What Animals Did The Arctic Northwest Native Americans Hunt

Native Americans

Inuit Peoples

History >> Native Americans for Kids

The Inuit people live in the far northern areas of Alaska, Canada, Siberia, and Greenland. They originally made their home forth the Alaskan coast, but migrated to other areas. Everything about the lives of the Inuit is influenced by the cold tundra climate in which they alive.

An Inuit family outside their home
Inuit Family unit by George R. King

What kind of homes did they live in?

The typical materials for making homes such as forest and mud are hard to observe in the frozen tundra of the Chill. The Inuit learned to brand warm homes out of snow and water ice for the winter. During the summertime they would make homes from beast skin stretched over a frame made from driftwood or whalebones. The Inuit word for home is "igloo".

What was their habiliment like?

The Inuit needed thick and warm wearable to survive the common cold atmospheric condition. They used beast skins and furs to stay warm. They made shirts, pants, boots, hats, and large jackets chosen anoraks from caribou and seal pare. They would line their clothes with furs from animals similar polar bears, rabbits, and foxes.

What did the Inuit people eat?

The Inuit people were unable to subcontract and grow their ain food in the harsh desert of the tundra. They mostly lived off of meat from hunting animals. They used harpoons to hunt seals, walruses, and the bowhead whale. They besides ate fish and foraged for wild berries. A high percentage of their nutrient was fat, which gave them energy in the cold weather.

How did they hunt whales?

In order to hunt larger prey like walruses and whales, the Inuit hunters would gather in a big grouping. To hunt a whale, typically at least 20 hunters would get together on a big boat armed with a number of harpoons. They would attach a number of seal-peel balloons filled with air to the harpoons. This way the whale could not dive deep into the water when information technology was first speared. Each fourth dimension that the whale would come up to the surface for air, the hunters would harpoon it again. Once the whale died, they would tie it to the gunkhole and tow information technology back to shore.

It would sometimes take a number of men a long time to catch and kill a whale, but it was well worth it. The Inuit used all parts of the whale including the meat, blubber, pare, oil, and bones. A big whale could feed a minor community for a year.

Transportation

Despite the harsh landscape of the Chill, the Inuit still institute means to travel long distances. On land and ice they used dogsleds called qamutik. They bred strong sled dogs from wolves and dogs to pull the sleds which were made from whale bones and wood. These dogs became the husky dog breed.

On the water, the Inuit used different kinds of boats for dissimilar activities. For hunting they used small-scale unmarried-passenger boats called kayaks. They also built larger, faster boats called umiaqs that were used for transporting people, dogs, and goods.

Interesting Facts about the Inuit

A member of the Inuit people is called an Inuk.
The warm soft boots worn past the Inuit are called mukluks or kamik.
In order to marking areas and to proceed from getting lost, paths were marked with a pile of stones called an inuksuk.
Nearly 90 pct of the Inuit in Western Alaska died from disease after they came into contact with Europeans in the 1800s.
Inuit women were responsible for sewing, cooking, and raising the children. The men provided food by hunting and fishing.
The Inuit had no formal marriage ceremony or ritual.
After hunting, they would perform rituals and sing songs in honor of the creature's spirit.

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