In the late 1940s, Canadian Inuit artists began to craft stone sculptures of the Arctic animals that had supported communities for generations for sale to Qallunaat (the Inuktitut word for non-Inuit people). At that time, Inuit society was rapidly changing as people moved from nomadic lifestyles into settled communities, but artworks like these did not reflect those transitions. Instead, Native artists depicted elements of traditional life that appealed to the Qallunaat market. The collapse of the once-lucrative fur trade and the steep decline of caribou populations pushed Inuit peoples to find alternative means to provide for their communities. With the support of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild, the Qallunaat artist James Houston encouraged the establishment of Inuit artistic communities and championed Inuit art to the “southern” market through a targeted marketing campaign.