Inuit seal hunter in a qajaq, armed with a harpoonPhoto from on board the MS Hanseatic, 2014-08-27: Polar ice limit (Record position 85°40,7818’ N, 135°38,8735‘ E)
Inuit navigation techniques are those navigation skills used for thousands of years by the Inuit, a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples who inhabit the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska (United States). On the tundra, Inuit hunters would travel for long distances when hunting for game, and on the coastal waters, hunters would travel out of the sight of land, and they would need to orientate themselves to the location of favoured fishing or hunting places, or on the return journey to their dwelling place.
The Inuit relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition to navigate across tundra, sea ice, and open sea, that presented, to those not familiar with the knowledge, as indistinguishable and seemingly monotonous landscapes, and also rapidly changing seascapes, with few navigation points of reference during a blizzard or white-out and when out of sight of islands, coastal landmarks, or features on the horizon.[1]
Inuit hunters orient themselves on the land through their understanding of prevailing winds and the patterns resulting in snowdrifts and an understanding of caribou, fish and bird migration behaviour, and astronomical observation.[2] The Inuit languages allowed them to describe nuanced differences in snow and the patterns resulting from the effect of the prevailing wind on snowdrifts and ice formations.
The Inuit possessed a comprehensive native system of toponymy to name any geographical feature. Where natural landmarks were insufficient, the Inuit would erect an inuksuk (inukshuk or rock cairn).
The latitude of the Arctic environment results in long periods of sunlight during summer, and cold, dark, snow-covered winter conditions, with the surface of the Arctic Ocean freezing. A definition of the Arctic region, describes it as the area north of the Arctic Circle (about 66° 34'N), the approximate southern limit of the midnight sun and polar night. The number of days per year with midnight sun (or polar night) increasing the closer one goes towards the geographicalNorth Pole.
Celestial navigation is available to Inuit travellers, although the time that navigation technique is available is limited by the variability of night-time through the year and other factors.[3] Cloudy and blizzard conditions and the light of the aurora borealis limit its use.[4] Snow that was kept airborne by the wind, created a type of fog. Even if the night sky was free of clouds or snow fog, the moonlight shining on the ice and snow, and reflecting into the sky, could obscure the view of the stars.[4]
Navigation on sea ice
This photograph, from a plane, shows a section of sea ice. The lighter blue areas are melt ponds, and the darkest areas are open water.
The Inuit languages described the prevailing winds of the place or region and also the sea ice conditions that could result from the winds, tides and currents. Inuit travellers could orientate themselves, and give directions to others, to describing sea-ice conditions that were known to recur at the same locations each year: such as, ice dunes and pressure ridges, an ice build-up, polynyas, areas of open water surrounded by sea ice, caused by the prevailing wind or marine currents, and ice cracks or leads opening in the drift ice zone.[1]
The areas of open water resulting from polynyas, ice cracks and leads could be identified on the horizon as resulting in a blue reflection of the water on the sky that was different to the background colour of the sky.[1]
Navigation on land
The prevailing wind is the most reliable source of spatial orientation for Inuit travellers because of the prevailing wind would cause consistent shapes and patterns in the snowdrifts, including sastrugi, which the Inuit call kalutoqaniq.[1][3][5][6] These distinctive shapes and patterns would be features on the snowscape, which would indicate the direction of the prevailing wind. Inuit travellers to set their bearings using these distinctive shapes and patterns in the snowdrifts while travelling across the flat tundra, or when a blizzard or other weather conditions or darkness obscured other features or landmarks.[1][6]
The Inuit would erect inuksuk (rock cairns), with various designs meeting different purposes, such as the grave of an angakkuq, or to funnel caribou to assist in hunting, which would also act as navigational indicators.[6][7]
In summer the Inuit hunted sea animals from single-passenger, covered seal-skin boats called qajaq[8] (Inuktitut syllabics: ᖃᔭᖅ) which were extraordinarily buoyant, and could easily be righted by a seated person, even if completely overturned. Because of this property, the design was copied by Europeans and Americans who still produce them under the English name kayak.
