Copper Inuit

Copper Inuit
Total population
800[1]
Regions with significant populations
Northwest Territories;
Nunavut
Languages
Inuvialuktun (sometimes called Western Canadian Inuktitut;
also referred to as Inuinnaqtun)
Religion
Animism; Inuit religion
Inu- ᐃᓄ- / nuna ᓄᓇ
"person" / "land"
PersonInuinnaq
PeopleInuinnait
LanguageInuinnaqtun;
Tikuraq ᑎᑯᕋᖅ
CountryInuinnait Nunangat,
     Inuit Nunangat ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ
Looking at Ulukhaktok, Canada, from the bluffs that give the community its name, 1980s

Copper Inuit, also known as Inuinnait[2] and Kitlinermiut,[3][pronunciation?] are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories. Most of them historically lived in the area around Coronation Gulf, on Victoria Island, and southern Banks Island.

Their western boundary was Wise Point, near Dolphin and Union Strait. Their northwest territory was the southeast coast of Banks Island. Their southern boundary was the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Contwoyto Lake and Lake Beechey on the Back River. To the east, the Copper Inuit and the Netsilingmiut were separated by Perry River in Queen Maud Gulf. While Copper Inuit travelled throughout Victoria Island, to the west, they concentrated south of Walker Bay, while to the east, they were concentrated south of Denmark Bay.[4]

As the people have no collective name for themselves, they have adopted the English term "Copper Inuit".[5] It represents those westernmost Central Inuit who used and relied on native copper gathered along the lower Coppermine River and the Coronation Gulf.[6]

According to Knud Rasmussen (1932), other Inuit referred to Copper Inuit as Kitlinermiut, as Kitlineq was an Inuit language name for Victoria Island.[7]

  1. ^ Condon, Richard G. (1987). Inuit Youth: Growth and Change in the Canadian Arctic. Rutgers University Press. pp. 25–38. ISBN 978-0-8135-1212-9. Also see Inuit Youth, p. 25, at Google Books
  2. ^ McGhee, Robert (4 March 2015). "Inuinnait (Copper Inuit)". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada.
  3. ^ Robinson, Michael (3 March 2018). "The myth of a 'lost white tribe'". Boston Globe.
  4. ^ VanStone, James W. (1994). The Noice Collection of Copper Inuit Material Culture. Fieldiana Anthropology. Vol. 22. Field Museum of Natural History.
  5. ^ "The Copper Inuit (Ulukhaktokmiut) of Holman". The Ohio State University. 26 November 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2008.
  6. ^ Gordon, Bryan. "Copper Inuit". Nadlok and the Origins of the Copper Inuit. Canadian Museum of History. Archived from the original on 29 October 2004. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  7. ^ Martin, Marlene M. "Society-COPPER-ESKIMO". lucy.ukc.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 25 August 2008.