Eskimos (Inuit)

The Arctic is a region of vast, treeess plains, icy seas, and barren, rocky islands. This harsh, cold land is the home of the Eskimos, a people who live in the scattered settlements in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. For thousands of years, the Eskimos were isolated from other people. They lived by hunting and fishing and they developed a way of life well suited to their homeland.


Eskimos on a whale hunt use a traditonal open boat, or umiak, and modern snowmobiles.

The People
"Eskimo" is a word of American Indian origin meaning "eaters of raw meats." English explorers first used this name in the 1500's. Many Eskimos prefer to be called "Inuit", a word in their own language which means "the people" or "the real people".

As a racial and cultural group, the Eskimos are quite distinct from North American Indians. The Eskimos are descended from an ancient Mongoloid people of Siberia, now a part of the Soviet Union in northern Asia. The Aleuts, who live in the North Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Alaska and Siberia, are closely related to the Eskimos.

Eskimos are of medium height, with a stocky body form. Their skin is a dusky yellowish brown. Their hair is black, heavy, and straight. The Eskimo face is rather square, with a sturdy jaw. Like many people of Asian region, a large number of Eskimos have a fold of skin at the eyes. This fold gives them a slightly slantly, narrow eye opening.

Eskimo languages have been spoken for thousands of years, but they were not written down until modern times. These langauges form the Eskimo-Aleut language family, a family that has no known connections with other language groups. There are three main languages --- Aleut, Yupik, and Inupik. Inupik, spoken from northern Alaska to Greenland, has the most speakers, and it has many dialects. The differences among the dialects are small. Eskimos from northern Alaska can be understood by Eskimos from Canada and Greenland. Dialects of Yupik are spoken in southwestern Alaska and Siberia.

The Eskimos first entered North America about 5,000 years ago, crossing the Bering Straits from Asia. They moved rapidly across the Canadian North to Greenland. Some Eskimo groups then moved westward again, to the Bering Sea area. Today the Eskimo population is not large, but it is growing. About 2,000 Eskimos live in Siberia, 30,000 in Alaska, 22,500 in Canada and 43,000 in Greenland. Some Eskimo communities are on the edge of the forests of the Far North. But most are on the treeles tundra, or Arctic plain, that lies north of the forests.