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III. History
From
archaeological, linguistic, and physiological evidence,
most scholars conclude that the Inuit migrated across
the Bering Strait to Arctic North America. A later arrival
to the New World than most indigenous peoples, the Inuit
share many cultural traits with Siberian Arctic peoples
and with their own closest relatives, the Aleuts.
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The
oldest archaeological sites identifiable as Inuit, in
southwest Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, date from about
2000 BC and are somewhat distinct from later Inuit sites.
By
about 1800 BC the highly developed Old Whaling or Bering
Sea culture and related cultures had emerged in Siberia
and in the Bering Strait region. In eastern Canada the
Old Dorset culture flourished from about 1000 to 800 BC
until about AD 1000 to 1300.
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Arctic
peoples of the early Native American Thule culture
made many kinds of tools from stone, bone, ivory,
and antler. The Thule culture developed between 1,100
and 400 years ago and was based around the hunting
of whales, seals, walrus, and caribou, as well as
fishing. One Thule technological innovation was the
use of harpoon heads that were attached by lines to
floats of sealskin.
Lithic
Casting Lab
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The
Dorset people were overrun by the Thule Inuit, who by
AD 1000 to 1200 had reached Greenland. There, Inuit culture
was influenced by medieval Norse colonists and, after
1700, by Danish settlers.
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"Inuit,"
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