Subsistence activities were, and still are, a fundamental aspect of Inupiaq life — hunting for caribou, reindeer, moose, walrus and beluga whale; fishing for salmon, tom cod, pike, sheefish and trout; and picking berries that grow on the tundra.
Traditionally, the Inupiat used everything they gathered or hunted. They made clothes and mukluks from skins, sewn together using needles made from bones and threads made from other animal products, such as sinew.
The Inupiat lived in sod houses, usually made of stone with a driftwood or whalebone frame, which was covered with moss or sod; the Alaska Inupiat people did not use igloos. Traditional foods included muktuk (raw/frozen whale meat), seal oil, dried/frozen/fresh fish and dried caribou meat.
