Life in the Arctic
People have lived around the top of the world for thousands of years. You will meet the main Arctic peoples and learn how they live with cold, ice and long seasons of dark and light.
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The Arctic is the region around the North Pole: the Arctic Ocean and the northern edges of North America, Europe and Asia. Winters are long and dark, summers short and bright. Trees give way to tundra, a treeless plain where the ground below the surface stays frozen all year. Farming is almost impossible. The people who live here depend on animals, and on knowing ice and weather extremely well.
The peoples
- Inuit live across northern Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland. In Greenland they are called Kalaallit, and in northern Alaska Iñupiat.
- Yupik peoples live in western Alaska and the far east of Russia.
- Sámi live in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland and on the Kola Peninsula of Russia. They call their homeland Sápmi.
- Nenets, Chukchi, Evenki, Sakha and many other peoples live across the Russian north.
- Gwich'in and other Dene peoples live in the forests and tundra edge of Alaska and Canada.
A note on names. 'Eskimo' was used by outsiders for both Inuit and Yupik. Inuit in Canada and Greenland consider it unacceptable. Since Inuit does not include the Yupik, the careful course is to use the specific name. The Inuit Circumpolar Council, founded in 1977, speaks for about 180,000 Inuit across Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka in Russia.
Living from sea and land
Inuit life has centred on hunting sea mammals such as seals, walrus and whales, on fishing, and on caribou. Every part of an animal is used: meat and fat for food, skins for clothing and boats, bone and ivory for tools. Food from the land and sea is called country food. It is still central to health, culture and sharing between households, and is far cheaper than shop food flown in from the south.
Several Inuit inventions are known worldwide. The kayak is a light, covered hunting boat. The umiak is a larger open boat for moving families and hunting whales. The dog sled carries loads over snow and ice. The igloo, a domed house of snow blocks, was a winter home in parts of the central Arctic and a travelling shelter elsewhere. The words kayak, igloo and anorak all come from Inuit languages.
Reindeer peoples
Across northern Europe and Siberia, reindeer herding takes the place of sea hunting. Reindeer give meat, hides and transport. Among the Sámi, only a minority herd reindeer today, but herding remains a core part of Sámi culture and law. Other Sámi have long lived by fishing, farming and hunting along the coasts and rivers.
Knowledge of ice and weather
Travelling on sea ice means reading its age, thickness and movement, and the wind and currents that shift it. Hunters learn this over a lifetime. Inuit in Nunavut use the term Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit for this body of knowledge and values, passed on by elders. The government of Nunavut is required to take it into account, and scientists studying the changing Arctic now work alongside Inuit experts.
Self-government
Arctic peoples have won some of the strongest self-government arrangements anywhere. Greenland, where most people are Inuit, has had home rule within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1979 and wider self-government since 2009. In Canada, the territory of Nunavut was created in 1999 following a land claims agreement with Inuit. Norway, Sweden and Finland each have an elected Sámi parliament.
In Alaska, a law passed in 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, took a different route. It transferred about 44 million acres of land and close to a billion dollars to corporations owned by Alaska Native shareholders, in exchange for ending wider land claims. The arrangement remains debated among Alaska Natives themselves.
- Seal, walrus, whale and fish
- Kayak, umiak and dog sled
- Example: Inuit, Yupik, coastal Chukchi
- Meat, hides and transport from the herd
- Seasonal migration with tents
- Example: Sámi, Nenets, Evenki
A fast-changing home
The Arctic is warming several times faster than the world as a whole. Sea ice forms later and breaks up earlier, which makes travel dangerous and hunting seasons shorter. Frozen ground is thawing under houses and roads. At the same time, melting ice opens the region to shipping, oil, gas and mining. Arctic peoples insist on a say in these decisions, and six of their organisations sit as Permanent Participants in the Arctic Council.