PAPAS APPT A POS Na TAL APOC aes : ; ve Cause tt arte ee ee ot : pentose y 4 ae brine | “y ct vi ca! a 7 ie at, a } me. re r] PY ee ey ie eet oe ee nde 8 thug ee ci sate a a i SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 171 THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO A STUDY IN ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY By ROBERT F. SPENCER ANY rea, JUN 4 1959 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 171 THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO A STUDY IN ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY By ROBERT F, SPENCER UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1959 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C, Price $2.50 (paper) LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, BurEAU oF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, Washington, D. C., December 27, 1957. Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript entitled “The North Alaskan Eskimo: A Study in Ecology and Society,” by Robert F. Spencer, and to recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Very respectfully yours, M. W. Srirune, Director. Dr. Lronarp CARMICHAEL, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. II CONTENTS PAGE EWES TCO. 2 oe eae ae a” he Aner a pRaa eta ekake aateheteteteted shat 1 ELEN: TOT 0 Teo eae hi eb oe aS ew eal ont aeetar —a tone? 6 MN eMAne AMCs THCNPEODIOs 2.0... Gocco se eee ee Se ee 9 DE Ey DY a ea eae ae acne ai be eth darian Ape tA ari 9 North Alaskan Eskimo settlements. _._..-_._----- 2-2 -2L_- lil . 13 Humentrelationto theibiota- 222522222052 - 5 So en ee 23 LELSGSEGYS Sop SY Dae 9 Vs 2 oP fee ek ETAL Jem mad eter ch rnd 23 1 EE ETERS Gea OS a eee GS I RT Ara aati ett Pohl Vd 25 (SEEPS ay 7 se) a awn a a oe ie mero ae mi ed fe Pa ered 38 LSPELEETT G7 1, 5 <7 al pe he a ce ea he fi a eect de ack 39 EMeP NEAT eE GO LUCMICNLS 52 oe aici aioe So een Ene ee 43 Houses OF the nuUNaMiUut = Sa5 (font TTT See oe = a essaase tee 44 Ei GusesiOn the tanenmMlG. 2.505 coe ee eae eee ee eee 49 Eanhye ae AMSAT ss es ye ae a eee ene eee ee 62 iLOOUEM ONE See aa Seo eee ee Senha os Sheen ee ee ee 62 DEUS TERE (GEE EG TTT a i Be a ie ali eg oe 63 RENO XUCH GCA Y Meta i aetna eines ee PS See mee al eee ee ee 65 EGS Ni pPRLCEMMIN OO MY = sams sees aso oe mee ewe See rece ee 66 ihinealsand muctear consanvuines:_- =" 522 LTS lS STs see See 66 @onsanguineal kin—collaterals- 5. __ 2 Sos St set et hte 67 NURSE ET ei aI ee a ci gi aa 3x ail 68 Step- and adoptive relationships.—2 "2252222272 eee ee 69 Cori bmrede Kitat penn seas ame mercer nel ones tee cia ae eee 69 HACUOIn Ma GEIS ySteMine see Soa en ean ae ee ee 70 Collective responsibility <5. 2 2 Sass ses eee ee a {Ah EST 5 RA Np Le RE em di Lgl 75 DS STOR ST EIS Ap eat Ne Sp pe ct elim late oan in ped 82 Witelending and wite exchange... 22. - 22520527" See ee 83 GAtanMM UIP tes oe ae oo am as epee ee ee ee Men eee 84 Se NCGUGY G4 TOU E LTS ap OG Pn SR I Ne ook Re oh th a ee 87 PEL) AC RUE OTN Sea hee a ee et he ees ht a 92 COT CHIST ON ats Sa ee cee Se ed rs a IR Sc, 95 SETISL GIMARV AWS 9a san Sse ee Se ame met sere eee. se ae eee 97 igdumOMm yan eSOGlCGyiss ecm tS ose eee ete eres ae ee 124 LGR GG HUY) 0S 0 a 7 a ae sla Pa ips shed aol es ch Ate Boo 124 Human ecology of the Alaskan Arctic slope_._-- 2.222222 2222.2 - 126 i BUUnaMT ANG taAreumMiuteo so fos te ee eee 126 ZO PMU UN aM oases ee eee a eee eee oe 132 Seema GALE CULININNG res oe ee hae eee ne eres coe ere ene 139 Summary: nuunamMiut vs. tareumiuto. 7-4 ee 146 RBEODEELY; WeAaluly And StAlUS= 2. soca. cee ne eee eS 147 CO ASO EN WSL Ef os 2 ap hg wa eget gl a og «pee pee 147 \SLGSEUI SS a p aallo4> e apen aie ee wien tl 2 inc hd tg 151 Gompetition and, COOperavion= =. 25.2. eae ee ee 159 IV BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 PAGE Voluntary associations- -------------------------------------------- 166 Partnerships -------------------------------------------------- 167 Joking partnerships-------------------------------------------- 172 Women’s partnerships-_-_---------------------------------------- 177 The hunting group and the umealiq--+-~------------------------- 177 The karigi__-------------------------------------------------- 182 PRS Gh a 193 Open trade- - ------------------------------------------------- 193 Structured trade..----------------------------------------~---- 198 The Messenger Feast (kimmjic) - ~--------------------___--____-~ 2 210 Eas a Co RE Te LG 3 eae ae ean SSeS DROSS St SS tess ses - ~~~ 227 ha worgidiuel and. une lite Cy Cle. = Loin CouylLywimiy Pe COnWIS! Val owt VL wil = ‘OUNSY UBYSE[Y WION Jo sdnosZ [wooy—', avy MUWTITIVA yy Antw3a1vH LNIABs/NIwAI 089 ANYRCY BSL, i Ne We nN, “nis toi, solWbinsyssy VAVA » — iniwhiavaxint Ss iniw&awon, THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE THE LAND In northwestern North America, between the Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean, lie some seventy-odd thousand square miles of tundra. Wholly within the Arctic Circle, this region is bounded on the east by the Colville Delta, on the south by the jagged peaks of the glaciated Brooks Range, on the north by the Arctic Ocean itself. The western sections of the region, likewise bounded by the ocean, incline from northeast to southwest, and form, at the southern end, a point at which mountain and sea come together. This axis, beginning at Point Barrow, ending at Point Hope in the southwest, constitutes the Arctic slope of northwestern Alaska. In this area of tundra, a desert of cold, are to be found two configurations of aboriginal Eskimo culture, a situation which throws the caribou hunters of the inland regions sharply into contrast with the whalers of the coastal slope. Physiographically, this vast area may be divided into three major zones. These provinces run generally in an east-west direction and consist of the Brooks Range, the Arctic foothills, and the Arctic coastal plain. The Brooks Range, the northwesternmost extension of the main continental mountain system of North America, forms a topographic barrier, setting off the forested lands which flank the Yukon tributaries to the south from the treeless Arctic plain. It forms a continental divide, its streams going either north, meandering lazily across the tundra, or southward, joining the great river systems of central Alaska. The highest peaks of the Brooks Range are found in the eastern sections, where, perennially snow covered, they rise to heights of 9,000 feet. In its western end, the range splits, being flanked by the smaller De Long Range and by the Baird Mountains. Near the general area of Point Hope, east of Cape Lisburne, the Brooks Range has given way to a series of rolling highlands across which the peaks of the De Long Mountains loom large (cf. Smith and Mertie, 1930; Schrader, 1904; Solecki, 1951). The Brooks Range province is roughly 600 miles long. The range itself consists of heavily weathered yet resistant Paleozoic rock still marked by the presence of numerous small glaciers. Several large stream-fed lakes are to be found along the northern edge of the range. These, in turn, contribute to the rivers flowing northward to the 9 10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 Arctic Ocean across the tundra. The Brooks Range is characterized by rugged peaks and numerous hanging valleys. Except for three well-defined passes which serve to connect the drainages on both north and south, the mountains are most difficult of access. These three passes in the middle of the range—the Howard, the Survey, and the Anaktuvuk—serving as routes for the caribou movements, have been vital to human residence in the area. In the passes and along the lakes there is evidence of a long period of Eskimo habitation (Solecki, 1951, pp. 478-492; cf. also Giddings, 1944, 1952; W. Irving, 1951). Icebound in winter, and subject to extremes of wind and cold, the areas of human settlement in the mountains have proved wholly adequate for hunting and fishing. Indeed, it is in the summer that the range province becomes less tolerable with its marshes and its clouds of mosquitoes. To the north of the mountains lies the province of the foothills, an area intermediate between the range itself and the Arctic plain. The general pattern is one of a gradual descent from south to north, there being no sudden break on the northern slopes of the Brooks Range. The southern foothills range from 2,500 to 3,500 feet in height, and taper off in the northern sections to ridges alined in an east-west direction and no higher than 200 to 600 feet. In the main, the zone of foothills has not been glaciated, although wind and weather and the seasonal freezing and thawing combine to create some deformation. A Mesozoic complex, warped and folded especially on the southern side, the foothills were subjected to less violent warping in the north. Here the slope becomes gentle, the streams sluggish and beginning to take on the diffuse drainage aspect which characterizes the Arctic plain. In the northern foothills, hard layers, more impervious to weathering, top the ridges. As the Arctic coastal plain is reached, the streams begin to wander at random, and there is the formation of numerous lakes and marshes. The area, extending to a depth of about 70 miles from the coast, is wholly flat except for a few isolated hummocks and knobs. Until recent geologic time this province was submerged (Solecki, 1951, p. 476; Smith and Mertie, 1930, p. 238). It is characterized by allu- vial deposits of sands, clays, and gravels, and by perpetually frozen ground, the permafrost so characteristic of the typical Arctic. This phenomenon, also evident in the foothills and in the glacial silts of the mountain passes, reaches a depth of several hundred feet. Only in the short summer does the ground thaw and then only to a depth of a few inches (Wiggins, 1953, pp. 8-9). The flat plain is poorly drained and is thus, in summer, marked by its stagnant pools, its marshes, and its haphazard, meandering water courses. Although, like the foothills, the Arctic plain has not been subjected to glaciation, frost Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 11 wedges, accumulations of subsurface ice, have formed and remain present through the year. In many places along the coasts the shore- line is ill defined, although here and there beach ridges, some rising 30 to 40 feet in height, have been formed as a result of the action of pack ice driven in against the land. Along the coasts, too, some windblown deposits of sand appear. This loess, the so-called Gubik Sands, has been found rich in Pleistocene fossils and it has been sug- gested that some evidence of early human remains, paralleling the discoveries of artifacts already made in the pass and foothill regions, may yet be found here (Solecki, 1951, p. 476). The plain is not characterized by any well-defined series of marine deposits (Smith and Mertie, 1930, p. 238). In the truest sense, the Alaskan Arctic plain is a desert. Rain and snowfall are very slight, averaging no more than 5 to 7 inches per year. It has been suggested that this limited precipitation is the primary factor in hindering the spread of glaciers northward. The principal basis for seasonal differentiation lies not in rainfall, but in the differing intensity of temperature and in the length of daylight. The brief summer season is marked by a thaw and, for a 2-month period, by 24-hour sunshine. The transition from 24 hours of sunlight in late July to the fall equinox is most rapid, and, again, the shift from the equinox to the winter solstice involves the change in a short period from 12 hours of daylight to total darkness. At Point Barrow, for example, at 71° 23’ N., 72 days of winter darkness, beginning Novem- ber 15, are the rule. Temperature changes cannot be regarded as extreme. In summer, the averages hover somewhat above freezing, although highs of 60° or 65° F. may be reached for short periods. - From this, there is a gradual shift to the winter temperatures. These are not so extreme as might be imagined, particularly along the coast where 30° F. below zero may be regarded as essentially average. As Larsen and Rainey (1948, p. 23) point out, the winter temperatures of the region, while by no means so cold in comparison with the 50° to 70° below zero readings of the deeper interior, as in the forested zones of continental type climate, are nonetheless infinitely more severe as a result of intensity of wind. In the Arctic plain and foot- hills, a somewhat more adequate adjustment on the part of humans in terms of clothing and housing is a necessity. The frigid winters are very long and the summer brief. Physiographic change is slow and little climatic variation has been noted since the 1880’s when climatic data were compiled for the first time and the coastal temperatures at Point Barrow were found to average on a yearly basis 8° F. above zero (Murdoch, 1892, p. 30). Streams and lakes are blocked with ice for much of the year and usually by November the ice has begun to form on the ocean, creating a pack which may remain unbroken 451511—59 2 12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 until the following summer, often as late as August or September, or later. Travel in the area is thus fairly limited and comes to depend on particular types of specialization. Throughout the long winter season, travel by dog sled is everywhere possible throughout the region. Summer travel is arduous except by the watercourses. The prevail- ing method remains the skin boat, the Eskimo umiak, both for travel along the rivers and on the open sea. As the limited snow melts, the land forms characteristic of the tundra, the polygonal ground, appear. These polygons, shapes caused on the surface by alternate freezing and thawing, create small depressions in which undrained water rests. Boggy areas are formed in this way; they are crossed on foot only with difficulty. Inland travel along the water courses follows the configuration of the foothills and ridges, being east and west in accord with the axes of the higher ground. The great Colville system, for example, moves eastward along the foothill base until it turns north- ward to fan out into the plain. The Colville rises from a divide in the west. Here, at Howard Pass, the eastward moving Colville tributaries are set off from the Noatak system which flows south and west into Kotzebue Sound. The entire region of northwestern Alaska, from the bare northern flanks of the Brooks Range northward to the Arctic Ocean, has been described as barren, treeless, and monotonously dun colored. But this is hardly a fair description. Not only do the land forms gradually change from mountain to plain, but the many streams and lakes, the knolls and hummocks, create considerable diversity in physiographic pattern. It is true that winters are marked by sufficient snowfall as to present a vast white land, but the driving polar winds clear patches of ground, leaving bare black ridges and forming the small deposits of snow into random and sometimes heavy drifts. Along the coasts, the pack-ice crushes in along the beaches and, reaching surpris- ing heights as the result of action of wind and wave, creates a tempo- rary landscape full of amazing shapes as one berg piles up against another. As the winds shift, so also do the configurations of land and sea. Nor is the landscape monotonous in summer. As the tundra thaws, the shallow rooted vegetation begins to sprout in abundance, hastily to enjoy its brief life in the 24-hour sunshine. There are no trees, to be sure, and except for a few clumps of stunted willow that are prominent in the foothills and mountain passes but increasingly less significant in the plain, the plant life reaches no marked growth. On the other hand, the many species of flowering plants, minute though they are, and the many varieties of lichens and mosses cover the tundra in all directions and offer a meadowlike prospect. Seasonal changes, contrasts between light and darkness, Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 13 between wind, storm, fog, and sunshine, not to mention the richness of plant and animal life, combine to make the tundra regions an area of great fascination. One shading moves into another, day by day, season by season, subtly, but perceptibly. NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS Throughout this great area live the scattered groups of Eskimo. These represent a people settled over centuries but not the first groups in the region. Since Alaska formed the land bridge by which man entered the New World from Asia, there is widespread evidence of human antiquity, of the Paleo-Indian, the precursors of the pre- Columbian Indian tribes of North and South America. In northern Alaska, through the area which has been described, there was a back- wash of the main stream of movement. The archeologist has given considerable attention to this and his researches have shed much light on the important problem of the origin of man in the Americas. The interior regions of Alaska are especially rich in remote prehistoric remains, the most ancient levels being characterized by flint tools of types which correlate with sequences established elsewhere in the Americas and which, in many instances, are suggestive of Asia. Evidence of Folsom culture—polyhedral core and lamellar flake industries—has come to light in northwestern Alaska; the so-called ‘“‘Mesolithic’” forms have been detected in the northern foothills; and along the coasts, at Cape Denbigh on Norton Sound, the recent discoveries of burins point to an origin in Asia (Solecki, 1951, pp. 478- 493). As the evidence is weighed and new data are collected, man’s antiquity in Alaska is shown to be remote. But in addition to these and many other ancient remains, there is the tremendous richness of the prehistory of the Eskimo themselves. While not so remote in time, the Eskimo cultures of the past pose a good many as yet unsolved problems. The Eskimo cultures might be resolved in terms of varying degrees of specialization and of influences emanating from distant culture centers. Thus, while the remoter prehistory of the region indicates an orientation toward the hunting of land animals, a sequence which carries through into the prehistoric Eskimo cultures of the inland regions, such a culture as that of the Ipiutak at Point Hope has been described as marginal to a central Siberian bronze and iron age culture (Larsen and Rainey, 1948, p. 160; Collins, 1951, p. 432). However this may be, the Eskimo cultures of the past are never simple, and the various sugges- tions as to their origin are being clarified slowly as new data come to light. Even in the general prehistoric picture, however, the ques- tion of the human ecology, of specializations on land or sea and of degrees between, needs resolution. In Alaska, at least, the archeo- 14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 logical evidence presupposes the ethnological development. Northern Alaska demonstrates the interaction, both in the prehistoric past and in the ethnological present, of groups each reflecting a major ecological pattern. These are two, the nuunamiut, people of the land, whose life developed around the caribou, and the