Arctic Peoples (2024)

FAQs

What are the people of the Arctic called? ›

Of the Arctic coastal peoples, the Inuit are the most widespread, occupying coastlines from Arctic Russia to Canada to Greenland, a span of thousands of kilometres. In some Arctic states and regional political units, Indigenous People are comparatively small minorities.

With a population of about 4 million spread out across the territories of the eight members states of the Arctic Council, i.e. Canada, Denmark (via its constituent country of Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States, the Arctic is diverse, both culturally and linguistically.

Many indigenous peoples also live in the Arctic, practicing the same hunter-gatherer lifestyles that their ancestors did. In general, living in the Arctic offers a wide degree of personal freedom at the cost of losing many comforts that are common in the developed world.

Some call this the Inuit Paradox. The paradox refers to the fact that traditional Inuit diets consist of large amounts of fat. Whale fat, seal fat, caribou fat, and other small animal fat is regularly consumed as a staple.

These traditional Inuit foods include arctic char, seal, polar bear and caribou — often consumed raw, frozen or dried. The foods, which are native to the region, are packed with the vitamins and nutrients people need to stay nourished in the harsh winter conditions.

Arctic indigenous peoples include for example Saami in circumpolar areas of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Northwest Russia, Nenets, Khanty, Evenk and Chukchi in Russia, Aleut, Yupik and Inuit (Iñupiat) in Alaska, Inuit (Inuvialuit) in Canada and Inuit (Kalaallit) in Greenland.

Now if you consider Arctic all land north of the polar circle you can count just over half a million people living in the northern parts of Russia, Finnland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, (Greenland/Denmark) Canada and Alaska/USA. How do people survive living in the Arctic?

'Arctic' comes from the Greek word 'arktos', meaning 'bear' – the northern polar region is the sacred land of the polar bear, one of the largest land predators on the planet.

The term “Arctic” comes from the Greek word arktos, which means bear. Greek seafarers called the Arctic region, into which they had presumably already ventured for the first time around 325 BC, “land under the constellation of the Great Bear”.

For the most part, they live beyond the climatic limits of agriculture, drawing a subsistence from hunting, trapping, and fishing or from pastoralism.

Is Arctic livable? ›

It may seem a bit chilly for some of us, but the Arctic is home to around four million people, including indigenous communities, spread across eight countries. There's a amazing amount of wildlife too, all uniquely adapted to life in this icy landscape. But their environment is changing, because of global warming.

For humans that live in the Arctic, conditions there dictate lifestyle to a very great extent. Residents must cope with very low temperatures and constant darkness in the winter, and temperatures above freezing and constant daylight in the summer.

Ringed seal and bearded seal are the most important aspect of an Inuit diet and is often the largest part of an Inuit hunter's diet. Land mammals such as reindeer (caribou), polar bear, and muskox. Birds and their eggs. Saltwater and freshwater fish including sculpin, Arctic cod, Arctic char, capelin and lake trout.

Life expectancy at birth is 66.6 years, approximately 10 years lower than that for the general Canadian population (76.3 years). Injuries and poisoning, neoplasms, and diseases of the respiratory system are the leading causes of death observed among the Baffin Inuit.

Warfare was not uncommon among those Inuit groups with sufficient population density.

The indigenous peoples of the North American Arctic include the Eskimo (Inuit and Yupik/Yupiit) and Aleut; their traditional languages are in the Eskimo-Aleut family. Many Alaskan groups prefer to be called Native Alaskans rather than Native Americans; Canada's Arctic peoples generally prefer the referent Inuit.

The Arctic is home to almost four million people today – Indigenous Peoples, more recent arrivals, hunters and herders living on the land and city dwellers. Roughly 10 percent of the inhabitants are Indigenous and many of their peoples distinct to the Arctic.

Humans have been part of the tundra ecosystem for thousands of years. The indigenous people of Alaska's tundra regions are the Aleut, Alutiiq, Inupiat, Central Yup'ik and Siberian Yupik. Originally nomadic, Alaska Natives have now settled in permanent villages and towns.

Ancient People of the Arctic traces the lives of the Palaeo Eskimos, the bold first explorers of the Arctic. Four thousand years ago, these people entered the far northern extremes of the North American continent, carving a living out of their bleak new homeland.