Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul


Jim Carter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Well, she was planning to sell Sterno to Eskimos, but she drank it,

instead.
......................snip..............

Good Morning Harry.

I am sure you did not know that using the word "Eskimo" to describe the
"Inuit" people of the far north, is like calling a black man the " N " word.

James D. Carter

Paul
Eskimo means "eaters of raw meat" and was the name Canadian Indians used
when talking about the Inuits.

The Inuits have always referred to themselves as Inuit (the Yupik variant is
Yuit), which means the "real people."

It may not be as negative as the N word, but it is definitely antiquated,
sort of like calling Native American's "Indians".




"Paul Schilter" ""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul


Jim Carter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Well, she was planning to sell Sterno to Eskimos, but she drank it,

instead.
......................snip..............

Good Morning Harry.

I am sure you did not know that using the word "Eskimo" to describe the
"Inuit" people of the far north, is like calling a black man the " N "
word.

James D. Carter

"T S Sherlock" wrote:
Paul
Eskimo means "eaters of raw meat" and was the name Canadian Indians used
when talking about the Inuits.

Nahhh. It ain't so. But it does make for a good story...

The Inuits have always referred to themselves as Inuit (the Yupik variant is
Yuit), which means the "real people."

Inuit and Yupik are the same word in two different languages.
They both derive from same Proto-Eskimo word (which means that
2000 years ago, the ancestors of both Inuit and Yupik people
spoke one language, and the word they used to mean the same
thing is something like "Inuy".

It does mean "Real People", but in a way that is very difficult
to explain to most English speakers because of their religious
convictions. It actually means a human in the sense of being
the original owner of a human spirit. That would be as opposed
to a non-human masquerading as a human, which may well look and
sound exactly like a human, but might have the spirit of a bear.

(If you think that is unreasonable, just go annoy someone you
suspect of being a bear, and see of they don't just turn into
one...)

It may not be as negative as the N word, but it is definitely antiquated,
sort of like calling Native American's "Indians".

That's silly. First, it isn't antiquated in any way. It is the
one and the only word that refers to all Eskimo people,
languages, or cultures. If you want to reference them all,
there is no other way to do it. (Which is a common requirement
when speaking to Alaskans... or to linguists.)

Second, the same problem applies to "Native American's"
vs. "Indians". Some people don't like one, some don't like the
other. But regardless, the two words have *different*
meanings! Indians are American Indians. Native Americans are
Indians, Eskimo, Aleuts, Hawaiians, Samoans and probably a couple
other types of people who are not Indians.

Native American is a word that was coin a few decades ago for
use by the government....


"Paul Schilter" ""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul


Jim Carter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Well, she was planning to sell Sterno to Eskimos, but she drank it,

instead.
......................snip..............

Good Morning Harry.

I am sure you did not know that using the word "Eskimo" to describe the
"Inuit" people of the far north, is like calling a black man the " N "
word.

James D. Carter


--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

Thanks! Very informative.




On Sun, 03 Apr 2005 03:47:28 -0800, (Floyd L. Davidson) wrote:

"T S Sherlock" wrote:
Paul
Eskimo means "eaters of raw meat" and was the name Canadian Indians used
when talking about the Inuits.

Nahhh. It ain't so. But it does make for a good story...

The Inuits have always referred to themselves as Inuit (the Yupik variant is
Yuit), which means the "real people."

Inuit and Yupik are the same word in two different languages.
They both derive from same Proto-Eskimo word (which means that
2000 years ago, the ancestors of both Inuit and Yupik people
spoke one language, and the word they used to mean the same
thing is something like "Inuy".

It does mean "Real People", but in a way that is very difficult
to explain to most English speakers because of their religious
convictions. It actually means a human in the sense of being
the original owner of a human spirit. That would be as opposed
to a non-human masquerading as a human, which may well look and
sound exactly like a human, but might have the spirit of a bear.

