The Inuit are an indigenous people of the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America. The ancestors of the present-day Inuit are culturally related to Iñupiat, and Yupik, and the Aleut who live in the Aleutian Islands of Siberia and Alaska. The term culture of the Inuit, therefore, refers primarily to these areas; however, parallels to other Eskimo groups can also be drawn.
Qulliq – lit to celebrate the creation of Nunavut Territory of Canada on April 1, 1999
Tent ring from the Thule culture on the Meliadine River, near Rankin Inlet, Canada
Inuit woman, Nome, 1907
Hunting place of the Saqqaq culture on Disko Bay, Greenland, photo by Jan Kronsell
Eskimo is an exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit and the Yupik of eastern Siberia and Alaska. A related third group, the Aleut, who inhabit the Aleutian Islands, are generally excluded from the definition of Eskimo. The three groups share a relatively recent common ancestor, and speak related languages belonging to the family of Eskaleut languages.
Illustration of a Greenlandic Inuit man
Laminar armour from hardened leather reinforced by wood and bones worn by native Siberians and Eskimos
Lamellar armour worn by native Siberians
Stone remains of a Dorset culture longhouse near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut