FREE ESSAY ON INUIT PEOPLE

INUIT PEOPLE

THE INUIT PEOPLE
The Inuit are the northernmost inhabitants of North America. The name INUIT and Eskimo is
given to the population of the Arctic region and the region from eastern Siberia to
Greenland. The Inuit have been called Eskimo but they really do prefer to be called
Inuit. The word Inuit means, people who are alive at this time. Inuit also refers to the
group of people of Eskimoid ancestry, which live in northern Canada. The word Eskimo
means eaters of raw meat - and in today's time it is insulting to use the term. Eskimo is
a word that comes from the CREE. It is a term that honors the ability of this group of
people to survive in a harsh climate, living on the products of the hunt alone. 
There were several different Eskimoid cultures that came to the Canadian Arctic at
different times. Some of the names for the early culture were the Paleo-Eskimo, Arctic
Small-Tool Tradition (which included the Independence I, Pre-Dorset, Denbigh Flint
Complex - which was from Alaska), and Saqqaq (which were from Greenland). By 1700 BC, the
Pre-Dorset Inuit were established in Northern Hudson Bay, the Hudson Strait, and Fox
Basin. They used snow houses, and soapstone lamps, bows, toggling harpoon heads, and fish
and bird spears. The Pre-Dorset Inuit used dogs for packing and hunting. The Inuit at
this time did not use them for pulling sleds.
The Dorset Inuit had to change their techniques of a way of life based on seal and mammal
hunting because around 1800 BC the climate in the Arctic became colder. The Inuit of the
eastern Arctic have long known these people as the Tuint. From the early days of the
Pre-Dorset and Dorset people who moved across the Arctic in the first millennium BC have
left a record of their art. They made beautiful ivory carvings out of walrus tusks and
whale-bones.
Around the time of 1000 AD a warming trend allowed the bowhead whales to migrate along
the Arctic coast. A new group, were following the whales and they were called the Thule
people. The Thule lived in villages up to 100 people and created semi-subterranean winter
houses. These houses used whale-bone for the roof supports. The Thule used umiaks, which
are large walrus-skin boats, kayaks, and dogsleds. They had many special tools for whale,
walrus, and seal hunting. Another cooling trend occurred around 1600-1850 AD, which
brought back ice to the summer Arctic and the bowhead whales no longer came along the
cast. It was at this time, that the Thule people had to change.
The modern Inuit were from 1600 AD to the present. The Thule people did change, by
learning to hunt for smaller prey like seals, walrus and caribou. They lived in much
smaller groups and leaned how to migrate. The Inuit loved their traditional lifestyle but
they have always hated the cold. All of their knowledge and technology within their group
of people is geared towards combating the cold. During the Arctic winter, a long period
of time that is barely lit by the sun a few hours a day, the land is covered with ice and
snow. The Inuit usually would return to the same bay, where they had hunted the previous
year. The most difficult task was locating the ice holes where seals would come to
breathe. Inuit traditionally love the warm weather, and would rather been able to settle
where it was warmer. But due to other powers, of which they had no control off, they
settled in the Arctic and made the best of it.
Not all Inuit would eat raw meat. Meat that had been imported from the South {beef,
chicken, and pork} is never eaten raw since bacteria and parasites seem to be on the
increase in warm, humid climates. But in the North, it is like one big refrigerator! The
dead animals seem to freeze upon contact with the air - and this slows down the process
of bacteria and rot. Inuit eat their meat only soon after its been killed. Frozen meat is
called quaq. Medical science has proven that eating animals raw enabled the Inuit to get
large quantities of vitamins and minerals, which are stored in the animal tissue. The
traditional cooking process had destroyed much of the vitamins in the meat. Meat eaten a
quaq gives a kind of ruch feeling and produces a great amount of body heat. The Inuit
cooking process with meat was boiling - like when you make soups or stews. This diet has
been credited to the Inuit health and longevity and many other groups that settled in the
North adapted this diet. They avoided scurvy by eating raw meat, which is packed with
Vitamin C. The also would eat the rumen contents of the caribou, and organ meats of sea
mammals, which is also full of vitamin C.
Some Inuit today, hunt for a living, but this is what they refer to as career hunting,
which is regulated by territorial law. Part of the kills goes to the hunter's family and
friends and then the rest of it goes to export to the South. The hunting lifestyle is
tied to Inuit culture - it used to be okay that everyone could hunt. The Inuit traveled
in groups of forty or fifty people, including children. Each group would have about ten
to fifteen hunters. They had no chief, but a leader, usually the most experienced would
take charge of the hunt. The Inuit used to hunt for food and tools. Today they only hunt
for food and also money to pay for bills, taxes, and rent.
The Inuit followed a way of life that is different with Indian population south of the
treeline. They lived to the North which is the Arctic and Sub-Arctic region. The Inuits
did not move to the South along mountain chains or along the Mackenzie River. They did
not do this because these Southern regions were already inhabited with the Dene and other
Indian groups. These groups of Indians were very aggressive when they were defending
their territories, and the Inuit avoided them by staying to the North. 
The best known Inuit settlement is one found in the central portion of the Canadian
Arctic. It involves the people spending the winters in temporary snowhouse communities
out on the sea-ice while hunting for seals. Eskimos have always existed in Alaska and
they followed a different way of life. The Eskimos would live in permanent
semi-subterranean houses rather than snowhouses. Fish is the most single important food
resource to the Alaskan Eskimo, where seals were the most important to the Inuit.
