BCS 100: Introduction to the Circumpolar World
Module 4: Peoples and Cultures of the Circumpolar World
Developed by
Tuula Tuisku, Thule Institute, University of Oulu
Kathleen Osgood Dana, University of the Arctic
Module 4: Peoples and Cultures of the Circumpolar World
This module prepares students for BCS321 where the history of peoples and cultures in the
circumpolar world is studied in depth, and for BCS 322 which studies the cultures and futures of
northern peoples.
Overview
Peoples and Cultures of the Circumpolar World surveys the origins and environments for peoples
and cultures in the Arctic, with an emphasis on the first peoples and long-term settlers in the
circumpolar world. It discusses traditional subsistence economies of the taiga, tundra, and coast, and
adaptations to ecological and historical change, followed by a discussion of the settlement and
colonization of the circumpolar world by outsiders. Using a variety of definitions, it catalogs the
indigenous peoples of the North, making clear distinctions between settlement patterns in the Old
World and in the New World., concluding with a discussion of who is a “northerner” in today’s
globalizing world. At the end of the module is a section for guided research into northern peoples
and cultures today.
Key Terms and Concepts
 Indigenous: Native, Aboriginal, First Nations
 Non-Indigenous: Old and New Settlers, Residents
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss subsistence economies in the North.
2. Identify and locate peoples in the North.
3. Describe peoples in the North, using a variety of definitions.
4. Compare and contrast cultural groups in the circumpolar world.
Reading and Study Assignments
 The Arctic as Homeland, an introduction to the peoples and cultures who make the Arctic their
home, by Piers Vitebsky at
http://www.thearctic.is/articles/overviews/homeland/enska/index.htm
 Vital Arctic Graphics, by the United Nations Environmental Development Program, intended
to supply concise summaries of known information about people and the environment at
http://www.grida.no/publications/vg/arctic/
 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, by the International Work Group on Indigenous
Affairs, http://www.iwgia.org/sw248.asp
1
Valley Secrets by Lucie Idlout (Inuit)
i've been present in these hills before long ago, i know of the pillars holding down each valley
they created the shape and form of these hills, they, looking on us, casting shadows on the brightest days
are larger than the highest hill they may stand upon
they are there
they were once visible - in the old days when institutionalized religion did not exist here
when law was known and not written
when we knew how to respect our Elders and each other and ourselves
before English could have ever commanded these words
now - until we restore their purpose and regain understanding
they remain invisible looking after us protecting us, all the while teaching us with hard lessons
so we may mourn them properly
houses have tripped up their paths, cars have made them dizzy
planes have rendered them deaf, but their powers remain
we once loved them, but today we are confused, we keep silent of their presence, we forget their power
we call them taboo, and are curious in secret
Accessed April 10, 2007 at
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=65164313&blogID=231672804&MyTok
en=a7db3717-a98d-47a9-9fb6-ed200c7043a8
Introduction
From the time that human beings first started living in northern climates, we have adapted
with skill and resilience to the challenging environment and limited resources. Twelve thousand
years ago, the northern world was just emerging from a vast ice cap that had made much of the
Arctic and Subarctic uninhabitable for human life. However, large portions of Asia and Alaska were
never ice-covered, and the original peoples of the northern worlds started their Arctic existences in
these ice-free zones.
While there are many theories of how people came into the northern world, it seems that
people followed the animals that had themselves followed the rapid transformation of the landscape
as the ice retreated. The oral traditions of many indigenous peoples declare that they have been in
their northern homelands since time immemorial, or from the arrival of the first humans.
Most theories believe that northern peoples came from Central Asia, with Uralic peoples
migrating to the Northwest and Altaic peoples to the Northeast between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago.
Recent archaeological work in the Sakha Republic has revealed sites on the Lena River that are
arguably 35,000 years old, as old as some earlier humans; such discoveries have caused scientists to
reconsider the possibilities of even earlier human life in the North.
According to the still-debated New World migration model, migration of humans from
Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which formerly connected the two
continents across what is now the Bering Strait. These early Paleo-Americans soon spread
throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.
The forebears of Indian peoples came first along the western and southern bounds of the glaciers,
followed by the ancestors of the Inuit along the northern coasts.
As early northern peoples followed the retreat of the glaciers and adapted to emerging
northern environments, they developed technologies to subsist on local renewable resources at the
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forest or taiga edge, on the tundra, and along frigid coastlines. Northern peoples were, by and large,
nomadic, following animal resources; often, northern peoples would move their tents in the
summers to fishing or hunting grounds, but live in sod dwellings in the colder seasons, choosing
their dwelling sites to maximize the presence of moose and elk in the taiga, caribou or reindeer at the
forest edge, and seals or whales along the coasts.
