Inuit

Eskimo and reindeer, Alaska, between 1906 and 1916 (AL+CA 5837)

TheInuitare one of many groups ofFirst Nationswho live in very cold places of northernCanada,Greenland,theArctic,andAlaska.

The word Inuit means "the people" inInuktut,an Inuit language. They are sometimes calledEskimos,a word which likely comes from theAlgonquinlanguage and may mean "eater of raw meat" which is a fallacy many believe due to misinformation. The term Eskimo means "netter of snowshoes. Most Inuit prefer to be called by their own name, either the more general Inuit particularly in Canada or their actual tribe name. Inuit is a tribe name but not all indigenous Arctic peoples in North America are Inuits. Particularly in the United States Alaska, the word Eskimo would be accepted as a more general term, but would probably refer to themselves by their tribe name.

Etymology

Inuit in Canada and Greenland like the nameInuitbecause it is their own name for themselves.Inuitmeans more than one, one person is an "Inuk".The nativeGreenlandersare related to the Inuit. Thelanguageof the Inuit isInuktitut,and it is one of theofficial languagesofNunavutand of theNorthwest Territoriesin Canada. Eskimo is a term more frequently used in mainstream United States where such concerns get less attention.

Inuits in Alaska have various concerns, such as protecting thecariboufrom Americanoilpipelines. Anti-sealhuntcampaigns work to eliminate this aspect of northern culture, which most Inuits regard as vital to their lives.

Traditional culture

Inuit ate both raw and cooked meat and fish, as well as the fetus's of pregnant animals. Whale blubber was burned as fuel for cooking and lamps.

Inuit were alsoNomadic people,but they did not domesticate any animals except for dogs, which they used to pull their sleds and help with the hunting. They werehunter-gatherers,living off the land. They were very careful to make good use of every part of the animals they killed. Respect for the land and the animals they harvested was and is a focal part of their culture.

Inuit lived in tents made of animal skins during the summer. In the winter they lived in sodhousesandigloos.They could build an igloo out ofsnowbricks in just a couple of hours. Snow is full of air spaces, which helps it hold in warmth. With just a blubber lamp for heat, an igloo could be warmer than the air outside. The Inuit made very clever things from the bones, antlers, and wood they had. They invented theharpoon,which was used to hunt seals andwhales.They built boats fromwoodorbonecovered with animal skins. They invented thekayakfor one man to use for hunting the ocean and among the packice.

Inuit sleds could be built from wood, bone, or even animal skins wrapped around frozenfish.Dishes were made from carving soapstone, bones, ormusk oxhorns. They wore two layers of skins, one fur side in, the other facing out, to stay warm.

Inuit had to be good hunters to survive. When an animal was killed in a hunt, it was thanked respectfully for offering itself to the hunter. They believed it intended to provide itself as a gift towards the survival of the hunter and his children. Their gratitude was deeply sincere and is an important aspect of their belief system. In the winter,sealsdid not come out onto the ice. They only came up forairat holes they chewed in the ice. Inuit would use their dogs to find the air holes, then wait patiently until the seal came back to breathe and kill it with a harpoon. In thesummer,the seals would lie out on the ice enjoying thesun.The hunter would have to slowly creep up on a seal to kill it. The Inuit would use their dogs and spears to huntpolar bears,musk ox,andcaribou.Sometimes they would kill caribou from their boats as the animals crossed the rivers on their migration.

The Inuit even huntedwhales.From their boat, they would throw harpoons that were attached to floats made ofinflatedseal skins. The whale would grow tired from dragging the floats under the water. When it slowed down and came up to the surface, the Inuit could keep hitting it with more harpoons or spears until it died. Whale blubber provideVitamin Dand Omegas to their cultural diet, and prevented rickets. Thewhalingindustry around the world has depleted the whale population, and now traditional whale hunting for subsistence purposes is rare around the world. Inuits have added to their modern northern diet with grocery foods, which are normally very expensive in the north.

Clothes

During the summer months, the Inuit were able to gather berries and roots to eat. They also collected grass to line their boots or makebaskets.Often the food they found or killed during the summer was put into acachefor use during the long winter. A cache was created by digging down to the permafrost and building a rock lined pit there. The top would be covered with a pile of rocks to keep out the animals. It was as good as afreezer,because the food would stay frozen there until the family needed it. Inuit cultural traditions and traditional stories provided each new generation with the lifeskills and knowledge to survive their environment and work together. They usually moved around in small groups looking for food, and sometimes they would get together with other groups to hunt for larger animals such aswhales.The men did the hunting and home building, and also madeweapons,sleds,andboats.The women cooked, made theclothes,and took care of the children. Children and infants under the ages of 5 became easy victims of hypothermia.

Some Canadian companies like Canada Goose and Moose Knuckle have clothing designs based on Inuit culture.

North American Arctic people today

Today, most Inuit live in modern houses. Many still hunt or fish for a major part of their food supply or for income. Seal pelts are used to protect from the extreme Arctic cold. The technology has worked well for many thousands of years. Besides, commercial winter clothes are expensive. Today, they useriflesandsnowmobileswhen hunting, however traditional values respecting the animals hunted still very much applies. InAlaska,many of the people have received money from theoildiscovered in that state on their traditional lands.

The Arctic is very different from the rest of the world. The way of life in the south does not work well in the north. Canada values having Inuit peoples in Canada's northernmost lands as proof of sovereignty over the Canadian portion of the Arctic Circle.

Related pages

• Yupik
• Aleut