The first people to set foot in Greenland arrived from the North American continent via Canada around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, when the sea froze over in the Thule Strait in northern Greenland. No fewer than six different Inuit cultures immigrated in successive waves. Greenland's population today descends from the most recent immigration, the Thule culture, which arrived around the 9th century AD.
These resilient Inuit cultures survived in Greenland by inventing and developing essential tools and instruments, adapted and refined over generations, which are still in use today. This holds true, for example, for the qajaq — the Greenlandic sea kayak — which is perhaps the finest symbol of an Arctic culture that has lived, and continues to live, by the sea and its resources. The ulu, a special curved knife used by women to cut up the prey men brought back from seal hunting, also deserves a mention.
Like the qajaq and the ulu, the dog sled is also a tool from the past, though it is likely the most widely used traditional device in modern society. Indeed, Greenland has become a modern society, where snowmobiles have at times replaced sleds, and where mobile phones and the Internet have become common means of communication for young and old alike. Yet some things never disappear, even in the most modern cultures, and traditional myths and legends still hold a prominent place in the Greenlandic consciousness.