tareumiut, the people of the sea, whose primary orientation was toward sea mammal hunting, and in the area of the Arctic slope, at least, especially toward whaling. Whatever may be said of the local specializations of the cultures of northwestern Alaska in the past, whether the concern is with the Ipiutak, the Old Bering Sea, the Birnirk, or whatever, these are maritime cultures set off against inland caribou hunting cultures. The generalized Thule culture, typologically definable, basically mari- time but orienting itself as well toward caribou hunting, does not, in Alaska, modify this basic ecological picture. There remains, in the historic present, the inland nomad set off against the village dweller at the sea. While a fuller discussion of the two groups is yet to be given, the general pattern of geographic settlement must be kept in mind in order properly to designate the peoples of the region. The terms nuunamiut (nuunataymiut) and tareumiut are of course derivative of native designations for the two ecological groupings. These terms are descriptive of a way of life and cannot be regarded as tribal designations. As is well known, aboriginal Eskimo society consisted of aggregates of individuals that formed bands or villages. Since membership and residence in either depended pretty much on the choice of the individual, and since the size of the group could expand or contract depending on local circumstances, it is difficult to do other than to point out certain of the major groupings and to define them at a particular point in time. The situation today is atypical, Barrow village having grown inordinately as the result of the employ- ment opportunities afforded by the naval installation there. Today, moreover, the delicate balance that once existed between the inland peoples and those on the sea has been completely disrupted. Except for a small band that still chooses to reside in the foothills and the passes of the Brooks Range and another which moves about in the Kobuk-Noatak region, the inland cultures are virtually extinct. To obtain a proper perspective on the distribution of peoples in the area, the stage must be set at a century ago, in the period when mutual interdependence of inland and maritime life was still paramount and before the distortions in the native economy took place as a result of the presence of European whalers, the growth of the governmentally sponsored schools, and missionization. It is considerably easier to discuss the settlements of the coastal groups where a greater degree of permanence was achieved. Coastal Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 15 villages were well integrated around dance houses and the concept of the whaling crew and its leader. Moreover, the maritime villages came to have fairly well-defined territories in which their respective residents moved. Not that these were in any sense owned; in the main, this came about as the result of exploitation of familiar terrain. It was possible, and still remains so, to determine a man’s place of origin by noting who his relatives were and also by his speech, since each village had its own phonetic idiosyncrasy. The inland peoples, while in the main definable as to local territory, tended to lack the incipient formalization of the concept of chieftainship. Because, as bands, they tended to move much more widely and to lack fixed villages, they become somewhat more difficult to name. This is complicated further by the fact that although such local groups had names for themselves, the name might or might not coincide with the name applied to them by the coastal peoples. There was by no means uniformity of names, either as designations for local bands or for topographic and geographic features. And it must also be emphasized that Eskimo culture requires an exactness of names in respect both to ethnic groups and places. There has thus been some confusion of Eskimo group names, much depending on the point of reference from which the name is applied. All the native peoples of the region, however, are agreed on the basic nomenclature distinguishing caribou from sea mammal hunter. Local groups within each classification can be recognized and it is suggested here, for purposes of convenience, that the names applied by the natives of Barrow village to their neighbors be selected as standard. The major settlements and groupings of the coastal regions are as follows. At the Point, on the northernmost tip of land of the North Ameri- can mainland, was the now abandoned village of nuwuk, the people of which were known as the nuwunmiut. In 1852-53, nuwuk had 54 inhabited houses, with a population of 309, 166 of which were men (John Simpson, 1855, p. 237). In 1854 a fuel shortage had reduced the number of inhabited houses to 48. Dr. John Simp- son, whose observations these are, believed the population to be declining, a fact which he substantiated by the presence of an aban- doned dance house at nuwuk and of several ruined dwellings. Forty persons had died of influenza in 1851, and again, in 1853-54, there were 27 deaths, mainly the result of starvation. When the next observations were made, in 1882-83, nuwuk had a population of 150 (Ray, 1885 b, p. 38). Down from nuwuk, on the sea side, were several campsites. All of these bore names, designations which apply still, but none were sufficiently large or continuously inhabited to merit their being called 16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 villages. The site of piyinik, from which the archeological horizon of Birnirk is named, was not inhabited in the recent period, although families have been known to reside there the year round and the loca- tion forms the duck hunting reserve of the Barrow Eskimo. Several village units combined into one at the site of the modern Barrow village (pl. 2, a). This is the location of the older town of utkeaayvik, the people of which were known up and down the coast as the utkeavinmiut. Like nuwuk, this village grew and declined in population depending on circumstances. Simpson lists 40 houses and 250 people in 1852-53, with a decline as a result of famine in 1853-54, 40 deaths having occurred (J. Simpson, 1855, p. 237). Ray and Murdoch, in 1882-83, record 23 families present at Cape Smythe (utkeaayvik) with a total population of 130 (Ray, 1885 b, pp. 33, 39). Moving southward from Cape Smythe, one passes considerable distance down the coast to the next historic settlement, although again scattered houses and families might be met at any point. All campsites, and indeed, any significant location of any kind, whether creek mouth, high bank, or gully, was named, a reflection of a major cultural preoccupation with geography. Individuals and families, moreover, were designated as coming from a particular place, the name of which was at once familiar. Ray records 8 fami- lies and 50 individuals resident at Point Belcher on the sea side south and west of Peard Bay (ibid., p.38). These he terms the Sidarumiut. As nearly as can be judged, this was not a permanent settlement in historic times. Groups moved in and out of the Point Belcher area, this being a favored location for summer caribou hunting. Several groups are described as having lived at and near Peard Bay, from sinaraat (Skull Cliff) to the Wainwright Inlet. At the modern village of Wainwright, the Kuk River empties into a lagoon; the people are hence designated as the kuymiut. Ten families are listed as resident there in 1882-83, with a total popula- tion of 80 persons (ibid., p. 38). Kuk means simply “river.” Leaving Wainwright, one passes another area of extremely sparse population before the next major settlement is reached. This is Icey Cape, a village which was very important a century ago as a native whaling center but which was abandoned no later than 1890. The building of the whaling station at Cape Smythe by New England whalers evidently caused the desertion of several previously inhabited hamlets and villages. It also increased momentarily the population of Barrow village. Icy Cape was known as kayaakserevik, the resi- dents as the kayaakserevinmiut. No census data are available, but the group was unquestionably small, there being only one dance house there in the recollection of living informants. Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO Lh South of Iey Cape, the long narrow lagoon, known as kasegaluk, was formed by the alluvial reefs deposited by the Utokuk River. At the mouth of the Utokuk itself lay a quasipermanent settlement, likewise abandoned in the late 19th century, also known as utokuk. The people who derive their name from this settlement, the utokay- miut, are a recognized nuunamiut grouping who came to the sea periodically for trading and for social activities such as the Messenger Feast. They were not drawn into the whaling complex. This group was allegedly the largest of the inland Eskimo north of the mountains, At the southern end of the kasegaluk lagoon, on the coast itself, is the modern village of Point Lay. This was a hamlet consisting of a house or two until 1929-30, when a group of Eskimo from Point Hope “colonized” there (Rainey, 1947, p. 236). Point Lay bears the name kalli, the people being the kallimmiut. The residents of this village hunt seal, some walrus, and an occasional beluga, but do not engage in whaling, the coastline being indented away from the usual course taken by whales. | It is now a considerable distance to the south until the next village is reached. As before, several hamlets lay between—not the least of which was at Cape Lisburne, a point known as wiivak (place of re- turn). Point Hope was the next major settlement, the southern limit of intensive whaling, a large village, comparable to nuwuk and utkeaayvik in the north. It had an estimated population of 250 in 1880, a number which it retains today very closely (ibid., p. 236). The village is located on a sand and gravel bar formed by the Kukpuk River and is thus somewhat comparable in location to nuwuk, a village resting on the long narrow spit of Point Barrow itself. Point Hope is known as tikeraaq (index finger) and the people living there as the tikeraymiut. Point Barrow marks the northern limit of the area of intensive whaling, Point Hope the southern. The principal groupings of peoples in this area of the Alaskan Arctic Slope are thus those listed. South- ward from Point Hope and eastward from Point Barrow other groups are encountered, it is true; these, however, reflect a different ecological adjustment and are allied more closely. with the aboriginal inland groupings. Although to the east of Barrow there are numerous campsites, they are for the most part remains left by the utkeavin- miut and the nuwunmiut as they traveled to the mouth of the Col- ville for trade with the inland Eskimo. No permanent settlements are indicated. Nor do there seem to have been people permanently resident at neyliq, on the Colville Delta, or at Oliktok Point, the sites of trading assemblages. The next major settlement to the east is Barter Island (tikixtak, tikixtaymiut) and beyond this, on the Cana- 18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 dian side, is Herschel Island (kikiktaaruk), both suggesting a Thule type culture with different orientations. The nearest neighbors of the modern Point Hope group are those of the village to the south along the coast. This village bears the name kivaliina (to the east), and the people are designated as the kivalinermiut. This is a recent village, founded at the turn of the present century by a group of inland Eskimo who pushed to the sea (ibid., pp. 236-237). The orientation of this group is virtually wholly toward the inland regions and they may be properly regarded as nuunamiut. Except for some sealing and the hunting of an occasional beluga, the kivalinermiut depend basically on caribou hunting in the western foothills. The various groups farther to the east and south may also be regarded as inland Eskimo even though many bands formerly settled on the coast for various periods of time. In summary, therefore, the people classed as the tareumiut are specifically those residing in permanent coastal villages, devoting themselves primarily to sea mammal hunting, particularly to whaling, and building a series of complex social and religious patterns around the whale. These groups consist of the nuwunmiut, the utkeavinmiut, the kuymiut, the kayaakserevinmiut, the recently established group of kallimmiut, and the tikeraymiut. To these may be added the many minor settlements, some wholly temporary, some of longer duration, inhabited by a family or two for a time and then abandoned. In such cases, the people were designated either with the name of the place where they chose to reside or continued to bear the name of the group from which they originally came. These temporary hamlets along the coasts tend to render the matter of population estimates somewhat difficult. As has been seen from the estimates provided by the different 19th century explorers of the region, population fluctuated greatly. That it may have been con- siderably greater in the remote past is indicated by the richness of archeological materials, the 600 dwellings at Ipiutak, for example, the large and presumably communal houses at Birnirk, and the many ruins, both near modern and ancient, scattered along the coasts. According to the census obtained in 1881-83 by the Point Barrow Expedition, and adding these to the known figures for the Point Hope-Point Lay area for the same period, population of slightly less than 1,000 may be supposed for the coastal villages in the late 19th century (Ray, 1885 b, p. 38; Rainey, 1947, p. 236). This would repre- sent a considerable decrease, perhaps by as many as 500, from the period of the 1850’s, a loss attributable in large measure to the Euro- pean diseases to which the Eskimo lacked resistance, such as measles, influenza, and tuberculosis, and to famine. In the recent period, the tendency has been to abandon the scattered dwellings and to converge Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 19 on the towns. This has been the result of the building of schools, mission churches, and hospitals established either by mission bodies or the United States Department of the Interior. Educational and medical care provided at Barrow, for example, effectively brought about the end of the nuwuk settlement, the people having gradually given up residence there and built new homes at Barrow village. The process of change was a slow one, to be sure, but the number of coastal settlements is now limited to four along the Arctic slope. Throughout the 20th century, it would appear that the coastal villages have held their own in terms of population. This is true, however, only in a superficial sense. The establishment of coastal villages as administrative centers has affected the resettlement of inland Eskimo with the result that the nuunamiut have virtually ceased to exist. Many have now chosen to live on the coast in the four whaling villages of Barrow, Wainwright, Point Lay, and Point Hope, or they have elected to settle on the coast farther to the south, such as at kivaliina, on the Noatak River, or at Kotzebue at Hotham Inlet. Thus, if the coastal population has remained stable, it has been at the expense of the marked decrease of inland groups. The situation at Barrow village is further anomalous, the population here having swelled out of all proportion in the period of 1946-1953, a result of the employment opportunities offered by the naval installa- tion on the petroleum reserve of northern Alaska. Census returns will vary with the year; in the most recent period, Barrow population has averaged about 1,500, while the other towns have fewer inhabitants. According to the count of the Alaska Native Service, an administra- tive arm of the United States Indian Bureau, Wainwright, in the most recent period, has had 180 inhabitants, Point Lay 90, and Point Hope 240. All intermediate settlements were abandoned in the period after 1900, the last family resident at nuwuk having moved to Barrow village in 1942. Other coastal settlements had disappeared somewhat earlier. The inland Eskimo are thus virtually gone. There is a vanishing group still resident north of the Brooks Range. This is an alliance of two formerly fairly large bands, the killiymiut, a group taking its name from the Killik River, and the tulugaymiut, residents of Anak- tuvuk Pass and named from Lake Tulugak, in the lower reaches of the pass. When visited by the writer in 1953, this group consisted of 58 persons. The group hunts over a wide area, from Chandler Lake to the many watercourses of the Colville. It has thus far re- sisted schools and medical care, although it has been Christianized, and it seems a matter of a few years at most before the group vanishes completely (pl. 4, a). 