World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - United States of America : Inuit and Alaska Natives
Indigenous peoples of Alaska include at least 20 language groups (some now spoken only by a handful of elders) and several hundred villages and tribal groups. Inuit (or Inupiaq) are the largest group, numbering 54,761 in 2000. Until 30 or so years ago, the term 'Eskimo' was regularly used to describe this group, but today, the more common usage in Canada and Greenland is Inuit, although in Alaska, Eskimo is still actively used. The second largest group are the Tlingit-Haida (22,365) followed by Alaska Athabaskan (18,838) and the Aleut (16,978). Others groups include the Alutiiq, Yup'ik and Cup'ik, Eyak and Tsimshian Natives.
In 2000, their population numbered 96,998, working in every sector from traditional hunting to corporate management. Alaska natives make up about 16 per cent of Alaska's residents, and are a significant segment of the population in its rural communities. Up to 57 per cent of Alaska natives live in rural areas, though growing numbers are moving to urban areas, particularly Anchorage, in search of work.
Before European contact, Inuit lived in extended family groups as semi-nomadic hunter-fisher-gatherers. Aleuts also hunted and trapped, but lived in more permanent, partly subterranean homes on the Aleutian Islands. Native groups further south had large permanent settlements and trade networks. The first Europeans to land in Alaska were Russian explorers, and the territory was occupied by the Russian Empire from 1741 until 1867, when it was sold to the USA. The USA imposed restrictions on indigenous Alaskans' education, religious and voting rights similar to those experienced by Native Americans in more southerly states. Alaska became the forty-ninth and largest US state in 1959. In 1966, the Alaska Federation of Natives was formed and filed land claims covering the entire state. Oil was discovered in Alaska in 1968, and in 1971 the US Congress passed the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). It extinguished aboriginal titles and created for-profit corporations in each region to administer an award totalling US $962.5 million and covering 178,068 sq km. Corporate shares, which could not be sold until 1991, were granted exclusively to indigenous Alaskans born before December 1971.
