W i Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin .1 ^^4983.= 1 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin Published by Field Museum of Natural History Founded 1893 '^ President: Willard L. Boyd Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Editor/Designer: David M. Walsten Calendar: Man' Cassai Staff Photograpiher: Ron Testa Board of Trustees William G. Swartchild, Jr., chairman Mrs. T. Stanton Armour George R. Baker Robert O. Bass Gorden Bent Bowen Blair Willard L. Boyd Mrs. Robert Wells Carton Stanton R. Cook O.C. Davis William R. Dickinson, Jr. Thomas E. Doimelley n Marshall Field Hugo]. Melvoin Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Lorin 1. Nevling, Jr. James J. O'Connor James H. Ransom John S. Runnells William L. Searle Edward Byron Smith Robert H.'Strotz John W. Sullivan Edward R. Telling Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken E. Leiand Webber Julian B. Wilkins Blaine J. Yarrington Life Trustees Harry O. Bercher William McCormick Blair Joseph N. Field Paul W. Goodrich CUfford C. Gregg Samuel InsuU, Jr. William V Kahler William H. Mitchell John M. Simpson J. Howard Wood CONTENTS January 1982 Volume 53, Number 1 \ew light on Peru's Past By Michael E. Moseley, Robert A. Feldman, and Irene Pritzker Ancient Air Breathers By W.D.Ian Rolf e 12 Latin American Neighbors Day 17 Egyptian Hall Rejuvenated 18 Field Museum Tours 20 Tribes, Traditions, and Totem Poles: The Northwest Coast Achievement Learning Museum Program By Anthony Pfeiffer 22 Index to Volume 52 (1981) 25 Letters from the Arctic — / By Edward Olsen 27 Our Environment 35 January and February at Field Museum Calendar of coming events back cover COVER The high grasslands of southern Peru (here over 4300 meters above sea level) are the home of llamas and alpacas, the domesti- cated New World camelids. These animals are important today, as they were 1,000 years ago, for the wool and meat they provide. Photo by Robert A. Feldman. Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin (USPS 898-940) is published monthly, except combined July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, n, 60605. Subscriptions: $6.00 annually, $3.00 for schools. Museum membership includes Bulletin subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Museum phone: (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send from 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Uke Shore Drive, Chicago, U. 60605. ISSN:aO15-0703. Second class posUge paid at Chicago, 11. New Ligfit on Peru!s Past Recent discoveries on the site of a large copper mine in southern Peru have led to the formation of a new archeological program in which Field Museum will play a major role By Michael E. Moseley, Robert A. Feldman, and Irene Pritzker Photos by Robert A. Feldman On the eve of Columbus's New World land- fall, the largest empire in the world was probably Tahuantinsuyu, or the "Land of the Four Quarters," as the Inca called their sprawling realm. The empire stretched along the moun- tainous Andean backbone of South America for more than 4,300 kilometers, an expanse rivaling the Roman Empire. There is today no Andean nation of comparable magnitude; nor in the past did larger states arise, neither in the New World, nor south of the equator in the Old World. The four- fold division of the realm was made for administrative purposes, and reflects salient geographical differences within the far- flung empire. Contisuyu was the southwestern quarter of Tahuantinsuyu and comprised much of what is today southern Peru. The Inca con- quest of the southern Andes and their domina- tion of earlier civilizations is not well known or understood. Smallpox and other diseases of European origin decimated the empire as the Conquistadors were plundering it, and the ear- Michael E. Moseley is associate curator of Middle and South American archeology and ethnology; Robert A. Feldman is visiting assistant curator of South American archeology; and Irene Pritzker is in the Post-Graduate En- glish Program at the University of Chicago and is a coor- dinator of the Contisuyu Program. Field Museum ar- cheologist Robert Feldman examines ventilator opening in wall of recently iden- tified Inca storehouse upriverfrom Cerro Baul. liest written accounts of Contisuyu begin after Andean civilization was in a state of collapse. To learn more about the ancient civilizations of Contisuyu, we scaled the lone precipitous path winding up the cliff-face of a towering mesa, called Cerro Baul. This great rock pinnacle juts out of the center of the little explored Moquegua Valley, and like a stone battleship, guards passage between the high mountains and desert coastlands of southern Peru. Our quest was the ruined city that sprawled over the sum- mit of this sheer-sided natural fortress. Like the mesa of Masada, which confronted the Romans in ancient Israel, we believe Cerro Baul was the invincible stronghold where Inca legions were held at bay by the defenders of Moquegua and Contisuyu. The one path to the summit is steep, narrow, and runs a tortuous course between an- cient defensive walls and rock cliffs where as- saulting troops could easily be thrown back. The heroic resistance by the people of Moquegua is recorded in an account written hundreds of years ago by Garcilaso de la Vega, the son of a Conquistador and an Inca noble- woman. He reports that after learning of the Inca Villages of later prehistoric periods were often built on defen- sible hilltops overlooking the river valleys. Elaborate systems of canals and terraces allowed crops to he raised on steep slopes. emperor Mayta Capac's setting forth with his armies to conquer Contisuyu, the populace armed and provisioned themselves. They then withdrew to the towering mesa overlooking their homeland, which could only be Cerro Baul. The Inca legions could not scale the cliff-faces or take the great natural bastion by storm, nor could the conquest of Contisuyu proceed beyond this defiant fortress; so Mayta Capa encamped his forces around the great hill and set siege so that the defenders could obtain neither food nor water from the valley below. The isolation of the great mesa proved to be a liability: its defenders became its prisoners. Garcilaso tells of the fall of Cerro Baul. After fifty days without food or water, the elders sent the children down in hopes that the Inca would show mercy and that the young would not die for the resistance of their fathers. But Mayta Capac did not wish to harm any of the people, so he sent the children back up the mountain with food and water for all. Seeing the Inca's compas- sion, the defenders surrendered and submitted to Inca rule. Upon reaching the summit of Cerro Baul, L'V l^?^: m Fortress-like mesa of Cerro Baul (center background) provided refuge to inhabitants of Moquegua when the Inca came to conquer the valley. It fell after a 50-day siege. Store- houses (foreground) built by the victo- rious incas today lie in ruins. the weary hiker is today greeted by an amazing view of grandeur that reaches from the snow- covered peaks of the Andes down toward the Pacific coastlands. Far below the mesa the Rio Moquegua ghmmers like a distant ribbon. The river is only 125 kilometers long, and its waters cascade down the western face of the Andes, descending more than 4,500 meters before emp- tying into the ocean. This exceptional change in altitude creates an ideal ecological research situa- tion, because over a very short horizontal dis- tance the Rio Moquegua transects a great range of environments. This ecological diversity is not random, but stratified by altitude into distinct environmental belts stacked one atop another. In this situation, archeologists can follow human development back in time through a series of very different physical settings. These settings range from the "altiplano," or high plain, where llamas and al- pacas pasture, to the rocky seacoast, where fish- ing is the way of life. The basic ecological divi- sions of the watershed are defined by rainfall, which is seasonal above 2,000 meters and com- pletely absent at lower elevations. Indeed, the lower valley cuts through the world's driest des- ert, where decades can pass without even a shower. From the top of the towering mesa, it is possible to catch a glimpse of the distant Cuajone open pit copper mine in the remote mountains from which the Rio Moquegua de- scends. The mine began operations in 1976, and while it was under construction the local com- munity and mine officials became concerned as they realized that they were discovering one archeological monument after another. At this point. Southern Peru Copper Corporation, the mine operators, approached Field Museum for advice, and it was this contact that brought us to Moquegua for reconnaissance purposes and to the summit of Cerro Baul, where we hoped to begin unraveling Inca from pre-Inca civilization in the valley. Because the Moquegua drainage is un- explored archeologically, our initial reconnais- sance has been concerned with discovering the numbers and types of sites and monuments in the region. Here, the use of a small airplane owned by the mine has proved invaluable in providing a rapid overview of the many ruins tucked away in desert canyons and mountain corridors. This reconnaissance has shown that the valley contains more than 500 archeological sites spanning some 10,000 years of human en- deavor. Discoveries range from painted caves through cities older and larger than Machu Picchu to the citadel-city of Cerro Baul. Apart from imposing architecture, many ruins contain a myriad of artifacts, ornate textiles, and mum- mified human remains. Broad expanses of aban- doned agricultural terraces cover the mountain- sides, and ancient canals built with sophisticated engineering methods reach across the desert plains. Today Cerro Baul is covered by a ruined city some 8 hectares (20 acres) in size. A series of plazas and large buildings — some that were once two stories tall — claim the central area. Next to them are large, deep pits, probably granaries and cisterns for storing water. The houses of the an- cient city are jumbled and closely packed. Here and there are large grindstones (weighing over 45 kg, or 100 pounds), which have been labori- ously hauled up from below; broken pottery lit- ters the ground. Discovering ancient monuments is both exciting and easy when done by airplane. How- ever, dating such discoveries is difficult and tedi- ous in an unexplored region where the sequence of past civilizations is not known. The Inca con- quest and assimilation of Moquegua left a dis- tinctive archeological stamp on many of the later prehistoric sites. However, among the thousands of sherds of pottery among the ruins of the mesa-top city we did not encounter Inca materials. It may be that the Emperor Mayta Capac forced the citadel to be abandoned in order to forestall any possible rebellion once his legions moved on to conquests further afield — this remains for future research to establish. The ruins do contain pottery in a pure Tiwanaku style, and effectively date at least part of the ancient city to A.D. 500-700. Tiwanaku was a great pre-Inca empire, and its capital city was near the edge of Lake Titicaca on the alti- plano, high above Cerro Baul. We have encoun- tered pottery of this imperial style at scattered sites all the way down to the port city of Ilo, at the mouth of the Moquegua Valley. Because the desert around Ilo is even drier than that of an- cient Egypt, archeological preservation is excep- tional, and ancient cemeteries yield fine textiles, feather headdresses, and other delicate objects, including elaborate tapestry tunics of Tiwanaku style. As yet, we do not know if these magnifi- cent Tiwanaku tapestries — or the pottery at Cerro Baul — reflect a military conquest like that of the Inca, or if more peaceful colonization was involved. We know that the Aymara kingdoms, which arose around Lake Titicaca after the fall of Tiwanaku, maintained peaceful colonies of farmers in the Moquegua Valley, and this pat- tern might extend back to the earlier empire. Looking out from the summit of Cerro Baul, great tracts of abandoned terraces can be seen flanking the valley and extending back into the mountains. Agricultural terraces such as these were so characteristic of the highlands of Tahuantinsuyu that the Spanish Conquistadors gave the native name for the terraces, andenes, to the whole cordillera — the Andes. Farming on any scale within the Andean highlands must be based on terraces, as the valleys are steep-sided, with very little flat land even near the rivers. The engineering problems presented by the steep hillsides and rapidly flowing rivers were enormous, though successfully overcome. A far greater area was farmed in the past than today. Where modern irrigation farming ends, the canals often do not: they continue for kilometers through remnants of abandoned terraced fields. The terraces are not the only evidence of long-term agricultural changes. Long canals and irrigation systems now make the desert area on the floor of the valley productive, but hundreds of hectares of now-barren land on either side of Moquegua reveal a webwork of small feeder canals, showing that this area too was once farmed. A strong wind, occurring daily, has blown away most of the soil from the fields, but the canals are preserved because of their stone lining or by thick layers of hard silt deposited in them during their use. Coastal Chirihaya-style pottery (ca. a.d. 1200) features mul- ticolored geometric designs, probably derived by simplifying and stylizing the more naturalistic Tiwanaku designs from the Bolivian altiplano. Nowhere in the world do people simply abandon arable land; but nowhere in the world has as much land been abandoned as in the Andes. Survey has shown that many of the Moquegua terraces are associated with pre-Inca settlements as well as with Inca sites, but ques- tions such as how they were watered — from canals or by rainfall — and why they are not now in use remain unanswered. Study of the ter- races can provide important information on past climatic conditions, and whether there have been changes in rainfall, evaporation, or river flow — changes that could have important implications for the future of the region. When and why these fields were aban- doned are also important questions. The Inca chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega relates that when the Inca Mayta Capac conquered the Moquegua area it was underpopulated, so he Much of the lower part ofContisuyu is dry and barren, with farming now limited to narrow river valleys (center). In the brought in settlers. The abandoned fields ap- pear to be more closely related to the earlier Tiwanaku villages than to the later, scantier Inca remains. It appears that the Moquegua Valley saw several peaks and declines in population. past, canals carried water out of valleys to fields on some of these wastelands. The causes for the abandonment of the agricul- tural lands need to be understood, especially the question of whether these causes could recur and affect the area's modern inhabitants. After the Inca's armies took Cerro Baul, they moved its defenders out of their villages and resettled them — along with the colonists that were brought in to pacify and repopulate the region— in two new villages. Garcilaso named only one of them — Moquegua — so there has been some speculation about the second. We think we have found the evidence needed to answer this question. We discovered spectacular terrace systems and a major complex of monumental architecture in the mountains above the sierra town of Torata, within the sight of Cerro Baul. The complex is tied to an Inca highway that descends the crest of a long mountain ridge covered with abandoned terraces. Walking down the road, the visitor is first greeted by a scatter oichulpas, circular masonry burial towers. Chulpas are an altiplano attribute that we have not found in the lower coastal valley. Below the ruined towers, the an- cient road is straddled by an impressive group of stone-walled Inca storehouses. The walls of these four ranks of rooms still stand high, after almost 500 years of abandonment. Small open- ings in the sides at ground level — below the raised floors inside — served as ventilators and show that these storerooms held agricultural produce, undoubtedly gathered from the stone- faced terraces that blanket the hUls on all sides. A short distance away is a fortified village, its jumbled walls presenting a very different aspect from the regimented storerooms. Pottery found on the site shows a mixture of local and Inca styles, a pattern often repeated in the Inca provinces. When they conquered an area the Incas Would not replace the local culture, but rather would superimpose their own. Physical evidence of the Incas, such as architecture and pottery, is often restricted to sites they actually occupied. Thus, we find the mixture of pottery styles at the village adjacent to the storerooms, while in an architecturally identical village only a kilometer away, Inca pottery is extremely rare. An even greater contrast is seen down in the valley by Torata, where there is an Inca adminis- trative center adjacent to a local village. The Inca center is severely regimented, with identical rooms grouped inside walled rectangular blocks lining a grid of streets. To build their city, the Incas chose (and possibly partially leveled) a flat saddle on a ridge. The rocky promontory at the end of the ridge is occupied by the local village. Its rooms are built on terraces following the curve of the hill and lack the order and regularity of the Incas' rigid blocks. Very little Inca pottery was found at the local village, showing that even though they existed side-by-side, the culture of the conquerers made few inroads on the local pattern. The Inca administrative center identifies the 10,000-year-old paintings found on the walls of two caves near Toquepala show ancient hunters stalking wild game of Andes. Unfortunately, vandalism threatens to destroy these priceless artifacts. One of the aims of the new Con- tisuyu Program is to prevent similar destruction of Moquegua's cultural heritage. Heavy grindstones found on Cerro Baul shew that people once lived in ruined buildings on its summit. Pottery shows that this occupation dates back some 1,500 years. Lights of Villa Cuajone (lower left) signal new future for Cerro Baul and other prehistoric sites in Moquegua. Money provided by owners of Cuajone copper mine wil help contribute to protection and study of these valuable monuments of Contisuyu'spasf. 10 adjacent village as the second of the two founded after the fall of Cerro Baul. It is possible that we are too literal in our reading of Garcilaso's chron- icle, and that this village was not a single concen- trated settlement such as we are accustomed to. The storehouse site and its village are about 5 kilometers from the Torata center, but they might have been part of the same "village" or commu- nity. More work remains to be done, but we know where to look. Below the Inca center, in the middle and lower Moquegua basin, the severity of the desert conditions greatly restricts where people can live: the occupation was densely packed along the river banks and shoreline, but almost absent in the intervening desert regions. Canal systems and irrigation agriculture make the valley zone productive, and the modern city of Moquegua is located there. Today, large areas of the river val- ley are given over to grapes, which are used to make Moquegua's renowned Pisco brandy. In the past, maize, beans, cotton, and fruit trees such as avocado were the principal crops; abun- dant food remains found in the village middens will provide important information on past crops and diet. Only a few parched olive groves can be found on the Pacific coast, where water is extremely scarce. The copper company must desalinate seawater at great expense in order to supply the needs of the workers at its smelter north of the city of Ilo. In the past, limited farm- ing was possible with the use of short canals from springs at the base of the Andes. However, fishing and marine collecting was the most im- portant way of life on the coast. Extensive shell middens blanket the coast on either side of Ho — some are 5,000 or more years old. In sharp contrast to the coast is the altiplano, a relatively flat tableland situated more than 4,000 meters above sea level. It is cold and out- wardly forbidding. Numerous snow-capped peaks, many volcanic, tower above the plains, reaching heights over 5,400 meters (17,700 feet). Human occupation of the altiplano is sparse and scattered, restricted to areas with favorable combinations of water, temperature, and wind. While life is definitely not easy, an extremely successful adaptation hasbeen developed, based on herding the llama and alpaca and on cultivat- ing a suite of high-altitude, frost-tolerant plants, potatoes in particular. The prehistoric record on the altiplano goes back many millennia. Survey of a recently abandoned farmstead there turned up not only the expected glass and tin cans, but also stone flakes and projectile points that show the site to have been occupied over a span of up to 5,000 years. The range of archeological monuments shown to us by officials of the Cuajone mine and by interested and concerned local residents, as well as the additional sites we found, confirm the importance of Moquegua. The discovery of this cultural wealth created a great deal of excitement at Field Museum as well as in Peruvian institu- tions. Luckily, Southern Peru Copper Corpora- tion was interested in helping, and offered matching funds to develop a program for the preservation and study of the valuable sites. As a result, the Contisuyu Program has recently been created. The Contisuyu Program is a cooperative Peruvian-U.S. agreement involving Field Museum, the Peruvian Museum of Health Sci- ences, and the Peruvian National Cultural Insti- tute. These three institutions have agreed to combine forces to organize a multinational proj- ect of investigation, conservation, and regional development of the cultural heritage of Moque- gua's portion of Contisuyu. The ultimate goal of all involved with the program is that the ar- cheological sites be protected, studied, and shared with interested visitors from all parts of the world. From a Peruvian standpoint, the involve- ment of Field Museum is very important. From its beginnings. Field Museum has had a great interest in Andean research, and is expert in conceptualizing and implementing broadly based programs such as the Moquegua sites re- quire. The transfer of technical and scientific knowledge to Peru for purposes of taking inven- tory and protecting the sites is vital to the success of the Contisuyu Program, and it is in this area particularly that the Field Museum is uniquely qualified to contribute. In addition, an area as large as the Moquegua Valley requires not just the ability to investigate a particular site, but the ability to manage a large scale, self-perpetuating business enterprise. Few museums in the world know how to do this. Field Museum does, and it is wilhng to share its expertise with Peru. The impact of modern civilization on the region, and the urgent need for the Contisuyu Program, can be seen at the oldest known mon- ument in Contisuyu: the Toquepala Caves. Some 10,000 years ago hunter-gatherers lived in the Toquepala Caves near the Quebrada Cimarron, a now-dry stream running from the sierra to the desert. The midden garbage of these ancient res- idents accumulated in thick deposits covering the floors of two small caves, and on the cave walls the people painted a graphic record of their presence. Designs in red, black, yellow, and green show ancient hunters amid herds of guanaco, a wild relative of the domesticated llamas and al- pacas. Other animals, including armadillos and condors, are also shown, along with enigmatic geometric designs. These hunting scenes are an irreplaceable window back into the distant past, long before farming assumed importance. Unfortunately, vandalism has destroyed many of the caves' paintings. The caves were discovered more than twenty years ago by sur- vey teams planning Southern Peru Copper Cor- poration's first mine at Toquepala. The mine funded a study of the paintings, and archeolo- gists were also sent from Lima. A fence was erected to protect the paintings, but people dug under it and tried to chip off the designs, proba- bly to sell them; they only succeeded in shatter- ing and destroying many precious paintings. Re- cently, the corporation erected a new and much stronger barrier, so further destruction, it is hoped, will be prevented. A major goal of the Contisuyu Program will be to increase public awareness and appreciation of the importance of archeological remains. By building local pride, we seek to prevent the de- struction of more of Moquegua's patrimony. A major step forward in unravelling the mysteries of Moquegua has been the formation of the Contisuyu Program. Not only does the program provide necessary finance, it also cre- ates official Peruvian enthusiasm by virtue of the fact that it owes its existence to the concern shown by a responsibly minded large American corporation. It is with great anticipation that Field Museum, together with our Peruvian col- leagues, looks forward to the enormous task of preserving, studying, and developing the cul- tural patrimony of the Valley of Moquegua, and to bringing into focus the civilizations of Contisuyu. D Extremely dry conditions in Moquegua desert have preserved a wide range of perishable remains, including this wooden spoon handle. Design is carved in Tiwanaku style (ca. A.D. 500) and depicts two condor heads (at top), cactus flower (top center), and unidentified plant form. 11 ANCIENT AIR BREATHERS b;^ w. D. Ian Rolfe Burgess shale fossil Opabinia may be an early descendant of the segmented animals from which annelid worms (such as the earthworm) and ar- thropods were derived. This reconstruction provoked laughter when first shown at a normally sober, scien- tific meeting — a trib- ute to the animal's unique combination of characters. (After Whittington) Most paleontologists would still agree with Darwin that "the whole science of geology loses glory from the extreme imperfection of the record." Yet, now and again a new find of fossils is made which reminds us of what we are miss- ing— another window onto the past is opened. The most famous of these finds is the Burgess Shale (530 million years old) of British Columbia, with its multitude of soft-bodied forms. An international research team led by H. B. Whittington, of Cambridge University, has shown that there is still much that can be learned from these fossils, discovered in 1908. Or the more local, but scarcely less famous, Mazon Creek Pennsylvanian biota (300 million years old) of Illinois, with its 800 or so different animal and plant fossils, mostly still unique to Illinois. These are chance occurrences of a spectacular kind. No less remarkable, however, may be finds made by workers patiently processing rock in their laboratories. One thinks of the beautiful Permian silicified brachiopods recovered by G. Arthur Cooper and his co-workers at the Smith- sonian Institution, by acid digestion of blocks of the Glass Mountains, Texas. Or the minute, crystal-clear copepod crustaceans and spiders dissolved from concretions in the Mojave Desert by Alison Palmer. We take for granted the rou- tine recovery of large masses of often exquisitely preserved spores with their resistant sporopol- lenin coats. Yet, few geologists are prepared to take the risk of expending vast effort in processing large volumes of rocks on the off-chance that they might contain some new fossils. The German geologist Erich Malzahn was willing to take such a chance: by washing many tons of Permian marl, he recovered a few, minute, exquisitely pyritized crustaceans of groups previously un- known as fossils. Klaus Miiller, of Bonn Univer- sity, has suggested that such occurrences are not as few and far between as we tend to think; we just do not bother to look for them adequately. Miiller should know, since in the course of dis- solving phosphatized water fleas from Swedish Cambrian limestones, 510 million years old, he noticed that a few had soft parts attached to them. By carefully dissolving less than nine pounds of the rock he was able to recover thousands of shells, 400 of them with their soft parts and multisegmented limbs preserved in- tact. Knowledge of life on ancient land surfaces is much harder to come by. This is partly for the obvious reason that land animals have to end up in a water-laid sediment before they can be found as fossils — a rather unlikely event. Yet one of these remarkable chance finds has just been made by paleobotanists Pat M. Bonamo and Doug Grierson of the State University of New York at Binghamton. Whilst etching out fossil plants from the W. D. Ian Rolfe was recently at Field Museum under the Department of Geology's Visiting Scientist Program, inves- tigating pod-shrimps of Mazon Creek, Illinois, and Mecca shale, of Indiana; he also initiated the work on Devonian microarthropods of New York, discussed in this article. Rolfe has returned to his position as deputy director of the Hunte- rian Museum, University of Glasgow. middle Devonian (380 million years old) mudstones of Gilboa, New York, to use their own words, "We made an extremely exciting and fortuitous discovery. While we were examining a preparation with the dissecting microscope we found an almost complete small arthropod, swaying gently in the water filling a depression left by the acid removal of the rock matrix, the tips of its legs being still embedded in the un- etched rock. We were able to remove it with cephalothorax and abdomen still intact." Since then, they have found more specimens, most of them fragmentary. That first animal Bonamo and Grierson found is a trigonotarbid arachnid — a group of daddy longlegs-like animals, extinct since the Pennsylvanian. The finest details seen on any fossil arthropod can be seen on this species — including the first slit sense organs — the "strain gauges" which detect minute deformations in arachnid exoskeletons. These structures, only a few thousandths of a millimeter in length, were spotted by Field Museum's John Kethley, associ- ate curator of entomology. In an equally striking specimen were the poison fangs of what was obviously a centipede. Ralph Crabill, the senior U. S. worker on centipedes, was excited to find that this most closely resembles a living form on which he had worked for many years — Cratero- stigmuS) known today only from New Zealand's South Island and Tasmania. He could state with New trigonotarbid arachnid, 2 mm long (1/12 inch), from the Middle Devonian (380 million years old) of Gilboa, New York. It closely resembles animals of similar age from Rhynie, Scotland, and Aiken, West Germany. (Photo courtesy Pat M. Bonamo and D. Grierson) Phosphatized ostracode (water flea), 0.2 mm long, acid- etched from Upper Cambrian (510 million years old) lime- stone in Sweden. (Photo courtesy ofK.J. Miiller) 13 ^^^^H 1 5 *»^- ^■■H^^M Le^ tip ofGilhoa, N.Y. trigonotarbid, show- ing well preserved spurs , and hairs still set in sockets. (Photo courtesy Pat M. Bonamoand D. Grierson) 14 Poison fimgs of the oldest known centipede, from 380 million-vear-old rocks ofGilboa, N.Y. They most closely resemble Craterostigmus — known today only from New Zealand and Thsmania. (Photo courtesy Pat M. Bonamo and D. Grierson) authority that this could not belong to any cen- tipede living in North America today. An impor- tant point, since other authorities had begun to question whether these acid residues were not simply contaminants — minute scraps of arthro- pod that had, perhaps, fallen out of a crack in the ceiling. This sort of thing had happened before — supposed outer-space spores found in the Orgeuil meteorite proved to be only ragwort pol- len contaminants that had survived superficial cleaning of the meteorite. The possibility of such contamination was ruled out here by the pres- ence of trigonotarbid, and also by the extreme flatness of the materials — only a few thou- sandths of a millimeter thick: it was difficult to imagine how such Recent contaminants had got so squashed, unless they really had been en- tombed in a column of rock, originally miles thick. As more groups were recognized, it be- came clear that the fossils belonged to groups that had long been thought to be primitive. That was true oi Craterostigmus, and of the single mite specimen recovered. Identification of mites is very much a matter for specialists, and John Kethley recognized that this was one of the oribatid mites in which Roy Norton, of the S. U. N. Y. College of Environmental Science and For- estry, was expert. Norton was able to compare it with living ctenacarids, a family of Palaeosomata which, as the name suggests, had long been con- sidered among the most ancient of mites. Other animals are represented by the small- est of fragments, and one needs to enlist the help of many specialists in order to run them down. Two such experts. Otto Kraus in Hamburg and Bill Shear of Hampden-Sydney College, Vir- ginia, independently identified one scrap as the tip of the leg of a tarantulalike arachnid. These animals have a very patchy distribution at the present day, suggesting a former much wider, tropical- subtropical distribution. Fossils had been known from the Carboniferous of Mazon Creek, as well as from Europe, but once again this find was much older than any hitherto. The work of identifying the fragments — most of them less than a millimeter across — continues. E. Laidlaw Smith, of the California Academy of Sciences, has identified one perfo- rated plate as a possible machilid — a silverfish, long thought to be primitive, which would make them the earliest true insects. It will take a long while, and probably much more etching out of material, before a complete picture of the ancient air-breathers of Gilboa can be built up. Land fossils of this age are very rare, and known from only two other localities in the world: Scotland and Germany. The first of these finds was made only in the 1920s, when the tough, splintery Rhynie Chert of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was found to contain not only some of the earliest land plants, but also a whole fauna of minute arthropods. This fauna comprises sev- eral minute mites, a shrimp resembling the living fairy shrimp, a possible spider, a springtail insect (of which the spring organ has just been discov- ered) and some trigonotarbid arachnids very like the Gilboa beast. These animals are exquisitely preserved in the clear silica of the chert, since they were killed and petrified in situ when an ancient peat bog was inundated with hot-spring waters. Paleobotarust A. G. Lyon, then of Cardiff University, was sectioning some of the chert to study the plants in detail when he was startled to see some finely laminated structures inside the abdomen of one of the arachnids. He recognized these as lung-books — the structures by which many land arthropods breathe today. These are the oldest, and remain the only fossil, lung- books known, and really confirm that these ani- mals were air-breathers, as had been deduced from their general resemblance to living spiders and their kin. A second find of these Devonian land forms was made only in the 1960s at Aiken, on the River Mosel, in Germany. The fossils are not so spec- tacularly preserved as at Rhynie and Gilboa, but a similar trigonotarbid was recognized and de- scribed by the late Leif St0rmer of Oslo Univer- sity, a leading and inspiring worker on early fossil arthropods since the 1930s. This deposit probably formed in a lagoon, and the presence of many sea scorpions, some of them possibly am- phibious, at this locality suggests the land fossils were washed in from a nearby shore. Also pres- ent is Eoarthropleura — the dawn Arthropleura — a possible ancestor of those giant, six-foot-long millipedelike animals known from Mazon Creek. The similarity of the undoubtedly terrestrial trigonotarbid arachnids of Gilboa to those of Rhynie and Aiken raises several interesting points about these early air-breathers. First of all, they were even then so well developed and spe- cialized that biologists think they must have evolved onto land long before the Devonian. When the original ancestor, or ancestors, of mil- hpedes, centipedes, and insects left the sea to hit land, it (or they) probably diversified rapidly into the many different types of land arthropods. Maps of the ancient geographies of those times, recently compiled by workers at the Uni- versity of Chicago, show a chain of continental fragments, scattered around the globe in low tropical latitudes. Our ancestral trigonotarbid must therefore have emerged onto either one of these land masses — Laurentia or Baltica (see maps) — and then spread to the other after these continental plates collided in the late Silurian/ early Devonian, 400 million years ago, to form the larger continent of Laurussia. The present- day distribution of close relatives of the Gilboa air-breathers shows that further major expan- sion of their range must have occurred — and the recent discovery by Mario Hiinicken, of Cordoba University, of a giant fossil spider with a body thirteen inches long and a leg span of almost two feet, in the Carboniferous of Argentina, tells us that at least some of these territorial gains had been made by the Pennsylvanian, 280 million years ago. The maps also show that Laurussia, bearing its cargo of Gilboa arachnids, had im- Above: Fossil tamn- tulid claw (OS mm long) from Gilboa, N.Y. (Photo courtesy PatM.BonamoandD. Grierson.) Below: The living tarantulid Charinus, of Africa. (AfterMillot) 15 Maps of ancient geographies, showing that the three known sites of the oldest terrestrial faunas are confined to the on. Laurussian plate, in Devonian times (380 million years ago). (After Scotese et al, © 1979, The University of Chicago) U pacted with the southern hemisphere plate known as Gondwana just before this time, allow- ing the arachnids to spread far and wide, ulti- mately to reach the places that their descendants inhabit, often as relict faunas. If this is a true account of events, it enables us to make an intriguing prediction, testable by future, worldwide collecting: terrestrial arachnids older than the Carboniferous should not be found out- side the Laurussian plate. In other words, none should occur in Gondwana rocks — or in Kazakh- starua, China, or Siberia, for that matter, since such land animals could not cross the sea barriers that separated those former continental plates. It will be interesting to see how long this prediction can survive. D Latin American Neighbors Day Dia de los Vecinos Latinoamericanos Sunday, January 31 12 noon-4:00 pm Come celebrate Latin American Neighbors Day, Sundayjanuary 31, from 12 noon to 4:00 pm at Field Museum. Enjoy tours, lectures, touchable exhibits, craft projects, games, and dance performances that highlight the cultures of Mexico, Central and South America. "Nuevo Ideal" offers two half-hour dance perform- ances at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm in Stanley Field Hall. Sixteen dancers (ages 7-17) perform lively folk dances from the many states of Mexico: Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas, and Jalisco. The featured dances include shotis (polkas), the bamba, the zapateado, la tortuga, pinotpa nacional and uapango (the cowgirl dance). "Nuevo Ideal" per- forms under the direction of Ophelia Solano. Tours of the Latin American halls are offered in English and Spanish. Explore "The World of the Aztecs" ("£/ Mundo de los Aztecas"'), "Mesoamerican Civilization," and "Textiles of Ancient Mexico." Watch a pottery demonstration that rep- licates traditional Indian handbuilding techniques. Children can enjoy tours scheduledjust for them — "Exploring the New World" and "Animals of South America" (in English and Spanish) . After the "Animals" tour, children can make an animal baby out of clay to take home. Young people can play pinata, learn to grind corn using the mano and metate, make Ojos de Dios ("God's Eyes") — a symbol of peace and happiness — and spin wool into yarn using a drop spindle. A special Discovery Room full of touchable exhibits relating to life in Mexico will provide fun for the whole family. Children can try on clothes from Mexico, create a mola design out of colored paper, make paper flowers and listen to Mexican folktales in English and Spanish. There is a special performance by the Clemente Steel Band of Roberto Clemente High School at 2:45 p.m. in Stanley Field Hall. Fifteen musicians will per- form this delightful music on 24 steel drums. Dr. Alan Kolata, visiting assistant curator of Andean archeology, presents an illustrated lecture on "The Lords of Tiwanaku" at 2:00 pm in James Simpson Theatre on the ground floor (at the Museum's West Entrance). He explores the evolution of Tiwanaku, one of the greatest native states of the ancient Americas, located near Lake Titicaca in what is now Bolivia. He details the economic, political, and religious universe of the metropolis of Tiwanaku and the Andean empire it controlled from A.D.200toA.D.1000. An illustrated lecture on "Fossil Mammals of South America" is offered at 1:00 pm in Lecture Hall I on the Ground Floor (at the Museum's West Entrance) by Dr. Larry Marshall, visiting assistant curator of fossil mam- mals. South America was an isolated island continent for most of the last 65 million years. The animals evolved there in a world all their ow^n. Meet Megatherium , the giant ground sloth, and the armored glyptodont, ex- tinct cousin of today's armadillo. After the lecture, you can see the skeletons of these prehistoric animals on dis- play in Hall 38. All events are free with admission to the Museum. A detailed schedule (in English and Spanish) is available after January 15. Please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to receive the advance schedule. Schedules are available at Museum entrances on the day of the event. This program is partially funded by the Illinois Arts Council. 17 Egypi Reju Hall J, the Museum's world-faf lije with the installation of tifi culture, the opening of the tomb exhibit, and the 'renovation' o viewers may now appreciate thi arrival of a magnificent, modi Thebes [on long-term loan from out the rejuvenation of Hall J Museum's visitors. 18 I G ho Case 12: Egyptian p pottery-mahng. The tomb chapel o showing the fake di Field Museum Tours for Members The Ancient Capitals of China June 6-28 This unique itinerary, rarely granted by the Chinese au- thorities, includes the most significant sites of early Imperial China and will give an opportunity to explore in depth the civilization which characterized one of the oldest and longest- lived societies on earth. We will have the opportunity to observe the emergence of this remarkable culture and its de- velopment to a level which surpassed its contemporaries in the Western World. June 6: Departure from Chicago to San Francisco in time for evening briefing. June 7: Departure via Japan Airlines for flight to Tokyo. June 8: Afternoon arrival in Tokyo; overnight at Nikko Narita Hotel. June 9: Flight to Peking, where we will spend 4 days, visiting Imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tien-an Square, and the antique shop district; Ming emperor tombs, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the National Museum. June 13: Overnight train ride to Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, where we'll spend 3 days; in addition to sight-seeing, we can rise early to participate in tai chi exercise groups in the People's Park. June 16: A short, train ride takes us east to Kaifeng, where we'll spend 2 days. The city is rarely visited by tourists; it's just at the beginning of modernization, and we'll get a wonderful feeling of Old China. June 18: Two days in Luoyang, one of the oldest centers of Chinese culture. June 20: A westward train ride takes us to Xian, our home for 4 days. This is where the fabulous clay horses and warriors of the "Great Bronze Age of China" exhibit were discovered. June 24: We'll travel by air to Shanghai, where we will spend four days, including a one-day side trip to Souchou, silk- manufacturing center. June 27: To Tokyo again, for a one-night stay before flying back to the States. At a small additional cost, you may stay longer in Japan or in Hawaii, at completion of the China tour. Our tour leader is Mr. Phillip H. Woodruff, Ph.D. candi- date in Chinese history at the University of Chicago. This is Mr. Woodruffs third time as a Field Museum China tour leader and his fourth visit to that country in two years. Cost of the tour is $3,850 (per person, double occupancy). Alaska Native Culture Tour June 19-July 1 This 13-day tour begins with a flight from Seattle to Sitka, Alaska, where we wall spend two days and nights viewing old Russian settlement buildings, Sheldon Jackson Museum, and National Park Service exhibits. Our third, fourth, and fifth nights will be aboard two yachts, which will take us to Admi- ralty Island. We will see Tenakee Hot Springs, the native vil- lages of Angoon and Hoonah, and make a tour of Glacier Bay. Sightseeing in Juneau and its environs will be our activity during the next two days, followed by a day and night in Anchorage and a visit by motorcoach to Denali National Park (formerly McKinley National Park), where we will enjoy the spectacular scenery and view wildlife, spending two nights there. A day and a night in Kotzebue, a day in Nome, and a final day in Anchorage will round out the tour. All hotel accommodations will be first class; the two yachts will accommodate 16 and 10 persons, respectively. Tour rates to be announced. Coral Reef Biology and Natural History Explorations in the Western Caribbean June 22-Jufy 11 The richness of marine life and the beauty of the offshore reefs and islands of Belize and Honduras are unsurpassed in the Atlantic tropics. Field Museum's 20-day tour of this region offers a unique opportunity to explore and study tropical marine and terrestrial ecosystems and, if desired, to earn uni- versity credit for doing so. Leading the tour will be three professional marine biologists, each with considerable field work in the Gulf of Honduras and well acquainted with the local flora and fauna. Included in the tour is a six-day stay at Glovers Reef, 28 miles offshore from Belize. Reef formations at Glovers are among the Caribbean's most richly developed. Lectures and field-trips, including snorkeling, will familiarize participants with the mammals, invertebrates, fishes, sea birds, and in- Last Can for Baja! If you are looking for a place in the sun, but want something more than a pretty beach, then come with us for a real adventure. We have just two spaces left for our whale-watching erpedition to Baja California scheduled to depart injustafew weeks . . . February 6. Chinese scholar learns his "A-B-Cs." If you wish additional details for any tour or would like to he placed on a special mailing list, please call Dorothy Roder, Tours manager, at 3ZZ-886Z, or write Field Museum Tours, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. g^'^' . .I'Algfg-. j..'j>.;i».'ALi - teresting algae of this isolated, untouched coral-reef. Daily scuba diving is available. The 50-foot motor sloop Christmas Bird will take us to and from the reef, where we will stay at Lomont's Glovers Reef Village resort. Our stay at Glovers will be followed by a four-day in- depth exploration of the central Belize mainland, including rain forests, the famed Blue Hole on the Hummingbird High- way, a stay at the Blancanaeux Lodge atop Mountain Pine Ridge, a visit to Rio Frio Cave and the Thousand Foot Falls, and exploration of Mayan ruins at Xunantunich. Aiding us for the four days will be Belize resident Dora Weyer, internationally known naturalist and expert on bird identification. We will then stay five days at Roatan, one of the Bay Islands, where steep cliffs, rocky shores, and sandy beaches and associated wildlife provide a sharp contrast to the Glovers atoll environment. At Anthony's Key Resort, our Roatan home, first class accommodations, scuba facilities, fantastic sport fishing, tennis, etc., and superlative surroundings will add to our enjoyment. The tour will end with a day at San Pedro Sula, on the mainland, with sight-seeing and shopping or a tour to Mayan ruins at Copan. Leading the tour will be Dr. Robert Karl Johnson, curator of fishes and chairman of Field Museum's Department of Zool- ogy; Dr. David W. Greenfield, research associate in the Museum's Division of Fishes and professor of biological sci- ences at Northern Illinois University (NIU), and Dr. Norman A. Engstrom, associate professor of biological sciences at North- ern Illinois University. Three semester hours of undergraduate or graduate credit in biological sciences are available from NIU to tour participants. The tour will be limited to 14 partici- pants. Rate to be announced. Motor sloop Christmas Bird at Glovers Reef Grand Canyon Adventure May 22-30 An exciting 280-mile cruise down the Colorado River by motorized rubber raft, camping outdoors under the stars. Dr. Bertram Woodland, curator of petrology, will lead the tour. Group limited to 25. Details to be announced. Galapagos tour cruise ship, M.V. Buccaneer, in background; shorebird hobnobs with iguanas. Ecuador and the Galapagos March 11-25 The Galapagos Islands affect our imagination like no other place on earth. Field Museum is pleased to offer its members an opportunity to visit this remote archijjelago under the ex- pert guidance of Dr. John W. Fitzpa trick, associate curator and head, Division of Birds. If you are a "birder" or a "photog- rapher" this tour is a Utopia. We'll see 500-pound tortoises, ferocious-looking land iguanas that eat cactus flowers, marine iguanas which are superb divers, penguins, flightless cormorants, colonies of sea lions and fur seals, and many other exotic and unique birds, mammals, and reptiles. The plant life, with 40-foot cacti in coastal deserts and dense rain forests in the mountains, is equally interesting. In addition to the unique sightseeing and learning oppor- tunities on the cruise, we will spend four nights in Quito, Ecuador, where we'll enjoy old world ambience, along with the color of the centuries-old Indian market and villages of Latacunga and Ambato — we'll overnight in Ambato. Our transfer from Quito to Guayaquil will give us a chance to see the country's remarkable scenery. Special attention will be paid to the unique bird life. Our cruise ship, the 2,200-ton M.V. Buccaneer, meets the highest safety requirements. Originally designed to carry 250 passengers, it was refurbished in the United States in 1976 to carry only 90, and has recently been again refurbished. All cabins are outside and are equipped with complete private bath. The Buccaneer offers a comfortable, informal cruising environment. Although we'll be in the tropics, it will never be unpleasantly hot because of the cooling effect of the Humboldt Current. The price is $3,550 (per person, double occupancy). We hope you will join us in one of the greatest adventures in travel. Coming up. Australia Ibur August 23-September 12 Kenya Tour (with optional extension to Seychelles) September 11-October 1 21 Learning Museum continues with Tribes; Traditions; and Totem Poles: The Northwest Coast Achievement fav Anthony Pfeiffer ,^>to. Project Coordinator %^ Made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities , a federal agency Cmlization has its Seven Wonders, all created by people who practiced agriculture, and all created in the last 10,000 years — less thanl percent of the time that humanlike creatures have existed. What are the wonders of 99 percent of human evolu- tion? What are the hunting and gathering accom- plishments which shaped human-kind? Among the most wondrous of these were the achievements of natives of the Northwest Coast of North America. Northwest Coast cultures were the greatest ever nurtured by hunting and gathering systems — as opposed to agriculture. It is hard to imagine life without agriculture and domesticated animals. In almost all regions, hunters and gatherers roamed large territories in small bands, taking advantage of the seasonal availability of plants and animals. They knew their lands. Knowledge of what, where, and when foodstuffs could be found was passed on, generation to generation. It was a good life, requiring pjerhaps eight hours' labor a week to satisfy basic needs, though people had to keep moving in a perpetual restless following of food. They couldn't own more than they could carry. But this pattern of hunt- ing and gathering did not prevail in the Northwest Coast. It was an unusually generous environment. V 22 Top of wooden wand carved to represent a witch spirit. Used by Alaskan Tlingit shaman in ceremony. Above: Aleut children pose uncertainly for Field Museum photographer Charles Carpenter at St. Louis, Missouri, Exposition, in 1904. Right: Decaying totem pole at Gitksan, British Columbia, photographed in 1977 by Ron Testa, Field Museum photog- rapher. Does the disintegrating pole symbolize the fate of Native Northwest Coast traditions? Below: Map shoivs ranges of many of the Northwest Coast tribes discussed in the Learning Museum Program. Artistic heritage of Alaska will be represented by Ronald and Joseph Senungetuk in April 18 Contemporary Arts Symposium; Bill Reid and Robert Davidson will represent the Haidan tradition; Joe David will represent the Nootkan, or West Coast People. BRITISH COLUMBIA '''*?S>^yi.2^i.:-' ■"""' A. _'- ETMNOt-OGICAL MAP OF SOWHEASTERN ALASIWV ^^^, ■^^ ,1.. ,-\^^j^ ^7 ^4?*^, ^i^ 23 In 1899, Field Museum zoobgist Daniel G. Elliott photographed this deserted Tlingit village of Cash, Cape Fox, Alaska, notable here for its many totem poles. Temperate rain forests contained an abun- dance of plant and animal life, rivers teemed with fish, and the adjacent sea hid virtually infinite num- bers of shellfish and other edibles. Everywhere one turned there was food, much of it available throughout the year. It was as close to an agricul- tural lifestyle as one could get by living off the land. Many aspects of social and cultural advancement normally associated with agriculture were de- veloped. Full-time artists, religious practitioners, craftsjjeople, and other specialists were supported by the wealth of food. Complex systems of tribal government regulated relatively large numbers of people. War was waged. Lavish resources were not the whole story be- hind the remarkably advanced Northwest Coast NEH Learning Museum at Field Museum The NEH Learning Museum program is a three-year sequence of learning opportunities Jbcused on the Museum 's outstanding exhibits and collections and designed to give partici- pants an opportunity to explore a subject in depth. Each unit of study consists of one or more special events, a lecture course, and a seminar for advance work. Special events are lectures by renowned authorities or interpre- tive performances and demonstrations. Course members receive an annotated bibliog- raphy, a specially developed guide to pertinent Museum exhibits, and study notes for related special events. In-depth, small group semi- nars allow more direct contact with faculty and with Museum collections. 