The Eskimos[1] were a pretty expansionist bunch. During the course of their rapid expansion from their North American hearth region in the Seward Peninsula, which began around 1000 AD, on at least four occasions, they took over previously-settled territory:
--The "skraelings" encountered by the Norse in Markland and Vinland were not Eskimos but members of the "Dorset culture," who were supplanted by a proto-Inuit group, the Thule, moving east along the Arctic Coast, not long after the Norse left North America.
--The Thule/Inuit then went on to gradually displace the Norse from
Greenland in the 1300s-1400s, in what is probably the only example of
Native Americans taking over a territory from its original European
settlers.
--Far to the west and further south, a group of Yup'ik Eskimos seem to
have conquered the locals of the Kodiak Island area in the 1100s AD,
picking up a bunch of their adaptations in the process and thereby
becoming the ethnic group variously known as Pacific Eskimo, Chugach
Eskimo, Sugpiaq or Alutiiq.
--Perhaps most remarkably, in the 1700s AD a group of Inupiat Eskimos
moved inland and had just finished pushing some Athabaskans out of the
Brooks Range passes at the time of European contact.
In short, Eskimos were all over the place. But they were latecomers:
the first Eskaleut speakers probably showed up in North America around
2500 BC, ten thousand years or more after the first peopling of the
continent. The spread started in about 1000 AD,
and the expansion was fast--most of it complex in about 400 years, with the move inland taking a bit longer. So, suppose that the expansion begins 500
years earlier--a blink of the eye in prehistoric times. There's a
handwave here--the florescence seems to have coincided with the
Medieval Warm Period, the same period of relatively hospitable climate
in the Arctic which allowed the Vikings to expand westward into
Iceland and Greenland. But during the Little Ice Age OTL, the Eskimos
survived and (relative to the desolate conditions, thrived). So I
think an earlier expansion is possible, provided the technological package is there. Note that this is not a political expansion, not an empire; it’s a migratory expansion, a Volkswanderung. Think Indo-Europeans in skin boats.
There are about six possible axes of expansion: east, along the Arctic Coast; west, back into Siberia; southwest, into the Aleutians; east along the Pacific/Gulf of Alaska Coast (and eventually south as the coastline bends); and south into the Canadian/Alaskan interior.
--An inland expansion is probably a dead end. Eskimo are a people highly adapted to a cold-water marine environment; even the "Inland Eskimo" of OTL went to the Colville mouth annually to trade with their coastal cousins. This kind of thing can change, but probably not in a mere 500 years.
--Southwest into the Aleutians is feasible, but uninteresting. The Unangan people living there were supremely adapted for the unique environment of the Chain; if the Eskimo supplant them, they will do by adapting their technology. Given that Eskimos and Aleuts[2] are related OTL, all that would really happen is you'd get Unangan who speak a language somewhat more closely related to Yup'ik than OTL Aleut is.
--OTL the Chugach Eskimo/Sugpiaq got as far as Prince William Sound.
In this direction every kayak-paddle takes them into a more abundant
natural environment, but also into terrain occupied by wealthier and
more complex societies. But if they get there early, the societies
will be less organized and advanced, so there’s an opportunity. OTL
their coastal neighbors were the Eyak of the Copper River Delta. Eyak
territory at the time of European contact was very circumscribed;
strong evidence shows much of their traditional territory had been taken
over by Tlingits, a group of fierce warrior-artists, moving up
from the Alexander Archipelago. But this happened way late, like the
1500s AD. ATL Sugpiaq take over Eyak country; their expansion is
eventually halted by the ancestral Tlingit around Prince of Wales
Island. This puts just about the entire coast of today’s state of
Alaska under Eskimo settlement.