20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 In the western foothills, however, there are still Eskimo groups, all of them small, located along the Noatak, Kobuk, and Selawik Rivers. No adequate census figures for these groups can be given, however, although 200 is probably excessive, for the reason that this is a float- ing population. The people have ties to the now fairly large town of Kotzebue and look to this center as a source of cash and various necessities. Families are known to move about hunting and fishing for extended periods of time, 2 years and more, and then to return for a like period to a settlement. Unlike the group resident in the Anaktuvuk area, these inland peoples no longer retain the sense of group autonomy. As the more recent history of the inland zone is considered, how- ever, it is seen that the ethnic groups were once fairly large. Because of the diffuse nature of the way of life, it is again difficult to obtam either an accurate census or adequate designations for the groups themselves. The principal basis for estimates of population must come from natives themselves who can recall the assemblages at the height of the season of trading. Although these congregations varied in size from year to year, there is no doubt that the majority of the inland Eskimo visited them, being forced by necessity to go at least once yearly to the coast to obtain the necessary commodity of seal oil. The earliest census is that given by McLenegan in 1885 for the people of the Noatak area. This suggests 225 noataymiut (Healy, 1887, p. 75). But this does not take into account the many Eskimo who may have been absent from the settlements at the time. Larsen’s informant, the utokaymiu, qamaq, describes a convocation of the utokaymiut at utokuk at the mouth of the river. He recalls two rows of 80 tents each and estimates 10 persons to a tent. Larsen and Rainey, although they believe the estimate excessive, are of the opinion that even if this number were halved, there would still be a possibility of 800 people in the assemblage (Larsen and Rainey, 1948, p. 31). Stefansson (1914 b, p. 10) believes that the utokaymiut formed the largest grouping of inland Eskimo. To these figures may be added the groupings further to the east. Names for these groupings tend to vary somewhat depending on the point of reference. The utkeavinmiut, for example, referred to the Colville River as kupik; any grouping along the Colville proper was thus called kupiymiut. This might be broken down further depend- ing on the specific locale or tributary with which the grouping was usually associated. Thus the groups along the ikpikpuk were the ikpikpanmiut; those along the Meade River (koluyuraak), the kolu- yuraymiut, or more specifically, since the modern Meade River village bears the name of the old campsite, tikereeluq, as the tikere- luymiut. A term commonly used to refer to the Colville River Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO ya | people was kangianermiut, essentially synonymous with the kupiymiut of Barrow usage. Others might be listed that are subdivisions of these, groups which draw their names from various localities, espe- cially from streams, but the designations are by no means exact. Of importance, for example, are the still surviving killiymiut, or, farther to the east, the now vanished kaymalliymiut, a grouping visited and described by Stefansson.' At the mouth of the Colville, on one of the arms of the delta, was the site of neyliq, where the utkeavinmiut and the nuwunmiut met with the inland Eskimo in July and August for purposes of trade. Living informants who went there as traders in the early years of the present century are agreed that an amazing number of people made the trip down the Colville from the inland regions. qiwaq, an ut- keavinmiu, counted over 400 tents pitched there by the many groups from all areas, including those to the mouth of the McKenzie, Herschel and Barter Islands, and was unable to complete a count. When it is remembered that people came to neyliq from as far away as noatak, as well as from virtually every stream across the tundra, the assem- blage of 1,500 there is not too surprising. When, however, this is added to the parallel assemblage held at Hotham Inlet between inland Eskimo farther to the south and those from the coast from Wain- wright to Point Hope, the numbers of inland Eskimo begin to emerge somewhat more clearly. Larsen and Rainey estimate the population of the inland regions in the period of roughly 1895 to 1905 as 3,000. This figure agrees with that arrived at by the present writer. This would, however, include the groups located on the western plateaus of the Brooks Range and those of the Hotham Inlet region, the people of the Noatak (noataymiut), of the Kobuk (kovuynmiut), and the Selawik (selawinmiut) Rivers. On this basis, the ratio between tareumiut and nuunamiut would be about one to three. But the groups of inland Eskimo have gradually dropped away. Even in 1924, Rasmussen encountered about 500 Eskimo at the Col- ville mouth (Rasmussen, 1927, p. 317). This area is wholly deserted today. As is noted above, the populations of the Noatak-Kobuk- Selawik drainages can hardly be said to be permanent, a fact which suggests to the present writer a grouping of about 200 more or less fixed Eskimo. Actually, a count of 1939 reveals 1,400 residents of interior Alaska north and west of the Brooks Range, and a decade ago Larsen and Rainey suggest the inland populations as being about 900 (Larsen and Rainey, 1948, p. 31). Although there is unquestion- ably great mobility of population, the Alaska Native Service has done all in its power to draw the inland groups to the coast for administra- 1 Stefansson (1914 8, p. 9) This author differentiates the kupiymiut from the kangianermiut, placing the latter on the upper reaches of the Colville, the former on the lower. 22) BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 tive purposes. Coupled with this is the recent employment incentive at Barrow. The inland populations today do concentrate along the westward flowing rivers. The peoples to the north of the Brooks Range, in the Anaktuvuk Pass area, remain as a small group of con- servative diehards. The modern Meade River village, not far from Barrow, is wholly recent and has a mixed nuunamiut-tareumiut population settled there to work a coal mine. It is, however, an old nuunamiut station. Various factors—an imposed administrative situation, the introduction of a money economy, and not thé least, the health problem—have combined to decimate the inland Eskimo. As may be seen, however, the maritime villages have not grown cor- respondingly. The chief problem associated with the determining of groupings of the inland Eskimo arises from the ephemeral nature of their organiza- tion. Rainey argues convincingly for the designation of both tare- umiut and nuunamiut groupings as tribes, thereby implying a fixed territory, common interests, and essential group stability (Rainey, 1947, p. 240). All of this was certainly true but because the so-called tribes were secondary to the emphasis placed on kinship, and because the ties of kinship, cut across tribal lines, this designation is perhaps not the most favorable. Since these peoples lacked any unifying force beyond kinship, and since each individual was free, either with or without his immediate relatives, to settle where he chose, pro- vided he could establish some claim of kinship, the concept of tribe is wholly subordinated. ‘That there were certain unifying institutions which went beyond kinship can be established. In no case, however, were these inclusive of all of the population of a grouping. The whal- ing crew on the coast, and the communal caribou hunt inland serve as a locus of interests and are non-kin associations. It is thus difficult to discover any activity in which a grouping engaged as a whole. Some sense of rivalry existed between the maritime villages, especially with regard to intervillage contests arising at the time of the major socioeconomic festival, the Messenger Feast. Even here, however, the majority of the village inhabitants merely occupied the role of spectators. Statuses were fixed, but not in relation to a village group; these, too, tended to cut across residence lines. The upshot of this situation permits a designation of the various groupings only in terms of activity that produce localized culture areas. The basic distinction of nuunamiut as against tareumiut is permissible as a basic ecological and cultural division. Other than this, one can only refer to the various subgroupings by name and with the understandizg that these are meaningful only in the sense of geographical divisions within each culture and ecological area. Far more important is the interlocking of circles of kinship and the significant fact that nuunamiut is dis- Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 23 tinguished from tareumiut not only on the basis of way of life but also because of the absence of kinship ties between them. Kinship extends within an ecological area, never across its boundaries. For convenient reference, it is possible to designate the coastal settlements as villages, and the contracting and expanding inland groupings as bands. HUMAN RELATION TO THE BIOTA FLORA In the exploitation of the resources of his domain, the aboriginal Eskimo chose to be selective and to make exclusive capital of the products of hunting. Meat, whether of sea mammals, of the various mammalian species taken on land, of fowl, or of fish, remains the basis of human diet in the area of northern Alaska. One result of the primary orientation toward meat was the neglect of almost all plant foods and the restriction of their use chiefly to cases of dire emergency. Plants were used more to meet certain utilitarian needs than as food. - The attention to plant foods was indirect, in that the partially digested stomach contents of the various kinds of herbivorous game was fre- quently eaten. ‘The various mosses on which the caribou depend, the seaborne plankton that forms the basis of subsistence for the baleen whales, created side dishes in the Eskimo diet. But in terms of actual use, the flora of the region yields a small inventory only. Of the two human ecological orientations, the nuunamiut, the peoples of the inland regions, made far greater use of the available plant life. For example, the many species and varieties of berries collected on the mountain slopes may be regarded as forming the most important contribution of vegetable foods to the native diet. Mixed with caribou fat, soaked in seal oil, or pounded into meat to make a pemmican, such berries became an important item in the aboriginal trade between the interior and the coast. The most com- plete list of the various berries used is that made by Lieut. George M. Stoney (1900, p. 99) in his explorations of the region in 1885. He does not, however, identify these beyond noting the native name, nor does he specify the localities in which the berries are picked. Stoney gives 10 different species, the chief of which were the salmonberry (aakpuk) and the various blueberries (pawnraat). He notes that all are preferred with oil or meat and are sometimes eaten before meat. Only in cases of extreme need would the inland peoples subsist solely on berries. Stoney notes that at isiyuq, on the lower Colville, there is an edible clay which is sometimes eaten with oil and berries (ibid., p. 100). Apart from berries, there was random use of various plants as food. So indifferent are the native peoples to these, as well as to berries, 24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bull. 171 that they could not be persuaded, at Anaktuvuk Pass, for example, to locate some of the edible plants for purposes of identification.2? The most important root vegetable was a knotweed, faintly resembling a parsnip (Polygonum bistortum), known by the native term ‘masu,”’ which was gathered in the passes and foothills. This was eaten raw or boiled, and the leaves also were sometimes gathered and soaked in oil. The same treatment was given to a kind of rhubarb, to willow shoots, and, in Stoney’s observation, to a dozen other plants, including roots and grasses (Stoney, 1900, p. 99). Beyond the use of the paunch contents of herbivores, and the berries obtained by trade from the nuunamiut, the coastal Eskimo had no plant foods. Edible seaweeds were collected south of Point Hope but as nearly as can be judged, they did not find their way northward. The seaweeds did travel to the inland peoples by trade. One especially, naykuwik, found its way inland along the Kobuk and Noatak routes. Stoney (1900, p. 99) remarks of this that it had to be boiled in seal oil; to eat it raw caused crossed eyes. Among the inland bands, there was extensive use of plants for other purposes than as food. Spruce bark, for example, was shredded and used to enforce cordage, and the spruce roots were sometimes eaten. The various willows had many uses, not the least of which was as fuel in the passes and foothills. The heavier willows (konun- yuq) are still used to make snowshoe frames, and as was formerly the case bows were made from them when birch (ulaaleluq) was scarce. The smaller willows were differentiated as waakpiq, akutuaq, and nuwunyuq. The latter was used to make a red dye, its bark being finely scraped and soaked in water. A generic term for the willow is ukpiq. Along the coasts, there was some employment of mosses for various purposes. The rich sphagnum moss which grows in areas of decayed animal matter, such as at abandoned campsites, was used to line the interior of boots. The tareumiut preferred shredded baleen for this purpose. Mosses were regularly used for infant diapering and for the wick of the ubiquitous lamp. The exploitation of plant resources was somewhat increased when tobacco was introduced to the Eskimo south of Bering Strait. This took place in the early 19th century, and within a short time tobacco was obtainable by the north Alaskan groups through the processes of trade. So valuable a commodity had at all costs to be saved as 2 An amusing illustration of this was provided at Anaktuvuk Pass. An old informant, queried on plant foods, indicated both his lack of interest and distaste for them. He had lived for a time with a married daughter in Fairbanks, but had returned to the north because, as he said, ‘‘I couldn’t stand eating them flowers all the time; I wanted meat’. He went on to say that he ate no “flowers”? now. Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 25 long as possible. Traded always in leaf form, the tobacco was made ready for smoking—the principal use to which the Eskimo applied it—by adulterating it with cottonwood bark, willow bark, fungi, and grasses. Even in this instance, however, dog or caribou hair was frequently mixed with tobacco and was in any case always placed at the bottom of the pipe bowl as a filter. Along the coasts, the only source of wood was that which drifted in on the beaches. This was found in surprisingly large quantities and came to serve as the source of supply for the making of house beams, planking, sleds, weapons, and many other things. Even the inland Eskimo came to depend on this source of supply, obtaining logs and planks by trade from the coast. Unconcerned with plants as food, and dependent on driftwood for meeting various important needs, the maritime Eskimo made no effort to utilize the local vegeta- tion. Even if the inland Eskimo made greater use of plants, it is clear that some needs which might have been met by a fuller use of vegetable products were filled in other ways. FAUNA The Eskimo food quest was thus centered wholly in the wildlife of the region. It is this, in its various manifestations, which undetlies adjustments in ecology and culture. In the patterned dichotomy of existence are seen the differences of inland nomadism, of bands or- ganized around caribou hunting, as against the settled village life with its whaling emphasis. In both settings, despite the uniformities of language and kinship organization, there were vast differences in the social forms which went beyond kinship and in ceremonial life. The relations of man to the native fauna must accordingly be con- ceived in terms of the two primary orientations. Of the two, the maritime Eskimo had the far richer life, able as they were to direct attention to inland hunting on the tundra when not engaged in sea mammal pursuit. Thus, they hunted caribou in the summer and fall, fished extensively in the fresh-water streams, and were skilled in the uses of the various traps. In some measure, they thus acquired the skills of inland life while the reverse was not true; the inland Eskimo were not prepared to deal with the hazards of the sea, of whaling in the ice leads, or of sealing at breathing holes in the ice. But for the maritime Eskimo, inland hunting was largely an individ- ual matter; it did not call for the communal enterprise characteristic of the nuunamiut or for the same ceremonial orientations. The various animals known and used, a wide variety, are best listed and some evaluation of their role in the native economy given. 26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 1. The whale-—This is the polar, or bowhead, whale (Balaena mysticetus Linn.)* which begins to swim up through the Bering Strait as soon as the ice permits free movement. Herds of these animals feed through the summer along the edges of the polar cap, returning southward in the fall when the ocean ice begins to thicken. Today as in the past, the baleen whales appear in the off-shore ice leads beginning in late April. They may still be sighted in early June. Whaling camps were set up on the edges of the leads and the crews pursued the whales in umiaks, each with several harpoons with two seal-bladder floats on each. The attempt was made to place as many harpoons as possible in the whale. When the animal tired and rose for air in the limited space of the ice lead, it was lanced, a special lance with a large stone head being used for this purpose. An at- tempt was made to spear the whale in the heart, lungs, or brain and so to kill it. The carcass was then towed back to the camp at the edge of the lead, tugged by communal effort on the ice, and divided. It is in respect to this whole activity that an extremely elaborate series of ceremonial usages arise and that a basis for extra-kin associa- tions is seen.* The general term for the common baleen whale is aayvik. An especially large specimen—and it is worth noting that some exceed 60 feet in length and that a rough computation can be made of 1 ton per foot—is called qayrelik. Smaller specimens, the poggy whales, 20 to 30 feet in length, with 3 or 4 feet of baleen, and reflecting a varietal difference, are inutuk. A larger specimen of this type is inutuvak. The northern villages engaged in whaling in the fall also, when the herds began to move south again. But this season cannot be con- sidered important since it affected only nuwuk and utkeaayvik. Even for these towns, no elaboration of ceremonial activity took place in the fall, this being reserved for the earlier season. At this time, whales were hunted in the open water, obviously a much more difficult undertaking in the fragile umiak. Two or three animals might be captured at this time, although this by no means compares with a successful spring season, when as many as 25 whales, representing hundreds of tons of meat, might be brought in. 3 Murdoch (1885 a, p. 101). The faunal nomenclature has in most instances been drawn from Murdoch’s treatment of the natural history of the region and from data obtained at the Arctic Research Laboratory at Point Barrow. These were checked against G. S. Miller, Jr., and R. Kellogg’s ‘List of North American Recent Mammals,’’ 1955. Identifications of inland faunae have been made by Rausch (1951) and Murie (1935). ‘Tbid., p.101. Murdoch mentions the introduction of techniques derived from European whalers as well as theirequipment. By 1881, the Eskimo at Cape Smythe (Barrow) were using steel lances and whal- ing bombs. A resistance to these methods arose in 1883, the prevailing attitude being that the stone-headed lance should still be used to dispatch the whale and barring this, an ivory harpoon should strike the whale first. When this was done, steel harpoons could safely be used. By 1900, this custom had fallen away. Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 27 The meat was divided in various ways between participating crews. It was carefully stored in ice cellars after being distributed according to well-defined regulation and ceremony. Use was made of virtually every part of the whale carcass. Apart from the especially prized skin—the delicate muktuk, eaten raw and boiled—and the blubber and meat, the bones were used much as wood, in making house beams, sleds, and many other artifacts, and the baleen, the long-fringed strainers in the mouth of the plankton-eating whales, was likewise used for many purposes, including the making of ornaments and amulets, of sledges, and of armor. Oil in great quantities, for use as food and fuel, was stored in seal bladders and skins. The upshot of the whaling, given an average year, made for considerable surplus of food and a basic ease of life. If, however, the herds changed their course for a year or two, the result was often starvation, or at least, limited rations. The population of a coastal community rose with a successful year, and declined markedly if few whales were taken, as the inhabitants struck out alone or in small groups to wrest a living from other sources. 