The People




INUIT : PEOPLE

Ingemann Bianco was born in a small settlement in eastern Greenland in 1928. Today he lives in Tasiilaq, the largest town on the east coast, but he was raised as a hunter in a village with only four houses, three made of traditional stone and sod and one a European-style wooden house. Bianco's ancestors have occupied the frigid, mountainous coast of this forbidding and isolated land for thousands of years. They call themselves Inuit, which means "the people," in their language, Greenlandic. Apart from two small settlements of Vikings lasting from the late 10th century to the 14th century, Greenland's Inuit were completely isolated from the rest of the world until 1721, when a missionary from Denmark traveled to the Island. Europeans brought new technologies, such as guns and metal implements. But even with these influences, Greenland's Inuits continued to house, cloth, and feed themselves largely with stone age technologies until the early 20th century. The sparsely populated eastern coast of Greenland, where Bianco was born and raised, was the last to be influenced by Europeans. Daniel Grossman interviewed Bianco about his life at his home in Tasiilaq, where he has lived since he stopped hunting in 1996. Jens-Peter Davidsen, a science teacher in Tasiilaq, translated.

Early Childhood
Apart from a few modern implements, Bianco's early life was hardly different from that of his ancestors for thousands of years. It wasn't until he was 8 years old that he saw his first white person or a modern wooden boat. Here he recalls some early memories.

Seal Hunting
The traditional kayak is made of sealskin and driftwood. Bianco describes some of his experiences hunting seal in kayaks.

Strange Seals
Bianco says he has shot 20 polar bears and scores of seals in his life. In his travels at sea, he has seen many strange things. Here he talks about a few.

Trip
In Bianco's youth there were no phones and no electricity. In summer, travel was done exclusively in small kayaks and larger umiaks. In winter, he traveled by dog sledge (or sled). The patterns of life were ruled by tradition and weather. In the small villages where he spent his early years, the last chance to visit a town for supplies was in October. After that, 24-hour darkness and rough weather made long trips impossible for about six months. In the spring of 1960, Bianco's village ran short of supplies before the weather cleared. He and several other men made a desperate sled-dog journey to the nearest town. The men traveled for 200 miles over glaciers, past treacherous crevasses (deep holes in the ice) and through howling gales. Here Bianco reminisces about the trip.

Problems
In many ways, life is much easier for the Inuit today than it was when Bianco was born. People live in wooden houses, many with indoor plumbing. They have power boats and skimobiles. But Bianco misses the old ways. He has regrets about modern life and some of the problems it has brought.

Jens-Peter Davidsen was born in Tasiilaq. He studied to be an electrician in Sisimuit, Greenland. Later he traveled to Demark where he studied to be a teacher. Today he teaches science in Tasiilaq.




Inuit Language
Greenlandic is an Inuit language that is quite unlike any other language. Click to listen to several simple words and phrases spoken by a young Inuit boy.

Tasiilaq
It is largest town in eastern Greenland with a population of almost 2,000 Inuit. See photos depicting the life and people of the town.

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