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)