2. The caribou.—What the whale was to the tareumiut, the cari- bou was to the nuunamiut. Its presence was vital to inland life and, like the whale on the coast, it became the keystone of economic, social, and religious activity, involved with an infinite number of restrictions, attitudes, and modes of treatment. The caribou (Rangi- fer arcticus stonei (Allen)), Eskimo tuttu, spreads widely over the American Arctic and sub-Arctic, appearing in herds of literally thousands. Through the north Alaskan regions the migrations of these animals are quite complex and the relations of the Brooks Range herds to those farther to the south are only imperfectly understood. (Rausch, 1951, pp. 186-87). The caribou move through the passes of the Brooks Range, not once, but often several times yearly, the movements themselves being quite irregular and erratic. The un- predictability of the caribou migrations has long affected the pattern- ing of settlement of the inland Eskimo, inasmuch as these groups are obliged to cover wide areas both in search of the herds and to follow them for long distances once they have been located. The animals tend to move northward through the passes between January and June, a definite sequence beginning with cows and calves, followed by bulls, and lastly, old bulls, having been noted by Rausch (ibid., pp. 187-88). Calves are born on the Arctic slope side between April and June. By October, the entire herds move southward again. These movements are usual but by no means consistent or wholly predictable. Nor do the herds remain stable in numbers, small herds sometimes returning to the place where an extremely large herd had . been sighted the previous year. In the Central Brooks Range, a not 45151159 3 28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 unusual pattern is seen in the movement northward along the Killik River, while the southward trek takes place along the Anaktuvuk River, through the pass of that name, and so to the south along the John River (ibid., p. 187). Whatever the route of movement, one may expect to encounter herds of caribou along the foothills and adjacent tundra plain in the spring. The rutting season of these animals is generally in October. The animals, having milled about the tundra, feeding on moss, have begun to move southward in order, as the Eskimo say, to escape the mosquitoes. On the Arctic plain, the herds tend to break into eastern and west- ern sections. Some stragglers remain in or near the passes, while ad- vance guards may reach the coasts at various points. ‘The patterning of movement has evidently changed in recent years. Murdoch men- tions the presence of caribou in spring along the Ikpikpuk, Meade, and Kuaru Rivers, but indicates that the herds do not come to the coast or near it (Murdoch, 1885 a, p. 98). In recent years, however, fairly large herds have regularly been seen along the beaches to the south of Barrow village, along the Kuk River and Peard Bay. Since they appear in the areas close to the coast, they become an important source of food supply to the modern coastal Eskimo. Farther to the south, the noataymiut and the utokaymiut have been wholly depend- ent on the westward movements of caribou herds and remain so. There appears to be no evidence that the caribou herds are dis- appearing. Indeed, the killiymiut indicate that the herds today are larger than they were a quarter of a century and more ago. In fact, hunting by the Eskimo, with the disappearance of the inland bands, is not nearly so intensive as it was formerly. There is always the threat to the herds brought on by wolves and other predators, but this, as may be anticipated, seems cyclical. The introduction of reindeer blood lines, as the result of the failure of the reindeer industry in northern Alaska, appears not to have modified the caribou popula- tion. More significant is the disappearance of the inland Eskimo. This has come about, not, as has been suggested by some, because of decimation of the caribou herds, but rather because the peoples of the coast discontinued the patterns of trade on which the nuunamiut so vitally depended. Once this took place, the inland Eskimo were forced to come to the coast and to revise their mode of life. That the caribou movements are erratic is indicated by the ex- periences of the Anaktuvuk Eskimo in the summer of 1953. The spring had not been successful in that the caribou had failed to mate- rialize in the Central Brooks Range. The small group of remaining Eskimo were at short rations and were later obliged to move to the east in order to catch the southward movement. This has been Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 29 the usual situation, with the result that inland Eskimo life has always been precariously balanced between feast and famine. The inland Eskimo regularly undertook their intensive caribou hunting in the spring. The meat was usually jerked, being hung on racks. As soon as the weather permitted this, the great drives began to take place. This was usually by April, which meant that much of the hunting was directed toward the younger bulls, a preferred quarry because of their greater fat storage. In the past, cows and calves were hunted less for meat and more for the hides. These skins espe- cially were important as a main item of trade with the coast, being in demand for making into undergarments. Eskimo terms for the caribou vary in differentiating both age and sex and the lexicon is large. The general term ‘‘tuttu’’ applies to any adult caribou, but bulls, pukniq, are distinguished from cows, kulavaq, and the younger animals ranked as to age. There is a general term for calf, nuyaq, and for a young bull, nukatayaq; young bulls with fully grown antlers, nukatayaakruq, are distinguished from yearlings, anayukl’aakruq. The hunting of caribou among the inland Eskimo reached a high degree of specialization in aboriginal times, skills being involved in which the peoples of the coast did not wholly share. Caribou hunting by the tareumiut was more frequently an individual matter, or at least one in which several men might informally share. In the inland sections, however, the hunting was elaborated and communal, pro- viding the basis for the structuring of lines of authority and prestige. The great spring hunt was undertaken by means of one of two well- defined methods involving activity on the part of virtually every member of the community. The first technique was the impound drive, the second, a variation of the first, a lake drive. Each inland band, having its defined hunting area, chose several sites within this territory, depending on the route of caribou migra- tion, for the erection of a corral. The impound itself, kaniyak, was located at a point beyond a ford and concealed, if possible, behind a ridge. The corral itself was made from different materials depending on theseason. A spring corral was often made with stones and willow branches, while in the late fall or early spring, walls of ice were erected. A usual technique was to build several roughly parallel walls at the far end of the corral, leaving openings through which the caribou might advance, only to be caught by snares in the further spaces. While the area covered by the corral might vary, the average might run to as much as 50 yards in width and from 75 to 100 yards in length. The herds of caribou were led into the corral by converging lines of posts set up at intervals of 30 to 100 yards apart and leading directly to the ford and the corral entrance. These were logs, cairns 30 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 of stones, or piles of brush, often covered with discarded clothing or with pieces of skin which flapped in the breeze. These were known as inYuksuk (like a man, i. e. a scarecrow) and were stretched out for as much as 5 miles away from the corral opening. The men of the hunting party often remained in blinds along the way; when the cari- bou began to move into the row of in’uksut they would run behind the herd to prevent its milling and breaking through the rows of uprights. Once the caribou forded the stream and had begun to enter the corral, men stationed in blinds at the entrance emerged to close the entrance with brush and to begin shooting with arrows into the milling caribou. The animals in the corral, many caught at the snares at the far end, others milling and trampling, could then be dispatched at leisure. Using this method, the hunters most frequently killed the animals in the corral with arrows. Boys who had not previously participated in the caribou drive were accorded the privilege of shooting the first arrows. The animals caught in the snares at the end of the corral were dispatched with spears. When the colder weather had begun, the corrals were made of mounds of snow and were covered with discarded clothing as in the case of the spring and summer in’uksut, the hunting method being essentially the same. The sod, willow, and stone corrals of the spring hunt were kept permanently in place and could be repeatedly used. It can be readily noted that large numbers of caribou could be taken by this method and large amounts of meat obtained. It would, however, be difficult to estimate the average catch, the size of the herds themselves being so variable from year to year. The process could be repeated over several days or weeks, and it would appear possible that 200 to 300 animals could be taken in a day’s hunting, and the corral cleared and made ready for the following day. A variant of the impound method was the water drive. In this, the tuttusiuvaktuat, the in’uksut led to a small lake or lagoon. The caribou were driven as before and forced into the water. Here, hunters in kayaks awaited them, spearing the animals as they began swimming. If the body of water was small, a stockade was erected on the far side so that any that escaped were ensnared as they re- gained the land. The tareumiut knew this method and used it along the Arctic plain. The more elaborate stockade, however, was pre- ferred in the passes and foothills. When the caribou were collected, the women of the group went to the work of skinning them. The meat was cut in strings for drying and pounding with fat and berries, and the leg bones were cracked for marrow. The paunch and intestines were emptied of their con- tents and this vegetable matter was eaten. Foetuses were also boiled and eaten. The choice parts of the caribou were the marrow bones. —— ae Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 31 The leg bones were cracked for the marrow and stored with fat in the emptied paunch. This favored combination (akutuq) made a light and easily transportable food. Caribou meat was divided according to well-defined regulation, each family receiving a share. The usual practice was to strip the meat, dry it, and cache it. A family that left the group during the summer season regularly left some of the dried meat at the usual campsite, taking the remainder as provender for any journey. The tareumiut treated the caribou differently, not stripping the meat, but preserving it intact in the ice cellars in a frozen state. Between the two groups, there was also marked difference in ceremo- nial usage; the inland Eskimo always removed the head of the caribou at once, ‘‘lest the animal suffer,” while this practice was not followed on the coast. Several other methods of taking caribou were known and employed. Individual hunters set up traps on the tundra, often in defiles through which the caribou must pass. Depending on the nature of the terrain, looped cords were fixed to catch either the antlers or the legs of the caribou. Murdoch (1885 a, p. 99) mentions the pitfall as a means of taking caribou, but living informants do not recall this. A preferred time for individual hunting was in the rutting season. At this time the caribou become curious and will approach a man. With the introduction of firearms, the older methods of caribou hunting tended to fall by the way. Only older residents of the area recall the use of corrals or the water drive, while Murdoch notes that the Barrow Eskimo of 1883 were hunting with guns, circling the herds and firing into them from a distance (ibid., p. 99). Rausch (1951, p. 192) remarks that the natives of the Anaktuvuk area have not used the corral for about 75 years. Stefansson (1914 a, p. 385) obtained the details of a corral from Point Hope informants and indicates the use of the corral had fallen by the way at the time of his visits with Ander- son in the first decade of the present century. Thus, in the treatment of the whale and caribou, the two primary foci of the patterning of human ecology of the Alaskan Arctic slope are considered. To do justice to the elaborate exploitation of the fau- nal resources, however, some listing of the animals associated with each setting is necessary. The tareumiut, able to draw the bulk of their food from the sea, were nevertheless intimately involved in the hunting of many land animals. On the other hand, the nuunamiut, while they hunted a great variety of animals widely and successfully, were obliged to depend primarily on the caribou, the only animal which could be taken in quantity. The following treatment does not attempt to do other than note those animals that were of marked economic impor- tance to either group. It is perhaps sufficient to note that there are numerous small animals and birds which assumed little or no economic 32 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 role in Eskimo life. The rodents and nonmigratory fowl, for example, played little part in native life. Those to which attention is given are significant as contributing vitally to the food supply of either ecological setting or are important as objects of ritual behavior. In a general way, ritualism and economic importance coincide, although this is not always the case. 3. The wolf, Canis lupus tundrarum (Miller), Eskimo amawk, and amaruq, was trapped by both tareumiut and nuunamiut, although it was more important to the economy of the latter. The traps were of many different kinds, their use being hemmed in with innumerable restrictions of a supernatural kind. Wolfskins were valuable as items of trade, the outer parka and trousers often being made of them. A thick fur was valued as a facepiece on a parka hood. Wolf skulls were prized as whaling charms by the tareumiut. Both groups ate the flesh. 4. Foxes, Vulpes fulva alascensis (Merriam), appear in several varie- ties—the red fox, kayaktuq; the cross fox, kenraq; the silver fox, kerenektaq; the blue fox, kenraktunuq; ciriganeak, so-called “white fox,” possibly Alopex lagopus innuitus (Merriam). The attitudes and treatment of foxes parallel that directed toward wolves. 5. The wolverine, Gulo luscus luscus (Linn.).—This animal is fairly frequent in the mountains. The fur was much valued as a decoration for clothing and for parka facepieces. As such, wolverine pelts became an important trading item and reached the coasts via the inland trade routes. The taking of the wolverine was also hemmed in with con- siderable ritual. 5. Grizely bear (Arctie grizzly), Ursusrich ardsont (Swainson), Eskimo aakluq. This animal is fairly widely distributed on the northern slopes of the Brooks Range (Rausch, 1951, pp. 165-170). In aboriginal times, these bears were evidently frequently met not only by the nuunamiut, but also by parties of tareumiut, and there are records of such bears having wandered into the various coastal vil- lages. The hunting of such bears was surrounded with a particularly elaborate ritual. 6. Polar bear, Thalarctos maritimus (Phipps).—This animal is very common along the coastal Arctic slope, is principally a water feeder and inhabits the moving ice, rarely coming ashore. Polar bear (Eskimo, naanuk) meat is particularly favored by the maritime Eskimo. 7. Seals. Excepting the bearded seal, these animals were taken on the winter ice pack at breathing holes (aadiuk) either with nets or by spearing. Nets were set out across the lagoons and stream mouths in summer. Three principal species are taken by this method. They are: Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 33 (a) Phoca vitulina richardi (Gray), the harbor seal, Eskimo kasigeaq; (b) Phoca hispida beaufortiana (Anderson), ringed seal, Eskimo necik, nunuq; (c) Phoca fasciata (Gill), the ribbon seal, Eskimo kayxolik. Of the three, the ringed seal is by far the most common. It remains through the year along the Arctic coast but is most plentiful on the winter ice. All the ingenuity attributed to the Eskimo reaches its peak in respect to the hunting of seals. Largely an individual matter, the hunter strings his nets under the winter ice, scratching with seal claws to attract the animals. The baleen nets strangle the seal or may break the animal’s neck when dragged in. Formerly, as the ice receded and the seals rested on the rotten ice, alternately napping and waking, the hunter, equipped with harpoon, crept up on them, timing his move- ments with those of his quarry. With whale, seals formed a significant part of the maritime Eskimo diet. The skins were used for clothing and the oil was carefully collected for use as food, fuel, and as an important item of trade. The bearded seal is somewhat less common than the ringed seal and is of seasonal occurrence. It is found on the ice from the end of the whaling season in late spring and is still taken up to the time the ice recedes in late summer. The maritime Eskimo sought this animal eagerly in view of the valuable skin, six of which were sufficient to cover an umiak frame. The bearded seal, Erignathus barbatus nauticus (Pallas.), Eskimo ugruk, was hunted communally, unlike the other seals that were taken as the result of individual effort. 8. The walrus, Odobaenus rosmarus divergens (Illiger), Eskimo ayvugq, Pacific walrus. This animal, appearing in herds, is seasonal, coming with the movement of ice floes northward at midsummer. It has been noted that the majority of animals taken along the Arctic coast are males, principally old bulls. The cows and calves have evidently split off from the bulls and summer on the Siberian side. Hunting was done with umiak, as a group venture, and the walrus harpooned. The ivory was much sought, but the meat, while useful and plentiful, was not valued as food for human consumption. Flipper parts and certain of the internal organs were eaten, the former being allowed to sour before cooking. Walrus meat went largely to the maintenance of dogs. Calfskins were used for the manufacture of whaling lines, the whole skins of grown animals, carefully thinned by scraping, sometimes being employed as umiak covers, three to four skins serving to cover a frame. 9. Beluga (white whales), Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas), Eskimo, kil’elluaq, sisuak. This small whale has never been too plentiful in the northern sections of the coastal Arctic slope and is considerably more important to the maritime Eskimo farther down the coast, such as at 34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 Icy Cape, Point Lay, and Point Hope. Indeed, the kivalinermiut, for all that they are an original nuunamiut grouping, have taken to hunt- ing the beluga somewhat intensively. Formerly, the beluga skins were valued as whaling and walrus lines and as boot soles. The animals, traveling in schools, were harpooned in shallow water, sometimes being driven into waiting hunters on a beach or spit. At present, they are shot rather than harpooned. 