Inuit navigation

rdf:langString Inuit navigation

rdf:langString Inuit navigation techniques are those navigation skills used for thousands of years by the Inuit, a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples who inhabit the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska (United States). On the tundra, Inuit hunters would travel for long distances when hunting for game, and on the coastal waters, hunters would travel out of the sight of land, and they would need to orientate themselves to the location of favoured fishing or hunting places, or on the return journey to their dwelling place. The Inuit relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition to navigate across tundra, sea ice, and open sea, that presented, to those not familiar with the knowledge, as indistinguishable and seemingly monotonous landscapes, and also rapidly changing seascapes, with few navigation points of reference during a blizzard or white-out and when out of sight of islands, coastal landmarks, or features on the horizon. Inuit hunters orient themselves on the land through their understanding of prevailing winds and the patterns resulting in snowdrifts and an understanding of caribou, fish and bird migration behaviour, and astronomical observation. The Inuit languages allowed them to describe nuanced differences in snow and the patterns resulting from the effect of the prevailing wind on snowdrifts and ice formations. The Inuit possessed a comprehensive native system of toponymy to name any geographical feature. Where natural landmarks were insufficient, the Inuit would erect an inuksuk (inukshuk or rock cairn). The latitude of the Arctic environment results in long periods of sunlight during summer, and cold, dark, snow-covered winter conditions, with the surface of the Arctic Ocean freezing. A definition of the Arctic region, describes it as the area north of the Arctic Circle (about 66° 34'N), the approximate southern limit of the midnight sun and polar night. The number of days per year with midnight sun (or polar night) increasing the closer one goes towards the geographical North Pole.