24 societies. A sophisticated material culture fashioned in a tradition of Stone Age technology was developed to get food and for general living comfort. Wood- working produced everything from totem poles, to homes, to many kinds of canoe. Harpoons were armed with special-purpwse tips made of bone or flint, and their shape depjended on the kind of quarry being sought. Fish and other meat was smoke-dried for future use. One would not think that inhabitants of this richly endowed environment had to worry about the future. The coastline stretched 1,000 miles — from southeastern Alaska to the state of Washington, as the crow flies. If one followed the coast as it in- dented inland or jutted into the sea, it could be considered 12,000 miles long. Stretched along this coast and sandw^iched between the sea and a tower- ing mountain range were a bewilderingly diverse group of unique native cultures. Any particular cul- ture might suddenly be struck destitute in spite of nature's normal endowment of plenty. Local rains could fail. The sea could rise up to inundate the villages or recede to turn life-giving beds of shellfish into barren rock. Any number of environmental perturbations could and did periodically transform a hunting-and-gathering paradise into hell-on- earth. Periodic disasters may have been harder on the Northwest Coast peoples than on other hunters and gatherers. Typical hunters and gatherers simply pack up and leave the scene of trouble. Northwest Coast peoples could not easily move. They had elaborate and permanent homes. They lived in large villages. They were surrounded by other settled neighbors, people who would resist territorial in- cursions. In short, although they lived by a hunting-and-gathering economy they were tied to an area for better or for worse. Some scientists think that religious gatherings as well as extensive trade networks up and down the coast protected against local disasters. Such ceremonies served to distribute food and wealth from the haves to the have-nots. Whether or not the dramatic rituals can be ex- plained so functionally, it is clear that science is just beginning to understand the dynamics of a system that has radically changed. Much of the material grandeur of the Native Northwest Coast has endured to this day. Field Museum garnered many spectacular artifacts in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Since these times the Museum has been renowned for the quality of its Northwest Coast collections. This spring, after do5sens of people have worked for nearly five years at a cost of millions of dollars, Field Museum's newest permanent exhibition, "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast," opens. The Learn- ing Museum course — Tribes, Traditions, and Totem Poles — is offered as a prelude to this historic open- ing. Tribes, Traditions, and Totem Poles explores the origins and flourishing of Northwest Coast cul- tures. Archeological evidence and native traditions are juxtaposed to shed light on where the peoples came from and when. Varied coastal habitats are discussed and the seemingly lush uniformity is broken into distinct ecological zones, each posing different challenges for human settlers. The tech- nologies of survival and art are shown. Trading, raiding, and huge feasts are seen as adaptations to a changing environment. Family life, day-to-day soci- ety, and activities involving the whole tribe are dis- cussed. Finally, shamans, secret societies, super- natural presences, and the spiritual side of coastal life are explored. Details of the course are available in the Winter, 1982 Courses for Adults brochure. In conjunction with studying Northwest Coast peoples. Members and nonmembers alike are in- vited to attend a Symposium on Contemporary Arts, April 18, 1982. "Echoes of the Past, Tides of Change" presents four artists who have rescued their respec- tive heritage and are taking them forward. Their work is guided by the past but not determined by it. Robert Davidson, for example, has expanded the boundaries of Haida style by using circular, as op- posed to boxlike, forms, and through other innova- tions. The artists discuss not only their unique con- tributions but the future of the arts as well. As Bill Reid, moderator, puts the issue, "just because a few people are doing second-rate silkscreens doesn't mean the old traditions are alive." Is the resurgence of Northwest Coast art a renaissance or is it a fleet- ing moment based on the work of just a few? Are we seeing a rebirth or slow death? Details of the sym- posium are featured in the April Calendar of Events. D Index to Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin , Volume 53 (1981) Articles Ancient Egypt: Mummies, Magic, and Love: Learning Museum Program, by Anthony Pfeiffer: Mar 12 Argentine Connection, The, by Larry Marshall: May 16 Baja Circumnavigated, by Robert K. Johnson: Oct 18 Canoes of the Maritime Peoples of the Northwest Coast, by Ronald L. Weber: Oct. 12 Curatorial Legacy, A: Six Zoologists Dedicate 226 Years' Service to the Field Museum of Natural History, by Alan Solem: Jan 6 Edward E. Ayer and W. M. Flinders Petrie: 'Founding Fathers' of the Egyptian Collection, by Judith Cottle: Nov 33 Egypt in 1903: Travel Notes of Henry Isaac Hart, by Gerda Frank: J/A 20 Eskimo and Indian Settlements in Southwestern Alaska, 1902: A Photographic Record, by James W. VanStone: June 4 Farrington's Folly?, by Edward Olsen: June 3 Field Musuem, The: Spotlight on the Collections, by Matthew H. Nitecki: Part I (introduction and Anthropology): Feb 18, // (Geology): March 6, /// (Zoology); April 6, IV (Botany): May 10 Frasnian-Famennian Extinctions, The: A Search for Extraterrestrial Causes, by George H. McGhee, Jr. ; J/A 3 Giovanni Belzoni: King of the Tomb Robbers, by Peter Gayford: Sept 28 Hopi as they Were, The, by Alice Schlegel: June 16 Hummingbirds, by Alex Hiam: Sept 12 In the Shadow of the Pyramid: An Introduction to the Exhibit, by Donald Whitcomb: Nov 3 Kimberley Snail Hunt Again!, by Alan Solem: Mar 18 Kohlman Amber Collection, The: A Stained Glass Window to the Past, by Gene Kritsky: J/A 14 Lungfishes — Alive and Extinct, by K. S. W. Campbell: Sept 3 North American Challengers of the Southwest, by Anthony Pfeiffer and Donald McVicker; May 4 Paintings from the Tomb of Nakht at Thebes, by William J. Murnane: Nov 13 Planned Giving: A Program to Augment Field Musuem's Endowment Fund, by Clifford Buzard: Sept 8 Predynastic Egypt, by Peter Lacovara: Nov 7 Receptaculitids: Ancient Organisms Studied by Visiting Scientist, by Matthew H. Nitecki; April 21 Rugs of the Orient: Threads of Time, by Anthony Pfeiffer: Oct 4 Searching for Meteorites: The Press Release Strategy, by Paul Sipiera: Oct 8 Through A Missionary's Eyes: Photo-Documentation of Ingalik Indian Life, 1893-1925, by James VanStone; Feb 4 Tipi, The: A Cultural Interpretation of Its Design, by Terry Strauss: April 14 Tobacco and Pipe Use Among the Indians of the Northwest Coast, by Daniel J. Joyce; Oct 14 Tomb Chapels of Netjer-user and Unis-ankh, The, by Bruce Williams: Nov 26 Venetians and Minoans: A Voyage of Discovery, by Dorwld Whitcomb; Jan 15 West African Art: Power and Spirit, by Anthony Pfeiffer; Jan 26 Whale of a Tale, A, by Larry G. Marshall; June 12 William Henry Jackson: Historian with a Third Eye, by Audrey Hitler; J/A 6 Authors Buzard, Clifford; Planned Giving, Sept 8 Campbell, K.S. W.: Lungfishes — Alive and Extinct, Sept 3 Cottle, Judith: Edward E. Ayer and W.M.F. Petrie, Nov 30 Frank, Gerda: Egypt in 1903, J/A 20 Gayford, Peter: Giovanni Belzoni, Sept 28 Hiam, Alex; Hummingbirds, Sept 12 Hiller, Audrey: William Henry Jackson, J/A 6 Johnson, Robert K. : Baja Circumtmvigated, Oct 18 Joyce, Daniel J. ; Tobacco and Pipe Use Among the Indians of the Northwest Coast, Oct 14 Kritsky, Gene: The Kohlman Amber Collection, J/A 14 Lacovara, Peter: Predyrmstic Egypt, Nov 7 Marshall, Larry G.: The Argentine Connection , May 16 _, : A Whale of A Tale: June 12 McGhee, George H.: The Frasnian-Famennian Extinctions, J/A 3 McVicker, Donald: North American Challengers of the Southwest (with A. Pfeiffer), May 4 Murnane, William J. ; Paintings from the Tomb of Nakht at Thebes, Nov 13 Nitecki, Matthew H.: The Field Musuem: Spotlight on the Collections, Part I, Feb 18; Parf //, Mar 6; Part III, April 6; Parf IV, May 10 : Receptaculitids, April 21 Olsen, Edward; Farrington's Folly? , June 3 Pfeiffer, Anthony: West African Art: Power and Spirit, Jan 26 : Ancient Egypt, March 12 North American Challengers of the Southwest, May 4 : Rugs of the Orient, Oct 4 Schlegel, Alice: The Hopi as They Were, June 16 Sipiera, Paul; Searching for Meteorites, Oct 8 Solem, Alan; A Curatorial Legacy, Jan 6 : Kimberly Snail Hunt Again!, Mar 18 Strauss, Terry: The Tipi, April 14 VanStone, James: Through a Missionary's Eyes, Feb 4 : Eskimo and Indian Settlements in Soulhvxstem Alaska, 1902, June 4 Weber, Ronald L.; Canoes of the Maritime Peoples of the Northwest Coast, Oct 12 Whitcomb, Donald: Venetians and Minoans: A Voyage of Discovery, ]anl5 : In the Shadow of the Pyramid, Nov3 Williams, Bruce: The Tomb Chapels of Netjer-user and 25 Unis-ankh, Nov 26 > INDEX Continued from p. 25 Subjects Abendroth, H.: Ap4 Acheulian stone-working: Ap 12 Adelman, W.: Mr 4 Afro-Blue; Jan 29, F 3 alligator meat sale: June 10 amber, Baltic: J/A 15 Anazazi Pueblo culture: May 5 Anthropology, Dep't of: F 20 anthropology course: Mr 3 anthropology films: S 17 Anvik, AK: F 4 armadillo: May 2 asbestos: Mr 27 AsUn, F.:Mrl9 Aslin,J.:Mrl9 Aubrey, J: Mr4 Auffenberg, W.: Mr 3 awlbill, fiery-tailed: A 21 Ayer, E.E.:S8, N33 babirusa exhibit: Mr 17 Bacubirito meteorite: June 27 Baja California: 0 18 Baker: G.R.:F 16 Bald Eagle Days: Jan 31 Baltic amber: J/A 15 Barnes, Judge R. M. : AP 6 Bayalis, J.: Ap4 Beagle: June 12 bearberry: O 2 beard-tongue: S 14 bee-balm: S 24 Bering, v.: 0 14 Belka, M.:Jan6 BeLzoni, G. B.:S28 Berliner, P: F 3 Bernhardt, U.:Jan4 biotelemetrv: Mr 11 bird feed: F'17 bird pests: Jan 32 Blake, E. R.:Ap7 Blaschke, F.:F20 blenny, oyster: F 14 Bolivar Trough: May 18 booby, blue-footed: O 21 Botany, Dep't of: May 10 Boyd, W. L.:Myl4, S6, 0 3 Brown, B: Jan6 Bruce, R.E.: Jan 10 Brudd, R.;02 buckeye tree: S 14 buckwheat, wild: June 18 Burger, W.: May 11 Bushman: Mr 17 Calhoun, L.: Apl3 Callahan, G.:0 21 Camacho, H: June 12 camaenid snails: Mr 18 Campbell, K.S.W.:S 7 canoes of NW Coast: 0 12 Canty, V: Jan6 Canyon Diablo meteorite; O 9 Cape Sounian: Jan 19 capybara; May 21 carpets: O 4 Caskey, N.:08 Cassai, M: S6 Chapman, Rev. J. W: F 4 Cherrie, G. K: Ap6 Chicago SheU Club: Mr 18 chondrules (in meteorites); OlO clay balls: Jan 2 Coachella lizard; Jan 31 Cole, G.;Apl2 colobus: May 2 columbine; S 16 condor, Andean: May 15 condor, Calif.: May 15 Conover, B.: Ap7 Continental Bank: F 16 Curfu; Janl6 Cory, C. B.:Ap6 cotinga; S 22 crane, whooping: JunelO, 026 cricetid; Mav 19 26 cui-ui: S 27 ' Curtis, G.:Mr5 Dahlgren, B.E.:Mayll Danziger, C.:F20 Darwin, C: June 12 Daskal, K.:Apl2 Davis, D.: Jan 10, Ap 7 de la Torre, L. : Jan 6 Dearborn, N.: Ap 6 Delphi; Jan 16 Delta green ground beetle: Jan 31 Denison, R. H.;Janl3 Derda, D.:Jan6 Despots, Palace of the: Jan 17 Devonian shales (Walnut Creek): J/A 3 Diaz, A: O 20 Dillon, M.: May 11 Dinosaur Day: 0 11 dinosaur eggs: Jan 32 Dixon, G.:0 14 Djoser pyramid: N 3 donor honor roll: Mr 26, S 24 Drake, R: Mr 5, June 12 Drouet, F.: May 11 Drovetti, B.;S31 Dubrovnilc Jan 16 Duckworth, B.; Mr 20 Dunkirk Black Shale: J/A 5 Dybas, H. S.: Jan 3, Ap 10, N 2 eagle, bald; Mr 25 Egegik, AK: June 4 Egypt, ancient; Mr 12, Nov issue Egypt, predynastic; N 7 Elliot, D.G.:Ap 6 EUis, Mrs. G. C.;Jan5 endowment fund: S 8 Engel, J.: May 11 Eskimo culture: June 4 Evers, C; Jan6 evolution: May 17 evolution, convergent; S 23 false door (Egypt): N 28 Farrington, O.: Mr 4, June 3 faunal interchange: May 18 Feuer-Forster, S.: May 11 Field, M. ra:S9 Field, M.I; Jan 4, S 8 film festival; S 17 First Mesa (AZ): June 19 Fischer, D.: Ap 5 Fitzpatrick, J. W.: Jan 3, 14 Flaherty, R.:S 17 flower-pecker S 23 flower-piercer; S 23 flute dance (Hopi); June 24 flycatcher: S 22 Fooden, J.: Ap6 forest, Illinois: O 26 Famenian epoch: J/A 3 Frasnian epoch: J/A 3 Frassetto, M.F.:S17 Friesser, J.: Mr 16 Ganapathy, R.; J/A 5 geese, weeder S 27 Geology, Dep't of: Mr 6 Gerhard, W. J.: Jan 8, 10, Ap6 Gilpin, O: Mr 9 Gladiolus: S 24 glyptodont; May 17 Gotfo San Jose: June 15 Great Bronze Age of China attendance: Jan 3 Greenewalt, C. H.: S 22 Greenfield, D.W.:Ap 10 Greenman, J. H.: May 10 Gueret, N.: Ap6 Gulick, B.:Junel2 Haake, N. M.:S6 Haas, F.: Ap7 Haida canoes; 0 12 Haida pipemaking: 0 15 Hanover Gray Shale; J/A 5 Harris, N.W.:S 9 Hart, H. I.: J/A 21 Hatshepsut: Mr 13, J/A 23 Hay, OP: Ap 6 Hayes, H: Jan5 Hayden, F. V.:J/A7 hegetothere: May 16 HeUer, E.;Ap6 Hellmayr, C. E.: Ap7 Hero (ship); June 12 Herrin, W.;J/A14 Hershkovitz, P.: Jan 6 Hollingsworth, W. E; 09 honey eater: S 23 honeycreeper: S 23 Hopi culture: May 4, June 17 Hopi Gift Shop: S 7 housefly; Jan 32 HoweU, F. C: Ap 13 Hubbs, C.:Ap6 hummingbirds: S 2, 12ff Indian paint brush; S 14 Ingalik Indians; F 4 Inger, R. F.: Ap7 insecticide: S 33 Irving, M.;0 12 Jackson, W.H.: J/A 6 Jastrzebski, Z.; Jan 25, F 14 John G. Searle Herbarium: May 10, S 10 Johnson, L.; Ap 11 Johnson, P.: Jan 6 Johnson, R.K.; Jan 3, 14, Ap 10 juniper O 2 Just, T: May 11 kachina doU; May 5, June 17 kangaroo ban: S 33 Kathakali; Ap 26, May 26 Keller, M: J/A 21 KeUogg Hall of Jade; SIC Kemp, A.: S3 Kethley,J.:Jan6, 14 Kijik, AK; June 4 Kiva: June 19 Klein, R.:Ap 13 Kleindienst, M. R.: Apl3 Kohlman, A. F.:J/A14 Kokwok, AK; June 4 Kolata, A. L. Jan 22 Komodo dragon: Mr 3 Kozlowski, N.: Jan 6 Knossos; Jan 16 Kroc, R. A.; S 10 Kukalova-Peck,J.:F16 LaMum, L.;Mr21, Ap7 Lake Clark, AK: June 4 Lasisi, D.;F22 Laubach, R.: Jan6 Laughlin, K.:F17 Learning Museum Program: Jan 26, Mr 12, O 4 Lewis, P: Jan 21, F 22 Liem, K. F.:Jan6,]3 lily, spear: S 16 Lloyd, M.; Jan 10 lobeUa: S 14 lungfish: S 2 MacBride,J. F.:MaylO MacRae, J.:S6 macraucheniid: May 16 manatee: Mr 25, June 10 Martin, R:F 22 Marx, H: Jan 6,10, Ap 7 Masau (Hopi god): June 23 masks of NW Coast: Dec issue Matheson, M.;08 Maurer, D.: Ap9 McLaren, D.J. : J/A 4 McMahon, F.;F16 Meek, S.E.:Ap6 Meevers, H.: June 27 Members' Nights: May 3 Menke, H.W.;Mr7 Merrick, M.: Ap9 MerriU, G. K.;S7 mesothere: May 16 meteorites: O 8 Meza, M.; Jan2 "Middle Stone Age": Ap 12 Millspaugh, C. F.; May 10 Minoan Palace: Jan 16 Mistra: Jan 17 MogoUon Rim: May 4 Molnar, A.: S 3 monkey, guereza: May 2 Moseley, M. E.; Jan 22 Moulding, Mrs. A. T.: Mr 18 Mudhead (Hopi): June 23 Murphy, J. C: Jan5 Nagel, C.;O20 Nakht, tombof;NB Naupactos; Jan 18 Naxos: Jan 18 NEA grant (Educ.):F 16 Neanderthal figure: F 20 Nee, M: May 11 NEH grant (Anthro.): Ap 5 Netjer-user; N 26 Nevling, L. I., Jn Jan 4, My 11, 03 Nichols, H.W.: Mr 6 Niman kachina: June 20 Nitecki, M. H.;Ap5 Nootka canoe-builders: 0 12 Northwest Coast pipemakers; 015 NSF grants (Anthro.); May 14, (Birds); Jan 3, (Botany); S 6, (Herbarium): My 14, (GeoL): S 6, (Manunals): F 16, (sys- tematica symposium): F 16 Nsongezi Prehistoric Site: Apl3 Nushagak, AK: June 6 Office of Polar Programs: June 12 Old Iliamna, AK: June 4 Olsen, E.J.;J/A5 opossum: May 21 Oraibi Pueblo: May 4 Osgood, W. H.; Ap 6, June 4 osprey; O 20 Palace of Fine Arts: F 18 Palmer, H.: Jan 6 Palmer, N.: June 12 Panamanian land bridge: Mr 5 parrot, brush-tongued: S 23 Pascual, R.:Mr5 Patagonia; June 12 Petrie, W. M. F.;N33 petunia: S 14 Phobos (Mars moon): J/A 4 phororhacoid ground bird; May 22 Planned Giving Program: S 10 Plowman, T.: May 11 Ponce de Leon, P.; May 11 porcupine: May 21 porpoise quota: Mr 25 Powamuya ceremony (Hopi): June 21 Price, L.; Mr 19 Prince Trust: S 6 procyonid: May 19 Prokop, M.: Jan6 protothere: May 16 Pueblo Bonito; May 5 Rabb, G.: Ap 7 Radtke, N. P.: S 7 Rameses H: S 30 rattlesnake, rattleless: 0 19 Raup, D. M.:Jan3, 4 Raymond, Mrs. A. L.: S 10 Reaves, V.: Jan6 receptaculitids: Ap 21 Resetar, A.: Ap8 Rhino, black: Jan 32 Rietschel, S.: Ap21 Riggs, E. S.;Mr6, 7 Roberts, H.W.: Mr 18 Robertson, M.: Apl2 Rock Creek (TX) meteorite: O 9 Roggenthene, W.: June ^ Roife, W. D. I.;S7 roof recovered: S 7 Rosetta Stone: Mr 15, S 30 Roy, S. K.:Mr6 Rueckert, A. G.:June7 rugs; O 4 Runnells, Mrs. C.;S2 Ryerson, M. A.:S8 sabertooths: May 25 saguaro; Mr 11 Salonika; Jan 19 Salt, H.:S30 salvia; S 24 San Francisco Peaks (AZ): June 2, 17 Sanders, T. : Ap 5 Santa Fe Industries Fndtn.; May 14 Schmidt, K. R:Jan7, Ap6 Schoknecht, R.: Jan 6 sea lion: 0 19 SeaofCortez:018 seal, northern elephant: O 22 Searle,J. G.:S10 SegaU, W.:Ap4 Senmut: Mr 13 Shedd Aquarium; S 3 Shipaulovi: June 20 Simpson, G. G.: May 17 Singer, R.: May 11 Singer, R.:Mr4 sloth: May 18, 22 Smith, H.:Mr4 Solem, G. A.: Apll Soyal (Hopi ceremony): June 24 sphinx: J'A 24 Standley, R C: May 10 Stewart, D. J.; Jan 3, Ap 10 Steyermark, J. A.; May 11 Stoize, R.:Mayll Streuver, S.:Mr4 Swartchild, W. G. Jn Ap 4 Systematics Symposium; Ap 5 Tanaina Indians; Jime 5 Tchen, H: Jan5 teepee {see tipi) Tecopa pupfish: Jan 32 Terrell, J.; Ap4 Tesser, N.;F3 Testa, R.:F 17 Thera (Akroteri): Jan 18 Timm, R.: Jan 14, Ap 11 tipi: Ap 14 Tlingit Indians: 0 14 tobacco use (NW Coast); 0 14 Townsend, J.; June 6 toxodont: May 16 Traylor, M. A.: Jan 3, Ap 9 Tri-StateUniv.:Jan3 Trinklein, F. E.:J/A14 Tripp,C. D.:S9 trumpet-creeper S 14 tuna fishermen: Mr 25 turtle, loggerhead: S 33 turtle, sea: Mr 11 Unis-ankh:Jan24, N26 U. S. Antarctic Research Pro- gram: June 12 valley elderberry longhom beetle; Jan 31 Valley of the Kings: S 31 Venice; Jan 15 Vermillion, D.; S 7 Visiting Scientist Program; F 16, Ap 21, S 6 volunteers: Ap 23 Voris, H.: Ap 7, 8 vulture; May 15 Walpi Village (Hopi); June 19 Walters, L; Mr 17 warbler, Kirtland's: S 10 Watrous, L.: Jan 14 Webber, E. L.:Jan5,F16, May 14, S 6, O 3 Weed, A. C.:Ap6 WeUs, F. E.:Mr20 Wenzel, R. S.:Jan6, AplO WestoU,TS.:S4 whale: June 15, 0 19, 21 Whitcomb, D. A.:Jan24 white-eye: S 23 Whitt, N.:Jan6 Wilkie, L.;012 Willamette meteorite: June 3 Williams, L: May 11 Williams, L. O.: May 11 Winter, B; Jan 6 Woodland, B.G.; Jan 3 Woods, L. R:Jan6, Ap9 Woodward, S.; Jan 25 Woolman, A. J; Ap9 women, role of in Hopi cul- ture; June 21 Wonder, F.C.; Mr 16 Wuwucim (Hopi ceremony): June 24 Young, K.; Mr 20 Young, S: Ap5 Zangerl, R.:Mr6 Zawacki, R.;MrlO Zimmer, J. T.: Ap 6 Zinsmeister, W.; June 12 Zoology, Dep't of: Ap 6 LdtMA f/toin; tte iA/tctuo -- 1 By Edward Olsen Cu ra to r of Mi ne ralogy Photos courtesy of the author Hindsight is a marvelous teacher. Once we know something is possible it becomes easy to say why it is so and to go on to make predictions. Such is the state of things for those of us who search this planet for meteorites. Over the past twelve years something like 6,000 meteorite fragments have been recovered from the ice cap of east Antarctica. Once the phenomenon of Antarctic meteorite concen- trations was discovered accidentally by the Japanese, hindsight came into action and it was obvious why meteorites were there in such quantities in the first place. When a meteorite lands in a place like an Illinois prairie, for example, it finds itself in a (chemically) hostile environment. The ambient air contains two deadly chemicals — oxygen and water. The meteorite came from deep space, where both of these are utterly absent. The minerals that make up the meteorite begin to oxidize, or rust, from reaction with oxygen. This reaction proceeds more rapidly in warm weather than in cold. Then during the warm months, moisture slowly creeps into the minute ppre spaces along mineral grain boundaries that permeate the meteorite. Rains soak in. Winter comes and, as we all know, when water freezes it expands. A bottle of water sitting outside in freezing weather cracks into pieces. The same thing happens to the meteorite — small cracks are opened and chips flake off due to the crack- ing action of ice. Each year the cracks get larger, until the meteorite falls to pieces. In addition, soils in which fallen meteorites find themselves are full of bacteria and decaying vegetation, both of which release complex acids. These cor- rode minerals in the meteorite, aiding the pro- cess of weathering. In a few years, the meteorite Edward Olsen (right) with party members on Devon Island ice- cap. From left: Blyth Robertson, Les Coleman, Steve Kissin, and Olsen. In the search heli- copter is pilot Lin Hoe, 27 is not easily recognized as anything different from other crumbly rocks. In ten years it's totally reduced to rubble. We've known for a long time that meteor- ites endure longer in desert climates like Ari- zona, west Texas, and eastern Colorado. This is because moisture levels are low and the soils have low levels of organic compounds. Know- ing this, it should have occurred to someone that a place like Antarctica, which is bitter cold, sterile, has practically zero humidity, and no soils, would be a place where meteorites could last longer than in temperate climates. But no one thought of this. With the Antarctic meteorite discoveries now well documented, the next step is obvi- ous. If one ice cap is a good place to look for the preservation of meteorites then we ought to look at the world's other ice caps. The next largest cap is on Greenland. Ever since the Antarctic discoveries, there has been interest in going there for a search. In 1978, two years after I returned from the Antarctic, a joint Danish- American expedition to Greenland was planned. But because of a combination of prob- lems over transportation and financing, the search never took place; the idea lingers on, of course. There are other, smaller ice caps in the Arc- tic Islands of Canada's Northwest Territories. The largest of these covers the eastern half of Devon Island. In the spring of last year I was asked to join a Canadian expedition to make a reconnaissance search for meteorites on the Devon Island ice cap as well as a shorter search on part of the smaller ice cap on EUesmere Is- land, just north of Devon Island. The group consisted of Dr. Blyth Robertson of the Depart- ment of Mines, Energy and Resources Canada, Dr. Les Coleman of the University of Saskat- chewan, Dr. Steve Kissin of Lakehead Univer- sity (Thunder Bay, Ontario), and me. Although the ice caps appeared to have surface conditions ■ that are poor for meteorite recovery, it looked like a worthwhile project. On July 20 I flew from Chicago to Montreal. The next morning I met Robertson and we took off to the north on Nordair, a local airline. We flew northward over Quebec and Labrador. The air was clear and I could see the thousands of ^is^^= 28 w^-^^-^^^i v^}.,.i^. -^'^ c-.;ir. lakes that dot the interior of Labrador. I thought of the five years I had worked down there, years and years ago, doing geological mapping around those lakes. Soon the treeline was passed and we were flying over barren lands. Over Hudson's Straits we could see our first icebergs. We made a forty-minute stopover at Frobisher Bay, on Baffin Island, to drop off some of the passengers, then flew on to an airfield at Resolute Bay, on Comwallis Island, one of the Arctic islands just to the west of Devon Island. At Resolute we stayed in barracks that are M^^ed by the Canadian government for arctic reseSfeli parties. The barracks are trim wooden buildir^ with sleeping rooms, toilet and laun- dry facffities, and a dining room operated by a smiiin^skimo woman and her pretty teenage daughKv The next day we were joined by the other party members who flew in by way of Edmonton, Alberta. The first day was sunny and fairly warm; however, for two days the weather was dark and windy with snow squalls. While waiting for transportation to Devon Island we hiked to one coast of Comwallis Island to visit a cluster of ancient Eskimo ruins — a Thule culture site. Long ago a small group of these people built houses (igloos) of flagstone walls. Whale ribs over the top held skins and sod blocks for roofs. Now only stone rings and a tumble of whale bones remain next to a shoreline of stranded ice- bergs and floating sea ice. On July 24 the weather improved and we took off from Resolute Bay aboard a Twin Otter aircraft. We flew to Truelove Inlet, named after a whaling ship, the Truelove, that overwintered there a long time ago. At Truelove there is a camp consisting of five quonset-type huts. Here was a party of five biologists making a siu-vey of arctic birds. Over fifty bird species visit this area, many of them nesting here. The most common are snow buntings, old-squaw ducks, and Baird's sandpipers, but there are abundant species too, like red-throated loons, golden plovers, knots and even the occasional raven. It is interesting that in these polar islands birds from Europe and North America con- verge. They intermingle in the siunmer months, Edward Olsen standing by meltwater stream in ice cave, Devon Island. ELLESMEFE ISLO.ND CANADA Nodding, or bulblet, saxifra^ Truelove lowland, Devon Islam >e (Saxifraga cornua) on nest, raise young, then depart in late August southward down their separate migration paths, ending up in Spain, North Africa, etc., or the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. The birdwatching was excellent at Truelove, as was the display of a wide variety of flowering plants — all small alpine types — in yellow, red, purple, and blue. 1 didn't realize it at the time, but the Truelove lowland is a kind of environment that is not too widespread on Devon Island. Most of the island is an elevated plateau with almost no vegetation, no soil, and no birds. The party of five biologists doing the survey consisted of two graduate students: Jody Butler of the University of British Columbia and Galen Pittman from the University of Kansas; a Cana- dian government biologist, Al Smith from Ot- tawa; and two faculty members from the North- ern Alberta Institute of Technology, Rod Moore and Don Pattie. Don is the man principally re- sponsible for the presence of the facilities at Truelove. Through his affiliation with the Arctic Institute of North America he has, over a period of eleven years, built up the station to what it is today. Among the buildings are three sleeping quarters, a repair shop, a cook house, and an airstrip. Don has surveyed the bird populations on the Truelove lowland for a decade, measuring increases and decreases in species. His total count of all species for a summer ranges from about 1,100 to 1,700 individuals. With such low populations it is undesirable to collect birds. Don noted that the first surveys of arctic birds were made by ornithologists with guns, who shot and collected specimens. This resulted in the near elimination of some species; but now with a de- cade of no shooting, these species have in- creased their nesting numbers in this region. To reach the ice cap for our meteorite search we would need a helicopter. The cap lay only 18 miles away; however, a river and two large scarps, or cliffs, together almost 2,000 feet high, lay between us and the ice. Although the weather at Truelove was good, at Resolute it was terrible and a helicopter couldn't be sent. On top of it all, a burst of sunspot activity ruined radio communication for a day and some aircraft flights were restricted. Resolute is only a short distance from the north magnetic pole. Sunspot activity is more disturbing to communications in this area because of that. We had some time on our hands while wait- ing for the helicopter. We spent a little time get- ting used to our rifles and shotguns. The arctic's first citizen is the polar bear and in some years they can be numerous. In 1980 nine were seen near Truelove. Guns are required for peace of mind more than anything else. Few bears are ever actually shot, and none of us had any desire to do so. We took some long hikes over the tundra and into the adjoining hills. The Truelove low- land is in front of a series of mesa-like ridges of flat-lying Cambrian sedimentary rocks. A giant fault scarp runs east-west a few miles south of camp, exposing pre-Cambrian granites along the base of a 1,000-foot cliff. The scenery is stark, barren, and impressive. Hiking the lowland, we encountered herds of grazing shaggy muskoxen. At one place a small herd, consisting of a bull, two calves, and five cows, stood their ground before us in true muskox fashion, forming a line in front of their young with heads lowered and horns aimed at us . I walked within 35 feet of them, and although they shuffled about they stood fast, the bull snorting at me, honing one of his horns against his foreleg. If the bull were alone he would have made short charges at me, but with calves present he stayed with them. Standing close by you can easily feel a real affec- tion for them; they are great mounds of fur that hang to the ground and blow in the wind. They are basically gentle creatures that seem to want only to be left alone. This group finally broke and thundered off over the tundra towards a nearby low ridge. Across the tundra you can find places where muskoxen have shed mats of hair. A small ball of it, loosely cupped in the hand, will cause your palm to become very warm. Its insulating qual- ities are so good that the heat from your hand builds up and little is lost. We continued our hike to a broad, rocky valley with a roaring glacial stream criss-crossing its floor. At one point a magnificent waterfall was seen pouring over a notch in the scarp, in a series of cascades. As we climbed over a high ridge we could see the icecap in the distance, high above the valley wall, gleaming white in the sunlight. The weather was improving. The next day the helicopter arrived with a pilot and a mechanic. We flew to the ice cap as the weather began to go bad again. Part of our group was set down to traverse a moraine of rock that lay strewn on the ice. Steve and I flew northward along the cap to do the same at any other rock showings. We set down at another moraine and then hiked about four miles to some Moraine area of valley glaciers on Ellesmere Island; Blyth Robertson at right. 31 ,Mi^^ w^ Above: Surface of icecav, Ellesmere Is- land. Meltwater river meanders across fore- ground. Far right: Muskoxen arrange themselves in charac- teristic defensive pose. Truelove lowland, Devon Island. 32 isolated rocks that we could see through binocu- lars high up on the top of the ice slopes. All the rocks in this area were granites of several kinds. I got a special, personal thrill out of this trek, for I had now hiked on all three of the world's largest continental ice caps — Antarctica, Devon Island, and (exactly 30 years earlier) Greenland. The weather was getting terrible. Low clouds rolled past at surface levels, obscuring the view in several directions. Snow squalls swirled by. The ice surface was cut by melt-water rivu- lets, and walking required constant probing with an ice axe handle to see if we were going to break through small crevasses. We finally found our way back to the helicopter and took off. Finding the other part of our party wasn't easy in the snowstorm. I began to get worried that we'd have to return to Truelove without them until the weather improved. A small break in the clouds, at the right time, revealed a tiny figure plodding through the snow below us. We set down and picked them up. We flew back to Truelove to wait out the weather. The next day the weather continued to be bad. The ice cap had black clouds rolling over its surface; however, by about 8 p.m. it cleared and was bright and sunny over the cap. With 24 hours of daylight, work can go on when the weather is good rather than by the clock. So we packed our gear and took off in the helicopter. ■q^:^ %.. '*<, We cruised the ice cap at 1-3 mph, setting down near any rocks showing on the surface. By about 3 a.m. we had covered the entire portion of the ice cap that we had planned to search. No meteorites! We sailed down a huge valley glacier, the Sverdrup Glacier, between vertical walls of gra- nite, and emerged out over the Arctic Ocean — a magnificent flight experience. We followed the coastline back to Truelove Inlet, counting 105 muskoxen, in herds up to 14 individuals, along our course. The scenery was spectacular in the light of the low-hanging sun. When we landed back in camp we flushed a group of arctic foxes. Although our expectations for meteorite re- coveries on Devon Island were never high, we were all disappointed at not finding at least one. Theoretical calculations indicated between 1,500 and 3,000 meteorite fragments would be there, potentially. We knew ahead of time, from aerial photographs, that the ice cap had a heavy snow cover at any given time, and was very different from the Antarctic ice cap, which has bare blue ice, little snow cover, roaring winds, and no melt- ing. The main hope of finding any meteorites on Devon Island was the chance some portion of the ice cap would be windswept and clear of snow, exposing the old ice beneath it. We found no such areas. The next day a Twin Otter aircraft arrived from Resolute and took our party north, across the sea, to an Eskimo village at Grise Fjord on Ellesmere Island. Shortly afterward our helicop- ter arrived, and while it was refueling, we had a chance to go into the Eskimo Cooperative trad- ing post, where I bought a soapstone carving . We took off and headed eastward across the ocean to a large headland, where we turned north and flew up a glacier- filled valley, over a height of jagged mountains and into a valley of spectacular arctic beauty. It was a place on the Ellesmere ice cap where eight valley glaciers flowed into a depression with no outlet. When the expedition to Devon Island was originally planned, a Canadian glacier expert had sug- gested we might also look at this place on Ellesmere. It is an extraordinary situation, glaciologi- cally, to have so many valley glaciers pushing into a central depression. It was thought that perhaps, among the accumulated rock debris of all these glaciers carried into this spot from sur- rounding areas of several thousand square miles, there might be some concentration of meteorites. Our hopes were never high for this area because we knew that there would be vast amounts of rocks from the surrounding mountains that would make it almost impossible to notice any meteorites among them. That is exactly how it worked out. The depression was a jumble of 33 The stark, lonely beauty of the arctic ts captured in Olsen's shot of stranded ice- bergs on Comwallis Island coast, near Resolute Bay. 34 granites and other terrestrial rocks. We climbed onto one of the largest glaciers and walked across it for miles on the chance some meteorite might be on the surface. We found no rocks at all. Across the surface of the ice ran a huge meltwa- ter river — icy water cutting into pure ice. The channel was deep blue in color and utterly clear and clean. The water coursed swiftly, swinging along deeply cut meanders, almost completely silent. We flew back to Grise Fjord, refuelled, then flew across the sea to Devon Island and Truelove Inlet. While cruising over the sea ice we saw our first polar bear — a huge white fellow, who was obviously upset by the sound and whoosh of air from the helicopter. He dove into a pond of meltwater on the ice surface, then raced off across the ice as we followed him. We circled him at low elevation and he finally sat down and looked up at us in confusion. We left him in peace. The next day a Twin Otter flew us to Reso- lute Bay, and Les and Steve departed for home. I was to spend more time back on Devon Island collecting samples from an ancient meteorite im- pact crater on the western, unglaciated end of the island. The meteorite search on the Devon Island ice cap did have a yield of information, if not of meteorites. Ice caps in arctic regions are too snow covered to be good search areas for meteorites. The Antarctic ice cap is much colder; virtually no melting takes place there at any time of the year, and most of the ice accumulates on the surface by direct condensation of small amounts of mois- ture in the air, rather than by snowing, as it does in the arctic. These differences are due to several factors. The Antarctic continent sits alone over the south pole and is surrounded by open oceans that have no effect on altering the circumpolar weather pattern. The ice caps in the arctic, Devon and Greenland, are in subpolar positions and have many land masses nearby to break up the circumpolar weather pattern. The arctic is warmer as a result, and the ice surfaces are dif- ferent. From the Devon Island search we learned that a search of Greenland, too, may not yield new meteorite finds. D OUR ENVIRONMENT Radio Beacon Leads Investigators to Bald Eagle Burial Site "He that has patience may compass any- thing," the 16th-century French satirist Rabelais wrote. "Patience," in both the literal and figurative sense, coupled with some sophisticated 20th-century technol- ogy, led U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigators recently to the conclusion of an unusual case involving the death of an endangered bald eagle. A matchbox- sized radio transmitter emitting a prolonged rapid-pulse "dis- tress" signal off the taU of a bald eagle nicknamed "Patience" led airborne biolo- gists to a 50-acre island in Oregon's Snake River, where they uncovered the eagle's burial site. Their discovery, after three months of charting the research bird's elusive migra- tion path through the intermountain west, led to an inquiry by Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement agents. Charged with the shooting of the endangered bald eagle was an Oregon rancher, who had tossed its carcass into the island's garbage dump last January. There, its miniature radio device continued to emit a staccato pulse that led its trackers ever closer to the scene of the bird's abrupt end. In July, after a lengthy investigation during which the Oregon man confessed to the shooting, the Federal Court in Port- land, Oregon, ordered the rancher to pay a $2,500 fine under a settlement with the U.S. Attorney's office. One-halfof the fine will be turned over to Glacier National Park's Bald Eagle Research Project to fund further research. The rancher received the fine and a 30-day suspended jail sentence for violating the Bald Eagle Protection Act. "Patience," a three-year-old female that had not yet acquired the "bald" head of white feathers distinctive for mature five-year-old birds, became a research subject in the McDonald Creek section of Glacier Park. There, researchers captured the bird, attached the tiny radio transmit- ter and identification markers, and re- leased it. In a program cosponsored by the National Park Service and the University of Montana and supported by the Na- tional Audubon Society and the Wildlife Management Institute, the scientists are studying the migration patterns of the birds, which are officially listed as "en- dangered" in 43 states and "threatened" in five others. (In Alaska, the species is not in such danger, however.) An estimated 10 percent of the bald eagles known to winter in the United States pass through Glacier each fall. At times, their concentration in McDonald Creek can range as high as 600 birds. In 1980, researchers began equipping the birds with radio transmitters in an effort to reveal the eagles' winter migration routes farther south and their return routes to summer nesting grounds in Canada, with an eye towards developing a management plan for crucial roosting and feeding sites along their path. "Patience" remained in the vicinity of Glacier Park and nearby Rathead Lake until December, 1980, when it departed on a migration of more than 500 miles along Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains and the middle fork of the Salmon River. This was the first time that researchers were able to fully track a research bird's westerly mi- gration, in contrast to the more southerly migration route taken by most of Glacier's eagles. Harriet Allen, a Bald Eagle Research Project biologist, tracked the bird for most of its journey, driving more than 6,000 miles on mountain roads as she followed the flight path. Somewhere along the Snake River near Ontario, Oregon, "Pa- tience's" radio signals were lost. Allen reestablished contact during two flights over the river, but an unchanging series of "fast pulse" radio signals told her the bird was possibly in trouble. Allen pinpointed Old Crow Island, about two miles south of Ontario, where she had sighted the bird on one instance the week before, as the site of the distress signals. The island, in the middle of the Snake River, is owned by the state of Ore- gon and leased for farming and grazing. There, under a foot of rubbish covered with a sheet of metal, Allen and state biologists found "Patience," its orange wing markers torn off but its radio trans- mitter still attached and operating. X-rays revealed that the bird had been struck in the head by a shotgun pellet. "I felt a tremendous sense of loss, as did everyone on the project," Allen said. "There was much more we could have learned from this bird. But it was one of the few instances when we could fully piece together the details of one of the many eagle shootings in the West." The Fish and Wildlife Service esti- mates that up to 200 bald and golden eagles may be killed in the Pacific North- west each year by gunners who illegally shoot raptors, by suppliers of the illicit trade in eagle feathers and related items, and by people who set baited traps for other wildlife and accidentally snare eagles. The service began an investigation into the eagle's death by interviewing a nearby landowner who raises livestock and poultry on Old Crow Island. He con- fessed to the shooting, claiming that he thought the bird was a hawk that posed a threat to his livestock. Under the Bald Eagle Protection Act, bald and golden eagles are protected and, except under limited circumstances, their killing, possession, and trade is illegal, with penalties of up to one year in jail and a fine of $5,000 for first offenses. (The bald eagle is also protected under the En- dangered Species Act and, in addition to hawks and other birds, is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.) ^If^-ft- Painting Town Red Passe? Incredible though it may sound, a French artist, Jean Verame, is currently spray- painting the mountains in the previously untouched valley of Bir Nafach, an area close to the historically sacred Mount Sinai, with 13 tons of black and blue paint. Boulders, peaks, and rock walls are now literally black and blue in polka-dots, triangles, and squares. The artist calls it "adding a human dimension to nature"; conservationists call it "vandalism." The natural desert sandstone hues of the mountains of southern Sinai will bear Verame's imprint for many years. Killer Deer You think that cuddly fawn you picked up and raised by hand would never harm a soul? Think again. Kim Heller, a photographer with Ohio Department of Natural Resources, died from wounds suffered when he was gored by a deer. Heller was on assignment for the department at a private wildlife preserve when a semidomesticated white-tailed deer charged and gored him in the chest and abdomen. Cut and bruised. Heller managed to crawl into a nearby pond and escape the deer. Later, he was able to make his way to his vehicle and drive to the home of the preserve manager for help. But he died five days later in a hospital. The attack on Heller is not a rare type of incident. There are many reports of "tame" deer kicking, goring, or otherwise inflicting injury on their "owners" or others. 35 f EDITH FLEMING ' 946 PLEASANT fcOAK PARK ILL 60302 'U *■'. January & February at Field Museum January 16 through February 15 Continuing Exhibits "In the Shadow of the Pyramid." A newly designed section of the Egyptian Collection, Hall J, presents prehistoric and early historic exhibits in proper context. Visitors can walk through the tomb chapel of an Egyptian nobleman, Unis-ankh, and view afterlife offerings in another tomb through a glass wall. Outside the south entrance to the Egyptian Room a replica of the Tomb Chapel of Nakht, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been installed. The chapel walls are covered with reproduc- tions of some of the finest known Egyptian tomb paintings. Indians of Middle America. Aztec stone sculptures are a high- light of this exhibit, focusing on Middle American cultures, 1500 B.C. to the present. In addition to costumes, pottery, and farm tools, you'll see dioramas of an Aztec marketplace and of a Maya ceremony, as well as a canoe of modern-day Cuna Indians. Hall 8, main floor. New Programs Winter Fun. Children in various age groups are invited to join a natural history workshop during January. Each project will be for one or two Saturday sessions. Call 322-8854 for a brochure with more information and prices. D January 16: 10 a.m. -12 noon. "Arctic Journey." A craft project, making a mini-igloo, weather permitting; ages 4 and 5. "Costumes for the Sorcerer's Dance." Continuation of Jan. 9 workshop. "Metal Casting." Craft project and tour; ages 9-12. n January 16: 1 p.m. -3 p.m. "Different Faces from Faraway Places." Continuation of Jan. 9 workshop. "Indian Drums." Craft project and tour of Pawnee Earth Lodge; ages 6-8. "Metal Casting." Craft project and tour; ages 9-12. D January 23: 10 a.m. -12 noon. "Arctic Whales." Stories, songs, and slide program; ages 4 and 5. "Reptile Tales." Demonstration and tour; ages 6-8. "Our Feathered Friends." Craft project and tour; ages 9-12. n January 23: 1 p.m. -3 p.m. "People of Clay." Craft project and tour; ages 6-8. Continued Jan. 30. "The Secret Life of Salamanders." Craft project and tour; ages 6-8. "The Invisible World." Microscopic demonstration and experi- ment; ages 6-8. D January 30: 10 a.m. -12 noon. "The Corn Maiden's Feast." Craft project and tour; ages 4-5. "The Chinese Shadow Play." Craft project culminates in a shadow play; ages 6-8. "Marine Fossils." Demonstration and tour; ages 9-12. D January 30: 1 p.m. -3 p.m. "Crickets, Kites and Kids: Village Life in China." Craft project and tour; ages 4 and 5. "The Primates: Our First Cousins." Tour and demonstration; ages 6-8. "People of Clay." Continuation of Jan. 23 workshop. Latin American Neighbors Day. A fiesta of events will acquaint Chicagoans with Spanish-speaking Americans. Dances, tours, lectures, touchable exhibits, craft projects, and games from the cultures of Mexico, Central and South America will be featured. Special programs for children, in Spanish and English. All events free with Museum admission. Sunday, Jan. 31, 12 noon to 4 p.m. Highlights include: D "Nuevo Ideal." Mexican folk dances will be performed in Stanley Field Hall at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. n "Lords of Tiwanaku." Dr. Alan Kolata, visiting assistant curator of Andean Archeology, will present an illustrated lecture on the history and evolution of Tiwanaku, one of the great civilizations of the ancient Americas; 2 p.m. in Simpson Theatre. D "Fossil Mammals of South America." Dr. Larry Marshall, as- sistant curator of fossil mammals, will introduce some of the strange mammals that evolved in South America during the millions of years that it was an isolated island continent; 1 p.m. in Lecture Hall I. n The Clemente Steel Band of Roberto Clemente High School will perform at 2:45 p.m. in Stanley Field Hall. Winter Journey "The Adventures of Marco Polo." In this self- guided tour, visitors observe animals that Marco Polo saw on his travels and read his own descriptions of them. Free Journey pamphlets available at Museum entrances. Weekend Discovery Programs. Tours, craft projects, slide pre- sentations, and films which use exhibits as a springboard for new insights into natural history topics. The January "Film Fea- tures," focusing on ancient China, will be shown every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Lecture Hall I; free with Museum admission. Check Weekend Sheet at Museum entrances for other programs. Coming February 21. "Hidden Valleys of Tibetan Myth and Legend." Lecture by Edwin Bernbaum, author of The Way to Shambhala. Continuing Programs Volunteer Opportunities. Persons with scientific interests and backgrounds are needed to work in various departments. Call the Volunteer Coordinator, 922-9410, ext. 360. January and February Hours. The Museum is open from 9 a.m.— 4 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m. -9 p.m., Friday; and 9 a.m. -5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. The Museum Library is open weekdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin . February 1982 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin Published by Field Museum of Natural History Founded 1893 President: Willard L. Boyd Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Editor/Designer: David M. Walsten Calendar: Mary Cassai Staff Photographer: Ron Testa Board OF Trustees James J. O'Connor chairman Mrs. T. Stanton Armour George R. Baker Robert O. Bass Gorden Bent Bowen Blair Willard L. Boyd Mrs. Robert Wells Carton Stanton R. Cook O.C. Davis William R. Dickinson, Jr. Thomas E. Donnelley 11 Marshall Field Richard M. Jones Hugo J. Melvoin Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. James H. Ransom John S. Runnells William L. Searle Edward Byron Smith Robert H. Strotr John W. Sullivan William G. Swartchild, Jr. Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken E. Leland Webber Julian B. Wilkins Blaine J. Yarrington Life Trustees Harry O. Bercher William McCormick Blair Joseph N. Field Paul W. Goodrich Clifford C. Gregg Samuel Insull, Jr. WiUiam V. Kahler William H. MitcheU John M. Simpson J. Howard Wood CONTENTS February 1982 Volume 53, Number 2 Field Briefs Letters from the Arctic — // by Edward Olsen Curator of Mineralogy The Plains Indian Bull-Boat By James W. VanStone Curator of North American Archeology and Ethnology Dermestids By Robert M. Timm Assistant Curator and Head, Division of Mammals 14 Edward E. Ayer Film Lecture Series 19 Gone Fishing in the Gulf of Honduras By Robert K.Johnson, chairman of the Department of Zoology and David W. Greenfield, Research Associate 20 Field Museum Tours 25 February and March at Field Museum Calendar of Coming Events back cover COVER Winter Afternoon at Lake Michigan Dunes. Photo by John Kolar. Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin (USPS 898-940) is publistied monthly, except combined July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Stiore Drive, Ctiicago, n. 60605. Subscriptions; $6,00 annually, $3.00 for schools. Museum membership includes Bulletin sut)Scription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Museum phone: (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send from 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 60605. ISSN:0015-0703. Second class postage paid at Chicago, II. FIELD BRIEFS Field Museum's new Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room, viewed Rare Book Room and of the renovated Library Reading Room was eel- through display window. Funding for the new facility, opened December ebrated with a luncheon and tour of the facilities, sponsored by the 2, was provided by Mr and Mrs. John S. Runnells. The opening of the Women's Board of Field Museum. The Planned Giving Program All their working lives, the married couple had wanted to make a substantial gift to Field Museum. Soon after his wife's death, the husband realized that now, having no heirs, was the time to make that gift, and that his wife would want it this way. Therefore, he transferred a substan- tial securities portfolio into the Field Museum Pooled Income Fund. In making the gift in this manner, this individual will receive a lifetime income through the Fund; morever, he has freed himself from financial concerns, with his funds now receiving professional man- agement. His income, incidentally, will re- flect a higher yield than his original portfolio, because he had been "locked in" to low-yielding, but highly ap- preciated, securities. By making the trans- fer, he avoided recognizing the capital gains, and, therefore, avoided any capital gains tax; yet, he was able to get an im- mediate charitable tax deduction on a por- tion of those funds. Another person, anxious to help a friend, this past Christmas transferred funds into the Pooled Income Fund suffi- cient to give the friend a generous monthly income, for life. This donor also received a charitable income tax deduction and was freed from any capital gains tax. These are two examples of types of gifts that have been made to Field Museum's Pooled Income Fund since in- auguration of the Museum's Planned Giv- ing Program this past September (see the September Bulletin). The Pooled Income Fund is a conve- nient way to assure having a life income and to make a significant gift to the Museum at the same time. It is the excep- tion to the adage, "you can't have it both ways!" Gifts to the Pooled Income Fund pass to the Museum's Endowment Fund at the conclusion of the final life interest. Since announcement of the Museum's Planned Giving Program, the Museum has been informed by many Museum friends that they have remem- bered Field Museum in their wills. This past fall, a survey of the Membership was taken, to find those persons, and to inter- est others. The survey had gratifying re- sults, and any Member who has not yet responded is urged to do so. Purpose of the Planned Giving Pro- gram is to increase the Museum's en- dowment. Bequests by will and gifts through life income trust agreements go into the Endowment Fund, perpetuating Continued on page 27 3 The first segment of Edward Olsen's 1981 visit to the Canadian Arctic was recounted in "Letters from the Arctic — I," in the January, 1982, Bulle- tin. Lette/(A f/t/mi tim Aidkj -U By Edward Olsen Curator of Mineralogy Photos courtesy of the author Sedimentary rock outcrops, tipped vertical by asteroid impact 15 million yean ago, are still coated with pale rock dust created by the impact. ■■ -\>*-. -^i- ;_^af!