Because of their reliance on subsistence, northern cultures have been, by and large,
egalitarian, with each member of the community contributing to the whole. Typically, each person
has specific tasks, men in hunting and herding, and women in the preparation of food and clothing,
and the care of children. As they grew, children learned their tasks as the communities moved from
seasonal camp to seasonal camp, absorbing their traditional knowledge as part of the seasonal round.
With a social imperative to share resources, northern peoples have been characterized by
their reciprocal relationships; reciprocity extended to the natural world, all elements of which were
considered to have spirits. Shamans were the experts in mediating this spirited, or animist, world,
and assuring the success of the community.
Northern cultures are characterized by their complexity and flexibility, their adaptations of
multiple resources, and their adaptability to change. Many of our descriptions of northern peoples
come from ethnographical literature from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the researchers started to
travel in the areas. Although there are also historic sources from earlier times, especially among the
Sámi, and archeological findings provide information about life in prehistoric times, it is important
to consider northern economies in their cultural and historical context, remembering that culture
allows humans to adapt to historical and environmental changes.
Respectful practices
Native Americans, such as Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki) have established a practice of including
indigenous affiliations in parentheses after a name, and this is a good practice for UArctic students,
as well. If a particular indigenous person has a mixed heritage, that can be reflected in the
parentheses; e.g. (Sakha/Evenk) or (Komi/Nenets).
Another way to honor multiple heritages is to take care to use all appropriate placenames for
a particular community or location, such as Arctic Bay / Ikpiarjuk / ᐃᒃᐱᐊᕐᔪᒃ or Guovdageaidnu
/ Kautokeino.
Adapting to a New Environment: Taiga, Tundra, Coast
Northern peoples, both indigenous and non-indigenous, have historically lived on local
renewable resources, which provided food, shelter and clothing, as well as transportation, and the
means to trade with neighboring peoples. Humans have adapted with skill and resourcefulness to
northern environments, as well as to ecological, political and economic changes. Nevertheless, it is
still useful to think of traditional livelihoods in terms of the tundra or the taiga or a marine
environment. Fishing, hunting, gathering, sea mammal hunting and reindeer herding are considered
traditional livelihoods.
Tundra: Reindeer herding and caribou hunting
In the tundra, natural resources are scarce, but vast herds of reindeer and caribou migrate
seasonally between tundra and taiga. In the northernmost reaches of the world, humans have
learned to follow these migration routes for food, shelter, and clothing for subsistence, barter and
trade. In the Old World, reindeer herding evolved from older hunting practices, where reindeer had
traditionally been used as decoy animals in hunting and as a means of transportation. Large-scale
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reindeer herding replaced reindeer hunting in the 16th to 19th centuries in Eurasia, but caribou
hunting remains an important livelihood for a number of peoples in North America even today.
Peoples of the tundra also fished and hunted for small game.
Did you know that caribou and reindeer are the same species: Rangifer tarandus?
Because large herds require large pastures, reindeer herding peoples moved frequently, often
having no permanent dwellings but following traditional migration routes. Both herders and hunters
moved seasonally living in portable tents. In traditional nomadic herding, reindeer herders migrated
with their herds between open tundra on the coast and forest-tundra areas according to an annual
migration route, tending their herds intensively. Reindeer herding requires large areas, and migration
routes sometimes extend vast distances.
However, in some places, migration routes have been curtailed due to pressures from other
ethnic groups or the imposition of state boundaries; in such cases, herders adapted by migrating only
in the tundra or between mountains and forest.
Indigenous culture groups that herd and/or hunt reindeer/ caribou
In the Old World: Sámi, Nenets, Komi, Khanti, Dolgan, Nganasan, Yukagir, Even, Evenk,
Sakha (Yakut), Chukchi, Koryak, and Chuvan
In the New World: Gwich’in, Iñupiat, Dogrib, Koyukon, Metis, Cree, Chipewyan, Innu, Yupiit,
Inuvialuit and Inuit
(UNEP, 2001)
Old Settlers, such as Finns, Komi-Izhma, and Yakut-Sakha, often had to adopt to new
ecological circumstances when they moved to the north, sometimes adopting reindeer herding
practices. To survive in new environment Old Settlers had to adopt many aspects of indigenous
culture: clothing, means of transport, food or modes of hunting and fishing –and loan words from
indigenous languages. Also indigenous people adopted many aspects from Old Settlers and traders:
textiles, foods, fishing and hunting implements.
Or, for instance, because of ecological changes, native peoples, such as the Nganasan, have
switched from herding reindeer back to hunting wild deer alongside increased hunting and fishing.
More than any single land species, reindeer have been central to the survival of humans in the Arctic
and Subarctic, and humans continue to adapt their cultural practices to economic and ecological
realities.