(If you think that is unreasonable, just go annoy someone you
suspect of being a bear, and see of they don't just turn into
one...)

It may not be as negative as the N word, but it is definitely antiquated,
sort of like calling Native American's "Indians".

That's silly. First, it isn't antiquated in any way. It is the
one and the only word that refers to all Eskimo people,
languages, or cultures. If you want to reference them all,
there is no other way to do it. (Which is a common requirement
when speaking to Alaskans... or to linguists.)

Second, the same problem applies to "Native American's"
vs. "Indians". Some people don't like one, some don't like the
other. But regardless, the two words have *different*
meanings! Indians are American Indians. Native Americans are
Indians, Eskimo, Aleuts, Hawaiians, Samoans and probably a couple
other types of people who are not Indians.

Native American is a word that was coin a few decades ago for
use by the government....


"Paul Schilter" ""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul


Jim Carter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Well, she was planning to sell Sterno to Eskimos, but she drank it,

instead.
......................snip..............

Good Morning Harry.

I am sure you did not know that using the word "Eskimo" to describe the
"Inuit" people of the far north, is like calling a black man the " N "
word.

James D. Carter


--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

Floyd,
I stand corrected. My mistake is a common misunderstanding. If you had not
taken a firm stand on this misunderstanding, I would not have bothered to
find out the truth.


"Floyd L. Davidson" wrote in message
...
"T S Sherlock" wrote:
Paul
Eskimo means "eaters of raw meat" and was the name Canadian Indians used
when talking about the Inuits.

Nahhh. It ain't so. But it does make for a good story...

The Inuits have always referred to themselves as Inuit (the Yupik variant
is
Yuit), which means the "real people."

Inuit and Yupik are the same word in two different languages.
They both derive from same Proto-Eskimo word (which means that
2000 years ago, the ancestors of both Inuit and Yupik people
spoke one language, and the word they used to mean the same
thing is something like "Inuy".

It does mean "Real People", but in a way that is very difficult
to explain to most English speakers because of their religious
convictions. It actually means a human in the sense of being
the original owner of a human spirit. That would be as opposed
to a non-human masquerading as a human, which may well look and
sound exactly like a human, but might have the spirit of a bear.

(If you think that is unreasonable, just go annoy someone you
suspect of being a bear, and see of they don't just turn into
one...)

It may not be as negative as the N word, but it is definitely antiquated,
sort of like calling Native American's "Indians".

That's silly. First, it isn't antiquated in any way. It is the
one and the only word that refers to all Eskimo people,
languages, or cultures. If you want to reference them all,
there is no other way to do it. (Which is a common requirement
when speaking to Alaskans... or to linguists.)

Second, the same problem applies to "Native American's"
vs. "Indians". Some people don't like one, some don't like the
other. But regardless, the two words have *different*
meanings! Indians are American Indians. Native Americans are
Indians, Eskimo, Aleuts, Hawaiians, Samoans and probably a couple
other types of people who are not Indians.

Native American is a word that was coin a few decades ago for
use by the government....


"Paul Schilter" ""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul


Jim Carter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Well, she was planning to sell Sterno to Eskimos, but she drank it,

instead.
......................snip..............

Good Morning Harry.

I am sure you did not know that using the word "Eskimo" to describe the
"Inuit" people of the far north, is like calling a black man the " N "
word.

James D. Carter


--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

"Dr. Dr. K.G. Sherlock" wrote:
Floyd,
I stand corrected. My mistake is a common misunderstanding. If you had not
taken a firm stand on this misunderstanding, I would not have bothered to
find out the truth.

You are quite welcome! It is an interesting subject that is
obviously much misunderstood by most people. And trying to
figure out what is real is exceedingly difficult, unless you
happen to have a handy Eskimo historian. :-)

Which reminds me of a fun story to tell.