& /n 1955, or thereabouts, the first detailed geological maps were made of many of the arctic islands of northern Canada. On Devon Island the geological features were pretty straightforward: granitic rocks of the deeper crust are exposed on the eastern half of the is- land, and these are overlain with sedimentary rocks (of Paleozoic age) on the western half. In the western half, however, a peculiar geological structure was observed. This was a 20 km (12 mile) circular structure consisting of dis- continuous rings of rock layers tipped upward, very much broken up by fractures and faults, and coated with pale gray pulverized rock that contains chips and fragments of all the kinds of rock types represented in the area. The geologists who first mapped this odd structure were perplexed. It is somewhat similar to a structure known as a salt dome — so, having to call it something, that is how they designated it on the map. It remained that way for sixteen years, when another geologist. Dr. Mike Dence of the Department of Energy, Mines and Re- sources Canada, looking over the geological maps of the arctic islands, noticed that it was all by itself on Devon Island; the nearest other known salt dome was over 500 km (about 300 miles) away on another arctic island. Since salt domes are sedimentary rock structures that al- most always occur in clusters, not as singles, Dence thought the solitary nature of the Devon Island "salt dome" really odd. Besides, he com- pared the position of the structure with the height contours of a topographic map that existed for the region and found that it consisted of a slight depression. It occurred to him then that the structure might really be an ancient scar from a huge meteorite impact explosion. In 1975 Dr. Blyth Robertson, also of the Department of Mines, Energy and Resources Canada, met a mining company geologist who was going up to the area. Robertson asked him to collect some sample rocks, especially any- thing that looked unusual. In due course he re- ceived from him a group of samples that were clearly recognizable as evidence of an impact explosion — shatter cones. Shatter cones are just what their name im- plies, cones formed by the shattering of the rock from which they are made. Many of us have had the experience of having our car windshield struck by a pebble flying up from the wheel of a passing car. The common form of damage is a tiny hole on the outside surface, with a small cone-shaped chip popped out of the inside sur- face. The pointed end of the cone aims at the source of the impacting pebble. For about 25 years it has been recognized that very large meteorite impact craters have shatter cones developed in the rocks that sur- round their centers. These take the form of typi- cal cones with unique, characteristic flutings on their surfaces. It has been found that if the direc- tion of the pointed ends — as seen in outcrops of the blasted, contorted rocks — are mapped, and if the original position of horizontal layers is taken into account, the points all aim radially toward a single, central point — the point of impact: "ground zero." In 1977 Robertson spent part of the arctic summer at the site, collecting shatter cones, mapping their positions, and doing a survey of the gravity field over the structure. When a por- tion of the earth's surface has suffered a crush- ing blast, the shattered rock has more pore space than the original rock, due to the fractures that form between and through the mineral grains that comprise it. As a result, crushed rock under an area will cause the pull of gravity to be very slightly less than in surrounding areas where the bedrock is uncrushed. The result of this sur- vey showed just such a gravity feature: a circle of 20 km that coincided with the geological structure and with the slight topographic de- pression. All this, combined with the shatter cones and the discovery of a form of quartz in the rock that is known to crystallize only at very high shock pressures, made the story conclu- sive. The structure is definitely an impact crater. Subsequent study has shown that the im- pact occurred 15 million years ago, and the orig- inal crater has been largely filled by sediments of a lake that once occupied it — which is why the depression is only slight today. The impact- ing object was about 1 km in diameter (more than 3,000 feet). It vaporized completely on impact. When a small meteorite, less than about 100 tons, hits the earth, it merely punches a hole into the soil and usually breaks into fragments itself. When a meteorite of 100 tons or more hits, the energy is too high for the meteorite to hold itself together. The energy is literally greater than the energy that binds atom to atom in the minerals that comprise the meteorite. It vapor- izes as an explosive cloud, excavating millions of tons of the rock at ground zero, uplifting lay- ered rocks next to the explosion, and sending a shock wave through the surrounding area, causing shatter cones to form. If the blast is below a certain magnitude a simple, hollowed- out crater is developed. An example of that kind of crater is Meteor Crater near Flagstaff, Arizona. If the explosion is above a certain mag- nitude a complex crater develops: the central part is excavated in the blast and immediately afterward the earth under the center rebounds, forming a small peak. Such craters are common on the lunar surface. The central peak is analo- gous to the blip of water that spurts upward when a pebble is dropped into standing water. The crater on Devon Island is one of these. The central portion has been uplifted into a small peak just after the impact explosion. In the 15 Limestone shatter cone formed by severe shock waves from asteroid impact. Ground willoic (Salix sp.), the single wood]/ plant species in the high arctic, in characteristic ground-clinging posture. million years since the impact, however, most of the peak has been eroded away. The impact structure has been named Haughton Crater after a name given by the original geologist to the "salt dome" he found. During part of July and August of last year I had a chance to be a member of a Canadian expedition to search for meteorites on the ice cap of eastern Devon Island. When that part of the expedition was over, I remained with Robertson and a field assistant, Chris Pitre, to fly to the Haughton area, set up camp, and run a different kind of survey — this time a mag- netometer survey, over the structure. We flew out of Resolute Bay, on Cornwallis Island — just west of Devon Island, in a Twin Otter aircraft with all our equipment on July 30. We landed on a flat gravel surface next to a river, not too far from the center of the impact struc- ture, and put up three tents. A small portable transmitter radio was hooked up so we could communicate with the Resolute Bay station. The place we camped was starkly beautiful. The area looked just like the desert of central Arizona — but without the trees and cacti. The valley of the nameless river, beside which we were camped, was enclosed between two rows of beautiful mountain ridges — one of them blanketed with the pale gray, almost white, coating of pul- verized rock that had been blown out of the impact crater so long ago and settled over the hills surrounding the crater. The river was shallow, ice cold, crystal clear, and made a pleasant sound as it splashed over the rapids in front of the two tents set up for sleeping. It meandered back and forth across the valley floor, fed by tributaries that entered it from melting snowfields on the mountain sides. The valley floor was made up of a series of gravel terraces, each quite flat, that were de- posited during the retreat of the ice cap from this half of Devon Island. Our field work began as soon as the camp was set up. Robertson and Pitre were going to do the magnetometer survey; my main interest was in collecting specimens of shatter cones and impact-shocked bedrocks for study and for use in future exhibits in the Museum, as well as for possible exchanges with other museums. Up to this time only a small collection of specimens had been made of the Haughton area by the few government geologists working on it. The Field Museum was to have the first chance to collect for broader uses. In fact, I was the first outside {i.e., nongovernment) geologist to visit the area since it was recognized as a crater. In doing work here, field parties have come to use small all-terrain vehicles — ATVs. I have always opposed these machines, which allow men to smash their way into remote places. In- excusable damage has been done to areas of the southwestern deserts in Arizona, New Mexico, and California. In those cases, use of ATVs has caused compaction of soils, resulting in the de- struction of the flora and subsequent negative effects on the fauna. The compacted soils are also crushed into smaller grain sizes, which are more easily blown and washed away. So it was with great concern that I found our party supplied with three ATVs, one for each of us. As I walked over the desertlike ter- rain near the camp I realized that no damage could be done to the soils, flora, and fauna — there weren't any! This was a desert of com- pacted gravel, boulders, and rock outcrop — a high arctic desert. The only flora consists of small, widely scattered patches of mosses, a few algal mats along streams, a wildflower here and there, and an occasional small, sprawling willow clinging to the ground. No soil is devel- oped. The field parties use ATVs because these vehicles make it possible to cover large distances and visit more outcrops than would be possible on foot. In the arctic, field seasons are short and every effort is made to do the maximum amount as quickly as possible. The availability of ATVs and the ability to work around the clock with 24 hours of daylight make it possible to get a lot of work done each season. In general, Canadian activities in the arctic are becoming more and more responsible. Field parties are now re- quired to bring out all their garbage and to leave campsites as they found them. In spite of the justification, I approached my little, balloon-tired puddle-jumper with a lack of enthusiasm. As it turned out, the vehicle was actually of little use to me. Driving along at the vehicle's lowest possible speed, I was still mov- ing too fast to examine loose specimens and outcrops. When walking, I saw far more, and got'better samples. Besides, I came to hate the exhaust fumes and the engine noise. Walking across that vast, empty, unexplored land in complete silence, with only a whisper of wind or the subtle rumble of a distant stream or wa- terfall is too extraordinary an experience to be spoiled by motor fumes and noise. I used the vehicle on only two occasions, and on one of these it rolled over on me when going up a slope so steep that I shouldn't have tried to climb it in the first place. The vehicle rolled over a dozen times as it tumbled down the slope, but after- ward it still ran just fine. The day after my accident, Chris went over a cliff with his ATV. He escaped serious injury, but his vehicle was smashed beyond immediate repair. From then on he rode my vehicle and I did my traverses happily on foot, and alone. On one of these traverses, a beautiful sunny day, I was walking through a valley many miles from camp when I came across fairly fresh polar bear tracks. I didn't have anything along for defense because I had mistakenly assumed the bears wouldn't get that far away from the sea — about 20 miles. There are few incidents of serious bear attacks; however, those few are enough to keep up your respect for them. Sub- sequently, I carried a loaded rifle on all my treks. This gave me a feeling of security, although I had to admit to myself I would find it just about impossible to shoot one of these animals. I hoped that shooting at it might be enough to scare it away. I also carried an old beer can con- taining small pebbles, for it is said that polar bears will run away from loud, clanging sounds. Happily I never had a chance to test out this theory — or fire the rifle. One day a helicopter came in to spend the Canadian govern- ment geologist Blyth Robertson (left) and assistant Chris Pitre atop a mass of gyp- sum crystals formed In/ ground water deposition. Pitre, Robertson, and Olsen (I. to r.) pose by cook tent witn all-terrain vehicles. day with us putting in magnetometer reference stations. Because of rapid fluctuations in the magnetic field in this region, so close to the north magnetic pole, it was necessary to place all the reference stations as quickly as possible — hence the helicopter. This process involved landing at a chosen site, taking a magnetometer reading, marking the spot with a rock cairn, hopping into the helicopter again, taking off to a new spot, miles away, and repeating the pro- cess. We made sixteen stations that day. It would have taken several days to do the same thing by surface travel, even by ATV. Like most polar field work, north or south, there is a pattern of intense activity followed by periods of boring inactivity when the weather is too rotten to work, or while waiting for air- craft. On this trip we had long stretches of fog, drizzle, rain, a few snow flurries, and heavy overcast skies. After a period of several days of drizzle we noticed that the little babbling stream in front of our tents was rising. Our pretty, blue creek had turned green, was cloudy with fine sediment, and had grown into a deep, formida- ble roaring river. By putting reference-marker stones along the gravel bank that contained it, we figured the creek was rising at about three inches an hour. In a few hours our tents would be flooded. So we moved the two sleeping tents to a higher gravel terrace, but left the cook tent where it was, on slightly higher ground away from the river. In the arctic it is always wise to put the cook tent a long walk from the sleeping tents. If a polar bear shows up it will probably go for the cook tent, with its food odors, first. The clattering of pots becomes your warning to get up and eitlier run or shoot it out. If you're far enough away you have a chance. After a few hours the river was a raging torrent, cutting away at the gravel banks. By 11 p.m. the drizzle stopped and we determined the river had ceased to rise — to only an inch below the first terrace level. We left the sleeping tents where they were in case of future rain. In spite of the off-and-on bad weather, our work was soon completed. It was an unusual period. Every few hours a swell of fog would pour through the mountain passes from the di- rection of the sea and settle in the impact basin. The wind would finally dispel the fog, giving us an hour of clearer weather — still dull gray — before the next fog layer, sitting over the sea- coast, would become deep enough to pour over the passes onto us again. The Twin Otter from Resolute was sup- posed to come in on one particular evening and take out our camp, but this fog-clear-fog weather situation meant that landing was im- possible. With 24 hours of daylight the plane might arrive at any hour of the "night." By mid- night our weather had improved marginally and the sun made the northern sky dull red. This was one of those boring waiting periods that are part of arctic field work. As I wandered along the bank of the swollen river I saw a flight of nine eider ducks land on a gravel bank. They consisted of adults and a couple of birds that appeared somewhat small — like the young of this season. They were the only living animals I saw during this time at that camp, and were grouping for the migration south — August 7. It was time to leave the high arctic. D The Plains Indian Bull-Boat Specialized Transportation on the Upper Missouri River Bv James w. VanStone Curatorof North American Archeology and Ethnology In 1891 Frederic Ward Putnam, curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, was appointed chief of the Department of Ethnology and Ar- chaeology for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His task was to assemble a large anthropological collection for the world's fair in 1893, and for this purpose field parties to various parts of the world were directed to collect ethnographic specimens and other materials representing many different cultures. Early in 1892 Putnam wrote to A. W. Fair- banks of Fort Berthold, North Dakota, request- ing that Fairbanks collect ethnographic speci- mens from among the Plains Indian tribes of the upper Missouri River region. This material was apparently collected and shipped, but when it was accessioned on October 31, 1893, by Field Columbian Museum, established to house col- lections gathered for the world's fair, the only specimen that could be located was a bull-boat,* an example of one of the most primitive skin- * Catalog number 15568 covered canoes built by the Indians of North America. Bull-boats were not actually canoes, but rather coracles similar to those used in Ireland and by the ancient Britons. They were bowl- shaped and suitable only for use on streams where ferrying would be the primary require- ment. Although all Plains Indians living near streams probably once constructed bull-boats, this form of vessel is associated most frequently with the Mandan, Arikara, and Gros Ventre, who used it to cross the Missouri River and its tributaries. Many boats from various parts of the world were collected for the World's Columbian Expo- sition and subsequently accessioned by Field Columbian Museum (in 1906 renamed Field Museurri of Natural History). In 1929 the Museum donated a collection of 75 boats — one of the finest assemblages of aboriginal water craft in the world — to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, apparently hoping to solve a storage problem. Because that institution also had no facilities for storing such a large collection, ar- rangements were made to place the vessels in temporary storage under the seats in Soldier Field, across the street from Field Museum. When new construction was undertaken at Sol- dier Field in 1937, virtually the entire collection was destroyed by the Chicago Park District "in the belief that they had been used in the past for pageants, festivals and parades and because of their age were no longer usable."' Field Museum's bull-boat was slated for in- clusion in this collection of deaccessioned boats, and in the catalog of the Department of An- thropology is the notation that the specimen was "sent to Rosenwald Industrial Museum [Museum of Science and Industry] 12/13/28." For reasons that are unclear but extremely fortunate, the bull-boat was not included in the collection stored in Soldier Field. It disappeared, however, from Field Museum's collections and was redis- covered only in 1968 when extensive renovations were made to the building's fourth floor for the newly created Department of Exhibition. When found, the bull-boat was in a crate, perhaps in anticipation of removal from the Museum. In any event, it has been preserved and is one of the few water craft remaining in the Museum's North American Indian collections. Wherever they occur, bull-boats are always described as temporary craft constructed for spe- cial purposes. Unlike the Eskimo kayak, from which the skin cover can be removed because the parts of the frame are rigidly lashed and pegged together, bull-boats were usually built according to bark canoe methods, whereby the covering was part of the structure holding the framework together.^ 10 Field Museum's specimen has shallow, flar- ing sides and is covered with cowhide (with the hair side on the exterior) rather than with the buffalo hide ordinarily associated with tra- ditional craft. The vessel has a diameter of ap- proximately 51 inches and is about 20 inches deep in the center. The rim is made of overlapping willow branches, lashed together at intervals with strips of willow root; the cowhide is also lashed to the rim with root strips. Below the rim on two sides and running in the same direction are more strips. The framework is made of bent willow branches placed at right angles to one another in more or less haphazard positions. Where they cross, these branches are lashed to- gether with strips of cloth (fig. 2). It seems clear that the craft was built up on the skin. Over the years, as the cowhide has dried, the supporting framework has twisted and slipped; some branches have punctured the hide. When it was new, the boat was probably somewhat deeper than now; the sides were less flaring, and the shape more regular. Neverthe- less, it is obvious that the vessel is not well made; Fairbanks, in fact, cautioned Putnam in a letter of September 20, 1892, that "this boat is really not a very good specimen of a bull-boat but it was the best I could obtain at the time."^ Early travellers on the Missouri River and its tributaries admired the versatility of the bull- boat and described it in considerable detail. One of the earliest of these descriptions, written by a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, is of vessels made by the Arikara and Mandan. These are made in the following manner: two sticks of an inch and a quarter in diameter are tied together so as to form a round hoop, which serves for the brim, while a second hoop, for the bottom of the boat, is made in the same way; both are secured by sticks of the same size from the sides of the hoops, fastened by thongs at the edges of the hoops and at the interstices of the sticks; over this frame the skin is drawn closely and tied with thongs, so as to form a perfect basin, 7 feet 3 inches in diameter, 16 inches deep, with 16 ribs of cross- sticks, and capable of carry- ing six or eight men with their loads.* Although this account appears to suggest that the vessels described had rigid frames, it is probable that once constructed, their covers could not be removed without collapsing the framework. These boats were also considerably larger than most craft of this type. On August 8, 1806, three members of the Lewis and Clark ex- pedition constructed such a boat in order to de- scend the Yellowstone River: "In these frail ves- sels they embarked, and were surprised at the perfect security in which they passed through 11 the most difficult shoals and rapids of the river, without ever taking in water, even during the highest winds. "^ Another, somewhat later, description is provided by E. T. Denig, a trader on the upper Missouri from 1833 to 1856. Noting that Arikara bull-boats were used for crossing the Missouri, he went on to say that The body of the boat is made of willows, bent round in the form of a basket and tied to a hoop of the same at the top, which hoop is about three or four feet in diameter. The hide of a buffalo, either fresh off the animal's back, or if dry, well soaked in water, is stretched over the frame, the hair inside. It is then turned upside down, dried, and sometimes smeared over with tallow. * 12 Other early observers also noted that the hair often faced in rather than out, as it does on Field Museum's boat. Interesting and instructive drawings of bull-boats were made by Charles Bodmer, the artist who accompanied Prince Maximilian of Wied on his travels through the Plains region in 1832-1834 (fig.l). and by Rudolph Friederich Kurz, whose drawings of women carrying bull- boats were made in 1851 (fig. 3). These illus- trations, together with the descriptions just given, suggest a more precise method of con- struction than is to be found in Field Museum's specimen. As might be imagined, the propelling of a bowl-shaped vessel required a specialized tech- nique. Denig's description is especially graphic: Usually these boats are propelled by the women, one in each boat, which also contains the meat of the same [buffalo] cow whose hide made the canoe. She uses a paddle in front making a paw- ing motion directly under the boat which turns half round to alternate sides at each stroke of the paddle. '' In his letter to Putnam quoted earlier, Fair- banks described the paddling of a bull-boat as follows: // used by a single person, he takes his place in the boat to one side, usually balanced by a stone on the other side but I have seen them without. Then [he] uses the paddle to pull himself forward [and] at the same time as the paddle leaves the water he gives it a tivist which offsets thecurrent and keep[s] the boat directly across the river. The first part of the stroke also is made upward to- wards the current as well as forward. Famed photographer Edward S. Curtis, who visited the Mandan about 1907, provides an obviously posed but informative view of a woman paddling a bull-boat (fig. 4). Denig emphasized that although the bull- boat was usually associated with women, both sexes were expert at this type of navigation. Parties of both [sexes] go for some distance up the Missouri in the summer when the hair of the animal is not seasonable, kill buffalo, make canoes of the hide, put meat in and each one paddles his boat to the village. Fifty, sixty, or a hundred canots can be seen, all loaded, manned or womaned by a single paddler, plying their way even in high wind down the rapid and dangerous current of the Missouri. ' In his letter to Putnam, Fairbanks reported that he had seen vessels similar to the one he collected cross the Missouri loaded with three women, a child, and many bags of flour without seeming to be affected by a rapid current. In 1847 Charles Larpenteur, a fur trader on the upper Missouri, observed a party of 22 Arikaras going to war against the Sioux in 11 bull-boats.' There were, however, some drawbacks to these versatile water craft. Alexander Henry and David Thompson, fur traders writing at the be- ginning of the nineteenth century, observed that although these boats were capable of carrying great loads, it was necessary to unload them once each day and dry them in the sun or over a fire; otherwise they would become waterlogged and sink.'" Temporary or emergency water craft, com- mon among North American Indians, varied from relatively simple vessels like the bull-boat to sizeable boats with crudely constructed but rigid or semi-rigid frames. One of the more com- plex forms was used by Eskimos living along the Kuskokwim River in southwestern Alaska; in the fall they moved up tributaries by canoe to hunt large game animals. After hunting for a month or more, they cached their small canoes to be picked up during the winter and the hunters assembled their catch near a stream where a boat was built for the return trip. The frame of the new boat was constructed of spruce or alder and covered with the skins of freshly killed caribou or bear. Its size depended on the success of the hunters. Although these vessels were undoubt- edly clumsy, they were also very flexible and thus able to safely negotiate swift streams, bouncing off the projecting rocks that were an ever-present hazard." One vessel of this type, seen at the village of Kwethluk on the lower Kuskokwim River in the spring of 1956, was of modified-traditional form but appeared to resemble closely the type of craft used in aboriginal times (fig. 5). This boat was large, approximately 30 feet long but less than two feet deep, and similar to the traditional Es- kimo umiak, being pointed at both ends. The frame, made of roughly worked strips of alder wood, was nailed together and covered with bear skins, one of which is shown in the photo. NOTES 1. Letter of April 19, 1938, from E.I. Kelly, director of Spe- cial Services, Chicago Park District, to J.W. Block, regis- trar. Museum of Science and Industry. 2. Adney and Chapelle, 1964, p. 219. 3. Department of Anthropology files, accession 55. 4. Coues, 1893, vol. 3, p. 1,172. 5. Ibid. 6. Denig, 1961, pp. 51-52. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Larpenteur, 1933, p. 213. 10. Henry and Thompson, 1897, p. 181. 11. Oswalt, 1963, pp. 126-27. REFERENCES Adney, Edwin T. and Howard I. Chapelle 1964 The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C. The use of nails in constructing the frame doubt- less made it more rigid than would have been the case with the skin or root lashing used in aborig- inal times. The vessel's shallow depth was characteristic of its type. The Plains Indian bull-boat was obviously a less ambitious craft. Some were even too small to carry a person, but were intended to be loaded with cargo and towed by a swimmer. Although the previously described vessels encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition were apparently very large, specimens preserved in museum col- lections indicate that a craft more than five feet in diameter and made of more than one skin was extremely rare. Most examples are built on a single skin and are approximately the size of Field Museum's boat. D Coues, Elliott, ed. 1893 History of the Expedition under the Command of Lewis and Clark. 4 vols. N.Y. Curtis, Edward S. 1907-30 The North American Indians. 20 vols. Norwood, Mass. Denig, Edwin T. 1961 Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri. Univ. of Okla- homa Press. Henry, Alexander and David Thompson 1897 New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northivest. Ed. by Elliott Coues. 3 vols. N.Y. Larpenteur, Charles 1933 Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri. The Personal Narrative of Charles Larpenteur 1833-1872. Chicago. Oswalt, Wendell H. 1963 Mission of Change in Alaska. Eskimos and Moravians on the Kuskokwim. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Thwaites, Reuben G., ed. 1904-07 Early Western Travels, 1784-1897. 32 vols. Cleve- land. 13 Author Robert Timm with mounted skeleton of kangaroo rat that had been cleaned by feeding dermestid beetles. DERMESTIDS The remarkable ability of these tiny beetles to strip bones clean of flesh has been turned to the advantage of By Robert M. Timm Assistant Curator and Head, Division of Mammals 14 Curiously, the busiest room at Field Museum is one of the least known. It houses thousands of workers who go un- complainingly about their task 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks out of the year. The name of this room, tucked away on the third floor, is "the Bug Room" — a matter of irony, since it's located in the Division of Mammals, not in Insects. The solution to this seeming conundrum is simplicity itself: In the Bug Room are cages of various sizes, each containing hundreds or thousands of matchhead-size beetles of the species Dermestes maculatus, all gnawing happily away at the carcasses of dead animals. In return for the free meal, these carrion eaters are per- forming an invaluable service to the Museum and to science: they are able to clean an animal skeleton of its flesh more efficiently than any other way — chemical or biological — known to science. Given the time and the right condi- tions, such as humidity and temperature, an army of dermestids can reduce the body of a shrew, a dog, or a horse (even, theoretically, a whale!) to a gleaming skeleton, still articulated {i.e., with its bones still properly intercon- nected). Muscles and fat are all grist for the dermestids' gastronomic mill — leaving the bone, eschewed as it were, rather than chewed. Since science first recognized the animal skeleton as something to be preserved and studied in a systematic fashion, scientists have looked for ways of cleaning from the bones the extraneous tissues that surround them in life. In former times, the carcass was simply soaked in water until the bacterial action broke down the soft tissues; then began the tedious manual pro- cess of picking and scraping off the remaining bits of tissue. Not only was this tiring and time-consuming, the results were never satis- factory. If the bacterial decomposition went on too long, the bones became disarticulated and teeth fell out. Too little soaking meant that extra time was needed for the hand-cleaning stage, and tendons and ligaments usually required more attention. The end result was poorly cleaned, piecemeal material. So zoologists were constantly on the look- out for a better method, and they experimented with ants, clothes moth larvae, mealworms. Dermestes maculatus (larva left, adult right), some- times called the leather beetle, is the dermestid species used for clean- ing skeletons at Field Museum. Larvae grow to slightly more than Vz inch long, adults are somewhat smaller. Drawings by Rosanne Miezio. crawfish, marine isopods and other biological methods — to say nothing of corrosive chemi- cals. All had serious drawbacks. Then, in the 1870s, in France, dermestid beetles were tried, and they came through with winning colors. About sixty years ago dermestids came into use in American museums, and today colonies of these beetles are standard equipment wherever larger collections of vertebrate skeletons are maintained. Dermestid beetles, which constitute the family Dermestidae, are worldwide in distribu- tion, with about 700 known species — 125 in the United States and 25 in Illinois. About 50 have reputations as pests of stored animal and plant products, consuming everything from Jello to rugs to wool sweaters to butterfly collections. Of these dermestids, a few have proven useful to scientists as bone cleaners; some don't adapt well to colonization, however (whole skeletons are cleaned efficiently only with self-perpetuat- ing "colonies" of hundreds or thousands of in- U.S. dime shows rela- tive size of beetle grub and tiny, partially disarticulated shrew skeleton, cleaned by the beetles. 15 Scanning electron microscope photos of D . macula tus: (above, left) head of first instar, or growth phase, of larva magnified 125 times; (above, right) head of first larval instar X520; (opposite page, top left) urticating, or irritant, hairs that cover the grub'sbodyX690;(this page, below) head of adult X33. Photos by Robert Timm. dividuals); others are not efficient enough in cleaning up soft tissues or are too rough with the bony parts. Dermestes maculatus, the dermestid species we use at Field Museum, is commonly known as the leather beetle, because of its special fond- ness for leather and fur. (Before effective insec- ticides were developed it was a serious pest in industries that dealt in these products. ) When properly cared for, D. maculatus is highly pro- lific; a female may lay 500 or more eggs; these eggs hatch two to ten days later into grubs, which grow to adulthood in six to nine weeks. The larval period may be protracted for years if the temperature and humidity are not optimal and food is scant. The newly hatched larvae, 1mm long (1/25 inch), are voracious eaters, and an army of 16 Timm brushes beetles from cleaned kangaroo head. Surgical mask prevents inhalation of dust-size particles of dried beetle exoskele- ton, larva setae (hairs), and excreta that per- vade air of Bug Room . Prolonged exposure may result in allergic reaction. grubs can reduce a shrew, or mole, or bat to a skeleton overnight; a horse may take a few weeks. The larvae molt six or seven times, and when fully grown at 15mm are ready to pupate. When this time comes, they bore into whatever Dermestid adults and larvae at work on squir- rel head. 17 Timm in Bug Room with largest of several dermestiacolony cages. The cage lids as well as the double doors to the Bug Room are precision sealed. 18 material is at hand, finding a snug, isolated spot to lie dormant for 7 to 14 days. One of the ex- traordinary facts about the dermestid is the ability of this pupating grub to bore through the hardest material — even through the mortar and stonework of walls; lead pipes, cables, and elec- trical fuses have proven notably vulnerable to them. Hakluyt's Travels records that in 1593 a ship carrying a cargo of dead penguins was made unseaworthy by the hundreds of thou- sands of tunnels bored into the wooden hull by pupating dermestid larvae (after feeding on the penguins). Cleaning the bones with dermestids is both good husbandry and an art; it is not simply a matter of throwing the bones to the bugs. Be- fore being placed in a beetle colony, the animal's body is skinned, eviscerated, and the larger muscle masses removed. The beetles prefer to feed on tissue that is well dried — but not too dry. Temperature and humidity control are also critical, and the beetles are extremely sensitive to mold and mites; either can wipe out a colony overnight. At the Field Museum we use dermes- tids not only for cleaning the skeletons of mam- mals, but also those of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish — dried fish seems to be their favorite. But we must pay the price for this wonder- ful talent: since dermestids will nibble on just about anything that is dead (including Egyptian mummies), natural history museums must take special care that their dermestid guests are housed in carefully sealed quarters. The Bug Room has a double set of tightly fitting doors and each colony container (commonly a tropical fish aquarium a few cubic feet in volume) has a dermestid-proof lid. The beetles also pose a unique health prob- lem for technicians who must work with them. Persons exposed to the room's air over a period of time may develop a host of disagreeable symptoms that are an allergic reaction to sub- stances in the beetle's system: itching of the skin, hives, irritation of the eyes and respiratory passages, cold sweat, weakness, fever, head- ache, and nausea are all part of the syndrome. An allergic person who is overexposed to the room's atmosphere may even go into serious anaphylactic shock of the sort that can befall a bee-sting victim. The allergic reaction is the result of breath- ing microscopic particles of dead beetle exo- skeletons, molted grub skins with their fuzz of irritant hairs, and excreta — all floating in the air as a fine, impalpable dust. The only protection against this insidious hazard is to wear a surgi- cal mask. What good are all these old bones? Does anyone ever look at them? The answer is a re- sounding YES. In the past year, the mammal col- lection received some 800 visitor-days of use by professionals (in addition to that by our own staff), and we sent out almost 100 loans of specimens to scientists at other institutions. The loan and visitor use of the Field Museum collec- tion is one of the busiest such arrangements in the scientific world. During this 12-month period, scientists in 28 states and 11 foreign countries made use of it — including mam- malogists, anatomists, archaeologists, paleon- tologists, anthropologists, and veterinarians. In recent years, an annual average of more than 40 published technical papers and scholarly books have involved research based on the study of our specimens — many of which had been beau- tifully "prepared" by the remarkable dermes- tids. Once looked upon as just a pest, Dermestes maculatus has risen to become a valued tool in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. D Ayer Film Lectures March and April James Simpson Theatre Saturdays, 1:30 pm The Spring Edward E. Ayer Film Lectures are offered each Saturday in March and April. Please take special notice of the new, earlier starting time — 1:30 pm. These 90-minute travel films are narrated by the filmmakers themselves, and are rec- ommended for adults. Admission is free at the Museum's barrier- free West Entrance, located on the ground floor. Handi- March6 "Footloose in Newfoundland," by Tom Sterling A visit to Newfoundland brings you the wonders of nature — the great fiords, bird colonies of gannets and kittywak.es, whales, moose, and tundra plant life. Sterling also introduces you to the people of Newfoundland — their families, "out- ports," and daily life. March 13 "Switzerland," by Ric Dougherty Visit Chateau-D'Oex, a tiny hamlet of Swiss chalets, ride up Mount Rigi, and trek to the Matterhorn. Watch the Reynaud family making Gruyere cheese, and stay to welcome the cele- brants from Vivey of The Feast of the Wine Growers, Europe's greatest folk festival. March 20 "In the Footsteps of Richard Hallibur- ton," by William Stockdale From London to Spain, to India and Khyber Pass, we follow in the footsteps of adventurer Halliburton (1900-1939). He climbed the Matterhorn, swam the Hellespont, and sailed a junk out of Hong Kong, never to be heard from again. Join Stockdale as he retraces Halliburton's travels. March 27 "China After Mao," by Jens Bjerre This fascinating film invites you to sail down the beautiful Likian River, explore giant caverns, tour Peking, and take a train ride through China to Kwangchow (Canton). Bjerre also explores the many changes in China since the death of Mao — changes which have deeply affected each individual with new freedom. capped persons have access to the theatre via this entrance. Doors open at 12:45 pm for Museum members. When the theatre has reached full seating capacity, the doors will be closed by Security personnel in compliance with fire regulations. April 3 "The Galapagos," by John Wilson A devoted naturalist and cinema- tographer, Wilson exploreSithe Archipelago of Columbus — better known as the Galapagos. Because these islands are isolated, they are home to some of the world's most remarkably adapted wildlife. Scenes include the courting of the albatross, a climb to the top of Volcan Fernandina, and a trip to Alcedo Crater — home of the Galapagos Tortoise. April 10 "Paris and the Seine," by Kathy Dusek The film begins in the hills of Burgundy, then on to the medieval city of Troyes. See Paris at sunrise, the flower market, and the Louvre. Visit Rouen and hear the story of Joan of Arc. Finally we arrive at Normandy and Le Havre — totally rebuilt since World War II. April 17 "South and East Africa," by Ted Bumiller An exciting film safari to the great con- tinent of Africa. Game preserves abound with wildlife — elephants, leopards, and crocodiles. Watch fishermen catch the 200-pound Nile perch; climb Kiliman- jaro, visit Nairobi, and meet Africa's many peoples. April 24 "Himalayan Odyssey," by Frank Klicar The Himalayas are the meeting place for Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Pilgrims seek spiritual enlightenment at Bhaktipur in Nepal, Rishikesh on the Ganges, and at the Tibetan monas- leryof Leh. Village activities center on grain planting and harvesting, process- ing tea, making rugs, raising livestock, and paper-making. «?«',' 119 Gone Fishing In the Gtdf of Honduras By Robert Karl Johnson and David W. Greenheld Photos courtesy of the authors Cabins overlooking reef crest at Long Cay, Glovers Reef. 20 rystal clear water, multihued coral ram- parts, the continuous line of surf on the windward reef, palm-covered cays seem- ingly suspended between the blue of sky and sea — these are what come to mind when think- ing of the coral reefs of the Gulf of Honduras. But for those of us who are studjdng the fishes of the western Caribbean, there are additional images and rewards: the discovery of species new to science, captures of rare species known from few individuals, and the chance to learn about the life histories, ecology, and distribution of these and other coral reef fishes not previously studied. It is the lure of these opportunities that has caused us to return to the western Carib- bean each of the past 11 years. Our association with the nation of Belize and the western Caribbean began in 1970, when one of the authors (Greenfield) moved to Northern Illinois University from California. There existed at NIU the opportunity to help establish a program in tropical biology to be Robert Karl Johnson is curator of fishes and chairman of the Department of Zoology at the Field Museum; he is also adjunct associate professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University. David W. Greenfield is professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University and is a research associate, in zoology, of the Field Museum. taught in Belize. Glovers Reef, an atoll 28 miles off Belize, has been since 1970 the site of a tropi- cal marine biology course, which has drawn students from across the United States and Canada. Sampling of the Belize marine fish fauna also began in 1970. Our collaboration on western Caribbean fishes began in 1975, with an expedition to the Miskito Coast of Honduras, a venture jointly sponsored by Field Museum, NIU, and the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michi- gan. We have since returned to Belize on numer- ous occasions, to teach the course in coral reef biology and to continue our investigations of the shorefishes of the Gulf of Honduras. Our collections to date number 382 stations, an estimated 10,000 lots,* and more than 100,000 specimens. These collections, all deposited at Field Museum, are without peer for the western Caribbean. Belize, with an area of some 8,866 square miles, has a population of about 122,000. To the east lies the Caribbean, to the north the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, to the west and south, Guatemala. Geographically diverse despite its small size, Belize has elevations ranging from *A lot is all specimens of a single species collected at the same station. Fifty or more species are often taken at a single station on the coral reefs of Belize. sea level to about 3,680 feet inland and a mean annual rainfall ranging from 50 inches in the north to 220 inches further south. The flatter inland areas are covered with broad expanses of savannah. Hardwood forests are widespread, although much of the hardwood has been cut for timber or removed (by burning) to create farmland; in many places the tangled secondary undergrowth has formed dense jungle. The Maya Mountains running along the southwest- ern edge of Belize are blessed with many beauti- ful clear swift streams, waterfalls, caves, and tropical pine forest. The entire coastal area is bordered by mangrove swamps, many of which connect to inland lagoons, providing a gradient from brackish to fresh water. Eight to twenty-five miles offshore lies the second longest barrier reef in the world, extending southward from the Yucatan peninsula some 168 miles into the Gulf of Honduras. Offshore, between the mainland and the barrier reef, the waters tend to be clearer and saltier than along the coast; however, during the rainy season this zone receives vast volumes of freshwater runoff from the large tropical rivers, and its waters are more turbid and less saline than those of locations further offshore. Innu- merable mangrove-covered cays are to be found here, often with shores of coral rubble covered with extensive algal mats and surrounded by vast beds of turtle grass. There are three atolls in Belize (of 10 atolls or atoll-like formations in the entire Atlantic): Turneffe Islands, Lighthouse Reef, and Glovers Reef. Turneffe, which is closest to the barrier reef, has the most extensive land area, including a vast lagoon occupied almost throughout by mangrove swamp. Lighthouse Reef and Glov- ers Reef are farther offshore, more oceanic in character {e.g., more saline, less turbid waters, etc.) and have the most extensive coral de- velopment. Their lagoons contain numerous coral-patch reefs, and precipitous dropoffs occur on the outside of the encircling reef struc- ture. Neither has large islands, though there are a number of small cays at each, many thickly beset with coconut palms. To the southeast of Glovers Reef, some 90 miles across the Gulf of Honduras, lies the island of Roatan, one of the Bay Islands. Unlike anything found in Belize, Roatan is a high is- land, with rocky shores meeting the sea as cliffs, rocky reefs, beaches of cobble, and with inter- spersed sandy beaches. Offshore lies a well developed coral reef system with precipitous dropoffs. Thus, within a relatively small geographic area are found a great variety of habitat types. This summer, the authors will con- tinue their studies in Belize and Honduras. For the first time. Field Museum is joining with Northern Illinois University in offering Museum members a unique oppor- tunity to join in the study and explo- ration of the reef systems of the Gulf of Honduras. For further informa- tion on this exciting program see "Field Museum Tours," page 25. The variety of habitats in Belize and This variety contributes substantially to the richness of the Belizean shorefish fauna, which we estimate as nearly 500 species. Despite this richness, the fishes of the western Caribbean were very poorly sampled until the beginning of our efforts. New knowledge of the blennioid fishes, based on our sampling efforts, is illus- trative of the gains we have made. In the past 11 years we have taken 60 species of "blennies" (four distinct families) in Belize and Honduras; 40 of these were previously unknown from Honduras, 27 unknown from Belize, 20 un- known from the Caribbean coast of Central America, and 4 were new species. A sixty-first species, also unknown to science, is being given formal scientific description by a colleague. 21 Honduras also offers the opportunity for the biologist to ask ecological questions relating to habitat restriction, distribution of diversity, and the coherence and organization of species as- semblages. Over the years we have attempted to sample repeatedly from the full range of habitat types present and in stratified fashion over the depth range (to about 100 feet) practical with conventional scuba. Because of the course offered each summer swarms of coral reef fishes* surrounding and inhabiting patch reefs, among the more con- spicuous because of their behavior are the ter- ritorial species of damselfishes. Only several inches long, these fishes are so pugnacious they will take on virtually any invader of their terri- tory, even nipping at a snorkeler's hand. Some damselfish species establish and maintain algal gardens from which they derive their food. The typical day mode on a coral reef is a Hogfish in nighttime shelter at base of patch reef in lagoon at Glovers Reef. 22 at Glovers Reef, our greatest concentration of effort at a single location (noting that Glovers Reef is a "location" 20 miles long by 6 miles broad) has been at this atoll. Rising some 6,000 feet from the off-reef sea floor. Glovers Reef is truly one of the finest reef structures in the trop- ical Atlantic. In 1971 the Smithsonian Institution sent a team of marine biologists throughout the Caribbean in an effort to identify the "best" coral reef site for possible study during the International Decade of Ocean Exploration; Glovers Reef was the team's choice. The hundreds of patch reefs within the la- goon at Glovers Reef provide excellent oppor- tunities for one to view numerous fish species in shallow water using only snorkeling gear. In the picture of color and movement — grazing parrot- fishes and surgeonfishes, nibbling and brows- ing angelfishes and wrasses, actively territorial or midwater damselfishes, butterfly fishes, mill- ing schools of grunts and snappers, and many others. The nocturnal picture is quite different, for at night the day-active species are mostly nestled into crevices. Conversely, the fishes ac- tive at night are for the most part not readily visible during the day, for they spend the day- light hours hiding in coral caves and crevices. Night-active species include the squirrel and *"Fish," used in the plural sense, refers to more than one individual of the same species; "fishes" refers to more than one species. soldierfishes, the cardinal fishes and sweepers. This changing of the guard is just one of the ways that make it possible for so many fish species to coexist on a coral reef. For both the snorkeler and the scuba diver, the deeper reefs beyond the atoll rim offer ex- ceptional beauty and excitement. The reef slopes gently from the rim to the edge of the dropoff with a system of ridges (spurs) and channels (grooves) providing topographic relief. At the edge of the dropoff the bottom seems to curl over as it plunges downward to a depth of several thousand feet in a jagged and terraced wall. To swim off the edge is to experience the dream of flight. Great concentrations of fishes and other sea life seem to occur at and just off the edge. Looking over it and into the "blue" one may see schools of larger, predatory fishes such as jacks, clouds of plankton-feeding species such as the Creole wrasses, lumbering porgies, chubs that seem always in a hurry, and perhaps, with real luck, a sea turtle as it passes gracefully by. Until the advent of scuba and diving scien- tists, the cryptic species inhabiting the deep- reef and dropoff zones — species which spend Emblemaria hyltoni Johnson and Greenfield 1976, the filament blenny, a species col- lecteaby the authors in 1975 and still known only from Isla Roatan, Honduras. Drawing by Zbigniew Jastrzebstci. their lives hidden in concavities, crevices, caves, and tubes — were all but unknowable. It is for this reason that our greatest gains in knowledge have included new light on "indwelling" spe- cies of this zone, including the discovery of species new to science. In addition to our studies at Glovers Reef we have been fortunate in being able to mount collecting trips along the length of the Barrier Reef, either cruising along the reef, stopping at a different area each day, or concentrating our studies on a particular site for periods of a week or more. Other collecting trips have taken us to numerous mainland sites, many of the cays inside the barrier reef, and to Turneffe and Lighthouse Reef. The motorlsailer Christmas Birdarriving at Long Cay. 23 Grunts seek shelter in the reef by day and wander jar jroin the reef at night in search of food. 24 Our goals are both faunistic and ecological. Eventually we hope to produce a book on the fishes of the Gulf of Honduras, a work that will, we believe, adequately characterize the western Caribbean shorefish fauna. We are also inter- ested in distribution of species and assemblages of species on local and regional scales. One result of our work thus far is the recognition of marked habitat preference and restriction in many of the small-bodied and cryptic species; the restriction applies not just to individual species but to groups of species. Using a variety of grouping and statistical tech- niques, we have been able to recognize and de- fine groups of fishes that commonly co-occur. This accomplished, we were able to correlate the occurrence of these fish species groups with the occurrence of specific habitat types, depths of occurrence, and other phenomena. For the "blennies," we now know what kinds of habitat they occupy. Our data base seems sufficiently large, our techniques sufficiently robust, so that we can predict which species and group(s) of species will be present in particular habitat types. Except for extremely rare species, we have been able to corroborate prediction with subsequent observation and collecting. We are now applying these techniques to several other large groups of species. The shorefishes of the tropical western At- lantic are perhaps better known than those of any tropical marine area comparable in size. This knowledge notwithstanding, our studies have shown that even at the most basic descrip- tive levels in taxonomy and zoogeography we have much to learn in the case of many groups. This is particularly true of cryptic, "indwelling" small-bodied fishes (those living in caves, cre- vices, tubes, etc.) such as many of the blennies and gobies. Species in just these two groups may account for up to one-third of the esti- mated 500 shorefish species in the Gulf of Honduras and, for most, we know next to nothing of their habitat requirements and life history. Yet it is bottom-associated, habitat- restrictive groups such as these that may have the most to tell us about zoogeographic pattern and history — for tropical Atlantic shorefishes. Vital to this will be studies looking at dis- tributions in terms of habitat specificity and broad-scale habitat patchiness over a suitably broad and diverse area. Because of the diversity of habitats represented within relatively re- stricted inshore to offshore distances, we be- lieve that the Gulf of Honduras is an ideal area in which to make such an attempt. D Field Museum Tours for Members Coral Reef Biology and Natural History Explorations in the Western Caribbean June 22-July 11 The richness of marine life and the beauty of the offshore reefs and islands of Belize and Honduras are unsurpassed in the Atlantic tropics. Field Museum's 20-day tour of this region offers a unique opportunity to explore and study tropical marine and terrestrial ecosystems and, if desired, to earn uni- versity credit for doing so. Leading the tour will be three professional marine biologists, each with considerable field work in the Gulf of Honduras and well acquainted with the local flora and fauna. Included in the tour is a six-day stay at Glovers Reef, 28 miles offshore from Belize. Reef formations at Glovers are among the Caribbean's most richly developed. Lectures and field-trips, including snorkeling, will familiarize participants with the mammals, invertebrates, fishes, sea birds, and algae of this isolated, untouched coral-reef. Daily scuba diving is available. The 50-foot motor sloop Christmas Bird wall take us to and from the reef, where we will stay at Lomont's Glov- ers Reef Village resort. Our stay at Glovers will be followed by a four-day in- depth exploration of the central Belize mainland, including rain forests, the famed Blue Hole on the Hummingbird High- way, a stay at the Blancanaeux Lodge atop Mountain Pine Ridge, a visit to Rio Frio Cave and the Thousand Foot Falls, and exploration of Mayan ruins at Xunantunich. Aiding us for the four days will be Belize resident DoraWeyer, internationally known naturalist and expert on bird identification. We will then stay five days at Roatan, one of the Bay Islands, where steep cliffs, rocky shores, and sandy beaches and associated wildlife provide a sharp contrast to the Glovers atoll environment. At Anthony's Key Resort, our Roatan home, first class accommodations, scuba facilities, fantastic sport fishing, tennis, etc., and superlative surroundings will add to our enjoyment. The tour will end with a day at San Pedro Sula, on the mainland, with sight-seeing and shopping or a tour to Mayan ruins at Copan. Leading the tour will be Dr. Robert Karl Johnson, curator of fishes and chairman of Field Museum's Department of Zool- ogy; Dr. David W. Greenfield, research associate in the ;^|^:r i^ Museum's Division of Fishes and professor of biological sci- ences at Northern Illinois University (NIU), and Dr. Norman A. Engstrom, associate professor of biological sciences at North- ern Illinois University. Three semester hours of undergraduate or graduate credit in biological sciences are available from NIU to tour participants. The tour will be limited to 10 partici- pants. The price is $2,385, from New Orleans (per person, double occupancy) . If you wish additional details for any tour or would like to be placed on a special mailing list, please call Dorothy Roder, Tours manager, at 3Z2-8862, or write Field Museum Tours, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. Ecuador and the Galapagos March 11-25 The Galapagos Islands affect our imagination like no other place on earth. Field Museum is pleased to offer its members an opportunity to visit this remote archipelago under the ex- pert guidance of Dr. John W. Fitzpa trick, associate curator and head. Division of Birds. If you are a "birder" or a "photog- rapher" this tour is a Utopia. We'll see 500-pound tortoises, ferocious-looking land iguanas that eat cactus flowers, marine iguanas which are superb divers, penguins, flightless cormorants, colonies of sea lions and fur seals, and many other exotic and unique birds, mammals, and reptiles. The plant life, with 40-foot cacti in coastal deserts and dense rain forests in the mountains, is equally interesting. In addition to the unique sightseeing and learning oppor- tunities on the cruise, we will spend four nights in Quito, Ecuador, where we'll enjoy old world ambience, along with the color of the centuries-old Indian market and villages of Latacunga and Ambato — we'll overnight in Ambato. Our transfer from Quito to Guayaquil will give us a chance to see the country's remarkable scenery. Special attention will be paid to the unique bird life. Our cruise ship, the 2,200-ton M.V. Buccaneer, meets the highest safety requirements. Originally designed to carry 250 passengers, it was refurbished in the United States in 1976 to carry only 90, and has recently been again refurbished. All cabins are outside and are equipped with complete private bath. The Buccaneer offers a comfortable, informal cruising environment. Although we'll be in the tropics, it will never be unpleasantly hot because of the cooling effect of the Humboldt Current. The price is $3,550 (per person, double occupancy). We hope you will join us in one of the greatest adventures in travel. Coming up... Harbor of Belize City David W. Greenfield Australia Tour August 23-September 12 Kenya Tour September 11-October 1 25 for additional tours, please turn page Field Museum Tours for Members Grand Canyon Adventure May 22-30 An exciting 280-mile cruise down the Colorado River by motorized rubber raft, camping outdoors under the stars. Dr. Bertram Woodland, curator of petrology, will lead the tour. Group limited to 25. Details to be announced. The Ancient Capitals of China June 6-28 This unique itinerary, rarely granted by the Chinese au- thorities, includes the most significant sites of early Imperial China and will give an opportunity to explore in depth the civilization which characterized one of the oldest and longest- lived societies on earth. We will have the opportunity to observe the emergence of this remarkable culture and its de- velopment to a level which surpassed its contemporaries in the Western World. June 6: Departure from Chicago to San Francisco in time for evening briefing. June 7: Departure via Japan Airlines for flight to Tokyo. June 8: Afternoon arrival in Tokyo; overnight at Nikko Narita Hotel. June 9: Flight to Peking, where we will spend 4 days, visiting Imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tien-an Square, and the antique shop district; Ming emperor tombs, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the National Museum. June 13: Overnight train ride to Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, where we'll spend 3 days; in addition to sight-seeing, we can rise early to participate in tai chi exercise groups in the People's Park. June 16: A short train ride takes us east to Kaifeng, where we'll spend 2 days. The city is rarely visited by tourists; it's just at the beginning of modernization, and we'll get a wonderful feeling of Old China. June 18: Two days in Luoyang, one of the oldest centers of Chinese culture. June 20: A westward train ride takes us to Xian, our home for 4 days. This is where the fabulous clay horses and warriors of the "Great Bronze Age of China" exhibit were discovered. June 24: We'll travel by air to Shanghai, where we will spend four days, including a one-day side trip to Souchou, silk- manufacturing center. June 27: To Tokyo again, for a one-night stay before flying back to the States. At a small additional cost, you may stay longer injapan or in Hawaii, at completion of the China tour. Our tour leader is Mr. Phillip H. Woodruff, Ph.D. candi- date in Chinese history at the University of Chicago. This is Mr. Woodruffs third time as a Field Museum China tour leader and his fourth visit to that country in two years. Cost of the tour is $3,850 (per person, double occupancy). Alaska Native Culture Tour June 19-July 1 This 13-day tour begins with a flight from Seattle to Sitka, Alaska, where we will spend two days and nights viewing old Russian settlement buildings, Sheldon Jackson Museum, and National Park Service exhibits. Our third, fourth, and fifth nights will be aboard two yachts, which will take us to Admi- ralty Island. We will see Tenakee Hot Springs, the native vil- lages of Angoon and Hoonah, and make a tour of Glacier Bay. Sightseeing in Juneau and its environs will be our activity during the next two days, followed by a day and night in Anchorage and a visit by motorcoach to Denali National Park (formerly McKinley National Park), where we will enjoy the spectacular scenery and view wildlife, spending two nights there. A day and a night in Kotzebue, a day in Nome, and a final day in Anchorage will round out the tour. All hotel accommodations will be first class; the two yachts will accommodate 16 and 10 persons, respectively. Tour rates to be announced. Stanton R Cook, courtesy C/i/cago Tribune If you wish additional details for any tour or would like to be placed on a special mailing list, please call Dorothy Roder, Tours manager, at 322-8862, or write Field Museum Tours, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. Field Briefs Continued from p. 3 the donor's name and the donor's giving, as well. Two brochures, "How To Remember Field Museum in My Will" and "How I Can Receive a Lifetime Income From My Gift to Field Museum," are available free upon request. Please write the Planned Giving Office, or telephone, (312) 922-9410 ext. 858. Prairie Workshop The Fifth Northern Illinois Prairie Work- shop will be held on March 13 at the Uni- versity of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus. Session titles will include Basic Concepts in Prairie Ecology, Prairie as a Constructed Landscape, Propogation of Prairie Flora, Presettlement Natural History, Prairie Management: Fire Ecology and Tech- niques, Prairie Preservation, Prairie Wildlife, Identification of Prairie Grasses and Sedges, Prairie Wetlands, Methods of Prairie Restoration, Linear Prairies, Esthe- tics, Prairie Protection, Cemetery Prairie Preservation, Prairie Interpretation, and Prairie Management: Alternatives to Burning. There will also be technical ses- sions. Further information may be ob- tained from Albert Rouffa, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus, Box 4348, Chicago, II 60680. Solomon Gurewilz (1899-1981) Solomon Gurewitz, a volunteer in the Department of Anthropology for some twenty years, died in September at the age of 82. Following his retirement in 1961 from a successful business career, Gurewitz came to Field Museum as a nearly full-time curatorial assistant — without pay. Within a month Gurewitz had taken over responsibility for reorganizing one of the former Chinese storerooms. He cataloged, studied, found things for visiting scholars, packed, cleaned, selected things for loans, rearranged other storerooms, and helped set up ex- hibitions. He became expert in a number of branches of Far Eastern art and cul- ture. He often gave lectures and advice to other students of those subjects. About fifteen years ago, Gurewitz managed to convince the Museum that a very high priority should be given to making a photographic record of its col- lections. (Like most museums founded before film and cameras became cheap, we had never photographed or made drawings of more than a small percent- age of our holdings.) He organized a de- partmental photographic studio with the help of the Museum photographer, re- learned the needed skills (he had once run a small photo finishing business), and set out single-handedly on a task that had daunted several generations of Museum employees. He and several other volunteers have by now produced many tens of thousands of excellent pic- tures which have been duly filed and mounted on the backs of the catalog cards for those particular objects'. Gurewitz was the first of his kind. proof that a volunteer with the right at- titude and skills could do the work of a museum professional. Field Musuem has established in his name a special fund for the purchase of Oriental and other an- thropological objects. Contributions may be sent to the Vice President for De- velopment. Checks should be made out to Field Museum with a note specifying that the gift is to be added to the Sol- omon Gurewitz Memorial Fund. Tibet Lecture by Edwin Bembaum James Simpson Theatre (West Entrance) Sunday, February 21, 2:00 p.m. To many, Tibet is a land of enchantment, a land of holy men, towering peaks and mystical legends. In this fascinating illustrated lecture, "Hidden Valleys of Tibetan Myth and Legend," author Edwin Bembaum recounts the legend of Shambhala — the source of James Hilton's concept of "Shangri-La" in his novel Lost Horizon. Bembaum explores Tibetan myths and legends relating to the mythical kingdom of Shambhala through slides and tape recordings he made in Nepal, India, and Sikkim. Bernbaum has done extensive research in comparative religion and mythology. The Shambhala prophecies originate in a set of more than 300 volumes of ancient sacred texts called the Kangyur and Tengyur, which are for Tibetans what the Bible is for many Westerners. He has returned to Nepal four times to gather information and photograph ancient texts and artworks. On one of his early trips. Bernbaum met the Incarnate Lama of Tengboche monastery, who knew of Shambhala — a place where, legend states, the best of Western and Eastern culture — science, literature, music, art — is preserved for the future. On a later visit, Bernbaum learned of a secret valley in the Himalayas not far from Mount Everest. It was said to have everything a person would need to live as well as spiritual treasures which would lead to enlightenment. He led a climbing expedition over snowy mountains, steep passes, and glaciers to find it. It was the Khembalung Valley. Carpeted with rhododendrons, it had a beautiful river which flowed through meadows and pine forests. Author of "The Way to Shambhala," Bernbaum is a graduate of Harvard University where he was president of the Mountaineering Club. