The Inuit People
The Inuit PeopleInuit: A People Preserved By Ice
Thousands of years ago, during the last ice age, mile-thick glaciers
covered a vast portion of North America, and the Asian continent was
joined to North America by a land bridge. The Arctic areas of Alaska,
Beringia, and Siberia were free of ice. Vast herds of caribou,
muskoxen, and bison migrated to these plains. Following them were the
nomadic Asian ancestors of today’s Inuit and Indians. The doorway to
Asia closed about three or four thousand years later as the glaciers
receded and melted. These people: the Inuit (meaning the people),
adapted to their harsh tundra environment and developed a culture that
remained untainted for a long time.
The Inuit people relied solely on hunting for their existence. With
summers barely lasting two months, agriculture was non-existent.
Animals such as caribou and seal were vital. Groups of hunters would
stalk and kill many caribou with fragile bows made of driftwood, and
their bounty was split evenly amongst the tribe. Bone spears were
fashioned to hunt seals which provided food, oil, clothes, and tents.
The seal skins were also used to construct kayaks and other boats that
the Inuit would use to travel and to hunt whales. One advantage of the
sterile cold of the arctic was that it kept these people free of disease
(until they met the white man.)
Inuit tribes consisted of two to ten loosely joined families. There
was no one central leader in the group: all decisions were made by the
community as a whole. Nor was there any definite set of laws; the Inuit,
though usually cheery and optimistic, were prone to uncontrolled bursts
of rage. Murder was common amongst them and it went unpunished unless
an individual’s murders occured...
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