means "our land" in Innuktitut, the language of Inuit. It should be noted that due to the
borrowing of the terminology database from the Inuit's native language, in Canadian
English the term Inuk is used to refer to one person and Inuuk to denote two people. In
addition to the territory of Nunavut with 49% of total Canadian Inuit population, Inuit
live in the north of Quebec Province and account for 19% of Inuit population. They
also inhabit the Northwest Territories and part of the Labrador Province, where the
Inuit population is 6% and 4% of the total population of Inuit origin (Raham, 2009).
Among Inuit, researchers distinguish six different ethnic groups that speak five
dialects of the Inuktitut language. The dialects of the Inuktitut language are so different
that Inuit from different parts of the state cannot always be understood. Statistics from
Canadian studies indicate that while 69% of Inuit speak the Inuktitut language, the
number of Inuktitut speakers is constantly declining. Inuktitut is the official language
of the province of Nunavut along with English and French.
As during the historical development of the country neither Inuit nor Metis
entered into agreements with European colonizers, and, accordingly, did not receive
land allocated to them by the federal government, their settlements did not form
reserves. Therefore, the terms "reserve of inuit / metis" are incorrect and do not reflect
historical and contemporary reality. So, considering the residence of all Indigenous
people in Canada, we can talk about "Indian reserves, and the settlements of Inuit and
Metis" (National Aboriginal Health Organization Terminology Guideines, 2017).
The term "Indigenous people" in English literature is a generic term and is used
mainly in international context to refer to Indigenous peoples around the world,
including Canadian and Alaska Inuit, Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori, etc.
Another group of Indigenous people, different from migrants from other
continents of the world, are Métis. They are of mixed European and Indigenous
ancestry. The term "Metis" in French means "[person] of mixed blood". Data on the
metis, as a group of Indigenous people, are dated much later than Indians and Inuit.
Today they live mainly in the prairies - the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta, and represent about 30% of the total Canadian Indigenous population
(Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2012). Metis have their own language - a miciff
developed on the basis of the gradual interference of the French language and the
Indian dialects. Over the centuries, Metis developed a unique culture other than
European and Indian. For the first time, Metis began to be considered as a separate
people in the 60's and 70's of the nineteenth century and the separation of the province
Manitoba and its entering the Confederation in 1870 greatly contributed to it.
Unlike Indians, Metis do not have special land areas allocated to them, except for
several settlements in the province of Alberta. Since they were formed as a nation much
later, the federal government of Canada did not enter into agreements with them that
would guarantee them the right to education or financial support. Although since 1982,
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