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Admission to the lecture is $3.00 for Members and $5.00 for nonmembers. Additional information is available by calling 322-8854. Tengboche Monastery, where Edwin Bernbaum first learned of Shambhala. Photo by Edivin Bernbaum. .'27 \ ELIZABETH BEST DEIS 721 SIMPSON 1^ EVANSTON ILL 60201 February & March at Field Museum February 16 through March 15 New Exhibits "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast." Opening April 24 in Hall 10. Plan now for the opening of this spectacular new permanent exhibit, the biggest project of its kind ever undertaken by Field Museum. The 15,000-square- foot exhibit wll compare and contrast the life and culture of the Northwest Coast Indians and the Eskimos. Many of the 2,500 articles to be displayed came from the original Colum- bian Exposition of 1893, but the design concepts used by Field Museum's Exhibition Department incorporate all the newest techniques. The Learning Museum course beginning in February and the Lecture Series in March have been planned to deepen the visitor's appreciation of the exhibit. Continuing Exhibits "In the Shadow of the Pyramid." Stand inside the walls of history in this new permanent exhibit area of the "Hall of Ancient Egyptians." You may now enter tomb chapel rooms built more than 4,000 years ago and a replica of the chapel of Nakht on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You may also view exhibits detailing life in prehistoric and early historic eras of Egypt and photomurals explaining how the tomb chapels came to Field Museum. Hall J, Ground Floor. New Programs "Hidden Valleys of Tibetan Myth and Legend." Edwin Bembaum tells of his search for the legendary Tibetan king- dom of Shambhala in a lecture illustrated with authentic slides and tapes on Sunday, Feb. 21, at 2 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre. This kingdom is the mystical basis of Tibetan religion and the inspiration for James Hilton's novel, Losf Horizon. Bembaum, author of The Way to Shambhala, takes us to a hidden valley high in the Himalayas that he discovered through studying ancient texts and personal con- tact with a Tibetan Lama. This perilous journey symbolizes the search for the mythical kingdom of Shambhala as well as a psychological search for the inner self. Members: $3.00. Nonmembers: $5.00. For more information, call 322-8854. NORTinvEST Coast Lecture Series. "A Culture Develops." Four Friday evening lectures by authorities on native cultures of the Northwest. Beginning at 8 p.m., these individually complete lectures are designed to deepen the viewer's ap- preciation of the new permanent exhibit, "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast." Entrance for the 8 p.m. lectures will be through the West Entrance. Members: $3.00. Nonmembers: $4.00. March 5: "First Peoples of the North Pacific," K.R. Flad- mark, Simon Fraser University. March 12: "Pre-historic Peoples: Conquest of the Region," Don E. Dumond, University of Oregon. Edward E. Ayer Film Lecture Series. These popular travel films narrated by the filmmakers are shown every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre during March and April. The first film of the spring series will be Tom Sterling's "Newfoundland," on March 6. The second feature will be "Switzerland" by Ric Dougherty, on March 13. For other films in this series see p. 19. The 90-minute films are free. Admis- sion is through the West Door. Members receive priority seating. Weekend Discovery Programs. Tours, craft projects, slide presentations, and films which use Field Museum exhibits as a springboard for new insights into natural history topics. Check Weekend Sheet available Saturday and Sunday at Museum entrances for programs and their locations. Feb- ruary's programs highlight the cultures of the Himalayan area in conjunction with the lecture "Hidden Valleys of Ti- betan Myth and Legend." March's "Film Features" are about mammals from around the world. Feb. 20 1:00 p.m. Himalaya: Life on the Roof of the World. A "Film Feature." 1:30 p.m. Tibetan Life and Religion. Slide lec- ture and tour. Feb. 27 1:00 p.m. Tibet and The Royal Dancers and Musicians of the Kingdom of Bhutan . Two "Film Features" shown consecutively. 2:00 p.m. Costumes for the Sorcerer's Dance. Tour. March 6 1:30 p.m. Mzima: Portrait of a Spring. "Film Feature" about animal life around a spring in Kenya. March 13 1:30 p.m. IVo/ves a«d IVoZ^n. A "Film Fea- ture." Continuing Programs Volunteer Opportunities. Persons with scientific interests and backgrounds are needed to work in various Museum departments. Contact the Volunteer Coordinator, 922-9410, ext. 360. February and March Hours. The Museum is open 9 a.m.- 4 p.m., Monday -Thursday (until 5 p.m., beginning March 1); 9 a.m. -9 p.m., Friday; and 9 a.m. -5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Museum Library is open weekdays 9 a.m. -4 p.m. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Closed February 15 and March 15. Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin March 1982 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin Published by Field Museum of Natural History Founded 1893 President: Willard L. Boyd Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Editor/ Designer: David M. Walsten Production Liaison: Kathryn Laughlin Calendar: Mary Cassai Staff Photographer: Ron Testa Board of Trustees James J, O'Connor chairman Mrs. T. Stanton Armour George R. Baker Robert O. Bass Gorden Bent Bowen Blair WiUard L. Boyd Mrs. Robert Wells Carton Stanton R. Cook O.C. Davis William R. Dickinson, Jr. Thomas E. Donnelley II Marshall Field Richard M. Jones Hugo J. Melvoin Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Lorin I. Nevling, Jr James H, Ransom John S. Runnells William L. Searle Edward ByrOn Smith Robert H. Strotz John W. Sullivan William G. Swartchild, Jr. Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken E. Leland Webber Julian B. Wilkins Blaine J. Yarrington Life Trustees Harry O. Bercher William McCormick Blair Joseph N. Field Paul W. Goodrich Clifford C. Gregg Samuel Insull, Jr. WiHiam V. Kahler William H. MitcheD John M. Simpson J. Howard Wood CONTENTS March 1982 Volume 53, Number 3 Field Museum as Architecture By William Burger Chairman, Department of Botany Tours for Members 3 6 Northwest Coast Indian Housing By Daniel J. Joyce, staff member of the Maritime Peoples of the Northwest Coast Project 8 Altiska Native Culture Tour for Members IS Arts of Tide and Tundra: An Arctic and Northwest Cotist Perspective By Robert S. Grumet, Northwest Coast specialist. Department of Education; and Anthony Pfeiffer, Project Coordinator 16 Edward E. Ayer Film Lecture Series for March and April 20 Nihoa Island An Archaeological Mysteiy in the Hawaiian Chain By Thomas J. Riley 21 Volunteers Honored 28 Honor Roll of Donors 30 Our Environment 32 March and April at Field Museum Calendar of Coming Events 35 COVER The Muse of Geology, in all her 8 1/2 foot splendor, is framed by arches at the south end of the second floor's west balcony. The regal figure is one of four, at each corner of Stanley Field Hall, and is the work of Henry Hering (1874-1949), a New York sculptor who studied under the famed Augustus Saint- Gaudens. Neg. 79869. For more on the architectural delights of Field Museum see "Field Museum as Architecture," by William Burger, p. 3. Field Museum of Nalunl History Bulletin (USPS 898-940) is published monthly, except combined July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, n. 60605. Subscriptions: $6.00 annually, $3.00 for schools. Museum membership includes Bulletin subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Museum phone: (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: f^ease send from 3579 to Field Museimi of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Uke Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 60605, ISSN:C015-0703. Second class postage paid at Ctiicago, U. FIELD MUSEUM AS ARCHITECTURE By William Burger Chairman, Department of Botany /have always felt a special fascination for large or unusual buildings. The fact that I grew up in New York City accounts for some of this interest; but it was an introductory college course in the history of architecture, fol- lowed by a year and a half in Europe that really got me hooked on the form and structure of buUdings. So you can understand my delight in working within the superb edifice that houses the Field Museum of Natural History. Ours is one of the world's largest museum buildings, structurally completed in 1920 and covering an area of some 700 by 440 feet; it is also unusual in that it has not grown by the accretion of new wings or additions — ours is a single, unified structure. The colonnaded ex- terior and well proportioned symmetry help to unify the building's huge dimensions. The ele- vated base, framed within a terrace, adds to the building's stature in its parklike setting. While Southward view along east balcony, second floor 3 Stanley Field Hall through fish eye lens. Photo by William Burger the exterior is impressive, the most dramatic as- pect, for me, is within. Passing through the large Ionic columns and bronze doors into Stan- ley Field Hall is an awesome experience. The great size of the central hall, its carefully propor- tioned arcades and columns, the rich decoration in low relief, and the multifaceted skylight create a magnificent interior space. There is something else 1 have found un- usual about our building: a great many books on the architecture of Chicago and the Midwest make no mention of the building or its central hall. Even a recently published encyclopedia- like volume on architecture in the Midwest and the South includes McCormick Place, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Water Filtration Plant, and other Chicago buildings, but it fails to include Field Museum. Why is it that Field Museum and Stanley Field Hall have been so ignored? The answer may be that our building has the "wrong religion." It is a neoclassical struc- ture in a city where new and indigenous archi- tectural directions were forged. Chicago's new buildings were part of an effort to break away from the neoclassical style and to blaze new trails. For most of this century, architects and those writing about architecture have been so deeply immersed in the esthetics of Chicago's bold new architecture that our neoclassical buildings have been all but ignored. Our building is eminently functional. Grand symmetrical stairways serve traffic flow between the two major exhibit floors; eight smaller stairwells (four in the corners and four near the center) interconnect all four main floors. The general exhibit halls conform to the rectangular shape of the building in an easily understood and symmetrical pattern, with the largest halls at the east and west ends. The halls range from 14 to 22 feet high, and the smaller halls, of which there are 26, average 8,000 square feet in area. Skylights and lightwells were part of the building's original design, but since even indirect sunlight is damaging to many materials, this light source is no longer used for exhibits. This has permitted "filling" the lightwells with as many as four floors for additional specimen-storage and research space. The great strength of the piers, in what is essentially a masonry building, permitted the additional load and in the past decade about 100,000 square feet of floor space were added to the building's original 775,000. Thus, both our public areas and the research/specimen-storage areas can be measured in acres. So it is emi- nently clear that our building is unusually large as well as very functional; but do we have one that merits more serious consideration as a major architectural structure? The exhibit halls on the first and second floors are separated from the central hall by broad walkways, delimited by Ionic columns on the first floor and with arcades on the second. These walkways prevent the exhibits from in- truding into the central hall and, I believe, it is this central space in particular that makes our building something to brag about. The large volume of the hall (70 feet wide, 75 feet high, and 300 feet long), the white interior, and ample skylights produce an almost luminous quality. Much of the ornamentation in the hall is quite subtle, providing a variety of textures without intruding into the space. With the elephants, totem poles, and dinosaur skeletons set off to the side, the hall retains its open spaciousness. (In older photographs of Stanley Field Hall with the elephants placed centrally and with a clutter of small exhibits the hall ap- pears more confining.) The fountains add a steady pleasant sound, masking minor noises and helping visitors in adjacent exhibit halls to orient themselves. These aesthetic features and the grand scale are not the whole story; this is functional architecture. Stanley Field Hall is the geographic center of the main exhibit floors; it is both the starting point and terminus for most museum visits. Occasionally, I like to look down from the second floor balcony and watch the reactions of apparent first-time visitors. Many of them stop dead in their tracks shortly after entering our central hall. Then their heads begin to turn around like radar antennas, taking it all in. The impact of a great room, like any work of art, can be a deeply moving experience. One has a simi- lar reaction in the Pantheon of Rome, the Gothic cathedrals of France, and richly deco- rated rococo churches of southern Germany. When you enter a building with an exceptional interior space, you know it. The size, luminos- ity, and strong symmetry of Stanley Field Hall together create the kind of impact that can be experienced in few other buildings. Some of the world's most famous architec- tural landmarks have very little enclosed space — the great mausoleums in particular, such as the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids of Egypt. But many famous buildings are noted primarily for their internal spaces. If the creation of interior space is one of the measures of a great building — then we do indeed have a great building. Now that there is greater interest in architec- tural styles that have been long out of favor, perhaps we can expect greater appreciation of our building. The latest edition oi Chicago's Fa- mous Buildings (edited by Ira J. Bach, 1980) not only includes Field Museum for the first time but also refers to Stanley Field Hall as "one of the most impressive monumental interior spaces in Chicago." I see no reason to be so provincial. Why not call it what it is: one of the finest large interior spaces in the world? D Stately Ionic columns at south end of Stanley Field Hall Field Museum Tours for Members Young China welcomes you The Ancient Capitals of China June 6-28 The Unique Itinerary, rarely granted by the Chinese authorities, includes the most significant sites of early Imperial China and will give an opportunity to explore in depth the civilization which characterized one of the oldest and longest-lived societies on earth. We will have the opportunity to observe the emergence of this remarkable culture and its development to a level which sur- passed its contemporaries in the Western World. June 6: Departure from Chicago to San Francisco in time for evening briefing. June 7: Departure via Japan Airlines for flight to Tokyo. June 8: Afternoon arrival in Tokyo; over- night at Nikko Narita Hotel. June 9: Flight to Peking, where we will spend 4 days, visiting Imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tien-an Square, and the antique shop district; Ming emperor tombs, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the National Museum. June 13: Overnight train ride to Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, where we'll spend 3 days; in addition to sight-seeing, we can rise early to partici- pate in tai chi exercise groups in the 6 People's Park. Stafilon Cook, courtesy of Ch/cago Ttibune June 16: A short train ride takes us east to Kaifeng, where we'll spend 2 days. The city is rarely visited by tourists; it's just at the beginning of modernization, and we'll get a wonderful feeling of Old China. June 18: Two days in Luoyang, one of the oldest centers of Chinese culture. June 20: A westward train ride takes us to Xian, our home for 4 days. This is where the fabulous clay horses and war- riors of the "Great Bronze Age of China" exhibit were discovered. June 24: We'll travel by air to Shanghai where we will spend four days, including a one-day side trip to Souchou, silk- manufacturing center June 27: To Tokyo again, for a one-night stay before flying back to the States. At a small additional cost, you may stay longer in Japan or in Hawaii, at completion of the China tour. Our tour leader is Mr. Phillip H. Wood- ruff, Ph.D. candidate in Chinese history at the University of Chicago. This is Mr. Woodruff's third time as a Field Museum China tour leader and his fourth visit to that country in two years. Cost of the tour is $3,850 (per person, double occupancy). Coming Up... Australia Tour August 23-September 12 (details to be announced) Coral Reef Biology and Natural History Explorations in the Western Caribbean June22-Julyll The Richness of Marine Life and the beauty of the offshore reefs and islands of Belize and Honduras are unsurpassed in the Atlantic tropics. Field Museum's 20-day tour of this region offers a unique opportunity to explore and study tropical marine and terrestrial ecosystems and, if desired, to earn university credit for doing so. Leading the tour will be three professional marine biologists, each with considerable field work in the Gulf of Honduras and well acquainted with the local flora and fauna. Included in the tour is a six-day stay at Glovers Reef, 28 miles offshore from Belize. Reef formations at Glovers are among the Caribbean's most richly de- veloped. Lectures and field-trips, includ- ing snorkeling, will familiarize partici- pants with the mammals, invertebrates. Coming Up... Kenya Tour September 11-October 1 (details to be announced) Left: Kenya lion captured by camera lens of Audrey Faden, Kenya tour leaderl lecturer fishes, sea birds, and algae of this iso- lated, untouched coral-reef. Daily scuba diving is available. The 50-foot motor sloop Christmas Bird will take us to and from the reef, where we will stay at Lom- ont's Glovers Reef Village resort Our stay at Glovers will be followed by a four-day indepth exploration of the central Belize mainland, including rain forests, the famed Blue Hole on the Hummingbird Highway, a stay at the Blancanaeux Lodge atop Mountain Pine Ridge, a visit to Rio Frio Cave and the Thousand Foot Falls, and explo- ration of Mayan ruins at Xunantunich. Aiding us for the four days will be Belize resident Dora Weyer, internationally known naturalist and expert on bird identification. We will then stay five days at Roatan, one of the Bay Islands, where steep cliffs, rocky shores, and sandy beaches and as- sociated wildlife provide a sharp contrast to the Glovers atoll environment. At An- thony's Key Resort, our Roatan home, first class accommodations, scuba fa- cilities, fantastic sport fishing, tennis, etc., and superlative surroundings will add to our enjoyment. The tour will end with a day at San Pedro Sula, on the mainland, with sight-seeing and shop- ping or a tour to Mayan ruins at Copan. Leading the tour will be Dr. Robert Karl Johnson, curator of fishes and chairman of Field Museum's Department of Zoology; Dr. David W. Greenfield, re- search associate in the Museum's Divi- sion of Fishes and professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University (NIU), and Dr. Norman A. Engstrom, as- sociate professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University. Three semester hours of undergraduate or graduate credit in biological sciences are available from NIU to tour participants. The tour will be limited to 10 partici- pants. The price is $2,385, from New Or- leans (per person, double occupancy). Belize highlands Grand Canyon Adventure May 21-30 Many of us have beheld the Grand Can- yon from the rim or while flying over- head, and some of us have hiked partway down to the Colorado River. But there is another Grand Canyon that relatively few have experienced: Field Museum is offering you the opportunity to see and experience the canyon from the river. The 280-mile trip will be by two motorized rubber rafts. We'll sleep on sandy beaches under the stars and our meals will be excellent. Along the way, we'll hike to places of unusual geologic and anthropologic interest, sometimes through the most pleasant and enchant- ing stream beds and valleys, at times along waterfalls. We'll see and study more geology in this one brief period than can be seen anywhere else in comparable ^^ time. Dr. Bertram Woodland, curator of petrology, will be our tour leader. The trip will begin on Friday, May 21, with a flight to Las Vegas, where we will remain overnight. The evening of our ar- rival, we'll have a briefing about the river trip and will receive our river equipment. Saturday morning we'll leave by deluxe bus for Lees Ferry, where we'll board the rafts. The trip will end 9 days later, at Pierce Ferry, near the head of Lake Mead. We'll return to Chicago, via Las Vegas, Sunday, May 30. You needn't be a "rough rider" to join this expedition — you needn't even know how to swim. Persons of any age can enjoy the river with equanimity, and come out proud and happy to have experienced this extraordinary adventure. The cost of $1,500 per person covers all expenses (including air fare, boat fees, waterproof bags for gear, sleeping bags, etc.), and all meals. The trip is limited to 25 participants. If you wish additional de- tails for any tour or would like to be placed on a special mailing list, please call Dorothy Roder, Tours manager, at 322-8862, or write Field Museum Tours, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. Shooting rapids of Grand Canyon's Colorado <* ^.i. ^^■:m. -- V Kwakiutl village of Xumtaspi-Nalm'itti, Hope Island, B.C., 1884. 77if village location — hehceen a beach and a thick forest — reus typical. Signs above the doors read: 'CHEAP. The home of the head chief of al tribes in this country. White man can get information," and ■'BOStOX.Heishcad chief of Saiceety [SahiHtti]. He is true and lionest. He don t give no trouble to no white man." Lone U.S. (?) saitor stands in front of center 8 structure. r ~r-- 1 .#"= -^^Sff^*^ COURTESY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL USTO HOUSES Of The Maritime Peoples Of The Northwest Coast by Daniel J. Joyce Staff Member of the Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast Project New permanent exhibit "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast" opens to public in Hall 10 on April 24 When plans were made a few years ago for a new permanent exhibit at Field Museum on the Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast, it was clear that the magnitude and comprehensiveness of the proj- ected exhibit required the inclusion of a North- west Coast house. (Such houses had been on view nearly 90 years earlier at the World's Columbian Exposition, but were now no longer available.) Tonv Hunt, a well known Kwakiutl artist and a resident of British Columbia, was commissioned to build in Hall 10 the rear portions, in cutaway fashion, of two Kwakiutl houses. They were to be replicas of the type built by the Kwakiutls in the Early view ofKwakiutI house frame through camera lens of Edward S. Curtis. Side beams are exceptionally large. latter 1800s, and represent the same house as ar- ranged during the secular and sacred seasons. Calvin Hunt, Tony's cousin, and colleague John Livingston, assisted Tony. The two impressive structures (15 feet high, 22 feet wide, 11 V2 feet deep) are set against the east wall of the hall. That on the left, representing the interior during the secular season, is furnished with conventional household articles of the nineteenth-century Kwakiutl and is fronted with glass somewhat in the fashion of a diorama. The house to the right, designed as a walk-in exhibit, shows an interior arranged and partially fur- nished for ceremonial activities during the sacred season. Here volunteers will talk with groups about the culture of the Northwest Coast Indian. Each house' features two house posts^ carved with ravens, the principal crest of Tony Hunt's family, and mythological sea grizzly bears holding human figures. The ceremonial house has a three-section wooden dance screen^ decorated with a stylized sea monster and ravens. The typical Northwest Coast dwelling, made of cedar planks, housed a large extended family and its possessions. In villages situated on beaches, the houses were commonly arranged in a single row, facing the water: canoes were 1. Cat. 264017, 264018 2. Cat. 264017A, B; 264018A, B 3. Cat. 264019A, B, C Location of major Northwest Coast tribes HAIDA Alaska / Niska Gitksan TSIMSHIAN Coast Tsimshian Haisia British Columbia BELLA COOLA / / / CANADA So Kwakiull i, >COASTSALISH chemakum ^ klatskanie-kwalhiokwa" TILLAMOOK .. i . / CHINOOK U.S.A. / Washington COURTESY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY beached literally at the doorstep. The houses of larger villages (populations ranged from 50 to 1,000) were often in two or three rows, the front row for families of highest social ranking and the back row for the lowest ranking. Sweat houses, smoke houses, grave houses, and huts for women during menses were also in the back row. On the northern portion of the Northwest Coast, houses averaged about 30 by 45 feet in size; those further south were generally larger, often measuring more than 60 by 90 feet. Throughout the area, elaborately carved totem, mortuary, and memorial poles were commonly installed in front of the larger houses, with carved house posts inside as well. Horizontal beams within the house were adzed in decora- tive linear designs. The exterior front of the house was some- times painted with the figure of that animal (commonly a raven, bear, beaver, or whale) as- sociated with its most prestigious member; in Left and below, Northwest Coast Indian houses at 1893 exposition in Jackson Park, Chicago. Left: Dugout cedar canoes beached on shore of what is today Jackson Park La- goon. Below: House at left shoivs northern style ofHaida. House at right, from village of Nahwitti, B.C., shows Kwakiutl southern style, with both vertical and horizontal planking. Totem pole third from left (noiv on view in Stanley Field Hall) has opening that served as doorway when set against house. Remaining totem poles ivill be seen in Hall 10, opening in April. COURTESY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ■•^^ some cases the animal's mouth was an actual opening that served as the house entrance. The mouth of the lowest figure on a totem pole, sometimes set flush to the house, was carved through to the other side for the same purpose. Since permanent paints were unknown to the Indians before the arrival of the Europeans, it has been suggested that painted house facades were removable, and set up only for ceremonies; this changed after more durable paints became available. Two basic types of house were constructed throughout the coastal area, one type by the TUngit, Haida, Tsimshian, and Haisla-speaking Kwakiutl on the northern section of the coast, and a second type in the southern portion by the remaining Kwakiutl, Bella Coola, and Nootka. The northern type was rectangular and gable- roofed, with vertical planks for walls. These northern houses often had mortised joints, form- ing a highly stable, durable structure. The vertical wall planks were set into slotted horizontal planks at both the top and bottom. The horizontal members were fastened to house posts. A roof opening let light in and served as a smoke hole. The floor was dug out, leaving a wide bench to run along the inside walls. Cedar plank rooms on top of the bench were like minia- ture houses. The room of a less affluent family was made of cedar bark matting on a pole frame rather than of solid wood. The most prestigious member's room was at the rear center of the house, near the two house posts. Next to his, at the rear and around the sides toward the door, were those of members whose status was pro- gressively lower; the quarters of slaves (captives from other tribes) were at the front near the entrance. For ceremonial occasions, the interior was greatly altered. Family partitions were taken down, and a central hearth was made available to all, instead of one hearth for each family. An COURTESY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Kwakiutl village on Salmon River, B.C., 1881. The incomplete house second from the left shows main beam structure with latticework partially installed. Two houses to right show both the older horizontal and the newer vertical wall planking. 11 12 elaborately painted, wooden dance screen was placed between the posts at the rear of the house. The area behind the screen, where only the ini- tiated could enter, was held as sacred. The danc- ers entered and left through a round hole in the screen. The entire setting was conducive to and appropriate for elaborate ceremonies. Houses on the northern and southern sec- tions of the coast were similar to one another in appearance, but differed in structure. In the south, three or four heavy upright posts sup- ported low-pitched gable roofs. Large posts supported a heavy single or double ridgepole, around which a latticework of smaller poles was constructed. Wall and roof planks of cedar were attached to these poles to form the outer sheath- ing, but in such a manner that they could be taken down when the time came for the family's seasonal move. The wall planks were lashed to upright pairs of poles near the house corners. In the south, northern-style vertical planking construction eventually came to replace the horizontal style. The vertical poles were then no longer necessary, and often the top of the vertical planking was nailed in place to a horizontal pole running along the top. With the waterways as their main avenues of transport, many villages were located on inlets or on rivers. Here they had protection from ocean winds and better access to fresh water and resources of the forest. Some coastal tribes had summer villages on the coast and winter villages farther up the rivers and inlets. When traveling to exploit seasonal goods, they moved their houses or built temporary shelters of mats. When it was time for the seasonal move, the house sheathing was often attached to two canoes that were tied side by side, for transport to the new homesite; the main post structure remained in place to be used again in the future. Still further south, the coastal Salish and other groups in northwest Washington built houses similar both in construction and appear- ance to those of their neighbors immediately to the north, but with a shed-style, or single-pitch, roof. The outer sheathing was separate from the heavy posts, and the entrance was on the long side rather than at the narrow end of the house. Benches were again built around the inside, but the floor was not excavated; facades remained unpainted. Light was admitted and smoke let out through a hole that could be adjusted by pushing roof boards back or forth with a pole. Ceremonial house (cutaway) designed and built by KwakiutI nrtisi Tony Hunt, with dance screen. Designed as a -walk-in exhibit, the structure is nearly full-sized replica of 4-post, vertical-planked dwelling of late 1890s. Next to it has been built a similar cutaivay, fronted with glass, showing artifacts of daily life. 13 Either end of the house could be extended by simple, incremental additions. The remarkable house of Chief Seattle (17867-1866), of the Suquamish, was extended to a total length of 900 feet. As Europeans settled on the Northwest Coast, their influence was reflected in the style of native houses. Windows, hinged doors, and European-style furniture came into vogue. In time, the traditional dwelling of the Northwest Coast peoples gave way to the conventional frame house of the White settler. D i — 1 (p) (p) n A A A A n n n n A n F r F (& CD} s 1 F 1 1 II 8 F T- = S South Coastal House: framework details. Left, above: Top view of house, showing 4-post (P), main beam structure, with lat- ticework (below) partly rendered. Left below: Side view. Below: End view. In this vart of the coast a latticework of small poles was Duilt around the main beam framework to lend added support to the walls and roof The lat- ticework and the outer sheathinv of cedar planks were removable. Drawings try the au- thor. A A A A A B * 1 1 1 ' i- . 1 = III ^ill n II II II HbII c|rH L^^J— H : H H— _i^ H-^ c c f I E 0 E E F I .J i J I ■ !^ ^^ P \ 0 D E T F c F (^ F - "r L 14 North coastal house frame, showing mortiseivork. North coastal frameioork was more technically advanced and detailed than that of south coastal tribes. Drazcing by the author. Alaskan NATIVE CULTURE TOUR FOR MEMBERS June 18 -July 2 June 18: Fly from Chicago to Anchorage, transfer to Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. City tour, including Fine Arts Museum, then dinner at historic Club 25. Over- night Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. June 19: Flight to Kotzebue, with day tour and overnight first class hotel. June 20: Depart for Nome; day tour of Nome. Depart for Anchorage; overnight Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. June 21: Depart early morning by motor- coach to Denali National Park (formerly McKinley). Afternoon and evening free for National Park Service slide shows and demonstrations, overnight first class hotel in park. June 22: Early morning wildlife tour in park; early afternoon motorcoach to Fairbanks. Overnight Captain Bartlett Hotel. June 23: Special tour and lecture for Field Museum by University of Alaska, on ivory and totem carving, agriculture, permafrost construction, oil develop- ment, economic situation, etc. Overnight Captain Bartlett Hotel. June 24: Fly Fairbanks to Whitehorse. Yukon River raft trip and outdoor BBQ dinner. Overnight at Travelodge. June 25: Day-long trip on narrow-guage railway to Skagway. Free time to sight- see, then to Klondike Hotel for overnight. June 26: 5-hour boat curise to Juneau; to Baranof Hotel for overnight, with stop at Mendenhall Glacier enroute. Late after- noon walking and van tour, including historic district, gold mine, government buildings; outdoor salmon bake dinner. Overnight Baranof Hotel. June 27: Morning tour of Alaska State Museum. Afternoon program on Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act and current native economic conditions. Board cruise shipM.V. Statendam in late afternoon. Meals on board begin with dinner Cruise ship departs 11:00 p.m. (Statendam is 25,000-ton luxury liner.) June 28: Day of cruising on Glacier Bay; lecture room provided to the group. June 29: Port of call: Sitka. Special tour of Sheldon Jackson Museum, National Park Service exhibits, totem collection, Russian Orthodox church, Baranof Cas- tle site. June 30: Cruising off British Columbia coast. July 1: Arrive in Vancouver by Staten- dam in morning. Special tour of Van- couver, highlighting Northwest Coast Indian art; overnight Bayshore Inn. July 2: Fly from Vancouver to Chicago. This tour is limited to 30 persons (dou- ble occupancy), and includes for the tour price of $3,700 (single supplement: $400) a lecturer and escort; all lodging, sight- seeing, and transportation; best hotels available in each city; class D, E, and F outside cabins on the cruise ship; meals in the itinerary plus all breakfasts and all meals on the Statendam; all ground tours and transfers in exclusive vehicles and specially done for the Field Museum group with 30 participants. With 15-29 participants, tours will be done exclu- sively, but transfers may be combined with other travelers. Our tour leader will be Dr. Margaret B. Blackman, associate professor of anthropology at SUNY-College at Brockport, New York, an authority on native cultures of the Northwest Coast and Alaska. If you wish additional de- tails for any tour or would like to be placed on a special mailing list, please call Dorothy Roder, Tours manager, at 322-8862, or write Field Museum Tours, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. 15 LEARNING MUSEUM CONTINUES WITH An Alaskan Eskimo wooden mask from Point Clarence, Alaska. This carving exemplifies the free- dom of farm that characterizes Eskimo art. The Alaskan Es- kimo frequently em- ploy masks in dances and other ceremonies. Regarded as repositories of spirit power, masks were often destroyed after being used. Cat. 12938. ARTS OF Tide and Tundra An Arctic and Northu^est Coast Perspective By Robert Steven Grumet Northwest Coast Specialist and Anthony Pfeiffer Project Coordinator Made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency 16 The land and the people of the far northern shores of North America have moved as one to the beat of wind and wave for countless generations. Long summer days, even longer winter nights, the ebb and flow of tide and pack ice, snow and rain, the annual migrations of caribou, salmon, seal and whale, have all set the tempo of Eskimo* and Northwest Coast Indian life. The people of these regions have always swayed in harmony with the varied rhvthms of their lands. Nowhere is the essence of this rela- tionship between people and their environment * The word "Eskimo" comes from the Algonkian "eaters of raw flesh." The Canadian Arctic people prefer to call themselves Innuit, which means "people" in their lan- guage. Most Alaskan Arctic people continue to call them- selves Eskimos . more apparent than in the artistic traditions of the people of the Arctic and North Pacific Coast. Wide expanses of sheet ice, open water, and barrenlands; dark arctic nights, and the pale luminosity of the polar sun find expression in the free flow of light and form in Eskimo art. Brightly colored, highly abstract, and simply drawn images stand out starkly against solid color backgrounds. White is a highly favored background color, rem- iniscent of snow. Scenes of everyday life, super- natural visions, images of animals and physical features are drawn with a sharpness that mirrors the Eskimo experience of their land. While we require a plane or horizon line, linear perspective, and a vantage point from which to measure distance, the Eskimo view the world as a dynamic, highly changeable place. Bright days suddenly plunge into darkness; clear weather transforms into blizzards in an instant. People sleeping beside an open water bay awaken to an ice sheet. Sometimes blinded by fog and snow, Eskimo people use other senses to navigate. Wind blowing from over salt water smells differ- ent from that blowing from over fresh water. The direction of the wind at a particular season or under particular conditions also reveals its source. Touches of wind and the smells of ice or land forms are Eskimo navigational aids. The Eskimo spend much of their time on the heaving surfaces of pack ice and open water and, thus, do not orient themselves upon flat, stable surfaces. Their art mirrors this perspective. Carv- ings, for example, are not restrained by pedestals, and drawings do not have fixed vantage points. The objects seem to float in space. Most Eskimo sculpture is not free standing and falls over when placed upon a level surface. Thus, the meaning and the aesthetic aspects of an object are defined by its own physical form instead of by its relation- ship to other objects. The lush forests, snow-capped peaks, mild climate, and teeming rivers of the Northwest Coast contrast sharply with the Eskimo environ- ment. The North Pacific coast is a complex and abundant land. Mountains and forests fill the sky; aquatic life fills the waters; and fog, rain, and clouds fill the air. In former days, densely popu- lated Indian villages and camps filled the shel- tered beaches and river banks. A world rich in resources and people is reflected in a lavish and active art. Decorations cover all significant ob- jects. Blankets, harpoons, houses, hooks, bowls, and baskets are carved, painted, or embroi- dered all over their surfaces. All space is formally organized. The art is full of power and tension, reflect- ing the enormous energy of the environment and its people. Wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and out- stretched figures seem poised to leap from totem The famous "Hole in the Sky" totem pole from the Gitksan village ofKitwankool, in British Columbia. Presently free- standing, this totem pole once adorned the front of a large house. Visitors entered the house by climbing a ladder up to the hole, whieh served as the house entrance. Remote Kit- wankool is one of the few villages where totem poles and other aspects of traditional Northwest Coast life survive in their original locations. 17 Richly carved and dec- orated frontlets are worn by powerfid Northwest Coast chiefs. This J^imshian example collectedjrom the Skeena River is richly inlaid with abalone shell, sur- rounded by 40 rows of ermine skins, and adorned on the top by sea lion whiskers and red and bUtckfeathers. The carving of the beaver is identified by the conventional buck teeth, hand-held sticks, and cross- hatched tail motifs. poles and from paintings on the front of houses. Figures intertwine with and transform into one another. The salmon eye, a very popular motif, is actually a representation of a salmon head with its own smaller eye. This motif is often inserted into the pupil of the eye of another larger figure, which in turn may be a component of yet another figure. This constant transformation of figures within figures generates a dynamic sense charac- teristic of Northwest Coast art. The fruits of an abundant environment sup- port a dense population requiring complex politi- cal and social organization. Political and social power are reflected in the art of Northwest Coast peoples. All life is ranked from the greatest to the least. Every aspect of the creation is assigned its place and knows or keeps it. Great chiefs of noble lineages lead the people. They serve as the patrons of an art that validates their power. Much of Northwest Coast art illustrates the heraldic crests of important families. Most of the masks and cos- tumes produced by Northwest Coast artists are made for dances and ceremonials sponsored and owned by powerful clans and leaders. Spiritual power also plays an important part 18 in Northwest Coast art. An abundant land fosters, many mysteries. Deep shadows are everywhere — in the depths of clear waters, in the thick forests, in dense banks of fog and rain, between boulders and in cliffsides, and on the towering mountain sides. The noises made by animals, rushing water, and the wind sometimes evoke the howls and screams of mythological creatures such as the hairy female cannibal tsonoqua or the wdldman bookwus. Spirituality suffuses all asjjects of life and land. Stone, stem, and flesh are animated by spirit power. Rules governing the depiction of spirit beings are strict. For example. Crooked Beak of Heaven, an important Kwakiutl spirit being, can be represented only by a limited number of forms and colors organized in a specific way. Westerners have not always regarded the work of Eskimo and Northwest Coast artists as art. First collected as curios by the earliest Euro- pean visitors to their shores, the arts of the Arctic and North Pacific Coast soon achieved the status of ethnographic artifacts and as such were avidly collected by museums and private collectors. The intensity of these efforts increased during the first half of the twentieth century. Eskimo and North- west Coast culture was thought to be in serious and irreversible decline. Museum expeditions combed Eskimo and Indian villages for artifacts to rescue from the missionaries' torch, from the rot and decay of age and abandonment, and from other museums. Interestingly enough, the art of the Eskimo and Northwest Coast Indian took its place among the world's great art traditions dur- ing the 1940s, just at the time it was felt that the art and culture of this region had all but died out. Reports of the demise of Eskimo and North- west Coast art were premature. Eskimo and In- dian artists and ceremonialists quietly carried on their traditions despite missionary and gov- ernmental suppression. Suppression changed to support following World War II as a. large and growing market for Eskimo and Indian art sprang into existence. New art forms appeared. Eskimo soapstone carvings and wooden sculpture from the Northwest Coast were widely collected. The limited edition silkscreen prints of Indian and Eskimo artists have been in great demand. The Canadian Eskimo have established several cooperatives to produce and market their art. Today we are witnessing an unprecedented renaissance of traditional Eskimo and North- west Coast culture. This renaissance is more than the mere mimicry. It is rather an encouraging example of the dvnamism and resilience of hu- manity, another instance of people taking from the past to create a lifestyle at once new and within an ancient tradition. Arts of Tide and Tundra: An Arctic and Northwest Coast Perspective invites vou to sur- Blankets were an im- portant item of wealth. This type, known as a Chilkat blanket, after the Tlingit-speaking Chil- kat Indians, is made of mountain goat wool dyed black, white, yel- low, blue, and red. Earlier blankets were made of tanned skins. vey both modern and historic masterworks. Explore the intimate relationship between art and its environment. Learn how objects, form, design, and style mirror the dynamic interactions of rulers and the ruled, of hunters and the hunted, and of the material and spiritual realms. All lectures fea- NEH Learning Museum at Field Museum The NEH Learning Museum program is a three- year sequence of learning opportunities focused on the Museum's outstanding exhibits and collections and designed to give participants an opportunity to explore a subject in depth. Each unit of study con- sists of one or more special events, a lecture course, and a seminar for advanced work. Special events are lectures by renowned authorities or interpretive performances and demonstrations. Course mem- bers receive an annotated bibliography, a specially developed guide to pertinent Museum exhibits, and study notes for related special events. In-depth, small group seminars allow more direct contact with faculty and with Museum collections. ture the art and artifacts of the Museum's new permanent exhibition — Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast. From imposing In- dian totem poles to delicately carved Eskimo ivory, North America's greatest artistic heritage is explored. The course of study begins April 13, and details are available in the Spring, 1982, Courses for Adults brochure. You are also invited to attend Tales from the Smokehouse, a related special event. Presented by the Theatre Sans Fils (the no-strings puppet theatre), giant puppets act out two Canadian Indian legends. A love story and a tale of tribal power are combined with drama and spectacular puppetry to make Ojibwa and Tsimshian lore come alive for non-Indian audiences. Through the stories, you are introduced to social mores, daily routines, and sacred rites quite unfamiliar if not totally unknown to most people. It is a remarkable performance interweaving traditional symbolism and contemporary theatre. Tales From the Smoke- house is presented on Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27, at 2:00 p.m. Details of the perform- ances are featured in the June Calendar of Events, sent to members. D 19 Ayer Film Lectures March and April James Simpson Theatre Saturdays, 1:30 pm The Spring Edward E. Ayer Film Lectures are offered each Saturday in March and April. Please take special notice of the new, earlier starting time — 1:30 pm. These 90-minute travel films are narrated by the filmmakers themselves, and are rec- ommended for adults. Admission is free at the Museum's barrier-free West Entrance, located on the ground floor. Handi- Marche "Footloose in Newfoundland," bv Tom Sterling A visit to Newfoundland brings you the wonders of nature — the great fiords, bird colonies of gannets and kittywakes, whales, moose, and tundra plant life. Sterling also introduces you to the people of Newfoundland — their families, "out- ports," and daily life. March 13 "Switzerland," by Ric Dougherty Visit Chateau- D'Oex, a tiny hamlet of Swiss chalets, ride up Mount Rigi, and trek to the Malterhorn. Watch the Reynaud family making Gruyere cheese, and stay to welcome the cele- brants from Vivev of The Feast of the Wine Growers, Europe's greatest folk festival. March 20 "In the Footsteps of Richard Hallibur- ton," bv William Stockdale From London to Spain, to India and Khvber Pass, we follow in the footsteps of adventurer Halliburton (1900-1939). He climbed the Matterhorn, swam the Hellespont, and sailed a junk out of Hong Kong, never to be heard from again. Join Stockdale as he retraces Halliburton's travels. March 27 "China After Mao," by Jens Bjerre This fascinating film invites you to sail down the beautiful Likian River, explore giant caverns, lour Peking, and take a train ride through China to Kwangchow (Canton). Bjerre also explores the many changes in China since the death of Mao — changes which have deeply affected each individual with new freedom. capped persons have access to the theatre via this entrance. Doors open at 12:45 pm for Museum members. When the theatre has reached full seating capacity, the doors will be closed by Security personnel in compliance with fire regulations. Aprils "The Galapagos," by John Wilson A devoted naturalist and cinema- tographer, Wilson explore&the Archipelago of Columbus — better known as the Galapagos. Because these islands are isolated, they are home to some of the world's most remarkably adapted wildlife. Scenes include the courting of the albatross, a climb to the top of Volcan Fernandina, and a trip to Alcedo Crater — home of the Galapagos Tortoise. April 10 "Paris and the Seine," by Kathy Dusek The film begins in the hills of Burgundy, then on to the medieval city of Troyes. See Paris at sunrise, the flower market, and the Louvre. Visit Rouen and hear the storv ofjoan of Arc. Finally we arrive at Normandv and Le Havre — totallv rebuilt since World War II. April 17 "South and East Africa," bv Ted Bumiller An exciting film safari to the great con- tinent of Africa. Game preserves abound with v\'ildlife — elephants, leopards, and crocodiles. Watch fishermen catch the 200-pound Nile perch; climb Kiliman- jaro, visit Nairobi, and meet Africa's many peoples. April 24 "Himalayan Odyssey," bv Frank Klicar The Himala\'as are the meeting place for Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Pilgriins seek spiritual enlightenment at Bhaktipur in Nepal, Rishikesh on the Ganges, and at the Tibetan monas- teryof Leh. Village activities center on grain planting and harvesting, process- ing tea, making rugs, raising livestock, and paper-inaking. ^- NIHOA ISLAND An Archaeological Mystery In the Hawaiian Chain By Thomas J. Riley PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR Fluffy cirrocumulus clouds were being herded west by gentle trade winds to be- come part of another magnificent Hon- olulu sunset as the 40-foDt sloop Ho 'o Holo cleared the Alawai channel. Outside the last channel buoy, our skipper headed her into the wind as we set the main and genoa sails and joined the clouds in their migration into the reddening west. This was the first leg of a small scientific expedition to the island of Nihoa in the northwest part of the Hawaiian chain. If you have never heard of Nihoa, you are not alone. This little island and its neighbor, Necker, some 150 miles north of it, were unknown even to Hawaiians at the time that Captain Cook landed there in 1778. Few of the present-day inhabi- tants of the state of Hawaii have ever seen either of them. Two of us aboard the Ho'o Holo were scien- tists. Carl Christensen, a malacologist from the Bernice P. Bishop museum in Honolulu, was interested in collecting land snails from Nihoa, Thomas ]. Riley is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He wishes "to thank John Carroll, a man for all seasons, who made the trip to Nihoa possible; Sheila Conant, a dedicated scientist who welcomed a group of intruders to her research area in most gracious fashion; Carl Christensen, malacologist; and the crew of Ho'o Holo, Dan, Bill and John, without whom we wouldn't have gotten there and back. A special thanks to Barking Sands Missile Range radiomen and to the U.S. Navy. " In the first day's trek we found only one ar- tifact, a donut-shaped ooject of pumice — probably a net float. 