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.