Inuit Weapons

Traditional Inuit weapons Knives, spears, harpoons.

The Inuit (Eskimos) were considered to be great hunters. They hunted countless animals. The whale was the most thrilling animal for Inuit hunters to hunt. In addition, the Inuit people hunted seals, walruses, arctic trout, arctic char, polar bears and caribou. The Inuit (Eskimo) people lived regularly off of eating seals, fish and caribou. Seals and walruses were such heavy mammals; that the Inuit people needed their dogsled team to help them haul it.

Inuit Weapons Inuit people used numerous weapons to hunt their prey with. Some of the Inuit weapons included spears, fishing rods, bow and arrows and knives just to name a few. The Bola was also an Inuit weapon used by the Eskimo people. The Bola was a weapon used by Native Inuit people throughout America for many years.

The Inuit people made their Bolas weapons from bone and sinew. The Bola was twirled overhead and then thrown at an animals leg to entangle it. This prevented an animal from escaping after being captured. The caribou is one particular animal that the Inuit would use the Bola to capture and entangle. Today, the Bola is no longer used for hunting; however, the Inuit people still use it for other purposes.

Inuit Hunting Techniques The Inuit (Eskimo) people had countless hunting methods. One of their techniques involved hunting for prey through the ice. With this method, the Inuit people needed a fishing rod. The Inuit (Eskimo) people would drill a hole in the ice and then they would sit and wait for hours before ever having success of catching any prey. This, of course, required a lot of skill and patience. An Inuit fisherman had to also be skilled to act very quickly to catch the fish when a fish would swim into view. Also, Inuit Eskimos frequently caught Arctic char and Arctic trout. When the seals were out on the ice in the spring, the Inuit Eskimos would hide behind fabric sheets to stalk the seals. Spears were used to hunt the seals.