of coastal barrens. In Labrador there are two Inuit groups, one accepted by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami , Nunatsiavut and one independent, NunatuKavut . The most southern Inuit community in Nunatsiavut is Rigolet while the most southern community within the traditional Inuit territory of NunatuKavut and in

1343-640: The Constitution Act of 1982 classify Inuit as a distinctive group of Aboriginal Canadians who are not included under either the First Nations or the Métis . Greenlandic Inuit , also known as Kalaallit, are descendants of Thule migrations from Canada by 1100 CE. Although Greenland withdrew from the European Communities in 1985, Inuit of Greenland are Danish citizens and, as such, remain citizens of

1422-763: The Inuit-Yupik-Unangan language family . Inupiaq (Inupiatun) is spoken in Russia (extinct) and Alaska, which is one of the 22 official languages of the State of Alaska. In Russia, due to the replacement from their traditional territory in Big Diomede Island to Mainland Russia, Inupiaq language has been nearly extinct with most of them speaking Central Siberian Yupik or Russian predominantly with some Inupiaq linguistic features. In Canada, three Inuit languages ( Inuvialuktun , Inuinnaqtun , Inuktitut ) are spoken. Inuvialuktun

1501-561: The McClure Arctic expedition , Irish explorer, Robert McClure abandoned his ship, HMS  Investigator , at Mercy Bay on Banks Island in 1853 during his search for Franklin's lost expedition . It provided extensive amounts of wood, copper, and iron which the Copper Inuit used for years. Richard Collinson explored the area in 1850–1855. In the belief that the Copper Inuit had migrated to Hudson Bay for trading at various outposts,

1580-597: The Northwest Passage was the first well-documented contact between Europeans and Inuit. Frobisher's expedition landed in Frobisher Bay , Baffin Island , not far from the settlement now called Iqaluit . Frobisher encountered Inuit on Resolution Island where five sailors left the ship, under orders from Frobisher, with instructions to stay clear of Inuit. They became part of Inuit mythology. Inuit oral tradition tells that

1659-632: The Siberian Husky . These dogs were bred from wolves, for transportation. A team of dogs in either a tandem/side-by-side or fan formation would pull a sled made of wood, animal bones, or the baleen from a whale's mouth and even frozen fish, over the snow and ice. Inuit used stars to navigate at sea and landmarks to navigate on land; they possessed a comprehensive native system of toponymy . Where natural landmarks were insufficient, Inuit would erect an inukshuk . Also, Greenland Inuit created Ammassalik wooden maps , which are tactile devices that represent

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1738-510: The death rate , causing a marked natural increase in the population that made it more difficult for them to survive by traditional means. In the 1950s, the Canadian government began to actively settle Inuit into permanent villages and cities, occasionally against their will (such as in Nuntak and Hebron). In 2005 the Canadian government acknowledged the abuses inherent in these forced resettlements. By

1817-652: The prestige dialects in Canada and Greenland, respectively, their version has become dominant, although every Inuit dialect uses cognates from the Proto-Eskimo *ińuɣ – for example, "people" is inughuit in North Greenlandic and iivit in East Greenlandic . Inuit speak Inupiaq (Inupiatun) , Inuinnaqtun , Inuktitut , Inuvialuktun , and Greenlandic languages , which belong to the Inuit-Inupiaq branch of

1896-408: The 1930s, the ceremonial clothing of the Copper Inuit had died out, although it was intentionally revived in the 1990s. Copper Inuit had an animistic spiritual system, which included belief that animal spirits could be offended through taboo violations. They believed that dwarfs, giants, "caribou people", and the sea-goddess Arnapkapfaaluk or "big bad woman" inhabit the world. Their conception of

1975-453: The 1940s, and they have also continued the hunting and gathering lifestyle. They lived in communal snowhouses during the winter and engaged in breathing-hole ( mauliqtoq ) seal hunting. In the summer, they spread out in smaller, family groups for inland caribou hunting and fishing. The people made copper arrows, spear heads, ulu blades, chisels, harpoons, and knives for both personal use and for trade amongst other Inuit. In addition to