Taiga: Hunting, Fishing, Trapping, and Gathering
The taiga is the largest biome in the world, and taiga dwellers have been primarily huntergatherers, fishing and trapping and gathering in the boreal forest, where resources are more
abundant than in the tundra. Taiga dwellers fish, hunt small and large game, and gather wild food.
Taiga dwellers typically had two or more dwelling places, depending on the season, the need for
temporary or permanent shelter, and the availability of resources.
In Eurasia many hunter/gatherers used reindeer for transport. People without reindeer used
boats in the summer or dog sleds in the winter. As in the tundra, hunting provided hides for
clothing and shelter, but sometimes most of the food resources came from fishing and gathering,
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which are often in the hands of women and children. Very large territories are needed for this kind
of subsistence, and if one resource became scarce, people adapted by exploiting other resources.
However, when outside pressures prevail, subsistence economies face real economic distress.
Coast: Maritime Adaptations
Along Arctic coasts, many northern peoples had a more settled way of life, with semipermanent dwellings to maximize fishing, sea mammal hunting at the ice edge or in open water, as
well as gathering along the coast and inland. Because maritime resources are often quite rich, coastal
peoples do not travel as extensively as taiga or tundra dwellers, relying largely on dogs or boats for
transportation. Sleds and boats were designed for particular purposes, such as open water hunting of
walrus, or ice edge hunting for seal. Coastal peoples often barter seal oil and hides for reindeer hides
and meat, as in the case of coastal and inland Chukchi, who used barter and marriage to meld their
respective economies.
Mixed Economies
As the Old World North was populated by Old Settlers from farming or fishing cultures to the
south, mixed economies evolved with new activities introduced by settlers and indigenous
livelihoods adapted by the settlers. It is not unusual to find native peoples adopting clothing or
materials from agrarian economies, or for settlers in the North to use indigenous hunting and
gathering practices. For instance, Norwegians carried their fishing and sheep herding practices above
the Arctic Circle. Finnish settlers and Forest Sámi in Finnish Lapland built houses and kept small
dairy farms, while herding reindeer. In Scandinavia, some Sámi were farmers.
Russian Pomors from the White Sea region engaged in fishing and sea mammal hunting, while
continuing with cattle breeding. As Komi moved north under colonial pressures, they adopted
reindeer herding from the Nenets, but still kept cattle in their villages. Russian settlers in northern
Siberia hunted and fished, but also kept cattle. In Iceland the population lived mostly on the sea
coast with small-scale fishing and sheep herding. Soldiers and fur hunters often married local
women, and although they lived a settled existence, their lives were otherwise indistinguishable from
the lives of local native population.
As colonial pressures increased in the North, trade, especially for furs, tribute (called yasak in
Russian), and taxation impacted northern economies by forcing northerners to trap and hunt
extensively beyond subsistence needs. As settlers arrived in the North, they also put pressure on
traditional territories, by hunting for furs themselves or requiring land for hay and cattle breeding.
Later in the 20th century industrialization caused essential transformations, covering huge tracts of
land with mines, roads, and cities, especially in the Soviet Union, where traditional livelihoods were
collectivized and administered by the central authorities. Still, even today, northern peoples continue
to adapt traditional ways of life to ecological, economic and political pressures.
Peoples in the North: Old and New, Native and Settler
According to oral tradition, northern native peoples are the first nations in the North, long
before contact with colonial powers. However, in the historical era, contact between northern
natives and southern powers increased, until today in the global era, there are international
influences even in very Arctic locations.
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For more on this topic, see The Arctic as Homeland, an introduction to the peoples and
cultures who make the Arctic their home, by Piers Vitebsky at
http://www.thearctic.is/articles/overviews/homeland/enska/index.htm)
The use of Arctic resources by outsiders has a long history that is one of the key factors in
northern history and development. In the last thousand years, colonial powers expanded into
traditional northern territories, first explorers mapping the distant territories, then soldiers
demanding tribute (yasak) or traders bartering for furs, and finally settlers.
European traders who ventured into the forests to seek furs for trade and export to
European markets relied upon the indigenous communities for their survival. Contact between the
new arrivals and indigenous peoples led to cultural and social change. Christian missionaries brought
new religions and way of living. Modern weapons changed hunting practices. The newcomers also
introduced alcohol, and diseases that killed a large proportion of the people in many areas. In some
places the settlers assimilated the native population or they themselves totally changed their own
livelihoods and way of living. The role of settlers in the North had profound impacts on native
cultures and on the emergence of mixed economies.
