General information

The Inuit group comprises multiple peoples who settle widely along the Arctic coast of the U.S. (Alaska) and Canada, in Greenland (Denmark), and along the southeast coast of the Chukotka Peninsula (Russia). They see themselves as a distinct group settling among Native Americans in America and the Chukchi in Asia. However, the Inuit group has smaller ethnic groups within their larger community, with each group having its own dialect and specific cultural traits.

The total number of Inuits, according to the 2020 All-Russian Population Census, is 1,659 people (793 men and 866 women).

School student Alpyrakhtyn (the village of Naukan). Asian Inuit. Chukotka autonomous district, Cape Dezhnyov. 1927–1929. Collected by Alexander S. Forshtein. 5.3х8 sm. Anthropology and Ethnography Museum. I 115-20

At this point, the term “Inuit” is used worldwide in both scholarly and popular vernacular. It is associated with the culture of Arctic hunters, indigenous inhabitants of Greenland, the Arctic coast of North America, and parts of Chukotka. In Inuktitut, “Inuit” means “person,” this name applies to members of this people living in Canada or along the Arctic coast of North America. The ethnonym “Inuit” is derived from the endonym popularized by the movement for a “more attractive and indigenous” name of the people. In 1970, at the Council of North Quebec, Inuits’ representatives enshrined the name Inuit for their groups. Inuits also include indigenous residents of Greenland and Asian Inuits living in the east of Chukotka.

Asian Inuits use the endonym yuk (a person), yugyt in plural, or yupik (a real person), yupigyt in plural. Another term they used was “ yuit .” Nonetheless, the scholar Elizaveta P. Orlova did not recognize a common ethnonym that would extend to all Asian Inuits and emphasized that they self-identified using the names of their places of settlement.

For instance, Chaplinians called themselves un’azim yupiga ( ungazimit ) after the large village of Ungazik at Cape Chaplin; residents of the village of Sireniki called themselves sig’inym yupiga ( sirenimit ); residents of the Naukan village called themselves Nyvukam Yupiga ( Nevykamit ). Later, adapted Russian names for these groups, such as Chaplinians, Sirenikians, and the Naukan emerged. The neighboring Chukchi called Inuits “people of the sea,” angalit , or “coastal people,” ramglat . The first name later was transformed into the exonym onkilon that was, in particular, by Ferdinand Wrangel to refer to the Inuits of Siberia. Koryaks called Inuits nimilu ( namolly ), that is, “coastal people.” In the 1930s, scholars attempted to replace the word “Inuit” with the endonym “ yuit ,” but the name did not take. As a result, in 1936, the old name was reinstated. Recently, Inuits’ endonyms are increasingly used to refer, for instance, to people’s self-identification for censuses.

Between the 19 ^th and the early 20 ^th centuries, Asian Inuits-Yupiks were divided into several tribes with their tribal territories. The southernmost Inuit tribe, Syginygmit or Sirenik Inuits, apparently used to live on the northern shore of the Gulf of Anadyr, between Transfiguration Bay and Providence Bay. However, by the early 20 ^th century, they had lived only over part of their former territory with the villages of Sirinyk and Imtuk. In the late 19 ^th -early 20 ^th century, the Sirenik Inuit group had about 120 persons and spoke a special Old Sirenik tongue that other groups of Asian Inuits did not understand. By the late 19 ^th century, Sirenik Inuits began to extensively intermingle with other Inuit tribes.

The territory of the Avatmit group (about 120 people) stretched from the western end of Providence Bay to Cape Chukotsky with its central village of Avan. They spoke the Avan dialect that had noticeably unique phonetics. In 1942, the village of Avan was closed down, and its residents moved to nearby villages or even left for Alaska.

The Ungazimit, or Chaplinians, were the largest Asian Inuit tribe. At that period, they numbered about 550 persons. Their ethnic territory stretched from the southern coast of Arakamchechen Island in the north to the mouth of the Gulf of Tkachen at the westernmost end. The village of Ungazik on Cape Chaplin was the tribe’s central and largest settlement, but it was closed down in 1958, and its residents were moved to the village of Novoye Chaplino built for them in the Gulf of Tkachen.

The Navukagmit (the Naukan) lived in the village of Naukan close to Cape Dezhnyov and number about 350 persons. Historically, the village came to be populated by people moving there from ancient Inuit settlements of Cape Dezhnyov. Some Inuits may have moved from the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, and from Alaska. By the time economy was being shifted into the socialist mode in the 1920s-1930s, a group of Naukan Inuits had constituted a territorially and historically established community of the indigenous population of the Chukotka Peninsula; they were linked by kinship, economic ties, historical memory, unique culture, and common language. In 1958, the administrative decision was adopted and implemented to close down the village of Naukan and to move its residents to the village of Nunyamo populated by the coastal Chukchi. However, as the move started, it became clear that Nunyamo was not ready to take in large numbers of people. Consequently, the Naukan began moving to the district center, the village of Lavrentiya, and to Uelen with whose residents they had had historically established ties. In 1976, the village of Nunyamo was closed down as well as “lacking in prospects.” Today, Naukanans and their descendants live in the villages of Lavrentiya, Lorino, Uelen, Inchoun, Neshkan, Sireniki, Provideniya, Anadyr, and other Chukotka villages.

The Imakliigmit (the Imaklik), numbering about 100 persons, used to live on Ratmanov Island (Big Diomede Island). However, at the Soviet authorities were installed in the area, the Imaklik moved to Little Diomede Island and Alaska.

There were also other, even smaller groups mentioned in scholarship: the Kivagmit (the Kivak), the Imlugmit (the Imtuk), the Atkhalhagmit (the Atkalkhak), the Napakutagmit (the Napakutak).

Since the 1920s, the group of Uelkal Inuits began to emerge as Inuits were moving from Ungazik and other villages of the southeast Chukotka to Kresta Bay.

By the mid-1970s, only three groups survived: the Naukan, Chaplin Inuits, and Sirenik Inuits. Today, most Chaplin Inuits (about 900 people) live in four villages of the Chukotka District: Novoye Chaplino, Sireniki, Provideniya, and Uelkal. Speakers of languages from the same group live St. Lawrence Island (the U.S.) Those who self-identify as the Naukan live mostly in the villages of Lorino, Lavrentiya, and Provideniya.

The 2010 census puts the number of Inuits living in the Russian Federation at 1.738 persons.

The total number of Inuits, according to the 2020 All-Russian Population Census, is 1,659 people (793 men and 866 women).