The Eskimos although classified as one tribe of Indians were highly diverse in the number of tribes and in their own ways of living. Their common Thule ancestors led them each tribe to exploit either the land or the sea for resources. The people in the Bering Strait relied mostly on sea mammals, especially depending on the walrus. Unlike the Nunamuit, who resided in the Brooks range in Northern Alaska, who's chief source of resources was the caribou which they hunted all year round. The weapons used to hunt these animals varied from the type of setting the hunting was in for the land hunting the bow and arrow was widely used, but for water hunting the Eskimos used harpoons or spears.
As diverse as the resource consumption the dwellings of the different groups was also varied. Most shelter in the winter was in semi-subterranean houses of stone or sod over wooden frameworks. But there were others who did it differently than those. The central Eskimos from Quebec relied entirely snow houses in the winter. In east and west Greenland the stone house held as many as fifty unrelated people, which demonstrates a communal living area. In Alaska there were communal living areas that doubled as men's clubhouses ca
Encyclopedia Britannica. Copyright 1996.
The tribes that used the water as a source of food had many forms of water transportation commonly called the kayak, and the larger umiak. The kayak was a seal hunting craft except in the central Eskimo region were the sealing was limited, there it was used to intercept migrating caribou. The umiak was most commonly used as a freight boat rowed by women, although it was also used as a whaling boat. Winter transport was usually sled pulled by dog or men, it was more men then dogs because in areas of low food the dogs could not be fed properly.
lled kashim by the Russians, which were semi-subterranean.
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