Aboriginial Peoples of Canada
Inuit Name: Sydnie McLauchlan Block: C
Location
- They live in northern Canada and Alaska. Also in Greenland, and in the North Eastern tip of Siberia.
- Winters were long and dark and summers were bright.
- Rivers and lakes were frozen for up to 9 months.
- Land doesn't have resources (roots, berries and tree bark)
Food
- Most food comes from the ocean
- Seals were used to feed humans and dogs
- Seals were also used for oil to heat and cook hides for clothing and tents
- Most important resource for Inuit: blubber from sea mammals
- Food often eaten raw because cooking fuel was precious
Social Structure
- Families stayed grouped together in winter because group effort was needed to extract food from the sea
- During summer they broke into family units again to hunt caribou and fish
- Woman were appreciated a lot for making good clothing for the temperatures
- Great equality among people
Religion
- Inuit world was full of harmful spirits
- Sea goddess - controlled the weather and seals
Festivals
- Rarely had large festival gatherings
- more social interaction in winter when families gathered
- people gathered to sing songs, tell stories and play string games like cats cradle
Dwellings
- in winter, houses were made of blocks of snow into an igloo
- houses were sealed when finished
- seal oil lamp was lit to heat air
- when snow was melted, it would just quickly freeze back into ice