Arctic Indigenous Peoples: Cultures and Adaptations

Unlike the Southern Ocean, the Arctic region is unique in that it has a number of indigenous populations. In fact, people have been living and thriving in this seemingly unforgiving environment for thousands of years. Each group has its own unique histories, languages, and customs. Up until quite recently, the term “Eskimo” served as an ethnonym to designate both the Inuit and the Yupik, whose territory stretches from Siberia to Greenland. Although each group shares a similar heritage, these people are very much different from one another. Much like the term “Indian,” it is believed that Europeans first introduced the descriptor “Eskimo” as an insult adopted from Algonquin-speaking peoples, who mocked their northern neighbors by calling them “eaters of raw flesh.”

The more accurate terms Inuit and Yupik refer to indigenous circumpolar persons. Although still imperfect, the terms refer to two cultural-linguistic groups of people who reside in separate regions. The Inuit inhabit Greenland and the Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska, and the Yupik can be found in eastern, southwestern, and central Alaska as well as parts of Siberia. Within these cultural-linguistic groups, dozens of tribes exist and thrive. Until the formal colonization of these regions, both Inuit and Yupik practiced a hunter- gatherer lifestyle shaped by the extreme climate of the Arctic. Nevertheless, it was possible for native populations to flourish around the Arctic Ocean because of the unique seascape and landscape. Three major environmental regions can be distinguished in the Arctic— coastal, forest, and tundra—allowing indigenous populations to develop four unique lifestyles.

The first type of adaptation relied on the forested portion of the Arctic. These tribes—for instance, the Yukaghir—were composed of small bands that were spaced widely apart and relied on both fowl and freshwater fish as a source of food. The Yukaghir inhabited the forest margins between the Russian Kolyma and Alazeya rivers that allowed for a diverse diet.

The second type spanned the transitional area between the forests and the tundra. In this region of the Arctic, the native tribes relied on caribou (Rangifer tarandus) as their main source of protein. These tribes followed the migration of this subspecies of reindeer between the forested and tundra regions. The second-largest Greenlandic indigenous group was the Inughuit (an alternative spelling of Inuit). The Inughuit relied on the caribou for protein and followed the migrating beasts. Some of the Sami people of Fennoscandia (this refers to Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, and part of Russia) thrive in this environment. These Sami people are commonly referred to as the “Mountain Sami.”

The third type of adaptation involved a cyclical migration from the coast in the winter and spring to the tundra in the summer and fall. This subsistence cycle allowed for a diverse diet of sea mammals, such as walrus, seal, and whale, as well as saltwater fish during the months of winter and spring. In the summer and fall seasons, freshwater fish and caribou were the main sources of protein. The Inuit and Aleut peoples of North America relied on this type of adaptation.

The fourth and final type of adaptation depended entirely on the maritime portion of the Arctic. The indigenous people residing along the coast relied exclusively on sea animals such as whales, walruses, seals, and fish. Once the ocean froze over, they resorted to ice fishing without using the forest to subsidize their diet in the colder months. The Alutiiq people of Alaska, commonly referred to as Alutiit or Sugpiaq, are reliant on the coastal region. This reliance is also seen in many of the Sami people. The Sami people who rely on the coastal region are referred to as the Sea Sami. Although there are two subgroups of the Sami, they are referred to as a whole as the Sami; also known in English as the Lapps or the Laplanders, they are the only indigenous people in Fennoscandia.

The diverse indigenous peoples of the Arctic not only were able to survive in a seemingly inhospitable region but were able to thrive. Currently, there are 40 ethnic groups in the Arctic region. According to the “Arctic Human Developmental Report,” there are some four million people living in this region, with indigenous peoples making up about 10 percent of the total.

Initial contacts between the indigenous populations and outsiders were fleeting and resulted mostly from the exploration discussed later. By the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing whaling frontier provided for more sustained contact because shore stations and winter quarters hired local hunters for supplies and ultimately for harpooners. In return, the indigenous peoples obtained manufactured clothing, alcohol, tobacco, and tea. Christian missionaries followed the rowdy whalers and established missions among the peoples of the Arctic.

Increasing contact also brought unknown diseases to the inhabitants of the north, who frequently depended on densely populated settlements in the harsh climate of the Arctic. Smallpox arrived in the late eighteenth century, followed soon by measles and influenza. The Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1919 is said to have killed as many as one-third of the indigenous population of Labrador. By the twentieth century, gold rushes and the discovery of petroleum incorporated the indigenous populations into the expanding nation-states—Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States — around the Arctic Ocean.