21 A rectangular stone platform in East Palm Valley, possibly as- soaated with the marae (temple) just helow it. and I was interested in the numerous archaeo- logical remains that had been noted there ear- lier in the century. The expedition was purely one of reconnaissance for me. No archaeo- logical excavations would be undertaken in the scant two days that we planned to spend on the island and all the surface artifacts that I found would have to remain in place, with only maps to tell where they had been found. The major goals of my visit were to describe the condition of the archaeological sites there and to collect some curious material known as volcanic glass that ancient Polynesians living in the Hawaiian Islands had used for making small tools. The archaeological sites in Nihoa island had been studied once before, by Kenneth Emory of I62« 24' 21' 22 the Bishop Museum, who had spent a short time in 1924 completing a survey and excava- tions at various sites on the island. A couple of short visits in the 1970s, one by ethnobotanist Douglas Yen, and another brief visit by a National Park Service archaeologist, provide us with the only other information that the archaeological profession has of the sites that are located on Nihoa. My own reconnaissance was geared towards finding out how much de- struction had occurred on the various sites on the island so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could use the information in preparing nominations for the National Register of His- toric Places. A second reason for my visit was to collect fragments of volcanic glass that might be on the surface of some of the sites on the island. Vol- canic glass is similar to obsidian in that it is pro- duced by vulcanism, but it differs in the amount of silicon dioxide contained. Like obsidian, though, the flakes produced from this glass provide sharp cutting edges and the ancient Polynesians of Hawaii used them extensively for fine cutting tools. Both obsidian and volcanic glass can be dated by hydration: the depth that water has penetrated and altered the surface from the time that the glass was chipped as a tool. This weathering is fairly regular and can be measured under a microscope. It was my hope that on Nihoa would be some remains of this material that had either been found there or brought from the main Hawaiian group by the inhabitants of the island. In this way it might be I56» Necker Nihoa Oahu MOLOKAI Lanai 'Ci ^P^ Kahoolawe Maui 100 miles Hawaii 24* 21* 162* 156° NiHOA Island Miller's Plateau Tanaser Peak (8S2') Tunnel Cave Pinnacle- Peak (626')i Dog's Head Peak oss') 1,000 Feet I— I t-i i-i I— 100 Feet elevation interval possible to date the length of time that Nihoa was visited by Polynesians and perhaps tie this tiny island into the chronology that archae- ologists are now developing for the main Hawaiian Islands. The expedition was organized with the help of John Carroll, then a Hawaii state senator and member of several committees concerned with Hawaii's fisheries and natural resources. There were plans to open fishing areas in the northern islands and Senator Carroll was in- terested in discovering the potential impacts of such a political decision. The sloop (owned by Carroll) made its way slowly down the south coast of Oahu and across the treacherous Kauai channel, so rough that it protected Kauai from conquest by the chiefs of the other Hawaiian Islands during ancient times. Even the great chief Kamehameha I, who conquered all the other islands during the late eighteenth century, was prevented from making war on Kamualii, chief of Kauai, by the mon- strous seas here. Our passage was calm and peaceful, however, and we put into Nawiliwili harbor on Kauai to pick up Senator Carroll and our navigator. At about midnight we departed Kauai, skirting its eastern shore and sailing north and west around Hanalei and Ha'ena. Sailing west, we eventually lost site of Kauai, the last main island of the windward group, and with a fol- lowing wind made the tiny islet of Nihoa just before dawn the next day. At the best of times Nihoa presents an eerie prospect to the visitor. It is a small craggy vol- canic remnant of some 156 acres (equal to about 36 average city blocks) surrounded by the deep Pacific. Its inhabitants are chiefly the many species of seabirds that abound in the northern Pacific. The quiet of the island, with no signs of human life on it, is interrupted only by their varied calls and the crashing of the waves against its cliffs. There are no protected beaches here and the small size of the island prevents the development of either a calm lee side or a fringing coral reef. The little coral that manages to survive around the island is deep below the surface of the water where it is safe from the massive ocean swells. We arrived at night, shortly before dawn, and heard the seas breaking along Nihoa's cliffs before we saw the island itself. The only other sounds were the screams of shearwaters night- fishing in Ho 'o Holo's wake and the occasional slapping of canvas as the swell caused a slight luff in the jib. In the dark we could make out no geographic features and we circled the island for the next hour until a gradual reddening in the east silhouetted the peaks at either end of it. The two peaks. Miller's on the west and Tanager to the east, bracket six small valleys, hardly more than large gullies really, that make up the bulk of the island. Between the valleys are short ridges of land that are covered with low green growth of native chenopods (the spinach and beet family) and other plants. In 23 The author standing by prehistoric stone tem- ple terrace with stand- ing slivers of basalt. Trees in background are Pritchardia remota, a species found only on this island. ^^''^^m 24 two of the valleys, West Palm and East Palm, are stands of a rare tree, Pritchardia remota. This genus of palm is noted elsewhere in the Hawaiian chain, but the species is endemic to Nihoa. It is endangered and even from the sloop we could count every individual tree of that species in the world. After first light we found an anchorage of sorts on what appeared to be the lee of the is- land between Miller's Peak and a small crag called Dog's Head. None of us were pleased with the direction of the swell or the possibility that if the sloop dragged anchor she would be pounded against the 800-foot-high cliff that lay less than 70 yards off her stern. The day seemed calm enough, however, and we launched our inflatable raft, fOled it with equipment and crew and a crate of oranges, and took it along with the boat's dinghy around to our landing place on Adam's Bay on the south side of the island. The oranges were a special treat for a young ornithologist. Sheila Conant from the Univer- sity of Hawaii, who was taking a bird census of the island during its major breeding season. Sheila had been on Nihoa for a month be- fore we arrived, and was instructed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make certain that we abided by our research permit. The condi- tions of the permit included several important caveats. First, no smoking or vegetable materi- als that could possibly grow on the island could be landed there. To guarantee this, each crew member had to provide new clothes and equipment for the expedition. What if a new plant were introduced to the island? The results could possibly be devastating to the fragile ecological balance that exists on this little rock. A fire started from a careless match could be just as disastrous, and possibly destroy the habitat of two of the endangered species there, the Nihoa Finch and the Millerbird, both of them endemic to this little plot of land, and found nowhere in the world outside the leeward Hawaiian Islands. Another condition of our work was that we stay well clear of the Hawaiian monk seal if any happened to be around. It was unlikely that this particular endangered species would be there. We did, however run into three of these large animals sunning themselves on the small sand beach just below Middle Valley. These animals, too, are an endangered species, and exist only in the Hawaiian Islands. Their numbers are so few that biologists fear that they won't last out the century. Our plans were to spend only two days on the island, returning to our boat each night so that we might not interfere either with Sheila's research or with the animal and plant popula- tions that Nihoa rightfully belongs to. I am an anthropologist first and an archae- ologist second, and I thought that I had a fair idea of what intrusion on native populations might imply. In situations where I am dealing with a human community that hosts my work, I attempt to be as circumspect as possible, keep- ing within the strictures of local custom and mores. I try to determine which parts of the scientific enterprise are possible within the con- fines of the society with which I am working, and sometimes have to abandon particular areas of research if they conflict with local political problems or with other exigencies of a situation. I have always managed tolerably in human situ- ations, but on Nihoa I felt as if I were treading on eggshells — which in fact I was during my short stay. Sheila pointed out to us all that the breed- ing season of Bulwer's petrel was well under- way at the time of our visit. This small bird nests in burrows or on the ground. At each step through the low scrub we had to take care not to crush the nests of these animals and condemn birds to a death by suffocation or starvation. Every now and then we would destroy one of their burrows and would have to stop to dig the poor bird out and restore the burrow. Several species of shearwater are ground breeders. In these cases, we had to be certain not to stay for any more than a few minutes in the vicinity of the abandoned eggs after the frightened birds had fled our presence. Any more than a few minutes in the sun and the eggs would have overheated and the chicks died. If the numbers of birds had been less on Nihoa, the problems that they presented for our progress across the island would have been negligible. We were' however, faced with the prospect of several hundred thousand of the creatures on a small rock of less than a quarter mile in area. However careful we were, all of us had the feeling that we were making an impact on the bird populations purely by our presence there. Staying close to the trails that Sheila used. we set out with her assistance to explore the archaeological sites on the east side of the is- land. It was our intention to relocate each of the sites that had been reported in earlier work there and then to assess as completely as possi- ble the conditions of the sites as compared to the time when they were originally reported by Emory in the 1920s. Crossing from Middle Val- ley to East Palm Valley we noted long irregular lines of stone walls, clearly field boundaries, that roughly contoured the talus slopes. It was these field boundaries that served to convince Emory that some of the early Polynesian people who settled Nihoa were permanently living there rather than visiting yearly from the island of Kauai, 150 miles to the southwest. An occa- single file of the type used in finishing fish hooks. This last was made of coral. The structures in East Palm Valley included a number that, from the presence of basalt dike slivers that had been placed upright in them, could only be interpreted as temples. Emory recognized that they were quite different from most temples on the main islands of Hawaii, and so designated themmarae, the Tahitian word for temple, rather than the Hawaiian name heiau. In addition to the standing structures in East Palm Valley, a small cave high in the side of the valley, fronted by a terrace, was either a shrine or dwelling place. A standing stone still guards the entrance to this cave and within it ^_. il^iMK* -*>.^Bf» **■',. •«• Rockshelter with con- structed platform and walls, at east end of Nihoa. Sites such as these served as dwell- ing places for pre- historic Polynesians during their settlement of the island. sional rectangular stone-faced terrace jutting from the slopes marked the foundation of a domestic structure that had been constructed centuries ago. These foundations are all that remain of the works of man on Nihoa at the present time. In East Palm Valley, however, the num- ber and complexity of stone remains is greater than on the high areas between valleys. Nestled in the center of the valley are a series of high stone-faced terrace structures, exceedingly well built and well preserved. Some were excavated by Emory and his colleagues in the 1920s and yielded stone bowls, adzes of hard basalt, needles of bone, fragments of gourds used as containers, a decayed wooden shuttle used in the manufacture of fish and bird nets, and a are several grinding stones. The place remains today just as its residents left it hundreds of years ago. In East valley near the coast are a series of rockshelters with wide terraces in front of them. Some of these shelters have well made stone walls partitioning them. The insides of many shelters have been disturbed, not by man, but by the burrowing activities of some of the birds in nesting. They appear to be favorite places for petrels as well as the red-tailed tropic bird. The activities of these animals have done some damage to the integrity of the archaeological deposits within the rockshelters, and it is possi- ble that stratigraphy in these sites has been upset by bird burrows. Emory recorded 66 archaeological sites on 25 the island in his survey in the 1920s. These ap- peared to him to represent the entire range of Polynesian sites, from domestic structures to agricultural terracing to sacred shrines, and suggested permanent settlement. In a series of deductions he concluded that the 12 acres of ag- ricultural terracing on the island could have produced 48 tons of sweet potatoes, a crop which Emory felt would have been best suited to the area. He suggested that the 25 to 35 foun- dations for domestic structures and the 15 rock- shelters on the island could have supported a population of about 170 to 220 persons, with 5 per house and 3 in each rockshelter. However, the agricultural yield in sweet potatoes would have been far too little (between about 400 and 600 lbs. per person per year) to support such a population. Even if all the house foundations and bluff shelters were not occupied at the same time, the yields would have been a scant diet supplement. A population of 50 could have had only 1,900 lbs. of sweet potatoes per person during the year, or a little over 5 lbs. per day. While this is an adequate dietary supplement for Polyne- sian populations, it could hardly have been the staple. For this, we would have to look to the bird population, and potentially a heavy re- liance on marine resources as well. There is no doubt that the hundreds of thousands of birds on Nihoa would have been one of the prime resources of the population there, and Polyne- sians were avid bird hunters and egg gatherers. There is one serious problem, however, for sustaining a permanent settlement on the is- land. This is the fact that it has little or no fresh water. Three seep springs were known on the island at the time that Emory completed his survey, and no more have been found since then. These springs are heavily contaminated by bird guano, and the bitter ammonia-water that drips from them appears to be almost un- palatable. It is possible that there are under- water springs issuing directly into the ocean from a submerged dikeline, but so far none have been noted on the island. The inhabitants must have depended on rainfall for their fresh water needs, and prolonged drought may account for the abandonment of the Polynisian occupation there. All this assumes that the settlement at Nihoa was a permanent one. At the present time we have little evidence that it was either permanent or that there was only one settle- ment of the island. Emory suggested on the basis of adze types and what appeared to him to be two different types of marae on Nihoa, that the island was actually inhabited twice. The first time by a set of people from its neighbor island. Necker, and later by seasonal bird hunters from the main Hawaiian group, most notably Kauai, the nearest of the large islands of the windward Hawaiian chain. His evidence consisted for the most part of the adzes found at most of the sites. Adzes are extremely diagnostic in Polynesia. The shapes that Polynesians gave to these woodworking tools vary considerably from one island group to another and over time as well. The adzes on Nihoa were almost all similar in form to the styles of adze that de- veloped in the Hawaiian Islands fairly late in time. The few that were different looked very much like the enigmatic adzes from Necker is- land some 180 miles to the northwest of Nihoa, and fit with Emory's idea of an early stratum of settlement from this small, bleak rock even further removed from the main Hawaiian chain. The later settlement, however, from the main Hawaiian group, was quite different in character. The lack of water on Nihoa and the proliferation of temple sites all suggested to him that the people who came here stayed only dur- ing the birding season, probably during the summer when the petrels, shearwaters, and the other species of bird were most numerous on the island. At the moment, the particulars of the history of the island's settlement are still shrouded in mystery. I was hoping that an intensive search of the surface of archaeological sites on Nihoa would yield some evidence of volcanic glass. The ex- tensive disturbance of the sites by birds had led me to expect that some of this material, so im- portant in dating many archaeological sites in the Hawaiian Islands, might be gathered from the dirt turned up by these animals' burrowing. If some could be retrieved, then we would have at least the minimal kinds of materials to put this island into the chronological framework that archaeologists have been developing for the main Hawaiian islands. At the present time the initial settlement of the main Hawaiian islands is thought to have been from the central Pacific, specifically the area that includes the Samoan and Marquesan groups. Radiocarbon dates and volcanic glass agree on a settlement in the A.D. 400 range, with subsequent population growth occurring in Hawaii because the early human populations there had no competition from other predators. The earliest dates in the main chain are from sites surrounding a coastal swamp on the north side of the island of Oahu and from a little valley called Halawa on the east end of the is- land of Molokai. There is little doubt that the whole Hawaiian chain, however, was populated by the ninth century A.D. and some of my own work at Ha'ena on Kauai has shown a well de- veloped population there by the twelfth century A.D. If we could recover some of the volcanic glass from the sites of Nihoa it would not only be possible to date the settlement, but it might also be possible to identify the source of the volcanic glass on the island of Kauai. Unfortu- nately, in the first day's trek, when my assistant and myself were recording the damage to ar- chaeological sites and carefully searching their surfaces, we found no signs of volcanic glass, and only one artifact. The artifact was a single donut-shaped ob- ject of pumice, a porous volcanic substance that floats. It was located in the rubble from a fallen corner of the most complete Marae of East Palm Valley, the site that Emory had called number 50. The artifact was probably a net float. As we made our way back to the landing place in the late afternoon, we travelled the high trail of the island close to the cliff edges. It was a sheer drop of 600 to 800 feet to the sea below, and up there the moaning sounds of the shear- waters drowned out the sounds of the crashing waves. Both of us were disappointed, but we were certain that we would have better luck as we recorded the sites on the west end of the island the next day. We left Sheila on the island, and I left my equipment and rucksack as well, though I took my hastily sketched notes and camera with me back to Ho'o Holo. That night we shared experi- ences, since Christensen, along with John Car- roll, had collected terrestrial snails on the west end of the island as my assistant and myself trekked the east valleys. Christensen was ex- cited to have collected several species of which very few examples existed, and I was excited by the fact that comparatively little disturbance had occurred to the archaeological sites. The preser- vation was still comparatively good. Certain that the next day would bring better fortune in terms of recovering datable material, we all turned in. The "certainty" was an illusion. During the night we felt Ho'o Holo shift at her anchorage as the wind veered to the southeast, and then at about four in the morning we heard a loud crashing sound towards the stern and the boat shuddered from sternsheets right through to stem. We all turned to and immediately pre- pared to make way. A check of the bilge showed that Ho'o Holo had not been holed, but the stif- fening southeasterly wind and the rising swell made it necessary to leave our anchorage and run ofs the island. At dawn we could see the massive breakers battering themselves to spume on the cliffs that were the only landing place on the island. It was obvious that our second day of reconnaissance on the island would have to be abandoned. After radioing Sheila, we set sail for Kauai in what became a heavy sea and wind. Two days later, with a heavy sea still running and the winds still blowing out of the southeast, we made Port Allen on the south end of Kauai. The weather around Nihoa is traditionally fickle, and our problem of having to abandon our second day on the island was only repeating what other parties had experienced before. In the 1820s the commander of the U.S.S. Dolphin , Captain "Mad Jack" Percival, had landed on the island only to be trapped there with his boat's crew for two and a half days. His boat was smashed by waves on the island, and finally he was dragged from the shore by a line brought in to him by a sailor who braved the massive seas. The recommendations that I made to the Fish and Wildlife Service included the fact that preservation of archaeological sites on the is- land was quite good. The little destruction that had occurred since Emory's visit consisted mostly of natural erosion and the nesting efforts of the birds. I remain disappointed that no ma- terial suitable for dating was recovered from Nihoa, but any archaeological research that takes place on this island will have to be sched- uled during a time of the year when there will be minimal damage to the wildlife that inhabit the place. This would mean the winter months, when the seas are notoriously bad. It was in January that "Mad Jack" and his boat crew were stranded there. The risk of landing at this time of year and of not being able to get off the island when the work was finished, make the archaeo- logical endeavor here a dangerous one. Despite our own attempts, and those of ear- lier researchers in Pacific archaeology, Nihoa still holds to the secrets of its past. Where did the residents of Nihoa come from? Were they pilgrims from Kauai who built temples during the birding season each year? Was there an ear- lier settlement connected with the little rock called Necker that is even more remote in the Hawaiian chain? How long ago did Polynesian settlement begin and when in prehistory did it disappear? The answers are still locked up on the silent stone remains of Nihoa, guarded over by myriads of Pacific seabirds, and as yet un- solved by modern archaeology. As a final note, we discovered that the crash that awoke us that night at anchor was not due to the boat striking either rock or coral. Senator Carroll informed me that when Ho'o Holo was brought up on the ways for cleaning in the winter of 1981 he discovered tooth marks from a large shark on the rudder post. This marine predator had apparently attacked the boat that night, inadvertently alerting us to the changing wind and water conditions. D 27 For Our Volunteers: A Special Valentine 1981 was yet another year of outstanding, dedicated per- formance by Field Museum's battalion of Volunteers — 280 strong. Collectively, they contributed 42,756 hours of self- less commitment — in virtually every facet of Museum activity: collection maintenance, specimen preparation, library work, photography, typing and other clerical tasks, phone answering, editing, even assisting in scientific re- search and conducting educational programs; and the list goes on. Their contributions of time, talent, energy, and enthusiasm have become essential to the functioning of the Museum. To honor these volunteers a reception was held on the evening of February 17 in Stanley Field Hall. The Museum's president, Willard L. Boyd, offered a special welcome and words of appreciation to the evening's guests, and Museum Director Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. pre- sented awards to those two Volunteers with fifteen years of continuous service to the Museum: Dorothy Karall, who works in Zoology, Division of Invertebrates; and Ellen Hyndman, volunteer instructor in the Museum's Depart- ment of Education. Dorothy Karall was recommended to Dr. Alan Solem in 1966 by his illustrator, the late Margaret Anne Moran McKibben. Having been told that Dorothy was an ex- Marine, Solem was hardly prepared to meet the diminu- tive lady with a beguiling South Carolina accent. With her innate sense of order and art training, Dorothy has, in the intervening years, mounted and labelled plates and fig- ures for more than 50 of Dr. Solem's scientific papers. Week Special Recognition Over 500 Hours Lorna Gonzales (1,003 hours); Zoology, Insects Division: recorded locality data for taxonomic and biogeographic study; checked localities on maps; entered computer data. Education: conducted English and Spanish programs on geology and anthropology for school groups. Llois Stein (875 hours); Anthropology: researched and cata- logued Pacific and Asian collections; assisted in Pacific store- room reorganization. Robbie Webber (720 hours); Anthropology: bibliographic searches and research on recent geology, geomorphology and tectonics of Peru; catalogued Amazonian artifacts. James Swartchild (697 hours); Anthropology: photographed specimens. Frank Greene, Jr. (661 hours); Geology: collected Mazon Creek specimens, recorded field distributions; cleaned specimens. Connie Crane (648 hours); Anthropology: did research, editing, filing and record keeping for Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast exhibit. David Weiss (645 hours); Anthropology: Adminstrative assistant in the Asian Division; responsible for overseeing loans; miscel- laneous correspondence, special projects. Rosanne Miezio (637 hours); Zoology, Mammals Division: scien- tific illustration; assisted with maps and graphs; aided in design 28 and implementation of public exhibit on scientific illustration. after week she walks into the Invertebrate office with her cup of coffee and settles down to the task of trimming and mounting scanning electron microscope photographs or taking highly complex anatomical drawings and putting the explanatory lettering on them, later mounting these for publication in technical articles. In 1977 Dorothy was appointed associate in Invertebrates. Ellen Hyndman also joined the Museum as a volun- teer in 1966, welcoming this opportunity to "do something for herself" At that time the Tibetan exhibit was in its preparation stage and Christine Danziger, the preparator, found Ellen's assistance invaluable. Ellen researched and labelled, sewed and mounted specimens. After the exhibit opened, Ellen turned her talents to the Education De- partment, becoming one of the first volunteers to serve as instructor for school programs. Ellen has given, and con- tinues to give, programs on animals, prehistoric life, American Indians, cultures of Africa, China, and ancient Egypt. She has worked on many of the special exhibits and currently serves as liaison between the Women's Board and the Museum's volunteer program. Dr. Nevling also gave special recognition to the 14 volunteers who contributed 500 hours or more in 1981 and personally presented them with gifts in appreciation for their commitment. Volunteer Coordinator Joyce Matus- zewich concluded the evening's program with remarks on the impact volunteer work has had on the Museum's re- search, education, and exhibition programs. The remain- ing volunteers then received their gifts. Sol Century (593 hours); Anthropology: accessioned and cata- logued in general projects in Asian Division. Gary Ossewaarde (590 hours); Education: conducted, researched Weekend Discovery tours in anthropology and geology; assisted in special events and children's workshops. Jim Currey (564 hours); Zoology, Mammals Division: skinned, fleshed and prepared skeletal specimens; regasketed cases; record keeping. James Burd (560 hours); Anthropology: accessioned and catalogued in general departmental projects in Asian Division. Margaret Martling (543 hours); Botany: processed picture lists, organized Botany library, proofread papers, record keeping. Carol Landow (525 hours); Education: instructed school groups and Museum visitors in Place for Wonder Over 400 hours William Bentley (484 hours); Anthropology: photographed ar- tifacts in Asian collections. Anne Leonard (455 hours); Anthropology: worked on records and photography file for tapa collections and for Patterns of Paradise travelling exhibit. Carolyn Moore (441 hours); Anthropology: special projects re- searcher in Asian Division. Louva Calhoun (439 hours); Anthropology: catalogued Acheu- lian artifacts from prehistoric site in Tanzania; numbered, measured, and made drawings of the specimens. Over 300 Hours Peter Gayford (385 hours); Anthropology: curatorial assistant for Egyptian tomb project; researched in preparation for cataloguing McCormick collection. Dorothy Oliver (361 hours); Library: indexed Museum's annual reports; assisted with interlibrary loan requests, filed new book cards; special projects. Lorain Stephens (358 hours); Zoology, Birds Division: prepared a gazeteer of bird-collecting localities in Peru; started preparation of a gazeteer of bird-collecting localities in the Guianas. Robert Rosberg (353 hours); Anthropology: catalogued collec- tions; pottery restorations; special projects. Nathalie Alberts (349 hours); Anthropology: moved artifacts into and out of storage for Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast exhibit. Alice Wei (325 hours); Anthropology: research in Asian collec- tions. Julie Braun (320 hours); Anthropology: cleaned artifacts for Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast exhibit. Sophie Ann Brunner (317 hours); Zoology, Reptiles Division: or- ganized and maintained skeleton preparation program. Louise Neuert (314 hours); Anthropology: constructed special mannequins; cleaned and sewed textiles to mounts; dressed mannequins for Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast exhibit. Ernest Newton (314 hours); Anthropology: research in Chinese coin collection. James Skorcz (307 hours); Library; worked in Reading Room; filled interlibrary loan requests, filed cards in card catalog, re- trieved books for visitors; compiled statistics; special projects. Cheryl Williams (306 hours); Geology: catalogued and reor- ganized Quaternary collections of fossil invertebrates. Dennis Bara (303 hours); Membership: weekend membership representive. Eric Frazer (303 hours); Anthropology: worked on preventive conservation and storage of textile collections. Halina Goldsmith (302 hours); Education: conducted programs for school groups and visitors in Place for Wonder. 1981 VOLUNTEERS Glenda Kowalski Ila Nuccio Neal Abarbanell Nathalie Alberts Carrie F. Anderson Cleo M. Anderson Dolores Arbanas Jacqueline Arnold Terry Asher Beverly Baker Gwen Barnett Dennis M. Bara Lucia Barba Carol A. Basolo Winifred Batson John Bauer Sanda Bauer Dodie Baumgarten Virginia Beatty Marvin Benjamin William C. Bentley Patricia Bercher Elaine K. Bernstein Joan Biba Riva Blechman Cecilia Bodman Sharon Boemmel Marjorie Bohn Sandra Boots Idessie Bowens Hermann Bowersox Kristine Bradof Steven Brady Charles Braner Kathryn Briggs Carol Briscoe Julie Braun Karen Brock Cassandra Brown Louise Brown Sophie Ann Brunner Teddy Buddington Mary Ann Bulanda James E. Burd Audrey Burns Mary E. Burt Joseph Cablk Louva Calhoun Sandra J. Cameron Robert Cantu Sol Century Dan Chlipala June Chomsky Margaret Chung Roger Cohn Judith Cottle Connie Crane Howard L. Crystal Jim Currey Kathryn Daskal Eleanor DeKoven Jeannette DeLaney Carol Deutsch Steven Diamond Marianne Diekman Phyllis Dix Benny Daniel Dombek April Hohol Halina Goldsmith Lorna Gonzales Judy Gordon Helen Gornstein Evelyn (Jottlieb Loretta Green Frank A. Greene, Jr. Henry Greenwald Robert Gregor Cecily Gregory Ann B. Grimes Dolores T. Gross Karen Grupp Sol Gurewitz* Geraldine Guttenberg Michael J. Hall Shirley Hattis Audrey Hiller Vicki Hlavacek Gerald Kuechner Anita Landess Carol Landow Ellen Lark Joan Lauf Sui Min Lee Marion Lehuta Stephen LeMay Anne Leonard Virginia Leslie Janet Leszcznski Joseph F. Levin Michelle Levin-Parker Inese Liepins Elizabeth Lizzio Dorothy Oliver Forman Onderdonk Charles Oneyzia Joan Opila Gary M. Ossewaarde China Oughton Anita Padnos Therese Palmer Raymond Parker Delores Patton Frank M. Paulo Tracy D. Pederson Renee Peron Jim Sipiora James Skorcz Beth Spencer Irene Spensley Steven Sroka Charles Stanish Eric Stein Llois Stein Lorain Stephens Robyn Strauss Deanna Stucky Bea Swartchild James Swartchild Patricia Talbot Lisa Dorn John E. Dunn Margaret Durbin Stanley Dvorak Milada Dybas Lynn Dyer Kathleen Early Alice Eckley Linda Egebrecht Anne Ekman Agatha Elmes Nancy Evans Martha Farwell Dolores Fetes Marie Fischl Vaughn Fitzgerald Gerda Frank Patricia Franks Eric Frazer Arden Frederick Martha Frey Janine Fuerst Peter Gayford Helen Gayner Donald Gemmel Nancy Gerson Harold L. Honor Zelda Honor Cathy Hosman Scott Houtteman Claxton Howard Betty M. Hubbard Nancy Hubbard Adrienne Hurwitz Ellen Hyndman Darryl Isaacson Judith M. Johnson Karolyn Johnson Mabel S. Johnson Malcolm Jones Daniel Joyce Carol Kacin Carole Kamber Elizabeth Kaplan Dorothy Karall Dorothy Kathan Barbara Keune Shirley Kennedy Joyce Kieffer Marjorie King Dennis Kinzig Alida Klaud Elizabeth Louise Girardi Ralph Lowell James Lowers David Lynam Edna MacQuilkin Margaret Madel Elizabeth Malott Gabby Margo Margaret Martling Robert Mastey Melba Mayo Mark McCollam Dorothea McGivney Withrow Meeker Beth Metz Beverly Meyer Rosanne Miezio Alice S. Mills Carolyn Moore George Morse Anne Murphy Marlene Mussell Charlita Nachtrab Mary Naunton Lee Neary John Ben Nelson Mary S. Nelson Norman Nelson Louise Neuert Ernest Newton Herta Newton Doris Nitecki Gretchen Norton Mary Anne Peruchini Benjamin Taylor Dorothea Phipps-Cruz Jane Thain Steffi Postol Elizabeth Rada Sri Raj Brad Randall Lee Rapp Ernest Reed Sheila Reynolds Elly Ripp Mary Robertson William Roder William Rom Barbara Roob Robert Rosberg Kathy Rose Susan Rosenberg Sarah Rosenbloom Lorraine Thauland Dana Treister Mary Trybul Rebecca Tuttle Joan Ulrich Karen Urnezis Lillian Vanek Paula-Ann Vasquez- Wasserman Barbara Vear Britta Veth Charles A. Vischulis David Walker Mary Ann Walkosz Bertram C. Walton Joyce Wash Marie Louise Rosenthal Harold Waterman Anne Ross Susan Rowley Ann Rubeck Helen Ruch Lenore Ruehr Linda Sandberg Marian Saska Everett Schellpfeffer Marianne Schenker Sylvia Schueppert Florence Seiko Sheila Seybolt Jessie Sherrod Judith Sherry Barbara Siekowski Robbie Webber Alice Wei David Weiss Penny Wheeler Bessie Whitley Cheryl A. Williams Francis A. Willsey Gerda Wohl Reeva Wolfson Katherine Wright Zinette Yacker Rashona Zimring Theodore Zwier 'Deceased Sept. 26, 1981 29 Honor Roll of Donors for 1981 Major ConMbutore of Field Museum's Progi^ims of Research, Education, £ind Exhibition We wish to recognize those generous donors to sands of other donors. By way of recognition, Field Museum who in 1981 helped to maintain a we place on the Honor Roll of Donors the follow- balanced budget. The year ended with no debt ing who contributed $1,000 or more during the or deficit financing, thanks to these and thou- period January 1 through December 31, 1981. Individuals— $5,000 and over Mr. and Mrs. T. Stanton Armour Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Bent Mr. and Mrs. Bowen Blair Buchanan Family Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. DeWitt Buchanan, Jr.) Mr. and Mrs. Walter L. Cherry Mr. and N^rs. Charles S. DeLong Mr. and Mrs. William R. Dickinson, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord Donnelley Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Donnelley II Mrs. Marjorie H. Elting Mr. and Mrs. Joseph N. Field Mr. and Mrs. William Freeman Grainger Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. David W. Grainger) Mr. Raymond H. Greer Mrs. Corwith Hamill Mr. Joseph B. Hawkes Mr. and Mrs. Michael R. Hodous Mr. Frederick K. Leisch Leslie Fund, Inc. (Mr. and Mrs. John H. Leslie) The Oscar G. and Elsa S. Mayer Charitable Trust Mr. and Mrs. William H. Mitchell Mr. Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Mile Oliphant Mr. and Mrs. Charles Potter Pritzker Foundation (Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Pritzker) Rice Foundation (Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Nolan, Jr.) Mrs. T. Clifford Rodman Mr. and Mrs. John S. Runnells Arthur J. Schmitt Fdn. Mr. and Mrs. William L. Searle John M. Simpson Fund Mr. and Mrs. Jack C. Staehle Mrs. Gretchen M. Stewart Mr. and Mrs. John W. Sullivan Ruth and Vernon Taylor Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. Phelps Hoyt Svk'ift) (Mr. William T. Bartholomay) (Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Tieken, Jr.) Estate of Chester D. Tripp (Mrs. Chester Dudley Tripp) Mr. and Mrs. Louis A. Wagner Mr. and Mrs. Blaine Yarrington 30 Individuals— $1,000 to $4,999 Abra Prentice Anderson Charitable Trust Alsdorf Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. James W. Alsdorf) Anonymous (2) Laurance H. Armour and Margot B. Armour Family Fdn. (Mrs. Lester Armour) Mrs. Pamela K. Armour Mrs. Edwin N. Asmann Estate of Abby B. Babcock Mr. and Mrs. Gary Bahr Mr. and Mrs. George R. Baker Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Bass Mr. and Mrs. Harry O. Bercher The Bjorkman Fdn. (Mr. Carl G. Bjorkman) Mr. and Mrs. Bowen Blair Mr. William McCormick Blair Mr. Leigh B. Block Mr. and Mrs. Willard L. Boyd Svend and Elizabeth Bramsen Fdn. (Mrs. Elizabeth K. Bramsen) Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Brown Mr. and Mrs. Roger O. Brown Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Buehler, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Robert Wells Carton Mr. and Mrs. Jerry G. Chambers Mrs. Leonore C. Clow Collier-Swartchild Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. James Swartchild) Mr. and Mrs. Stanton R. Cook Mrs. Elizabeth S. Corbett A. G. Cox Charity Trust Mr. and Mrs. Mark Crane Crawford Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. William Crawford) D and R Fund (Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Rosenthal) Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Davis Davee Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. Ken Davee) Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Delaney Mr. Edward J. DeWitt Elliott and Ann Donnelley Fdn. (Mrs. Charles Hardy) Mr. and Mrs. George H. Dovenmuehle Mrs. Lyman M. Drake Ms. Katherine Dunbaugh Mr. and Mrs. R. Winfield Ellis Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Eyerman Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field Forest Fund (Mrs. Glen A. Lloyd) Mr. Clifford C. Gregg Mr. and Mrs. Paul W. Goodrich Mrs. Rose P. Grosse Mr. and Mrs. Paul W. Guenzel Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Gwinn Mrs. Burton W. Hales Mrs. Mary E. Harland Mr. and Mrs. Allen E. Harris Mr. and Mrs. David J. Harris Mrs. Betty R. Hartman Mrs. William H. Hartz Mrs. Patricia R. Healy Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heineman Mr. John J. Hoellen Dr. Helen Holt H. Earl Hoover Fdn. Mr. and Mrs. Reinhardt Jahn Mr. and Mrs. Harold B. James Dr. Margaret Katzin Mrs. Miriam H. Keare Mr. George P. Kendall Mr. Oscar Kottman, Jr. Mrs. Louis B. Kuppenheimer Mrs. Viola Laski Mrs. Richard W. Leach Otto W. Lehmann Fdn. (Mr. Robert Lehmann) Mr. and Mrs. Albert E. M. Louer Mr. and Mrs. Franklin J. Lunding Mrs. Lucy S. Lyon Mrs. Marie Mahoney Mr. and Mrs. James G. Maynard Foster G. McGaw Fdn. Mrs. Mary U. Meader Mrs. Helen Mayer Medgysey Mr. and Mrs. John C. Meeker Mr. and Mrs. Hugo J. Melvoin Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Meyer Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Mojonnier Molner Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. Morton J. Barnard and George H. Barnard) Mr. Richard M. Morrow Mrs. Mary Baker Moulding Col. John B. Naser Mr. and Mrs. Arthur C. Nielsen Offield Family Fdn. (Mr. Wrigley Offield) Peterborough Fdn. (Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field) Peroke Fdn. (Mrs. Peter B. Foreman) Mr. James H. Ransom Mr. and Mrs. John Shedd Reed Mrs. Helen M. Reeder Miss Ruth Regenstein Dr. and Mrs. Henry Rosett Mr. and Mrs. Henry N. Rowley Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Rubloff Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Sahlins Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Schultz Seabury Fdn. (Mr. John W. Seabury) Sedoh Fdn. (Mr. Scott Hodes) Arch W. Shaw Fdn. (Mr. John I. Shaw) Bessie Shields Fdn. (Dr. Thomas W. Shields) Siragusa Fdn. (Mr. Ross D. Siragusa) Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Smith Mr. and Mrs. Irving Solomon Mr. and Mrs. George T Spensley Donna Wolf Steigerwaldt Fdn. Mrs. David B. Stern, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Stuart, Jr. Bolton Sullivart Fund (Mr. Bolton Sullivan) Sulzer Family Fdn. (Mr John Hoellen) Mr. and Mrs. William G. Swartchild, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John W. Taylor Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Telling Daniel J. Terra Fdn. Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Thorne Edmund B. Thornton Family Fdn. (Mrs. George A. Thornton) The Thorson Fdn. (Mr. Reuben Thorson) Mr. and Mrs. Melvin A. Traylor, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Howard J. Trienens Mr. Roger Van Bolt Mr. Glen Verber Dr. and Mrs. Harold C. Voris Mr. and Mrs. E. Leland Webber Mrs. John Paul Welling Howard J. Willett Foundation, Inc. (Mr. Howard Willett, Jr.) Dr. and Mrs. Philip C. Williams Mrs. Lorraine E. White W. R and H. E. White Fdn. Woodruff and Edwards Fdn. (Mr and Mrs. Robert C. Edwards) Mrs. Claire B. Zeisler Mr. Kenneth V. Zwiener Corporations and Foundations $5,000 and over Abbott Laboratories Allied Fdn. Allstate Fdn. Amoco Fdn. Arthur Andersen & Co. Barker Welfare Fdn. Beatrice Foods Co. Borg-Warner Foundation, Inc. The Chicago Community Trust Coleman Fdn. Commonwealth Edison Co. Consolidated Foods Corp. Continental Illinois National Bank Fdn. Dart & Kraft Inc. DeSoto Fdn. R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. Esmark, Incorporated Fdn. FMC Fdn. Marshall Field & Company Fdn. Field Enterprises Charitable Corp. First National Bank of Chicago Fdn. Ford Motor Company Fund General Mills Fdn. Harris Bank Fdn. Allen-Heath Memorial Corp. Walter E. Heller Fdn. Household International Corp. IC Industries Illinois Belt Telephone Co. Inland Steel — Ryerson Fdn. International Business Machines Corp. International Minerals & Chemical Corp. The Joyce Fdn. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fdn. Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust McGraw Fdn. McMaster-Carr Supply Co. Nalco Fdn. Northern Illinois Gas Northern Trust Co. Peat, Marwick Mitchell & Co. Peoples Energy Corp. The Albert Pick, Jr., Fund Frederick Henry Prince Trusts S & C Electric Co, Sahara Coal Co. Santa Fe Industries Sears, Roebuck and Co. Dr. Scholl Fdn. Sterling Morton Charitable Trust John S. Swift Company, Inc. United Airlines Fdn. United States Gypsum Foundation, Inc. Walgreen Benefit Fund A. Montgomery Ward Fdn. Western Electric Fund Arthur Young & Co. Corporations and Foundahons $1,000 to $4,999 A.G. Becker — Warburg Paribas Becker Fdn. AT&T Long Lines Aetna Life and Casualty Insurance Companies Alcoa Fdn. American Hospital Supply Corp. American National Bank & Trust Company of Chicago Fdn. Amsted Industries Fdn. BankAmerica Fdn. Bliss & Laughlin Industries Brunswick Foundation Inc. Bunker-Ramo Foundation, Inc. Leo Burnett Company Inc. C-E Power Systems CR Industries Carson Pirie Scott Fdn. Central Telephone & Utilities Corp. ChemicalBank — Midwestern Region Chicago & Northwestern Transportation Co. Chicago Bears Football Club Chicago Bridge & Iron Fdn. Chicago Title & Trust Co. Chicago Tribune Fdn. Clark Fdn. Crane Packing Co. Crum & Forster Fdn. Helene Curtis Industries Inc. Dana Corporation Fdn. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. Ehlco Fdn. (Hines Lumber) Ernst & Whinney FRC Investment Corp. GATX Corp. General Motors Corp. General Tire Foundation Inc. Geraldi-Norton Memorial Corp. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Gould Fdn. Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Co. HBBFdn. Hart, Schaffner & Marx Charitable Fund Walter E. Heller & Co. Illinois Tool Works Fdn. Interlake Fdn. Intermatic Inc. The James Companies Jewel Fdn. Johnson & Higgins of Illinois, Inc. Kelso-Burnett Electric Co. Kemper Educational & Charitable Fund Kirkland & Ellis Bertha Le Bus Charitable Trust Fdn. Maremont Fdn. Masonite Corp. Oscar Mayer Fdn. McGraw Edison Co. McKinsey & Co. William M. Mercer Inc. John Mohr & Sons Morton Norwich Products Motorola Fdn. L. E. Myers Co. National Boulevard Bank Assoc. National Can New York Life Fdn. Gust K. Newberg Construction Co. North American Car Corp. Northwest Industries Foundation, Inc. Ogilvy & Mather Inc. J. C. Penney Company, Inc. George Pick & Co. Power Systems Inc. Price Waterhouse & Co. Procter & Gamble Fund Prudential Fdn. Quaker Oats Fdn. Reliable Electric Co. Rockwell International Rollins Burdick Hunter Co. Sargent & Lundy Schwarten Corp. Scott, Foresman & Co. Security Pacific Charitable Fdn. Shell Companies Fdn. Signode Fdn. Sunbeam Corp. Szabo Food Service Talman Home Federal Savings & Loan Assoc. Texaco Inc. Oakleigh L. Thome Fdn. Touche Ross & Co. UOP Fdn. Union Oil Company of California United Conveyor Fdn. United States Steel Foundation Inc. Urban Investment & Development Co. Montgomery Ward Fdn. Wheelabrator-Frye Incorporated Fdn. E. W. Zimmerman, Inc. S"! OUR ENVIRONMENT Rare Black-Footed Ferret Found in Wyoming A rare black-footed ferret, the only posi- tively known living member of its species, was captured aUve in Wyoming last fall and outfitted with a tiny radio transmitter so that federal wildlife biologists can learn more about the habits of these secretive, nocturnal animals. The ferret, captured October 29 by wildlife biologists of the Interior Depart- ment's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is the first live black-footed ferret to be taken in the wild since 1973, in spite of extensive searches by federal and state biologists in a number of western states. "We are quite excited about finding this extremely rare, endangered mammal and having the opportunity to monitor its movements," said Eugene Hester, deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice. "By studying this animal, we hope to obtain information that will help wildlife biologists bring this species back to healthy numbers." The ferret, a male judged to be no more than two years old and weighing about two and one-quarter pounds, was spotted in a prairie dog colony by wildlife biologists who were looking for ferrets. They followed it to a hole where they suc- ceeded in capturing it in a live-trap when it emerged several hours later. The biologists attached a small radio- transmitter to a collar placed around the ferret's neck, observed the animal over- night, and released it unharmed in the morning. The transmitter is expected to operate for four to six months, enabling biologists to gather information about such factors as the ferret's daily and sea- sonal activity patterns, the amount of time it spends in burrows, its feeding activity, and whether it is nomadic. It is also hoped that the radio-tagged ferret may lead the biologists to other ferrets. The exact location of the ferret's cap- ture is being withheld to avoid distur- bance to the landowners and to the scien- tific work. All of the work involving the ferret is being conducted under a federal permit, which is required because the fer- ret is protected under the Endangered Species Act. Considered by many wildlife biologists to be the most severely en- dangered mammal in the United States, the black-footed ferret is a weasel-like animal about 24 inches long with a black mask over its eyes, black feet, and a black- tipped tail. In an attempt to increase the ferret's 32 numbers, several ferrets were taken out of the wild between 1971 and 1973 for breed- ing in captivity at the service's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Mary- land. Although young ferrets were bom, none survived, and the adults were found to have serious disease problems such as cancerous tumors and diabetes. The last captive ferret died in 1978. In the meantime, efforts by federal and state wildlife biologists using scent- trained dogs and other methods had failed to positively locate any additional live black- footed ferrets in the wUd. The first real break in the ferret search came Sep- tember 25, when a dead black-footed fer- ret was discovered in Wyoming. Whooping Crane Update Four whooping crane chicks were raised in wild and captive flocks in 1981, a year which may have suffered a slight popula- tion decline despite intensive research to propagate the endangered species. The highlight of 1981 research was a first-time effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service to radio track the main flock on their 2,600-mile fall migration from Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park to the Texas Gulf Coast. On October 12, trackers reported one of the chicks hit a power line in northern Saskatchewan and died several days later of apparent spinal injuries. While researchers expressed regret over the loss of the young crane, they emphasized that had the flock not been tracked, the fate of the bird would proba- bly have remained a mystery. Service sci- entists stress that the more they learn about mortalities, the better prepared they are to prevent them. Previous colli- sions with power lines have been documented in the Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge flock. Power companies in problem areas have cooperated with re- searchers to solve the problem, sometimes by attaching brightly colored markers to the lines. The Wood Buffalo flock produced three chicks in 1981 during an exception- ally dry nesting season that saw increased egg losses to predatory animals. In August, brush fires swept through the forests and marshes, eventually destroy- ing some 70 percent of the cranes' nesting habitat. However, the chicks escaped the ravaged area with their parents and the rest of the flock. All three chicks in the Wood Buffalo flock were captured and fitted with radio transmitters by U.S. -Canadian research- ers several weeks before fire ignited the habitat. Trackers followed the first two chicks to leave Wood Buffalo; the first was being tracked by a team of U.S. and Cana- dian government biologists in a Canadian airplane when it hit the px)wer line. In southern Saskatchewan an American plane carrying a Canadian biologist — the only tracker to follow the entire route — was standing by to pick up the trail, with a ground research team also following the flock. The same tracking procedures now are being used to track the second chick, last reported to be near Texas. Earlier, trackers found that the tagged chick had covered 470 miles in one day at altitudes of up to 9,000 feet, leaving Montana, overfly- ing North and South Dakota, and landing in Nebraska. As the international team began monitoring the main flock, other re- searchers recaptured a captive-reared female whooper set free last spring at Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Idaho. The female had been transported to Idaho from the Patuxent Wildlife Re- search Center near Washington, D.C., asa possible mate for a lone male raised by sandhill crane surrogate parents. How- ever, scientists felt the two whoopers did not establish a strong enough bond to guarantee that the male would lead the female on the 870-mile migration route to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Ref- uge in New Mexico. The Grays Lake foster flock was started in 1975 to establish a second wild flock of whooping cranes, to build the birds' population, and to eventually en- sure separate migratory flocks. This would diminish the chance of a natural disaster eradicating the sf>ecies in the wild. The sandhill cranes in Idaho hatch "spare" eggs taken from nests at Wood Buffalo and from a captive breeding flock at Patuxent. A recent shortage of suitable female whoopers prompted scientists to introduce the female raised at Patuxent into the foster flock. Since the recaptured Patuxent female made a good adjustment to the wild, researchers will repeat the experiment next year. Despite the two surviving chicks raised at Wood Buffalo Park and one raised in captivity at Patuxent, scientists say the whooping crane pwpulation has not increased, as several mortalities are known. But the bird that has become a symbol of all endangered species has ac- tually been making a gradual comeback: In 1980, whoopers numbered nearly 100 in the wild and 24 in captivity, in contrast to a dismal low of 15 in 1941, when many considered the cranes' extinction to be inevitable. Tecopa Pupfish Declared Extinct — Off Endangered List The Tecopa pupfish has become the first species to be removed from the en- dangered list because it is extinct. