"But Mr. McCain said yesterday that the evidence, which he called alarming, was clearer than ever.

With several other senators, he visited the Arctic fringe in Norway and Iceland in late summer.

"It was remarkable,'' he said, "going up on a small ship next to this glacier and seeing where it had been just 10 short years ago and how quickly it's receded.''

Particularly disturbing, he went on, is the rapid pace of warming.

"The Inuit language for 10,000 years never had a word for robin," he said, "and now there are robins all over their villages." "

McCain is implying that the Inuit haven't seen a robin in their 10,000 year history. The Inuit also don't have a word for "history"- it simply isn't an important concept for these people. The Inuit live in a harsh and unforgiving environment- they had to set their priorities.

"Language provides an important insight into the lives of the Inuit. For example they must spend hours on end tracking cariboo for many km or sitting by a hole in the ice waiting for a seal to show itself. The Inuit have no need to describe the past or future in great detail so they have no word for history. Another extreme is snow. There are many different words for many different types of snow. For example, aput is the the general word for snow. Snow that has recently drifted is akeolrak, but drifted snow is perksertok. The Inuit language is made up of words for the things that are important to the Inuit way of life."
http://ccins.camosun.bc.ca/~conklin/pages/martin/html/inuitlanguage.htm