Over time there have been migrations, assimilations, integrations of different ethnic groups,
and the formations of new ethnic groups. In the last one hundred years, national authorities have
extended their control over northern lands and peoples to a degree that is of serious consequence
for the future of the circumpolar world. While the settling and colonization of the Old World
(Eurasia) was earlier and different than the New World (North America), today the circumpolar
world is home to many native peoples, many long-term settlers, and their mixed heritage
descendants, alongside administrators and short-term laborers in extractive industries.
The Old World
In the Old World as early as the Iron Age, the Sámi were already integrated into the
European trading system. However, in the first millennium, Scandinavian people began expanding
north along the coasts of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Norwegian coast, and the Sámi lived alongside
them for centuries before the Scandinavian states started to convert them to Christianity in the 16th
century. By the year 1,000, the newly-Christian Norse were also colonizing Iceland and Greenland,
and even North America. Later Scandinavian states set up their administrations encouraging more
agrarian settlers to settle in northern areas, and establishing churches to administer the regions.
Likewise, the Russian North was integrated into Novgorod in the 12th century when traders
and tax collectors started to travel west of the Urals. Pomors, Russian Old Settlers in the region,
assimilated White Sea peoples, but lived alongside Sámi and Nenets people in the Kola Peninsula. By
the end of the 14th century, Russians began the conversion of other Finnic peoples along the Urals,
followed by Muscovy’s expansion over the North and into Siberia.
Siberia became the destination for political and criminal exiles in the Russian Empire, many
of whom had no means to return home and became the new Siberians. During the Soviet era in the
20th century, the settlement of Siberia took on completely different proportions. Millions of
Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians as well other ethnically diverse populations, moved to the
North to new industrial sites, where mines and factories were built. Some of the newcomers were
prisoners in labor camps of the Gulag, but there were also many newcomers, seeking higher salaries
and earlier pensions. Many newcomers stayed on, as did their children, who were born in the North,
and who considered the North their home.
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The New World
While native peoples made their way into the New World (North America) from Asia over
the millennia, it wasn’t until the year 1,000 when Vikings landed in the tip of Newfoundland and
established the first European settlement in the New World. Although L’Anse aux Meadows did not
last very long, it remains symbolic as the first site of European contact extending into the New
World. In the 17th century, Europeans sailed north for whales, walrus, and fish. In the 18th century,
Russian fur traders reached from Asia across to Alaska, and in the next century American whalers
sailed through the Bering Strait, completing the colonizing contacts of the circumpolar world.
Where British and Russian colonial powers in the New World sought to distance themselves
from native populations by their colonial administrations, French and Scots traders and hunters
often married native women, creating a recognized mixed population of Métis with their own
language, Michif. In the circumpolar world, the situation with native and newcomers, old settlers and
mixed heritage peoples is much too complex to cover completely in this introductory module, but
the situations described here are discussed in further detail in BCS 321 and 322, and the cultural
issues initiated here are continued in BCS 332.
Who’s Who in the North?
"Arriving at statistics of number of speakers of indigenous languages out of total relevant population
is complicated by two types of major factors. The first type is of course in the determination of who
is a speaker, and the second is in counting who is a member of the indigenous community."
----Michael Krauss
The Arctic is home to some four million people; roughly one-third of whom are indigenous
peoples (Vital Arctic Graphics). However, it is quite difficult to count indigenous peoples in the
North, simply because the ways native peoples are identified varies widely from era to era from place
to place and from discipline to discipline.
In this section, we look at a variety of ways of defining and classifying native people; as you
will see, the definitions sometimes overlap and sometimes contradict each other, but it is important
to understand that definitions often carry legal weight or international status and it is important to
be able to intepret these definitions and classifications effectively. A good working definition for
“indigenous” would be people who have an association with a region before its colonization and
who have maintained their linguistic, cultural, and social characteristics.
United Nations Definition of Indigenous
After World War II, the United Nations began to look closely at “culturally and geographically
distinct populations that were not self governing and in effect were colonized inside the borders of
independent states”. To address indigenous issues, the UN formulated the following criteria to
define indigenous peoples, being those people who:
1. live within (or maintain attachments to) geographically distinct ancestral territories;
2. tend to maintain distinct social, economic, and political institutions within their territories;
3. typically aspire to remain distinct culturally, geographically and institutionally rather than
assimilate fully into national society; and
4. self-identify as indigenous or tribal (The entire document can be retrieved at
http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/uploads/Povertyr%20reduction/UNDP%20and%20in
dogenous%20peoples.pdf)
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This definition is currently the international legal definition for indigeneity, although it is useful for
circumpolar students to be familiar with other definitions, as well.
Northern Language Families
One way to start to think about northern native peoples is to think like linguists, whose
discipline explores the origins of languages and their relationships. Northern peoples can be
classified into seven language groups whose ancestors possibly spoke a common proto-language.
