Inuit Circumpolar Council

The Inuit Circumpolar Council is a multinational non-governmental organization and Indigenous Peoples' Organization representing the 180,000 Inuit and Yupik people living in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and the Chukchi Peninsula. ICC was accredited by the Economic and Social Council and was granted special consultative status at the United Nations in 1983.
The Conference, which first met in June 1977 in Barrow, Alaska, initially represented indigenous circumpolar peoples from Canada, Alaska and Greenland. In 1980 the charter and by-laws of ICC were adopted. The Conference agreed to replace the term Eskimo with the term Inuit. This has not however met with widespread acceptance by some groups, most pre-eminently the Yupik. The goals of the Conference are to strengthen ties between Arctic people and to promote human, cultural, political and environmental rights and polities at the international level.
ICC holds a General Assembly every four years. ICC is one of the six Arctic indigenous communities to have the status of Permanent Participant on the Arctic Council.

Background

The Inuit population includes the following groups and regions:

Canada: Inuit Nunangat: Central Inuit, Inuvialuit, Nunavimmiut, and Nunatsiavummiut or Labradormiut
United States : Iñupiat, Yup'ik, and Siberian Yupik
Greenland: Greenlandic Inuit: Kalaallit, Inughuit, and Tunumiit
Russia: Siberian Yupik

All of these peoples are sometimes collectively referred to by the exonym, Eskimo, the use of which is frowned upon by many of the Inuit, especially in eastern Canada. ICC uses the term Inuit to refer to them all, which has its own problems. One of those is administrative: an Inuk in the United States could be considered "Native Americans in [the United States|Native American]," "Alaskan Native" or "Aboriginal American." The Yupik of both Alaska and Russia generally prefer being called Yupik. Inuit is currently used in Alaska but it is not a word in the Yupik languages, nor a word which they traditionally used to describe themselves. Eskimo, which was formerly used in Alaska is generally dying out.

Structure and functions

The main goals of the organization are to strengthen unity among Inuit, to promote their human rights and interests, and to ensure the development of Inuit culture.
Structurally, the organization is made up of four separate offices in each of the four Inuit homelands, chartered individually under their national rules. The Presidents of ICC Chukotka, ICC Alaska, ICC Canada, and ICC Greenland, along with one Executive Council Member elected from each of the nations, make up the eight-member ICC Executive Council. The Executive Council is presided over by an International Chair.
ICC holds a General Assembly every four years, bringing together Inuit from across the northern circumpolar region to discuss issues of international importance to their communities, provide direction for the work of the organization over the next four years, and divide responsibility for issue areas between the national offices. Assembly delegates appoint an international chair from the General Assembly host-country, along with the members of the Executive Council, and develop policies and resolutions for the coming term.
The General Assembly, and thus the International Chair position, rotates between the four Inuit nations quadrennially at the General Assemblies. At the 2002 General Assembly in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Canada, the Chair passed from Greenland, where it had been held for the previous seven years by Aqqaluk Lynge, now a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, to Canada, where Sheila Watt-Cloutier, formerly the President of ICC Canada, took the position.
In 2006, the Chair passed to ICC Alaska at the General Assembly in Barrow, and was then occupied by Patricia L. Cochran, formerly executive director of the Alaska [Native Science Commission]. At that Assembly, ICC also voted to change its name to Inuit Circumpolar Council as there has been perennial confusion over an organizational name that sounds more like a past meeting.

Leadership

The leadership of the ICC was initially organized with one president and three regional vice presidents. A fourth vice-president was added when Russia/Chukotka joined the ICC. The president later came to be unknown as chairperson or international chairperson.

Session	International	Canada	Greenland	Alaska	Chukotka
1980–1983	Hans-Pavia Rosing	Mary Simon	Aqqaluk Lynge	James Stotts	n/a
1983–1986	Hans-Pavia Rosing	Mark Gordon	Aqqaluk Lynge	James Stotts	n/a
1986–1989	Mary Simon	Rosemarie Kuptana	Aqqaluk Lynge	Caleb Pungowiyi	n/a
1989–1992	Mary Simon	Les Carpenter	Aqqaluk Lynge	Edna McLean	Alexander Omrypkir & Nadezda Sudakova
1992–1995	Eileen MacLean Caleb Pungowiyi	Minnie Grey	Ingmar Egede	Gloria Simeon	Zoya Ivanova
1995–1998	Rosemarie Kuptana Aqqaluk Lynge	Sheila Watt-Cloutier	Aqqaluk Lynge	Ronald Brower	Tatiana Achirgina
1998–2002	Aqqaluk Lynge	Sheila Watt-Cloutier	Alfred Jakobsen Uusaqqak Qujaukitsoq	Dennis Tiepelman	Lubov Otrokova
2002–2006	Sheila Watt-Cloutier	Duane Smith	Aqqaluk Lynge	Chuck Greene	Natalia Rodionova
2006–2010	Patricia Cochran Jimmy Stotts	Duane Smith	Aqqaluk Lynge	Chuck Greene	Tatiana Achirgina
2010–2014		Duane Smith	Carl Christian “Puju” Olsen	James Stotts	Tatiana Achirgina
2014–2018	Okalik Eegeesiak	Duane Smith Nancy Karetak-Lindell	Hjalmar Dahl	James Stotts	Tatiana Achirgina
2018–2022	Dalee Sambo Dorough	Monica Ell-Kanayuk	Hjalmar Dahl	James Stotts	Liubov Taian
2022–2026	Sara Olsvig	Natan Obed Herbert Nakimayak	Kuupik Kleist Hjalmar Dahl	Marie Greene	Egor Vereshagin