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the announcement after no Tecopa pupfish were found in spite of extensive searches by federal, state and university biologists in more than 40 localities near Tecopa, California, where the fish could possibly have existed. The unique desert fish, native to California's Death Valley system, was known to have lived in only two outflow springs of the Amaragosa River system. It is thought to have disappeared because of alteration of its habitat and possibly also as a result of the introduction of competing, non-native fish. One of 12 kinds of pup- fishes in the U.S., the iVz-inch Tecopa could tolerate highly saline waters and temperatures up to 110°. In 1965, the two hot spring outflows were rechanneled and combined during construction of bath- houses, resulting in a swifter channel which carried even hotter water farther downstream, a situation for which the pupfish was not adapted. Virtually eliminated by 1969, the Tecopa pupfish was added to the en- dangered species list in 1970. By 1972, it was known to be gone from this local- ity, although survival of the related Amaragosa River pupfish in nearby pools and springs indicated that the Tecopa might continue to exist elsewhere in the river system. In 1978, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the Tecopa pupfish for removal from the list because it was believed to be extinct; removal has been delayed until additional surveys could be completed. "It is always sad when a species be- comes extinct because of human activi- ties," noted Robert A. Jantzen, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. "But the Tecopa pupfish was pxjssibly already ex- tinct when the first recovery efforts were made under the endangered species laws. In this instance, the fact that this fish has become extinct should not be taken to mean that endangered species conser- vation measures have failed. On the contrary, recovery actions have bene- fited a great number of endangered spe- cies, such as the American alligator, peregrine falcon, whooping crane, and brown pelican." Hazardous Waste Disposal and the "Small" Producers In its 1980 Resource Conservation and Re- covery Act regulations, the Environmen- tal Protection Agency announced that generators of less than 1,000 kilograms (kg) a month of hazardous wastes, includ- ing certain discarded commercial chemical products, who do not accumulate more than 1,000 kg on site at one time, could be excluded from rules that apply to larger generators of these wastes. Among the discarded chemical products listed are formaldehyde, wood alcohol, benzene, and several other components of plastics. The exclusion of these smaller generators created controversy. At issue are wastes considered hazardous, excluded from rules that strictly regulate generation, transport, storage, and dispo- sal of such materials. Critics have pointed out that hazardous wastes are no less hazardous because they exist in smaller quantities. EPA's decision to exclude small man- ufacturers or processors from initial regu- latory framework was based on its belief that the overall level of environmental protection would be greater if it concen- trated its resources on larger generators. The agency also considered resources of the states, which are to play an increasing role in implementing RCRA. To regulate all generators of hazard- ous waste would bring 760,000 people into the regulatory system. By setting the ex- clusion limit for most hazardous wastes at 1,000 kg a month, 99 percent of the total wastes would still be covered — and 695,000 people could be kept out of the system. Generators of even small amounts of hazardous waste still must ensure that their wastes go to state-approved facilities and that wastes be disposed of properly. In addition, RCRA provides that cer- tain commercial chemicals, considered to be acutely hazardous, are subject to much lower exclusion limits if they are to be dis- carded. That is, certain substances includ- ing a large number of pesticides, must be fully regulated if a generator produces and processes as little as 1 kilogram a month of the waste. Fiberglass Carapace for Mud Turtle A 13-inch-long mud turtle, its shell col- lapsed in eight pieces after being hit twice by cars, was rushed to a Florida animal hospital to be put out of its misery. Instead, the veterinarian built a new shell with the help of an auto body shop, and the turtle recovered. "There was so much damage I didn't know if we could fix it. But I figured we'd try," veterinarian Mary Leisnersaid. "Bas- ically, he was a very healthy turtle. What looked bad was the shell. The whole top was caved in like a crater. But the body wasn't damaged. "The turtle was good through all of this," she said. "We stabilized him and medically treated him, and he didn't seem to mind. The only thing he didn't like was when we vacuumed him to get the slivers and chips out. He put his feet out and tried to run away." The unorthodox treatment was at- tempted after Jean Nygren, a director of Tampa's Animal Protection League, ar- rived at the Lutz Animal Hospital with the turtle. She had seen another car hit it, and then struck it with her own car. 'It was bleeding so badly and the shell was a mess. I thought it didn't have a chance and wanted to see it put to sleep humanely," she recalled. Leisner examined the turtle with a household drill and delicate bone instru- ments, lifting depressed pieces of the rock-hard shell. She found nearly half of it had been destroyed. The veterinarian filed and fit the edges and, with some fiberglass and direc- tions from an auto body shop operator whose wife works at the animal clinic, built a new shell. A dangling three-inch tail section was reattached with super- strength glue. After a trip to the body shop, where the rough fiberglass was sanded smooth, the reptile, estimated to be about 12 years old, was cared for at the animal hospital for five days. It was then given a clean bill of health and released into a swampy preserve. ^»- i fl OUR ENVIRONMENT Homes Needed for Excess Wild Horses and Burros The Bureau of Land Management (blm), an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, is looking for people who would like to give a wild horse or burro a good home. Qualified applicants can adopt a wild horse or burro for less than it costs to buy one commercially. The horses can be trained to work, ride or to be pets. These are no ordinary horses and burros. These are living symbols of the history and the pioneer spirit of Ameri- ca's West. Some are descendants of ani- mals that escaped Indian attacks on wagon trains, cavalry attacks on Indians, or Indian-cavalry battles. Others are de- scendants of stock released by the cavalry when U.S. Army outposts were closed, of animals abandoned or lost by early pros- pectors, and of horses and burros turned loose by farmers during the Dust Bowl conditions of the 1930s. Some are possibly descended from mustangs introduced by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th cen- tury. "The wild horse and burro adoption program," says blm Director Robert L. Burford, "is a partial solution to the prob- lem of overpopulation among wild horse and burro herds on western public range- lands. These herds have expanded in most areas since approval of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act in 1971. They compete for very limited for- age and water with both native wildlife and domestic livestock that graze the public rangelands. In order to maintain a proper ecological balance BLM rounds up excess wild horses and burros and makes them available for adoption." Burford adds that approximately 32,000 wild horses and burros have been 34 adopted since the national Adopt-A- TfymWr f W — I i E 3 Horse Program began in 1976. Adopted horses and burros are now found in every state except Hawaii and Delaware. What sort of people adopt wild horses and burros? Just about anyone with an interest and affection for the ani- mals, Burford says. "Most of our adop- ters want to see wild horses and burros protected, not just as a reminder of our nation's western heritage, but as animals worth owning and enjoying." BLM screens potential adopters for proper facilities and experience to care for the animals, which are unbroken when adopters pick them up. For the first 12 months following adoption, wild horses and burros remain the property of the U.S. government. Adopters may apply for title after providing proper care and treatment for that period. Since 1979, blm has operated a wild horse and burro distribution center in Cross Plains, Tennessee — about 30 miles north of Nashville. "The Tennessee cen- ter has been a huge success," Burford says, "primarily by making it easier than ever before for people in the states east of the Mississippi River to pick up adopted animals." "Based on that success — nearly 3,000 adoptions in two years — BLM opened a midwestem distribution center last sum- mer near Omaha, Nebraska, and plans to open another eastern distribution center next April. We've chosen the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area for the next center primarily for its proximity to so many po- tential adopters in the Northeast and its accessibility via the interstate highway system." Members of the public who would like more information about the adoption program should write to Adopt- A-Horse, Dept. 618-K, Consumer Information Cen- ter, Pueblo, Colorado 81009. Along with a brochure on the adoption program, the writer receives an application form to be completed and returned to the Bureau of Land Management. The applicant is **-■ asked to specify on the form the age and sex of the horse or burro desired, and to describe the kind of facilities available for the animal's care. An individual can apply for up to four animals a year. Once BLM approves an application, the name of the potential adopter is placed on a register. As horses and burros become available, the approved applicant is notified where and when to select and pick up the animal. How long an appli- cant has to wait for an animal after appli- cation has been accepted depends upon the number of animals available and the number of prior applicants who want the same sex, color, or age animal. The most requested animals are three-to- five-year-old mares and jennies (female burros). Currently, there is no charge for these wild horses and burros. An adopter pays only a veterinarian's fee, the cost of transporting the animal from the state in which it was captured to the distribution pickup point, and a portion of the adop- tion center's handling charge. Since January 2, 1982, there is a fee of $200 per horse and $75 per burro, plus transporta- tion costs. The veterinary cost is included in the adoption fee. Burford explained that the adoption fee is necessary to help partially reim- burse the U.S. Government for what it spends to remove the animals from the rangelands, process adoption applica- tions, provide medical examinations and vaccinations, and feed and handle the wild horses and burros during the adop- tion process. Adopters are advised of the exact costs when animals become avail- able. BLM estimates there are currently over 70,000 wild horses and burros on public rangelands in 10 western states, with more than half concentrated in Nevada and Wyoming. According to BLM range specialists, the optimum number the ranges will support for good man- agement is approximately 25,000. Wildlife Successes in 1981 A happy ending for a "widowed" bald eagle, a promising beginning for young sea turtles, and a successful journey for some endangered geese are just a few of the "good news" stories that happened to fish and wildlife in 1981, according to the Interior Deparment's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A rare black-footed ferret, the na- tion's most endangered mammal, was discovered in Wyoming, and service re- searchers studying it have since observed two more ferrets in the same vicinity. The ferrets are the first to be positively located in the wild since the early 1970s. (Seep. 32.) A female bald eagle in New York whose mate was shot la^t year got a new family, with some help from wildlife biologists. First she found a new mate — a male eagle that had been transplanted from Minnesota and released at Mon- tezuma National Wildlife Refuge in 1977. Then, because the female was too con- taminated with pesticide residues to pro- duce her own young, wildlife biologists put two eagle chicks into the new pair's nest. The chicks were reared successfully and will help to increase bald eagle num- bers in New York State. For the first time ever, two injured manatees were successfully released to the wild in Florida after being rehabili- tated in captivity. One of the large, docile "sea cows" was injured when she became entangled in a crab trap line, which wrapped tightly around her flippers. She was treated at Sea World and released with her calf, which was uninjured but had remained with its mother throughout the ordeal. Another female manatee that apparently had been struck by a boat was rehabilitated by two other private groups, Marineland and Homosassa Springs. The oceanaria and park groups rescue injured manatees, an endangered species, under an arrangement with the Fish and Wildlife Service. On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a wildlife biologist turned air traffic control- ler in a research experiment to prevent young night-flying seabirds from crashing into brightly lighted areas. By putting shields on outdoor lights that were con- fusing the birds — a threatened species called the Newell's Manx shearwater — he succeeded in reducing the number of crashes by 28 percent. And at aid stations established to collect downed birds, members of the public turned in hundreds of the shearwaters, most of which were saved and released to fly another day. About 2,000 endangered Kemp's Rid- ley sea turtle eggs were moved by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Mexican Fisheries Department from a Mexican nesting beach to Padre Island National Seashore, where biologists are trying to establish a second, protected nesting beach. So that the little turtles would be- come "imprinted" on Padre Island, they were allowed to hatch and make their way to the ocean before they were captured again and transported to a National Marine Fisheries Service facility in Galves- ton, Texas. They will be raised in captivity until they are about one year old, when they will be large enough to have a good chance of surviving in the wild. The sea turtles will then be released in Gulf wa- ters, and it is hoped they will return even- tually to Padre Island to nest. Scores of endangered Aleutian Canada geese that were raised in captivity in the lower 48 states were transplanted to Alaska's Aleutian Islands and are now mi- grating successfully with wild birds to wintering grounds in California. In all, more than 2,600 Aleutian Canada geese have been counted on their wintering grounds, up from a low of 800 in 1975. A record 530 Atlantic salmon re- turned to the Connecticut River to spawn. The young from the 1.2 million eggs pro- duced by these highly prized game fish will be reared at state and federal fish hatcheries and released into the river to help rebuild the fishery. Salmon disap- peared from the Connecticut 100 years ago after dams blocked the migration of adult salmon to their spawning areas. The effort to restore the salmon in the North- eastern United States began in 1967 and involves the Fish and Wildlife Service, the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service, and two private power companies. As a result of recovery efforts for the severely endangered Puerto Rican parrot, a record number of nine parrot chicks were produced and survived in the wild this year. Two more chicks were produced in captivity, one of which was placed in a nest and survived to join the wild flock. This brings the total number of Puerto Rican parrots to 29 in the wild and 15 in captivity. Service research biologists reported that eggshell thickness and reproduction are improving in eagles, osprey, and brown pelicans, and that the numbers of sharp-shinned hawks and Cooper's hawks are increasing dramatically. Re- searchers now agree that DDE, a persistent breakdown product of DDT, was responsi- ble for eggshell thinning, reproductive failure, and population declines in the bird populations. American shad spawned naturally in the Susquehanna River for the first time in 150 years. The spawning followed the re- lease of 1,165 adult shad in the river in May 1981 by the Pennsylvania Fish Commis- sion and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The two agencies are collaborating with other state and federal agencies and five power companies to restore the Sus- quehanna's historic shad fishery. March & April at Field Museum March 16 through April 15 New Exhibits "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast." Open- ing April 24. Members' Preview 1 to 9 p.m., April 22 and 23. This sf)ectacular exhibit compares and contrasts the life and culture of the Northwest Coast Indians and the Eskimos. The five gal- leries of the exhibit deal with environment and history, hunting and collecting, the village and society, the spiritual world, and art. Within each of these galleries are dioramas, colorful artifact displays, study areas, and video presentations. Hall 10. Continuing Exhibits Hall of African Mammals. Discover the surprising variety of African mammals, from the huge bongo or forest hog to the dainty klipspringer, in preparation for the lecture, "Predators and Their Prey: The Serengeti." Two of Field Museum's best known dioramas are here: the Man-Eating Lions of Tsavo and the African Waterhole. The African Waterhole, the Museum's largest habitat group, includes the giraffe, gazelle, zebra, and rhinoceros. Hall of Ancient Egyptl^ns. Field Museum's Egyptian exhibit, one of the country's best, has been improved by the addition of a new exhibit area, "In the Shadow of the Pyramid." You may now enter tomb chapel rooms built over 4,000 years ago and a replica of the chapel of Nakht, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other exhibits detail life in prehistoric and early historic eras of Egypt. Photomurals explain how the tomb chapels came to Field Museum. Among the most compelling objects in the older area are the human and animal mummies. Hall J. 35 Continued on back cover t^ EDITH FLEMING 916 PLEASANT OAK PARK ILL 60302 March & April at Field Museum March 16 through April 15 Continued from inside back cover New Programs Ray a. Kroc Environmental Lecture. "Predators and Their Prey: The Serengeti." Sunday, March 28, 2 p.m. Award-winning photographer and author Baron Hugo van Lawick describes the incredible variety of animal life which includes more than 100 species of mammals and 500 of birds, inhabiting Serengeti Na- tional Park, in Tanzania, Africa. As a Serengeti area resident for 14 years, he has been able to capture the circle of life and death among the animals with vivid language and beautiful photographs. Members: $3. Nonmembers: $5. Edward E. Ayer Film Lecture Series. The Spring 1982 series of these popular adult-oriented travel films is beginning at a new time — 1:30 p.m. Admission is free through the West Entrance. Doors open at 12:45 p.m. March 20: "In the Footsteps of Richard Halliburton," wath William Stockdale March 27: "China After Mao," with Jens Bjerre April 3: "The Galapagos," with John Wilson April 10: "Paris and the Seine," with Kathy Dusek Weekend Discovery Programs. Tours, craft projects, slide pre- sentations, and films which use Field Museum exhibits as a springboard for new insights into natural history projects are featured on Saturdays and Sundays. March's "Film Feature" subject is mammals from around the world. March 20 1:30 p.m. Saga of the Sea Otter, a "Film Feature." March 21 1:30 p.m. "Egypt's Middle Kingdom: Tombs, Art, and Literature," slide lecture. March 27 1:30 p.m. Baobab: Portrait of a Tree, "Film Feature." March 28 1:30 p.m. "Ibtankhamun: Discovery and Treasures of the Tomb," slide lecture. April 3 12:30 p.m. "Public and Private Life in 18th Dynasty Egypt." slide program. 2 p.m. "American Indian Dress," tour. April 10 "Ancient Egypt," tour. Spring Journey "A Touch of Field Museum." This self-guid- ing tour covers such touchable exhibits as bones, meteorites, and polar bears. Tree Journey pamphlets available at Museum entrances. "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Nortiiwest Coast" Special Programs Northwest Coast Lecture Series. "A Culture Develops." The concluding two lectures in this series are designed to enhance the visitor's appreciation of Field Museum's newest permanent exhibit, "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast," which opens April 24. Each lecture is individually complete and given by a leading authority on native cultures of the Northwest. Entrance for these 8 p.m. lectures is through the West door. Members: $3. Nonmembers: $4. March 19 "Adaptations: Cultural Variations," by Wavne Sut- tles, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. March 26 "Cosmology, Role of the Shaman," by George Mac- Donald, University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, British Columbia. Learning Museum Course. "Arts of Tide and Tbndra: An Arctic and Northwest Coast Perspective." Dr. Robert Grumet, visiting lecturer and anthropologist, compares and contrasts the tra- ditional art forms of the Northwest Coast Indians with those of the Eskimos through striking slide presentations, the use of authentic artifacts and traditional music. The course meets for six consecutive Thesday evenings at 7 p.m. beginning April 13. Advance registration now being accepted. For more informa- tion, call 322-8854. Members: $40. Nonmembers: $45. Contemporary Arts Symposium. "Echoes of the Past, Tides of Change." Five noted Northwest Coast Indian and Eskimo ar- tists discuss modern trends influencing their art. Together the artists speak authoritatively about the state of North America's richest and most famous artistic heritage. A related Learning Museum event. Sunday, April 18, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Members: $6. Nonmembers: $8. Continuing Programs March and April Hours. The Museum is open every day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Fridays. On Fridays the Museum is op)en 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the year. The Museum Library is open weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed March 15 and Good Friday, April 9. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN Ai)iil i;)H2 '^^ m -d^k m - S^, ^' Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin Published by Field Museum of Natural History Founded 1893 President: Willard L. Boyd Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Editor/ Designer: David M. Walsten Production Liaison: Kathryn Laughlin Calendar: Mary Cassai Staff Photographer: Ron Testa Board of Trustees James]. O'Connor cliairman Mrs. T. Stanton Armour George R. Baker Robert O. Bass Gorden Bent Bowen Blair Willard L, Boyd Mrs. Robert Wells Carton Stanton R. Cook O.C. Davis William R, Dickinson, Jr. Thomas E. Donnelley II Marshall Field Richard M. Jones Hugo J. Meivoin Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. James H. Ransom John S. Runnells William L. Searle Edward Byron Smith Robert H. Strotz John W. Sullivan William G. Swartchild, Jr. Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken E. Leiand Webber Julian B. Wilkins Blaine J. Yarrington Life Trustees Harry O. Bercher William McCormick Blair Joseph N. Field Paul W. Goodrich Clifford C. Gregg Samuel InsuU, Jr. William V. Kahler WUliam H. Mitchell John M. Simpson J. Howard Wood CONTENTS April 1982 Volume 53, Number 4 The Northwest Coast Collections: Legacry of a Living Culture by Peter L. Macnair Diagram of Hall 10 "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast" 13-16 Alaskan Native Culture Jburfor Members 19 Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast by Carolyn Blackmon, chairman of the Department of Education, and Ronald L. Weber, visiting assistant curator of anthropology 20 April and May at Field Museum Calendar of Coming Events 26 COVER Northwest Coast masks on view in Gallery FV, "Spiritual World," in the exhibit "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast," opening April 24 in Hall 10. (Members' preview April 22, 23.) Exhibit case shown on front cover contains Kwakiutl masks; that on the back cover contains masks of the Tlingit, Haida, and T^imshian. Photo by Ron Tksta. Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin (USPS 898-940) U publistied monthly, except combined July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at L^ke Shore Drive, Chicago, n. 60605. Subscriptions: $6.00 annually, $3,00 for schools. Museum membership includes Bulletin subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Museum phone: (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send from 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Uke Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 60605. ISSN:0015-0703. THE NORTHWEST COAST COLLECTIONS LEGACY OF A LIVING CULTURE by Peter L. Macnair Increasingly, museums are being scrutinized for the way in which they present and interpret ethno- graphic material, and rightly so, for the attitudes of the past often reflect a cultural imperialism that is generally not acceptable today. Examination of the records of anv museum established in the Peter L. Macnair is curator of ethnology at the British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria, B.C. At the open- ing of Field Museum's new exhibit, "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast," Mr Macnair will serve as the official representative of the Province of British Columbia. He will lecture on "Kwakiutl Winter Cere- monies" on Friday, Ma}' 14, at eight o'clock. nineteent h century demonstrates clearly an attempt to amass a large, comprehensiye collection of a way of life that was rapidly passing. Where collecting had a scientific basis and was guided by qualified personnel, the results were gratifvang and provide helpful information for toda/s student of material culture. Regrettably, other institutions sought to impress by sheer numbers alone and such collec- tions and the display of them remain little more than cabinets of curiosities. The discipline of anthropology' was still very much in its infancy at the end of the nineteenth century, but pioneers like Franz Boas were leading the study into a respectable social science. Material Early photo of diorama of Hdmatsa, or cannibal dance, of the Kwakiutl, as it appeared when first installed in 1904. The diorama may be seen again today in Gallery IV, Hall 10. Neg. 16242. (Color detail shown on p. 18.) 3 Hdmatsa dress worn by Bob Harris (left) and Charles Nowell (ri^tj, both Kwakiutl Indians, at 1904 St. Louis Exposition. 13583 culture was a legitimate interest within anthropol- ogy and the systematic approach to identifying ma- terials from which the objects were made, describ- ing their use, and recording their social context, was an appropriate curatorial activity. Such documenta- tion justified the need to preserve apparently dying arts and customs for future generations. Inspired by the material culture of Indian and Eskimo peoples who visited Chicago to demonstrate their exotic lifeways at the World's Columbian Ex- position of 1893, Boas helped establish the collection that forms the core of the Field Museum's holdings. In many respects his information about the material of the Northwest Coast Indians is unequalled, and for this the active participation of native people in collecting and identifying it must be recognized. Boas' primary native associate was George Hunt, from the northern Vancouver Island Kwakiutl vil- lage of Fort Rupert. Rigorously trained to record 13581 myths, legends, technology, and ceremonial events in both English and his native language, Hunt pro- vided a legacy of information that will continue to overwhelm those seeking to use his contributions. The Boas-Hunt tradition at the Field Museum was continued in the first decade of the twentieth century by a British Columbia-based medical doc- tor, Charles F. Newcombe, and his Kwakiutl collab- orator, Charlie Nowell. In 1901, Newcombe was engaged to add to the Northwest Coast collection and to plan and prepare exhibits that would feature the culture of the people of this area. In 1902 he col- lected mainly Haida material and later added ob- jects from other tribal groups. Great expositions continued to hold immense public interest at this time and Newcombe took several Kwakiutl and Nootkan Indians to the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. He and Charlie Nowell stopped offin Chicago on their return to the Pacific Northwest to plan collecting strategy, identify cer- tain objects, and to discuss the displays that New- combe was to design for the Field Museum. Not all the objects Newcombe required could be obtained from the field. As a result, Nowell and his Denaktok village associate, Bob Harris, created certain objects for the displays. The Newcombe cor- respondence reveals how Charlie was asked to make a (recentiv constructed) cradle "look old-fashioned" by eliminating the "whiteman's paint" used to deco- rate the piece. Men such as Charlie Nowell had a vast sense of humour and a flair for the theatrical, and they must have greatly entertained those midwesterners whom they came to know through the museum project. And while performing and working for the whiteman, they retained a conviction that what they were offering was part of a real, living, and viable tradition. Perhaps the incident of cannibalism at St. Louis is an indication of the sfxintaneous creativity and yet serious intent of these roguish early associates of the Field Museum. Among the many peoples brought to the fair were a group of pygmies. Bob Harris, the carver, was fascinated by them and be- friended one by supplying him with extra food. The Kwakiutl, assisted by their Nootkan associates, staged a hamatsa, or cannibal dance for fairgoers. In this most prestigious of Kwakiutl performances, the dancer is said to be inspired by the spirit of a ferocious man-eating njonster, who, at the begin- ning of time stole humans from a village and took them to his mountain fastness at the north end of the world to eat. Inflamed by this awesome spirit- power, the hamatsa dancer circles the floor of the ceremonial house and appears to bite the arms of certain members of the audience. In time he is subdued by healing songs and the actions of attendants and is returned to a state of normalcy. As an alternative to the biting sequence, the dancer may enter holding a corpse in his arms and appear to eat it. Yet all of this was simply highly staged theatre. But back to the troujje in St. Louis. Bob Harris was performing as hamatsa when the singers made a mistake in the song. This angered him and Charlie Nowell announced this fact to the sizable audience viewing the performance. Attendants sought to re- strain the enraged dancer, but he escaped their grasp and rushed to a point on the stage where their pygmy friend sat. Harris seized the diminutive fel- low and rushed behind a painted screen. Then he reemerged, handling his victim so roughly that the pygmy screeched in terror. The hamatsa then placed his captive on the floor and bit his neck so furiously that blood spurted over the stage. The Kwakiutl ended the presentation by cutting strips of flesh off the corpse and eating them. By all reports the crowd was outraged. Consta- Haida totem pole model carved by Charles Ederishaw, c. 1900. Cat. 79696. Northwest Coast whistles. Gallery IV. bles had to restrain the unfortunate victim's people from attacking with sjjears. If Nowell is to be be- lieved, a distraught Newcombe muttered that it was murder and Harris would be hanged for certain. Ever the orator, Charlie Nowell announced that his people had done a great thing and had acted accord- ing to the dictates of the winter dance. Somewhat later the group proceeded to their on-site dance house which quickly filled with fair officials and curious onlookers. Harris danced around the fire, shaking his rattle and singing. Then he moved towards the remains of the unfortunate, at this point covered by a mat , and sang an incanta- tion over the body. As he sang, Nowell transla.ted the words, indicating successively, "that fiesh was now back on the bones; that the body was entire; and that the body was finally quite warm." The cover- ing was suddenly flung aside and the victim sat up stiffly and slowly began to unlimber his body. Charlie rose before the audience and addressed them as follows: "I am very glad to learn that our friend here, Bob Harris, done this great thing. You all saw him when he ate the flesh of this little man that is standing by his side. This is the same man that was dead, and his flesh was all eaten up. Now he has his flesh and his life back, and now he is alive. And I am glad that there will be no law that will come against us." (From "Smoke from Their Fires, The Life of a KwakiutI Chief," by Clellan S. Ford, Yale Univer- sity Press, Inc., 1941.) Sensing the drama of the situation, Newcombe stood up and delivered a lengthy speech in which he detailed the elaborate theatrical achievements and other considerable accomplishments of the Northwest Coast peoples. Bob Harris was obviously a master of the theat- rical prop. Even today his carving skills are remem- bered. One informant claims his talent was so con- siderable that when he completed a carving of a grizzly bear, it transformed into a living animal. Harris died shortly after this incident. He was a man who had explored his stagecraft to the point where people believed it became real, foreshadowing his demise. Happily, Nowell reveals the secret of their amazing performance. Over several days Harris carefulh' observed the pygmy and created a like mannequin; he carved a head from wood and modeled a body by scrupulously dissecting and rear- ticulating a sheep's carcass, the "body" was then smoked as a finishing touch. He simulated the victim's cr\' with a whistle manufactured of wood and reed and filled a bladder with animal blood for the final effect. Bob Harris and Charlie Nowell are but a few of the great Northwest Coast Indian artists, singers, orators, and chiefs of the recent past who are still remembered today. In part, they are recalled through archival records and anthropological pub- lications but they also survive in the memories of those still living who had the good fortune to know the leading men and women of two or three genera- tions past. There were many who successfully bridged two worlds and made both all the richer for it. What of the forebears of those native people who strove to help provide us with a written record of their magic world? As far back as earliest Euro- american contact with the northwest coast of North America, certain jjersonalities emerged to be iden- tified and described. The majority were chiefs who quickly sought to control all communication with the strangers and their novel trade goods. When Captain James Cook landed on Vancouver Island's west coast in 1778, he came to know the Moachat Nootkan Chief named Maquinna. Cook entered ob- .^jmm Northwest Coast yM potlatch (detail), Wl Gallery III. servations about him and his people in his journals; his staffartist, a man named John Webber, sketched various village scapes, house interiors and portraits, leaving an invaluable record. Some two decades later an English-born ship's armorer sailing aboard an American vessel was captured and enslaved bv the same Maquinna for a period of two years. The enslaved John Jewitt was eventually rescued and survived to publish his memoirs, which have since proved useful in attempts to reconstruct the history of the early contact period in Maquinna's territory. Other Euroamericans followed, some like Cap- tain George Vancouver to assiduously chart the North Pacific Coast of the continent. Others came to exploit the sea otter trade, finding they could sell the lustrous f)elts in China for huge profit. In time, this source of income was slaughtered to a point of near extinction and the maritime fur trade collapsed. However, it was quickly replaced by a more perma- nent land-based fur trade. This saw the advent of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1820, and fortified trading posts soon dotted the coast, continuing to offer a wide variety of manufactured goods. All this while the Indians remained in ascen- dency, manipulating trade to their own advantage and always outnumbering the whites. Then in 1862 tragedy struck. A ship from San Francisco reached Fort Victoria with a passenger aboard suffering from smallpox. Indians from along the entire length of the coast were visiting Victoria and most con- tracted the dread disease. As they made their way northward, often ill and disspirited, they were attacked by other groups who became unwitting victims themselves. Unscrupulous traders entered villages filled with decaying corpses, stripped blan- kets from bodies and moved on to the next healthy village to repeat the cycle. This unhappy chapter in British Columbia's history was quickly over for want of victims to work upon. Within two years, more than one third of the native population of what is now British Columbia died. The ravages of gun- power, alcohol, mumps, measles, chickenpox. tuberculosis and other infectious diseases also took their toll, so that by 1929 the province s native popu- lation reached an all-time low. This figure of 22,600 was down from a precontact estimate of 85,000. The Haida living on the Queen Charlotte Islands suffered most dramatically; they were reduced from a probable 8,000 to 588 souls in 1915. Given these figures, recoverv or retention of traditional culture seemed impossible. Yet, people have tenaciously held on, maintaining as much as possible despite the onslaught of disease, and religious and civil suppression so that today rebirth becomes significant. While common aspects of culture and envi- ronment link the people living on the coast of north- ern California to southeastern Alaska, major dis- tinctions exist. Unifying factors include the tracta- ble, versatile red cedar tree, which provides most of life's needs: bark for clothing and rope; branches and roots for withe and basketry; and the sturdy trunk for houseplanks, canoes, boxes, totem poles, utensils, and ceremonial objects. The other constant in this distinct cultural and ecological area is the salmon. Five species of this anadramous fish spawn in rivers and streams, the larger of which penetrate the Coast Range and p)er- mit access as far as the Rocky Mountains. Additional fauna and flora contribute importantly to life on the Northwest Coast although salmon and cedar prevail. Yet even in the epicenter of this natural prov- ince vast discrepancies occur. Certain gulf islands in Puget Sound and Georgia Strait receive so little rain- fall that a species of cactus actually flourishes in isolated rocky areas. At about the time the cactus is blooming some of the northernmost straits are choked with flotillas of icebergs, calved off from glaciers at the head of ^ords. While it is easy to create the impression of a moderate climate and an abundance of food, hunger and even starvation were not unknown to the coastal peoples. The farther north one travels, the more rigorous becomes the food quest. The range in climate between the northern and southern borders is significant; on the Fraser and Columbia Rivers, summer-caught salmon can be preserved by drying in the hot canyon air. lb the north, the much more labor-intensive method of smoking fish is required, as the flesh will not cure in the cooler, moister atmosphere of an Alaskan summer. Within the vast area are fieoples whose lin- guistic origins cover at least six language families. Anthropologists prefer to describe these gross categories as linguistic groups and from north to south they include Tlingit, Haida, Tfeimshian, Kwakiutl, Bella Coola, Nootkan, Coast Salish, and Chinook. But we are dealing with such a time depth here that mutually unintelligible languages have developed within these general categories. For example, there are actually nine separate languages among the Coast Salish group although all are ulti- mately derived from a common tongue. Given the differences in environment and cul- ture there is at least one universal denominator and that is the sea. Its moods range from raging surf flung by a winter's storm onto the jagged rocks of the exposed outer coast to protected inland waterways in summer as still as the sun at noon. Myriad islands add miles of coastline offering both harbor and succor. Through these passages Indian people ven- tured, travelling hundreds of miles to trade, inter- marry, or make war. The summer's activities of gathering and fish- ing saw people disbursed throughout the territory often functioning independently as small famUy groups in their pursuit of food. But as winter ap- proached and gales mixed sea spume and rain as one, people drew back to the permanent winter villages and began an intense, introspective life dominated bv the presence of ancient spirits that left their mountain, heavenly and mythical retreats to surround the villages during the sacred wdnter season. At this time people assume a new order, intro- ducing personal names that are used only in the ceremonial season. Society is ranked in a manner that often differs from that of the secular summer months. The mythic encounters of ancestors ac- quired through descent, marriage, or warfare are reenacted according to rigid privilege and if disputes of ownership occur, intensely competitive gift-giving may result in an attempt to gain supremacy over a rival. While the majority of dance dramas relate to the time when the world was young and animals could turn at will into human form and back again, others,which on one level appear to be myths, relate to actual events. One lineage of Nishga people living on the Nass River have a mask that when manipulated causes the nose to extend almost two feet. The nose is a telescoping device, controlled by strings. Its use re- calls a legend that saw a monster step from a cave and by extending its nose across a river valley, save a village from a threatening lava flow. The lava beds are very much in evidence today and geologists indi- cate the eruption occurred no more than 300 years ago. Such cataclysmic events demand explanation and in time they become vested in myth. When a family intends to display, assume, or transfer jealously guarded prerogatives, they invite witnesses to view the event. The presentation of a series of dances could continue for several weeks during which time guests must be fed and housed by the host group. Displays might take place inside a cedar plank house designed to accommodate as many as 500 people. Here, at night, illusion was enhanced by the flicker of firelight. Interplay of light and shadow was created by the fire which aUer- nately highlighted and obscured the magnificent sculptural planes of carved masks and other stage properties. Actors fell into the fire, were horribly burned and then miraculously made whole. Women were beheaded and then recreated. Sea monsters festooned with kelp came trumpeting out of the sea while small birds flew through the dance house calling to one another. Once the dance privileges were shown, the host was required to distribute food and wealth goods to his guests. By accepting the gifts, which were pre- sented according to rank, the guests acknowledged their host's claim to his entitlements. Thus, the host's status was validated by the public witness of his guests. The apparent orgy of gift-giving horrified civil and religious authorities, who petitioned the Cana- dian government to ban the institution known as the potlatch. Legislation was first attempted in 1884 but it was not until the earlv twentieth centurv that individuals were successfully charged and jailed for participating in events that encompassed all aspects of society: ceremonial, religious, ritual, economic, - and social. 1>emendous moral and legal pressure was put up)on Indian jjeople to give up their old ways. The fires of the human heart grew dim, yet many per- sisted and were able to carry over important knowl- edge oflanguage, culture, and tradition to the pres- ent day. In 1951 the Canadian Indian Act was rewrit- ten and the repressive sections against the potlatch were simply deleted. Descendents of the determined few are again standing where Charlie Nowell and Bob Harris once stood. As did their forebears, they have contributed substantially to the creation of a magnificent new exhibit and have demonstrated that the cooperation with native peoples established as a precedent more than 75 years ago continues to be a hallmark of the Field Museum. D Carved argillite dish Haida.Diam. 13~li inches; 1894 gift of J. L. Gould. Cat. 17952. Neg. 102063. Field Museum Store GALLERY 9 Museum Members and the general public are invited to a new exhibition selling of the finest art works by top artists and craftsmen of the Arctic and Pacific Northwest. The gallery opening coincides with the opening of Hall 1 0. Artists represented include: Primrose Adams Larry Avakana Steve Brown Joe David Robert Davidson Dorothy Grant Calvin Hunt Henry Hunt Tony Hunt Tony Hunt, Jr Nathan Jackson Jo^n Livingston Melvin Olanna Duane Pasco Katie Pasco Selina Peratrovich Bill Reid Cheryl Samuel Jim Schoppert Joe Senengetuck Ron Senengetuck Norman Tait Art Thompson All from British Columbia, Alaska, and Washington, their works here assembled present a stunning array of talent never before seen in Chicago. Included are wood carvings, masks, jewelry totems, baskets, weavings, serigraphs, and button blankets. Gallery 9 Hours: 1 1-5 or by special appointment. Museum Store Remodeled The Museum Store, newly remodeled, is again open. A new section, featunng choice items related to special exhibitions, currently features a wide vanety of merchandise from the Arctic and the Pacifc Northwest or related to the cultures of those regions. 25 8«n. Poll aarortca. AlaV>a Gallery III, "Village and Society. " Portion of exhibit showing personal adornment and clothing of Eskimos. Ron Testa photo. 11 Gallery III, "Village and Society." Portion of exhibit featuring ceremonial dress of Northwest Coast peoples is shown. Robe in center belonged to Kasawak (Edwin Scott), a Haida chief. Behind the robe, on the wall, is a Haida button blanket. Ron Testa photo. 12 Maritime Peoi FISHING,HUNTING and GATHERING HALL 3 HALL 4 I Peoples of the Northwest Coast Eskimo Peoples Eskimo and Northwest Coast Peoples £s OF THE Arctic & Nori Hall 10 VILLAGE and SOCIETY SPIRITUAL WORLI ATION ESS KWAKIUTL HOUSE everyday life EMENT ERNS ERS ARE DOLLS and TOYS KWAKIUTL HOUSE ceremonial life "^y-^y^ PERSONAL ADORNMENT HOUSE ^TYPES CEREMONIAL DRESS --^ PIPES GAMES HOUSEHOLD EQUIP- MENT and TOYS POTLATCH ('■gift-giving') SALISH SPIRIT CANOE CEREMONY RATTLES WHISTLES THEATRICS/ V CHARMS KWAKIUTL WINTER CEREMONY SHAMAN'S / EQUIPMENT bench audiovisual unit DE kan SETTLEMENT PATTERNS PERSONAL ADORNMENT and CLOTHING SKIN-WORKING ESKIMO HOUSE N( No DEATH and BURIAL SHAMANISM 5HAMAN TRAINING SHAMAN DRUMS HAMATSA Tlingit, I Tsims bench) ^^' bench SHAMAN'S EQUIPMENT CEREMONIES and FESTIVALS / bench ^ SHAMAN MA HALLS HALL 6 HALL 7 HWEST Coast ART KWAKIUTL sITER CEREMONIAL FKAN WINTER ^EMONIALS an, Salish, linook ^^ '.SKS— Bella Coola \SKS ■akiutlX TWO-DIMENSIONAL ART I SCULPTURE BOXES BOWLS .VISUAL PLAY SPOONS and LADLES- PAINTING BEAR in ART BOX- and CANOE' I MAKING I V BASKETS MATS BASKETWEAVING MATERIALS WOODWORKING HORN-WORKING BASKET- and MAT- WEAVING ICONOGRAPHY la, OTHER CEREMONIAL T EOUIPMENT /isual lit TOTEM (Tlingit) ENGRAVING tr® ee® TOTEMS akiuti and Hai ©00 ART of CHARLES EDENSHAW GOLD and SILVER ARGILLITE PRINTS and SCULPTURES / SERI- GRAPHS TOTEMS (Nootkan) audiovisual unit e ® ® ® ® ® TOTEMS TOTEMS (Bella Coola) (Salish) bench BLANKET-WEAVING SKIN-WORKING bench BLANKETS HALLS HALL 9 16 Gallery IV, "Spiritual World. " Life-size representation of Eskimo shaman dancing. Ron Testa photo. 17 Gallery IV, "Spiritual World." Diorama of Hdmatsa Society ceremony (Kwakiutl). The diorama was constructed in 1904, its seven mannequins reproduced from life casts made on Vancouver Island, B.C., in 1899. Ron Testa photo. 18 June 18 -July 2 June 18: Fly from Chicago to Anchorage, transfer to Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. City tour, including Fine Arts Museum, then dinner at historic Club 25. Over- night Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. June 19: Flight to Kotzebue, with day tour and overnight first class hotel. June 20: Depart for Nome; day tour of Nome. Depart for Anchorage; overnight Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. June 21: Depart early morning by motor- coach to Denali National Park (formerly McKinley). Afternoon and evening free for National Park Service slide shows and demonstrations, overnight first class hotel in park. June 22: Early morning wildlife tour in park; early afternoon motorcoach to Fairbanks. Overnight Captain Bartlett Hotel. June 23: Special tour and lecture for Field Museum by University of Alaska, on ivory and totem carving, agriculture, permafrost construction, oil develop- ment, economic situation, etc. Overnight Captain Bartlett Hotel. June 24: Fly Fairbanks to Whitehorse. Yukon River raft trip and outdoor BBQ dinner. Overnight at Travelodge. June 25: Day-long trip on narrow-guage railway to Skagway. Free time to sight- see, then to Klondike Hotel for overnight. June 26: 5-hour boat curise to Juneau; to Baranof Hotel for overnight, with stop at Mendenhall Glacier enroute. Late after- noon walking and van tour, including historic district, gold mine, government buildings; .outdoor salmon bake dinner. Overnight Baranof Hotel. June 27: Morning tour of Alaska State Museum. Afternoon program on Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act and current native economic conditions. Board cruise shipM.V. Statendam in late afternoon. Meals on board begin with dinner Cruise ship departs 11:00 p.m. (Statendam is 25,000-ton luxury liner.) June 28: Day of cruising on Glacier Bay; lecture room provided to the group. June29: Portofcall: Sitka. Special tour of Sheldon Jackson Museum, National Park Service exhibits, totem collection, Russian Orthodox church, Baranof Cas- tle site. June 30: Cruising off British Columbia coast. July 1: Arrive in Vancouver by Staten- dam in morning. Special tour of Van- couver, highlighting Northwest Coast Indian art; overnight Bayshore Inn. July 2: Fly from Vancouver to Chicago. This tour is limited to 30 persons (dou- ble occupancy), and includes for the tour price of $3,700 (single supplement: $400) a lecturer and escort; all lodging, sight- seeing, and transportation; best hotels available in each city; class D, E, and F outside cabins on the cruise ship; meals in the itinerary plus all breakfasts and all meals on the Statendam; all ground tours and transfers in exclusive vehicles and specially done for the Field Museum group with 30 participants. With 15-29 participants, tours will be done exclu- sively, but transfers may be combined with other travelers. Our tour leader will be Dr. Margaret B. Blackman, associate professor of anthropology at SUNY-College at Brockport, New York, an authority on native cultures of the Northwest Coast and Alaska. If you wish additional de- tails for any tour or would like to be placed on a special mailing list, please call Dorothy Roder, Tours manager, at 322-8862, or write Field Museum Tours, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. 19 Maritime peoples of the arctic and northwest coast A New Permanent Exhibit in Hall 10 by Carolyn Blackmon and Ronald L. Weber Gau-erv ///. Cutaway replica ofKwakiutl house, with daily-life 20 fiimishings. Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast marks a new era for Field Museum. It is the first major permanent collection to be reinstalled in over forty years, and it signifies the beginning of a new exhibit renovation program. The Northwest Coast Indian and Eskimo collections are of high importance for their richness and diversity in materials, design, craftsmanship, and regional variation. Collected primarily for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the artifacts represent these cultures between 1850 and 1920. The five galleries within the exhibit follow a structured approach to man in his several cultural modes: people live within a space — their environ- ment; they use their environment to obtain food by fishing, hunting, and gathering; they devise shelter, live in villages, and form a structured society; they deal with the spiritual world and explain their existence on the basis of religious belief; tools are Carolyn Blackmon is chairman of the Department of Education, Ronald L. Weber is visiting assistant curator. Department of Anthropology'. made and decorated, and works of art are created. The Museum has used an innovative efTort in combining the artifacts with appropriate infor- mation. The challenge was to determine types of visitor use and needs across the spectrum of organized school groups to the casual visitor. A strategy was devised to present three levels of information that support the main themes. Level I is reflected in the individual gallery titles and large dynamic exhibits that present a major concept or idea. Level II exhibits, surrounding the central theme, are concerned with the many separate stories that support the main idea. These exhibits contain labels that often call out special interest items. Level III provides peripheral study areas that display similar objects which were used for a specific purpose. The exhibit floor plan (center spread, pp. 14-16) provides an overview of the strategy. Assigning appropriate names for tribal and other cultural groups within the context of the exhibit, was not a routine matter. Some Canadian Eskimos prefer to be know^n as Inuit, meaning "real people" in their language. The Algonkian -word Eskimo , meaning "raw flesh eaters," is the only term that properly designates all of the native inhabitants of the arctic area from Alas- ka to Greenland. So Eskimo has been used in the exhibit for all people of this region. The misconception that all Eskimos share a close, common identity derives from an external vievi^oint; there is no single expression used Gallery II. Alaskan Eskimo fishing equipment. 21 Gallery V. Northwest Coast basketry. bv Eskimos that lumps all of them together in such a convenient fashion. The same linguistic problem prevailed in finding suitable cultural tags for peoples of the Northwest Coast area. Today, those who speak the Nootkan language prefer to be known as "West Coast People" (west coast of Vancouver Island). The word nootka has no meaning in their language. But because the designation "West Coast People" may be too easily confused with "Northwest Coast People," the name Nootkan — meaning Nootka speakers — has been used throughout the exhibit. •fS Introduction In the first two miniature dioramas, dealing solely with the natural environment of the Arctic and Northwest Coast, man is absent. However, the resources which man depended upon are included in detail. In "Prehistory," man is introduced into both the Arctic and Northwest Coast areas. "His- tory of Peoples" shows the history of European con- tacts with Arctic and Northwest Coast peoples, from a European as well as an Indian perspective, and "History of Collections" considers how the collection -originated. A short film about the peoples of Alaska and the Northwest Coast as thev live today completes the Introduction. Fishing, Hunting, and Gathering The two central dioramas present the chief subsistence activities of the Eskimo, (sea hunt- Gallery II. Model of Nootkan salmon trap. 22 Gallery IV. Alaskan Eskimo shaman masks. f Gallery V. Alaskan Eskimo walrus tusk I engraving. Two lower I pieces are carved as 'ttt' a cribbage boards. ing) and of Northwest Coast peoples (salmon fishing). Level II cases show fishing technology, food gathering, and transportation, among others. A 16-foot Nootkan style salmon fishing canoe is on view, complete with paddles, boxes, and hooks. The boat was built specially for the new exhibit by Lance Wilkie, a Makah Indian of Neah Bay, Washington; baskets and mats made by Margaret Irving, also a Makah, of Neah Bay, have been placed in the canoe. Level III study areas contain halibut hooks, trap sticks, and clubs for use on seals and fish. The Eskimo side of the gallery contains materials concerned with land hunting, whaling, fishing, transportation, and the hunting and utilization of the seal. This gallery joins Hall 4, where one may find general information on Pre-Columbian American Indian food gathering patterns. Village and Society The replicas of Eskimo and Kwakiutl houses are constructed in cutaway fashion. On the Northwest Coast side are the two side-by-side Kwakiutl house Gallery IV. Accoutrements of Kwakiutl winter ceremony. replicas, identical in structure; the first contains the materials of daily life, the second is arranged for ceremonial activities. In the daily-life replica, fronted with glass, a woman in calico tends a fire as she prepares to roast mussels. In the house's sleeping room, left rear, two men are passing the time at gambling. A mixture of traditional and European goods are to be seen about the house. The houseposts have the raven crest on top. The ceremonial house is a walk-in exhibit, furnished only with an elaborately designed, portable, three-sectioned ceremonial dance screen that features the raven crest. A large, circular hole in the screen's center reveals a number of masks behind it. The houses were constructed on site for the exhibit by Kwakiutl Indians Tony and Calvin Hunt, and John Livingston; the masks were made by Doug Cranmer and Richard Hunt, also Kwakiutls. On the west wall we find a cutaway replica of a subterranean Eskimo house. The Village and Society gallery enters directly into Hall 5, which contains the Museum's renowned Pawnee earth lodge. Thus, three distinct North American house types, all within close proximity to one another, may be readily compared. Settlement patterns, house types, trade, warfare, clothing, personal adornment, toys, games, and pipes are also here. An exhibit of the potlatch (gift-giving) prepares the visitor for the next gallery, the Spiritual World. Spiritual World To the right we see a representation of an Eskimo shaman dancing. A few steps beyond, and to the left, we are confronted by the arresting figure of a Kwakiutl Hamatsa initiate and dancer emerging from a dance screen. This diorama, with seven life-size mannequins, was completed in 1904. The figures were modeled from life casts made on Vancouver Island in 1899. Nearby cases provide 24 90P*% information on shamanism, curing, and the winter ceremony. Beyond the Hamatsa diorama we come upon an awesome collection of spectacular masks, arranged by region of origin. Art Twenty-three towering totem poles and houseposts carved by Tlingit, Haida, Bella Coola, Kwakiutl, Salish, and Nootkan artists dominate the area. Exhibits include animal crests, two- and three- dimensional art forms, transformation themes in art, and the working of wood, horn, skin, argil- lite, and metals. The division of labor between men and women is treated in sections on mat- making, basketry, and blanket-weaving. An exhibit of serigraphs, hand-silk-screened prints, features the current renaissance of Northwest Coast art. A case devoted to the artist as an individual pre- sents works by John Robson, Charles Edenshaw, and his descendant the contemporarv Robert Davidson. The gallery also contains works by John Cross, Doug Cranmer, Joe Daxdd, Stan Green, Bill Reid, Roy Vickers,Johnny-Kit-Elswa, and Xa'niyus (Bob Harris), in addition to many fine pieces by unknown artists. Level III study areas containing boxes, bowls, spoons, baskets, mats, and blankets display superb pieces of artistry and craftsmanship. Since Eskimo artists generally work on a small scale, ivory engraving and stone-carving, the section dealing with their creations is on a correspond- ingly small scale. Among the contemporary Eskimo artists represented are Kingmeata, Kakulu, and Joseph Senungetuk. Major funding for "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast" has been provided by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chicago Park District, the Barker Welfare Foundation, the Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust, and the Frederick Henr\' Prince Testamentary Trust. D Gallery I. Diorama of Northwest Coast environment. 