ABSTRACT
Water comes in fresh and salty varieties and is found in many places. Depending on it for drinking, cooking, cleaning, defense, energy, and transportation, is more difficult when that water comes as ice and snow. It is amazing that the Inuit, among other peoples in the frozen North, have adapted so successfully to a hostile environment dominated by frozen water. Some northern waters, even parts of seas and oceans, freeze over during the winter, with ice floes during the summer thaw. The Inuit live in the treeless, frozen landscape of the Arctic Climate Zone extending from Greenland and the northernmost parts of Eurasia and North American continents, which includes regions of Canada, Alaska, Siberia, and Scandinavia. The Inuit religion, spirituality, and mythology were shaped to a large extent by the environment in which they lived. The early Inuit made their livelihood by hunting and fishing and applying the knowledge, techniques, and technology acquired in their icy surroundings.