2054-518: The 1970s, and more recently. Modern Inuit have lifespans 12 to 15 years shorter than the average Canadian's, which is thought to be influenced by factors such as their diet and limited access to medical services. The life expectancy gap is not closing and remains stagnant. The ancient art of face tattooing among Inuit women, which is called kakiniit or tunniit in Inuktitut , dates back nearly 4,000 years. The facial tattoos detailed aspects of

2133-400: The Arctic in one place for the first time and exposed them to the rhetoric of civil and human rights that prevailed in Canada in the 1960s. This was a real wake-up call for Inuit, and it stimulated the emergence of a new generation of young Inuit activists in the late 1960s who came forward and pushed for respect for Inuit and their territories. Inuit began to emerge as a political force in

2212-551: The Canadian government's 1906 map marked Victoria Island as "uninhabited". It was not until the early years of the 20th century that trading ships returned to Copper Inuit territory. They followed Vilhjalmur Stefansson 's encounter with, and report on, so-called Blond Eskimos among the Copper Inuit from his Arctic exploration of 1908–1912. During the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1916 , Canadian ethnographer Diamond Jenness spent two years living with and documenting

2291-468: The Copper Inuit diet. They liked raw but not boiled eggs . They used and cooked food and products from the sea, but kept them separate from those of the land. Copper Inuit clothing consisted of short-waisted inner parkas accented with long, narrow back tails, and sleeves that came short of the wrist. In severe weather, they added a heavy outer parka. Women's parkas were distinguished by elongated hoods, and exaggerated, pointed shoulders. Boots extended up

2370-494: The Copper Inuit. Copper Inuit traditionally speak Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun , sometimes referred to as Western Canadian Inuktitut. Historically, Copper Inuit lived among tundra , rocky hills, outcrops, with some forested areas towards the southern and southwestern range. Here they hunted Arctic ground squirrel , Arctic hare , caribou ( barren ground and Peary's herds), grizzly bear , mink , moose , muskox , muskrat , polar bear , wolf , and wolverine . They fished in

2449-581: The Coronation Gulf area to co-exist with the Copper Inuit. The first Holman -area (Ulukhaktok) trading post was established in 1923 at Alaervik, on the north shore of Prince Albert Sound , but it closed five years later. The post relocated to Fort Collinson on Walker Bay, north of Minto Inlet . Two other stores opened in Walker Bay but closed by 1939, in the years of the Great Depression . In 1960,

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2528-463: The Dorset as "dwarfs". Researchers believe that Inuit society had advantages by having adapted to using dogs as transport animals, and developing larger weapons and other technologies superior to those of the Dorset culture. By 1100 CE, Inuit migrants had reached west Greenland, where they settled. During the 12th century, they also settled in East Greenland. Faced with population pressures from

2607-999: The European Union . In the United States, the Alaskan Iñupiat are traditionally located in the Northwest Arctic Borough , on the Alaska North Slope , the Bering Strait and on Little Diomede Island . In Russia, few pockets of diaspora communities of Russian Iñupiat from Big Diomede Island , of which inhabitants were removed to Russian Mainland, remain in Bering Strait coast of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, particularly in Uelen , Lavrentiya , and Lorino . Many individuals who would have historically been referred to as Eskimo find that term offensive or forced upon them in

2686-615: The Inuit and the Dene , as well as others which may have involved Europeans. This conflict seems to have been instigated by both the Dene and the Inuit and possibly was caused by trade disputes but sometimes due to raids for women. One of the better known of these battles was recorded by European explorer, Samuel Hearne . In 1771, Samuel Hearne was the first European to explore the Coppermine River region. It

2765-904: The Northwest Territories, where it is also an official language. Kalaallisut is the official language of Greenland. The Greenlandic languages are divided into: Kalaallisut (Western), Inuktun (Northern), and Tunumiit (Eastern). As Inuktitut was the language of the Eastern Canadian Inuit and Kalaallisut is the language of the Western Greenlandic Inuit, they are related more closely than most other dialects. Inuit in Alaska and Northern Canada also typically speak English. In Greenland, Inuit also speak Danish and learn English in school. Inuit in Russia mostly speak Russian and Central Siberian Yupik. Canadian Inuit, particularly those from Nunavik, may also speak Québécois French . Finally, deaf Inuit use Inuit Sign Language , which