Inuit who lived above the treeline used to live in many different constructions changing
with the seasons. When the right consistency of snow was available they would construct
an igluvigag - which means a snowhouse. When a snow house is constructed properly it is
insulated and windproof. A special quality of porous snow must be used in the building
process. Choosing the snow requires proper training and experience. An iglusigag can vary
in design and use. A small snow house can be constructed by a hunter or a lost person as
a temporary shelter. A really big igluvigagcan be made for several families, with
separate rooms. Most snow houses had a low entranceway through which people could enter,
shaking off the snow before they would come into the living area. Many had adjoining
structure that could be used a meat locker or for their dogs. Windows were made out of
large blocks of ice. Smoke from the cookfires, which were in the living area, would exit
through a small hole at the top of the snow house. Due to the combined body heat,
cookfires, and lamps it could get warm enough that the Inuit people could remove their
clothing. But due to this happening, the snow houses were good only for a few weeks. Then
the Inuit would build another one. In warmer months they would use whatever materials
were available to build shelter. The Greenlandic Inuit used whale ribs like beams for the
tents in warmer months. Rocks were used to secure the bottom of the tent.
Having little or no wood to waste, Inuit had to resort to other methods of getting warm.
Bird nests were used sometimes for kindling for the fires but more often Arctic heather
was gathered in the warmer months. This heather was valued for its inflammable resin. The
Inuit women would constantly tend to a soapstone lamp filled with seal oil. This lamp was
called a Qulliq. The Inuit are not fond of the cold, but their physical features are
built to with stand the cold. Their stature has evolved as short, wide bodies that keep
body temperature close to the core, rather than allowing it to be wasted through the
surface areas of the limbs. What is rather interesting is the fact that they have many
more blood vessels in their hands and feet - as compared to other ethnic groups. This
allows them to use their hands and feet freely even when exposed to the Arctic's cold
temperatures of 40 below. But facts are that they even could not survive the Arctic if it
wasn't for their use of Arctic animals. For thousands of years, Inuit have known which
animals are best for different kinds of clothes in different seasons, as well as to how
to sew them to keep them windproof and to maximize insulation. The Inuit made most of
their clothing from the fur of Caribou. Even in today's time, a well-made caribou parka
is better than any man made variety. Caribou hair has been discovered to contain
thousands of microscopic chambers - like honeycomb - each of which traps and retains the
warm air.
The difficult living conditions were reflected in Inuit relationship with nature and the
supernatural. The Inuit believed that the souls of men and animals would be transformed
from one life to another, or one species to another. The rituals that would surround
these beliefs were very complex and difficult to understand. When the Inuit would hunt or
fish, these activities were separated. The Inuit would wear different garments during
these activities and also use different weapons. They would eat caribou and seal on
different days. Trapped animals were killed and their souls were given thanks for the
success of the hunter. An animal soul was believed to pass to another animal, which would
offer itself again to the hunter. The Inuit believed in life after death, and that the
human life force (a part of which also dwelt in animals) was indestructible. Death shed
no enlightenment - the spirit possessed the same personality and knowledge as the person
in life. In icy or snowy conditions, the Inuit would leave the dead were they lay, if
inland or placed into the water if along the coast. If rocks were available, the Inuit
would cage in the body (cover) it with the rocks to keep out scavenging animals. The
dead, were always wrapped in caribou skins before being left. In spite of very difficult
living conditions, the Inuit were very hospitable and happy people and their communal
life was filled with warmth and friendship.
Inuit had no gods - only lots of spirits of greater or lesser power, and these might be
avoided through ritual, but were never praised or worshipped. Most Inuit people did not
like the idea of spirits, which could be blamed for lots of nasty things. They tried not
to talk about them, for it was believed that such activities attract spirits. Spirits
were almost always evil. The only people that made spirits their business were shamans.
These shamans had a whole arsenal of spirits to do their bidding. One of the reasons, why
Christianity made such a big impression with Inuit is that the missionaries immediately
saw a good thing in the traditional Inuit fear of spirits. The missionaries promised that
Jesus could drive away spirits on behalf of anyone who was Christian, so the Inuit jumped
right in. The missionaries were not very popular with the shamans, who often tried to
kill them. The supernatural has always exclusively been the province of shamans- not
common people. Most Inuit today are proudly Christian. 
One of the most important facts I have learned about the Inuit was the fact that they are
not considered Indians. According to the references I used, states they are not even
closely related. Experts have stated that all the Aboriginal Peoples of North and South
America are descended from the Ice-Age migrants that crossed from the Siberian Chuckchi
Peninsula (Asia) to the Alaskan Seward Peninsula on the Bering Land Bridge. It is thought
that thousands of different cultures now known as Indians are descended from the first
migrants. It has been stated that the latest arrivals came by boat rather than foot, and
they are direct descendants of the Inuit. Ancestors of genetic testing and language arts
and anthropology have shown Inuit to be unrelated to Indians in all ways of culture,
language, and physical appearance. Inuit have much more in common with the Siberian
People.
Inuit have traditional dances, and all the ceremonies use a drum. They also have short
songs, which also sometimes accompanies a game. No such music was ever a form of worship.
The Inuit would only use music for their own personal entertainment.
There are several different Inuit languages, all of which are close enough that speakers
of one can usually understand those of another. There are dozens of different dialects -
which differ in pronunciation and structure. The language of the Eastern Arctic is
Inukitut. This language uses symbols to represent different sounds. Missionaries working
in Labrador and on Baffin Island developed a system, which was inspired by Pittman
shorthand. Before Confederation in 1949, Inukitut was the language of daily life, and
children were educated in their language.
Inuit art is beautiful. They made sculptures, jewelry, baskets, tapestries, dolls and
clothing. Most of their carvings were made in whale-bones, walrus tusks, and soapstone.