Ancestors of modern Inuit expanded rapidly eastward from Alaska across Arctic Canada and into Greenland from around 1200. Their boats, dog sledges and sophisticated hunting equipment enabled survival in environments where many settlements failed. They encountered Dorset peoples and later Norse communities during this migration.

Inuit drum songs, storytelling and poetic contests preserved knowledge of travel, weather, hunting and social conflict. Collections made by Knud Rasmussen later introduced these highly compressed oral poems to international readers.