The real people: the Inuit I

How would you like to be known as "raw meat eaters"? It´s not very pleasant! The name Eskimo is based on an Indian term meaning exactly that! The native people have now persuaded people to use their own name, Inuit, which means "the real people". However, almost all of the names of places are European words, often the names of European explorers.

It is difficult for us to imagine what life must have been like there. The land we are looking at is far colder than Britain, and without the comforts which we take for granted in the winter.

We are going to look at the origins of the modern Inuit people. This is known as the Thule culture from about AD 1000 to AD 1500. The name is actually pronounced Tuleh! This is also a European term which may come from a Greek word meaning "northernmost people".

James Green: Native peoples of the Americas, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 10