Besides the Iivit, who live in the eastern portion of Inuit Nunaat in the jurisdiction of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), Avanersuarmiut (Northern) and Kitaamiut (Western) Greenland Inuit are called Inuit, Inivit or Inivi (Kalaallit) and Inughuit, respectively. About 80% to 88% of Greenland's population, or approximately 44,000 to 50,000 people, identify as being Indigenous Inuit.[2][3]
Iivit or Tunumiit or the Eastern Inuit, live primarily in the Ammassalik region, the area with the mildest climate in King Christian IX Land. Hunters can hunt marine mammals from kayaks throughout the year.[4]
Ittoqqortoormiit was the settlement founded in 1925 by Ejnar Mikkelsen in Scoresby Sound. 80 Inuit settlers—70 persons from Tasiilaq and four families from western Greenland—were brought there by ship. The area has vestiges of former habitation, but it had been uninhabited for about a century at the time of the foundation of the new settlement.
An angakkuq or spirit healer named Mitsivarniannga from Ammassalik Island created a tupilaq "evil spirit object," for a visiting European in 1905. When no harm befell him for creating and showing this object to an outsider, others began making tupilait, which evolved into a popular art form.[7] Residents also carved Ammassalik wooden maps, that traced the Eastern Greenlandic coastline. Customary art-making practices thrive on Ammassalik Island.[2]
^Einar Lund Jensen, Hans Christian Gulløv, Kristine Raahauge, Cultural Encounters at Cape Farewell: The East Greenlandic Immigrants and the German Moravian Mission in the 19th century. p. 74