Claim: The Dorset people, who descended from Palaeo-Eskimos (refers to the peoples of the Arctic who lived before the Thule) of the Pre-Dorset Culture, had a more successful economy and lived in more permanent houses built of snow and turf and heated with soapstone oil lamps.
Evidence: The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from 500 BC to between AD 1000 and 1500, that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Inuit in the Arctic of North America. The Paleo-Eskimo (also pre-Thule or pre-Inuit) were the peoples who inhabited the Arctic region from Chukotka (e.g., Chertov Ovrag) in present-day Russia across North America to Greenland prior to the arrival of the modern Inuit (Eskimo) and related cultures. They made kudlik lamps from soapstone and filled them with seal oil.