2844-792: The Original People's Entitlement (representing the Inuvialuit), the Northern Quebec Inuit Association ( Makivik Corporation ) and the Labrador Inuit Association (LIA) representing Northern Labrador Inuit. Since the mid-1980s the disputed Southern Labrador Inuit of NunatuKavut began organizing politically after being geographically cut out of the LIA, because the organization called itself the Labrador Métis Nation just

2923-557: The Thule and other surrounding groups, such as the Algonquian and Siouan -speaking peoples to the south, the Tuniit gradually receded. The Tuniit were thought to have become completely extinct as a people by about 1400 or 1500. But, in the mid-1950s, researcher Henry B. Collins determined that based on the ruins found at Native Point , on Southampton Island , the Sadlermiut were likely

3002-437: The boats could come close to shore. In the winter, Inuit would also hunt sea mammals by patiently watching an aglu (breathing hole) in the ice and waiting for the air-breathing seals to use them. This technique is also used by the polar bear, who hunts by seeking holes in the ice and waiting nearby. In winter, both on land and on sea ice, Inuit used dog sleds ( qamutik ) for transportation. The husky dog breed comes from

3081-636: The case of Labrador, East. Inuit had trade relations with more southern cultures; boundary disputes were common and gave rise to aggressive actions. Warfare was not uncommon among those Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit such as the Nunamiut ( Uummarmiut ), who inhabited the Mackenzie River delta area, often engaged in warfare. The more sparsely settled Inuit in the Central Arctic, however, did so less often. Their first European contact

3160-742: The commercial whale hunt were processed and furs traded. The expedition of 1821–23 to the Northwest Passage led by Commander William Edward Parry twice over-wintered in Foxe Basin . It provided the first informed, sympathetic and well-documented account of the economic, social and religious life of Inuit. Parry stayed in what is now Igloolik over the second winter. Parry's writings, with pen and ink illustrations of Inuit everyday life, and those of George Francis Lyon were widely read after they were both published in 1824. Captain George Comer 's Inuk wife Shoofly, known for her sewing skills and elegant attire,

3239-585: The copper products, Copper Inuit soapstone products were highly regarded in the Bering Strait trade network. Other trade partners included Inuvialuit from the Avvaq Peninsula and Caribou Inuit to the south. Many Copper Inuit gathered in the Cambridge Bay area in the summertime because of plentiful game. According to Robin McGrath , there are Inuit stories that show there was a history of conflict between

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3318-400: The dance clothing of the Copper Inuit has been extensively studied and preserved in museums worldwide. The design of these garments was inextricably linked with the religious practices of the Copper Inuit, containing what anthropologist Bernadette Driscoll-Engelstad describes as "design references alluding to the integration of the human and animal realm, the natural and the supernatural." By

3397-693: The disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland , Inuit had no contact with Europeans for at least a century. By the mid-16th century, Basque whalers and fishermen were already working the Labrador coast and had established whaling stations on land, such as the one that has been excavated at Red Bay , Labrador. Inuit do not appear to have interfered with their operations, but raided the stations in winter, taking tools and items made of worked iron, which they adapted to their own needs. Martin Frobisher 's 1576 search for

3476-594: The early relations with whaling stations along the Labrador coast and later James Bay were based on a mutual interest in trade. In the final years of the 18th century, the Moravian Church began missionary activities in Labrador, supported by the British who were tired of the raids on their whaling stations. The Moravian missionaries could easily provide Inuit with the iron and basic materials they had been stealing from whaling outposts, materials whose real cost to Europeans

3555-541: The eastern Northwest Territories, that would later become Nunavut, from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which became a joint association of Inuit of Quebec, Labrador, and the Northwest Territories. On October 30, 2008, Leona Aglukkaq was appointed as Minister of Health , "[becoming] the first Inuk to hold a senior cabinet position, although she is not the first Inuk to be in cabinet altogether." Jack Anawak and Nancy Karetak-Lindell were both parliamentary secretaries respectively from 1993 to 1996 and in 2003. The term Eskimo

3634-461: The end of their traditional Inuit culture. One of the more notable relocations was undertaken in 1953, when 17 families were moved from Port Harrison (now Inukjuak, Quebec) to Resolute and Grise Fiord . They were dropped off in early September when winter had already arrived. The land they were sent to was very different from that in the Inukjuak area; it was barren, with only a couple of months when

