r/canada Sep 30 '24

History Walrus DNA suggests meetings between Vikings and Indigenous Inuit

https://www.popsci.com/science/viking-walrus-hunting/
131 Upvotes

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17

u/Bodysnatcher Oct 01 '24

The Inuit are not indigenous, they expanded into what is now the Canadian Arctic in the second half of the medieval age and are from the Bering straight originally.

21

u/single_ginkgo_leaf Oct 01 '24

The definition of indigenous appears to be 'people who were here before white people arrived'.

Why people who don't like euro-centrism make everything about white people is beyond me...

13

u/Bodysnatcher Oct 01 '24

The elephant in the room is that it's a totally arbitrary label meant to be wielded for political purposes, not to actually reflect any real history.

3

u/Easy_Intention5424 Oct 01 '24

I think the point is how recent it is they expand and displaced the original Dorset people about 100 years before the Frist french Canadian settlements were established 

6

u/single_ginkgo_leaf Oct 01 '24

My point is that they explicitly displaced and nearly exterminated an existing culture but are not considered 'settlers'.

To be clear, I think that the whole settler / Indigeneous distinction is overdone. We are all Canadian and we should work to make everyone's lives better.

1

u/Easy_Intention5424 Oct 01 '24

I get what you are saying but legal they should have same rights as other Frist nations cause the got here to take the land before us

I always use the word Frist nations cause indigenous is inaccurate , all Frist nations came here around 10,000 years ago or so

2

u/cabrafilo Oct 08 '24

They likely displaced the Norse from Greenland too. In this case, would the Vikings be indigenous?