Inuit or Eskimo?

For many years now Alaskans have continued to use the word Eskimo even though it is considered derogatory in arctic Canada and Greenland. The simple reason for this is that there are several different Eskimo languages spoken in Alaska, while in Canada and Greenland there is only one. While it is possible to identify many different dialects spoken in a chain extending from the Seward peninsula to eastern Greenland, those dialects all share a root inu- (or something very similar) meaning 'person'. This form is found in words like Inupiaq, Inuk, Inuktitut, and Inuit. This makes the inu- language--often referred to collectively as Inuit--very different from Alaskan languages such as Yugtun, Cup'ik, or Sugcestun, where the root for 'person' is yuk-, cuk-, and suk-, respectively. It also makes it hard to come up with an indigenous term to replace Eskimo to refer to all of these related languages as a group. In part for this reason the term Eskimo has persisted in Alaska, used not just by outsiders but also as a self-designation by some people.

But this may well be changing. A resolution passed recently by the Inuit Circumpolar Council calls for replacing the word Eskimo with Inuit. More precisely, the resolution states:

Let it therefore be resolved that the research, science, and other communities be called upon to use the term “Inuit”, instead of “Eskimo” and “paleo-Inuit” instead of “paleo-Eskimo” in the publications of research findings and other documents.

Organizations such as the Alaska Native Language Center are likely to adopt this new terminology, and Inuit rather than Eskimo will be used on the new Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alaska Map. But it's not yet clear whether the term Inuit will be widely adopted by groups other than Inupiaq. The ICC has little representation in Alaska outside the Inupiaq language region. And yet, three other languages of the Eskimo family are spoken here, namely: Central Yup'ik, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, and Sugpiaq (Alutiiq). Two more -- Naukan and Sirenik -- are spoken nearby in Russia.

These six languages are descended from a common ancestor and thus form a language family, in the same way that the various languages descended from Latin -- French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. -- form a language family, known as Romance. Unfortunately we have no good term like "Romance" to replace the term "Eskimo" in reference to the language family. In his 1995 map Krauss uses the hyphenated term "Inuit-Yupik," and this may well be an acceptable solution. But the problem remains that Inuit does not mean the same thing as Eskimo.

In fact, some would claim that the two are entirely different. Rachel Qitsualik made exactly this point in an op-ed piece in Indian Country Today a few years ago. There she claims that Inuit is a term reserved for the second wave of human migration into the eastern Arctic, distinct from the earlier Dorset migration, whom she refers to as "Tunit." According to Qitsualik, these Inuit cannot be Eskimo; nor can the Eskimo be called Inuit. But Qitsualik ends her piece with a particularly important point:

"It all really boils down to choice, the right to accept or reject specific labels at will, the right to be known as one wishes to be. And is that not what liberty is all about?"

I couldn't agree more. So Inuit or Eskimo? It depends on personal preference. And it's up to the rest of us to respect those preferences.