A whole lot of years ago, I took a job in Bethel Alaska. I'd
never been there and just about all that I knew about it was
that most of the people there were Yupik Eskimos, or transients.
So while waiting for a plane in the Anchorage airport (and note
that this was before there was jet service to Bethel, and we
were flying an F-27 turboprop), I wandered through the a
bookstore looking for something to read on the long flight (400
miles or so).

The book that I bought is one that I still have, and I treasure
the memories that came because of it. It is sitting right here
next to me! "Napaskiak, An Alaskan Eskimo Community" by Wendell
Oswalt. I read most of it on the way to Bethel, and finished it
the first night there. Interesting. All about a very small
village about 10 miles down the river from Bethel, which in the
1950's was still a very traditional Eskimo culture, including
kayaqs and dog teams.

Well... I was young then, and wouldn't you know that about three
days later I met a very attractive young lady who told me she
was from Napaskiak! So I knew just how to get her attention...
(and fortunately I wasn't naive and did *not* pass any judgment
on what any of it meant) I asked her what _she_ thought of
Oswalt's book!

Oh, my. She was 18 years old and really good looking... and
could swear like a Marine Drill Sargent! She told me *exactly*
what she thought of Oswalt, not to mention all of his ancestors
and his offspring too! In detail.

Wellll... It turned out that we were friends for many years,
until her death. I married a friend of hers, she married a
friend of mine. After she passed away I more or less adopted
one of her daughters, and consider her grandchildren to be my
grandchildren.

I haven't trusted anything written about Eskimos since. And I
should point out that Wendell Oswalt has since apologized for
his typically Western anthropological approach to researching
Eskimo culture. His most recent books are pretty good.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 18:23:32 -0500, Paul Schilter
""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote:

Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?

From http://www.alaskan.com/docs/eskimo.html

Eskimo
The Eskimo are the native inhabitants of the seacoasts of the Arctic
and sub-Arctic regions of North America and the northeastern tip of
Siberia. Their habitation area extends over four countries: the United
States, Canada, the USSR, and Greenland. Of the more than 90,000
Eskimo in this region, the greater part live south of the Arctic
Circle, with approximately 28,000 on the Aleutian Islands and in
Alaska; 17,000 in Canada; 1,500 in Siberia; and 45,000 in Greenland.

The word Eskimo is not an Eskimo word. It means "eaters of raw meat"
and was used by the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada for these
hardy neighbors who wore animal-skin clothing and were adept hunters.
The name became commonly employed by European explorers and now is
generally used, even by Eskimo. Their own term for themselves is Inuit
(the Yupik variant is Yuit), which means the "real people."

The Eskimo inhabit one of the most inclement regions of the world.
Their land is mostly tundra--low, flat, treeless plains where the
ground remains permanently frozen except for a few inches of the
surface during the brief summer season. Although some groups are
settled on rivers and depend on fishing, and others follow inland
caribou herds, most Eskimo traditionally have lived primarily as
hunters of maritime mammals (seals, walrus, and whales), and the
structure and ethos of their culture have always been fundamentally
oriented to the sea.

One of the most striking aspects of traditional Eskimo culture is its
relative homogeneity across more than 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of the vast
expanses of the Arctic. The main institutional and psychological
patterns of the culture--religious, social, and economic--are much the
same. There are some differences in traditional kinship systems,
however, especially in the western regions, and the language is
divided into two major dialectical groups, the Inupik speakers
(Greenland to western Alaska) and the Yupik speakers (southwestern
Alaska and Siberia)

Later,

Tom

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
From http://www.alaskan.com/docs/eskimo.html

Shame on them for spread untruths... :-)

Eskimo
The Eskimo are the native inhabitants of the seacoasts of the Arctic
and sub-Arctic regions of North America and the northeastern tip of
Siberia. Their habitation area extends over four countries: the United
States, Canada, the USSR, and Greenland. Of the more than 90,000
Eskimo in this region, the greater part live south of the Arctic
Circle, with approximately 28,000 on the Aleutian Islands and in
Alaska; 17,000 in Canada; 1,500 in Siberia; and 45,000 in Greenland.

