Essay, Research Paper: The Inuit People

The Inuit People

Inuit: 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 too often. At
that point, that person was deemed unstable, and the community
appointed a man to terminate him/her.

In their society, the duties of men and women were strictly
separated. The males would hunt, fish and construct the tools used
by the family. Women, however, were responsible for cleaning the
animal skins, cooking, sewing the clothes ( a woman's sewing ability
was equally as attractive to a man as her beauty was), and raising
the children. Male children were preferred because they could care
for their parents in their old age; female children when often
strangled soon after birth.

Although today Christianity has breached some of the southernmost
tribes, the vast majority practice a form of animism. Their rituals are
based mainly on the hunt and the handling of slain animals. Magic
talismans and charms are believed to control spirits, and shamans are
consulted in the case of injury or illness. There are traces of beliefs in
an afterlife or reincarnation, but they are very minor.

The Inuit people, like many other tribal minorities, are greatly
stereotyped and misunderstood by the common man. For example:
the Inuit word igloo means house and can refer to the cabins made of
sod that most Inuit occupy. Also, the word Eskimo is a misnomer
meaning "eaters of raw flesh" given to the Inuit by the Algonquin
Indians. This is a simple culture that remained undisturbed until
whales became a precious commodity. Their isolation is slowly coming
to an end as western civilization puts them into government housing
and snowmobiles are increasing as a means of transportation. They
are beautifully eccentric, and we must work to preserve their culture.

References:
"Seasons of the Eskimo: A Vanishing Way of Life" by Fred Bruemmer;
Microsoft Encarta96 Encyclopedia; Microsoft Bookshelf.