The natives of Thule
I`ve been thinking. Before the inuits settled Greenland other tribes had tried and failed. But what if they would have succeeded adapting the same way inuits did.
Old historybooks tend to date the settlement of Iceland to late 700s, by now it`s widely considered it probably happened a little bit earlier. One theory is that the first settlers only stayed there over the summer to hunt walrus and seals, and then sell the products in Scandinavia or Britain.
Now, you can actually see Greenland from the northwestern part of Iceland and I think vice versa. So it wouldn`t actually be a stretch for inuits to sail into one of the western fjords. They`d have the same animals to hunt, but a slightly more lush environments. Some forests and so on. Assuming they could settle in the fifth century or earlier and then come into contact with viking in 7th or 8th century what would happen?
I`m assuming the vikings might raid, but probably rather trade. They`ll have rather cheap skins, walrus teeth and so on, even dried fish in exchange for various things: weapons, alcohol, cloth, you know the usual stuff. They might not settle, or only settle some parts.
How would the culture and society develop from that point on?