Inuit
Social studies 9
Location
About 1000 years ago, the Thule migrated into Canada's North. The majority of the Inuit population lived in Nunavut. The Inuits moved to different places during different seasons. The Inuits travelled hundreds of miles from Alaska to settle in Canada
Food
The Inuits lived in the arctic tundra region which meant that they could not rely on farming as a source of food. This meant that they had to hunt and fish for the majority of their food. The Inuit used holes in the ice to fish and hunt animals that lived in the water. The men did the majority of the hunting and fishing while the women stayed at home.
Social Structure
The Inuit communities were like great big families. They shared and helped each other with everything. The Elders had most of the control and they lead settlements and advised when to hunt, fish, harvest, and fight.
Economy
The Inuit traded and shared a lot with each other. They did not have a real currency so they just traded instead. The Inuit communities were not big enough to trade with other countries so they had to use their own resources to survive. If resources became extremely scarce then the babies and elderly were abandoned to ensure food for the others. In the 1900s they started to progress in technology.
Religion
The Inuit culture was very spiritual and believed in animism. They believed that all living and non living things had spirits and were to be respected. The religious leaders were called Angakoks. They were considered the only ones strong enough to control spirits. Later in the 1900s, christianity was brought into the Inuit culture
Festivals
The Inuit had many celebrations and festivals. Most of them were celebrating seasons and nature. One of the biggest celebrations was in April because that was when the sun came back. Celebrations occurred after every successful hunting trip as well.
Dwellings
The arctic tundra where they lived was very hard to survive in. The conditions were extremely harsh and with the lack of wood or other common resources used to build houses, they were forced to use their imagination. They came up with the idea to build small huts made out of ice blocks called igloos. To make these they cut blocks of ice and stacked them on top of each other. In the summer they built tents made of animal skins or permanent houses made of big rocks.
Relationship
Even though the environment that the Inuit people lived in was very harsh and hard to survive in, they still used it to their advantage in different ways. Since there were not very much crops, they were forced to fish and hunt. To fish and hunt seals in the winter they had to carve holes in the ice and wait with their rods and spears. The fastest way to travel in the winter was by sleds. These sleds were pulled by a special breed of dogs that originally came from Mongolia. The Inuit had a very special relationship with their land. They respected nature very much and loved all living things.
Vocabulary
nergdjut-land animal
Nigliktok-cold
Piktaungitok-evil
taimannaitok-kind