3713-462: The enormous social disruptions caused by the distorting effect of Europeans' material wealth and the introduction of different materials. Nonetheless, Inuit society in the higher latitudes largely remained in isolation during the 19th century. The Hudson's Bay Company opened trading posts such as Great Whale River (1820), today the site of the twin villages of Whapmagoostui (Cree-majority) and Kuujjuarapik (Inuit-majority), where whale products of

3792-621: The establishment of secular , government-operated high schools in the Northwest Territories (including what is now Nunavut) and Inuit areas in Quebec and Labrador along with the residential school system . Inuit population was not large enough to support a full high school in every community, so this meant only a few schools were built, and students from across the territories were boarded there. These schools, in Aklavik , Iqaluit, Yellowknife , Inuvik and Kuujjuaq , brought together young Inuit from across

3871-520: The exclusion of other, closely related groups (e.g. Yupik , Aleut ). Therefore, the Aleut (Unangan) and Yupik peoples ( Alutiiq /Sugpiaq, Central Yup'ik , Siberian Yupik ), who live in Alaska and Siberia, at least at an individual and local level, generally do not self-identify as Inuit. Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule people , who emerged from the Bering Strait and western Alaska around 1000 CE. They had split from

3950-427: The extensive network of ponds, lakes, and rivers, including the Coppermine, Rae, and Richardson Rivers , which sustained large populations of freshwater Arctic char (also found in the ocean), grayling , lake trout , and whitefish . The marine waters supported codfish , bearded seal , and ringed seal . Ducks, geese, guillemots, gulls, hawks, longspurs, loons, plovers, ptarmigans, and snow buntings were also part of

4029-647: The federal government shipped three housing units to Holman, and another four in 1961. In the years to follow, some families moved to Holman permanently, while others lived there seasonally. Some Copper Inuit moved to the communities of Coppermine (Kugluktuk) or Cambridge Bay. Still others gravitated to outposts along Bathurst Inlet , Contwoyto Lake , Coronation Gulf , and on Victoria Island. The Copper Inuit have gradually adopted snowmobiles , satellite dish television service, and Christian churches. Many young people now speak English rather than Inuinnaqtun . Together, these introductions have created social change among

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4108-446: The great powers for the first time. Thanks to the development of modern long-distance aircraft, these areas became accessible year-round. The construction of air bases and the Distant Early Warning Line in the 1940s and 1950s brought more intensive contact with European society, particularly in the form of public education for children. The traditionalists complained that Canadian education promoted foreign values that were disdainful of

4187-456: The high Arctic, Inuit were forced to abandon their hunting and whaling sites as bowhead whales disappeared from Canada and Greenland . These Inuit had to subsist on a much poorer diet, and lost access to the essential raw materials for their tools and architecture which they had previously derived from whaling. The lives of Paleo-Eskimos of the far north were largely unaffected by the arrival of visiting Norsemen except for mutual trade. After

4266-411: The homeland of Inuit to be hostile hinterland . Southerners enjoyed lucrative careers as bureaucrats and service providers to the people of the North, but very few ever chose to visit there. Once its more hospitable lands were largely settled, the government of Canada and entrepreneurs began to take a greater interest in its more peripheral territories, especially the fur and mineral-rich hinterlands. By

4345-415: The last remnants of the Dorset culture, or Tuniit . The Sadlermiut population survived up until winter 1902–1903 when exposure to new infectious diseases brought by contact with Europeans led to their extinction as a people. In the early 21st century, mitochondrial DNA research has supported the theory of continuity between the Tuniit and the Sadlermiut peoples. It also provided evidence that

4424-465: The late 1920s, there were no longer any Inuit who had not been contacted by traders, missionaries or government agents. In 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada found, in a decision known as Re Eskimos , that Inuit should be considered Indians and were thus under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Native customs were worn down by the actions of the RCMP, who enforced Canadian criminal law on Inuit. People such as Kikkik often did not understand

4503-416: The late 1960s and early 1970s, shortly after the first graduates returned home. They formed new politically active associations in the early 1970s, starting with the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (Inuit Brotherhood and today known as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami), an outgrowth of the Indian and Eskimo Association of the '60s, in 1971, and more region-specific organizations shortly afterward, including the Committee for