--In OTL, Yup'ik Eskimos did migrate back across the Bering Strait. They just barely established a presence on the tip of the Chukotsk Peninsula. My ignorance of the native peoples of Siberia is profound, so I don't know how far west across the Arctic or south down Russia's Pacific Coast they can get. Nor do I know what impact, if any, this would have on Russian eastward expansion. Certainly it would be interesting if Russians found Eskimo-speaking people at the site of OTL Vladivostok, but that's awfully far south.
--The most intriguing possibilities lie in the High Arctic. The Thule/Inuit will reach the Atlantic Coast around AD 800 ATL. They’re sure to turn the corner keep spreading south; the waters in this region are rich in cod and whale. They certainly take over all of Newfoundland from the timid Beothuk, and will be waiting to greet John Cabot with harpoons and spears. Perhaps they take over the Bay of Fundy from the Mik’maq. Possibly they’re at least trading and hunting whale as far south as Cape Cod by 1500 AD.
--OTL the Thule reached Greenland in the 1300s; ATL they're there in
c. 800 AD, meaning they beat the Icelanders by about two generations. OTL they settled the northwest coast first and gradually worked their way down. ATL Erik the Red finds the East Settlement, but not the West Settlement,
occupied. This leads to more extensive contact than occurred OTL, but
it also makes the Norse toehold more tenuous. The Norse can probably hold on as long as the Medieval Warm Period lasts; but as soon as the weather starts getting rougher, the smaller amount of farmland available, and greater pressure by the Eskimo, drive the Norse out faster. They never reach North America; they’re driven off Greenland by about 1100 AD.
--In theory, the Greenland Eskimo could pick up use of the sail from
the Norse. Despite popular conceptions, Eskimo in the high Arctic
didn’t use kayaks; they used larger, open boats called umiak, with a
captain-and-crew command structure which look reasonably similar to
Viking longboats. The sail is a logical jump. Timber for masts could
be a problem, but by this point other Eskimo-speakers have reached
forested regions, so timber is available at least as a trade item
(ropes are more problematic). OTL individual Eskimo crews made it to
the vicinity of the outer British Isles and maybe even Denmark; there
are reports of dwarfish "Finn-men" in skin boats. ATL, with the
certain knowledge of wealthier lands to the east and possible advances
in maritime technology, the Eskimo could start doing longer-distance
voyages, and cross the Denmark Strait. The first umiaks reach Iceland
in the High Middle Ages, a few years after the signing of the Old
Covenant in 1262.
--There's a potential game-changer to the history of all of North America here: iron tools. OTL Eskimo certainly saw the Norse using metal tools. ATL the Eskimo, in theory at least, have the raw materials to actually do ironworking: bog iron in Newfoundland and timber for furnaces in same (and in the southernmost reaches of their range in Alaska and mainland Canada). Now, it's worth noting that OTL the Inuit and the Norse lived together--like, villages within sight of one another--for like 10 generations without borrowing much of anything from each other. But I think there's the possibility that them showing up at pretty much the same time, with both peoples still in their "pioneers in a new land" phase at the time of contact, will alter the dynamic.
Thoughts? Note that this is not the same scenario as "Of Mice and Ice," which I have been looking at with interest (although I came up with the idea separately). It is at once more and less restrictive in scope than that scenario. Here, the change is not as revolutionary as horticulture; simply the earlier appearance of the skin-boat-and-toggled-harpoon Eskimo we know and love. At the same time, the change effects not just the Inuit of the High Arctic, but all Eskimo speaking people. A broader but shallower change, as it were.
[1] “Eskimo” is a fraught term; many Canadians consider it a
pejorative and prefer the term “Inuit.” In Alaska, we use “Eskimo” as
an umbrella group containign two fairly culturally distinct (but
definitely related) groups: the Inupiat/Inuit of the Arctic Coast, and
the Yup’ik of the Pacific Coast, who are not found in Canada.
[2] Today's occupants of the Aleutians are more commonly known as "Aleuts." In the opinion of many, including me, that term best describes the syncrete of Russian and Native culture that resulted from 100 years of very close contact between the two peoples; Unangan is a term best reserved for the "pure" Native culture on the chain that preceded Russian contact.
