Inuit Nunangat

Inuit arrival

Inuit are the most recent Indigenous arrivals on the continent aside from Métis. Inuit ancestors known as the Thule settled the Arctic, replacing the previous dominant Dorset culture (Tuniit) over the course of around 200 years. Displacement of the Tuniit (Inuktitut syllabics; ᑐᓃᑦ), or the Dorset people, and the arrival of the Inuit (whose ancestors are often called Thule) occurred in the 1100–1300s CE. Coming from Siberia where they split from the Aleut and other related peoples about 4,000 years ago, Inuit had reached Inughuit Nunaat^{[clarification needed]} in western Greenland by about 1300 CE, bringing with them transport dogs and various new technologies.

Trade relations were and remain strong with bordering countries and nations,^[5] such as with the Gwichʼin^[6] and Dënesųłı̨né (Chipewyan)^[7] of Denendeh (now in the Northwest Territories) and Innu of Nitassinan (Innu: ᓂᑕᔅᓯᓇᓐ),^[8] though occasional conflicts arose. Martin Frobisher's 1576 expedition to find the Northwest Passage landed on Baffin Island, in today's Qikiqtaaluk Region (Inuktitut syllabics: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ), where three Inuit, a man called Calichough (Kalicho), an unrelated woman called Egnock (Arnaq), and her child Nutioc (Nuttaaq), were kidnapped and brought to Europe, where they all died.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Canadian colonization

Canadian colonization extended in to Inuit Nunangat via the lands claimed as Rupert's Land, North-Western Territory and Quebec, later including Newfoundland and Labrador. Rapid spread of diseases, material wealth, the Christian churches and Canadian (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) policing^[13] saw a rapid decline and collapse of Inuit Nunangat, from which it is still recovering.

Since European colonizers had little desire to settle much of Inuit Nunangat's territories, the violence experienced by southern First Nations was comparatively minimal in the north. However, assimilation policies including the wide-scale slaughter of community dogs between 1950 and 1970,^[14] the High Arctic relocation^[15][16] as well as forced participation within the Canadian Indian residential school system^[17] has left Inuit society with language loss and transgenerational trauma.^[18]

Modern era

Today, Inuit Nunangat is overseen by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᐱᕇᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ, meaning either "Inuit are united with Canada"^[19] or "Inuit are united in Canada"^[20]) which acts as a cultural centre piece and quasi-central government for Inuit affairs within Canada.

While Nunavut's confederation within Canada in 1999 via the Nunavut Act and Nunavut Land Claims Agreement is most visible, each of the regions of Inuit Nunangat.^{[clarification needed]} The Inuvialuit Settlement Region (Inuinnaqtun: Inuvialuit Nunangit Sannaiqtuaq) came under the jurisdiction of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation two years after the 1984 Inuvialuit Final Agreement, and Nunatsiavut was granted an autonomous government in 2005 after the 2002 Labrador Inuit Association proposal for a separate government. Beginning with a land claim in 1977, negotiations launched in 1988 between the Labrador Inuit Association, the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and that of Canada. In Northern Quebec, the Makivik Corporation was established upon the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement signing in 1978, taking the mantle from the previous Nunavimmiut organization, the "Northern Quebec Inuit Association" (ᑯᐸᐃᒃ ᑕᕐᕋᖓᓂ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑲᑐᔾᔨᖃᑎᒌᖏᑦ Kupaik Tarrangani Inuit Katujjiqatigiingit).

The Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee (ICPC) was created in 2017 and last met on April 21, 2022. At this meeting, the Canadian federal government, in partnership with the Inuit Nunangat, unanimously endorsed the federal policy called the Inuit Nunangat Policy (INP).^[21] In a live address shortly after this meeting, the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said the policy "recognizes the Inuit homeland as a distinct geographical, cultural and political region," which includes the "land, sea, and ice."^[21]

Communities

There are six communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR).^[25] The ISR is made up of five hamlets and one town, Inuvik, which is the headquarters of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the regional centre for the larger Inuvik Region.^[26]

There are twenty-five populated communities in Nunavut,^[27] The territory is divided into three regions, Kitikmeot, with the regional centre in Cambridge Bay, the Kivalliq, with the regional centre in Rankin Inlet, and the Qikiqtaaluk, with the regional centre and capital in Iqaluit. Other than Iqaluit, which is a city, all other Nunavut communities are hamlets.^[28] Statistics Canada also lists three settlements, Bathurst Inlet (also recognized by the Government of Nunavut^[27]),^[29] Nanisivik^[30] and Umingmaktok,^[31] all with a population of zero.

