US governement still calls inuits eskimos .

Sounds about right. Don't expect any changes soon either.

Progression from the US on Natives. Yeah, that and treating Blacks equally é

So do I. Discuss.

sp: 'government'.

Why do you Gareth.

is not eskimo just a collective term? like say caucasian? and inuit is merely a group within. i had no idea it was offensive, will the edmonton eskimos change their name?

It's the Inuit blood in my veins.

This thread seems quite serendipitous to me. Only very recently did I realise something about this, vis a vis being thrown by a song lyric that used the word Eskimo, because it sounded very non-PC to me, but was perfectly legitimate and common from the lyricist's POV. Apparently using *only* the term Innuit, is a strictly Canadian thing. I never knew it was still acceptable anywhere, because to say 'Eskimo'here, is tantamount to an ethnic slur. Of course when speaking of other native peoples, we don't say 'Indian' either, or even 'North American Indian' anymore. 'First Nations' seems to be name that is currently endorsed - at least it's the one the CBC throws around during the news.

The US and canada can use whatever term they want, but when will they give back the land?

Anyone is entitled to ask they be called anything they like: BUT "Eskimo" is hardly equivalent to "Indian". "Indian" meant native of India, which Columbus was aiming for but missed. So indian really = "Oh you over there, no I mean there, who cares anyway" (which is pretty insulting,). But Eskimo isn't English-French-Dutch-Spanish: is it Inuit? Chambers said it means "flesh- eaters"...

Eskimo sounds better than Inuit. So I'm sticking with Eskimo.

They don't have that many words for snow either, no more than we do anyway. It's a myth that they have a dozen or more (the figure always changes) different phrases.

It's a myth that it's a myth. Snow is in fact the only word they have a word for: but that's OK, because they have 324,871 words for it.

It is as offensive as Indian because the french mistakenly used an Iroqouis slur as a group name. Inuits are deeply offended being called Esikimos. It just is not done.

The US goverment still calls Monkey-like, intellignce-lacking dorks Mr. President.

No, I think they call him "Farm Boy".

After 2000 years we British are still stuck with a name given us by the Roman oppressor!

"Non Angli sed Angeli!"

Inuit just means "the people". I believe Canada just means "circle of huts". Isn't that pretty insulting? There is a TV commercial for Alliance & Leicester (i think) featuring an Inuit guy wheeling his shopping trolley down the central reservation of a road. I find the ad really offensive. It's almost like it's saying, "we can make fun of Inuit guys because there aren't any Inuit people living in Britain, so they're not going to find out".

Eskimo is either Mohawk or Cree (I forget) for "Eaters of Raw Meat" The term Inuit means the "the people" in their own tongue. Would you like to be known by what you eat?

Yes, I would.

Most "governement"s still call them Eskimos. WTF does anyone care what they get called as long as people aren't nasty to them? Call me slutbag bitch for all I care, as long as you say it in a nice way. I don't understand the big huge deal.

I'm sorry but I hate this type of thing. I hate people who get uber offended at well-meaning people who are using a term that went un-PC like two days ago or whatever. It's a big overreaction and it disgusts me.

It is a respect thing. Plus they have been inuits for 50+ years in CAndada

slutbag bitch tart!

I know you say it with love and/or lust in your eyes, Mike, so I never get angry with you.

Anthony, *so what*? You can be as disrespectful as possible and use the "correct" terminology or as nice as possible using the wrong terminology - which one would you rather encounter? It's one thing to actually use it as a slur, but it's a relatively innocuous word used throughout the world not called "Canada".

That is of course my other problem with your attitude on this, which is the specification of the US government. Like I said, it's common terminology, whether it's "right" or "wrong".

They're just words. Like I said, being disrespectful and rude is one thing, slurring people. Using the wrong terminology is a different thing and I think it's completely off base to go off on people for using the wrong word, which is something I see nonstop and it just makes me want to beat the shit out of people.

