According to historic sources and place names, they have inhabited the area which borders Saariselkä and Ivalo River in the south; Lemmenjoki, Vaskajoki and Aksujärvi in the west; Syysjärvi, Säytsjärvi and Iijärvi in the northeast; and Lake Inari in the east.

Today their traditional homeland is in Inari municipality, where they form a minority of the population.

In the Middle Ages, Norway, Sweden and Novgorod started competing for control of Lapland.

[4] Christianity begun spreading among Inari Sámi in 17th century; the first church was built in the area in 1642.

In 1920s Spanish flu killed 190 people in the Inari area, which constituted one-tenth of the population.

After the Second World War Skolts from Pechenga area were evacuated and settled to Inari.

The main hunting game was Finnish forest reindeer, but their numbers collapsed in the 18th century.

Inari Sámi moved between winter and summer homes, though this practice disappeared quite early.

Traditionally there was a winter garment (peski) which was made out of reindeer coat, but it has largely been replaced with modern snowmobile suits.