Eskimo Girl & Inuit girl

 

Beautiful Eskimo circa 1903.

Mikaninie Eskimo Girl Nome, Alaska.

1913 to 1939

Eskimo girl named Katesarina wearing anorak, Nome, Alaska, between 1912 and 1916

 

 

Beautiful Eskimo or Inuit girl in traditional clothes national costume

on Snowy Landscape Setting

 

 

Inuit Woman

 

Hyperrealistic portrait of a beautiful woman wearing a traditional inuit eskimo outfit.

The woman has inuit eskimo ethnicity, a charmin look...

 

That warm look in her eyes will melt any ice-block in a matter of seconds.

 

beautiful Inuit woman, characteristic stripes on her face, sensual face, against the background of a snowy mountain, fantasy, surrealism, traced details, complex light, smooth background, volume, warm colors, medium shot, professional

 

 

Full body illustration of an inuit woman, young, 18 years old, beautiful, native american phenotype, wearing stone age clothing made from natural fabrics like linen, cotton, or furs, adorned with feathers

 

 

Some girls from Greenland

Inuit girls from Greenland

 

Nuussuaq district in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland,

with the Sermitsiaq mountain in the background.

 

Polarlicht

Some Inuit (including Alaska Natives) believed that the spirits of their ancestors

could be seen in the aurora borealis.

 

Inuit Circumpolar Conference members

 

 

Alaska Natives increasingly prefer to be known by the names they use in their own languages, such as Inupiaq or Yupik. "Inuit" is now the current term in Alaska and across the Arctic, and "Eskimo" is fading from use. The Inuit Circumpolar Council prefers the term "Inuit" but some other organizations use "Eskimo".

 

Baby_Carriage

An Inuit woman uses a traditional amauti and a modern western stroller.

 

Indigenous peoples in Canada

• First Nations - Inuit - Métis

Monument to aboriginal war veterans in Confederation Park, Ottawa, Canada.

 

Qinngorput-Nuuk

Urbanization in Greenland

 

Eskimo (/ˈɛskɪmoʊ/) is an exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Canadian Inuit, and the Greenlandic Inuit) and the Yupik (or Yuit) of eastern Siberia and Alaska. A related third group, the Aleut, who inhabit the Aleutian Islands, are generally excluded from the definition of Eskimo. The three groups share a relatively recent common ancestor, and speak related languages belonging to the family of Eskaleut languages.

 

These circumpolar peoples have traditionally inhabited the Arctic and subarctic regions from eastern Siberia (Russia) to Alaska (United States), Northern Canada, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and Greenland.

Some Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, and other individuals consider the term Eskimo, which is of a disputed etymology, to be pejorative or even offensive. Eskimo continues to be used within a historical, linguistic, archaeological, and cultural context. The governments in Canada  and the United States have made moves to cease using the term Eskimo in official documents, but it has not been eliminated, as the word is in some places written into tribal, and therefore national, legal terminology. 

 

Canada officially uses the term Inuit to describe the indigenous Canadian people who are living in the country's northern sectors and are not First Nations or Métis. 

 

The United States government legally uses Alaska Native  for enrolled tribal members of the Yupik, Inuit, and Aleut, and also for non-Eskimos including the Tlingit, the Haida, the Eyak, and the Tsimshian, in addition to at least nine northern Athabaskan/Dene peoples. Other non-enrolled individuals also claim Eskimo/Aleut descent, making it the world's "most widespread aboriginal group".   

 

There are between 171,000 and 187,000 Inuit and Yupik, the majority of whom live in or near their traditional circumpolar homeland. Of these, 53,785 (2010) live in the United States, 70,545 (2021) in Canada, 51,730 (2021) in Greenland and 1,657 (2021) in Russia. In addition, 16,730 people living in Denmark were born in Greenland. The Inuit Circumpolar Council, a non-governmental organization (NGO), claims to represent 180,000 people.

 

In the Eskaleut language family, the Eskimo branch has an Inuit language sub-branch, and a sub-branch of four Yupik languages. Two Yupik languages are used in the Russian Far East as well as on St. Lawrence Island, and two in western Alaska, southwestern Alaska, and western Southcentral Alaska. The extinct Sirenik language is sometimes claimed to be related.

