The return migration across the North dominated the Inussuk Culture. These people travelled across North Greenland and along the eastern coast. The Norsemen established the Eastern Settlement in South Greenland in 985 A.D. and subsequently spread to establish the Western Settlement in the Nuuk region. These Norsemen, farmers of the Viking culture, originated from Iceland. As in the past, life today is based on hunting, even though fishing has become a very important part of the modern economy.
Many people still depend on traditional hunting.
Following the deliberations of the 1948 Greenland Commission, the older pattern of life was gradually changed providing a higher standard of living and the modernization of Greenlandic society. As the standard of living in Greenland increased, the quality of health care improved greatly, the mortality rate fell and the birth rate rose. During a period of 15 years this progress had reduced by half the number of people involved in the primary occupation of hunting while during the same period the work force doubled. Hunting is still the chief occupation in certain areas today, for example, in North and East Greenland.