The Inuit are among the least well understood aboriginal peoples in the world. Their rich culture evolved in a land both inhospitable and isolated, independent of outside influences. As the north becomes more accessible and Inuit travel south, the richness of the culture and history are being revealed and documented.
The Arctic environment has not always been static; it has undergone both warming and freezing trends, with a variety of life living in the region at different periods. The north’s nomadic inhabitants have had to adapt accordingly.
The first group to live in the north migrated across the Bering Strait during a relatively warm period. This nomadic group, known as the pre-Dorset, spread north into the Arctic Archipelago and east to Greenland. These people hunted seals and fished the waters of the Arctic Ocean.
Inuit man building an igloo on Baker Island.
Getty Images
Around 1,500 BC a cooling trend began in the north that forced them to move south onto the mainland. It was during this period that the pre-Dorset culture evolved into the indigenous Dorset culture. These people now stalked the caribou herds instead of hunting on the sea ice. Their cultural links with their cousins west of the Bering Strait were broken.
Yet the Dorset are not the direct ancestors of the Inuit. Starting in AD 900 another warming trend began that heralded the migration of the Thule from Alaska. The Thule hunted sea mammals. With the retreat of the permanent ice pack on the mainland, the whales, seals, and walruses swam through the Bering Strait and into the Beaufort Sea. The Thule were quick to follow.
Ancient Thule site near Resolute Bay.
Getty Images
The Thule differed from the Dorset in several respects: one was that they lived in fairly large settlements along the coastline, unlike the Dorset, who lived in small family groups. Secondly, the Thule were technically more sophisticated hunters. Ironically, about AD 1500, the Thule found themselves in a position similar to that of the Dorset 3,000 years earlier: yet another mini-ice age had set in. This period saw the ice pack grow so large that the number of sea mammals passing through the Bering Strait to the Arctic Ocean decreased and the migration patterns of the caribou shifted southward. The Thule broke into smaller groups and became more nomadic. It is these people who are called the Inuit.
With the growth of the ice pack, the Thule adapted; breaking into smaller nomadic groups, they depended less on the huge bowhead whale, more on belugas, narwhals, seals, and caribou.
Arctic home
The Inuit chose to make the Arctic their home, in spite of the adversity they encountered. Their history, culture, and language are unlike those of the ancestors of today’s First Nations of Canada and American Indians, who moved south soon after crossing the Bering Strait.
In that harsh, unforgiving land the Inuit perfected the building of igloos and airtight kayaks; they became experts in tracking polar bear and seal on the Arctic ice. Although they suffered from famines and exposure, the Inuit stayed.
Forged with their innate ability for innovation was a humility that made the Inuit a tolerant, stoic society, who accepted their limitations in a land where darkness reigns for six months of the year. The fact the Inuit have endured for centuries becomes even more remarkable when one considers that despite the technological sophistication that Euro-Canadians have brought with them, they still frequently encounter tremendous emotional upheaval in adjusting to the isolation of northern climes. The Inuit do not have that sense of isolation; for them the wind, the snow, the seasons of light and darkness are a part of life.
A spear-hunting expedition.
Public domain
European contact
In 1576 Martin Frobisher, an Elizabethan explorer and privateer, sailed into a large bay on Baffin Island in search of gold and the Northwest Passage to India. He was met by Inuit who circled his vessel in their kayaks. In a bid to coax them closer he rang a bell, the sound of which had probably never been heard in the Arctic before.
One curious Inuit was close enough to reach for the bell. Frobisher, with both hands, pulled the man and kayak up and into the ship and stowed him away, like booty, in the hold. After the search for gold and the passage both proved fruitless, Frobisher returned to England and, in the habit of the day, brought the Inuit man as evidence of the peoples he had encountered. On a second voyage, he captured three more Inuit (a man, a woman and a baby, but not from the same community), using them as “proof” of the strange places he had visited. All died in captivity.
Captured on film beside the Great Whale River (c.1920).
Public domain
Apart from Frobisher’s expedition, the Inuit of the high Arctic seldom had contact with any Europeans until 1818, when whaling vessels started arriving in the eastern Arctic Ocean. These whalers risked navigating through the treacherous iceberg-laden Davis Strait in search of the bowhead whale. In the 1830s there was a series of whaling disasters, with vessels becoming trapped by the Arctic ice.
