Do you know what this is?

What do you think it was used for?

Where did it come from?

Answers:

Do you know what this is?

This is a root pick, hand-made by Inuit people. The handle is made of wood, and the blade is bone or tusk.

What do you think it was used for?

As the name implies, root picks are used for digging roots for food in the northern wilderness. The traditional diet of the Inuit was largely meat, such as seals and caribou, as well as collected berries and roots.

Where did it come from?

This root pick came from an Inuit group in Alaska. It was donated to the Karshner collections in 1943.

For more information, visit:

• This artifact in the Karshner Digital Collections
• Artifact Worksheets you can use in your classroom or for homeschool
• Root pick: Alaska Native Collections
• Inuit lifestyle
• Inuit Photographs

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