In contemporary times, the Inukshuk was thought of as a direction marker on the vast, featureless tundra of the Arctic. However, it was used traditionally by the Inuit to help in hunting Caribou. From a distance these cairns resembled a human form, and were built of large stones and placed in lines on the top of hills on each side of a narrow valley.

The Caribou were often deceived and would be drawn into hunting areas strategically placed at the head of the valley. There, the hunters would have ample opportunity to increase their food stocks tenfold. After a particularly successful hunt, a new Inukshuk was sometimes erected to mark a food cache of excess dried meat to be hoarded for future lean times for the Inuit people.