People of the arctic
‘Inuit’ is the name often used to describe a group of
peoples with similar ways of life that live in the Arctic
regions of Greenland, Canada and the United States.
A member of the Inuit people is called an Inuk.
What do Inuits Wear?
Where do Inuits Live?
Inuits live in small, isolated camps of between
10 and 50 people living in up to 6 dwellings.
Often, everyone comes from one family including
uncles, aunts, cousins. They build both temporary
and semi-permanent homes to protect them
The inuits need thick and warm clothing to survive
against the cold. In the tundra it is hard to find
the cold weather. Caribou (reindeer) skins are often
the materials needed to create homes you might
used to make clothes, as well as skins from polar
see elsewhere, so the inuits have learned to make
bears, wolverines and wolves (to name just a few) to
homes from snow and ice during the Winter, and
keep warm. Seal skin is also used to make waterproof
animal skin and whalebone huts in the Summer.
clothing. The caribou parka jacket that the Inuits create
The Inuit word fo
r
home is ‘igloo’.
has been said to be the best cold weather item of
How do Inuits Travel?
clothing ever to be invented!
Inuits use snowshoes to walk in the snow to help spread their weight, and stop them sinking
What do Inuits Eat?
in the deep snow. They use sledges made from whale bones and wood, called Qamutik.
These are pulled by husky dogs (which have been bred from dogs and wolves) and are
Inuit people are unable to farm and grow food in the
mostly used for carrying portable huts and supplies from one place to another. This was the
harsh desert of the tundra. They need to hunt animals
most effective way of travelling over the snow until the invention of the snowmobile. Kayaks
so they can live off the meat. They often use harpoons
are built and used to travel over water, and bigger ships called Umiaqs are used to hunt
to hunt walruses, seals and bowhead whales. They also
whales.
search for wild berries and eat fish. In order to hunt
the large whales and walruses, they gather in a large
group armed with lots of harpoons. They then create
balloons made from seal skins, and attach these to
the harpoons. These balloons prevent the whale from
being able to dive back down deep into the ocean.
This allows them to capture the whale and bring it
back to shore.
14 SPARK
In order to mark
areas and to kee
p
from getting lo
st,
paths are marked
with a pile of
stones called an
Inuksuk.
SPARK 15