Food
Victoria, Adam, Eric, Stephen, Class 61
Food
The Inuit people didn't have a lot of animals to choose from so when they caught something they used all of the animal. They ate land and sea animals. They ate seals and walruses for their meat, the blubber was usually whipped and eaten like ice cream. Narwhales, fish, seals walruses and polar bears were the only sea animals the Inuit ate. Buffalo, caribou, elk and musk ox were very good meat suppliers for the Inuit. Very small animals were also part of the Inuit diet, like arctic hares, birds and their eggs. Tundra wolves, foxes and beaver, were also good sources of food. This is only some of the food the Inuit ate.
The Inuit ate plants and snacks as well. Most of the plants grew in the summer. Seaweed was one of the plants they ate and the only one that grew in the water. Vetch roots, berries, sorrel leaves and rosewood stems were the other plants the Inuit ate. The Inuit people were very clever they used willowed catkins to chew as gum. That covers all the Inuit plant food and snacks.
The Inuit made very creative utensils. The Inuit served their food on trays made of bone. Like today the Inuit had knives and spoons. They something called a prong which was used when eating berries. Though the Inuit utensils were creative they didn't have very many.
The Inuit people had very good methods for hunting and killing their food. Harpoons were used to kill sea animals. They would use bow and arrows to kill animals at a far distance. Inuit hunters also used spears and traps. If the animal was large the dogs would help to kill it. These are the different methods used for killing animals.
How the Inuit cooked and ate their food was very interesting. The Inuit people spent very little time cooking and usually ate their food raw; this was because they believed they would get more from the animal this way. The Inuit sometimes also ate there food completely frozen. They would put water in a hallowed out stone then add smaller hot stones to the water; they could cook some foods this way. Heated up soapstone was also used to heat up water. Even though they ate blubber they also used it for lamp oil. These may not have been the best ways to cook food but the Inuit people used all their resources around them and did not waste anything.