In Nunavik there are fourteen northern villages (village nordique, code=VN), governed by the Kativik Regional Government with the administrative capital at Kuujjuaq.^[32][33] All villages, with the exception of Puvirnituq, have Inuit reserved land (Terre de la catégorie I pour les Inuits, TI) associated with the community.^[34]

There are five towns in Nunatsiavut.^[35] The Nunatsiavut Assembly Building is located in Hopedale while the administrative capital is in Nain.^[36]

The government of Canada also lists Bathurst Inlet, Killiniq and Umingmaktuuq (Umingmaktok) as forming part of Inuit Nunangat, giving a total of 53 communities.^[37][38]

Languages

Maps of Inuit oral languages.

Map of Greenlandic and Inuit Sign Languages.

There are multiple Inuit languages, along with English and French, spoken across Inuit Nunangat. The oral languages form a vast dialect continuum with mutual intelligibility between neighbouring variants from the westernmost Iñupiatun dialect to the three Greenlandic languages: Kalaallisut, Tunumiisut, and, the closest variation to Canadian dialects, Inuktun. In Canada, there is Inuvialuktun spoken in the West in Inuvialuit Settlement Region (Inuvialuit Nunangit Sannaiqtuaq); Inuktitut, the most spoken dialect; Inuinnaqtun which straddles the line between Inuktitut and Inuvialuktun; and Inuttitut spoken in the Labradorian east by Nunatsiavummiut. And, attested contemporarily only in a few Nunavut communities, Inuit Sign Language (also known as Atgangmuurngniq and Uukturausingit) continues to be passed down through generations regardless of deafness.^[89] It is unknown by academia if there is any relation between Greenlandic and Inuit Sign Languages or if Greenlandic Sign Language is a dialect of Danish Tegnsprog.^[90]

Within each of the primary oral language divisions, collectively referred to as Inuktut, (Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuktitut, and Inuttut),^[91] there exist several dialects therein. Within Inuvialuktun, the Siglit who live at the mouth of the Mackenzie River (Inuvialuktun: Kuukpak [kuːkpɑk] literally great river) speak Siglitun; and the Uummarmiut, or "people of the green trees" and are sometimes called "Canadian Iñupiat," speak Uummarmiutun. Western Inuktut dialects are sometimes considered Inuvialuktun dialects, such as Inuinnaqtun (including one of its sub dialects, Kangiryuarmiutun, spoken by the Copper Inuit group, the Kangiryuarmiut). Others include Natsilingmiutut, spoken by the Netsilik, with its sub-dialects including Utkuhiksalik (the language of the "people of the place where there is soapstone": Utkuhiksalingmiut); Kivallirmiutut spoken by the Caribou Inuit of the Kivalliq Region; Aivilingmiutut of the Aivilingmiut; and the northern Qikiqtaaluk uannangani spoken by Iglulingmiut of the Igloolik. On the southern part of Baffin Island (Qikiqtaaluk) around the Nunavut capital Iqaluit, Qikiqtaaluk nigiani is spoken, and relatively close is the dialect of Nunavik, Nunavimmiutitut, sometimes called Tarramiutut, Taqramiutut, or Inuttitut (not to be confused with Nunatsiavummiutut (Inuttitut) of Labrador). Nunavimmiutitut includes the sub dialects spoken by the Tarrarmiut and Itivimuit. Nunatsiavummiut in Nunatsiavut, Labrador speak Inuttitut, Inuttut, or, alternatively, Labradorimiutut.

People

Inuit are diverse peoples who share cultural and linguistic similarities. Moreover, they are a bimodal people, speaking both oral languages, Inuit languages, and sign languages, Inuit Sign Language (Atgangmuurniq).

Peoples of Inuit Nunangat

• Inuvialuit (people of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, northwestern Northwest Territories, seasonally in northern Yukon)
• Nunavummiut (people of Nunavut^{[note 1]})
• Nunavimmiut (people of Nunavik, northern Quebec)
• Nunatsiavummiut / Labradorimiut (people of Nunatsiavut, northern Labrador)

Inuit outside Nunangat

• Greenlandic Inuit (Greenlandic: kalaallit, Greenland)
• Iñupiaq (northern and northwestern Alaska)

Related peoples

• Yup'ik (western Alaska)
• Alutiiq (Sugpiaq, southern Alaska)
• Siberian Yupik (Bering Strait, Russia and Alaska)
• Sirenik Eskimos (eastern Siberia)
• Aleut (Aleutian and Kommodor islands)

Climate change

In 2019, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami released their National Inuit Climate Change Strategy to combat and respond to the ecological collapse and its effects on Inuit and Inuit Nunangat.^[93]