25 April & May at Field Museum Apnl 16 to May 15 26 Neiv Exhibits "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast." Hall 10. A dramatic new, permanent exhibit opens April 24! This innovative exhibit compares and contrasts the theatrically ornate cultures from the North Pacific Coast with the austere but individu- alistic Eskimo societies. Situated along the 5,000- mile coast of the Northern Pacific and Arctic oceans, these two distinct cultures have adapted to differing environments by using similar tech- niques to harvest the riches of the rivers and oceans. Enter the Introductory Gallery (I) from Hall 3 on the northeast corner of Stanley Field Hall. Here the lush forested Northern Pacific area is compared to the barren tundra of the Arctic. The Northwest Coast Indians and the Eskimos both lived by hunting and fishing; they never depended on agriculture. How they hunted, fished, and gathered from the land and sea is explained in Gallery II. Full-sized house replicas of each group are featured in the Village and Society Galleiy (III). The Spiritual World Gallery (IV) defines the inter-relationships of the human, animal, and spiritual world. In the final gallery (V) the stunning art of the Northwest Coast Natives and Eskimos is dramatically presented. The towering totem poles and tiny scrimshawlike engravings exemplify the rich artistic heritage of these groups. Here is an exhibit you'll enjoy at a leisurely pace, but will want to return to again and again. Gallery Nine. Special exhibit area in front of Hall 9. An art gallery for viewing and purchasing. The work of the 21 modern Northwest Coast and Eskimo art- ists on display represents an exciting renaissance in their art. From April 24 to May 25. Museum Bookstore. Look for the newly remodeled Museum gift and book shop facilities when visiting the Maritime Peoples exhibit. "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northivest Coast" S{)ecial Programs Contemporary Arts Symposium. "Echoes of the Past, Tides of Change." Five noted Northwest Coast Indian and Eskimo artists speak authoritatively about the state of North America's richest and most famous artistic heritage. A related Learning Museum event. Sunday, April 18, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Members: $6. Nonmembers: $8. Northwest Coast Lecture Series. "Strategies of So- ciety: Social Organization." The second lecture series concentrates on the social structures of Northwest coast tribes and how their art is integrated into those societies. You may attend the whole series or any individual lecture. Each lecture is given by a leading authority on native cultures of the Northwest. En- trance for these 8 p.m. lectures is through the West door. The series is $9 for Members and $12 for non- members. Single lecture is $3; $4 for nonmembers. May 14: "Kwakiutl Winter Ceremonies," bv Peter Macnair, Curator of Anthropology, British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria, British Columbia. Opening Festivities Member's Preview. Hall 10. April 22 and 23, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Hilary Stewart, consultant for the exhibit's labels will be on hand to discuss the exhibit. The West Coast Singers and Dancers from British Columbia will perform on Thursday only (April 22) from 4 to 5 p.m. Pole Raising. Outside Museum's North entrance at 1 p.m. In honor of this new exhibit, Field Museum will erect its first outdoor artifact — a 55-foot totem pole named "Big Beaver," carved by Nishga artist Norman Tait. The pole-raising will be accomplished with traditional native ceremonies. April 24 at 1 p.m. Ceremonl^l D.-\nces. Stanley Field Hall. A group of Nishga dancers will perform dances like those which commemorate important events in tribal life, to dramatize the totem pole raising. April 24 and 25 at 3 p.m. Kwakiutl Dances. Stanley Field Hall. See a Museum exhibit come to life! Kwakiutl winter ceremony dances will be performed just as they are pictured in the exhibit. April 25 at 11 a.m. Craft Demonstrations. Stanley Field Hall. Some of the Kwakiutl and Nishga dancers are also excellent artists. They will demonstrate in a variety of media using regional materials such as wood, bone, and grasses. April 25 at noon. New Programs Dinosaur Scavenger Hunt— A Weekend Family Program. Participants can go on a "dig" in Field Museum's Dinosaur Hall (Hall 38) by using a spe- cially prepared self-guided tour. Volunteers and staff will be on hand to help families discover more about these fascinating creatures. Tour Lifesize mannequin of Kwakiutl Hdmatsa Soci- ety initiate, in Hall 10, Gallery IV ("Spiritual World"). Initiates, clothed just in hemlock boughs, were inducted only dur- ing the society's winter ceremonials. begins at the head of the Apatosaurus, the largest dinosaur, in Hall 38. April 17 and 18 from 1 to 3 p.m. Edward E. AyerFilm Lecture Series. The Spring 1982 series of these popular adult-oriented travel films is beginning at a new time — 1:30 p.m. Admis- sion is free through the West Door. Members receive priority seating. April 17: "South and East Africa" with Ted Bumiller. April 24: "Himalayan Odyssey" with Frank Klicar. Spring Journey. "A Touch of Field Museum." This self-guiding tour covers such touchable exhibits as bones, meteorites, and polar bears. Free Journey pamphlets available at Museum entrances. Weekend Discovery Programs. Tours, craft proj- ects, slide presentations, and films which use Field Museum exhibits as a springboard for new insights into natural history projects are featured on Satur- days and Sundays. Check Weekend Sheet available at Museum entrances for added programs. 1 p.m. "Malvina Hoffman." Film and slide lecture concentrates on Portraits of Mankind collection commissioned by Field Museum. 1 p.m. "The World of Dinosaurs." Tour of dinosaur collection covers basic facts and some speculations. 1 p.m. "Dragons." Tour compares the dragons of Tibet and China with those from the West. 2 p.m. "Tibetan Life and Rehgion." Slide lecture contrasts Tibet today with tra- ditional life. Tour of Museum's Tibetan collection will follow lecture. 11:30 a.m. "Ancient Egypt." Tour explores everyday life from myths to mummies. 1 p.m. "The Brontosaurus Story." Slide program surveys dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. 2 p.m. "Malvina Hoffman." Film and slide lecture. May 15 3 p.m. "Life in Ancient Egypt." Tour introduces newly installed exhibit and describes practices of Nile Valley inhab- itants such as mummification. Continuing Programs Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals with scien- tific interests and backgrounds are needed to work in various Museum departments. Contact the Volun- teer Coordinator, 922-9410, ext. 360. April and May Hours. In April, the Museum is open daily 9a.m. toSp.m., except Fridays. During May, the Museum is open every day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., except Fridays. On Fridays, throughout the year, the Museum is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Museum Library is open weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Museum Telephone.- (312) 922-9410 27 .r\ Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin May 1982 W- Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin Published by Field Museum of Natural History Founded 1893 Presidetit: Willard L. Boyd Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Editor/Designer: David M. Walsten Production Liaison: Kathryn Laughlin Calendar: Mary Cassai Staff PJwtographer: Ron Testa Board of Trustees James J. O'Connor chairmaji Mrs. T. Stanton Armour George R. Baker Robert O. Bass Gorden Bent Bowen Blair Willard L. Boyd Mrs. Robert Wells Carton Stanton R. Cook O.C. Davis William R. Dickinson, Jr. Thomas E. Donnelley II MarshaU Field Richard M. Jones Hugo J. Melvoin Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Lorin I, Nevling, Jr. James H. Ransom John S. Runnells William L. Searle Edward Byron Smith Robert H. Strotz John W. Sullivan William G. Swartchild, Jr. Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken E. Leland Webber Julian B. WiUdns Blaine J. Yarrington Life Trustees Harry O. Bercher Joseph N. Field Paul W. Goodrich Clifford C. Gregg Samuel Insull, Jr. WilUam V. Kahler William H. Mitchell John M. Simpson ). Howard Wood CONTENTS May 1982 Volume 53, Number 5 Charles Darwin: A Tribute from the Standpoint of Modem Evolutionary Theory by Bruce D. Patterson, assistant curator. Division of Mammals Thinking Scientifically by John Tirrell, associate curator. Department of Anthropology Alaska Tburfor Members 8 13 Philippine Emergerwe Learning Museum Program by Bennett Bronson, associate curator. Department of Anthropology and Anthony Pfeiffer, project coordinator 14 Theatre Sans Fil Giant Puppet Show Comes to Field Museum June 26, 27 Field Museum Tour to Australia 18 19 Sorrte Responses to Early Contact on the Pacific Northwest Coast by Marlene Mussell Our Environment 20 25 Field Museum Tburs to Kenya and to the Baraboo Range 26 May andjune at Field Museum Calendar of Coming Events COVER Hollow bronze representation of the ancient E^ptian god Horns inform of a falcon. The bird wears the sacred cobra, or uraeus, emblematic of sovereignty, and the double crown of united E^pt. Eyes are overlaid with gold. About actual size. On view in case 17, HallJ. Gift of Stanley Field andEmest R. Graham. Cat. no. 173231. PHOTO CREDITS. Cover: NP148; p. 3, 4, 9: courtesy Bettmann Archive lnc.^_10 Historical Pictures Service, Chicago; p 11- Bettmann A'ch^ Inc. P.l^ ^44375, p. 15: N21450; p. 16: N23491; p. 17 (top): N22067; p. ^^ (bottom). N23248^18 Thpatre Sans FiT D 19 Qantas; p. 20: National Mantime Museum, p 21 N10t3b/J ^11 N1^66 p'^23 N108468; p. 26 (top): Edward Olsen; p 26 (bottom): Audrey Faden. Field Musfum of Natunl History Butlriin (USPS 89S-940) is putjtished monthly, except combined July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Uke Shore Drive, Chicago, n 60605 Subscriptions: $6.00 annually »3.00 for schools. Museum membership indudes Bullelm subscription Opmions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. UnsoUcited manuscripts are welcome Museum phone (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send from 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Uke Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 60605 lSSN:001S-0703. Second class postage paid at Chicago, n. Charles Darwin: A Tribute from the Standpoint of Modern Evolutionary Theory by Bruce D. Patterson Assistant Curator, Division of Mammals ■ p ? ^ 1^1 w " ^-^^1 I_ ^1 1 - ^fW^ ■" 'I'-J'-^'Vfc ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 ^^^E^'^ '^^ ^ iHHHl ;^' '' ^^^^^^H MM 1 ■ ^^^^^1 ■ i \v!^B|^^^^^^^^^^^H 1 ■ I^^H ■ ^H fl 1 ^^^^^1 ^^^IK ^^ On April 19, 1882, Charles Darwin died; he was in the 74th year of his life. Plagued by infirmities for much of his adult life, Darwin had led a life of quiet reflection at his family home in Down, England. Darwin's thinking was to produce a revolution in the way in which we view nature and ourselves. Perhaps no other scientist in history has so radically reordered human aware- ness. The centennial of Darwin's death presents an occasion for the celebration of human achieve- ment and genius. Darwin's insights into evolutionary phe- nomena were nothing short of remarkable. His Bruce Patterson, who joined the Field Museum staff in 1981, IS the recent recipient of the James H. Davis Prize, awarded by the Graduate School of New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, for his doctoral dissertation. Charles Darwin, age 61 theory of evolution via natural selection was simplicity itself: 1) All biological populations are variable in myriad characteristics relevant to survival and reproduction; this variability is in part heritable. 2) Each biological population produces vastly greater numbers of offspring than are necessary for the replacement of the parental population (Darwin calculated that the descendants of a single pair of slow-breeding elephants would number more than 19 million after as little as 750 years, were each to survive and reproduce). Thus, 3) there must be a con- stant "struggle for existence" in which favored variations come to predominate in populations via differential survival and reproduction. While the two tenets of evolution via natural selection were well established prior to Darwin, it took Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's genius to combine them in such a way as to conclude that living organisms should be embroiled in unceasing evolutionary change. The inherent plausibility of evolution by natural selection was, however, not sufficient to sway a skeptical scientific and public audience. Darwin opened his first notebook on facts in relation to the origin of species in July, 1837, shortly after returning from the now-famous voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle. He was to spend much of the following two decades amassing evidence for his ideas on the mutability of spe- cies. During this period of incubation, Darwin wrote numerous scholarly works, on such dis- parate topics as the formation of coral reefs, the nature of earthquakes, the actions of earth- worms, and the systematics of barnacles. Darwin's theory on the origin of species was presented to the scientific community in abstract form in the company of a nearly identi- cal, but independently derived, version written by Alfred Russel Wallace. The two papers on natural selection were published simultaneously in the fournal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society in 1858. Much later, Darwin was to write that "our joint publications excited very little attention.... This shows how necessary it is that any new view should be explained at considera- ble length in order to arouse public attention." The Origin of Species, the single most influ- ential work of Darwin's career, was pubhshed the following year, in November, 1859. The first edihon of 1,250 copies sold out on the day of publication, and a second edition of 3,000 copies soon afterwards. By 1876, 16,000 copies of the book had been sold in England, and translations of the book had appeared in most European languages. In his personal letters, Darwin re- ferred to this work as an "abstract" of a longer, more definitive work on the same subject — perhaps the Origin can be seen as an abstract of all his scientific work, the theme about which his various studies were drawn. The 1860s saw the publication of four other books by Darwin. These were followed in Feb- ruary, 1871, by the publication of the Descent of Man. In the introduction to that work, Darwin stated: "During many years I collected notes on the origin or descent of man, without any inten- tion of publishing on the subject, but rather with the determination not to publish, as I thought that I should thus only add to the prej- udices against my views. It seemed to me suffi- cient to indicate, in the first edition of my 'Origin of Species,' that by this work 'light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history'; and this implies that man must be included with other organic beings in any general conclu- sion respecting his manner of appearance on this earth." Emboldened by the general acclaim given the Origin by contemporary scientists, Darwin published the application of this general theory to human evolution. The Descent of Man produced a radical change in human perception of the natural order, overthrowing the concept of man's sovereignty over nature that had prevailed in philosophy since the dawn of civilization. By affirming our kinship with nature, our place amid countless other species of organisms in a system of ever- branching genealogy, Darwin stole our domin- ion but bequeathed us an extended family. More than a century later, we still feel the profound impact of this philosophical revolution. We at Field Museum are especially indebted to Charles Darwin. His theory of evolution makes intelligible a vast body of scientific obser- vations: it defines the way in which we view the interrelationships of organisms, and even the way that specimens are arranged in our research collections (scienhsts use genealogy as an order- Darwin spent eight years (1846-54) studyingyarious species of barnacles, and pub- lished two large monographs on the subject. Those shown here are from an 1851 edi- tion. In his autobiography he noted that "The Cirripedes form a highly varying and difficult group of species to class; and my work zvas of considerable use to me, when I had to discuss in the Origin of Species the principles of a natural classification." ing principle much as librarians use the Library of Congress classification system). Many of the questions Darwin raised in the nineteenth cen- tury still persist as the most fundamental and challenging questions in biology. These ques- tions serve as focuses of scientific debate, and comprise the basis for much of the research conducted by curators at the Field Museum. Among them are: • What is the tempo of evolutionary change? Does evolution proceed by gradual, incremental, and continous changes, or is change a sudden phenomenon followed by extended periods of evolutionary tranquility? • Why are there gaps in the fossil record, where we look for evolutionary intermediates? Are these attributable to imperfections of the fossil record or to the mechanism of evolution? Darwin's view of the formation of barrier reefs and atolls in consequence of the subsidence of islands was first published in 1842; an initial stage in this geological process, shown here, is from that study. Darwin later wrote "No other work of mine was begun in so deductive a spirit as this, for the whole theory was thought out on the west coast of South America, before I had seen a true coral reef. I had therefore only to verify and extend my views by a careful examination of living reefs" • What is the basis for major evolutionary novelties (such as the power of flight or image- forming eyes)? Do these result from a steady accumulation of minor genetic changes or from the single occurrence of a "macromutation?" • How much of evolutionary change can be attributed to adaptation, and how much must be ceded to historical artifacts, structural cor- relations, and genetic drift? • Is there a tendency toward greater complex- ity of organization or perfection in evolutionary sequences? Are evolutionary survivors more adapted than extinct forms, or were they luckier in avoiding randomly occurring extinctions? • What are the units of selection? While natural selection clearly operates among individuals of a population, can it also operate at the level of genes, chromosomes, populations, and species? • How closely should biological classifications reflect relationships based on descent ("clad- ism") versus relationships based on similarity ("gradism")? • What is "altruism" in an evolutionary sense? Do units of selection ever behave in such a way as to endanger their own prospects of genetic representation in subsequent generations? • What is the role of competition in ecological communities? Is competition an on-going pro- cess or do competitive problems demand evolu- tionary solutions? • What is the basis for species abundance? Why are some species rare and others greatly abundant? In 1979 and 1980, the research staff at Field Museum published more than 120 books and articles on natural history. (To give some notion of scale to this production, the 21 papers pub- lished in Fieldiana — the Museum's continuing monograph series — totalled almost 3,400 pages!) Virtually all of these works have bearing on evolutionary theory, serving to further develop and refine Darwin's vision of life. The enormous research efforts directed towards evolutionary theory by scientists at Field Museum and else- where serve as testaments to Darwin's genius and understanding. Darwin closed his Origin of Species on a philosophical note that has become the basis for biophilosophy, or the philosophy of life: "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved ."D J^13®e Darwin clearly perceived the underlying similarity between nature's selection of favorable variations and that vracticed by farmers and ranchers everywhere; this analogy was central to his theory. "Variation under domestication" was the title of the first chapter of the Origin of Species as well as the subject of a book published in 1868, from which this illustration is taken .The science of genetics, which would subsequently prove fully complementary to Darwin's theory, was also an outgrowth of the study of domesticated varieties. Field Museum Library Holdings of the Works of Charles Darwin BOOKS The Zoology of the Voyage of the H. M.S. 'Beagle,' Underthe Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N., during the Years 1832 to 1836. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1939-1943. Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands and Parts of South America Visited during the Voyage of H. M.S. 'Beagle.' Srd. ed. New York: D. AppletonandCo., 1891. Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyages Round the World of H.M.S. 'Beagle.' 2nd ed. London: John Murray, 1890. The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. 3rd ed. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1889. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. 3rd. ed. London: John Murray, 1861. On the Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertilized by Insects. 2nd ed., rev. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1892. The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. 2nd ed. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1893. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. Isted., 1st issue. London: John Murray, 1868. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. 1st American ed. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1871. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, (n.i.). New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1894. Insectivorous Plants. 1st American ed. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1875. The Effects of Cross' and Self-fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom, (n.i.). New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1892. The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Spe- cies, (n.i.). New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1893. The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits. 1st ed. Lon- don: John Murray, 1881. MONOGRAPHS "A Monograph on the Fossil Lepadidae or Peduncu- lated Cirripedes of Great Britain." Paleontographical Soci- ety, 1851. "A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia, with Fig- ures of all the Species." Ray Society, 1851-1854. "A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidae and Verrucidae of Great Britain." Paleontographical Society, 1854. NOTEBOOKS and LETTERS Charles Darwin's Diary of the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle.' Edited by Nora Barlow. Cambridge University Press, 1934. Darwin's Ornithological Notes. British Museum (Natural History) Hist. Ser. 2. British Museum (Natural Histo- ry), 1963. The Foundations of the "Origin of Species"; Two Essays Written in 1842 and 1844 by Charles Darwin. Edited by Francis Darwin. Cambridge University Press, 1909. Notebooks on the Transmutations of Species. Edited by G. de Beer. British Museum (Natural History), 1960- 1961. Charles Darwin on the Routes of Male Humble Bees. British Museum (Natural History) Hist. Ser. 3. British Museum (Natural History), 1968. Charles Darwin's Queries about Expression. British Muse- um (Natural History) Hist. Ser. 3. British Museum (Natural History), 1972. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. Lon- don: Collins, 1958. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. Edited by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray, 1887. More Letters of Charles Darwin. Edited by Francis Dar- win. London: John Murray, 1903. The Collected Papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul Barrett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Extracts from Letters Addressed to Professor Henslow by C. Danvin, Esq. Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1960. Letters between Charles Darwin and Illinois Natural- ist Benjamin D. Walsh. Original copies, (see Bulletin of Field Museum of Natural History 45(1):8-15) plus a number of technical journals in which Darwin published his shorter works {e.g. Journal of the Proceed- ings of the Linnean Society, Geological Society Proceedings, etc.) plus dozens of biographical and semibiographical works covering Darwin's role in the development of modern biological science If several copies of a work are to be found in the Museum Library, the earliest edition is given here. Holdings are gen- erally arranged by date of original publication. The notation "(n.i.)" indicates no additional publishing information is available. Thinking Scientifically The modem battle between evolution and creation science reveals that many people do not understand how science works by John Terrell Associate Curator of Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology "About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise; and I well remember some one saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!" This comment by Charles Darwin shows what the zoologist Michael Ghiselin has argued was the secret of Darwin's success: he was a man who thought. He reasoned imaginatively and carefully. He criticized his own ideas. This quotation comes from a letter Darwin wrote in 1861 to Henry Fawcett, a radical Cambridge economist and follower of John Stuart Mill, the philosopher and logician. The letter dates from a time little more than three years after Darwin first made public his own controversial, some said radical, theory about the origin of new species of plants and animals by means of natural selechon. The most important point in his comment is perhaps this one: all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service. The philosophy of science implied by this statement — that facts, however diligently gathered, do not alone prove anything — was as controversial in the mid-nine- teenth century as Darwin's views on the origin of species. Nowadays, of course, everybody knows that theories, hypotheses, and specu- lation are as basic to science as the most solidly established facts. Or do they? For nine days last December Judge William Overton heard scienhsts and lawyers challenge Arkansas' new "creation science" law. Act 590. The law said creationism, based on the Bible, merited equal treatment with the teaching of Darwinian evolution in primary and secondary schools. Judge Overton ruled against the law: in his opinion, creation science was not science at all, nor did it fit general descriptions of "what scientists think" and "what scientists do." Defenders of the law had argued that both creationism and Darwinian evolution are equally valid, alternative scientific models. Echoing Darwin's critics of more than a hundred years earlier, they noted that evolutionary theory could not be proved with certainty. Hence, they said, evolution — like creationism — is not a true scientific theory. Such an argument, however well-intentioned, reveals that people even today do not understand how science works. Darwin respected the need for theories and hypotheses in scientific work, regardless how contrary to established thought and traditional common sense they might be. He was always on the lookout for facts. But once he had established a fact by what he thought was reasonable observation, he would at once begin to ask questions suggested by that fact to see if he could construct some tentative hypothesis which could explain not only that singular fact but might also be applicable to other cases. He would then proceed to see if his hypothesis did work in those other situations. As Darwin described his method of research: "my general line of argument" is one of "inventing a theory and seeing how many classes of facts the theory would explain." Sometimes he rebuked himself for "my common error of being too speculative." But he knew better. As he wrote in 1857 to Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of the theory of evo- lution by natural selection: "I am extremely glad to hear that you are attending to distribution in accordance with theoretical ideas. I am a firm believer that wdthout speculation there is no good and original observation. Few travellers have attended to such points as you are now at work on; and, indeed, the whole subject of distribution of animals is dreadfully behind that of plants. You say that you have been somewhat surprised at no notice having been taken of your paper in the Annals. 1 cannot say that I am, for so very few naturalists care for anything beyond the mere description of species." This last remark — that few naturalists care for anything beyond the mere description of species — sounds perhaps extreme. However, it may reveal Darwin's self-consciousness about the degree to which his research, and Wallace's, departed from accepted methods of inductive science. The inductive approach in science is com- monly traced back to the Elizabethan philoso- Thomas Nast cartoon of Charles Darwin (rt.) and the founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Caption reads: "The defrauded gorilla: 'That man wants to claim my pedigree. He says he is one of my descendants. ' Mr. Bergh: 'Now, Mr. Darwin, how could you insult him?" pher and statesman Francis Bacon, who railed against speculation, insufficiently founded on fact, in his book The New Organon, published in 1620. Simply described, the "new principles" set down by Bacon show how you can build an ideal argument from particular cases to arrive at true, scientific laws. The historian David Hull reports that scien- tists and philosophers in the mid-nineteenth century were fully aware of the shortcomings of Bacon's logical approach. Science had not and could not progress solely according to his meth- ods of true induction. Even so, during the last century someone who reasoned instead the way Darwin did, using the less formal but far more realistic logical process of give-and-take between fact and theory, was apt to be imme- diately suspect — especially if the ideas being put forward were as heretical as those of organic evolution. To a great extent. Bacon had set the tone for so rigid a view of proper scientific logic when he wrote: "Those, however, who aspire not to guess and divine, but to discover and know, who propose not to devise mimic and fabulous worlds of their own, but to examine and dissect the nature of this very world itself, must go to the facts themselves for everything." Given this intellectual heritage, it hardly seems surprising that Darwin at times tried to impress his readers that his theory of evolution had grown more out of facts than clever specu- lation. He claimed in his Autobiography that he began his investigations on the evolution of new species in 1837 by working "on true Baconi- an principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale." Only after fifteen months had passed in this way and after he happened to read for amusement Thomas Mal- thus's Essay on population did the idea of natural selection due to the struggle for existence finally occur to him, so that "I had at last got a theory by which to work." This account does make it appear that Dar- win discovered natural selection by gathering facts and letting them speak for themselves. But from all his writings, including his Autobiography, it is clear enough that the basic concepts of evo- lution had, in fact, already begun to form in his mind during his voyage on the Beagle to the South Pacific in 1831-1836. More than that, from his notebooks written in 1837 and 1838 it is known that he had struck on the idea of natural selection before reading Malthus. After the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859 Darwin was genuinely disturbed by the harsh criticism he received. He had expected people to be abusive about what he had to say for he knew he was challenging fundamental beliefs about Creation and humankind's place in nature. But he was not prepared for the attacks against his methods. Some of the most respected scientists and philosophers of his day dismissed his ideas by saying his book was little more than pure conjecture and that he had proved nothing. There is little need to wonder why Darwin later warned his young friend John Scott, a gardener and self-taught botanist, to be "very sparing in introducing theory in your papers (I formerly erred much in Geology in that way): let theory guide your observations, but till your reputation is well established be sparing in publishing theory. It makes persons doubt your observations." Samuel "Soapy Sam" Wilberforce, (1805-73), who defended Anglican Christianity against the Darwinian heresy. 10 Both the success of Darwin's scientific work and the bitter criticism leveled against his ap- proach and his person point to a disturbing conclusion. The late biochemist and Nobel lau- reate Jacques Monod observed that the world of science can be divided into two camps: those for whom truth resides in solid objects, actually and fully present, and those who look beyond particular things for the ideal forms they repre- sent. "There are but two kinds of scholars," concluded Monod, "those who love ideas and those who loathe them." This judgment is unjust. The world of science and scholarship cannot be divided neatly into extreme opposing camps. But we should take a note of warning from Monod's observa- tion. Evidently some people even within science become suspicious if they believe you are going beyond the facts. It may be too facile to say such persons "loathe ideas." But how then do facts and theories fit together in science? A scientist's approach to the world is marked by three characteristics. First, science is based on observation. Regardless how skillfully you phrase your research questions or how clever your speculative ideas, if you cannot find a way to answer your questions or test your ideas by making observations, then you cannot properly be said to be "doing science." In short, while perhaps some scientists may loathe ideas, no scientist can embrace the option of loathing facts of observation. While science is based on observation, it is generally understood that science is more than a collection of diligently gathered facts. As the mathematician Henri Poincare wrote: "Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house." Thus, another characteristic of science is wanting something more than isolated facts. That is, the aim of science is to generalize about people and nature. If you think about it, this aim is paradoxical, because these first two characteristics of science — observation and generalization — are con- tradictory; namely, scientists rely on their pow- ers of observation to make generalizations about the world that can never be observed, because the conclusions of science are always about things in general, not things in particular! This paradox is one that bothers many peo- ple. It does mean that even the simplest gener- alization is at least one step "beyond the facts." This is the reason for the great importance universally placed on a third characteristic of science. In the words of Poincare again: "Every generalisation is a hypothesis." What this means is that the process of mak- ing observations and forming generalizations never stops. Every scientific generalization is only provisionally "true," because you can never be absolutely sure that the next observation you make — which perhaps by all rights ought to be precisely like the ones you have been making — may not surprise you after all and turn out to be quite different, instead. The importance of all three of these charac- teristics of science — observation, generalization, and hypothesis — is not always seen. For exam- ple, one of the supposed villians in the history of science is Bishop Samuel "Soapy Sam" Wil- berforce. His role in defending Anglican Chris- tianity against the Darwinian heresy is often cast as that of an ignorant, outmoded divine who fought and lost a hopeless rear-guard action against the superior forces of enlightened scien- tific truth. As Richard Wrangham of Cambridge University observed several years ago, however. Soapy Sam's protests actually show he believed natural selection to be a more powerful force than Darwin himself allowed. "To the Bishop natural selection maintained adaptation, and perfect adaptation reflected God's perfection. It was the imperfection of Darwinian natural selection, rather than its overwhelming power to affect species, which worried him." Wilberforce wrote a lengthy review of Dar- win's book for the Quarterly Revieiv of July 1860 which Darwin declared "picks out with skill all the most conjectural parts, and brings forward well all the difficulties." In some respects modem creationists sound no different from Wilberforce, for he, too, claimed Darwin's theory was based on "the merest hypothesis, supported by the most unfounded assumptions." Even if the Bishop's arguments against the Origin did on occasion find their mark, the lesson for us remains the same. Wilberforce believed that the complicated patterns of the organic world reveal Truth and the Power of God. Dar- win, on the other hand, knew that all scientific generalizations, including those in the Origin, are only hypotheses ever in need of experiment and conhnual testing. Unlike the Bishop, he was content with something less than absolute truth. "My book has been well abused, praised, and splendidly quizzed by the Bishop of Oxford; but from what 1 see of its influence on really good workers in science, 1 feel confident that, in the main, I am on the right road." We have now come to another quandary over which philosophers of logic and science have spent a great deal of time in argument and writing. Let us accept that the truth of a scientific idea is something that must be judged by seeing how well it organizes observations that have already been made and how well it sets us on the road to making new observations that ought to fall into line in some predicted way if we are at all on the right track. Then what are we to say about ideas that lead us to observations that we cannot make, either because we have not yet found the evidence needed to make them, or because we have not invented the tool that would let us see things in quite the manner required? The biologist C.H. Waddington in his book Tools for Thought wrote that to use the scientific method effechvely, you need to know how to ask important questions and then how to devise experiments that will give you clear-cut answers one way or the other. But as he observed, a clear, well-phrased question in itself is of possi- bly little use if there is no way of answering it. "It was no use asking perfectly clear and definite questions about the consistency of the moon's surface until there was some way of sending either a man or a probe up there to obtain an answer Similarly, there are many questions about history and evolution which can be very defirutely stated, but which will probably always remain unanswerable." Waddington is a little misleading. There is no way you can be absolutely sure beforehand whether a question is answerable until you have asked it. Familiarity with a scientific subject and the sorts of questions that others have asked Henri Poincare (1854- 1912), French mathe- matician, who wrote, "Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house! may equip you to ask useful questions that are probably answerable, too. But such a cautious pursuit of ideas is not likely to lead to truly star- tling discoveries. Waddington's own conclusion, therefore, about the qualities of the talented scientist is hardly a useful instruction: "It is the ability to formulate clear-cut questions which invite yes- and-no answers, where a technique exists, or can be invented, to obtain these answers, which separates the successful scientist from the merely competent professional." This statement begs the issue, particularly when he adds: "or can be invented." An ironic illustration that this is so comes from Darwin's own career. A month after the Origin was published, no less an old friend than the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, Darwin's former teacher of geology at Cam- bridge, wrote to him in complete dismay. "If I did not think you a good-tempered and truth- loving man, I should not tell you that ... I have read your book with more pain than pleasure. Parts of it I admired greatly, parts I laughed at till my sides were almost sore; other parts 1 read with absolute sorrow, because I think them utterly false and grievously mischievous. You have deserted — after a start in that tram-road of all solid physical truth — the true method of induction, and started us in a machinery as wild, I think, as Bishop Wilkins's locomotive that was to sail with us to the moon." 11 12 One of Darwin's biographers. Sir Gavin de Beer, has remarked that Sedgwick attacked Dar- win's methods because he could not successfully impugn his seemingly irrreligious views by refuting his facts. Seen in hindsight, however, the Rev. Sedgwick could not have made a more unfortunate choice of analogy with which to damn Darwin's ideas than what he called Bishop Wilkins's "locomotive." John Wilkins, theologian and preacher, scientific experimenter. Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, and ultimately Lord Bishop of Chester, was the single most influential organ- izer and popularizer of science — notably the new Copernican astronomy — in seventeenth century England. He was a founder of the Royal Society. And as author of The Discovery Of A World In The Moone, which first appeared in 1638, and several later works on science, Wilkins was the most important thinker of his century on manned flight as a scientific problem. It was he who forecast the invention of the aircraft — what Sedgwick called Bishop Wilkins's locomo- tive— and the development of space travel. This incident from the life of Charles Dar- win— with its ironic twist of fate that the person Sedgwick held up to Darwin as similarly misdi- rected is now seen as astonishingly foresighted — points to yet another feature of scientific think- ing that is as significant as the others we have previously mentioned. Contrary to what Wad- dington seems to have been saying when he wrote that a clearly defined question is of no use if there is no available way of answering it, scientists cannot afford to limit their inquiries solely to those questions for which they expect or hope to find decisive answers that will settle matters once and for all. For example, the fact that scientists had been trying to devise a single, unified theory of light since the seventeenth century without success — until the work of Planck and Einstein at the start of the present century — in no way lessens the significance of the research accom- plished or the questions asked. Like it or not, scientists must face the fact of life that knowledge is rarely adequate enough to rule out all but one of the possible theories that could explain the same phenomena in different ways. In short, one of the certainties of science is that most of the really interesting questions that we want to ask have more than one plausible answer. Indeed, as the history of thought bearing on the nature of light shows, we ought to be especially watchful when it looks as if competing theories can at last be reduced to one. After all, the rival "wave" and "corpuscular" theories of light waxed and waned in complementary fashion for two hundred years, only to be com- bined— paradoxically — into the ruling quantum theory of the present day. Need it be added that even the quantum theory of light is now subject to doubt and challenge? Thus, to the three characteristics of a scien- tific approach to the world — observation, gen- eralization, and hypothesis — we have now added two more. These are, first, the scientist's acceptance of his or her fate that one can never be 100 percent right on any question of real complexity and excitement; and second, the scientist's recognition that knowledge is rarely complete enough to rule out all but one of the plausible ways of answering even the clearest, most carefully defined question about the world and human events. On the contrary, the history of science cautions us to be wary if we seem to be arriving at only one explanation to some problem. In such a situation, there is a good chance nature is only fooling us. Or perhaps more likely, we are only fooling ourselves. Nothing we have discussed here should be taken to imply that scientists and philosophers of science are today in full agreement about how science works, about how scientists think, or about how science differs, say, from art, ethics, or religion. Nothing could be farther from the truth. And in a way, that is precisely the point. Science may not, and perhaps cannot, lead to absolute certainty or ultimate truth. The test of good science is instead whether you are traveling, in the main, on the right road, for sci- ence is how you travel, not a final destination. D Further reading de Beer, Gavin, Charles Darwin. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1963 Hull, David, Darwin and His Critics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973 Monod, Jacques, Chance and Necessity. New York: Vintage Books, 1972 Ospovat, Dov, "Darwin after Malthas," Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 12, no. 2 (1979), pages 211-30 Poincare, Henri, Science and Hypothesis, New York: Dover Publications, 1952. Ruse, Michael, The Darwinian Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979 Shapiro, Barbara, John Wilkins, 1614-1672. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1969 Waddington, Conrad, Tools for Thought. London: Paladin, 1977 Wrangham, Richard, "The Bishop of Oxford: not so soapy," New Scientist, Vol. 83, no. 1167 (9 August 1979), pages 450-51 Alaskan . NATfVE CULTUEE TOUR FOR MEMBERS June 18 -July 2 June 18: Fly from Chicago to Anchorage, transfer to Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. City tour, including Fine Arts Museum, then dinner at historic Club 25. Over- night Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. June 19: Flight to Kotzebue, with day tour and overnight first class hotel. June 20: Depart for Nome; day tour of Nome. Depart for Anchorage; overnight Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. June 21: Depart early morning by motor- coach to Denali National Park (formerly McKinley). Afternoon and evening free for National Park Service slide shows and demonstrations, overnight first class hotel in park. June 22: Early morning wildlife tour in park; early afternoon motorcoach to Fairbanks. Overnight Captain Bartlett Hotel. June 23: Special tour and lecture for Field Museum by University of Alaska, on ivory and totem carving, agriculture, permafrost construction, oil develop- ment, economic situation, etc. Overnight Captain Bartlett Hotel. June 24: Fly Fairbanks to Whitehorse. Yukon River raft trip and outdoor BBQ dinner Overnight at Travelodge. June 25: Day-long trip on narrow-guage railway to Skagway. Free time to sight- see, then to Klondike Hotel for overnight. June 26: 5-hour boat curise to Juneau; to Baranof Hotel for overnight, with stop at Mendenhall Glacier enroute. Late after- noon walking and van tour, including historic district, gold mine, government buildings; .outdoor salmon bake dinner. Overnight Baranof Hotel. June 27: Morning tour of Alaska State Museum. Afternoon program on Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act and current native economic conditions. Board cruise shipM.y. Statendam in late afternoon. Meals on board begin with dinner. Cruise ship departs 11:00 p.m. {Statendam is 25,000-ton luxury liner.) June 28: Day of cruising on Glacier Bay; lecture room provided to the group. June 29: Port of call: Sitka. Special tour of Sheldon Jackson Museum, National Park Service exhibits, totem collection, Russian Orthodox church, Baranof Cas- tle site. June 30: Cruising off British Columbia coast. July 1: Arrive in Vancouver by Staten- dam in morning. Special tour of Van- couver, highlighting Northwest Coast Indian art; overnight Bayshore Inn. July 2: Fly from Vancouver to Chicago. This tour is limited to 30 persons (dou- ble occupancy), and includes for the tour price of $3,700 (single supplement: $400) a lecturer and escort; all lodging, sight- seeing, and transportation; best hotels available in each city; class D, E, and F outside cabins on the cruise ship; meals in the itinerary plus all breakfasts and all meals on the Statendam; all ground tours and transfers in exclusive vehicles and specially done for the Field Museum group with 30 participants. With 15-29 participants, tours will be done exclu- sively, but transfers may be combined with other travelers. Our tour leader will be Dr Margaret B. Blackman, associate professor of anthropology at SUNY-College at Brockport, New York, an authority on native cultures of the Northwest Coast and Alaska. If you wish additional de- tails for any tour or would like to be placed on a special mailing list, please call Dorothy Roder, Tours manager, at 322-8862, or write Field Museum Tours, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. 13 TTii's solid gold, 4'/2-lb. statue, acquired by Field Museum in 1922, is the single most spectacular find yet made in Philippine archaeology (according to H. Otley Beyer, who for decades has been the dean of archaeologists in the area). The Buddhist goddess was made ca. AD. 1100-1300 and demonstrates an Asian influence on Philippine culture dating back to A.D. 1000 at the latest. LEARNING MUSEUM CONTINUES WITH Philippine Emergence By Anthony Pfeiffer, Project Coordinator and Bennet Bronson, Associate Curator of Asiatic Archaeology and Ethnology 14 Just southeast of China, forming a barrier between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, seven thousand islands stretch in a chain a thousand miles long. The chain is anchored by large islands at either end: Luzon to the north and Mindanao to the south. Now known as the Republic of the Philippines, this archipelago holds a striking variety of cultures. They are at once a tribute to the overwhelming force of colonial occupation and a testament to the fierce endurance of native traditions. People first settled the archipelago hun- dreds of thousands of years ago when sea levels were low and one could walk between the Philippines and neighboring islands. Eventually the immigrants became sailors and farmers. Early Filipinos and their Malayo-Polynesian kin sailed to Africa and far into the Pacific. The farming peoples of the northern Philippines built colossal stone-walled terraces for their rice fields, terraces which became one of the wonders of the world. The peoples of the south were traders, warriors, artists, and weavers of some of the world's finest and least known textiles. There was arfistic accomplishment in the central Philippines as well, but we know little about it. About 400 years ago most aspects of the origi- nal Central Filipino culture were altered so completely as to obliterate everything that had gone before. The agents of this extraordinary change were a handful of overdressed foreigners who appeared as explorers in 1521 at the thriving port of Cebu, just north of Mindanao. They stayed for a few months, then left hurriedly after their leader, Ferdinand Magellan, was killed in a fight on a neighboring island. They left one object behind: a miniature statue of the child Jesus, a gift to the Cebu queen. She could not have imagined that this figure would come to be worshipped by 30 million Filipinos or that it would transform her land more completely than any other part of Asia. Christianity came again to the central areas in 1565, borne not by explorers but by conquerors. By 1600 the soldiers and missionaries of Spain ruled half the Philippine land area and three quarters of its people. Shrines and idols were destroyed. The old leaders were Christianized and Hispanicized or replaced. Palaces for the new leaders sprang up, along with churches, monasteries, universities, and cities. The ancient arts disappeared as did much else, except for the local languages and certain foods and attitudes. The creativity of the Filipino people was inexorably channeled into Spanish ways. Many Filipino traditions, such as reverence for the dead, thanksgiving after harvest, and fear of evil, were easily incorporated or reinter- preted in the light of Christianity. A heritage of craftsmanship was turned to new themes. Instead of flnztos, or guardian figurines, for exam- ple, Filipinos began to make ornate statues of the Virgin Mary, some with realistic and deli- cately carved hands of ivory. Philippine-made ivory saints became the state of the art and were exported to churches in Spain and Mexico. Mindanao chief (Bago- bo tribe). The ornate textiles he wears are legacy of pre-Hispanic southern Philippines. ^.\y> Only in the extreme north and south of the Philippines did the old ways survive. Warlike peoples — the "pagans" of the northern moun- tains and southern jungles and the Moros or Muslims of the coastal lands of eastern Minda- nao and Sulu — fought the Spanish to a stand- still. They were incessant raiders who sought slaves, loot, and — those who were headhunters — heads. They fought skillful defensive wars against Spanish pacifying expeditions. The real stars of the resistance were the Moros, possessors of a brilliant artistic culture, talented weaponsmiths and shipbuilders, and masters of amphibious and trench warfare tac- tics. For more than three centuries they kept the Spanish at bay. In the early 1900s they fought fiercely against the Americans. They have con- tinued to resist the government of the Philip- 15 Sultan's grandson poses in typical Mow style: with hand poised on sword. Standing boys are his servants. 