Hunter-gatherers on Svalbard

Ok. There is nothing to gather on Svalbard, so I should rather write 'hunter-fishers'.
Although European whalers and miners were present on that Arctic archipelago from hunderts years, there were not Svalbard 'natives'. So my questions is: would Arctic adapted people (Dorset, Thule) survive on Svalbard if they were able to get there? Reindeers somewhat get there, so it would be rather easier to get there than to get to Iceland from Greenland. Perhaps people of Svalbard would be to isolated and their population not viable to survive in the long run (there would be no more than few hunderts of them, and even that number is optimistic considering the fact, that Dorset culture had only 4000 people on much bigger territory) -Greenlandalso was settled and abandoned by humans several times.
Alternatively-could some Scandinavian adventurers settle there during Viking Age? It is unlikely-they would need to switch from agriculture to fishing/hunting immediately to survive, unlike Greenland Norse, who had more time to adapt.
Svalbard people don't need to be successfull in the long run-they could disappear as result of climate change or would degenerate due to lack of genetic diversity but it is possible to have some Svalbard culture lasting at least for few hunderts years?
 
Actually, Svalbard has several species of edible plants (used by other Arctic peoples OTL) and berries and anyone surviving in that icebox will know exactly which ones to eat and encourage their growth. It also has a native subspecies of reindeer. Survival is perfectly possible.

How to get Inuit/Paleo-Inuit to Svalbard is a problem. They need better boatbuilding, because it's too hard/dangerous to cross all that sea ice. A slightly easier path is to have some sort of proto-Sami in Finnmark develop those skills instead and cross directly north to Svalbard. Still difficult.
 

SwampTiger

Banned
The problem is when. The proto-Sami may be your best bet. Early voyages into the far north of Norway/Russia did find fishing/gathering communities. However, I don't know how well developed the boats were of the area.
 
Another possibility would be a Samoyedic group such as the Nenets or Enets, but again the difficulty is actually getting them o Svalbard.
 
So surviving native culture would be pretty possible if (and that is big IF) people get there?
Some hybrid culture mixing Saami hunter-gatherer lifestyle with Norse seafaring skills?
 
Top