Life on the Tundra Long Ago
For more than 4,000 years, the Inuit have relied on the Arctic’s resources to live. They made tents or built igloos, depending on the season. The Inuit hunted animals such as caribou and sea mammals for food.
The practice of eating raw meat, disapproved of by their Native American neighbors, saved scarce fuel and provided their limited diet with essential nutritional elements that cooking would destroy. Except for the Caribou Eskimo of central Canada, they were a littoral people who roved inland in the summer for freshwater fishing and game hunting.
They used animal bones to make harpoons and fishhooks.Eskimos traditionally used various types of houses. Tents of caribou skins or sealskins provided adequate summer dwellings; in colder seasons shelter was constructed of sod, driftwood, or sometimes stone, placed over excavated floors. Among some Eskimo groups the snow hut was used as a winter residence (see igloo). More commonly, however, such structures were used as temporary overnight shelters during journeys. The dogsled was used for the hauling of heavy loads over long distances, made necessary by the Eskimos' nomadic hunting life. Their skin canoe, known as a kayak, is one of the most highly maneuverable small craft ever constructed. Hunting technologies included several types of harpoons, the bow and arrow, knives, and fish spears and weirs. While iron and guns have come into common use in the 20th cent., previously weapons were crafted from ivory, bone, copper, or stone. Their clothing was sewn largely of caribou hide and included parkas, breeches, mittens, snow goggles, and boots. Finely crafted items such as needles, combs, awls, figurines, and decorative carvings on weapons were executed with the rotary bow drill.
The Inuit lived in extended families, with each member contributing to the work. Hunting, cooking, and making warm, waterproof clothing were important jobs. Children learned survival skills and about the past from elders.
A New Economy
In the past, the Inuit did not use money. They hunted, gathered, or made everything they used. Today, many Inuit have jobs to earn money to pay for goods and services such as electricity and Internet access. Many still live in remote areas but use modern technologies such as electric heaters and snowmobiles.