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F. The Inuit People
From HCO Jr
| Part 1. First People of Canada → A. Turtle Island → B. The Wendat → C. The Siksika → D. The Haida → E. The Dene → F. The Inuit → G. The Cree → H. The Ojibwa → I. The Mi'kmaq |
| Inuit - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Vocab | Student Activities | Class Projects |
Contents |
The Inuit
Inuit means "the People" in English. They live in the arctic. This is the coldest part of Canada. About 4000 years ago glaciers that covered the arctic started to melt. People moved into the arctic and invented ways to live there. Inuit lived in a very harsh environment. Cold weather and very little food meant the Inuit worked together to survive.
Environment of the Inuit
This is the coldest and driest part of Canada. Very little precipitation (snow) falls in the arctic. Only 10 or 20 centimeters of snow falls each year. It is similar to a desert only much colder. Temperatures during an arctic winter can fall to -40 degrees celcius or colder. Summer is very short. It lasts from July to August. Temperatures become warmer, but the ground is so cold it stays frozen. This frozen ground is called permafrost. The top layer thaws in the summer and refreezes in the winter. Permafrost is 1 kilometer deep in spots.
It is so cold and dry that no trees grow in the arctic. Lakes and rivers, and even the ocean, stay frozen all year long. Ice melts on the lakes and rivers in the southern arctic, but not in the far north.
The arctic is so far north that it makes days and nights very long at different times of the year. This is because the earth tilts back and forth each year on its axis. During the winter the sun falls below the horizon and does not reappear. The earth has tilted away from the sun. For many months people in the arctic have no sunlight. In the summer the sun slowly appears in the sky. For two or three months it never goes down again. It is always day time in an arctic summer because the earth tilts back towards the sun.
Inuit Life & the Four Seasons
Inuit people travelled a great deal to find food and other resources. Very little grows in the arctic so people could not stay in one spot for very long. Inuit followed animals to make sure they had enough food to eat.
Winter months
During the cold months the Inuit hunted sea animals. More animals live in the Arctic Ocean than live on the land. Walrus, seals, arctic char (fish), and whales provided the Inuit with food, clothing and many other things to make tools and homes.
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Spring and Summer Months
During the summer the Inuit fished for arctic char. They also hunted the same animals they did in the winter. Seals came to the shore of the ocean to have their babies. Inuit people built camps near these spots to hunt seals. They also hunted birds like the ptarmigan. Inuit hunters also looked for other land animals: musk-oxen, caribou, polar bear, arctic hare, and arctic foxes. Caribou was very important to the Inuit.
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Inuit Society
Inuit society was very complex. Living in the harsh arctic environment meant the people had to cooperate all the time. No one could survive by themselves. People worked very hard to find food, make tools, and build homes.
Technology
Inuit made many tools from animal bones, skin and antlers, ivory and stone. Wood in the arctic is very rare because there are no trees. Sometimes pieces of wood wash up on the shores of the Arctic Ocean but there was not very much of it.
Many Inuit tools came from animals. Inuit used animal bones to make many tools: sewing needles, fishing hooks, knives, and frames for boats. Animal hides were used to make boats, clothes and sleds. Walrus hides are very strong. Inuit people stretched them to make different types of boats. Women turned Animal sinew into thread to make clothes or sew animal hides together to make tent covers.
Inuit people also used iron to make knives and other tools. Iron was very rare so it was not used often. This iron came from meteors that fell to earth.
Inuit shaped different types of stone into tools. One stone was very important: soapstone. It is a soft stone that can be made into many tools. Small soapstone lamps called kudlik allowed the Inuit to heat their homes, cook meat, and melt snow into water. Walrus and whale oil provided the Inuit with fuel for their lamps. They put moss or arctic cotton in the lamps. It soaked up the oil, and burned without smoke. Inuit also used soapstone to make beautiful sculptures. Inuit turned other kinds of stone into scrapers, knives, harpoon and arrow points.
Inuit Villages
Inuit lived in very small groups. There is not enough food in the arctic for people to live in large villages. Two or three families might live together at different times of the year. In the winter only one extended family lived together.
Inuit lived in different types of houses. Some textbooks say that Inuit lived in snow houses called igloos during the winter. This is not true. "Igloo" is an Inuit word for all types of houses. Snow houses are called igluviga. Igluviga are made from snow blocks. Skilled hunters made an igluviga in one or two hours.
A tunnel led into the house. This tunnel was dug through the snow. It was lower than the floor of the igluviga. This was a cold trap. Cold air is heavier than warm air. The tunnel trapped cold air from outside and kept it out of the home. Sometimes two or three igluviga were linked together by tunnels. An entire family lived inside. Their body heat and kudliks heated the house.
Some Inuit lived in igluviga all winter. Other Inuit built snow houses only when traveling. In some areas of the arctic they built karmat. These homes were large holes dug into the permafrost in the summer. Sod (very heavy grass), stone, whale bones and animal hides were used to make walls and the roof.
During the summer Inuit traveled to find caribou and other animals. They lived in tents made from animal hides in the summer.
Clans and Families
Inuit lived in groups called muit. There are different types of muit that can be quite small or very large. A person's muit was based on where they lived.
A good way to understand this is to think of how people live in Canada today. I am from the city of North Bay in the province of Ontario. If I travel to a different city in Ontario I tell people I am from North Bay. If I travel to a different province I tell people I am from Ontario (because they might not know where North Bay is). If I travel to another country I tell people I am from Canada. I have three different muit (my city, my province, and my country).
