Humans migrated to this continent 10,000 years ago

Ice used to cover half of America

What is a

glacier?

What is migration?

lBering Strait

Beringia used to be solid land, but then thousands of years ago, the glaciers melted and formed the Bering strait. From Alaska, you can still see to Siberia, which is in Russia.

Inuits stopped here

Check it out for yourself through a live web cam

INUIT means “the real people”Many people used to call the Inuit Eskimos.

Where the Inuit live in the world

The Inuit people settled in what is now Alaska, Canada, and Greenland near the Arctic Ocean.

CANADA

CANADA

U.S.A.

Look at the picture and guess the climate of the area where the Inuits lived?

CLUE: climate is the type of weather over a long time.

The climate is very cold. Snow and ice cover the land for 9 months out of the year. It may only be

50 degrees in the summer.

Today, this is an Inuit village and this is an Inuit 4th graderat recess!

Would you like this climate?

•It is so cold that the Inuit invented the KAYAK, which they made from sealskin, driftwood and whale bones.

The kayak was used for hunting.

These traditional "one man" boats were usually just that - "made to measure" for just one man's size and weight.

Hunters wore a sealskin "annuraaq" to keep water from getting into the boat (the origin of the modern name "anorak" for a waterproof cover). The hood and wrists were tightly tied, and it was long enough to be tied around the cockpit. So how did they get out if they capsized? Simple. They didn’t.

WHY did the kayak have to be totally waterproof?

The kayak was used for hunting what type of animals?

Look at the pictures and tell us what the Inuit people

ate. Why?

The climate affects what people eat.

What’s for dinner?The traditional Inuit diet consists mainly of fish, seals, whales, especially in the winter.

The seal is their staple winter food and most valuable resource. It provides them with dog food, clothing, and materials for making boats, tents, and harpoon lines.The blubber is used for fuel for both light and heat.

What’s for dinner?

In the interior of Alaska and Canada, caribou are hunted in the summer.

Today many Inuit work for wages and buy food at a grocery store

The polar bear, fox, hare, and Arctic birds were also hunted.

Why did the Inuit mostly eat meat and not fruits, vegetables or plants?

The Inuit people moved as their food sources moved.

When a group of people follow their food source, they are called nomads. The Inuit moved in the summer to hunt caribou and in the winter to hunt seals and whales.

The climate also affects how people live.

Look at the pictures and tell us about how the Inuit people lived a long time ago and how they live now.

An igloo usually housed two families throughout the winter.

The Inuit Igloo

The word igloo comes from the Inuit word iglu, meaning “house.”

In the past the Inuit made igloos out of building blocks cut from snow banks.

Some igloos were lined inside with skins, which trapped a layer of cold against the walls, allowing the temperature to be warmer without melting the snow.

Summer homes could be made of animal hides and whale rib bones. Sticks were harder to find so driftwood was used.

How did climate affect how the Inuits lived?

Why did the Inuit build their house out of snow or animal hides, instead of trees?

How did the environment affect the clothes of the people?

What are some of the natural resources of the Inuit?

Whales

Fish

Ocean

Snow

seals

.  

Inuit Art was also influenced by climate-why?

Ivory from walruses and whales is fashioned into figurines representing animals and people, and into decorated knobs, handles, and other tool parts.

Trading•The Inuit needed iron to make weapons for hunting. They began trading whaling products for iron. Because the Europeans knew how to mine for iron, the Inuits traded with them.

•They also traded furs.

What is scarcity?

• The Inuit needed to trade for iron as it was scarce.

• Scarcity means not having as much of something as people would like.

• What other natural resources were scarce in this region?