Blonde Eskimos: Real or Myth?

[IndigoChild]

Hey, I know that this is a weird connection, but in the "evil picture" thread someone was discussing unusual occurences of traits and brought up the story of the Blonde Eskimos, so it made me interested. Do you think that they once existed if not anymore? Here's a snippet from what I found on Wikipedia::

Blond Eskimos or White Eskimos is the popular name for a group of Eskimos residing on both sides of Coronation Gulf between mainland Canada and Victoria Island, whose first contact with Westerners may go back to Sir John Franklin in 1821 and Dease and Simpson in 1838-9. They were visited and described by the Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefánsson in 1910. A frequent occurrence of light hair and gray or blue eyes exists amongst them, while most other New World peoples have dark hair and brown eyes. In his book My Life with the Eskimos, Stefánsson proposed several explanations:

Early mixture with Norse colonists from Greenland;

Mixture with European whalers;

Ancient migration of European-like people from across the Bering Strait;

He rejected the second explanation because "if the mixing of races is so recent, it would appear that it should be most conspicuous farther east where the whalers had their headquarters, fading away as one goes westward. The opposite is the case".

In 2003, two Icelandic scientists, the geneticist and anthropologists Agnar Helgason and Gisli Palsson announced their research of comparing DNA from 100 Cambridge Bay Inuit with Norse descendants from Iceland, and concluded that there was no match between the Nunavut and Icelandic DNA.

[positron]

Hey, I know that this is a weird connection, but in the "evil picture" thread someone was discussing unusual occurences of traits and brought up the story of the Blonde Eskimos, so it made me interested. Do you think that they once existed if not anymore? Here's a snippet from what I found on Wikipedia::

Blond Eskimos or White Eskimos is the popular name for a group of Eskimos residing on both sides of Coronation Gulf between mainland Canada and Victoria Island, whose first contact with Westerners may go back to Sir John Franklin in 1821 and Dease and Simpson in 1838-9. They were visited and described by the Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefánsson in 1910. A frequent occurrence of light hair and gray or blue eyes exists amongst them, while most other New World peoples have dark hair and brown eyes. In his book My Life with the Eskimos, Stefánsson proposed several explanations:

Early mixture with Norse colonists from Greenland;

Mixture with European whalers;

Ancient migration of European-like people from across the Bering Strait;

He rejected the second explanation because "if the mixing of races is so recent, it would appear that it should be most conspicuous farther east where the whalers had their headquarters, fading away as one goes westward. The opposite is the case".

In 2003, two Icelandic scientists, the geneticist and anthropologists Agnar Helgason and Gisli Palsson announced their research of comparing DNA from 100 Cambridge Bay Inuit with Norse descendants from Iceland, and concluded that there was no match between the Nunavut and Icelandic DNA.

Some people just end up in totally different places in the strangest ways,and DNA has nothing to do with this!

[IndigoChild]

But they were said to have intermarried with Norsemen who settled in their territory. They were said to be authentic "eskimos" in ethnicity, gaining the light features from that European influence in the area. Hunh. O.o

[dantheman2435]

I've never heard of this before. Thanks for the info.

[Poetic Reven]

Well, though useless, this is an interesting topic.

Never heard of em before.

[Tucuxi]

Well, though useless, this is an interesting topic.

Never heard of em before.

Why is the topic useless?

[m. Moe]

Theres probably a blonde one in the bunch..........

ESKIMOS

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the Inuit people find the term "eskimo" offensive.

Edited December 27, 2006 by MR_MOE

[coldethyl]

Well I think myth.

Read this.

[IndigoChild]

Well I think myth.

Read this.

Wow, I'd heard before that there was no DNA link as of late but never had the info to back it up. Thanks for posting, coldethyl.

[coldethyl]

No problemo.

[Poetic Reven]

Why is the topic useless?

Cuz the only place the knowledge can be used is on jeopardy

[SkeptiCx]

here's my question.

Who cares?

but seriously, blonde eskimos? I didnt think they had hair, due to their always wrapped up in fur coats.

[trickyhomunculi]

Theres probably a blonde one in the bunch..........

ESKIMOS

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the Inuit people find the term "eskimo" offensive.

ugh whats sports got to do with it?

Edited January 2, 2007 by clover

[LiQuiD_FuSioN]

here's my question.

Who cares?

but seriously, blonde eskimos? I didnt think they had hair, due to their always wrapped up in fur coats.

I care.

I hear the female ones are loads o'fun!

[SkeptiCx]

I care.

I hear the female ones are loads o'fun!

Settle down sparky!

[louie]

there were black eskimos,,,, some adventurer went far north and found a tribe of nomad eskimos and he stayed a while researching them whatever , with him he had a servant " this is back in the day" and the servant was a black man, needless to say a baby was born and the kid was the child of an encounter between an eskimo woman and the servant so that kid stayed with the tribe and in turn he produced offspring producing more dark skinned babies..... waalllaa.

i read an article in the times once about it.

so there you go

Edited January 4, 2007 by louie

[Nukuson]

That could be the "Dorset" culture. There are no archaeological evidences on what happened to them - There could some clues in both Inuit and Norse legends - Inuit speak of "giants" that were very primitive, while Norse mythology speaks of "giants" living "to the East of Miðgarðr", also being "primitive". If the Dorset really came from Siberia, then it was possible that the Norsemen discovered them first in Siberia, and the stories have gotten so old, so stayed only in myths, while the Inuit met them later in north America, not only pushing them away from their land, but also pushing back the Icelandic colonists.

The scientists generally suggest that the Dorset got "sandwiched", by Inuit from the west, and Icelanders from the east, though there are also suggestions that Icelanders had established trade routes with the Dorset, and DNA analysis have found a Native American mtDNA haplogroup that appears to be specific to Icelanders.

[Tatetopa]

I have known two blonde Inuit.  Both were artists from Alaska down in Seattle for a show. One carved soapstone in traditional manner the other made masks.    Their grandfather was Danish.   I imagine history might be full of those multicultural families.

[AtlantisRises]

Not only is the thread 12 years old but every single poster has been absent for at least 2 years. This might be the greatest example of necroposting ever.

Brings back some names from the yesteryears of UM which is pretty cool at least.

[Suprnova]

Just a loose theory off of the top of my head, you know how some non modernized African people use cow pee to dye their hair a blonde or red/orange like colour?, i saw a program about it on one of the documentary channels, maybe it could be something similar to this?

['Walt' E. Kurtz]

No snow no show for the eskimo. Im a blond eskimo a swede... 

[Podo]

3 hours ago, Avalanche said:

No snow no show for the eskimo. Im a blond eskimo a swede... 

Wouldn't the Sami be closer to that than the Swedes?

['Walt' E. Kurtz]

6 hours ago, Podo said:

Wouldn't the Sami be closer to that than the Swedes?

You're absolutely right since they have existed in scandinavia for little over  2000 years. :-)

[Piney]

On 12/15/2018 at 5:58 PM, Nukuson said:

The scientists generally suggest that the Dorset got "sandwiched", by Inuit from the west, and Icelanders from the east, though there are also suggestions that Icelanders had established trade routes with the Dorset, and DNA analysis have found a Native American mtDNA haplogroup that appears to be specific to Icelanders.

Another suggestion was they were wiped out by the Thule. They were not as militant, nor had the bow, which the Thule had. I was always under the opinion that the Thule were Athabaskans and when they entered the Southwest ( Apache-Navajo migration) they warred with everybody including themselves. 

[Rollo]

Métis is that what your talking about. 

Edited March 26, 2020 by Rollo