The Inuit are an Indigenous people of the Arctic, with a homeland stretching from the coast of Alaska across northern Canada to Greenland. The word “Inuit” means “people” in their language, with the singular form “inuk” meaning “person.” Today, roughly 70,545 Inuit live in Canada alone, with additional populations in Alaska, Greenland, and a small presence in Russia’s Far East. They are one of the most geographically widespread Indigenous groups on Earth, united by shared ancestry, related languages, and deep cultural ties to Arctic land and sea.
Where Inuit Live Today
In Canada, Inuit are one of three recognized Indigenous Peoples alongside First Nations and Métis. Most Canadian Inuit live in a vast region called Inuit Nunangat, which translates to “the place where Inuit live.” It spans four distinct regions: Nunavut (the largest), the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories and Yukon, Nunavik in northern Quebec, and Nunatsiavut in Labrador. Together, these regions contain 51 communities.
In Alaska, Inuit peoples include the Iñupiat of the northern and northwestern coasts. Greenland is home to the Kalaallit, who often refer to themselves simply as Greenlanders and make up the majority of the island’s population. A smaller group, the Yupik, lives on both sides of the Bering Strait in Alaska and Russia. While Yupik people are culturally related and sometimes grouped under the same umbrella, they are a distinct people with their own languages and identity.
Inuit, Not Eskimo
“Eskimo” was long used by outsiders to describe Arctic Indigenous peoples, but the term is now considered unacceptable by many, largely because it is a colonial label imposed by non-Indigenous people. Linguists believe the word derives from a Montagnais (Innu) word meaning “netter of snowshoes,” not, as commonly repeated, “eater of raw meat.”
The Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents Inuit across four countries, prefers “Inuit” as the standard term. In Canada and Greenland, people have long preferred their own names. Greenlanders use “Kalaallit,” and Alaska’s Iñupiat use their own designation, which literally means “real people.” The shift away from “Eskimo” is now well established across the Arctic.
Ancestors and Migration
Modern Inuit descend from the Thule people, a maritime culture that developed along the coasts of Alaska. Around 1000 A.D., the Thule began a rapid eastward migration that would eventually reach the Canadian High Arctic and Greenland. Archaeologists credit two key innovations with making that expansion possible: dogsleds for overland travel and large skin-covered boats called umiaks that allowed entire families to travel together by sea.
The earliest Thule sites show an almost complete dependence on ocean resources, particularly marine mammals. As they spread east, they replaced the earlier Dorset culture in a process that remains poorly understood. They also came into contact with Norse (Viking) settlers in Greenland. When the Little Ice Age set in between roughly 1400 and 1600, cooling temperatures forced many groups to shift their practices, relying more heavily on caribou, seal, and fish rather than the open-water whale hunting that had defined earlier Thule life. These adaptations shaped the regional cultures that European explorers would later encounter across the Arctic.
Language Across the Arctic
Inuit languages form a continuous chain of related dialects stretching from Alaska to Greenland. In Alaska, the language is called Iñupiaq. Across northern Canada, it is known broadly as Inuktitut in the east and Inuinnaqtun in the western Arctic, though many local names exist. In Greenland, it is called Kalaallisut. These languages are related closely enough that speakers from neighboring regions can often understand each other, though someone from northern Alaska and someone from eastern Greenland would struggle to communicate directly.
Inuktitut is considered a “macrolanguage,” meaning it encompasses several distinct but related varieties. One of its most recognizable features is a writing system using syllabics, triangular symbols that represent combinations of consonants and vowels. This system is widely used in Nunavut and Nunavik, while other regions use Roman alphabet spellings.
Traditional Diet and Hunting
Before European contact, the Inuit diet was almost entirely animal-sourced. The Arctic offers virtually no growing season for crops, so survival depended on hunting marine mammals, caribou, fish, and birds. Ringed seals, walrus, beluga whales, and bowhead whales provided not just food but also oil for heat and light, skins for clothing and boats, and bones for tools.
Caribou held particular importance for inland groups. Among the Nunamiut of Alaska, caribou accounted for roughly 80 percent of total subsistence. Nearly every part of the animal was used. The intestines provided protein, fat, and iron. The fermented contents of the caribou’s stomach were valued as a rich source of nutrients. Even fly larvae found as parasites in caribou hides were collected and eaten during winter hunts. This resourcefulness was not incidental but a sophisticated nutritional strategy developed over centuries in one of the harshest environments on the planet.
Berries, roots, and seaweed supplemented the diet when available during the brief Arctic summer, though plant foods remained a small fraction of caloric intake compared to animal sources.
Land Rights and Self-Governance
Inuit in Canada have secured significant political and territorial rights through a series of modern treaties with the Canadian government. The most prominent is the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, signed on July 9, 1993, between the Inuit of the Nunavut Settlement Region and the Government of Canada. It granted Inuit organizations title to about 18 percent of the land in Nunavut, including subsurface mineral rights to a portion of that territory, along with a cash settlement and Inuit representation on five co-management bodies overseeing land and wildlife. It also led directly to the creation of Nunavut as a separate Canadian territory in 1999.
Each of the four Inuit regions in Canada has its own treaty and its own governing organization. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation oversees the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated represents Inuit under the Nunavut Agreement. Makivik Corporation serves Nunavik Inuit. The Nunatsiavut Government, notably, holds self-government powers, making it distinct among the four. These treaties set out specific rights related to lands, resources, co-management of wildlife, and governance arrangements tailored to each region.
Climate Change and Food Security
The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the global average, and Inuit communities are experiencing the consequences firsthand. Sea ice is thinning, shrinking in extent, and lasting for shorter periods each year. This directly limits access to traditional marine hunting areas and makes travel over ice more dangerous. Hunters report that ringed seals are carrying less fat than in previous decades, which causes more of them to sink after being harvested, increasing the proportion of lost catches.
On land, shifting weather patterns are altering the migration routes of caribou, birds, and marine mammals, making hunting less predictable. Water levels, snowpack, and ice conditions on rivers and lakes are changing in ways that disrupt traditional travel routes to hunting grounds. Hunters have also observed increased parasites in caribou meat and changes in the color of Arctic char flesh, possibly reflecting shifts in the fish’s own diet.
Berry harvests, one of the few plant-based foods traditionally gathered across the Arctic, have declined due to changing weather and the spread of invasive plant species into northern ecosystems. These overlapping pressures are pushing many communities toward greater reliance on store-bought foods shipped from the south, which are expensive and often nutritionally poor compared to traditional foods. The dietary shift carries real health consequences, contributing to rising rates of chronic disease in communities that historically had very different health profiles.