10. The killer whale, Orca orca (Linn.); Grampus rectipinna (Cope.), the Pacific killer whale, Eskimo, aaxtu. Never economically signifi- cant, never purposely hunted, in fact, the killer whale is worth noting in view of the numerous tales which have arisen around it and the anxieties which it still produces. 11. Mountain or Dall sheep, Ovis dalli dalli (Nelson), Eskimo, inmaeq.—The mountain sheep were snared in the mountains by the nuunamiut. On rare occasions, a party of tareumiut would hunt them for sport in the mountains to the east, and on the coast just south of Barter Island. The sheep were not obtained in sufficient numbers by either group to be economically important, but their - horns were eagerly sought, serving as caribou spearheads and dippers, and becoming an important item of trade. The list of mammals might be extended at length. The smaller mammals, however, become less important to the native economy although their use might depend on emergency. The nuunamiut made some use of the various squirrels (Citellus parryit barrowensis (Merriam), the marmots, weasels, and hares, all of which might be snared when caribou was scarce and the skins of which were used for underclothing and for children’s garments. Similarly, the tareu- miut, when traveling inland, might trap squirrels and rabbits (Lepus arcticus arcticus (Ross) if these were found in abundance. Weasels (ermine) were snared for their pelts, which were used as decoration on parkas with matched skins. The various lemmings seem to have had no economic value, no record being obtainable of anyone having eaten the flesh of lemmings. The myth persists that the lemming comes from the clouds, this bit of folklore also having been noted in Scandinavia. A few larger mammals might also be mentioned but likewise are economically not significant. The coastal natives know both the narwhal (Monodon monoceros (Linn.)) and various porpoises but are not concerned with them. The former remain as a memory but no living Eskimo were encountered who recall seeing one. A porpoise was taken at Barrow in the summer of 1952 but is otherwise very rare. Both groups know the musk ox (Ovibos moschatus (Gmel.)) and skulls turn up from time to time on the tundra, but the species Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 35 appears to be extinct north of the Brooks Range, or, indeed, in all of Alaska. Mountain lions are known south of the Brooks Range as are moose, but they are generally removed from the Eskimo sphere of interest. In summary, the mammalian domain of the North Alaskan Eskimo was not large. But if the species hunted were few, the quantity taken more than compensated for the variety. Fowl.—In the area of bird hunting, the Eskimo of the region also tended to be selective. The fowl that formed a part of the native diet were principally the ducks and the geese, the hunting of which became a preoccupation of the maritime Eskimo, although it was not limited to them, and the various species of ptarmigan, to which the nuunamiut directed their primary attention. Ptarmigan abound in the watercourses flowing out from the foothills and are found back into the mountain passes. They are principally the Lagopus albus (Aud.), the willow ptarmigan. There are other species as well, how- ever, chief among them being the Lagopus rupestris (Leach), the rock ptarmigan. The nuunamiut decoyed them into nets and snares, using stuffed birds during the mating season. These were attacked by live birds, which became enmeshed in the spread nets. Noose traps, nets, the latter of baleen traded from the coast and strung in lines, and many other devices were used in the trapping. The nuunamiut also used baleen nets to take waterfowl on the lakes, sinking the nets and enmeshing the birds as they dove. Small spears were used for geese and ducks during the moulting season. The many species of waterfowl which flew along the coasts provided an important secondary food source for the tareumiut. The most sought after of these ducks were the various eiders which continue to fly across Elson Lagoon across the Point Barrow spit and which fly in flocks down the Arctic coast. Most tareumiut groups main- tained camps where families might go, particularly during the summer months, forduck hunting. Atutkeaayvik and nuwuk, for example, the old site of piyiniq was used as a shooting station (pl.4,¢). Similarly, there were duck shooting stations along the lagoons south of Icey Cape which were periodically used by the people of the various southern villages. At Point Barrow, the eider ducks were hunted with the bola as they flew low over the sandspit, but, as in the inland regions, there was also intensive netting and snaring. The utkeavinmiut and nuwunmiut erected a series of in’uksut, similar to the scarecrows used by the nuunamiut in caribou hunting, along the south side of Elson Lagoon, the purpose being to drive the ducks over the sandspit, thus preventing them from swinging to the south. These devices were evidently wholly successful. The principal eider ducks taken in this 36 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 manner are Somateria spectabilis (Linn.), the king eider, Eskimo kin’aluk; Somateria V-nigra (Gray), the Pacific eider, Eskimo amawlik (‘like a wolf’); Arctonetta fischeri (Brandt), the spectacled eider, Eskimo tuttuluk (“like caribou’’). Others, including the brant geese, Bernicla nigricans (Lawr.), involve the squaw duck, Harelda glacialis (Leach), Steller’s duck, Polysticta stelleri (Brandt), Eskimo ignikawktuq, and many others. Important though the various fowl are to the native food supply, it is of interest to note that few integrated usages appear in association with them. Of the two principal types of fowl, those of the land, the various ptarmigan, play a much more significant role in folklore and legend. On the coasts, the ducks were preserved in oil and fat. When needed, they were skinned rather than plucked and the fat eaten carefully. Essentially similar treatment was accorded the ptarmigan among the inland groups, although the facilities for storing the birds were not so readily available. Fish.—Like fowl, fish formed part of the secondary diet of the peoples of the area. Lacking the reserves of fat, fish were never a staple food, serving to supplement the diet of meat. Not much fish- ing was actually done in the sea by the maritime people and then only when certain species came up the coasts in schools and could be obtained in quantity. These were principally the tomcod (Boreo- gadus saida), a winter fish, obtained through holes in the ice, and the eulachon (candlefish), obtainable in summer. While other spe- cies were available from the sea, they could not be obtained in sufficient quantity to be of economic importance. Fishing, for both the nuunamiut and the tareumiut, was focused on the fresh water of the inland lakes and streams. Here, fish of many kinds could be had in sufficient quantity to justify an inten- sive activity. The nuunamiut fished both summer and winter, fish- ing through the ice in the latter season, while the tareumiut limited their fishing, except for the seaborne tomcod, to the summer months when the streams were open. Only rarely would a family remain at a fishing site into the fall or winter, although it was of course possible to continue fishing into the dark of the year. In general, fishing was a woman’s activity, although men would assist in setting out the nets. Families from both ecological settings would remain at fishing camps for part of the year, the men engaging in caribou hunting while the women, with their smaller children, wou!d con- gregate at the river or lake banks, drawing in the nets, gutting and drying or freezing the catch. Fish were stored by the tareumiut in ice cellars in a frozen state and were dried and cached by the nuunamiut. Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 37 Fish known to the area may be listed as follows: 5 Fish—gen. ikaaluq Fishing activity ikaluneaktuak Small fishes ikallowayaat Arctic lamprey nimmeagq (var. nimmereaq) Lampetra japonica Dog salmon ikalluguruaq Oncorhynchus keta Humpback salmon amaktuq O. gorbuscha Arctic char ikaluukpiq Salvelinus alpinus Dolly Varden ikaluukpiq S. malma Lake trout ikaluakpuq S. namaycush Grayling sulukpawak Thymallus signifer She-fish siiriroaq Stenodus spp. White fish (gen.) ikallupeaq White fish (round) anaaktiq Prosopium spp. White fish (Coregonus) piyuktuuk Coregonus spp. White fish (Autumnalis) kaktuq (var. tipu) Leucichthys autumnalis White fish (Sardinella) ikalusaaq L. sardinella complex Smelt ixyoaaniq Osmerus dentez Smelt larvae irituunyiq Capeling panmageruq Mallotus villosus Herring uxruxtuq Clupea pallasi Pike sliyuliq Esox lucius Blackfish ixluyukiniq Dallia pectoralis Sucker milluweaq Catostomus spp. Freshwater cod tittaliq Lota maculosa Polar cod (tomcod) ikalluwaq Boreogadus saida Siberian cod uuyaq Eleginus spp. Flounder nataaynaq Pleuronectidae (fam.) Seulpin qanayuq Cottidae (fam.) Stickleback kakiilyesuq Pungitius pungitius “FKel-port”’ (Lycoides) kuyurawnaq Lycoidae (fam.) Of the above, the white fishes, the grayling, and the various trout formed the principal items in the native diet. Fish taken in the summer were frequently left at the site where the fishing had been done until the onset of winter. With sled, accompanied by sufficient number of dogs, a man wou!d go out in winter to return the sum- mer’s catch. If a family planned on it, they traveled to the fishing station by umiak and made it back to the settlement before the winter freeze set in. Each grouping, whether basically oriented toward the sea or the land, tended to move to the same general fishing areas. This meant that the foothill and plain provinces were dotted with established camps where the fishing took place. It is not to be implied that these were in any sense owned by any one group; in the course of summer travel by families over familiar routes certain places were selected as sites for fishing. In the summers, small communities 5 The writer is indebted to Dr. Norman Wilmoysky, Stanford University, for the identification of the various piscine forms, as well as for the location of the various fishing stations of the maritime groups. 38 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 often grew up around them, dispersing when the winter freeze began. Some, it is true, remained behind for as long as they chose. Among the maritime people, those from the larger villages, it was not un- usual, nor is it today, for a family to build a semipermanent house at such a fishing camp, returning there summer after summer. Some, indeed, went so far as to build an ice cellar at the site, storing both the fish taken by the women and the caribou shot by the men. While it would be of marked interest to offer details of the location of each fishing camp of each group, it was not found possible to list these. It may, however, suffice to note those to which the natives of utkeaayvik and nuwuk were regularly accustomed to go and which remain important at present for fishing activity. The camps, varying in size and location, are often some days’ journey from the Point Barrow villages and could be reached only by water in summer or by dog sled in winter. They are as follows (cf. map 2.): SUOV AIAG Se ai ae Fe Be 71°2'25’'N, 156°28’30/’W. DOCG ete le oa ee ee 70°54’10’’N, 156°18'30’’ W. TVIRGUR 20 ete oe ae ae eee 70°53’40’"N, 156°37'/W. NAWiSb ee ek eae aes 70°52’40’’N, 156°53/10’’ W. ODIKSIGs £2 Sa8 bated a Bee ose ee 70°41'30’’N, 156°36’20’’ W. Kavemrates. sae 355 52 eee ee Eis 70°40’30’’N, 157°1'W. WIRE IAG) = Sc cet oe 2 ee 70°18’30’’N, 157°24’40’’W. Ruee hay Vl Ge re te a ee ee ee 70°51’N, 156°24’30’’ W. UPARVANUG ots See eo eee 70°40’N, 155°50’ W. BVATER WiVEK ooo ate Dots eR i BE Near latter on Chipp River. Balak teks 5 eee Serer ee a a oe 70°46/30/’N, 155°3’W. pinuuctrusarevics. 22 2524522222202 70°53/5/’N, 156°43'5’’ W. Ue VICEaX =<. 5 eee a Lee ee 70°55'5/’N, 156°13/20’’ W. STUD Sie ohare Pe ae i eee 70°39’N, 157°14’ W, Wyarsalik 2) Sie oie: Pie NILE See ? SUMMARY As may be seen, the human relation to the biota was a selective one, the exploitation being of those animals of which considerable quantity could be obtained. Each setting came to stress the game most readily available and was intent on amassing surplus supplies of food, not only as insurance against the ever present threat of famine, but also because possession of surplus food and goods counted as wealth and underlay the status system for both nuunamiut and tareumiut. In the course of the utilization of the resources which the land provided, it was inevitable that small groups were most effective, both because the supply potential was limited and because the game, in its general seasonal movements, was sporadic and unpredictable. Given this kind of limitation, the social units alined themselves, structured themselves, and created a high degree of order. LANGUAGE Eskimoan or Eskimo-Aleut, as is well known, constitutes a wholly independent linguistic grouping. Efforts to relate Eskimo to any of the other North American language families, to the Hyperborean languages of Northeastern Siberia, or to some of the better formulated stocks of northern and central Eurasia, such as to Tungusic or Finno- Ugric, have proved fruitless. A recent suggestion, made by the Danish linguist Hammerich that Eskimoan and Indo-European may have a common root, likewise seems untenable, although of course the idea is a stimulating one (Hammerich, 1951b). While there is a distinct difference between Eskimo and Aleut, the two being wholly mutually unintelligible, there are sufficient common points in both morphology and cognates to permit the formulation of a relationship. The languages spoken by the Eskimo themselves, ranging from Green- land to southern Alaska, suggest dialects rather than separate tongues. The natives of Barrow recall that when Rasmussen and some Green- land Eskimo visted in 1924, Rasmussen himself delivered an address in Greenlandic which was intelligible to the north Alaskan people. The absence of any sharp dialectic distinctions or of a series of well- defined different languages might point to a relatively recent dissem- ination of the Eskimo-speaking peoples across the American Arctic. That there are local dialects must be considered. These tend to be based on phonological and lexical differences rather than on morpho- logical or syntactical ones. Throughout the Eskimo area, and cer- tainly on the north Alaskan slope, there is considerable consciousness of language. A man’s speech usually served as a criterion of his birthplace. The utkeavinmiut, for example, the people of Barrow, were said to speak more slowly and evenly, while those of Point Hope, the tikeraamiut, are alleged to speak rapidly and with a much more marked intonation pattern. But even in such closely situated villages as nuwuk, utkeaayvik, and piyiniq, or between local settlements any- where, there were reputedly some dialectical differences. Not that the dialects digressed so far as to become mutually unintelligible; it was often a matter merely of certain lexical selections. It is not known why this should have come about. The fact that a group dropped a word in favor of another for the same object or concept could conceivably have a supernatural basis but no data were to be had regarding word taboos. In certain communities words took on a fadlike character, particularly in nouns designating animals, birds, 39 40 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 and plants. This process is by no means gone. New words are con- tinually evolving. Such may depend on the fondness for puns and word play which the groups share. When it is recalled that the cul- tures placed a great emphasis on compulsive formulas in the form of songs, it is perhaps not difficult to see that lexicon might in some meas- ure be affected. This would point to the present continuing importance of the native language. Today, despite the efforts of the local schools to develop a written and spoken knowledge of English, Eskimo is spoken in the home and remains the language of social usage among old and young alike. This has meant that any ethnographer, the writer included, has been obliged to make use of an interpreter in dealing with inform- ants. A comparative few speak English adequately. The Eskimoan dialects have been so completely analyzed that there is little point in attempting a further description here. The Danes, with their interests in Greenland, have perhaps done the most com- plete summary of Eskimo linguistics, although the field has by no means been neglected by American scholars. A recent reconstruction of proto-Eskimo by Swadesh (Swadesh, 1951, 1952 a-d), as well as a number of comprehensive descriptive statements, make Eskimo one of the most intensively studied languages of native North America. Interesting though the specific analysis of the north Alaska dialects might be, this area not having been adequately worked linguistically in comparison with other regions, and while the writer is convinced that language offers aids in the elicitation of culture patterns, the present investigation could give no more than cursory attention to linguistic patterns. By working through an interpreter for several hours daily, the present ethnographer was able to attain some degree of comprehension of spoken Eskimo. But a complete linguistic analysis prevents attention to other aspects; little time was given to language except as an ethnographic aid. In the sections which follow, native terms are given. There are also three folk tales which were transcribed in Eskimo as well as a number of songs. It was found possible to resolve the phonology but little attention could be given either to morphology or syntax. It is, however, possible to define the morphological unit or word. There is a high degree of inflection, both of nouns and verbs, the principal constructions involving root suffixation. Nouns and verbs offer a tremendous number of possible inflections, with numerous noun cases, as well as complex verb constructions involving mode, tense, negation, validity, and the like. The verbal system stresses the validity of an action primarily and is only secondarily concerned with factors of tense. In the following sections, where nouns are given, they appear Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 4} as constructs, as absolutatives rather than as nominatives. Dual and plural number are given where necessary. The language permits great facility of expression, is rich in metaphor and imagery, and remains valuable to the contemporary culture as an important element of social integration. Phonology.—The phonemes of the north Alaska dialects, Barrow in particular, are as follows: Consonants: p m Vv s n 1 t t c ny ly r k g x 4) q 2 Semivowels: Ww ME Vowels: i u e fe) a There are thus 18 consonantal phonemes, two semivocalic, and 5 yocalic phonemes. 