A solution to these problems was to establish whaling stations. In the 1840s William Penny, a typically shrewd Scottish whaling captain, began to employ local Inuit at his station on Baffin Island. He found that they were exceptional whalers, hardly surprising when you consider that the Inuit had been whaling for centuries. Soon Penny and other astute whalers began to adopt the warm clothing, harpoons, and other paraphernalia of Inuit technology.
William Penny noted on his arrival in Baffin Island in the 1840s that there were 1,000 Inuit. By 1858 there were only 350 due to the prevalence of tuberculosis and influenza.
Unfortunately, because the whaling proved so successful, by the 1880s the bowhead whale population in the Arctic was greatly reduced. In spite of the decline in the whaling industry, the contact with the southerners, or Kabloonat, continued because of the growing presence throughout the Arctic of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Canada’s largest fur-trading company. Although the Inuit maintained their semi-nomadic life, they began to rely upon trapping and trading to provide for themselves.
This shift away from living off the land to a barter– and then cash-based economy provided the Inuit with guns, cooking utensils, and foodstuffs from the south. For some, the Hudson’s Bay stores became a base or second home.
However, this arrangement changed abruptly when the price of furs fell dramatically in the 1840s. On Baffin Island, two-thirds of the Hudson’s Bay stores closed their doors. The Inuit could no longer purchase ammunition or the other goods they had come to depend upon.
A long period of starvation and deprivation began. While the Inuit economy was collapsing, missionaries were filing reports to medical authorities that tuberculosis (TB) and influenza epidemics were annihilating the people. One anthropologist studying at Coronation Gulf found in the 1920s that 30 percent of the Inuit population had died from influenza over a 14-year period. Similarly, in Coppermine in 1931, 19 cases of TB among a population of 100 were found.
Inuit artist carving a narwal tusk.
Getty Images
The government intervenes
For the most part, until the late 1940s the Canadian government had ignored the Inuit. However, after prodding from the churches, it began to take action. In 1950 medical authorities ordered 1,600 Inuit, or 14 percent of their population, to sanatoriums in Edmonton and Montréal. This action, though necessary in the absence of hospitals in the Arctic, was devastating for the Inuit, the vast majority of whom had never left the north. As well as treating tuberculosis, the health authorities were startled by the high rate of infant mortality. In 1958 infant mortality was at 257 per 1,000 live births. By 1970 it had dropped to 100 per 1,000, and in 2000 it was 6.4 per 1,000 – still 22 percent higher than the Canadian rate.
The federal government introduced more than a medical plan for the Inuit; they created a set of policies designed to rocket the Inuit into Canadian society. The central tenet of all these policies was to encourage them to abandon their nomadic life and move into government-built permanent settlements. These artificial communities provided housing, medical facilities, churches, and schools.
However well-intentioned policy-makers were, they failed to understand that the Arctic tundra and ocean is home for the Inuit. From the beginning of this resettlement period the Inuit struggled to retain their identity. The first step was made in 1959; in that year the Cape Dorset Artists Co-op was formed on Baffin Island.
Inuit items carved from leather, bone, ivory, and stone.
Getty Images
A sense of community
Over the centuries the Inuit have worked with ivory, stone, bones, and skins to make clothing, utensils, hunting tools, toys, and amulets. Often intricate designs were patterned onto these objects. When whalers arrived, trading began to take place, with the resourceful Inuit even manufacturing ivory cribbage boards for trade. It was in the 1950s that southerners began to discover the Inuit’s remarkable skill in carving and other traditional crafts, and funding was made available to develop these skills.
As a result the Inuit co-ops have flourished, receiving international recognition for their work in several mediums, including stone-cut prints, stencil, sculpture, and carving.
The co-op system has evolved to become more than enclaves for artists. In many communities it manages hunting expeditions, municipal services, and trading posts. The philosophy behind the co-ops reflects the Inuit concept of community and what Western thinking might call egalitarianism. For this reason, Inuit town meetings tend to be excruciatingly long for outsiders and are filled with lengthy meditative silences. Generally, the Inuit will not leave a local meeting before a well-thought-out consensus has been forged.
