Inuit Shelter – The Igloo

BUILDING AN IGLOO

An igloo is basically a dome of ice cubes and snow. Inuits use snow to make their homes because the air pockets in the snow act like isolation. The snow used for the igloos has to have structural strength to be able to be cut without breaking and then be easily stacked. The ice cubes are cut by a hand made knife. The Inuits often take one block of snow out of the igloos structure to form a window. Some Inuits even make a hole through the ice inside of the dome to be able to ice fish inside their homes. An Inuit men can build an igloo in about one hour.

LIVING IN AN IGLOO

To prevent cold air from coming inside the igloo, a tunnel is dug in the snow and a door is put at the end of the tunnel to not let the cold air penetrate the igloo. The entrance (tunnel) acts like a trap to cold air so it doesn’t go inside the Inuit’s dwelling. Out side an igloo temperatures varie at about -45c. and inside of an igloo the temperature varie between about -7c. to about 16c. when the only source of heat is body heat. When the Inuits build their igloos the sleeping areas are always higher then the other areas. That is because heat goes upwards and coldness stays towards the ground. When there is a source of heat inside the igloo the walls tend to melt and then refreeze to make a layer of ice on the walls and then reinforce the structure of the igloo. That said not all Inuits live and build igloos only the Inuits of Canada central Arctic and Greenland live and build igloos.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF IGLOOS

There are mainly three different types of igloos that Inuits build. The smallest of the three is used for hunting trips of only one or two nights. These igloos are often built on open sea ice.

The other igloo considered “medium” is semi-permanent for a medium sized family. It is usually a one roomed igloo for only one or two families, sometimes many of these are made in one area to form an Inuit village.

The largest of the three igloos is 50% for living and the other 50% is used for special occasions. These igloos can have up to 5 rooms and have up to 20 people living inside of it. A large igloo might consist of plenty of small igloos connected together. These large igloos were used to hold committee fest and dances and other occasions.

References:

-igloo/www.Wikipedia.org

-Places in time (2007) Savoie Sylvie, Laroche Louis

-www.saskschools.ca

-www.ih.kl2.oh.us/

Author: Jaques, 11 years old

 

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Inuit Traditional Fishing

Detail: CDN Stamp - Kayak

 

 

The Inuit used to fish to live. Without fish they would have had nothing to eat since there was a lack of food over there in the winter. The children and women are the ones that would mostly go fishing. They would fish for Crisco trout and more with nets and spears and they would ice fish with hooks. In the summer fishing was done in open waters on boats.

After a long day of fishing the children and women would come back to their camp with their catch and the Inuit would cut and gut their fish.The tool they use to cut and also gut their fish is called an ulu. The ulu is a sort of knife. The handle of the knife is made of wood or bone and it can be made of antler. The sharp part of the knife was either made of stone or meta. They would hold the ulu with the handle in their hand with the blade going downwards through their middle finger and the ring finger. When cutting they would slice the sides of the fish then clean it after the would hang it up to dry then cook it and then they ate.

Today the Inuit are more modern. They don’t go fishing with kayaks or canoes. Now the Inuit go fishing with all the new sorts of metal boats that are less dangerous then kayaks or canoes because they’re more modern. Today fishing for Inuit is an economic activity.

If a long time ago the Inuit did not know about fish or fishing they would not be where they are today and fish is what kept the Inuit going for all these years.

References:

Leblance, Genevieve and Sarrasin, Louise. Places in time (series)(2007)

Smith Greg J.H. Eskimos The Inuit of the Arctic

Author: Bub

Related Post:

Inuit Portal

Inuit Traditional Clothing and Kamiits

Who made Inuit clothing?

One of the main traditions is that the woman makes the cloth. The Inuit clothes consist of parkas such as: an outer layer, inner parkas, a trousers, mittens, caribou or rabbit socks and kamiits. Inuit makes clothes from animal skins, sewn together using needles made from animals bones and threads. Parkas are made with leather and fur. Some of the animals used to make the clothes are:

• caribou
• seal
• squirrel
• wolf
• wolverine
• mink
• bears
• foxes

Inuit woman wore parkas with extra large hoods, to allow the mother to carry a baby against their back and to protect it from the harsh wind. The styles of parkas vary from region to region , from shape of hood to length of the tails. Today parkas are still worn in other parts of the world and are made in other materials.

The woman also makes kamiits. Kamiits are waterproof boats. The boats are made of sealskins. They are very useful in the spring when the snow melts.

How Do They Prepare The Skins?

Parkas and kamiits is a long job to do. Inuit woman prepare the skins using a scraper called an ulu. The scraper removes the fat from the skins , after the woman chews the skin to soften it, Through the years the woman loses their teeth.

The Inuit still wear traditional clothes,such as parkas and kamiits in the far north. They also wear clothes like pants and shirts from the south.

References: Leblanc , Genevieve and Sarrasin, Louise. Place In Time (2007)

The Canadian Arctic Inuit(1998)

wikipedia.org. Inuit

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/polar/inuit_.html

Arctic Studies Center .Eskimo

Author: Magick