The Inupiat Eskimos live farther north than other Alaskan Natives. Some of the Inupiat Eskimos hunt bowhead whales. They live along the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi coasts of the Arctic Ocean. They hunt in skin covered boats, and harpoon and drag sixty-ton whales to the shore. In the Seward Peninsula and Kotzebue Sound polar bears, walrus and seals are also hunted.

Photo by Roz Goodman

There are salmon fisherman, reindeer herders, and caribou hunters who hunt and fish around the Arctic tundra of the Brooks Range. The women spend their time sewing fur, birch bark baskets and clothes to keep everyone warm, and to keep them from getting frostbite. For their special dinners that they call a feast, women spend almost the whole day cooking and making food, which is traditional and ceremonial for all the people in the village.

Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos have small villages that their ancestors lived in for hundreds of years. They also lived in larger towns built on top of ancient trading sites. More then 12,600 Inupiat people today live on traditional lands along the North Slope. Also about 6,000 Inupiat Eskimos live in Anchorage. More than 1,500 live in Fairbanks.

Take a quiz