Skraelings is the word that the Norse (Viking) settlers of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic gave to their direct competition, believed to represent one (or more) of three distinct cultures of Canada, Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland: Dorset, Thule and Point Revenge.
Archaeological and historical evidence suggests that the Vikings settled Iceland about AD 870; settled Greenland about AD 985; and made landfall in Canada about AD 1000. In Canada, the Norse are believed to have landed on Baffin Island, Labrador and Newfoundland, and all of those areas were occupied by the Dorset, Thule and Point Revenge cultures at about that time. Unfortunately, radiocarbon dates are not precise enough to pinpoint the timing of which culture occupied what part of North America when.
Part of the problem is that all three cultures were arctic hunter-gatherer groups, who moved with the season to hunt different resources at different times of the year. They spent part of the year hunting reindeer and other land mammals, and part of the year fishing and hunting seals and other marine mammals. They each did have distinctive artifacts, but because they occupied the same places, it's difficult to know for certain that one culture didn't simply reuse another culture's artifacts.
Possible Skraelings: Dorset
The most solid evidence is the presence of Dorset artifacts in association with Norse artifacts. The Dorset culture lived in the Canadian Arctic and parts of Greenland between ~500 BC and AD 1000. Dorset artifacts, most significantly a fragile Dorset oil lamp, were definitely found at the Norse settlement of L'anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland; and a few other Dorset sites appear to contain Norse artifacts. Park (cited below) argues that there is evidence that the L'anse aux Meadows artifacts may have been retrieved by the Norse from a nearby Dorset site; and other artifacts may have the same provenance and thus may not necessarily represent direct contact.
Traits which have been attributed as "Norse" in ca AD 1000 North America are spun yarn or cordage; human carvings which portray European facial features; and wooden artifacts exhibiting Norse stylistic techniques. All of these have problems. Textiles are known in the Americas by the Archaic period and could easily have been obtained from connections with cultures from the northern United States. Human carvings and stylistic design similarities are by definition conjectural; further, some of the "European style" faces predate the securely-dated and documented Norse colonization of Iceland.
Possible Skraelings: Thule and Point Revenge
The Thule were long considered the likely colonizers of eastern Canada and Greenland who met up with the Vikings there. But recent redating of the Thule migration suggests that they didn't leave the Bering Strait until about 1200 AD and, although they rapidly spread eastward into the Canadian arctic and Greenland, they would have arrived much too late to reach L'anse aux Meadows to meet with Leif Ericson. The Thule cultural traits disappear about 1600 AD. It's still possible that the Thule were those people who shared Greenland with the Norse after 1300 or so-if such an unpleasant relationship could be called "shared".
Finally, Point Revenge is the name of the immediate ancestors of the Inuit who lived in the region from AD 1000 to the early 16th century. Like the Thule and Dorset, they were in the right place about the right time; but secure evidence making an argument for cultural connections is lacking.
Bottom Line
All sources unequivocally tie the skraelings to Inuit ancestors of North America including Greenland and the Canadian Arctic; but whether the specific culture contacted was Dorset, Thule or Point Revenge, or all three, may never be known.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Viking Age and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Friesen, T. Max and Charles D. Arnold 2008 The Timing of the Thule Migration: New Dates from the Western Canadian Arctic. American Antiquity 73 (3):527-538.
Park, Robert W. 2008 Contact between the Norse Vikings and the Dorset culture in Arctic Canada. Antiquity 82(315):189-198 .
