Arctic Whalers
Thule Inuit Migration
The ancestors of today's Inuit
moved east into Arctic Canada and Greenland from their northwest
Alaskan homeland in a series of migrations beginning about 800
or 1,000 years ago. This early Inuit culture is called
Thule
("tooley"), after the place in Greenland where
archaeologists first identified it.
Archaeological evidence indicates that Thule Inuit were
accomplished whale hunters. As they moved east into the treeless
Canadian Arctic, Thule Inuit built
houses
framed with the bones of their largest prey species, the bowhead whale
(Balaena mysticetus), instead of the wood-framed winter houses
of their Alaskan homeland.
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Ancestral Inuit from Alaska began moving east into Arctic Canada
800 to 1000 years ago. Archaeologists refer to these earliest
Inuit as Thule Inuit.
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Mask
Inuit, about 1800
Arctic Alaska
Wood
Canadian Museum of Civilization, IX-F:9607, CD95-608-007
This wooden mask was excavated from an Inuit archaeological site
in northwestern Alaska. Similar masks were used by 19th-century
Inupiat (Alaskan Inuit) in feasts celebrating a successful whale
hunt. Today, the mask allows us to see ancient Inuit as they saw
themselves.
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