Inuit Culture And Beliefs

The Inuit were an Artic tribe that were professional hunters and could kill a seal in minutes.

The Inuit also known as “Eskimos” and lived in northern regions of Alaska and North America. The Inuit lived in Alaska, Asia, and Canada where the amount of sunlight varied throughout the seasons. During the winter the sun sets about mid-November and doesn’t reappear until mid-January. A big part of the Inuit culture was to tell stories to help them last through the light filled days and the seemingly never ending nights. One of these stories is “The Creation” told by Apagkaq a Mackenzie River Inuit.
Raw hides, skins, and wooden stakes usually provided the Inuit with a simple home to live in. The houses were usually bunked with stones to keep
The only people that could control these spirits were the religious leaders called shamans or Angakoks. A lot of the times they used charms and dances to communicate with the “spirit world”. They also wore carved masks, mainly to represent animals. The Shamans believed the masks were able to let them communicate with the spirit world.
The Inuit were mainly hunters and relied heavily on the animals of the Artic as their main source of food. The weather was so harsh very little vegetation could survive there. The Inuit were able to hunt animals year around but the species of animal differed on the season. The sea mammals were usually hunted during the winter while they were out on the ice. Some sea mammals like seals, walruses, beluga whales, and narwhales were hunted for these reasons. Seal: meat and skin Walrus: Ivory (tusk) and meat Beluga Whale: skin and blubber.
The Inuit used snow dogs for transportation. A breed of dog used was called the huskie. They has thick fur and was bred by the Inuit. When the Inuit were in the waters, they used a small boat called a kayak, while they had a bigger boat called an umiaq. The umiaq would transport people, dogs, and