4582-489: The leg to button at the waistline. They made the soles from feathers or bird skins. Copper Inuit used different napkins for different meals: ptarmigan skins when eating caribou, and gull skins when eating seal. Contemporary clothing and boots may be made of a variety of skins, including: In addition to their everyday clothing, historically, many Inuit had a set of ceremonial clothing made of short-haired summer skins, worn for dancing or other ceremonial occasions. In particular,

4661-484: The lives of Copper Inuit. He sent thousands of artifacts of their material culture to the Geological Survey of Canada . Along with trade, European contact brought influenza and typhoid . These newly introduced infectious diseases likely weakened resistance of the natives. Between 1929 and 1931, one in five Copper Inuit died from a tuberculosis epidemic. Around the same time, the whaling industry deteriorated. Alaskan Iñupiat and Mackenzie Delta Inuvialuit came into

4740-563: The men lived among them for a few years of their own free will until they died attempting to leave Baffin Island in a self-made boat and vanished. Frobisher, in an attempt to find the men, captured three Inuit and brought them back to England. They were possibly the first Inuit ever to visit Europe. The semi-nomadic Inuit were fishermen and hunters harvesting lakes, seas, ice platforms, and tundra . While there are some allegations that Inuit were hostile to early French and English explorers, fishermen, and whalers, more recent research suggests that

4819-428: The mid-1960s, encouraged first by missionaries, then by the prospect of paid jobs and government services, and finally forced by hunger and required by the police, most Canadian Inuit lived year-round in permanent settlements. The nomadic migrations that were the central feature of Arctic life had become a much smaller part of life in the North. Inuit, a once self-sufficient people in an extremely harsh environment were, in

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4898-413: The necessary vitamins they needed from their traditional winter diet, which did not contain any plant matter. In particular, he found that adequate vitamin C could be obtained from items in their traditional diet of raw meat such as ringed seal liver and whale skin ( muktuk ). While there was considerable skepticism when he reported these findings, the initial anecdotal reports were reaffirmed both in

4977-403: The related Aleut group about 4000 years ago and from northeastern Siberian migrants. They spread eastward across the Arctic. They displaced the related Dorset culture , called the Tuniit in Inuktitut , which was the last major Paleo-Eskimo culture. Inuit legends speak of the Tuniit as "giants", people who were taller and stronger than Inuit. Less frequently, the legends refer to

5056-430: The rules of the alien society with which they had to interact. In addition, the generally Protestant missionaries of the British preached a moral code very different from the one Inuit had as part of their tradition. Many Inuit were systematically converted to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries, through rituals such as the Siqqitiq . World War II and the Cold War made Arctic Canada strategically important to

5135-450: The season and the location. There is a vast array of different hunting technologies that Inuit used to gather their food. In the 1920s, anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson lived with and studied a group of Inuit. The study focused on Stefansson's observation that Inuit's low-carbohydrate diet apparently had no adverse effects on their health, nor indeed, on his own health. Stefansson (1946) also observed that Inuit were able to get

5214-406: The span of perhaps two generations, transformed into a small, impoverished minority, lacking skills or resources to sell to the larger economy, but increasingly dependent on it for survival. Although anthropologists like Diamond Jenness (1964) were quick to predict that Inuit culture was facing extinction, Inuit political activism was already emerging. In the 1960s, the Canadian government funded

5293-462: The temperature rose above freezing, and several months of polar night . The families were told by the RCMP they would be able to return to their home territory within two years if conditions were not right. However, two years later more Inuit families were relocated to the High Arctic. Thirty years passed before they were able to visit Inukjuak. By 1953, Canada's prime minister Louis St. Laurent publicly admitted, "Apparently we have administered

5372-408: The traditional structure and culture of Inuit society. In the 1950s, the Government of Canada undertook what was called the High Arctic relocation for several reasons. These were to include protecting Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic , alleviating hunger (as the area currently occupied had been over-hunted), and attempting to solve the "Eskimo problem", by seeking assimilation of the people and

