![]() Iglulingmiut Inuit women and child in traditional parkas (1999) | |
Total population | |
---|---|
155,792[1][2][3][4] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Canada | 70,540 (2021)[1] |
Greenland | 51,479 (2023)[2] |
United States | 16,581 (2010)[3] |
Denmark | 17,067 (2023) |
Russia | 125 |
Languages | |
Inuit languages (Greenlandic) and Inuit Sign Language Non-native European languages: English, Danish, French, and Russian | |
Religion | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Inu- ᐃᓄ- / nuna ᓄᓇ "person" / "land" | |
---|---|
Person | Inuk ᐃᓄᒃ Dual: Inuuk ᐃᓅᒃ |
People | Inuit ᐃᓄᐃᑦ |
Language | Inuit languages |
Country | Chukotsky District Alaska Inuit Nunangat / ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ (Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut) Greenland |
Indigenous peoples in Canada |
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Inuit (/ˈɪnjuɪt/ IN-ew-it;[5] Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, ᐃᓄᒃ, dual: Inuuk, ᐃᓅᒃ; Iñupiaq: Iñuit 'the people'; Greenlandic: Inuit)[6][7][8] are 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[a]), 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.[9] Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.[10]
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.[a] These areas are known, primarily by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, as Inuit Nunangat.[11][12] In Canada, sections 25 and 35 of 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.[13][14]
Greenlandic Inuit, also known as Kalaallit, are descendants of Thule migrations from Canada by 1100 CE.[15] Although Greenland withdrew from the European Communities in 1985, Inuit of Greenland are Danish citizens and, as such, remain citizens of the European Union.[16][17][18] 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 a colonial way; Inuit is now a common autonym for a large sub-group of these people.[19][20][21][22] 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 the exclusion of other, closely related groups (e.g. Yupik, Aleut).[23][24][25][26] 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.[23][better source needed]
geinu
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).dkinu
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).usinu
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).[T]his Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to the aboriginal peoples of Canada.
In this Act, aboriginal peoples of Canada includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
NPR
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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