 

Eskimo_Family

An Inuit family (1917)

Eskimo or Inuit family in traditional national clothes in front of igloo

 

eskimo-inuit-family-dressed-traditional-arctic-clothing-poses-near-their-snowy-home-igloo

 

 

Inuit 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), 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 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 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 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 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 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.[better source needed]

 

 

What’s the difference between “Inuit” and “Eskimo”?

https://feheleyfinearts.com/

Published: 

March 31, 2020

 / 

Category: 

Educational

---

Lucy Qinnuayuak, Young Eskimo Family, 1965

 

You’ve likely heard the name “Eskimo” used to refer to Inuit and their culture, whether by your grandparents, parents, or maybe even a friend who grew up outside of Canada. It’s a term that has been out of date since 1980 when the name “Inuit” (meaning “people” in Inuktitut) was recognized by the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) to denote Inuit groups across the circumpolar region (Canada, Greenland, USA, and Russia). Today, “Eskimo” is considered a pejorative term. Here’s a brief history explaining why.

 

The etymology of “Eskimo”

According to Inuk author and translator Mini Aodla Freeman, the term “Eskimo” came from another Indigenous language in Canada: Cree. In Cree, the word is “escheemau” which roughly means “eaters of raw meat.” Freeman explains the word developed after the Cree first encountered Inuit and found them eating raw meat—a way of life the Inuit proudly continue on until this day. 

 

Another theory is that the word has an Innu-aimun origin, a language spoken by the Labrador and Northern Quebec-based Innu. This word is “awassimew/ayassimew” which means, roughly, “one who laces snowshoes.” Originally it may have been used by the Innu to describe the Mi’kmaq and later transferred to the Inuit. Over time, this word too developed into “eater of raw meat” as in Ojibwa (similar to Cree), the prefix “ashk” can mean raw or fresh. The French later translated the word to “esquimaux” which made its way into English use. 

 

Why “Eskimo” is pejorative 

Using “Eskimo” today is considered pejorative or derogatory simply because “eater of raw meat” is not how Inuit choose to refer to themselves, and they never did. The word is an exonym—a name given to a group by another group—and its continued use can perpetuate harmful stereotypes.  As Mini Aodla Freeman has written: “To me the word ‘Eskimo’ does not mean anything. […] Inuit differentiated themselves from the animals of nature, not other races.” 

 

The name “Inuit,” however, comes directly from the Inuktitut language and is the preferred term of the Inuit. In 1977, a group of Inuit delegates from across the circumpolar region met in Alaska for the first Inuit Circumpolar Conference. There, they discussed Inuit rights and self-determination. The ICC proceeded to adopt the term “Inuit” to designate all Inuit within the circumpolar region, thereby rejecting the use of “Eskimo.” This is stated in the ICC charter, signed in 1980.  To continue to refer to Inuit as “Eskimo” can be viewed as disrespectful toward Inuit self-determination.

 

Where “Eskimo” is used today — in Eskimo art for sale and beyond

Today you may see “Eskimo” used here and there for few reasons. One is when referring to the name as used within its historical context. For example, early prints like Kiakshuk’s Eskimo Woman with Fox Trap (1961) and Lucy Qinnuayuak’s Young Eskimo Family (1965) were titled before the term was acknowledged as derogatory. You may also find that many Eskimo art history books and  Eskimo painting catalogues published before 1980 are, naturally, filled with the word. Some key texts have updated their terminology in revised editions, like George Swinton’s seminal 1972 book “Sculpture of the Eskimo,” re-titled “Sculpture of the Inuit” in the 1992 reprint.

 

In contemporary Eskimo artwork, some Inuit artists have used the word “Eskimo” in their art as an act of subversion. Nunatsiavut artist Mark Igloliorte, for example, created a video piece titled Eskimo Roll (2017). In it, Igloliorte films himself capsizing in a kayak, an Inuit invention, using the technique of his Inuit ancestors. Through this act, Igloliorte re-asserts the original function of the kayak before it was appropriated by non-Inuit for recreational sport, using the title term “Eskimo” as a tongue-and-cheek nod to the non-Inuit exonym. Through artistic licence, Igloliorte brings the word and its derogatory power into question.

 

In Alaska, “Eskimo” is still considered by some as an accepted term to refer to the Yupik. According to the Alaska Native Language Centre (ANLC), Alaskans/Yupik accept “Eskimo” over “Inuit” as the latter is not a word in their language. To the Yupik, “Inuit” refers only to the Inupiat of northern Alaska, the Inuit of Canada, and the Kalaallit of Greenland.