“Danish ethnographer Knud Rasmussen, who led the fith Thule Expedition across the roof of north America from 1921 to 1924, documented the Netsilik culture. He recorded the ways of the Inuit at a time when their culture remained relatively undiluted by European influence.”

According to Rasmussen, the Netsilik hunters had in memory a detailed spatial knowledge of their vast flatland, streams, and inlets that allowed them to find their way. Rasmussen recorded “It is astonishing how much the Netsilingmuit know about the land they live in, be it natural conditions and fauna or its early history. Though they had no previous knowledge of paper and pencil, they were remarkably quick in outlining the shape of their territory. Along with the basic outline of the area, landmarks, muddy sections and “honey holes” as they call hunting hotspots could also be marked with great certainty. The distances, of course, could sometimes be a little off. However, the maps that they produced were so accurate that even a complete stranger to the area could identify all of the marked islands, peninsulas bays and lakes. Again, this was not done on pencil and paper. Rock slab and a certain volcanic sand were used to make maps and then were hardened by melted tree sap. In the book, there is a side by side comparison of the outline a Netsilik hunter provided Rasmussen of their island. According to Knud, this was similar to a quick sketch (rumor has it) and it is compared side by side with a modern satellite outline of the area in the book. With a few minor distance and angle errors, the map provided by the Inuits was extremely accurate.

Image of King William Island, the settling place of the Netsilik

                Further toward the beginning of this book, the author provides somewhat of a disclaimer for his work. He states that the skills described in this book are barely half of what you need to master the skill of primitive navigation. Experience takes up the other chunk. I could tell you how to navigate your way through the backwater of plum island using right and left directions and landmarks, but if I were to put everything on a map and show you  where each landmark is going to be, forget it. And, that is based off the fact that I have seen it all by satellite imaging before. Another example would be basic driving directions. “merge onto x highway continue 120 miles and exit onto interstate 13…..” These kinds of directions are easy to follow. Once the driver gets to the destination, ask him or her to draw a map of the route he just took corresponding to what he saw and where he went. No way. True mastery of an area and navigation go hand in hand. Navigation of a specific area is the current topic in my book. This is done based off of general distance knowledge and landmarks. What happens during a blizzard when you can’t see 10 feet in front of you? That is what I’m seeking to learn next.