<P> Canada's 1982 Constitution Act recognized the Inuit as Aboriginal peoples in Canada, but not First Nations . In the same year, the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut (TFN) was incorporated, in order to take over negotiations for land claims on behalf of the Inuit living in the eastern Northwest Territories, that would later become Nunavut, from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which became a joint association of the Inuit of Quebec, Labrador, and the Northwest Territories . </P> <P> On October 30, 2008, Leona Aglukkaq was appointed as Minister of Health, "(becoming) the first Inuk to hold a senior cabinet position, although she is not the first Inuk to be in cabinet altogether ." Jack Anawak and Nancy Karetak - Lindell were both parliamentary secretaries respectively from 1993 to 1996 and in 2003 . </P> <P> In the United States, the term "Eskimo" is still commonly used, because it includes Inuit, Aleut, Iñupiat, and Yupik peoples whilst distinguishing them from American Indians . The Yupik do not speak an Inuit language nor consider themselves to be Inuit . However, the term is probably a Montagnais exonym as well as being widely used in folk etymology as meaning "eater of raw meat" in the Cree language . It is now considered pejorative or even a racial slur amongst the Canadian and English - speaking Greenlandic Inuit . </P> <P> In Canada and Greenland, "Inuit" is preferred . Inuit is the Eastern Canadian Inuit (Inuktitut) and West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) word for "the people ." Since Inuktitut and Kalaallisut are the prestige dialects in Canada and Greenland, respectively, their version has become dominant, although every Inuit dialect uses cognates from the Proto - Eskimo * ińuɣ--for example, "people" is inughuit in North Greenlandic and iivit in East Greenlandic . </P>

When did the inuit come to north america