The Inuit people migrated and inhabited the various regions of the Arctic circle extending from Alaska to Greenland. They are the most recent arrivals in the Americas prior to the European crossing of the Atlantic. Scientific evidence points to an arrival time from Siberia and their expansion out of Western Alaska at about 1000 AD. The Inuit have adapted themselves well to their harsh and isolated environment, a factor in helping them to remain somewhat intact as a cultural group. Inuit society was based strictly on hunting and was highly mobile as the nomadic communities followed the seasonal migration of the seals, whales, and caribou. They were able to build comfortable living quarters made of snow and ice. These igloos were constructed in various sizes to serve as either temporary hunting shelters, family quarters or as community dwellings able to accommodate twenty people.
