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Thule

Beginning around 800 to a thousand years ago, the ancestors of today's Inuit began migrating into Canada from Arctic Alaska. Archaeologists call these earliest Canadian Inuit, the "Thule" (pronounced tooley), after a place in Greenland where their archaeological remains were first discovered. The Thule Inuit were superb hunters, particularly adept at hunting sea mammals, including seal, walrus, beluga, and even the huge bowhead whale. They had a sophisticated tool kit, with a complex range of hunting equipment utilizing bows and arrows, harpoons and harpooning gear, and kayaks. Manufacturing gear included adzes, bow drills and snow-knives.The Thule employed a variety of knives for cutting up game animals, scrapers for working hides, sewing gear, snow goggles, combs, lamps and pots, amulets, toys and games. All have been wonderfully preserved in the permanently frozen soils of the far north.

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