There is a distinct aboriginal peoples living around, above and beyond the Arctic circle in Northern Canada.  These people have been known as Eskimos, but are now more commonly known as Inuit.  There are many aboriginal groups throughout Canada and the world, but what sets the Inuit apart is their land.  Inuit people have survived for thousands of years in one of the most harsh climates known to mankind, with temperatures reaching as low as -60 degrees Celsius in the winter to as high as +15 degrees Celsius in the Summer (Hessel, 3,4).  The summers only last a couple of months where the sun never sets and only small grass, lichens, and flowers grow among a largely barren landscape.  The winters seem endless while for a couple of months the sun does not shine.  During the winter the barren tundra is covered with ice and snow.  The rivers, lakes and sea become an extension of the land as they freeze.  To a southerner, this type of landscape may seem unbearable or even inhabitable, but for the Inuit it is part of who they are.

Inuit are quite unique with respects to their attachments and knowledge of the land.  They do not own the land, rather the land owns them.  The word Inuit simply means "people" (brody, 15).  This meaning helps to define the relationship that Inuit have with the land.  The Arctic tundra is a huge area of land that is shared among all Inuit.  They all have great respect for the land and its creatures including the polar bear, seal, walrus, caribou, and narwhale.  The Inuit are one with the land.

In the past, Inuit people traveled across the frozen tundra by dogsled, their clothes were made of caribou skins, their hunting weapons and tools were made of ivory and their houses were made of rock and snow.  Times have changed considerably in the north for the Inuit since the first contact with Europeans in the mid 1500s (Hessel, 7).  Inuit now travel mostly by snowmobile on the frozen tundra, wear clothes are made of cotton and other modern materials, they hunt using rifles and have houses made of concrete with heating and electricity. "No longer [is] it necessary to lead such an arduos and precarious existence" (Lipton, 54).  All of these new amenities has been made possible by trade with the Europeans and other Qallunaat (southerners) (Brody, 31).  The trade started with the European demand for furs from seal and for ivory from narwhales.  In turn for the animal riches the Inuit would receive guns and ammunition as well as money to buy other southern import commodities.