The Inuit are the last hunting  culture on the North American continent, though they struggle to maintain their knowledge and traditions.  On the northwestern coast they hunt the great bowhead whale and on the eastern coast the seal, caribou, and Nanook, the Polar Bear.

“The Inuit culture is the most pure hunting culture in existence. Having adapted to the extreme living conditions in the High Arctic of the North American continent for at least four thousand years, Inuit are not even hunter-gatherers. Inuit are hunters, pure and simple.” – Henriette Rasmusse

 

Quotes

“Beast of the Sea, Come offer yourself in the dear early morning! Beast of the plain, Come offer yourself in the dear early morning!”

“When we are hunting we do not look for the animal, but a movement, a disturbance, an interruption in the rhythm of the land”.

“The way we live right now, by hunting, is going to be lost in the future. The memories of the past are going to disappear. But if we try hard enough, if we try to teach our children, I hope maybe we are not going to forget”.

“We don’t use the dogs anymore to pull the Kmotik (sled). We still use them for their fur for our parkas. In the past when a village was starving we would have to eat the dogs. Now, we have the Ski-doo to take us great distances for hunting. But if you become lost, or run out of gas, or there are no animals to kill, you cannot eat your Ski-doo. It seems that we have lost more than we have gained”.

“There are two men fighting. They are both Inuit. One is the first, and the other the last Eskimo. I don’t know who will be the one to die first”.

All of the anonymous quotes are from:  In the Middle: The Eskimo Today, by Stephen Guion Williams.