Inuit

Member of am American Indian people inhabiting the Arctic coasts of Alaska, the eastern islands of the Canadian Arctic, Labrador, and the ice-free coasts of Greenland. Originating from Siberia from around 2000 BC, they had populated the region by AD 1000. The Inuit language Inupiaq is spoken in mutually comprehensible dialects from Point Barrow in Alaska to Greenland. Traditionally the Inuit relied on fish, sea mammals, and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, tools, and shelter. Formerly a nomadic people, most now live in permanent settlements. In 1999 the semi-autonomous Inuit homeland of Nunavut was established as a territory of Canada. The total number of Inuit (1993 est) is 125,000.

Inuit is their term for ‘people’, whereas ‘Eskimo’ is a derogatory word meaning ‘eater of raw flesh’ applied to them by Algonquian-speaking American Indians. Inupiaq, the Inuit language, is written using a syllabary (set of characters representing syllables) invented by a missionary in the 19th century.