Inuit Setting
The Inuit lived in many different parts of the world. They lived in the arctic, Alaska, Northernmost Canada, Greenland, North East Siberia and Newfoundland. The Inuit people lived in an area with snow and Ice. There were not that many inuits. The inuits home is surrounded by Massive icebergs, mountain Islands cut with deep fjords,snow feilds and glaciers. Inuit people lived where most plants andd crops cant grow. There diet was meat, they fished and hunted Whales, Walruses, Seal and Fish. The inuit people had a hard life but they worked through it.
Food
The inuit hunt for the majority of their food. the most common animal they hunted was caribou. They would eat Blubber and meat, generally eating meat raw. They occasionally cooked their food, but it was not commin. Fish is also an important part of inuits diet. They would also eat things like Blood soup, or partially digested food taken from dead animals intrstines. The inuit would hunt for their families, they ate berries, vetch roots, and sorrel leaves.
Hunting and Fishing
The inuit are great hunters. They respected all animals. They used weapons such as bows, harpoons, spears, birddarts, and traps. Most are made of driftwood or bone. Their greatest and most used weapon was harpoons. In the winter they would settle were seal hunting was best. Seal hunting required great patience. First you must find one of the wholes that seals use for air, then you wait. It also takes great skill. The inuit were very skilled hunters.
Family and Social organization
In the Inuit culture their families included parents, children, aunts, uncles, grandparents and any relatives that did not have a hunter to provide for them. When boys became old enough to hunt and provide they became married and girls married when they reached puberty, sometimes promised to each other at birth. Men and boys built the igloos, made and used the weapons, traded, hunted and fished. Women and girls set traps, made clothing, prepared and cooked the food, and cared for their families. Inuit moved in groups of 6-10 families with 5-6 people in each family. The Inuit had a very good sense of community.
Sheltter
In the winter the inuit lived in iglus. Iglus were domed structures made of snow. They had no furniture, and would use skins to insulate. As an entry way they added a short, low tunnel that served as a wind break. The inuit had no permanent home. In the summer they used skins to make tents. They used all materials at hand for their shelter. For fire they would use hair or died moss as wick and burn blubber in a bowl.
Clothing
All inuit clothing was hand made. Women learned to sew as a child. Their needles were made of ivory or bone. The main type of skin that they use was cariboo. The women would make everyone a specific set of clothes. Everyone wore tousers and parkas, with many layers underneath. Babies would sit in their mothers soft, fur lined hood. Most boots were made of seal skin.
Transportation
The main form of transportation for the inuit was on water. They made kayaks, slender, light boats for one. They were built from arched rib bones or pieces of drift wood. Another boat they used was an Umiak. The umiak was a large, open boat, built to carry many people. It was built the same way as a kayak, but with heavier and larger pieces of wood. The umiak was road by the women and steared with a pattle by the man. The other way men would travel alongside in kayaks. In the winter they used dog sledges, made to runners joined by a cross bar.
Trade and Economy
The inuit were independent. They trade whale and arctic fox fur with Europeans. They would also trade animal fur for metal guns and knives. With the end of the fur trade some inuits fell into poverty.
Arts
The inuits built and desighned all their nessesities. They invented the Kayak, They built the kayak out of rib bonesBags out of fish heads and woven baskets from long grass. One of their most used inventions was the iglu. The iglu was their shelter for the winter. The inuits were also expert garment makers. The iuits had a ceremonial dance call the Drum dance.
Beliefs and Ceremonies
The inuits believe that everything has a sould, when an animal or person dies their soul can enter another living creature. They have festivals to honor dead animals. The inuit also thought that sea animal and land animals could not be handeled in the same day. They wore charms as safe guards agains evil. When the inuit burried a dead body they wrapped them in skins and left on the tundra or on the hills with a ring of stones arround them.