What’s in a name?
In your opinion, what is the best way to describe people? Support your opinion with your
discussion of the names and designations used in a region of the circumpolar world. See the material
below and the resources at the end of this module for good starting places for your research.
Linguistic relationships do not necessarily infer ethnic or cultural relationships, so looking at
language families is only a good starting place to understand the indigenous peoples of the North.
The distribution of the seven circumpolar language families and their respective ethnic groups
appear on the map below used in the Arctic Human Development Report (2004):
1. Indo-European, which include all the Norse-related peoples
2. Uralic, which numbers peoples whose origins center about the Ural Mountains
3. Altaic, distributed widely throughout Siberia
4. Paleo-Siberian, which include the isolated languages and the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family
5. Eskaleut, whose languages and cultures evolved along the northern coasts of the New World
6. Na-Dene, whose members include northern Athabascan peoples, as well as their southern
relatives, the Navajo and Apache
7. Algonquian, who inhabit the Central and Eastern woodlands of North America
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Figure 1. Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic countries, by language group
Small-Numbered Peoples of the North in the Russian Federation
In the former Soviet Union, nationalities were very carefully classified as early as 1926, and
“small-numbered” peoples of the USSR were precisely described as targets of special policies and
benefits. A Soviet passport carried two designations, one being Soviet, and the other a nationality,
such as Chukchi or Jewish. These designations continue in the Russian Federation, which makes it
relatively easy to list and count native peoples in the Russian Federation. After the fall of the Soviet
Union more peoples were added to the list, but there remain minorities who would like indigenous
status, such as the Komi-Izhma and Old Settlers.
According to the legal definition of Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far
East in the Russian Federation (17.4.2004), population is indigenous if it has been living in a given
region prior to the spread the Russian Empire, and if the population:
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



Numbers less than 50,000 people
Resides in the traditional territory of their forebears
Preserves a traditional lifestyle, economy and trades
Perceives themselves as an independent ethnic entity
Indigenous peoples account for less than 10% of total Siberian population, with many of the
individual groups close to extinction, or in the process of assimilation. However, the indigenous
peoples are actively organizing in the Russian Federation and internationally into the Russian
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON, www.raipon.org).
Arctic peoples of Russia, current populations and language status
(from Arktika, moi dom, 1999;
and from Juha Janhunen, Ethnic death and survival in the Soviet North, IAHR Helsinki, May 1990)
Nationality Other name(s) Population
# native speakers %
Aleut
702
Chuvan
2,511 / (1,384) 309
22
Chukchee Lowrovetlan
15,184/(15,106)
11,163
73.9
Dolgan
TiaKikhi,Sakha 6,945 / (6,571)
5,618
85.5
Ents
Lavut
209
Even
Tungus
17,199/(17,055)
7,845
46.0
Evenk
30,163/(29,975)
10,192
34
Eskimo
Inuit
1,719 / 1,703
933
54.8
Itelmen
2,481
Karelian
130,929
Ket
Ostyak
1,113 / (1,084)
589
54.3
Khanty
Zyriane
22,520/(22,283)
14,016
62.2
Komi
344,519
Koryak
Vogul
9,242 / (8,942)
5,168
57.8
Mansi
8,474 / (8,266)
3,273
39.6
Nanai
Gold
12,023/(11,877)
5,867
49.5
Naganasan
1,278 / (1,262)
1,084
85.9
Negidal
622 / (587)
184
32.4
Nenets
Samoyed,Yurak 34,665/(34,190)
27,078
79.2
Nivkh
Gilyak
4,673 / (4,631)
1,199
25.9
Orok
Uilta
350 / (179)
84
46.9
Oroch
700 / (883)
179
20.3
Saami
Lopari, Lapp
1,890 / (1,835)
899
49.0
Selkup
3,612 / (3,564)
1,796
50.4
Udegei
Nanai
2,011 / (1,902)
593
31.2
Ulch
Odul
3,233 / (3,173)
1,111
35.0
Yukagir
1,140 / (1,112)
398
35.8
Yakut
Sakha
381,922
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The Sámi
While the Sámi are officially indigenous in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia, indigeneity
is defined differently in each of the four countries, resulting in different counts depending on the
definition. There are arguably between 80,000 and 115,000 Sámi depending on the definition, and
whether urban Sámi or expatriate Sámi are being counted.
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Russia
50,000 - 65,000
20,000
8,000
2,000
The Sámi Council, which is the international Sámi organization for all Sámi, has declared a
common definition, "We, Sámi are one people, united in our own culture, language and history, living in areas
which,since time immemorial and up to historical times, we alone inhabited and utilized". (Sámi Political Program
1986 / Sámi Council statements). While this statement provides a unifying definition and overarching
mission for the Sámi Council, the different national definitions lead to many practical and political
difficulties in daily life for Sámi people.
