Free Republic

A major organization of Inuit native Canadians has insisted that Pope Francis’ apology was insufficient, calling on the Catholic Church to pony up monetary reparations. Pope Francis’ apology is “only one step towards reconciliation,” Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) said in a statement following the pontiff’s declaration of sorrow this week for the ways in which many Christians “supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples.” “Inuit have finally been heard and their experiences acknowledged,” said Aluki Kotierk, president of NTI, which sent a delegation of 55 Nunavut Inuit to Edmonton to witness the papal apology. Now...

Voters in Greenland have given an opposition party its first-ever chance to form a government after a campaign that sought to define the limits of development on the Arctic island. The Inuit Ataqatigiit party won 37% of the vote, compared with 29% for the ruling social-democratic Siumut party, according to official results reported by Reuters. The vote totals should allow Inuit Ataqatigiit to grab 12 seats in the 31-member unicameral legislature, known as the Inatsisartut, meaning it will likely need to form a coalition with support from one of the smaller parties. At the center of Tuesday's election was the...

Scans of mummified Inuits from 16th-century Greenland revealed that the ancient hunters suffered from clogged-up arteries despite a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Atherosclerosis — the build-up of plaques of fat, cholesterol and calcium in one's arteries — is a leading cause of death today in the world's wealthier countries. While often seen as a product of modern lifestyles, evidence of the condition has been found in human remains dating back as far as around 4,000 BC. However, none of these examples enjoyed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which has been suggested can help protect against plaque...

With signs that the world is warming, even Inuit peoples of the far north are ordering air conditioning. Better known for building igloos during hunts on the polar ice, Inuit in the village of Kuujjuaq in Quebec, Canada, are installing 10 air conditioners for about 25 office workers. "These are the times when the far north has to have air conditioners now to function," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a leading campaigner for the rights of 155,000 Inuit in Canada, Alaska, Russia and Greenland. "Our Arctic homes are made to be airtight for the cold and do not 'breathe' well in the...

NUUK, Greenland (AFP) - After 25 years of internal autonomy, the icy Danish territory of Greenland has set its sights on true independence, hoping that talks on the modernization of a US military base on the island may have helped nudge it closer to its goal. Greenland, which became a Danish colony in 1721, aspires to "before the 300th anniversary of the colonialization ... be capable of becoming master of its own destiny," deputy prime minister of Greenland Josef Motzfeldt told AFP. Greenlanders have long felt that along with Denmark, the US, with its military base at Thule in the...

NEANDERTHAL LIFE NO TOUGHER THAN THAT OF “MODERN” INUITS COLUMBUS, Ohio – The bands of ancient Neanderthals that struggled throughout Europe during the last Ice Age faced challenges no tougher than those confronted by the modern Inuit, or Eskimos. That’s the conclusion of a new study intended to test a long-standing belief among anthropologists that the life of the Neanderthals was too tough for their line to coexist with Homo sapiens. “Looking at these fossilized teeth, you can easily see these defects that showed Neanderthals periodically struggled nutritionally,” Guatelli-Steinberg said. “But I wanted to know if that struggle was any...