'Length is suprasegmental; stress is nonphonemic. Of the consonants, the stops, p, t, k, g, and q, are in the main un- aspirated. p is bilabial; t is alveolar rather than dental, with some retroflexion; k, the only stop with a corresponding voiced equivalent, is velar, but the point of articulation is drawn back further against the velum than in English; q is uvular and contrasts phonemically with k. The spirantized series is not distinctive. tis a continuant (tl), x is strongly articulated and velar, y is a uvularized spirant, sometimes trilled. vis bilabial, unrounded in contrast to w, and voiced. There is one senate, ce, alveopalatal, unvoiced (tch). The nasals n¥ and n are palatalized and velar respectively. The lateral 1’ is palatalized. r is post-palatal in point of articulation. Some speakers make a uvular trill with wide aperture. It is, however, contrasted with y, which employs a close aperture. The vowels are not complex. There is a distinct pattern of vocalic harmony. In unstressed syllables following long vowel with stress, the vocalic quality becomes indeterminate. It is clear, however, that shewa is not phonemic but rather that a harmonic pattern of short vowels is established. e and o are phonemic. 42 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull 171 Vowels appear in conjunctive clusters with semivowels and in disjunctive clusters with each other. Length—Vowel length has been indicated by orthographic gemina- tion as ii, ee, aa, 00, uu. Consonants appear as geminate clusters rather than as lengthened forms. Examples are iccavik, tukumminaroagq, etc. Stress.—Stress is both primary and secondary and nonphonemic. The clustering of morphemic units (agglutination) creates some complexity in stress (Thalbitzer, 1910, pp. 981-983). These general patterns are, however, consistently observable: 1. Stress occurs on any long vowel in open or closed syllable. Examples are: tinilerdatak; ukiutaq, etc. 2. All vowel clusters are stressed, likewise the first member of a disjunctive cluster. Examples are: tinilerdawtak; amdwk; taréumiut. 3. Stress falls on any short vowel in a closed syllable, including syllables closed by consonantal gemination. Examples are sakfrraq; tuttu; kikiktéaxruk, etc. In such cases, primary stress is accorded either a long vowel or vowel cluster; short vowels assume secondary stress. 4. Stress is in the main recessive. With short vowels and no closed syllables, stress occurs on the initial vowel. In words of some length, barring the presence of long vowel or cluster, the initial syllable and either the penult or ultima may bear stress, this being, in the latter instances, a secondary stress. Examples are: nikaceak; taétariruq, etc. ! HOUSES AND SETTLEMENTS -Although the present study makes no attempt to analyze the complex technology and material culture of the North Alaskan Eskimo or to present any systematic treatment of it, the arrange- ments of the houses as well as of the surroundings of the village and camp have marked implications for the organization of society. There are also several cultural historical points suggested by the presence, in both ecological settings, of construction features in com- mon, however much the basic dwellings may differ in outward form, Several areas of overlapping may also be noted in the forms of summer shelters; tents, brush shelters, and other temporary dwellings could be the same for both ecological groups. The permanent houses, designating these as the winter quarters, did differ quite markedly in outward form. It is worth remarking that the dome-shaped ice lodge, while known at nuwuk and utkeaayvik, and sometimes used by these villagers, diffuses neither inland nor farther southward along the coast. Its westernmost point of diffusion may properly be regarded as Barter Island (Kroeber, 1939, p. 24). Quite apart from the importance of the house in whatever form as a shelter, there were significant attitudes which surround the dwelling and which should be evaluated in order to give proper focus to the relations between house and society. The dwelling was the center of activity for the nuclear family, and while it has been shown that the personnel of such a group might change with varying condi- tions, the attachment to the house was an emotional one and very strong. For the individuals who resided in it, it was ever a source of refuge and sanctuary. No nonresident entered except by invitation, although once this was given, there was thereafter a greater degree of freedom. Actually, there were well-defined regulations by which houses could be approached and entered by nonresidents. Anyone desiring to enter, for example, shouted into the skylight or called through the passageway. The cultures of the various Eskimo groups are marked by a high degree of sociability, a development no less true of the North Alaskan peoples. But in Alaska, at least, social activities were not centered in the houses, nor were the recreational periods tied into interhouse visiting. These centered rather in the karigi (pl. kariyit), the quasi-ceremonial gathering place. The karigi (qalegi, or kashim, as it is variously designated) was a social hall for men primarily, although women also entered it from time to time, and 451511594 43 44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 is seen widely among the Alaskan Eskimo, its distribution ranging from Point Barrow, but not farther to the east, down into southern Alaska. In a general way, it may be said that kinsmen could and did meet in each other’s houses; the meeting place for those who were not connected by ties of kinship lay in the ceremonial house. But even kinsmen did not have freedom of one another’s houses and visited specifically by invitation. While ownership was not invested in any one individual in the house residents, it is clear that all who lived in it had essentially equal rights to it, there being, however, a few areas within the house the rights to which were limited by age and sex. In summary, the house, even though its location might be changed and the number of those resident in it might vary, was a primary factor in cementing the primary group. The nuclear family can be equated with the household. The general term for any dwelling is iylu (pl. iytut). Specifically, this term refers to a permanent dwelling and thus comes to be applied to the more or less continuously inhabited houses of the tareumiut. An elaborate and complex lexicon exists to describe the many varia- tions in tents, in shelters of various kinds, and the more permanent houses. Similarly, the many terms for the parts of the house and the details of construction types and materials reflect the intimate pre- occupation with the habitation (cf. Rausch, 1951, pp. 159-161). HOUSES OF THE NUUNAMIUT (Pl. 3, b) The small band of Eskimo which continues to reside in the foothills along the Killik River, moving into Anaktuvuk Pass and the area of Chandler Lake, still makes use of an aboriginal house type. This is the iccellik, so named from the iccuk, a caribou hide used as a cover. It is a portable, tentlike structure made from caribou hides stretched over a willow frame. This type of dwelling is also designated as kaluyvik, i. e. a frame, but this is a general term for any tent in which poles are used. The iccellik is a wholly practical house, warm, fairly spacious, and easily erected and transported. In ground plan, at least in modern times, the house is oval, although in the past it is said to have been round, a fact substantiated by the presence of rings of sod at old campsites. Dwelling size varies, depending on the number of inhabitants, and may run from 10 to 15 feet in length and in some instances 8 to 10 feet in width. The inland Eskimo pattern, followed here in the erection of the iccellik, but also employed to construct a sod house and other variations, involves the placing of four center upright posts, connected at the top by light beams, to which willow withes, usually 2 dozen in number, are joined. The Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 45 latter, often tied together to effect greater length, radiate out from the central upright posts and are fastened to the ground, either forced into the ground or blocked into position with sod and stones. In the center, on one of the longer sides away from the prevailing wind direc- tion, are set two posts for the door frame. Lacking the heavier uprights, a light willow frame is set up in a dome shape, the willow rods being lashed together at the point where they cross. When the frame is in position, the skins, 20 to 25 in number, are drawn over it. The skins are scraped on one side only and the hair side is turned outward. Once in position, they may be pinned or sewed together. A principle of insulation is employed in that a second cover, formerly consisting either of skins completely scraped, i. e. with the hair removed, or of skins with the hair side turned inward, is laid over the first in winter. This creates an air cell between the two covers, ensuring additional warmth. This may perhaps be regarded as an extension of the principle used in respect to clothing, two suits being the winter garb and affording the same kind of insula- tion. The door to the iccellik is usually covered with the skin of the erizzly bear, this being sufficiently heavy as to keep out draughts. It rests against the house with the hair side turned inward. The iccellik usually has a window, the traditional skylight of the Eskimo house. This is most frequently located next to the door, being some- what higher than the doorframe itself. Formerly, this was made of grizzly bear intestine, sewed together and mounted in place with a frame of wood. Not infrequently, too, the skylight (igalaq) was made from ugruk intestine obtained from the coasts by trade. Among the present killiymiut, the outer cover of the iccellik is of canvas, although caribou skins still are used for the inner lining, and commercial ma- terials are used for the skylight. The iccellik remains a wholly satisfactory dwelling in which an average of 10 persons can quite adequately live. The house is draught-proof, being banked at the base with sod, and is capable of being warmed readily; the lamp was formerly used for warmth, although fires were also built in winter in front of the door and a smokehole made above the door. The mention by some sources that the iccellik is covered with snow in winter is apparently incorrect. Snow was applied to sod houses at times, especially if the sod, in being dried out by heat, contracted and let in draughts. Moreover, a snow-covered willow frame was used as a parturition hut. The iccellik itself, however, is sufficiently weathertight as to require no additional insulation (Rausch, 1951, p. 160; Ingstad, 1952, pp. 31-35). In heating today, metal stoves with pipes are used. Formerly, the heating in the iccellik was kept to a minimum and much of the actual cooking done outside. 46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 The general structure of the iccellik, or indeed of any kaluyvik, did not involve an excavation. When the tent was to be erected, the snow was simply cleared away and the dwelling rested on the surface of the ground. This point is worth noting in view of the presence of excava- tions in some of the nuunamiut habitations. On the move, the iccellik could be erected in a matter of a few minutes. The poles for the supporting structure were carried by sled or umiak as were the skins which made up the covers and the bedding. If the tent were to be left standing for any period of time, willow branches were cut and laid in the interior along the sides to form the sleeping places. The various items necessary to the main- tenance of the household—vessels, weapons, extra clothing, and the like—no particularly elaborate inventory being involved, were also transported with the household. This meant, of course, that in travel a sled or boat was heavily loaded and reduced much of the actual travel to walking by the able-bodied members of the group. But the tent structures were not the sole habitations of the nuunamiut, even if today there has been principal emphasis on the iccellik. Sod houses were known and employed. These would be located at the chief winter settlements of the various inland bands. In keeping with the emphasis on the hunting of caribou in seasonal drives, each larger grouping had settlements from which the seasonal migratory round was begun and which served as centers for the caribou hunting when it became a concerted group activity. It was these settlements which lent a sense of cohesion to the inland groups and which permits, as has been shown, some designation of these groupings by territory and name. Not all the inland peoples had such semipermanent settlements and it is also true that the settlement itself could move after a period of time as the caribou migration routes themselves shifted. The most elaborate development of such villages, if this term may be applied to them, was in the Noatak, Kobuk, and Selawik regions, those of the areas farther to the east and north becoming considerably less well defined. The archeological investi- gations of Giddings and others point to the presence of continuous settlements existing over long periods of time, while the naval explorer, Stoney, lists the names of some of these settlements which he visited (cf. Giddings, 1944, 1952; Stoney, 1900, p. 46.) The noataymiut, for example, according to a man born at the headwaters of the Noatak, had a winter hunting village at pinalu. Here, the iccellik type of house as well as the semipermanent sod house were employed. Houses erected at the winter hunting sites formed the base of operations for most nuunamiut. Here they were able to keep extra supplies of food in caches and to store any equipment not immediately needed. ‘The houses themselves were of several types. There were Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 47 those families who chose to use the iccellik the year round and there were those who built somewhat more elaborate structures of sod. The sod houses were erected on the general principle described above, making use of central posts and a willow branch frame. In the square space left by the four uprights was placed the skylight. A general term for the sod-covered winter house was iivtulik, a complex which might vary considerably in plan and structure. There were those, for example, who chose to remove the skin cover of the iccellik and to place sod over the frame, sometimes covering the entire structure with snow. In spring, the sod could be removed and the frame transported. But in addition several other plans appeared. A double sod house was known, the akilyereik (opposite each other— dual), which consisted of two apartments joined by a central passage- way, in the center of which was the door. Two related families or the families of trading partners might share such a house, each family taking one apartment but cooking and eating together. This house likewise could be built up on tent frames, and, indeed, most frequently was, since such double family houses were rarely used for more than one season. A more permanent sod house, suggestive of the coastal dwellings, was the paamerak, a house built to last longer than one winter and usually erected at a more permanent site, such as at a fishing station or in the neighborhood of a caribou stockade. This plan made use of a passageway leading into the house although the more elaborate wooden interiors of the coastal peoples were lacking. Similarly, while an excavation might be made for this type of dwelling, it rarely went to a depth of more than a few inches, sufficient perhaps as to have permitted the removal of a bit of the topsoil in summer before the permafrost was reached. A double paamerak, with a short passage leading from that which connected the two apartments, was also known. A single-room dwelling of sod was known as tawvsiliq. The permanent sod structures were thus built with a passage and a skylight and had banked areas of sod placed along the side walls for sleeping and reclining. A fireplace was located under the skylight, the gut window being rolled back when fires were built and serving as a smokehole. General heating was done with the stone lamp. Stoney (1900, p. 46) remarks that panes of ice were sometimes used as the skylight. Ingstad (1952, pp. 174-175) obtained additional information on the shape of such houses and differentiates an elon- gated from a round type and one with the passage along the side rather than in the center. Stoney also noted longer passageways than were described by modern informants and points out that the passage might also be equipped with a skylight, a feature paralleled along the coasts (Stoney, ibid.). It is to be indicated that none of these types 48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 were particularly marked in height; 5 feet from floor to ceiling at the highest point of the dome seems reasonable, a feature still to be seen in the modern iccellik. In general, too, the inland houses were smaller than those on the coast. They lacked the spaces off the passage of which the tareumiut made such good use, and they do not seem in any way so carefully finished. In traveling inland and in setting up campsites at fishing stations, the tareumiut also made use of the paamerak and iiviulik. The nuunamiut camp was differentiated as to season. Thus, a winter camp was known as ukiivik; the spring camp was called upi- naksiliivik; the summer settlement, upineriivik. An abandoned campsite, and there were many, was called iniroaq and inigiroaq. To form some impression of the distribution of the nuunamiut in relation to permanent and temporary houses, the case of the ikpik- panmiut may serve as an example. This group, broken up into families as indicated, moved up and down the Ikpikpuk River. The permanent base at the headwaters of the Ikpikpuk was located at a point in the foothills. This was known as ikpikpuk and it was here that the paamerat and iivtulit were to be found. A second perma- nent camp of the ikpikpanmiut was at aviulaavik, some 25 miles from the mouth of the Chipp River. It was not impossible for families to own houses in both locations and spend part of the year in each, moving in the meantime and living in the transportable tent. A third campsite, also more or less permanent, was at kaxteraavik, located at the confluence of streams along the Chipp. Here, too, semipermanent houses were set up. All those who identified them- selves with the ikpikpanmiut, however, regarded ikpikpuk itself as the home base. This was the point at which the hunt for caribou started and it was here that the principal ceremonial activities took place. Here, too, was the karigi. The nuunamiut settlement—and from the foregoing it is not pos- sible to give any statement as to how many people might be found in it at any one time, population expanding and contracting with the seasons—was thus made up of some temporary houses, of the tent variety, others seasonal, tent posts covered with sod, and still others semipermanent. The actual population of any such settlement at the height of the caribou drive would probably rarely exceed 200 to 300, making up a maximum of 50 to 100 able-bodied hunters. In- deed, this