Greenland
In Greenland, official statistics do not distinguish along ethnic lines, rather people are either
born in Greenland or born outside Greenland. However, in practical terms, those born in Greenland
are indigenous Greenlanders (kalaallit) and those born outside are Danes Persons born in
Greenland of Danish parents are registered as Greenlanders while Greenlanders born in Denmark
of Greenlandic parents are registered as Danes. However, in daily life everyone knows who is a
Greenlander and who is a Dane. It is assumed that about 95 per cent of Greenlanders speak
Greenlandic while only very few Danes in Greenland are able to speak this language.
On January 1, 2004 there were 56,854 persons in Greenland, of whom 6,758 or 12 per cent
were born outside Greenland. An estimated 8-10,000 Greenlanders live in Denmark; many of these
are in education, others have moved to Denmark with their Danish husband or wife, and there are
also those Greenlanders who prefer to spend their old age in a warmer climate. (IWGIA,
http://www.iwgia.org/sw15469.asp)
Alaska
In North America, a population is generally regarded as indigenous if ancestry can be traced
to a period prior to contact with European colonizers and settlers. Alaska, as part of the United
States, makes an official census every ten years, and does identify Native Americans, but is
inconsistent about tribal designations. In Alaska, the work tallying native populations and native
language speakers has been done largely by the Alaska Native Languages Center at the University of
Alaska, Fairbanks, resulting in very good figures with an emphasis on language affinities, rather than
official definitions. The following table gives estimates of the population of speakers of Alaska
Native languages in reference to the relevant community population.
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Figure 2. Alaska Native Languages Map (http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/)
Native Languages of Alaska (Krauss 408)
Language
Population Speakers
Aleut
2300
150
Sugpiaq (Alutiiq)
3500
200
Central Yup'ik
25000
10400
Siberian Yupik
1400
1000
Inupiaq (Inuit)
15700
2144
Coast Tsimshian
1400
30
Nisga-Gitksan
<100
<0?
Northern Haida
650
10
Tlingit
10000
300
Eyak
0
Ahtna
650
25
Dena'ina
1000
50
12
Deg Xinag
250
14
Holikachuk
180
5
Koyukon
2300
150
Upper Kuskokwim 100
25
(Lower) Tanana
400
25
Tanacross
200
50
Upper Tanana
300
55
Han
60
12
Gwich'in
1000
Canada
The Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 specifies that the Aboriginal Peoples in Canada consist
of three groups – Indians, Inuit, and Métis. First Nations, Inuit and Métis have unique heritages,
languages, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs. While Canada also makes decennial censuses and
keeps careful counts of First Nations, Métis and Inuit populations, it does not distinguish between
tribes in the provinces south of the 60th parallel and those in the territories north of the 60th parallel.
The table below was adapted from the 2006 census of native language speakers in Canada, with an
emphasis on northern populations.
Figure 3. Native Languages of Canada, Canadian Encyclopedia
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Table 1. Canadian Native
Language
Cree
Montagnais-Naskapi
Chipewyan
Dene
Dogrib
Kutchin-Gwich’in
North Slave
South Slave
Tlingit
Inuktitut
Pop.
97,840
11,405
745
11,060
2,640
570
1,220
2,275
160
35,000
Populations, Census 2006
As you can see, the peoples and cultures in the circumpolar world are very diverse and
complex. Where one people may tell stories of being the original peoples in a region, another state
may extend its powers to those places. Very often, indigenous stories are in direct conflict with
national histories and with globalization. The Arctic Council is working to address these issues, in
part by including indigenous peoples as permanent participants in the decision-making process. The
United Nations has concentrated much energy on indigenous affairs in the past two decades.
However, each region and each people have their own issues; this module should supply you with
some concepts and information to analyze particular regions and make your own informed opinions
and decisions.
GUIDED RESEARCH
Whose North? Who’s a Northerner?
Select a region of the circumpolar world. Research the peoples and cultures there. Start with the
resources below. Who lives in your region? Are they indigenous? Are they long-term settlers? Are
they new migrants? What livelihoods are being practiced? Is subsistence part of the overall economic
picture?
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Resources for Circumpolar Peoples and Cultures
INTERNATIONAL
Arctic Council, http://arctic-council.org/. The Ottawa Declaration of 1996 formally established the
Arctic Council as a high level intergovernmental forum to provide a means for promoting
cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, with the involvement of
the Arctic Indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues,
in particular issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Arctic Indigenous Languages, http://www.arcticlanguages.com/.This website aims to be a resource
that strengthens Arctic indigenous languages. It includes background papers and articles
related to indigenous languages, video clips of Arctic indigenous people explaining how
important their languages are to them, and descriptions of current best practices in the
protection and revitalization of indigenous languages.
