Sovereignty is a big word...

Sovereignty is a big word.  I had to look it up, Dictionary.com professed it to be:

  1. "quality or state of being sovereign" - this I found vague

  2. "the status, dominion, power, or authority of a sovereign: royalty" - always with the royalty.

  3. "supreme and independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community" - that's a bit better explained.

  4. "rightful status, independence, or prerogative" - their prerogative, oh dear me. And finally

  5. "a sovereign state, community, or political unit" - is something like #3 but shorter.

That was just the beginning, the English language does get complex for me as Inuktitut is my first language. The play in words confuses me but here we even have the word origin and history! "Sovereignty is a mid 14th century word from the Anglo French 'pre-eminence' and the word sovereynete meaning authority or rule is from the late 14th century and the sense of 'existence as an independence state' is from 1715."

It also had the Cultural Dictionary: "A nation or state's supreme power within its borders. A government might respond, for example, to criticism from foreign governments of its treatment of its own citizens by citing its rights of sovereignty" - we should all take note of that one! And don't mistake it to the Bible Dictionary of sovereignty: "of God, his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure" (Dan. 4:25, 35; Rom. 9:15-23; 1 Tim. 6:16; Rev. 4:11).

The thesaurus had more insight to add; Definitions included "...domination, independence, rule, or power, royalty [on’t forget the royalty], supremacy, control, or subjection".

All seem so disconnected to Inuit or the people until I met Aaju Peter.  I had heard she was passionate about Arctic Sovereignty and I needed help in defining this foreign word in hopes of making it clear for my father especially, a unilingual traditional Inuk.  Inuit are not possessive of land, that much I knew.