Houses

The Inuit lived in all kinds of dwellings—igloos, hide tents, and huts. The igloo, or snow house, is the most recognizable. Nevertheless, this type of house was used only by the Central Inuit and only in the winter.

To build an igloo, an Inuit man looked for an area of snow of the same consistency—preferably a layer that fell in a single storm, then hardened into ice all at once. He then drew a circle nine to 15 feet wide that served as the floor plan. Then he cut the large blocks of ice— about 24 inches long, 20 inches wide, and four inches thick—from within the circle and started the first row of blocks along the circle’s outline. Every row he added spiraled upward and leaned inward slightly, so that each one was smaller than the one before it. When he added the single top block, he had a nearly perfect dome. In the meantime, his wife covered the outer walls with soft snow. A hole in the dome provided ventilation and a block of clear ice served as a window. Igloos normally had a second, smaller domed porch for storage and a covered passageway as an entrance. Sometimes a third, sizable dome was joined to the two so that an Inuit family could have a separate bedroom and living room. A platform of ice covered with furs served as a bed. The igloos were warm—sometimes even too warm—when oil was burned in stone lamps for lighting and cooking.

In the summer, the Central Inuit used tents made from driftwood poles and caribou-hide coverings. But Inuit in Alaska and Greenland had more permanent houses made from either stones and sod or logs and sod, depending on what materials were available. These were sometimes built in a dome shape, like igloos, but more often they were rectangular. Whale ribs were also used in construction. And the intestines of sea mammals were stretched over the windows. The Native name for these dwellings is karmak.