Arctic Portal, http://new.arcticportal.org/. This website is really an online library for the work of
the Arctic Council, including reports, videos, webcasts, newsfeeds, and more. It is a good
starting place for any research project.
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ArcticStat, http://www.arcticstat.org/.ArcticStat is a permanent, public and independent statistical
database dealing with the countries, regions and populations of the Circumpolar Arctic; it
was designed to facilitate comparative research on Arctic socioeconomic conditions.
IWGIA (International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs), IWGIA supports indigenous peoples'
struggle for human rights, self-determination, right to territory, control of land and
resources, cultural integrity, and the right to development.
Indigenous Peoples at the Arctic Council, http://www.arcticpeoples.org/. This site is the gateway
for the international indigenous groups that are permanent participants at the Arctic Council,
as well as a source of current news and videos.
Aleut International Association, http://www.aleut-international.org/. The organization was formed
to address environmental and cultural concerns of the extended Aleut family whose
wellbeing has been connected to the rich resources of the Bering Sea for millennia. Russian
and American Aleuts are separated by distances, borders and the International Date Line but
united by the great Bering Sea and the North Pacific.
Arctic Athabascan Council, http://www.arcticathabaskancouncil.com/. The Arctic Athabaskan
Council (AAC) is an international treaty organization established to represent the interests of
United States and Canadian Athabaskan member First Nation governments in Arctic
Council fora, and to foster a greater understanding of the common heritage of all
Athabaskan peoples of Arctic North America.
Gwich’in Council International, http://www.gwichin.org/. The Gwich'in Council International
(GCI) was established as a non-profit organization in 1999 by the Gwich'in Tribal Council in
Inuvik, NWT, to ensure all regions of the Gwich'in Nation in the Northwest Territories,
Yukon and Alaska are represented at the Arctic Council, as well as to play an active and
significant role in the development of policies that relate to the Circumpolar Arctic.
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Figure 4. Arctic Council Members and Permanent Participants, Vital Arctic Graphics
Inuit Circumpolar Conference, http://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/index.php?Lang=En&ID=1.
Founded in 1977 by the late Eben Hopson of Barrow, Alaska, the Inuit Circumpolar
Council (ICC) has flourished and grown into a major international non-government
organization representing approximately 150,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and
Chukotka (Russia). The organization holds Consultative Status II at the United Nations.
RAIPON (Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North),
http://raipon.org/Default.aspx?alias=raipon.org/english. RAIPON is a public organization
that has as its goal the protection of human rights, defense of the legal interests of
indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, and the assistance in solution of
environmental, social and economic problems, and the problems of cultural development
and education.
Saami Council, www.saamicouncil.net. The Saami Council is a voluntary Saami organization (a non–
governmental organization), with Saami member organizations in Finland, Russia, Norway
and Sweden. Since its foundation in 1956 the Saami Council has actively dealt with Saami
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policy tasks. For this reason the Saami Council is one of the indigenous peoples’
organizations which have existed longest.
ALASKA
Alaska Native Languages Center, http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/ The Alaska Native Language Center
was established by state legislation in 1972 as a center for research and documentation of the
twenty Native languages of Alaska. Its clickable language map is the source for considerable
linguistic and cultural materials on Alaskan Natives.
Alaska Inter Tribal Council (AITC), http://www.aitc.org/ AITC is an indigenous tribal
governments council supporting economic community self-sufficiency and self-sustainibility.
CANADA
Aboriginal Canada Portal, http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/acp/site.nsf/en/index.html. The
Aboriginal Canada Portal is your single window to First Nations, Métis and Inuit online
resources and government programs and services.
Aboriginal Communities in Canada,
http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/acp/community/site.nsf/GE_landingpage_en.html .
Maintained by Aboriginal Canada. Information for each community can be accessed by
clicking on that community once you have installed GoogleEarth and the Aboriginal
Community layer.
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Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/index-eng.asp. Indian and
Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) supports Aboriginal people (First Nations, Inuit and
Métis) and Northerners in their efforts to: improve social well-being and economic
prosperity;develop healthier, more sustainable communities; and participate more fully in
Canada's political, social and economic development - to the benefit of all Canadians.
RUSSIA
The Arctic Network for the Support of the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Arctic (ANSIPRA)
http://www.npolar.no/ansipra is an information and communication network linking
Russian indigenous peoples' organisations with international institutions and organisations
alarmed about the future of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. ANSIPRA's main
goal is to spread information and to mediate contacts, but it also assists in project.
