II. Physical Characteristics and Regional Groupings

The Inuit vary within about 5 cm (about 2 in) of an average height of 163 cm (5 ft 4 in), and they display metabolic, circulatory, and other adaptations to the Arctic climate.

Inhabiting an area spanning almost 5150 km (almost 3200 mi), Inuit have a wider geographical range than any other aboriginal people and are the most sparsely distributed people on earth. They fall generally into the following geographical divisions, moving from east to west:

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• (1) Greenland Inuit, living on the eastern and western coasts of southern Greenland, who have adopted many European ways and are known as Greenlanders or Kalaallitt (Kalâtdlit);
• (2) Labrador Inuit, occupying the coast from a point opposite Newfoundland to Hudson Bay, with a few settlements on southern Baffin Island;
• (3) Central Inuit, including those of far northern Greenland and, in Canada, Baffin Island and western Hudson Bay;
• (4) Banks Island Inuit, on Banks Island, Victoria Island, and other large islands off the central Arctic coast;
• (5) Western Arctic Inuit or Inuvialuit, along the western Arctic coast of Canada;
• (6) Alaskan Inuit;
• (7) Alaskan Yuit; and
• (8) Siberian Yuit.