Arctic People Facts Total Indigenous Population 4 million (30% of total Arctic pop.) # of Minority Groups 40 or more Traditional Occupations Fishing, hunting, fur trapping, reindeer herding, native crafts Traditional Diets Fish, whale, seal, caribou, native plants Non-Indigenous Impacts Mining, oil & gas exploration, tourism Main Threats to Way of Life Environ-mental de- gradation, lack of health care facilities Free E-Newsletter Receive Arctic News, Weather and Travel Information Click Here! Did you know? In general, all Arctic cultures share a unique and special relationship to the Arctic environment and its wildlife, which many still depend upon for their economic survival, social identity, and spiritual fulfillment. Indigenous people of the Arctic can all trace similar origins in Central Asia. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, many groups of Arctic peoples came into regular contact with one another, mainly through trade networks.

Indigenous Arctic People

Despite its perception by outsiders as a barren, inhospitable, and unexplored wilderness, the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, northern Scandinavia and Siberia are homelands for a diverse number of indigenous peoples. Subsisting for thousands of years on the resources of land and sea, Arctic peoples have learned to adapt to their environment, surviving and prospering under some of the harshest conditions on Earth. In Alaska, these peoples are known as Iñupiaq and Yup'ik Inuit, Alutiq (Aleuts) and Athapaskans; in Canada and Greenland, they are Inuit; in Scandinavia native people are the Saami; while in Siberia, indigenous groups include: the Chukchi, Nenets, and many more.

There are now approximately 4 million people in the Arctic, with the indigenous population ranging from 80 per cent in Greenland to 15 per cent in Arctic Norway and as little as 3-4 per cent in Arctic Russia. In general, the region is sparsely populated with population densities averaging fewer than 1 person per square mile. Settlements vary from a few large, industrialized cities to numerous small nomadic communities following a traditional lifestyle. Despite tremendous social, demographic, and technological changes during the twentieth century, Arctic cultures remain vital and resilient, wit many communities still closely linked, both economically and spiritually, to native wildlife and local resources.

Recent discoveries of oil, minerals, and diamonds in Arctic areas, and a growing interest in Arctic tourism, however, are bringing many non-indigenous people to the Arctic to live or visit. Simultaneously, the indigenous people are blending many parts of western civilization into their lifestyle.The outcome of these impacts is still unclear but will undoubtedly have major consequences for the local and national economy, the livelihood of native people, and the environment.

Most indigenous peoples favor a move to self-governance. The current level of self-governance varies. Greenland, with its Home Rule Government, the formation of the new territory of Nunavut in Canada and the Norwegian Saami Parliament are the most advanced examples. In the Russian Federation, the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Far East and Siberia is working to link 30 indigenous minority groups and present a united voice to official, Moscow-led, governance.