An Inuit woman and her child in the Northwest Territories.
Getty Images
The next generation
In a society where the line between nuclear family, extended family, and community is blurred, the importance of children cannot be overestimated. Traditionally, Inuit women are encouraged to have many children; many start from puberty and still bear children into their mid-forties. If, for whatever reason, the parents of a child are unable to support it, the child will be adopted by the grandparents or by some other member of the family. Illegitimacy is less of an issue here than in other societies, which is partly attributable to a sense of communal responsibility for children. In the 1960s the Inuit were baffled when social workers first attempted to formalize adoption procedures. Social workers were equally puzzled when they attempted to unravel whose children belonged to whom.
Within the Inuit community there is clearly a different set of values operating from those in the south. The pursuit of personal wealth is for the most part played down. The respect one can earn in the eyes of the community is important. For men this respect has traditionally been earned through becoming a good hunter or trapper, although this is now changing. Carving, despite its lucrative nature, has not been regarded as such a worthy occupation. The Inuit do understand that protecting language and culture are critical to their survival, and Inuktitut is one of three official languages in Nunavut. Their relationship with the land has made the Inuit, particularly the older generation, ambivalent toward higher education and the learning of “southern skills.” Mandatory school attendance was seen as a method of either forcing them to follow their children into government-built communities, or separating them from their children by sending them away to school. Many Inuit questioned the relevance and importance of their children learning subjects like English, science, and math.
The federal government has attempted to integrate the educational system into the community. However, a program to recruit and train Inuit to become teachers failed in part because few Inuit were willing to leave their community for eight months at a time to train.
The young adult Inuit population has been dramatically affected by the complications of living in a world with two divergent cultures. These Inuit are the children of the “baby boom” that swept across the Arctic in the 1950s and 1960s, in part created by the lowering of infant mortality and generally improved health.
The question that faces this group of people is how they will support themselves and build a future. As part of government policy many children were sent away to attend regional high schools. That isolation had a disorienting effect. They failed to learn, as their parents had, how to live off the land, how to keep warm while out in the cold, how to build a temporary snow shelter if the weather changed. Knowledge of survival techniques forms a keystone of Inuit culture. Yet, if the young are not familiar with traditional skills and their implicit philosophy, they also have not acquired the skills necessary to compete for management positions in government or in industry.
The continuity in passing down the knowledge and communal values from one generation to another has been broken. The resulting problems have manifested themselves in alcoholism, vandalism, and suicide. Inuit youth suicide is 11 times the national average.
Iqualuit, Nunavut Territory.
Getty Images
Exporting Inuit Culture
In addition to Inuit carvers and printmakers, Inuit artists from other genres are making their mark on the world stage. Inuit throat singing is a competition between two women, who stand facing each other. One begins by voicing a series of rhythmic sounds, including sounds made in the throat by inhaling and exhaling. She then repeats the series, leaving small silent gaps. The other singer must fill in the gaps with another rhythmic pattern. Throat singing continues until one of the women runs out of breath or can’t keep up. She generally starts laughing, losing the game. A typical session can last two or three minutes.
Adopting new technology
In many ways, technology has brought about a safer and more comfortable life for the Inuit. They ride on snowmobiles, watch satellite TV and hunt with high-powered rifles. They have running water. They no longer live in snow houses. The question that many would ask is: has technology made the Inuit more or less Inuit?
The Inuit have traditionally been eager to adopt new technology. In their environment they had to be great innovators. It is what the technology represents that bothers the Inuit. The challenge for the Inuit is to make technology their own; then they will be rulers in their own land. In adopting this technology, the Inuit must look to their knowledge of how they lived in the past if they are to avoid becoming strangers in their own land.
For more than 5,000 years the Inuit and their predecessors have politically, aesthetically, and socially been building and rebuilding a society that has allowed them to live independently in an environment where others could not bear the physical and psychological pressure.
It is their unique culture that has allowed them to make the north their home. If the young are not permitted to capture that spirit, if they are overwhelmed and bullied by Western society, then they will no longer be Inuit. And Canadian society will lose a unique and valuable fragment of its colorful mosaic.
Inuit ice fishing.
Getty Images