L'auravetl http://www.indigenous.ru L'auravetl is an Indigenous Information Center by Indigenous
peoples of Russia aiming to improve the abilities of indigenous communities to fully
participate in Russian multicultural society and diminish discrimination of indigenous people.
The center provides a mechanism to indigenous communities of Russia (however remote
and isolated they might be) to speak to the outside world and to each other in their own
voices.
SCANDINAVIA and GREENLAND
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The Encyclopedia of Saami Culture, http://www.helsinki.fi/~sugl_smi/senc/en/johdanto.htm. The
objective of this project is to compile and systematize information about the Saami - the
indigenous people of northern Europe - across national frontiers. The project aims to create
on the internet a wide-ranging electronic data bank in Finnish, English and later also in
Saami.
Greenland, http://www.iwgia.org/sw15466.asp. Greenland is a research focus for the International
Work Group on Indigenous Affairs.
Glossary of Terms
Aboriginal: In Canada, the term Aboriginal is a legal term in the Canadian Constitution (1982)
Section 35 (2) and includes Indians, Inuit, and Metís.
Animism: The belief that all things, living and non-living, have spirit.
Ethnonym: The name a particular group calls itself.
First Nation(s): A term that came into common usage in the 1970s in Canada to replace the word
"Indian," which some people found offensive. Although the term First Nation is widely used, no
legal definition of it exists.
Harvesting: Hunting, fishing and gathering or whatever other methods humans use to procure food.
Métis: People of mixed First Nation and European ancestry who identify themselves as Métis, as
distinct from First Nations people, Inuit or non-Aboriginal people. The Métis have a unique culture
that draws on their diverse ancestral origins, such as Scottish, French, Ojibway and Cree.
Native: Variously used to describe peoples who belong to a particular places, both indigenous and
settlers.
Nomadic: peoples who moved their camps frequently by the season and/or following herds.
Reciprocity: Animals, as well as human hunters, are capable of conscious decisions. Inuit believe that
an animal will not mind being killed, if it is not offended ritually; Inuit hunters take various
precautions before, during, and after the hunt, because an offended animal will later lead his
companions away so that the hunter will starve. This establishes the basis for a mutual and necessary
respect between humans and animals. Animals are spiritual beings, as important as humans and as
deserving of respect. Such relations may be described as collaborative reciprocity. [this is also a very
important economic and social concept in the North – e.g. potlatch, Messenger Feast, etc.]
Subsistence: an economy in which a group attempts to produce no more output per period than
they must consume in that period in order to survive, but do not attempt to accumulate wealth or to
transfer productivity from one period to the next. In such a system, a concept of wealth may not
exist, and there is a reliance on renewal and reproduction within the natural environment.
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Taiga: a biome characterized by coniferous forests. Boreal forest is the term used to refer to the
southern part of this biome, while "taiga" is used to describe the more barren northern areas at the
Arctic tree line.
Tundra: a biome where tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The
term "tundra" comes from Kildin Sami tūndâr "uplands, tundra, treeless mountain tract". There are
two types of tundra: Arctic tundra (which also occurs in Antarctica), and alpine tundra. In tundra,
the vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees
grow in some tundra. The ecotone (or ecological boundary region) between the tundra and the
forest is known as the tree line or timberline.
Yasak: tributes from Siberian peoples mandated by the tsar, to be paid in furs, preferably sable pelts.
References
Bruchac, Joseph. 2003. Our Stories Remember: American Indian History, Culture, and Values through
Storytelling. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing.
Forsyth, James. 1992. A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia’s North Asian Colony 1581–1990.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.:
SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.
Krauss, Michael E. 2007. Native languages of Alaska. In: The Vanishing Voices of the Pacific Rim, ed. by
Osahito Miyaoko, Osamu Sakiyama, and Michael E. Krauss. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
McGhee, Robert. 1996. Ancient People of the Arctic. Vancouver: UBC Press. McGhee looks at the
peopling of the North American Arctic with the ancestors of today’s Inuit. Chapter 5 is an
especially good synopsis.
Niezen, Ronal. 2003. Origins of indigenism: Human rights and the politics of identity. University of California
Press.
Oosten, Jarich and Cornelius Remie, eds. Arctic Identities: Continuity and Change in Inuit and Saami
Societies. Leiden, The Netherlands: Center for Non-Western Studies, 1999.
Slezkine, Yuri. 1993. Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North. Ithaca, New York, and
London: Cornell University Press.
Sokolova, Z.P., editor-in-chief. 1999. Arktika, moi dom, polyarnyaia enstiklopediia shkol’nika: narody severa
zemli (The Arctic, my home, polar school encyclopedia: peoples of the north). Moscow: Severnye
prostory.
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