Story time: I used to work in a nursing home. During this time, I would see one volunteer absolutely GO OFF THE RACK towards these old people who were being perfectly nice to her, because they used the term "Indian" (ie the term they were brought up with) instead of "Native American" (which is incorrect historically anyhow for the people it now refers to; I prefer "American Indian", or just using the tribe name, as is recommended in the AP style guide). She would flip out on them - mind you, it's not like they were following her around "woo woo"ing with their hands over their mouth going, "How, injun girl", they would just be very nice and pleasant and happen to use the word "indian". Not in a derogatory way at all. That sort of behavior is just fucking shameful to me, it places something as transient as terminology over personality and feeling and that's just disgusting.

Like I said, call me whatever you want.

How do you know if "Eskimo" is just "incorrect terminology"? Do you know any Inuit? I think the idea is that they thought it was disrespectful. It's not up to us to decide. If it were a lot more white people would still be saying "nigger" because they wouldn't see what they were hurting.

Is it likely that "Eskimo" means "meat eater" in Iroquois/Cree/Mohawk AND something hostile and inappropriate in Inuit? Are Inuit and I/C/M related? (If they are, then it probably means someting like "meat eater".)

Obviously it's possible (Shropshire changed its name to Salop in the 70s for a while – short for Salopia = bogus latin for Shropshire – until it was pointed out it wuz a rude word in French ha ha).

Ally has a big ole point. The Inuit are treated pretty terribly in Canada to this day – the fact that this concession was won 50 years ago is NOT REALLY a sign of respect, it's a sign that the concession was neither here nor there to the Powers That Be. No big deal. A sop.

Hey Josh, I just realised what you meant by "Do you know any Inuit"... The people, not the language.

Oh well: the last bit of the point stands. Concession on the word = symbol of NO concession on anything substantive.

OK, so assuming that this is something "they" (through internal- government type decisions, or popular assent, or whatever) wanted, to be called Inuit, does the fact that the government has only made a token effort to respect them and make reparations mean that we should stop calling them by the name they requested, if they still choose it? Or should we just totally ignore them?

As well what colonials do to dehumaize thier charges is rename them. Still using inaccaurate and often slanderous names for tribes denies them their history and culture.

And my Father worked in Inuvik for the last 10 years. I know Inuit. And no they are not realted to the cree and irqouis.

Here are the usage notes from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language....

ESKIMO: Eskimo has come under strong attack in recent years for its supposed offensiveness, and many Americans today either avoid this term or feel uneasy using it. It is widely known that Inuit, a term of ethnic pride, offers an acceptable alternative, but it is less well understood that Inuit cannot substitute for Eskimo in all cases, being restricted in usage to the Inuit-speaking peoples of Arctic Canada and parts of Greenland. In Alaska and Arctic Siberia, where Inuit is not spoken, the comparable terms are Inupiaq and Yupik, neither of which has gained as wide a currency in English as Inuit. While use of these terms is often preferable when speaking of the appropriate linguistic group, none of them can be used of the Eskimoan peoples as a whole; the only inclusive term remains Eskimo. •The claim that Eskimo is offensive is based primarily on a popular but disputed etymology tracing its origin to an Abenaki word meaning “eaters of raw meat.” Though modern linguists speculate that the term actually derives from a Montagnais word referring to the manner of lacing a snowshoe, the matter remains undecided, and meanwhile many English speakers have learned to perceive Eskimo as a derogatory term invented by unfriendly outsiders in scornful reference to their neighbors' unsophisticated eating habits.

INUIT: The preferred term for the native peoples of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland is now Inuit, and the use of Eskimo in referring to these peoples is often considered offensive, especially in Canada. Inuit, the plural of the Inuit word inuk, “human being,” is less exact in referring to the peoples of northern Alaska, who speak dialects of the closely related Inupiaq language, and it is inappropriate when used in reference to speakers of Yupik, the Eskimoan language branch of western Alaska and the Siberian Arctic.

Thank you. My father is learning Yupik now. This means he knows 5 languages. 3 of them useless below the arctic.