figure seems exceptional and the general pattern was 30 hunters, all of whom could use the same karigi. A village thus consisted of the houses as noted and a karigi. Un- like the karigi of the tareumiut, that of the inland Eskimo was a temporary structure. Stoney (1900, p. 72) mentions that at kinalik, (cf. map 4) a large dance house was set up and that each man gave : THE wot 9 vans an * ita constr The Sainiaidut rae r ss phetnera!l anit. The fact §} mused nevenal inarked dig z ““S gehen eg: ; rly aye FI ' q sine 4 i = oe dhe nuunsmiut, however, “tC od uléts and charms which <4 | as a — Ms ee age was Dot sO well i NH y ; _— ; —_— ye = e pos so well constructed. “Ne | Keenan am 1 Hove ——s—CS;«7S 3}HhtC be, the place at which’ ) zi vas named, and the men a , ile the nature of karigi nual ) Piameitcde-edohoridromsiqpiaoal gmwe wl a \ NS Ba | SS ae / (vo CONTROL DAAFT) eT) Pees SCAPULA - ig 7 PIAXSA . (6% ‘d e087) 65-0 TISTISF Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 49 several skins for its construction. The karigi of the nuunamiut was merely an elaborated and extended tent made up of willow branches supported on four uprights. A tent passage led to the main door, and the skylight was usually of ice. This type of karigi was also seen at nuwuk and utkeaayvik, the karigis of these villages being less permanent than those farther to the south. The ceremonial prepa- rations for hunting, the Messenger Feast, as well as an elaborated series of recreational activities took place in the karigi. The nuunamiut village, if such it may be called, was thus a fairly ephemeral unit. The fact that it could move, and frequently did, caused several marked differences in the choice of dwelling. If a family owned a more or less permanent house, they frequently stored extra food, clothing, and skins init. Asa house, it was inviolable and there was clearly no danger of marauders or trespassers. The houses of the nuunamiut, however, lacked the complex series of household amulets and charms which characterize those of the tareumiut. The village was not so well integrated as that on the coast nor were the houses so well constructed. HOUSES OF THE TAREUMIUT (Cf. fig. 1) The house and settlement along the coast were far more elaborate than in the interior. The village itself had defined locations which were allocated to specific tasks. Paths led through the villages, and around these paths certain definite usages developed. At utkeaayvik, for example, the paths which ran along the bluffs facing the beach could not be used by pregnant women. If they were to walk on them, they would die in childbirth. The larger towns, such as tikeraaq and utkeaayvik, were marked by the presence of several kariyit. There were three at utkeaayvik in 1895, and six or seven at tikeraaq, although only three or four of these were active. One karigi stood at nuwuk but there was another at piyinik which was built and maintained by whaling crews from the nuwunmiut. There was, further, one karigi at Wainwright and still another at Icy Cape. Point Lay was not yet existent in 1895. The karigi at tikeraaq was a permanent structure, analogous to the house in construction, and historically related to the ceremonial houses of Cape Prince of Wales and the regions farther to the south. Along the northern sections of the Arctic coast, the karigi was not usually so well developed. An abandoned house, refurnished and expanded somewhat, might serve, but the tendency was to use the tent in much the same manner as the nuunamiut. In any case, the place at which the karigi stood was well defined, the karigi was named, and the men who belonged to it bore the name of it. While the nature of karigi names and the import of the karigi to the SKYLIGHT DETAIL -_, es | TEA LAMP - KULLEQ =MAHKIG) ae aa ae VENTILATION DIRECTION _ } Oa Malan weatane< < 7 . PB ves Been ot a: ET eee ee VU (ro conTROL Daarr) srieine | __forpesyear $7" : ri ** 1 i | } VARIATIONS SKXMIGMT ~ IGALAK WHALE Ries mi ~ SKYLIGHT = BENCH ~ newue FiGurE 1.— Mariti : ’ aritime Eskimo house: a, floor plan; 6, cross section. (6¥ “d e084) 65- O IISTSF [Bull. 171 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 50 (‘eased a3;soddo aes ‘uoy}eue]dxe 10,7) ‘C6ST Jhoqgs HIAAvvoyyN IO UMO} PfO OY T—'"Z AAAS Y ( S68F Ww" J snw nadisady WIACVYINLN ‘S CANOTMYOY rr NvVio0 Dj1LIUAV Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO ol community can be reserved for later discussion, suffice it to note that the place for the structure was designated and played an important part in each village. It was a cleared area where dances and the whaling celebrations could be held, where men and women could come to sit in the summer sun and busy themselves at various tasks. The cleared space by the karigi was the aaneravik. Nearby was the shed where the crew leaders, the umealit, kept their whaling umiaks and where work on them and other whaling gear was done, In short, through the karigi a focus was given to the physical arrange- ment of the village, an element which was not nearly so well defined among the nuunamiut. The houses in each maritime village were scattered somewhat at random over tbe village area. All houses were named, either from the owning family, that is, the name of the family head, or from the distinctive charm which the house possessed and was conceived to own. In the accompanying sketch of utkeaayvik (fig. 2) the ‘general arrangement of houses flanking the beach can be seen. The same pattern was followed in all of the coastal villages. The total im- pression was one of a series of mounds scattered over a fairly wide area. Unlike the inland houses, those of the coast made use of a fairly marked excavation and were built, at least in terms of the finish- ing in the interior, with considerable care, employing both driftwood EXPLANATION OF FIGURE 2 The houses which made up the old town of utkeaayvik are now largely in ruins and were abandoned when the people moved a few hundred yards northward to cluster about the Cape Smythe Whaling Company’s installations and the school. Archeological excavations were undertaken by Stefansson in 1912 and later by Rasmussen and Ford. Living informants recall the houses and their residents. Houses had names which were either descriptive of the house itself or were the names of the family heads. The names of such houses as living residents could recall were as follows (located by number on sketch): ANT AOG ee ae toe SeeLe SL a 58 | Name of the owner Bamisagmouy 4 Je- ane = 3 ‘All wet around it’’, owned by sisan Go sakanvaragmidy_.--...- = ““The people who face the sun” ff. wivalekpaak= 2420 UIISL) | “Which is on the end (east)’”’, owned by uwiiyuruq 8, avinyaamint.! 2) els “People with lots of ‘mice.’ ”’ House No. 2 was destroyed by crush ice one winter and a man inside was killed. Two women were said to have starved in house No. 3. When this happened, the houses were abandoned and the corpses were left. In house No. 1 the murder of masagaroak took place (see Customary Law, pp. 114-115). The village faced westward to the sea. Trails ran along the bluff above the beach. Pregnant women were obliged to use the eastward trail and could not come down to the water lest they die in childbirth. 52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 and whalebone. In construction, the maritime house, with its semi- subterranean aspect and its benched areas, shows historical affinities with other house types in Asia and farther south in North America, There was no well defined sexual division of labor in respect to house construction. When a man decided he wished to build, having collected a sufficient number of whale ribs and skulls, as well as drift- wood, he and his wife began the structure. Building was fairly well individualized, although relatives and neighbors might lend a hand. Certainly, there was no defined pattern of cooperation in house build- ing. The children were sent to cut sod and to bring it back to the — site. For obvious reasons, houses were built in summer. Even in this case, however, the 5-foot excavation into the permanently frozen ground was long and laborious work. Several days were taken in making the excavation, since the heat of the sun is sufficient to melt only an inch or two of permafrost at a time (pl. 3, a). Once the excavation was completed and the passageway, with its proper slope inward toward the main room of the house arranged, the wooden and bone understructure was begun (pl. 4, 6). The passage was lined with whale jaws and ribs, and the skull of a whale was placed as a stepping stone into the passage itself. The entrance to the passage was frequently effected through an outer hall which served as a kind of storm porch and which rested on level ground. This was usually 4 to 5 feet square and was made by setting four uprights in the ground and joining them at the top with beams. A skylight was often placed in this outer vestibule to illuminate the passage. From the porch, one stepped down into the passage (kani- cen) by means of the whale skull. Here the depth of the passage was about 2 feet and gradually sloped to a full depth of about 5 feet. It terminated under a floor of planking which was part of the iylu, the central room of the house. The planked flooring made it necessary to come up from the passage through a trapdoor (kataq) into the main chamber. On either side of the trapdoor, as one ascended into the house proper, were stone lamps, the main source of light and heat for the building. The iytu, the upper room above the passage, was often quite spacious, measurements taken at abandoned houses at nuwuk suggesting as much as 20 feet in diameter. In plan, the room was square, although the banked sod on the outside gave a circular effect. The floor planking was supported on studs which rested on the frozen ground below and which were sometimes carried up so as to make up the walls. The upright posts and the floor planking were sometimes notched and fitted. The roof was arched and cleverly made by running posts across between the sod blocks which were banked up as soon as the planking was put in place. A good Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 53 house was carefully finished in the interior; the planking was fitted and scraped, and often bleached with human urine. In the main chamber, opposite the trapdoor in the floor, was a bench which ran the width of the house and which might extend almost halfway across the room from the far wall. This compares with the benched mounds of the houses of the nuunamiut mentioned above. The roof was not entirely finished off, a space being left for the sky- light (igalak). This was placed over a frame (itkax) which was fitted into position in the aperture left in the roof. The skylight was made of ugruk or walrus intestine, finely scraped, sections being sewed together, and carefully stretched. It gave an effective, although opaque, window. In heavy weather a cover of planks could be fitted over the skylight. Adjoining the skylight at the rear of the house was a covered well, a few inches in diameter and frequently made of wood, which served as a ventilator. This was the kinaq (nostril), through which the outgoing draught could be regulated. The passageway led to a fairly spacious area under the floor planking. This area did not, however, go to the far wall of the house, since some of the rear planking of the iytu rested on ground level. The excavation of the house, in short, was not complete. It took in an area under the front part of the house toward the passageway. This room under the kataq was cut into the permafrost and not finished off. It could serve as an extra storage space and if the meat supply were particularly plentiful, extra meat was frozen and stored here. The actual storage places, however, were alcoves cut into the passage itself. As has been noted, sod was placed in position against the planking and the supports for the passageway as these were being constructed. This meant that the structure was in some measure held in place by the sod. Actually, except the two skylight areas, the entire house was covered with sod. The house was snug, windproof, and wholly effective. It required no additional banking of snow, although if the sod became somewhat soft, water was poured over it. As soon as this froze, the structure was again sound. In the heat of the seal-oil lamp and with the bodily warmth of the inhabitants, the house heated quickly and well. The passage was flanked with two to four alcoves. These were often sufficiently large as to accommodate sleepers. Those who slept in skins on the floor of the passage rooms were called kaanegimiut, that is, those who inhabit the passageway. The alcove at the right end of the passage toward the house was the iga, the kitchen, or cooking place. It stood near the kataq so that the woman who cooked there could readily reach food up through the circular trapdoor and serve the men inside. In the iga was a smokehole and stones were placed 54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 there both as a fireplace and as asupport for conical-bottomed pottery vessels. Boiling was done in both these and in wooden vessels by the stone-boiling method. Fuel was oil and blubber, or moss soaked in oil. Wood was rarely used, being too valuable a commodity. When the woman cooked in the iga—the term refers specifically to the place where the fire is made—she was expected to wear clothing especially for the purpose. She changed her boots and donned an apronlike parka with a tail both front and back. This was a purely practical arrangement and prevented oil and soot from being trailed over the house. In cooking, the woman knelt by the iga. When the cooking was done, the woman put her kitchen clothing aside and returned to her usual garments. A meal was cooked once daily—a point likewise true of the nuunamiut—although people ate much more frequently. In the space for the iga were kept all the necessary cooking pots and kitchen equipment. Opposite the iga, at the left side of the passage, was the place for storage of food needed for immediate consumption. This larder was called suwiceaq and any meat needed for the next day’s meal was kept here. Racks were here so that meat taken frozen from the deeper and filled storage places could thaw out. While the iga was most fre- quently an area flanked with stones, the suwiceaq and its racks were made from whale ribs. On the left side of the passage as one entered, was a large bin, most frequently made from whale ribs which were placed upright. This was the makpik, the place for food storage. It was usually large enough to hold several tons of meat. The flesh of whales, seals, caribou, the frozen fish, and the ducks soaked in oil, as well as quan- tities of sea mammal fat, were thrown into the makpik at random. This was not the principal storage place, the ice cellar being reserved for this away from the house proper, but such food as might be needed ahead for several days was kept here. As the supply dropped, as the daily meals were eaten, the men of the house kept the makpik filled with meat. If the supply of meat were very large and extra space for storage were needed, the katawnata, the space under the floor boards near the kataq, was used. The woman of the house- hold preferred not to have meat here, since it was here that she pre- ferred to keep the skins on which she was sewing and to store some of the extra bedding clothing. The katawnata was often planked as well so that a useful nook was made available by it. In a sense, being located near the iga, the katawnata was the woman’s area of the house. Returning to the front of the passageway, a fairly large alcove was usually placed at the right as one entered the passage from the vestibule. This was the suuvik, an area which was also planked and Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO oo which made a small roomlike cubicle. This was primarily a place for the storage of good furs, the better clothing, and piles of extra skins. It was here that many chose to sleep. It was to this area, too, that people retired for sexual intercourse. When wife exchange took place, the head of the house took the borrowed sexual partner here with some sense of ceremony. While women went up into the iylu, the planked upper chamber of the house, they rarely slept there. Ifso, they slept near the trapdoor, never on the bench or under it. This was a section reserved for men and for the older women who had passed the climacteric. Women might sleep near the lamp, tending it as needed and when engaged in sewing or skin work, might sit in the iylu near the kataqg. Women frequently ate in the katawnata, as indeed, did men. At any social occasion, as, for example, at a shamanistic seance held in the house, food was passed into the iylu. Men, during the winter and whaling season, generally went to the karigi with which they were associated, remaining there all day. Wives brought their husbands’ food to the karigi. Very old people in the house generally remained in the upper chamber and their meals were reached into them on a trencher. Old men frequently met on the floor of the iylu to smoke, when tobacco was introduced, lighting their pipes from the lamp with a kukun, a long thin stick which could be reached from the bench over to the lamp or thrust down into the cooking fire. The bench was known as igil’uq and was often set as high as 3 to 4 feet off the floor, leaving little space between the ceiling wall and the bench itself. People who slept on the bench were referred to as igiilut (pl.), while those who slept under the bench were kaanermiruat. In a sense, both were status terms, as was the reference to those who slept in the hallway. The owner and his honored relatives, i. e., father, uncles, etc., slept on the bench. His mother and sons slept under it, while women and less honored persons slept in the hallway or near the kataq. Such terms were useful in referring to the relations within thé household. To say to another that this person is “my igiiluq” implies that he is either a close and revered relative, a partner, or some individual to whom the highest worth is accorded. As has been noted, the trapdoor, the circular well at the passage end of the iylu, was flanked by lamps. The tendency was to place them either at each side of the door or to move them to the sides of the house where racks were present for the drying of boots and other items of clothing. A lamp might also be put at the end of the pas- sage under the kataq, by the light of which a woman could do a certain amount of household work. This lamp also lighted the way into the upper chamber and could be set on the whale skull which served as a step into the kataq. If fuel was short, the woman of the house could 56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 take the lamp down to the iga and cook with it. This was more usual among the nuunamiut, however, who were not usually so well supplied with fuel as their maritime neighbors. The lamp of the Eskimo, as an adjunct of household furnishing, has been too well described elsewhere to require additional description here. It was known throughout the North Alaskan area as nanniq, although the term “‘kulleq” was preferred at Point Barrow. The lamp of