Inuit Food
The Inuit people hunt for their
food. They eat primarily fish, sea mammals and a few land mammals. They
hunt seals, especially, the ring seal. inuit know a great deal about how
seals live. They also know about ice that covers the sea in the
winter. They know where to go on that ice to find the seals.
The Inuit people hunt seals during winter through the frozen ocean ice. Seals are mammals and must breathe. Seals scratch a holes through the ice as it begins to freeze. Seals come back to these holes for air. The Inuit hunter stood with a poised harpoon over these breathing holes, waiting for the seal to surface. Often the hunter had to stand this way for several hours in the bitter cold. Harpoons are still used, though rifles are also used..
In the spring and summer, when the ices melts, seals are hunted from boats called kayaks. The kayak holds only one hunter. It is covered all over with sealskin or caribou skin. The hunter sits in it, dressed in tight-fitting waterproof clothing made from seal or walrus intestine. The kayak moves silently through the water. The hunter can get very close to seals without being heard.
Caribou are also hunted for food, as well as for their skins for clothing and antlers for tools..
