Hunting

Some Inuit tribes believed that polar bears were mystical creatures - half man, half animal. They told tales about bears that walked upright, shedding their skins at night and living as men do. When a polar bear was killed, the skin would be displayed in the home for several days, with tools and other gifts placed before it. Hunters believed that bears would sacrifice themselves to hunters in order to gain use of these tools in the afterlife, and that the bear's spirit would return to tell other bears which hunters treated it with respect.

Virtually every part of the bear was used, from the meat and bones to the fur. The only part that was thrown away was the liver, so poisonous as to make even the sled dogs ill.