The North
The Inuit are indigenous peoples with similar cultures living primarily on the Arctic coasts of Siberia, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Labrador, and Greenland. Until the last few decades, the culture in this range was remarkably homogeneous, notably in the reliance on fish, marine mammals and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, tools, and shelter. Their language, sometimes called Inuktitut, is grouped under Inuit language or Eskimo-Aleut languages.
Canadian Inuit live primarily in the territory of Nunavut, Nunavik in northern Quebec, and in the Nunatsiavut settlement region in Labrador. The Inuvialuit live mostly in the Mackenzie River delta, on Banks Island and part of Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories. Alaskan Inupiaq live on the North Slope, while the Yupik live in western Alaska and a part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Russia.
The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), founded in 1977, defines its constituency to include Canada’s Inuit and Inuvialuit, Greenland’s Kalaallit people, Alaska’s Inupiaq and Yupik people, and Russia’s Yupik. The Yupik are not Inuit in the sense of being descended from the Thule and prefer to be called Yupik or Eskimo. The ICC represents approximately 160,000 Inuit.