Inuit families divided the work. Men hunted and fished. Women skinned animals, made clothes and looked after life in the home. Young children started working at a very young age. Mothers taught their daughters the skills they needed and fathers did the same with their sons.
Inuit Food
Almost all Inuit food came from animals. People cannot grow vegetables in the arctic because it is too cold. Inuit people had to find other ways to get vitamins. Read further to find out how they did this.
Sources of Food
Different animals the Inuit hunted are listed earlier in this chapter. What is difficult to understand is how the Inuit found enough vitamins. Animal meat does not contain many vitamins. To find vitamins the Inuit ate almost every part of the animals they hunted: meat, blubber, heart, liver, brains, eyes, and intestines. When a caribou was killed the Inuit opened the caribou stomach and ate what was inside.
Whale blubber, called muktuk, was an important source of vitamins. Polar bear livers have a lot of vitamin A. There is so much vitamin A in polar bear liver that you can become very sick if you eat too much of it.
Hunting and Fishing
Inuit had different ways to hunt and fish. During the winter they fished with lines and hooks made from animal sinew and bones. During the summer they built stone weirs near the shores of the ocean. Arctic char gathered in certain areas once a year. Inuit trapped char with the weirs. Men and women walked into the cold water with spears and caught fish.
Seal hunting was very important. During the winter Inuit hunters looked for breathing holes. Seals are mammals. They cannot breath underwater, but resurface to get fresh air. They break through the arctic ice to get air. Hunters had to wait by a hole for a long time for a seal to come through the hole. When a seal appeared the hunter stabbed it with a spear and pulled it out of the hole.
In the summer they traveled on the ocean in kayaks or umiaks (two different types of boat). They used harpoons to catch walrus and beluga whales. When a whale appeared hunters threw harpoons at it. Attached to the harpoons were large seal floats. These were seal skins tied together and filled with air. The floats kept the whale from diving under the water. It is similar to swimming with a life jacket on. You cannot dive under the water with a life jacket. When the whale was killed the floats kept it from sinking under the water.
Inuit hunted land animals with spears and bows and arrows. Musk-oxen were easy to hunt. When attacked the musk-oxen form a protective circle. This is useful against polar bears as the musk-oxen are very large, and try to stab the bear with their horns. Inuit hunters singled out one animal and shot it with arrows and spears until it they killed it.
Hunters used arrows and spears to hunt caribou. When caribou herds migrated the Inuit built inuksuit. This word, also spelled "Inukshuk", means "like men" in English. These are piles of rock that look like men with their arms stretched out. These piles directed the caribou to an area where hunters waited with spears and arrows.
Inuit hunters shared all of the food they caught. If a hunter caught a seal or walrus he gave all of his food to the other people in his group. Sometimes there would be no food left for the hunter. He would eat when another hunter caught an animal.
Clothing
Inuit clothing came from animals. Caribou hide was the best for making winter clothes. Caribou hair is hollow. The air trapped in the hair stays warm in the winter. This makes caribou coats and pants very warm.
In the winter the Inuit wore two layers of coats, pants, socks and boots. The outer layer had the fur on the outside of the clothes. The inner layer had the fur against the skin. Inuit women made summer clothes out of seal skin. Women made all boots from seal skin because it is waterproof.
Women's clothes were different from men's. Women's coats had a pouch in the back. This allowed them to carry their babies under their coats. Babies stayed close to their mother's body to stay warm in the winter.
Women made all the clothes. This job was very important. Arctic weather is so cold people would die quickly without proper clothes.
Travel
Inuit traveled on land and water. On the snow and ice they used a sled (called a komatik) pulled by sled dogs. Komatiks consisted of animal bones and wood tied together by seal skin. To make the komatik travel fast over the snow the Inuit covered the sled's runners in mud. They smoothed it, and it froze to form a slippery surface.
Inuit had two kinds of boats: kayaks and umiaks. Kayaks carried only one hunter. Seal or walrus skins were stretched over animal bones and wood to make a kayak. Hunters sat in a small hole in the centre of the kayak and paddled with special oars. They used kayaks to hunt for seals and walrus. Several hunters in kayaks might hunt together for whales.
Umiaks were large boats. Umiaks might carry several men hunting whales. Sometimes entire families travelled in umiaks to go from one hunting location to another. An umiak could carry a family and all of its food and belongings. Umiaks, like kayaks, were made from walrus skin, animal bones and wood.
Inuit Religion
Inuit religion is complicated. They had many beliefs about the world, spirits, and how people need to behave.
Inuit had shamans, or angakuk. Men and women could become an angakuk. Inuit believed their shamans possessed spirit helpers. Shamans used their powers to heal sickness. Inuit believed sickness came from people doing something wrong. If someone broke a law or did something harmful to someone else they became sick.
Shamans also performed ceremonies at different times of the year. They told legends to people and taught people about their beliefs.
Inuit Government
Inuit families had their own leader. The Inuit word for leader is isumataq. This means "the one who thinks." A leader was someone who was older and had a lot of experience surviving in the arctic. Leaders gave advice to the younger hunters, but he did not tell them what to do. Older women gave advice to the younger women too. People listened to elders because of their knowledge.
If your father or mother was a leader this did not mean you became a leader when you became an adult. A person became an isumataq because of their abilities.
| Part 1. First People of Canada → A. Turtle Island → B. The Wendat → C. The Siksika → D. The Haida → E. The Dene → F. The Inuit → G. The Cree → H. The Ojibwa → I. The Mi'kmaq |
| Inuit - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Vocab | Student Activities | Class Projects |
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