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Thule People

 
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The Thule or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Canadian Inuit
Inuit

Inuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Russia and Alaska, United States....
. They arrived in Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
 from north-eastern Siberia in around the year 500 AD and Nunavut
Nunavut

Nunavut is the largest and newest Provinces and territories of Canada of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993....
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 in 1000 AD. A subgroup then moved east to Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
 by the 13th century. They were a later and separate cultural migration into North America from Asia, and they replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture
Dorset culture

The Dorset culture were a Paleo-Eskimo culture that preceded the Inuit culture in Arctic North America. Inuit legends mention the Tuniit or Sivullirmiut , who were driven away by the Inuit....
 that had previously inhabited the region.






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The Thule or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Canadian Inuit
Inuit

Inuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Russia and Alaska, United States....
. They arrived in Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
 from north-eastern Siberia in around the year 500 AD and Nunavut
Nunavut

Nunavut is the largest and newest Provinces and territories of Canada of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993....
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 in 1000 AD. A subgroup then moved east to Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
 by the 13th century. They were a later and separate cultural migration into North America from Asia, and they replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture
Dorset culture

The Dorset culture were a Paleo-Eskimo culture that preceded the Inuit culture in Arctic North America. Inuit legends mention the Tuniit or Sivullirmiut , who were driven away by the Inuit....
 that had previously inhabited the region. The appellation "Thule
Thule

Thule is, in classical literature, a place, usually an island. Ancient European descriptions and maps locate it either in the far north, often Iceland, possibly the Orkney Islands or Shetland Islands or Scandinavia, or in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance Iceland or Greenland....
" originates from the location of Thule (in 1953 relocated to Qaanaaq
Qaanaaq

Qaanaaq is the main town in the northern part of the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the Kalaallisut and many also speak Inuktun....
) in northwest Greenland, facing Canada, where the archaeological
Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
 remains of the people were first found at Comer's Midden
Comer's Midden

Comer's Midden is a 1916 archaeological excavation site near the"Arctic Station of Thule" , north of Mt. Dundas , in North Star Bay, northern Greenland....
. The links between the Thule and the Inuit are biological
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
, cultural
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
, and linguistic
Natural language

In the philosophy of language, a natural language is a language that is spoken, Sign language, or writing by humans for general-purpose communication, as distinguished from formal languages and from constructed languages....
.

History

Cambridge Bay Thule Site 1998 06 28
There is good evidence to support the idea that the Thule (and the Dorset, but to a lesser degree) were in contact with the Vikings, who touched the banks of what is now modern Canada in roughly 1000 AD. Some Thule migrated southward, in the "Second Expansion" or "Second Phase". By the 13th or 14th century, the Thule had occupied an area currently inhabited by the Central Inuit, and by the 15th century, the Thule replaced the Dorset culture
Dorset culture

The Dorset culture were a Paleo-Eskimo culture that preceded the Inuit culture in Arctic North America. Inuit legends mention the Tuniit or Sivullirmiut , who were driven away by the Inuit....
. Intensified contacts with Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
ans began in the 18th century. Compounded by the already disruptive effects of the "Little Ice Age
Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling occurring after a warmer North Atlantic era known as the Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum....
" (1650-1850), the Thule communities broke apart, and the people were henceforward known as the Eskimo
Eskimo

Eskimos or Esquimaux are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska and Canada, and all of Greenland ....
 and, later, Inuit.

Culture

Known for using slate
Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliation , homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcano ash through low grade regional metamorphism....
 knives and toggling harpoon
Toggling harpoon

File:Whaling harpoon from 1878.jpgThe toggling harpoon is an ancient weapon and tool used in whaling to impale a whale when thrown. Unlike earlier harpoon versions which had only one point, a toggling harpoon has a two-part point....
s, the Thule subsisted primarily on marine animals—especially large sea mammals
Marine mammal

Marine mammals are a diverse group of roughly 120 species of mammal that are primarily ocean-dwelling or depend on the ocean for food. They include the cetaceans , the sirenians , the pinnipeds , and several otters ....
—and resources.

Thule winter settlements usually had one to four houses with around ten people. Their houses were made of whale
Whale

Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphinsmembers, in other words, of the families Oceanic dolphin or River dolphinnor porpoises....
 bone
Bone

Bones are rigid organ that form part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They function to move, support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red blood cell and white blood cells and store minerals....
s from summer hunts. Other structures included kill sites, food caches, and tent
Tent

A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of textile or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope....
 encampments. Some major settlements may have had more than a dozen houses, although not all were inhabited at the same time by the fifty residents.

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