The word Eskimo is not an Eskimo word. It means "eaters of raw meat"

I've posted facts and a couple cites on this in another message.
That is not the actual etymology of the word, though it makes
a good story so people like it.

and was used by the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada for these
hardy neighbors who wore animal-skin clothing and were adept hunters.
The name became commonly employed by European explorers and now is
generally used, even by Eskimo. Their own term for themselves is Inuit
(the Yupik variant is Yuit), which means the "real people."

Yuit just means a group of people. Yupik means "Genuine people".
Another word that is actually the same as Yupik is Yupiaq.

The Eskimo inhabit one of the most inclement regions of the world.
Their land is mostly tundra--low, flat, treeless plains where the
ground remains permanently frozen except for a few inches of the
surface during the brief summer season. Although some groups are
settled on rivers and depend on fishing, and others follow inland
caribou herds, most Eskimo traditionally have lived primarily as
hunters of maritime mammals (seals, walrus, and whales), and the
structure and ethos of their culture have always been fundamentally
oriented to the sea.

That is quite accurate.

One of the most striking aspects of traditional Eskimo culture is its
relative homogeneity across more than 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of the vast
expanses of the Arctic. The main institutional and psychological
patterns of the culture--religious, social, and economic--are much the
same. There are some differences in traditional kinship systems,
however, especially in the western regions, and the language is

I don't know what they mean by "especially in the western regions".
Not that I know of...

divided into two major dialectical groups, the Inupik speakers
(Greenland to western Alaska) and the Yupik speakers (southwestern
Alaska and Siberia)

And that is accurate too.

The Inupiaq (that is the what it is called in Alaska) language
broke away from Proto-Eskimo perhaps 1500-2000 years ago, and
rapidly spread from the Bering Straits area eastward to
Greenland. Today the Inupiaq language presents a continuum from
west to east, though at the fringes there are some significant
variations (influence by Yupik in the west and ritual word
replacement in Eastern Greenland). Otherwise they can easily
communicate with each other.

Yupik on the other hand has been in place for several thousands
of years, and in some cases even relatively close villages speak
dialects so different that they cannot understand each other.
It actually took study by linguists to discover that it was one
language with several very distinct dialects as opposed to just
several languages.

Note that occasionally you'll see the word "Yup'ik", which is
pronounced exactly the same as Yupik, but it is used to refer
to the Central Alaskan Yupik people or language.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

"Paul Schilter" ""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul
Hi Paul:
The term " Eskimo" is taken from the Algonquin tribe language and the
meaning is "eater of raw flesh". It was an ancient name that the Inuit
detested as it was in reference to the, sometimes, act of cannibalism. The
Inuit have always called themselves "Inuit" as a people and "Inuk" as a
person. I have traveled to Rankin Inlet in Nunavut ( Canadian Northern
Territory) to visit my niece who is a school teacher in this town. ( and to
go fishing ) She told me of how the people react to Americans who call
them "Eskimo". They definitely don't like it at all.

James D. Carter

On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 19:10:18 -0500, "Jim Carter"
wrote:


"Paul Schilter" ""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul
Hi Paul:
The term " Eskimo" is taken from the Algonquin tribe language and the
meaning is "eater of raw flesh". It was an ancient name that the Inuit
detested as it was in reference to the, sometimes, act of cannibalism. The
Inuit have always called themselves "Inuit" as a people and "Inuk" as a
person. I have traveled to Rankin Inlet in Nunavut ( Canadian Northern
Territory) to visit my niece who is a school teacher in this town. ( and to
go fishing ) She told me of how the people react to Americans who call
them "Eskimo". They definitely don't like it at all.

That's odd. For some reason, we have a small contingent of Inuit here
in town - I think two or three of the family teach in local colleges
and at UCONN. They have never objected to the term Eskimo.

Go figure.

Later,

Tom