--The "skraelings" encountered by the Norse in Markland and Vinland were not Eskimos but members of the "Dorset culture," who were supplanted by a proto-Inuit group, the Thule, moving east along the Arctic Coast, not long after the Norse left North America.
--The Thule/Inuit then went on to gradually displace the Norse from
Greenland in the 1300s-1400s, in what is probably the only example of
Native Americans taking over a territory from its original European
settlers.
--Far to the west and further south, a group of Yup'ik Eskimos seem to
have conquered the locals of the Kodiak Island area in the 1100s AD,
picking up a bunch of their adaptations in the process and thereby
becoming the ethnic group variously known as Pacific Eskimo, Chugach
Eskimo, Sugpiaq or Alutiiq.
--Perhaps most remarkably, in the 1700s AD a group of Inupiat Eskimos
moved inland and had just finished pushing some Athabaskans out of the
Brooks Range passes at the time of European contact.
In short, Eskimos were all over the place. But they were latecomers:
the first Eskaleut speakers probably showed up in North America around
2500 BC, ten thousand years or more after the first peopling of the
continent. The spread started in about 1000 AD,
and the expansion was fast--most of it complex in about 400 years, with the move inland taking a bit longer. So, suppose that the expansion begins 500
years earlier--a blink of the eye in prehistoric times. There's a
handwave here--the florescence seems to have coincided with the
Medieval Warm Period, the same period of relatively hospitable climate
in the Arctic which allowed the Vikings to expand westward into
Iceland and Greenland. But during the Little Ice Age OTL, the Eskimos
survived and (relative to the desolate conditions, thrived). So I
think an earlier expansion is possible, provided the technological package is there. Note that this is not a political expansion, not an empire; it’s a migratory expansion, a Volkswanderung. Think Indo-Europeans in skin boats.
There are about six possible axes of expansion: east, along the Arctic Coast; west, back into Siberia; southwest, into the Aleutians; east along the Pacific/Gulf of Alaska Coast (and eventually south as the coastline bends); and south into the Canadian/Alaskan interior.
--An inland expansion is probably a dead end. Eskimo are a people highly adapted to a cold-water marine environment; even the "Inland Eskimo" of OTL went to the Colville mouth annually to trade with their coastal cousins. This kind of thing can change, but probably not in a mere 500 years.
--Southwest into the Aleutians is feasible, but uninteresting. The Unangan people living there were supremely adapted for the unique environment of the Chain; if the Eskimo supplant them, they will do by adapting their technology. Given that Eskimos and Aleuts[2] are related OTL, all that would really happen is you'd get Unangan who speak a language somewhat more closely related to Yup'ik than OTL Aleut is.
--OTL the Chugach Eskimo/Sugpiaq got as far as Prince William Sound.
In this direction every kayak-paddle takes them into a more abundant
natural environment, but also into terrain occupied by wealthier and
more complex societies. But if they get there early, the societies
will be less organized and advanced, so there’s an opportunity. OTL
their coastal neighbors were the Eyak of the Copper River Delta. Eyak
territory at the time of European contact was very circumscribed;
strong evidence shows much of their traditional territory had been taken
over by Tlingits, a group of fierce warrior-artists, moving up
from the Alexander Archipelago. But this happened way late, like the
1500s AD. ATL Sugpiaq take over Eyak country; their expansion is
eventually halted by the ancestral Tlingit around Prince of Wales
Island. This puts just about the entire coast of today’s state of
Alaska under Eskimo settlement.
--In OTL, Yup'ik Eskimos did migrate back across the Bering Strait. They just barely established a presence on the tip of the Chukotsk Peninsula. My ignorance of the native peoples of Siberia is profound, so I don't know how far west across the Arctic or south down Russia's Pacific Coast they can get. Nor do I know what impact, if any, this would have on Russian eastward expansion. Certainly it would be interesting if Russians found Eskimo-speaking people at the site of OTL Vladivostok, but that's awfully far south.