Inuit also made umiaq (known in some areas as a "woman's boat"), larger open boats made of wood frames covered with animal skins, for transporting people, goods, and dogs. They were 6–12m (20–39ft) long and had a flat bottom so that the boats could come close to shore.
In winter, both on land and on sea ice, the Inuit used dog sleds (qamutik) for transportation. The husky dog breed comes from the Siberian Husky. The current evidence infers that their ancestors were domesticated in Siberia 23,000 years ago by ancient North Siberians, then later dispersed eastward into the Americas and westward across Eurasia.[9] A team of dogs in either a tandem/side-by-side or fan formation would pull a sled made of wood, animal bones, or the baleen from a whale's mouth and even frozen fish,[10] over the snow and ice.
Map making
Inuit navigators understood the concept of maps and could construct a relief map from sand, sticks, and pebbles to give directions to others.[6] Maps were also drawn on skins using plant dyes.[6] For example, the bark of the alder tree provided a red-brown shade, and spruce produced red,[11] and berries, lichen, moss and algae also provided colours.[12][13]
1 2 MacDonald, John (1998). The Arctic Sky: Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore, and Legend. Royal Ontario Museum, and Nunavut Research Institute, Toronto. ISBN0888544278.
1 2 "The Inuit Sky". ASTROLab du parc national du Mont-Mégantic. 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
The Siberian Husky is a medium-sized working sled dog breed. The breed belongs to the Spitz genetic family. It is recognizable by its thickly furred double coat, erect triangular ears, and distinctive markings, and is smaller than the similar-looking Alaskan Malamute.
Ellesmere Island is Canada's northernmost and third largest island, and the tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of 196,236 km2 (75,767 sq mi), slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total length of the island is 830 km (520 mi).
Sastrugi, or zastrugi, are features formed by erosion of snow by wind. They are found in polar regions, and in snowy, wind-swept areas of temperate regions, such as frozen lakes or mountain ridges. Sastrugi are distinguished by upwind-facing points, resembling anvils, which move downwind as the surface erodes. These points usually lie along ridges parallel to the prevailing wind; they are steep on the windward side and sloping to the leeward side. Smaller irregularities of this type are known as ripples or wind ridges.
A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in harness, most commonly a sled over snow.
Ilulissat, formerly Jakobshavn or Jacobshaven, is the municipal seat and largest town of the Avannaata municipality in western Greenland, located approximately 350 km (220 mi) north of the Arctic Circle. With a population of 4,670 as of 2020, it is the third-largest city in Greenland, after Nuuk and Sisimiut. The city is home to almost as many sled-dogs as people.
Ukkusiksalik National Park is a national park in Nunavut, Canada. It covers 20,885 km2 (8,064 sq mi) of tundra and coastal mudflats south of the Arctic Circle and the hamlet of Naujaat, from Hudson Bay's Roes Welcome Sound towards the western Barrenlands and the source of Brown River. The park surrounds Wager Bay, a 100 km (62 mi)-long inlet on the Hudson Bay. Although the smallest of Nunavut's four national parks, it is the sixth largest in Canada. Its name relates to steatite found there: Ukkusiksalik means "where there is material for the stone pot".
Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface. Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth's polar regions: the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean. Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent, a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology, including the ocean's ecosystems. Due to the action of winds, currents and temperature fluctuations, sea ice is very dynamic, leading to a wide variety of ice types and features. Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs, which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean. Depending on location, sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs.
An inuksuk or inukshuk is a type of stone landmark or cairn built by, and for the use of, Inuit, Iñupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found in northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. This combined region, north of the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome and has areas with few natural landmarks.
The 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy and The Serum Run, was a transport of diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled relay across the US territory of Alaska by 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs across 674 miles (1,085 km) in 5+1⁄2 days, saving the small town of Nome and the surrounding communities from a developing epidemic of diphtheria.
