Greenland Travel Tips - Greenland Travel Guide

The People

Greenlanders enjoy a unique position among the world's indigenous people in that Greenland is recognized as an autonomous nation residing within the Danish Kingdom. In every respect The Greenland Home Rule Government has complete legislative power over Greenlands internal affairs.

Peoples of various cultures have migrated to Greenland throughout the ages. The ancestors of the present day Greenlanders have inhabited the country for about 4 to 5,000 years. Today's Greenlander is a rich mix of the land's aboriginal people and it's migrants, and those - many of whom were whalers - who have frequented Greenland.

The Inuit, Greenland's indigenous people, share a common language and culture with the Inuit in Canada and Alaska. Eighty percent of Greenland's 56,000 residents are Inuit; the rest are primarily Danes. The population is distributed among 120 localities, 65 of which have less than 100 residents each. Nuuk, the capital and largest town, has a population of 13,500.

History

There have been several migrations to Greenland and in every case, living conditions bordered on the edge of what humans can survive and where minimum subsistence threatened even the heartiest. Greenland has always represented the outer frontier for where humans could settle.
The first group of hunters in the Arctic are called Paleo-Eskimos. The first to come to Greenland were of the Independence I and Saqqaq cultures. Only small stylistic variations in stone implements differentiate these two cultures.
The Paleo-Eskimo hunters spread out over the Arctic with surprising speed. Around 2,500 B.C. and in the space of just a few generations, the pioneer group reached Nares Strait, "the gateway to Greenland", from their point of origin in Alaska.
During the first migration, Greenland's rich hunting grounds were settled. The people of the Independence I culture settled in Peary Land where, a thousand years later, the people of the Independence II culture would also settle.
Following in the wake of Independence I (and prior to Independence II) the people of the Saqqaq culture arrived.
Shortly after Independence II, another group of Paleo-Eskimos migrated along the same route to Greenland but, instead, spread south along the west coast. These were the people of the Dorset culture. The oldest sagas in Inuit mythology have garnered their material from this period.
The advance guard of the people of the Thule Culture arrived around 900 A.D. This new culture is designated as the Inussuk Culture.

Hunters from the Thule Culture continued as an independent people until 1500 A.D.
The Western Settlement was last heard of in the 1300's whereas the Eastern Settlement in south Greenland lasted for 500 years (into the 1400's).

The last migration from Canada and Alaska took place between 1700 and 1900 when the present Polar Eskimos, the Inughuit, came to Avanersuaq (Thule).

Greenland General Tips

Greenland General Tips

Visiting Greenland?

Visiting Greenland?