Kalaallit are a

Greenlandic Inuit The Greenlandic Inuit or sometimes simply the Greenlandic are an ethnic group and nation Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous to Greenland, where they constitute the largest ethnic population. They share a common #History, ancestry, ...

ethnic group, being the largest group in Greenland, concentrated in the west. It is also a contemporary term in the

Greenlandic language Greenlandic, also known by its Endonym and exonym, endonym Kalaallisut (, ), is an Inuit languages, Inuit language belonging to the Eskaleut languages#Internal classification, Eskimoan branch of the Eskaleut languages, Eskaleut language family. ...

for the

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

().Hessel, 8 The Kalaallit (singular: ) are a part of the Arctic

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

. The language spoken by Inuit in Greenland is known as Kalaallisut, known in English as Greenlandic.

Name

Probably adapted from the name ''

Skræling (Old Norse and , plural ) is the name the Norse Greenlanders used for the peoples they encountered in North America (Canada and Greenland). In surviving sources, it is first applied to the Thule people, the proto-Inuit group with whom the Nors ...

'', ''Kalaallit'' historically referred specifically to Western Greenlanders. On the other hand, Northern and Eastern Greenlanders call themselves

Inughuit The Inughuit (singular: Inughuaq), Inuhuit, or Smith Sound Inuit, historically called Arctic Highlanders or Polar Eskimos, are an ethnic subgroup of the Greenlandic Inuit. They are the northernmost group of Inuit and the northernmost people in No ...

and

Tunumiit Iivit or Tunumiit are Indigenous Greenlandic Inuit from Iivi Nunaa, Tunu in the area of Kangikajik and Ammassalik, the eastern part of Inuit Nunaat (East Greenland). The Iivit live now mainly in Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit and are a part o ...

, respectively. About 80% to 88% of Greenland's population, or approximately 44,000 to 50,000 people identify as being Inuit.Hessel, 20

History

Kalaallit are descended from the

Thule people The Thule ( , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by 1000 AD and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people of the ...

but probably not from their predecessors in Greenland, the

Dorset culture The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in ...

.http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6200/1255832

Regions

As 84% of Greenland's landmass is covered by the

Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of thick and over thick at its maximum. It is almost long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of at a latitude ...

, Kalaallit live in three regions: Polar, Eastern, and Western. In the 1850s some Canadian

migrated to Greenland and joined the Polar Inuit communities.Hessel, 11 The Eastern Inuit, or ''Tunumiit'', live in the area with the mildest climate, a territory called ''Ammassalik''. Hunters can hunt marine mammals from

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

s throughout the year. The

Northeast Greenland Inuit The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

are now extinct.

Douglas Clavering Captain Douglas Charles Clavering RN FRS (8 September 1794 – mid-1827) was an officer of the British Royal Navy and Arctic explorer. Biography Early life and career Clavering was born at Holyrood House, the eldest son of Brigadier-General ...

(1794–1827) met a group of twelve Inuit, including men, women and children, in

Clavering Island Clavering Island () is a large island in eastern Greenland off Gael Hamke Bay, to the south of Wollaston Foreland. The Eskimonæs radio and weather station was on this island. It was staffed by Danish scientists and was captured by Wehrmacht, G ...

in August 1823. There are many remains of former Inuit settlements in different locations of the now desolate area, but the population died out before mid-19th century.

Art

The Kalaallit have a strong artistic tradition based on sewing animal skins and making masks. They are also known for an art form of figures called ''

tupilaq A ( or in Inuktitut syllabics, plural ) is a monster or carving of a monster. In Inuit religion, especially in Greenland, a tupilaq was an avenging monster fabricated by an angakkuq (a practitioner of witchcraft or shamanism) by using various ...

'', or "evil spirit object." Traditional art-making practices thrive in the ''Ammassalik''.

Sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the Genus (biology), genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the s ...

ivory remains a valued medium for carving.Hessel, 21

Notes

References

* Hessel, Ingo. ''Arctic Spirit.'' Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2006

External links

Kalaallit historical art collections
National Museum of the American Indian
Kalaallit archaeology art collections
National Museum of the American Indian {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalaallit Greenlandic Inuit Inuit groups