Leonhard "Sepp" Seppala was a Norwegian-Finnish-American sled dog breeder, trainer and musher who with his dogs played a pivotal role in the 1925 serum run to Nome, and participated in the 1932 Winter Olympics. Seppala introduced the work dogs used by Native Siberians at the time to the American public; the breed came to be known as the Siberian Husky in the English-speaking world. The Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award, which honors excellence in sled dog care, is named in honour of him.
The claim that there are an unusually large number of Eskimo words for snow refers to the belief that Eskaleut languages, specifically the Yupik and Inuit varieties, have far more words for snow than other languages, particularly in contrast to English.
Polar ecology is the relationship between plants and animals in a polar environment. Polar environments are in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Arctic regions are in the Northern Hemisphere, and it contains land and the islands that surrounds it. Antarctica is in the Southern Hemisphere and it also contains the land mass, surrounding islands and the ocean. Polar regions also contain the subantarctic and subarctic zone which separate the polar regions from the temperate regions. Antarctica and the Arctic lie in the polar circles. The polar circles are imaginary lines shown on maps to be the areas that receives less sunlight due to less radiation. These areas either receive sunlight or shade 24 hours a day because of the earth's tilt. Plants and animals in the polar regions are able to withstand living in harsh weather conditions but are facing environmental threats that limit their survival.
Pingualuit National Park is a 1,133.90 km2 (437.80 sq mi) provincial park located in the Ungava Peninsula 100 km (62 mi) south-west of the Inuit village of Kangiqsujuaq. The park protects the Pingualuit crater, a young meteorite crater.
A lead is a large fracture within an expanse of sea ice, defining a linear area of open water that can be used for navigation purposes. Leads vary in width from meters to hundreds of meters. As is the case for polynyas, leads allow the direct interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean, and are important for Arctic sea ice ecology. Additionally it has been lately found that ice leads contribute significantly to the amount of mercury deposited onto surface and leaked into the ocean. If the air is cold enough, the water within a lead quickly refreezes, such that in many cases, leads are partly or entirely covered by a thin layer of new ice.
Classifications of snow describe and categorize the attributes of snow-generating weather events, including the individual crystals both in the air and on the ground, and the deposited snow pack as it changes over time. Snow can be classified by describing the weather event that is producing it, the shape of its ice crystals or flakes, how it collects on the ground, and thereafter how it changes form and composition. Depending on the status of the snow in the air or on the ground, a different classification applies.
The second Grinnell expedition of 1853–1855 was an American effort, financed by Henry Grinnell, to determine the fate of the Franklin's lost expedition. Led by Elisha Kent Kane, the team explored areas northwest of Greenland, now called Grinnell Land.
The Pan Inuit Trails Atlas is an interactive database that depicts traditional place names and routes used by the Inuit in the Canadian Arctic, showing connections between Inuit communities from Greenland to Alaska, focusing on the eastern Canadian arctic region. The database is a geospatially-organized collection of material drawn from published and unpublished sources held in public libraries and archives throughout Canada.
The Denmark expedition, also known as the Denmark Expedition to Greenland's Northeast Coast and the Danmark Expedition after the ship's name, was an expedition to northeastern Greenland in 1906–1908.
Traditional Inuit clothing is a complex system of cold-weather garments historically made from animal hide and fur, worn by Inuit, a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic areas of Canada, Greenland, and the United States. The basic outfit consisted of a parka, pants, mittens, inner footwear, and outer boots. The most common sources of hide were caribou, seals, and seabirds, although other animals were used when available. The production of warm, durable clothing was an essential survival skill which was passed down from women to girls, and which could take years to master. Preparation of clothing was an intensive, weeks-long process that occurred on a yearly cycle following established hunting seasons. The creation and use of skin clothing was strongly intertwined with Inuit religious beliefs.
The Chukotka Sled Dog is the aboriginal spitz breed of dog indigenous to the Chukchi people of Russia.
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