--The most intriguing possibilities lie in the High Arctic. The Thule/Inuit will reach the Atlantic Coast around AD 800 ATL. They’re sure to turn the corner keep spreading south; the waters in this region are rich in cod and whale. They certainly take over all of Newfoundland from the timid Beothuk, and will be waiting to greet John Cabot with harpoons and spears. Perhaps they take over the Bay of Fundy from the Mik’maq. Possibly they’re at least trading and hunting whale as far south as Cape Cod by 1500 AD.
--OTL the Thule reached Greenland in the 1300s; ATL they're there in
c. 800 AD, meaning they beat the Icelanders by about two generations. OTL they settled the northwest coast first and gradually worked their way down. ATL Erik the Red finds the East Settlement, but not the West Settlement,
occupied. This leads to more extensive contact than occurred OTL, but
it also makes the Norse toehold more tenuous. The Norse can probably hold on as long as the Medieval Warm Period lasts; but as soon as the weather starts getting rougher, the smaller amount of farmland available, and greater pressure by the Eskimo, drive the Norse out faster. They never reach North America; they’re driven off Greenland by about 1100 AD.
--In theory, the Greenland Eskimo could pick up use of the sail from
the Norse. Despite popular conceptions, Eskimo in the high Arctic
didn’t use kayaks; they used larger, open boats called umiak, with a
captain-and-crew command structure which look reasonably similar to
Viking longboats. The sail is a logical jump. Timber for masts could
be a problem, but by this point other Eskimo-speakers have reached
forested regions, so timber is available at least as a trade item
(ropes are more problematic). OTL individual Eskimo crews made it to
the vicinity of the outer British Isles and maybe even Denmark; there
are reports of dwarfish "Finn-men" in skin boats. ATL, with the
certain knowledge of wealthier lands to the east and possible advances
in maritime technology, the Eskimo could start doing longer-distance
voyages, and cross the Denmark Strait. The first umiaks reach Iceland
in the High Middle Ages, a few years after the signing of the Old
Covenant in 1262.
--There's a potential game-changer to the history of all of North America here: iron tools. OTL Eskimo certainly saw the Norse using metal tools. ATL the Eskimo, in theory at least, have the raw materials to actually do ironworking: bog iron in Newfoundland and timber for furnaces in same (and in the southernmost reaches of their range in Alaska and mainland Canada). Now, it's worth noting that OTL the Inuit and the Norse lived together--like, villages within sight of one another--for like 10 generations without borrowing much of anything from each other. But I think there's the possibility that them showing up at pretty much the same time, with both peoples still in their "pioneers in a new land" phase at the time of contact, will alter the dynamic.
Thoughts? Note that this is not the same scenario as "Of Mice and Ice," which I have been looking at with interest (although I came up with the idea separately). It is at once more and less restrictive in scope than that scenario. Here, the change is not as revolutionary as horticulture; simply the earlier appearance of the skin-boat-and-toggled-harpoon Eskimo we know and love. At the same time, the change effects not just the Inuit of the High Arctic, but all Eskimo speaking people. A broader but shallower change, as it were.
[1] “Eskimo” is a fraught term; many Canadians consider it a
pejorative and prefer the term “Inuit.” In Alaska, we use “Eskimo” as
an umbrella group containign two fairly culturally distinct (but
definitely related) groups: the Inupiat/Inuit of the Arctic Coast, and
the Yup’ik of the Pacific Coast, who are not found in Canada.
[2] Today's occupants of the Aleutians are more commonly known as "Aleuts." In the opinion of many, including me, that term best describes the syncrete of Russian and Native culture that resulted from 100 years of very close contact between the two peoples; Unangan is a term best reserved for the "pure" Native culture on the chain that preceded Russian contact.