5451-427: The vast territories of the north in an almost continuing absence of mind." The government began to establish about forty permanent administrative centers to provide education, health, and economic development services. Inuit from hundreds of smaller camps scattered across the north began to congregate in these hamlets. Regular visits from doctors and access to modern medical care raised the birth rate and decreased

5530-488: The west, they concentrated south of Walker Bay , while to the east, they were concentrated south of Denmark Bay . As the people have no collective name for themselves, they have adopted the English term "Copper Inuit". It represents those westernmost Central Inuit who used and relied on native copper gathered along the lower Coppermine River and the Coronation Gulf. According to Knud Rasmussen (1932), other Inuit referred to Copper Inuit as Kitlinermiut , as Kitlineq

5609-437: The women's lives, such as where they were from, who their family was, their life achievements, and their position in the community. When Catholic missionaries arrived in the area in the early 20th century they outlawed the practice, but it is now making a comeback thanks to some modern Inuit women who want to revive the practices of their ancestors and get in touch with their cultural roots. The traditional method of tattooing

5688-567: The world is L'anse au Clair, Labrador. In other areas south of the tree line , non-Inuit Indigenous cultures were well established. As a result, being challenged by the groups below the tree line including Chukchi and Siberian Yupik for Russian Iñupiat, Arctic Athabascan and Gwichʼin for Alaskan Iñupiat and Inuvialuit, Cree for Nunavummiut (Nunavut Inuit) and Nunavimmiut (Northern Quebec Inuit), and Innu for Nunatsiavummiut (Labrador Inuit) and NunatuKavummiut (Southern Inuit or Inuit-metis), Inuit did not make significant progress South, or in

5767-572: Was Wise Point, near Dolphin and Union Strait . Their northwest territory was the southeast coast of Banks Island. Their southern boundary was the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake , Contwoyto Lake and Lake Beechey on the Back River . To the east, the Copper Inuit and the Netsilingmiut were separated by Perry River in Queen Maud Gulf . While Copper Inuit travelled throughout Victoria Island, to

5846-548: Was almost nothing, but whose value to Inuit was enormous. From then on, contacts between the national groups in Labrador were far more peaceful. The exchanges that accompanied the arrival and colonization by the Europeans greatly damaged Inuit way of life. Mass death was caused by the new infectious diseases carried by whalers and explorers, to which the Indigenous peoples had no acquired immunity. The high mortality rate contributed to

5925-405: Was an Inuit language name for Victoria Island. Copper Inuit, like all Inuit, are descendants of the Thule people . Changes in the environment may have resulted in the transition from prehistoric Thule culture to Copper Inuit culture . For about 3,000 years the Copper Inuit were hunter-gatherer nomads . Their settlement and acculturation to some European-Canadian ways has occurred only since

6004-424: Was done with needles made of sinew or bone soaked in suet and sewn into the skin, but today they use ink. The Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project is a community that was created to highlight the revitalization of this ancient tradition. Inuit hunted sea animals from single-passenger, seal-skin covered boats called qajaq (Inuktitut syllabics: ᖃᔭᖅ ) which were extraordinarily buoyant, and could be righted by

6083-460: Was here that Matonabbee , leader of Hearne's Chipewyan Dene guides, and his companions massacred a Copper Inuit group at Bloody Falls . Further exploration did not take place until the period of 1820–1853, which included the Sir John Franklin expeditions of 1821 and 1825. John Rae encountered Copper Inuit at Rae River in 1847, and at Cape Flinders and Stromness Bay in 1851. During

6162-486: Was influential in convincing him to acquire more sewing accessories and beads for trade with Inuit. During the early 20th century, a few traders and missionaries circulated among the more accessible bands. After 1904, they were accompanied by a handful of North-West Mounted Police (NWMP). Unlike most Aboriginal peoples in Canada, however, Inuit did not occupy lands that were coveted by European settlers. Used to more temperate climates and conditions, most Europeans considered

6241-662: Was with the Vikings who had settled in Greenland centuries prior. The sagas recorded meeting skrælingar , probably an undifferentiated label for all the Indigenous peoples whom the Norse encountered, whether Tuniit , Inuit, or Beothuk . After about 1350, the climate grew colder during the period known as the Little Ice Age . During this period, Russian and Alaskan natives were able to continue their whaling activities. But, in

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