Tukiliit : the Stone People who live in the wind

Summary: All across the vast and windswept polar regions of the North, from Alaska to Greenland and beyond, stone figures have been placed upon the landscape in mysterious and awesome configurations. The Inuit have been building such structures in the Arctic for centuries for a myriad of reasons. The objects most familiar to southerners are called inuksuit, meaning, "to act in the capacity of a human." Norman Hallendy, who has spent more than forty years travelling the North in the company of Inuit elders, has documented dozens of other forms, some recent, others ancient and venerated for centuries. Some are memorials; others mark good fishing spots, sacred places or important trails. To the Inuit, these silent messengers are all tukiliit: objects which "have a meaning."