the area was both of pottery, manufactured locally, and of steatite, reaching the Colville mouth by trade. The lamp was felt vaguely to be sacred, and there were certain taboos which arose in relation to its handling. If a lamp fell, for example, it had to be extinguished be- fore it could be picked up. If this were not done, the person picking up a lighted lamp suffered from nosebleed. The lamp was ignited from the fire by means of a stick, the fuel being seal oil and a moss wick being used. | In the aboriginal culture of both tareumiut and nuunamiut, fires were made with flints which the woman of the house kept in a bag about her neck. These rested in a bed of “Alaska cotton” to keep them dry. The drill was also used in firemaking and was worked against soft woods. Hither men or women could make fires and it was to the lamp, rather than to the fire itself, that any religious atti- tudes were extended. The household amulets and charms were many and varied. The general term aanaroat was applied to them. As may be seen, charms were given by especially qualified persons—shamans or old people— both to individuals and to the house itself. In case of an illness befall- ing a family so that several members became ill either in succession or simultaneously, a shaman might prescribe a charm for the house. This could be virtually anything—a mask, a stuffed animal, such as a goose, a whaling charm, a personal charm—and in one recent case, after the advent of the European whalers, a loaf of dried bread. The charm was hung above the kataq. As has been mentioned, the nuunamiut were less inclined to such household amulets. In the maritime house, where it was quite warm and dry, men, on entering the house, removed their outer clothing and boots and went about in the house barefoot and wearing their trousers. A man who came in from hunting left the game he brought outside the house, entered, and hung up his weapons on the walls of the passageway. Here were hangers of bone and antler for the purpose. Women, too, went bare to the waist inside the house, although they wore a longer trouserlike garment with the feet, in the form of socks or light mukluks, sewed on. Both sexes hung their garments in the suuvik, the boarded room at the right of the passageway after the entrance, as soon as they entered the house. It may be noted that among the nuunamiut, Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO oF where such elaborate passages and adjacent rooms were lacking, clothing and weapons were hung up in the houses themselves. Aside from the fact that women could not sleep on the bench and did not generally sleep on the planked floor of the iytu, arrangements were left fairly free. People slept when and where convenient and the arrangements, on the level of daily living, depended pretty much on family composition and on the number of families resident in the house. A man could sleep with his wife in the katawnata if he chose, using the same coverings, for a time, move up to the bench, or out into the hallway, as the mood took him. Status terms for the various sleeping places did, however, apply, but were limited to formal usage. As may be expected, the nuunamiut lacked these formalities, although the place farthest away from the door was a place of honor. On rising, the people in the household urinated in a wooden vessel. The urine was stored for use in skin tanning, for wounds, and for washing and cleaning. Members of the household urinated and defecated in the hallway. Human feces were often dried and fed to the dogs. If there were adolescent boys in the household they were urged to arise early and to go out in the open and exercise before eat- ing or urinating. After a few minutes of this, often stripped to the waist, they were permitted to return and urinate. The concept here was, of course, to toughen the boys and make them hardy and indif- ferent to cold and pain. Dogs were allowed in the hallway in severe weather. Among the nuunamiut, the sbort hallway was often especially for the dogs. Generally, however, the dogs were staked outside the house and able to burrow into the snow banks to keep warm. On the whole, dogs were valued as property rather than as pets, but a favorite dog might be allowed into the passageway. Similarly, a bitch with puppies was brought in from the outside. Among the tareumiut, menstruating women were not secluded outside of the house. They could not, however, come up into the iylu, but remained in the katawnata and were expected to sleep there. Among the nuunamiut, there was a more marked sense of seclusion for the woman at menstruation. Parturition taboos were likewise somewhat more vigorously enforced. If the group were traveling, the menstruating or pregnant woman was expected to lag behind and might be required to sleep in a special hut of willow branches covered with snow. Among the tareumiut, men left the house at a birth and did not return to it for some time. A menstruating woman was not permitted to change her clothes in the house, or, indeed, during her period. In a shamanistic seance, the shaman came up into the iylu. He straddled the kataq, his back to the bench and the onlookers, and 58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bull. 171 drummed facing the passageway. His spirit helpers called to him from out of the passageway. If there were guests in the house, as there sometimes might be, in the form of a man’s partners from other localities, of visiting kinsmen, or of qatanutigiit (q. v.), there was usually a place for them on or under the bench. A partner always got the favored bench place, sharing the bench with other men in the household. Any such guest sat next to the host, lest anyone in the house, visiting or otherwise, attempt to rake up old feuds or to challenge the guest to a contest of strength. When a stranger arrived in a community, attempts were made to determine his identity. If he belonged to a family with which a group in the community was feuding, he might be in for some trouble. The host took on the role of protector in this case and offered a stranger whose identity was established his protection and hospitality. A guest was usually given a plate of his own from which to eat. A tendency in the area was to eat the one communal meal a day from a communal dish, although at nuwuk and utkeaayvik the tendency to serve food on individual dishes was more characteristic. When two families shared a house, the heads, usually kinsmen, may have elected to build together. But if the family heads were not kinsmen, as might occur when two men were partners and living in the same community, or when they were members of the same crew and karigi, the pattern was to build one iytu and to erect a separate passageway for each family. This served to keep both possessions and cooking arrangements separate. But the two families might eat together and share the cooking and their food. This was regarded as an economical and convenient arrangement and was not uncommon. It was worked out frequently between neighbors who had separate houses. If two related families lived together, they used only one entrance and one passageway. If there were two larger families who wished to live together, they might share the passageway, or at least parts of it and build off a branch passage and another iytu. All such arrangements had to be formally worked out in advance and there were specific rules governing the establishment of such relationships, especially as between nonkin. It involved the creating of a partnership, in itself a highly formalized procedure. Definite rules of etiquette applied to entering another’s house. Good manners demanded that no one enter a house where he had not been formally invited. Even then, a polite and respectful person would still refuse to enter. It was unthinkable that any one enter a strange house when the owners were away. People, it is said “were afraid to do this,” the fear arising from adverse public opinion. As has been remarked, interdining, invitations, feasting, were reserved for the karigi. It was only when a stranger came into the community Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 59 and could establish himself in one of the recognized ways that he might be invited to a house and allowed to eat and sleep. Actually, if this privilege were extended to nonkin, it is evident that the host extended sexual privileges to the guest as well, offering him a wife or daughter as company for the night; When a shaman held a seance in a house, as was frequently the case in winter, either to demonstrate his powers or to effect a cure, the house owner might then invite others to come in and watch. Because of the sense of good usage in respect to entering a house, the skylight was always used to summon people or to announce one’s presence. If a person had something for sale or trade, he walked up onto the roof of the house and called through the skylight to the inhabitants. A man who had caught a seal or other animal, especially during the winter hunting, was often asked for some of the meat. The people who came to beg some always approached the hunter through his skylight. It is worth noting that such requests were almost never refused, the hunter being unwilling to appear niggardly. A man who was a member of a whaling crew was often called by the umealiq for one or another duty. Again, the call was sent out for him and he was summoned by a messenger calling through his skylight. Anyone might take over an abandoned house. The relatives of the people who had left it had first claim but if they had no wish for it, it was open property. A house was regarded as abandoned when it had not been lived in for a year and when the owner’s possessions were taken away. The abandoning of a house was not infrequent, because of the movement through the area. A man might announce that he was leaving the community and try to give his house to another, ex- pecting a return gift. In leaving, a man might place his property mark on the house. The house then remained his and would not be invaded. The winter houses sometimes collapsed as a result of heavy snow or ice packed up on them. When this happened, it was regarded as a highly disastrous portent and the house was abandoned at once. Nor was it ever entered again. Houses along the coast were sometimes caught in ice which packed too closely against the shore. This is recorded as having occurred at Point Barrow several times. It is an event always remembered and spoken of with some anxiety. If people were trapped inside and killed, no attempt was made to re- cover the bodies and the people living nearby might likewise abandon their houses. The house was technically owned by the head of the family, the chief hunter in it. As has been seen, the house sometimes bore his name. But the rights to ownership were never questioned except at the death of the nominal owner. The widow might inherit or at least hold the property in trust for the children. There was, however, no 451511—59 5 60 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 171 established rule in this matter. The kinsmen of the deceased, brothers or cousins, might simply seize the house and the dead man’s property and evict the widow and children. In this instance, the widow might seek aid of her own kinsmen who, if sufficiently strong, might back her claim. If her group were weak, it followed that attempts to dispossess her were more likely to occur. A man could trade a house and often did. A house was equal to an umiak in value. A house could be given as payment to a shaman. In historic times, a house was often sold for a gun or for whaling gear. It follows that a house was not lightly abandoned. Abandonment, at least among the tareumiut, generally arose when a man left with his family to travel and then failed to return because of accident or trouble with a stranger group. Among the nuunamiut, the sense of house ownership and the emotional attachment to it were not so strong. Primarily the winter residence, the house, it is true, was left a good part of the time. Old people who resided in it tended to stay at the winter camp through the year. Even here, however, and if the family elected to remain in the coastal village, they rarely lived in the house proper during the summer. The tendency was to erect a tent near the house or at the beach. This created a sense of change and a kind of holiday. It is of interest to note that the pattern is still followed. The tent was a simple conical tent mounted on a frame. Planks were sometimes put on the floor to hold the bedding. In general, there was no tendency toward building a sod substructure for the tent as was the case among the nuunamiut. Adjacent to the house were the ice cellars (siril’uaq). Although quite large and spacious today, the aboriginal cellars were smaller, cut laboriously into the permafrost with bone picks. The cellar was supported with whale ribs and a whale skull placed at the entrance, the roof covered with sod. Virtually every household had its own cellar where meat of all kinds was stored. Men of wealth had larger cellars. As food was needed from the cellar, it was brought in and stored in the makpik. The ice cellar, like the house, was regarded as private property and thus inviolable. People could and did ask for food and it was freely given. The ice cellar is a tareumiut develop- ment. The nuunamiut, drying their meat, were not in need of such elaborate storage space and were in any case obliged to take much food with them in the seasonal round. The inland Eskimo cached food in the semipermanent houses which they built. Another feature in the tareumiut house was the rack (ikirrak). This was made of driftwood and stood in the rear of virtually every winter dwelling. In summer the sled was placed on it, in winter the kayak and umiak. Stored skins, food, any property not immediately Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 61 needed were thrown up onto the rack. The dog teams were most frequently staked out under it. (PI. 3, c.) Houses may perhaps serve to point up some of the outstanding differences in way of life between the nuunamiut and tareumiut. It is evident that the maritime settlement had the greater degree of stability with its permanent houses and its other features which served to lend asymbolic focus. Although the nuunamiut, as groups, did not have the same precise organization of their maritime counter- part, the two groups, however different materially, were more alike than different in their societal organization. From the setting of economy and settlement, it is possible to move to a consideration of the social groupings which functioned in each ecological area. FAMILY AND KINSHIP INTRODUCTION In virtually every respect the aboriginal family structure carries through into the present. However much the inroads of modern living have disrupted other aspects of the cultures of the north Alaskan slope, the system of mutual aid, of social control, and of reciprocal obligation inherent in the family remains paramount. Many features have, it is true, fallen into disuse. The charms and amulets which might pass through a family line are of course no longer used, at least overtly, and the collective responsibility with its implications of blood feud which underlay so much of what may be called law is likewise gone. Individualization, so characteristic of western culture, is be- ginning to make its imprint on the Eskimo family. As yet, however, it has not fully supplanted the aboriginal family institution. Social controls today still rest in the family. There has been no adequate development, among the native population at least, of political in- stitutions, with the result that there is essential lack of interest in the attempts of the Alaska Native Service to effect community organiza- tion. So long as the family continues to provide the social corner- stone, no need is felt for institutional surrogates. There are those who have claimed that Eskimo society is com- munalistic. To some extent this is true, if the extended family is regarded as the communal or collective element. Any other non- familial forms of either sharing or cooperation were, as has been shown, strictly patterned and somewhat limited. Neither the mari- time community nor the nomadic band were permanent units; they depended for their existence on the kinship section which lived to- gether, worked together, and moved together forming a collective entity, but there were recognized ties of kinship that went far beyond the local situation. Aboriginally, along the whole Arctic coast of Alaska, from Point Hope to Barter Island and Herschel Island, there were the intertwined threads of recognized kinship. Here was neither a formalized clan type of society nor a recognition of unilineal descent. ‘This meant, and means, that there was a rec- ognition of bilineal kinship and that in the individual, membership in two different lineages was possible. Sexual relations with those who were designated by a kinship term were rigorously tabooed. Not that the prohibition was enforced in any tangible way, and there were 62 Spencer] THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO 63 exceptions. But such deviations were few and bore the brunt of un- favorable public opinion. A basic principle of social organization of the cultures in question was to extend, either through the blood tie or through an acceptable substitute for it, the sphere of kinship. It was between such related individuals that the strong bond of coopera- tion lay. One might argue that cousin marriage was defined as in- cestuous because it hindered the development of the patterned co- operative institutions, or at least prevented new ones from coming into being. Because of bilateral descent, the individual could count on a wide circle of kin, reckoning both his father’s and his mother’s kin grouping as his own. Such recognition was extended to the kin of his grandparents as well, although the tie became quite tenuous when pushed further back. Each individual, therefore, had kinship ties with several different groupings. He belonged to the circle in which he happened to be and his economic contributions related to it. His other kindred, however, likewise had a claim on him and he on them. The ultimate definition of kinship lay first in the designation of kin by specific kinship terms, and second, in the obligations in- cumbent on the individual to succor his kin and to assume responsi- bility for their actions. Kinship was and is a reality; it was a practical matter in that the blood tie was known and recognized. The individual thus belonged to a nuclear family and then to an extended kin group- ing or at least to groupings which reached a point of convergence in himself. And beyond this lay the realm of quasi-kinship, the formal- ized extensions of the cooperative tie to nonkin. THE NUCLEAR FAMILY People who lived together in one house, who worked together, who might move together for inland hunting or trade, and who called each other by kinship terms were ketuuneraareic, a localized family grouping. In practice, this consisted of as many as chose to live together. It might be parents and children, or it might consist of two brothers and their children.