The Arctic Inuit people By Cormac Kelly Times

The Arctic Inuit people By Cormac Kelly

Times in Alaska The temperature can get as low as 50 degrees BELOW ZERO. It is dark outside around the clock, 24 hours a day, for months at a time.

Inuit people live in Igloos An igloo was easy to build and could be made anywhere. Igloos were made from snow that had become hard enough to walk on. An igloo is made from frozen snow. Solid snow is easier to cut than solid ice.

How to Make an igloo To make an igloo , blocks are arranged in a circle to form the base. Then more blocks are placed on top, slanted slightly towards the Center until the blocks touch at the very top. A window is made from a block of ice to let in some light. Inuit pack the cracks between the blocks with loose snow. Finally , an entrance tunnel was carved out of frozen snow just under ground level.

Summer homes and furniture • In the Summer they live in tentsmade of the same animal skins they had hung overdoorways and laid on the groundand wall of the igloos. • Beds and other furniture was made of ice covered with animal skins. Sleeping bags were made of animal skin.

What they ware • Jackets had hoods trimed with fur. Boots were made from pieces of seal skin they were waterproof. The snowgoggles protect them from sun glare. They must wear snow goggles to protect their eyes from the strong glare of the sun reflecting off the snow.

Hunters and gatherers • There are few plants. It is coldmost of the year. The Inuit could not become farmers. They are hunters and gatherers. In the short Summer, they gathered berries, seaweed and eggs.

Preserving Meat and Fish • Most cooking took place in the Summer. Meat and fish were sometimes preserved by storing them in an airtight sealskin bag that was buired in the. Summer, and dug up in the Winter. The inuit also ate food raw. A treat was a raw seal eyeball.

Sports and games • All the inuit people, men and woman, boys and girls, play active sports and games. • One such game is a bone game where people were divided into teams. One person on a team would take a bag of bones, give it a shake, dump it out and use those bones to create a flat shape such as a whale, a polar bear etc. The other people on the team guess what is made. They also like to play a form of football.

Daily Life • During the day, they hunt for food. • At night, the inuit shelter in tent homes made from animal skins, or in igloos. • They make spears, harpoons and pipes. They carve animals from soft soapstone. • They like to spend time telling stories and tales of hunting and hardship. • They like to sing too.