P275 - USA - Eskimo mother and girls, Alaska

Eskimo mother and girls, Alaska, USA

Eskimos or Esquimaux are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia (Russia), across Alaska (United States) and Canada, and all of Greenland.

There are two main groups referred to as Eskimo: Yupik and Inuit. A third group, the Aleut, is related. The Yupik language dialects and cultures in Alaska and eastern Siberia have evolved in place beginning with the original (pre-Dorset) Eskimo culture that developed in Alaska. Approximately 4,000 years ago the Unangam (also known as Aleut) culture became distinctly separate, and evolved into a non-Eskimo culture. Approximately 1,500-2,000 years ago, apparently in Northwestern Alaska, two other distinct variations appeared. The Inuit language branch became distinct and in only several hundred years spread across northern Alaska, Canada and into Greenland. At about the same time, the Thule Technology also developed in northwestern Alaska and very quickly spread over the entire area occupied by Eskimo people, though it was not necessarily adopted by all of them.

The earliest known Eskimo cultures were Pre-Dorset Technology, which appear to have been a fully developed Eskimo culture that dates to 5,000 years ago. They appear to have evolved in Alaska from people using the Archaic Small Tools Technology, who probably had migrated to Alaska from Siberia at least 2 to 3 thousand years earlier; though they might have been in Alaska as far back as 10 to 12 thousand years or more. There are similar artifacts found in Siberia going back to perhaps 18,000 years ago. It is believed that the Mongols, Eskimos, and probably the Korean people too all share a common ancestor in northern Asia[citation needed].

Today the two main groups of Eskimos are the Inuit of northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland, and the Yupik, comprising speakers of four distinct Yupik languages and originating in western Alaska, in South Central Alaska along the Gulf of Alaska coast, and in the Russian Far East.

爱斯基摩人(Eskimos or Esquimaux)是北美洲北部（包括美国阿拉斯加北部、加拿大和格陵蘭）的因纽特人（Inuit）以及阿拉斯加西部和俄羅斯西伯利亚东北部的尤皮克人（Yupik）的总称，两者使用很相似的语言，均属于爱斯基摩-阿留申语系。除爱斯基摩人外，其余的美洲土著居民则属于印第安人。这些美洲土著居民常被统称为美洲原住民。

另有一說稱爱斯基摩人是黃皮膚的原因是因為他們為古時東亞蒙古族的分支，由於當時介乎於美洲和亞洲之間的白令海峽海床甚淺，使他們可以從海堤上橫度至北美洲，加上當時歐洲人仍未登陸美洲，所以爱斯基摩人就發展成為了美洲原住民。

References sources : wikipedia