16 pines since its independence from the United States in 1946. Few peoples in history have fought for their freedom so effectively and long. The effect of centuries of Spanish occupation in cultural terms was to divide the Philippines into four parts: the unconverted areas of north- ern Luzon, the non-Muslim and non-Christian interior of Mindanao, the Muslim coastal areas of the southern islands, and the Catholic central part of the country. The last of these is the one that now dominates. More than ninety percent of Filipinos form part of the initially Hispanicized and then Americanized national culture, which most Americans (and Filipino-Americans) think of when they use the word "Filipino." Yet the minority cultures are uniquely fas- cinating. They are a study in contrasts. The iso- lated Bilaan of Mindanao live in poor, plain shacks, but their clothing and textile arts are among the most splendid in Asia. Ifugao peoples of Luzon are exheadhunters, talented sculptors, and — with their great rice terraces built of stone — landscape architects on a truly titanic scale. For centuries the Moro Tausug of Sulu in the far south withstood the war fleets of the Spanish Empire in cannon-armed canoes. Al- though seeming like backward savages, the Hanunoo of Mindoro know agriculture as well as any Illinois farmer; their own alphabet, devel- oped in prehistoric times, was used not for re- cord-keeping but for writing poetry. These minority cultures are important because they closely represent what all of the Philippines was like before the Spanish came. To Filipino- Americans, almost all of whom come from majority culture backgrounds, the "other" Philippines provide a key to their heritage. Is the Philippines just an extension of the West, mysteriously transplanted on Southeast Asian soil? Or are the Spanish-style food, the fine American-style education system, and fervent Catholic faith just thin veneers on an essentially Asian land? Such questions can be answered only by studying non- Westernized minorities and pre-Spanish history. Philippine Emergence affords the oppor- tunity to explore Philippine roots from their deepest prehistoric origins to their most recent The Learning Museum at Field Museum The Learning Museum Program began at Field Muse- um in 1979 with a grant from the National Endow- ment for the Humanities (NEW, a federal agency. The NEH grant allowed the Museum to present a three-year sequence of learning opportunities focused on its outstanding exhibits and collections. Courses were designed to give participants an opportunity to explore a subject in depth. Field Museum is pleased to announce that the Learning Museum program con- tinues as a featured offering in Course for Adults brochures. The program emphasizes special Museum activities and strengths as it did under NEH funding. controversial moments. The lecture course con- siders the pre-Spanish phase of Philippine his- tory, the Spanish period, the living or recently vanished minority cultures of the far North and South, and the role of the Philippines in world affairs today. Philippine Emergence is offered in conjunction with "The Art and People of the Philippines," an exhibition opening at Field Museum on July 17. Details of the course are announced in the summer 1982 Courses for Adults brochure. Watch also for the announcement of Filipino Afternoon in the July/August Calendar of Events. You are invited to celebrate the traditions of the Entire mountains such as those seen here were spectacularly trans- formed into rice ter- races by the farmers of the Cordillera Central, Luzon. Philippines. Dances from the Philippines, pre- sented by Lakambini of the Urban Gateways Folk Arts Program, are among the day's featured activities. Lakambini is a troupe of young artists who are dedicated to their Filipino cultural her- itage. Their dances reflect the Indo-Malaysian, Muslim, and Spanish influences found through- out the islands. Lakambini dances to the Kulin- tang orchestra, traditional music made on a set of graduated gongs. A narrator provides back- ground information on the culture and arts of the Philippines and Filipino- Americans. Filipino Afternoon is held on Sunday, July 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. and is free with Museum admission. D Moro sailboat of the type often used in raids against the Spanish and for pirat- ical expeditions. 17 PUPPETS EXTRAORDINAIRE: Theatre Sans Fil (The No Strings Puppet Theatre) James Simp)son Theatre June 26, 27 2:00 p.m. Members: $3.00; Nonmembers: $4.00 This unique theatre medium of gigantic puppets (6 to 12 feet tall) makes its first apjjearance at Field Museum on June 26 and 27 with two American Indian legends, "Blue Sky Takes a Wife" and "The White Raven? The entire fascinating production is entitled "Tales fixjm the Smokehouse? Adults and children alike marvel at the striking visual and musical eflFects employed in the enactment of these ancient tales, in which more than 40 enormous puppets apjjear. Reviewers have termed the production "cm absolutely elegant pupjjet show that brings a my- thic experience to life in rapturous detail? The program, a Learning Museum event, is made pwssible by a grant from the National Endo\vment for the Humanities. The only Canadian company to work with giant puppets, the Theatre Sans FU has develojjed new tech- niques for their fabrication and manipulation. The Theatre Sans FUs was founded in 1971 and now has nine productions to its credit. The comjjany's reputation has grown steadily over the years and it was chosen to represent Canada at the International Pupjiet Festival in Washington, D.C. in 1980. For ticket information, please call (312) 322-8854. Tickets will also be available at the West Door box office one hour before curtain time. Field Museum Tours for Members Australia Tour August 23-Sqytember 12 Tour Price: $4,998 (double occupancy) Leader of this extraordinary tour is Dr. Alan Solem, curator and head. Division of Invertebrates, who has made nine trips to Aus- tralia in connection with his study of land snails. The tour will fea- ture the glory of the Western Australia spring, the greatest display of wildflowers in the world, the charm of an English countryside in South Australian vineyards, a face-to-face meeting with eastern Australian wildlife in Victoria, and the awesome expanses and spectacular mountains of central Australia. The tour will arrive in Sydney on August 25, then take a 75- minute flight to Melbourne. The two days in Melbourne will in- clude visits to a local wildlife sanctuary as well as to various sites of cultural interest. A 40-minute flight on August 27 will take the group to Ade- laide, followed by visits to local vineyards. A 90-minute flight that evening will terminate at Alice Springs, the group's base of opera- tions for six days. Highlights here include sight-seeing into the outback, bush barbecues, and a visit to spectacular Ayers Rock. September 3 will be spent in and around Perth. Rides by hydrofoil and river boat will be optional. September 4 will be spent traveling by motorcoach to Augusta while viewing some of Aus- tralia's most delightful scenery. September 5: A trip to Walpole-Normalup National Park, see- ing 200-foot-high stands of red tingle trees, September 6: Colorful Albany, an old whaling port. September 7; A day trip to the Poron- gorup and Stirling mountain ranges. September 8: Return to Perth via the Albany Highway, with views of the Darling Range. September 9; Perth, with time for shopping and sight-seeing. September 10: In Sydney for a day of leisure for shopping, sightseeing, or day tours. September 11: Depart from Sydney for U.S. Having lost a day by crossing the International Date Line, we overnight at San Fran- cisco's Sheraton Airport Hotel. September 12: Arrival in Chicago. For additional information on this tour, please write or call Dorothy Roder, Tours Manager, at Field Museum, 322-8862. ...- 19 MM Some Responses to Early Contact on the Pacific Northwest Coast by Marlene Mussell m; rost early documentation of European contact Lwith the Northwest Coast peoples amply records the reactions of the explorers, their arrogance, curiosity, fear, amusement, and admiration; but such reports largely fail to re- count the natives' response to such contacts. By using European documentation as well as native oral traditions, we may arrive at an enlightening and somehmes amusing view of two cultures trying to understand and categorize one another. This may also yield a more balanced viewpoint, and a clearer picture of the groups' mutual reac- tion emerges. The discoveries of these early explorers validated the existence of what Europeans had termed the "New World," although the popula- tions of this continent had emigrated here from Siberia some 20,000 to 40,000 years earlier. A tradition which was to evolve into the historic Northwest Coast culture had emerged by at least 1,000 B.C., and by 500 B.C. there is evidence of an antecedent Northwest Coast art style. Captain James Cook's Thus, a complex and highly evolved society ships in Nootka Sound, ^^g ^^ ^^^^ t^ witness its own discovery by B.C. Drawing by ■ i-,,,! John Webber (1778), Europeans m 1741. 20 expedition artist. The first contact occurred in that year between Vitus Bering, a Dane in the employ of the Russians, and the Tlingit, near Cross Sound, Alaska. This meeting was followed three years later by that of the Spaniard Juan Josef Perez Hernandez, who encountered a Haida group on Graham Island, B.C. In 1778 Captain James Cook, of England, made contact with the Nootkan of Nootka Sound, B.C., and in 1786, the French admiral La Perouse traded with the Tlingit in Lituya Bay, B.C. Other expeditions also occurred during this period, but these four highlight the internationalism of the discovery of the Northwest Coast, involving as it did Rus- sian, Spanish, English, and French explorers. In their accounts, many of the explorers tended to emphasize only what they felt was the Indians' awe and fear upon first seeing the white man and his great ships. While these reacHons were most natural, such descriptions seem to contradict the explorers' reports of the Indians' occasional aggressiveness, and their willingness not only to approach the European ships, but to climb aboard and barter for trinkets and pieces of iron. European reports also often failed to acknowledge the Indians' contributions to the discoveries of the European. By using Indian oral traditions, another view of such discoveries emerges. Thus, Captain Cook's "discovery" of Vancouver Island is given a less familiar and perhaps more down-to-earth approach in this contemporary Nootkan oral account: "They were led into a shelter, these ships. They got stuck. They were anchored out in the open Pacific and a bunch of Indian people. . . Marlene Mussell is a volunteer for the project "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and the Northwest Coast." directed these ships that couldn't get in, 'cause they didn't know, and they were told to come around that point."' A more balanced and probably more realis- tic report of early encounters concerns the first meeting between the Tlingit and members of the 1789 Malaspina expedition: "The first view, when they were near was one of great astonish- ment, both for the Indians and for us; for the Indians because they did not cease looking at the ships, ... for us because such strange and marvelous subjects presented themselves to our sight'.'^ Each side captured these early meetings through their art; the Europeans by painting scenes of their ships "on location," and the Indians by carving petroglyphs. Both groups tended to focus on aspects of the other's culture and appearance to which they could relate in terms of their own back- grounds. One of Cook's men, for example, compared the Nootkan to the Scottish in appearance.^ William Beresford, a member of Captain George Dixon's 1789 expedition, described a woman whose "countenance had all the cheerful glow of an English milkmaid; . . . she was what could be reckoned handsome even in England.'"* The Indians seemed hard put to classify the Europeans, but the visitors' strange appearance was soon explained in cul- tural terms. To the Tlingit, the members of La Perouse's expedition looked like small black birds rising in the body of a great black raven. As the Tlingits' creator, Yehlh, often assumed the form of a raven, they thought that Yehlh had now returned to earth in this guise. As the sails were folded and the sailors climbed the rigging, it appeared to the Tlingit as if great birds were folding their wings, and from them, flocks of small black messengers were rising and flying about. ^ The Nootkan reasoned that since the Europeans lived on a floating thing — the ship — then the visitors must be fish, a notion con- firmed by the appearance of two expedition members in particular: a man with a large hooked nose who was surely a dog salmon, and a hunchback who must have been the humpback salmon transformed. Even today a Nootkan word for "Europeans" is mamal'ni: literally, "people who live on the water and float around, having no land."* Finally satisfied that these strangers were indeed human, the Indians were willing to trade; but before this could get under way, a welcoming ceremony was performed from the canoes. In 1778, James King, lieutenant on Cook's ship, the Resolution, describes such a welcoming cere- mony: "the figure and actions of one of these (Indians) were truly frightful, he worked himself into the highest frenzy, uttering something ^^^-J^ miif^:^^'Wem»m-r0' Petroglyph on Wed- ding Rocks, Cave Alava, B.C., snowing explorers' ships. -i Man of Nootka Sound. Portrait by John Webber, 1778. between a howl and a song, . . . this was followed by a violent way of talking, seemingly with vast difficulty in uttering the Harshest and rudest words." King concludes however: "yet we did not attribute this incantation to threatening or any ill will towards us; on the contrary they seem'd quite pleased with us. . ."^ La Perouse similarly describes such a reception, concluding that these songs were by no means disagreeable, "greatly resembling the plain chaunt of our churches."® David Sam well, surgeon's first mate on the Resolution, also writes about the Indians' singing in terms easily accessible to an English- man of those times: "they all sung in concert in a wild Manner, which some of our sailors com- pared to that of a Brother Tar on board who it seems in his time had cryed Potatoes about London."' Most of the early discoverers noted how much Northwest Coast Indians enjoyed singing, and Samwell described what must have been an intereshng cultural exchange between two groups who finally found a medium that they could enjoy and share together. After a Nootkan "sang in concert in no disagreeable Stile," the ship's crew reciprocated, giving "them in return a few tunes on two french Horns after their song was ended, to these they were very atten- tive, not a word to be heard among them during the time of playing; this situation was returned by another Song from the Indians, after which we gave them a Tune on the Drum and Fife to which they paid the same attention as they had done to the Horns. These Canoes staid by the Ship most of the Night seemingly with no other View but that of gratifying their Curios- ity."^° It is interesting here to note the Indians' attentiveness; for they observed the Europeans' performance with a cultural curiosity similar to that of the many explorers. The so-called observers had become the observed. At times, both groups obviously regarded the other with a certain contempt, possibly because each felt superior. The Indians' con- tempt found expression in stealing whatever they could lay their hands on. De Laguna writes that the Tlingit seized what they desired only from inferiors.^' Because the Europeans also often failed to reciprocate courtesies, especially with respect to the chiefs, the natives may have decided that the visitors were fair game for cheat- ing and theft. This sense of their own superiority is underscored by the fact that when caught stealing, the nahves behaved as though it were just a joke. Samwell records that when a native was apprehended stealing Captain Cook's watch, he "gave it up quietly and laughed in his (captor's) face."^^ Samwell also notes that "they considered it as a piece of Dexterity (even sport) that did them credit ra(ther) than any dishon- our."'^ La Perouse, for one, angrily denounced these "deceitful and malicious savages" who took every opportunity to rob whenever no one was looking.'* While the early explorers have left us thorough accounts of the natives' exotic apparel, utensils, and material culture in general, we have little information on how the Indians viewed or responded to the material culture of the Europeans. In part, this is because members of nonliterate societies are dependent on their oral tradition as the medium for documenting historical events and their own responses to them. The importance of this oral tradition as an historical resource has not always been fully realized, though it has been shown that native history can be passed down orally, through generations, with minimal modification of fac- tual content. Such an oral tradition among the Northwest Coast peoples records their attempts to come to terms with and understand European goods. ■^. I, I ', \ \ I ! ' W rtiT mvmm^m^mmiummmA While Europeans puzzled over the meaning of the potlatch gift-giving ceremony, carved totem poles, masks, and other items, the Indians tried to cope with such everyday European goods as pilot biscuits, syrup, and hatchets. One Nootkan recounts that, bewildered by gifts of pilot biscuits, the Indians simply stored them away as good luck charms. Another relates how the biscuits were regarded as lovely pieces of wood to be kept as souvenirs. A European hatchet was worn by a chief as a necklace; instead of being eaten, syrup was tried as a crack sealant for canoes in the way that Indians normally used hot seal oil. ^^ Again we see the natives attempting to categ- orize a cultural curiosity so they could more readily comprehend it. Lieutenant King wrote — and his words could refer just as eas- ily to the native response to the European: "It will require the assistance of ones imagination to have an adequate Idea of the . . .Actions of these first Visitors."'"' One should add that the use of both oral and written traditions is also required, n House interior, Nootka Sound. Drawing by John Webber, 1778. Notes 1. Efrat, Barbara and W.J. Langlois, "The Contact Period as Recorded by Indian Oral Tradition" in Nu. tka. Captain Cook and The Spanish Explorers on the Coast. Sound Heritage, Vol. VII, No. 1: 54-62, 1978. p. 55 2. De Laguna, Frederica. Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Cultureofthe Yakutat Tlingit, Part I and II. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1972. Part I., p. 141. 3. Beaglehole, J.C. The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery: The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780, Vol. Ill, Part I and II. Cam- bridge published for the Hakluyt Society at the Uni- versity Press, 1967. Part I, p. 311. 4. Dixon, Captain George. A Voyage Round The World; hut more particularly to the North-West Coast of America: performed in 1785, 1786, 1787 and 1788. George Goulding, London, 1789. p. 171. 5. Emmons, G.T "Native Accounts of the meeting between La Perouse and the Tlingit," American Anthro- pology. Vol. 13: 294-298, 1911. p.297. 6. Sound Heritage. Ibid., p. 60. 7. Beaglehole, Ibid., part II., p. 1,394. 8. La Perouse, Jean Francoise de Gallup, Comte de. A Voyage round the World, performed in the years 1785, 1786, 1787 and 1788. Vol. I. A. Hamilton, London, 1799. p. 370. 9. Beaglehole, Ibid., p. 1,088. Ibid. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. De Laguna, Ibid., Part II., p. 355. Beaglehole, Ibid., p. 1,096. Ibid., p.LlOO. La Perouse, p. 398. Sound Heritage, p. 58. Beaglehole, p. 1,392. 23 Field Museum Store GALLERY NINE Museum Members and the general public are invited to a new exhibition selling of the finest art works by top artists and craftsmen of the Arctic and Pacific Northwest. The gallery opening coincides with the opening of Hall 1 0. Artists represented include: Primrose Adams Larry Avakana Steve Brown Joe David Robert Davidson Dorothy Grant Calvin Hunt Henry Hunt Tony Hunt Tony Hunt, Jr Nathan ]ackson John Livingston Melvin Olanna Duane Pasco Katie Pasco Selina Peratrovich Bill Reid Cheryl Samuel Jim Schoppert Joe Senengetuck Ron Senengetuck Norman Tait Art Thompson All from British Columbia, Alaska, and Washington, their works here assembled present a stunning array of talent never before seen in Chicago. Included are wood carvings, masks, jewelry totems, baskets, weavings, serigraphs, and button blankets. Gallery Nine Hours: 1 1-5 or by special appointment. Museum Store Remodeled The Museum Store, newly remodeled, is again open. A new section, featuring choice items related to special exhibitions, currently features a wide vanety of merchandise from the Arctic and the Pacific Northwest or related to the cultures of those regions. 24 OUR ENVIRONMENT Ten Years Later: Bird Populations Rise as DDT Falls Ten years after the official ban on the use of DDT, the news from the wild is good: Bald eagles, brown pelicans, and other bird species once decimated by the pesti- cide are repopulating former habitats as chemical residues fade. The pesticide was banned in 1972 in the face of scientific evidence that it was causing serious environmental problems, including reproductive failure in suscepti- ble bird species. For the past decade, hu- man efforts have combined with natural forces to restore species that experienced sudden, sharp declines in the 1950s and 1960s. While specialists have teamed up to put intensive recovery programs into ac- tion, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service re- searchers have completed studies that have proven DDE, a breakdown product of DDT, to be specifically responsible for egg- shell thinning — the main reason some birds could no longer reproduce. Service scientists also learned which species were sensitive to the pesticide, as well as which ones suffered the heaviest exposures. Scientists at the service's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center near Washing- ton, D.C. began to study the impact of DDT on wildlife shortly after World War II. In their investigations, service scientists compared field observation with special- ized laboratory research on surrogate spe- cies. They verified that sensitive species most seriously affected by ddt build-ups were those which preyed on fish and oth- er small animals that had been exposed to DDT. Scientists learned that the higher a species and its food source were on the "food chain," the more severe the impact. The bald eagle was highly vulnerable since it fed heavily on fish in which DDT re- sidues had accumulated. By the late 1960s breeding populations had been practically lost in the Great Lakes region and on the East Coast, with just one known breeding pair each in New Jersey and New York State. Recently, however, bald eagles have returned to nest in formerly contami- nated wetlands. Florida's population, which dropped 90 percent in the 1950s has made a complete comeback, and the ea- gle's return to such regions as the Great Lakes may signal a turning point for America's national symbol. The peregrine falcon — an efficient hunter which can strike its prey at 200 mph in mid-air — occupies a position in the food chain similar to that of the bald eagle and suffered a similar decline. By the late 1960s there were no peregrines known to nest east of the Mississippi Riv- er, where several hundred pairs had exist- ed formerly. Since there were no birds left to repopulate former habitats, the falcon's recovery has been aided in the last decade by re-introduction of captive-reared birds to promising areas, including cihes where prey such as starlings and pigeons abounds. While bald eagles and peregrine fal- cons were contaminated by DDT through high concentrations in their diets, re- search has shown that they are less than half as sensitive to the pesticide as the en- dangered brown pelican. Most pelican populations on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts were hard hit in the 1960s. In South Carolina, for instance, there were about 6,000 breeding pairs before ddt washed into Atlantic estuaries. In 1969 — a low point for pelicans and other contaminated species — only 1,100 to 1,200 pairs were left and reproduction was nil. Now the peli- cans number some 5,000 pairs, their rapid comeback mostly due to their principal food source, the menhaden fish, not hav- ing retained much ddt residue. Service scientists say that while pelican popula- tions are not yet completely restored, their reproductive rate in most of the U.S. has returned to near normal. The osprey (fish hawk) also staged a rapid comeback after being nearly eradi- cated in parts of the East. From New York to Boston the osprey population fell from 1,000 to 100 breeding pairs in the 1960s. But the species has been on the rise since the mid-1970s, with normal reproduction. Biologists hope ospreys will reach their pre-DDT populaHon level by the end of the century. Scientists have not completely an- swered why species with similar habitats vary in their sensitivity to ddt. The black duck, for instance, is more sensitive to ddt than the mallard. Terns and skimmers that shared coastal habitats and fish diets with pelicans apparently were not affected by the pesticide. Herring gulls consumed heavy amounts with little adverse reac- tion. Although DDT has been banned in the U.S. for a decade and residues in most areas are slowly fading, some bird popula- tions are still affected. In Los Angeles, for instance, high residues in sediments that are taking years to break down continue to contaminate pelicans. Also, some West- em migratory bird populations, including peregrine falcons and black-crowned night herons, are absorbing DDT in Latin American countries where the pesticide is still used. The service's research with ddt and other chemicals has demonstrated that different species react very differently to each compound and industrial chemical. For example, evidence thus far indicates that polychlorinated biphenyls (pcb's) have little if any effect on reproduction in some wild birds at levels normally found in today's environment. In contrast, some mammals are sensitive to minute amounts of pcb's in their habitats. California Condor Pair Lays and Loses Egg Condor Research Center biologists have become the first persons ever to witness the laying of a California condor egg and its loss 12 days later over a cliff edge dur- ing a complicated series of disputes be- tween the pair members. Remarkably, the female laid her egg from a standing position. It fell from a height of nearly a foot to the floor of a cliff cave, apparently without suffering any damage. Whether such egg laying is typi- cal for the species is not known. ~^~ OUR ENVIRONMENT According to Noel Snyder, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service team leader at the Condor Research Center in Ventura, the biologist observed the event through a telescope at a distance of one-third of a mile in a mountainous region northwest of Los Angeles. The egg was laid at exactly 2:06 p.m., February 14; the female began incubating the egg just six minutes later. Incubation proceeded smoothly, with both birds taking several-day turns sitting on the egg until February 24, when the fe- male returned from foraging and her mate refused to let her take over the incubation. She attempted to get to the egg for two days, only to be repeatedly rebuffed by the male. Finally, on February 26, she managed to work the egg out from under her mate, but it rolled out of the nest cave onto a ledge in the process. The birds at- tempted to roll the egg back into the cave but were unable to get it up the incline. Ul- hmately, the egg rolled off the cliff during further disputes over which bird would sit on it. Only about 30 California condors re- main in the wild, all in southern Califor- nia. "With so few birds left," Snyder said, "the success of every nesting attempt is important and every loss is a great disap- pointment." He added that there is still a "reasonably good chance" the pair may lay a second egg, since they lost the first one so early in the breeding season. In fact, the pair was seen courting and check- ing nestholes again within two days of los- ing the egg. Normally, California condors lay only one egg every two years, but they have been known to re-lay within a year if they lose an egg early. The condor pair is believed to be the same pair that successfully fledged a chick two years ago from a nest cave close to the one used this year. There were arguments between the pair in 1980 as well, accord- ing to Snyder, but the disputes did not develop so early and caused no apparent harm to the breeding effort. Only four other active pairs of con- dors have been located by the research team. One of these produced a fledgling last year and is not expected to breed this year as they are still caring for this young- ster. None of the other three pairs has laid as yet, with two months to go in the egg- laying season. The research team is keep- ing track of all these pairs from a safe distance. Field Museum Tours for Members Kenya with optional extension to the Seychelles September 11-October 1 price to be announced There Is Now as there always has been, an aura or mystery surrounding Africa — Tropical islands and the coast, endless palm-fringed beaches, snow-capped mountains on the equator, jungle primeval, sun-baked plains. They are all a part of East Africa. The wildlife. . . the stately processions of elephant and giraffe, prides of lion, the beautiful and rare leopard, the elegant cheetah, the magnificent migration of the wildebeest and zebra. Only here in East Africa is there still such diversity. The itinerary includes a daytime stopover in London, over- nights at the Nairobi Hilton, Mt. Lodge Tree Hotel, Samburu Game Lodge, Mount Kenya Safari Club, Lake Hotel (at Lake Naivasha), Governor's Camp (Masai Mara Game Reserve), and other first class accommodations. An overnight stay in London will conclude the trip. A three-day extension to the Seychelles Islands is available as an ophon. Tour lecturer will be Audrey Faden, a native Kenyan, who formerly served as Officer in Charge of EducaHon at the National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi. Jcwellikt: Devil's Lake For tour information, please write or call the Tours Office, 322-8862 Wisconsin's Baraboo Range May 22-23 $125.00 Dr Edward Olsen, curator of mineralogy, will lead tour members through the Baraboo Range and along the shores and hinterland of beautiful Devil's Lake, 150 miles northwest of Chicago. The Baraboo Range is of special interest as a monadnock — what is left of an ancient mountain range and which now stands out above the younger rocks and sediments. The range consists of quart- zite — more than one billion years old — which, although com- pressed in places into vertical folds, retains the original sedimen- tary structures. The mountains were further modified by glaciers, forming the lake and the picturesque glens, and changing the course of rivers. Overnight accommodations and meals will be at a nearby motel. Hiking clothes are strongly recommended for the sched- uled hikes. The trip is not suitable for children, but younger people interested in natural history are welcome. For further details please call or write the Tours office. Beach scene, Seychelles May & June at Field Museum May 16 through June 15 New Exhibits "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast." Hall 10. This dramatic new, permanent exhibit opened April 24. It is an innovative exhibit which compares and contrasts the theatrically ornate cultures from the North Pacific Coast with the austere but individualistic Eskimo societies. Situated along the coasts of the Northern Pacific and Arctic oceans, these two distinct cultures have adapted to difl^ering environments by using similar techniques to harvest the riches of the rivers and oceans. Enter the Introductory Gallery (I) from Hall 3 on the northeast comer of Stanley Field Hall. Here the lush forested Northern Pacific area is com- pared to the barren tundra of the Arctic. The Northwest Coast Indians and the Eskimos both lived by hunting and fishing; they never depended on agriculture. How they hunted, fished, and gathered from the land and sea is explained in Gallery II. Full-sized house replicas of each group are featured in the Village and Society Gallery (III). The Spiritual World Gallery (IV) defines the inter- relationships of the human, animal, and Spiritual world. In the final Gallery (V) the stunning art of the Northwest Coast Natives and Eskimos is dramatically presented. The towering totem poles and tiny scrimshawlike engravings exemplify the rich artistic heritage of these groups. Here is an exhibit you'll enjoy at a leisurely pace, but will want to return to again and again. • Gallery Nine. Special exhibit area in Hall 9. An art gallery for viewing and purchasing. One may select from the work of more than 20 of the finest contemporary Northwest Coast and Eskimo art- ists. From April 24 to May 25. • Museum Store. Look for the newly remodeled Museum gift and book shop facilities when vis- iting the Maritime Peoples exhibit. • Totem Pole. Field Museum's first outdoor arti- fact, a 55-foot totem pole was raised to herald the April 24 opening of "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast." "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast" Special Programs Northwest Coast Lecture Series. "Strategies of Society: Social Organization." The second lecture series concentrates on the social structures of Northwest Coast tribes and how their art is inte- grated into those societies. You may attend the whole series or any individual lecture. Each lec- ture is given by a leading authority on native cul- tures of the Northwest. Entrance for these 8 p.m. lectures is through the West door. The series is $9 for Members and $12 for nonmembers. Single lec- ture is $3; $4 for nonmembers. n May 14 "Kwakiutl Winter Ceremonies," by Peter Macnair, curator of anthropol- ogy, British Columbia Provincial Mu- seum, Victoria, British Columbia. D May 21 "THngit Property Law," by RositaWorl, Department of Anthropology, Uni- versity of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska. n May 28 "Heraldic Symbolism," by Joan Vastokas, Department of Anthropol- ogy, Ti'ent University, Petersborough, Ontario. n June 4 "Historical Perspectives: Form and Ti^adition in Regional Art," by Bill Holm, curator of Northwest Coast art, Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. The Gie Sun Dancers. Tlingit Indians Irom Juneau, Alaska, will perform in Stanley Field Hall. Each Tlingit dance and its song is considered a family property to be performed on public occasions with the proper costumes and carvings. May 22 and 23 at 1 and 3 p.m. Craft Demonstrations. The Tlingit and Haida craftspeople, who are active in the revitalization of Northwest Coast art forms, demonstrate their skills. They use such regional materials as wood, bone, argillite (a slate-like stone), grasses, and wool. The three renowned Haida basket weavers who will show basketry techniques are: Primrose Adams, Selina Peratrovich and Delores Churchill. May 22 and 23 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Northwest Coast Film Series: "People of the Tide and Tlindra." A film series for deepening museum- goers' appreciation of the new permanent exhibit, "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast." Free vvdth Museum admission. Saturdays Continued on back cover 27 EDITH FLEMING 94 6 PLEASAMT OAK PARK ILL 60302 May & June at Field Museum Continued from and Sundays in May, 1:30 p.m. in Lecture Hall L May 15, 16 Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak. The life and work of an Eskimo woman artist. The Legend of the Magic Knives. A Kwakiutl legend is told through totem pole carvings. May 22, 23 Wooden Box Made by Steaming and Bending. The traditional methods of making cedar boxes is shown. Nathan Jackson: Tlingit Artist. A con- temporary artist shares his insight into the nature of Tlingit art. May 29, 30 People of the Seal: Eskimo Summer. The summertime activities of Netsilik Eskimos is portrayed. The Crooked Beak of Heaven. A pot- latch and other traditional ceremo- nies of Northwest Coast Indians are documented. New Programs Kites on the Wing. A Weekend Family Program. Make your own kite in the shape of a bird and fly it (weather permitting) . Members of the Chicago- land Skyliners, a kite-flying club, will be on hand to assist. Compare the behavior and habitats of dif- ferent birds and view the special display of kites. Bring your own #20 brown paper bag and at least 50 feet of kite string. May 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. International Museum Day screening of the film "Museum" offers an inside look at how a museum functions and who the people are who work in them. May 16 at 1 p.m. and at 3 p.m. Free with Museum admission. Gamelan Concert. The Gamelan Repertoire Ensemble, now in its fifth year of performing, and the three-year-old Gamelan Performance Ensem- ble will both play during this concert in James Simpson Theatre. June 13 at 2 p.m. Weekend Discovery Programs. Tours, craft projects, slide presentations, and films which use Field inside back cover Museum exhibits as a springboard for new in- sights into natural history projects are featured on Saturdays and Sundays. Check Weekend Sheet available at Museum entrances for added programs. May 15, 3 p.m. "Life in Ancient Egypt," tour. May 16, 1:30 p.m. "Hitankhamun: Discovery and TY^asures of the Tomb," slide program. May 23, 1:30 p.m. "Tibetan Life and Religion," slide program. May 29, 2 p.m. "Chinese Ceramic Tl'aditions," tour. June 5, 1:30 p.m. "Malvina Hoffman," slide program. June 6, 1:30 p.m. "Egypt in 1923: A Nile Journey," film. June 12, 1 p.m. "Tibet Today," slide program. June 12, 2 p.m. "Tibet," film. The Nature Conservancy is a national conservation organization committed to preserving natural diversity by protecting lands with the best exam- ples of all components of our natural world. Slide lecture presents examples of preserves retained by the Conservancy and managed by volunteer land stewards. June 5 at 2 p.m. Continuing Programs Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals with scien- tific interests and backgrounds are needed to work in various Museum departments. Contact the Volunteer Coordinator, 922-9410, ext. 360. May AND June Hours. The Museum is open daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Fridays. On Fridays, the Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the year. The Museum Library is open weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Memorial Day, May 31. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin June 1982 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin Published by Field Museum of Natural History Founded 1893 President: Willard L. Boyd Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Editor/Designer: David M. Walsten Production Liaison: Kathryn Laughlin Calendar: Mary Cassai Staff Photographer: Ron Testa Board OF Trustees James J. O'Connor chainnati Mrs. T. Stanton Armour George R. Baker Robert O. Bass Gorden Bent Bowen Blair Willard L. Boyd Stanton R. Cook O.C. Davis William R. Dickinson, Jr. Thomas E. Donnelley II Marshall Field Richard M, Jones Hugo). Melvoin Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. James H. Ransom John S. Runnells William L. Searle Edward Byron Smith Robert H.'Strotz John W. Sullivan William G. Swartchild, Jr. Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken E. Leiand Webber Julian B. Wilkins Blaine J. Yarrington Life Trustees Harry O. Bercher Joseph N Field Paul W.Goodrich Clifford C'. Gregg Sarauel InsuU, Jr. WiJliam V Kahler William H. MitcheU JohnM. Simpson J. Howard Wood CONTENTS June 1982 Volume 53, Number 6 Big Beaver Comes to Chicago New Totem Pole Installed 3 Theatre Sans Fil Giant Puppet Show Comes to Field Museum June 26, 27 9 Field Briefs 10 Records from Stone Mammoth Publication Project Completed bv Alice K. Schneider 12 Probing the Roots of the Lincoln Park Totem Pole by Virginia A. Leslie 18 Field Museum's Tour to Australia 22 Reindeer Transport in Alaska bv James W. VanStone Curator of North American Archaeology and Ethnology 23 Arctic Housing — Eskimo Style bv Daniel J. Jovce, staff member of the Maritime Peoples of the Northwest Coast Project Field Museum's Tour to Kenya Our Environment 28 32 33 June O'July at Field Museum Calendar of Coming Events Fieldiana: 1981 Titles 34 33 FRONT COVER Detail of Big Beaver totem pole, installed in front of Field Museum April 24, 1982. Shown here is head of grandson of Beaver Chief; he holds beaver tail. Photo by Tom Hocker. BACK COVER Detail of Big Beaver totem pole: head of Beaver Chief Photo bvRon Testa. FMd Museum of Natural History BuUetin (USPS 898-940) is published monthly, except combmed July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Unve, Chicago, D. 60605. Subscriptions: $6,00 annually $3.00 for schools. Museum membership includes Bullelm subscription Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarUy reflect the policy of Field Museum Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Museum phone: (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send from 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 60605. ISSN:0015-0703. Second dass postage paid at Chicago, II. Big Beaver Conies to Field Museum April 24, 1982, is a day to remember in the history of Field Museum and of the City of Chicago. For on that sunny, windswept Saturday, the Big Beaver totem pole, the 55-foot creation of Norman Tait, was raised and dedicated in front of the Museum — the first artifact to be on permanent exhibit outside the Museum in its 89-year history. For the City of Chicago, the pole was now to be counted among the city's great outdoor works of art, taking its rightful place among a Picasso, a Miro, a Calder, an Oldenburg, and a Chagall, among others. The pole was carved in Vancouver, B.C., by Nishga artist Norman Tkit, of the Tbimshian group of Northwest Coast Indians. Tait was commissioned by the Museum to carve the pole for the celebration of the opening of the new permanent exhibit, "Mari- time Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast" in Hall 10. Tait began his task by going into the forest to select the perfect tree. With the help of the British Columbia Council of Forest Industries, a 65-foot cedar tree was cut and transported to the ware- house, where he and his apprentices set to work. They began their carving after Tait retold the Beaver Legend to the group of workers. It is the story of how a family of Indians (Tait's ancestors) came to learn of the beaver's wa)?s and adopted the beaver figure as its clan symbol. To the Northwest Coast Indian carver, the pole is the medium for the telling of an age-old story — one held dear to the family of the carver and only allowed to be told by that family. When totem poles were first observed by European explorers they were thought to be objects of worship. Further contact revealed that the poles were simply a way to publicly tell a story and at the same time bring honor and status to the owner of the pole. In the complex societies of the Northwest Coast, honor and status were as important as material wealth. Free-standing poles, like the one Tait has carved Big Beaver totem pole, detail of human face. Photo by Tbm Hacker. Opposite: Detail of pole shomng figures of four brothers who adopted the Big Beaver storv. Photo by Tom Hocker. Top: Big Beaver arrives in Chicago April 9 via CPRail/Soo Line at Edward Mines Lumber Company. Middle: In front of Field Museum on April 22; Museum staff members shift the pole so that can'ers may complete final details. Bottom: April 23— staff members carry the pole into final position before raising. Photos bv Ron Testa. for Field Museum, are outgrowths of carved house- posts or support beams used inside Indian houses. Woodcarvers without peer in the Americas, the Northwest Coast Indians decorated these large wooden beams with intricate designs, using a unique tool, the hand adze, with precision and delicacy. The pole was raised at its lakefront setting in the traditional manner, using six ropes to pull it upright. Thousands assembled for the pole raising ceremony and over 200 actually assisted in raising it. Among those present was Her Honor Jane Byrne, mayor of the City of Chicago. Before the pole-raising, carver Norman Tait delivered a brief address: To the people of Chicago, and especially to Her Honor Mayor Bvme, I would like to welcome you to witness the birth of the Big Beaver. It has been in labor pains for the last six months. Where we take nine months, the totem pole takes six months, so I would like to invite the people of Chicago to come forward and help with the umbilical cord of this great person, the Big Beaver. I'd like you to also wit- ness the first time that the family of Rufus Watts will have dahced and raised thepoleat thesame time in about 80 years. This group is very new as compared to the very rich peoples of the Northwest Coast. I would like to thank you all for coming. Thank you. Jm^f^' .b.- The Big Beaver Legend The "Big Beaver" pole which Norman Tait carved for Field Museum depicts the figures involved in the Beaver legend and part of his famil/s history. The story was told to him by his maternal grandfather, Rufus Watts, and has been passed on from generation to generation. It describes the adoption of Beaver songs, dances, and images by the Eagle tribe; it is part of the Nishga heritage and is seen as the truth by the Nishga people. The story is about a family of five brothers. They were about to give a feast, and, to do so, had the responsibility to earn a lot of money. In those days money was measured in beaver pelts so the five brothers set off on a beaver hunt in the lake areas where there were known to be many beaver dams. The youngest brother was taken along to look after the pelts once they had been skinned. He was to count, record, and pack them. Not long after they had set out, the brothers came across a family of beavers and the hunt began. Soon they had collected numerous pelts. In the process of the kill, the beavers scattered in panic in an effort to escape. Although many did not escape, two small beavers did manage to get away from the hunters. The younger brother, sitting on top of the hill, noticed these two small animals running away. He felt sorry for the struggling beavers and went down the hill to help them get away. He encouraged them to keep on running and also gave them assistance in get- ting over the larger dams that were in their paths. The younger brother showed the little beavers great sympathy and gentleness. Eventually the two beavers disappeared into a bigger pond at the other end of the creek which held a very large beaver lodge. The younger brother noticed a smoke-hole in the roof of the lodge, which was used to let out smoke and let in light. He was puzzled. This was most unusual for the beaver dams. The ones he knew did not have smoke-holes. He peered down the smoke-hole just in time to see the two small beavers undressing! They were taking off their beaver clothing and the young man was surprised to see that the two little beavers were actually human be- ings. He continued to watch as they sat on the lap of the Beaver Chief and told him all about the slaughter in which their uncles and grandfathers were being killed at the other end of the creek. The great Beaver Chief, dressed in beaver clothes and beaver headdress, began to sing the Mourning Song and dance the Mourning Dance. He also sang a Cold Song which called for a freeze over the lake to protect the re- maining beavers that had managed to stay alive. The younger brother heard the songs and saw the dance and felt saddened by the extent of the hunt. He decided to adopt the songs and the dance. As he watched he noticed a large Totem Pole standing beside the Beaver Chief which consisted of many carved beavers and was called the "Big Beaver" pole. The young man decided to adopt this pole as his family crest. He went back to his brothers to share his discoveries. He showed them the dance that the beavers had performed. He sang the Mourn/n^Son^ and the Cold Song. The four brothers were also feeling remorseful that they had killed so many beavers. To show their feelings and in respect for the dead they decided to accept the younger brother's suggestion and adopted the songs and the dance of the beaver people. D Above: Procession on April 23, preceding mming the pole. Right: Norman Tait addresses audience on Museum 's north steps on April 24 prior to pole-raising. Chicago Mavorjane Bxrne is seated at left. Photos bv Ron Testa. Above: Rufus Watts (left), the Elder, grand- father of Norman Tait, wears Eagle Clan helmet. Norman Tait (right) wears Beaver Clan helmet. Left: The pole is about to be raised. Photos by Tom Hocker (above) and Ron Testa. April 24, 1982: "Big Beaver" is raised. Photo by Tom Hocker. PUPPETS EXTRAORDINAIRE: Theatre Sans Kl (The No Strings Puppet Theatre) James Simpson Theatre June 26, 27 2:00 p.m. Members: $3.00; Nonmembers: $4.00 "^ This unique theatre medium of gigantic puppets (6 to 12 feet tall) makes its first apjjearance at Field Museum on June 26 and 27 with two American Indian legends, "Blue Sky Takes a Wife" and "The White Raven? The entire fascinating production is entitled "Tales from the Smokehouse'.' Adults and children alike marvel at the striking visual and musical effects employed in the enactment of these ancient tales, in which more than 40 enormous pupf)ets appear. Reviewers have termed the production "an absolutely elegant puppet show that brings a my- thic exjjerience to Ufe in rapturous detail? The program, a Learning Museum event, is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The only Canadian company to work with giant pupjjets, the Theatre Sans FU has develojied new tech- niques for their fabrication and manipulation. The Theatre Sans Fils was founded in 1971 and now has nine productions to its credit. The company's reputation has groivn steadily over the years and it was chosen to represent Canada at the International Puppet Festival in Washington, D.C. in 1980. For ticket information, please call (312) 322-8854. Tickets will also be available at the West Door box office one hour before curtain time. ' FIELD BRIEFS Philippine Exhibit Opens July 17 The largest special exhibit of traditional Filipino art to be held anywhere since 1905, "The People and Art of the Philip- pines'/ will be on view in Hall 26 from July 17 through December 31. (Members' pre- view Friday, July 16, 1 to 9 p.m.) The exhibit includes loans from 16 mu- seums and 14 private collections in the U.S., Europe, and the Philippines. The 400 objects in the show are selected to give a comprehensive view of the culture of this former Spanish and then American colony, now a major Southeast Asian nation. Special emphasis is given to the ceramics and gold of the prehistoric peri- od, the Catholic arts of Spanish colonial times, the noted wood sculpture of the northern Philippines, and the extraordi- nary but almost unknown textiles of the southern Philippines. "A Philippine Afternoon" will be held on Sunday, July 18, from 1 to 4 p.m., offer- ing a variety of programs in connection with the new exhibit. There will be music, dance, and craft demonstrations. Indige- nous PhUippine dishes, reflecting the impact of Indonesian, Asian, and Spanish cultures may be sampled. Commitment to Distinction Program Field Museum's Corporate and Founda- tion Division Commitment to Distinction Program for 1982 and 1983 is under way. This program seeks financial support from the corporate and foundation community, and involves leading corporation execu- tives in development efforts on behalf of Field Museum. George R. Baker, executive vice presi- dent. Continental Illinois Corporation and Field Museum trustee, chairs the 1982-83 committee involving 10 section chairmen and more than 50 committeemen. Recent- ly, section chairmen gathered at the Muse- um for an orientation meeting. This meeting provided valuable insights con- cerning the activities being conducted in the Museum's areas of scientific research, exhibition, and education. Section chairmen for the 1982-83 pro- gram include: Daniel Calibraro, vice presi- dent. Corporate Communications, WGN Continental Broadcasting; Wade Fetzer, vice president. Investment Banking Ser- vices, Goldman, Sachs and Company; Thomas Hague, assistant to the chairman, Borg-Wamer Corporation; Robert Jagel, vice president. Planning and Administra- tion, Amoco Chemical Corporation; John Jones, senior vice president and treasurer, Chicago Bridge and Iron Company; Adrian Kruse, partner in banking, Ernst & Whinney; Donald Petkus, vice presi- dent. Commonwealth Edison Company; Stephen White, senior vice president, banking. Northern Trust Company; W. Denis Wright, senior vice president. Continental Illinois National Bank and Jay D. Proops, vice president and treasurer, Esmark, Inc. Past support for Field Museum by the corporate and foundation community has been very generous and with the out- standing committee of corporate leaders currently lending their assistance. Field Museum's 1982-83 Corporate and Foun- dation Division will achieve the continued and increased support of the business sector. Advisory Committee Named to Museum's Planned Giving Program An Advisory Committee to the Museum's Planned Giving Program has been named, and recently held its initial, orientation Members' Nights October 7, 8 The special evenings that all Members have been waiting for — Members' Nights — will take place this year on Thursday, October 7, and Friday, October 8, from 6 to 10 p.m. As in the past, the festive two- night open house will feature behind-the- scenes visits for all Members to curatorial areas, laboratories, preparators' work- shops, and other facilities that are not ordinarily accessible to the public. Cura- tors and other staff will be on hand to dis- cuss their research and the collections with visitors. Live music will be featured in Stanley Field Hall and, of course, re- freshments wi]\ be served. New Hours Schedule As of May 1, a new schedule of visiting hours to Field Museum went into effect. The new daily hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., year-round. The day of the week during which no admission fee is required of nonmembers has been changed to Thursday (from Friday). In addition to these changes, the Museum will in the future be closed on Thanksgiving Day (beginning this year), as well as on 10 Christmas and New Year's Day. Fossil Loan to Smithsonian. Fossils of six South American vertebrates and one cast were recently loaned to the United States National Museum (part of the Smithsonian Institution) for a special exhibit being mounted there. Jessica Harrison (right), research associate, and Dan Chaney (left), preparator, both of the Department of Paleobiology, USNM, are shown in Field Museum's fossil preparator's lab with some of the specimens to be loaned. With them are Field Museum's Larry Mar- shall (2nd from left), assistant curator of fossil mammals, and William F. Simpson, Field Museum's preparator of fossil vertebrates. Dr. Harrison stands by the carapace of a glyptodont; to the left is a mastodont skull; the large skeleton on the table is that of a giant ground sloth. Behind Harrison's hand is a cast of the smaller skull of a scxalled "terror bird," or Andalgalomis. meeting. The committee will advise staff, participate in clinics and seminars, and generally make known the Museum's programs to professional associates and to others. The committeemen, who will serve two-year terms, will work with two trus- tees of the Museum. William R. Dickin- son, Jr., of Wilson & Mcllvain, serves as chairman, and Hugo J. Melvoin, C.P., serves as vice-chairman. The committeemen are: John P. Crilly, vice president and division head. Personal Banking and Trust, First National Bank of Chicago; Millard J. Grauer, CLU, Owens, Grauer, Dotterer and Dewyer; Addis E. Hull III, partner, Jenner & Block, and head. Estate Planning and Probate Divi- sion; Samuel W. Hunt, senior vice presi- dent and head. Trust Personal Services, Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Company; Thomas F. Jones, Jr., senior vice president. Personal Trust Group, Harris Trust & Savings; Reinald McCrum, vice president. Trust Personal Financial Planning, the Northern Trust Bank; and Martin H. Rosenberg, executive director, Illinois CPA Society. Women's Board presidents, past and present. ShownattheMay 5, 1982, Women's Board An- nual Meeting are (L. to r.) Mrs. T. Stanton Armour (newly elected president), Mrs. Robert Wells Carton (president 1980-82), Mrs. Edward F. Swift (1978-80), Mrs. O. Macrae Patterson (1974-76), Mrs. B. Edward Bensinger (1972-74), and Mrs. Edward Byron Smith (1970-72). Not shown is Mrs. Joseph E. Rich (1976-78). The Women's Board was founded by the late Mrs. Hermon Dunlap Smith, who served as first president, 1966-70. New Women's Board Officers The new president of Field Museum's Women's Board is Mrs. T. Stanton Armour, elected at the board's annual meeting. May 5. Mrs. Armour succeeds Mrs. Robert Wells Carton, elected in 1980. Other new officers elected at the meeting were Mrs. John W. Madigan, vice presi- dent; Mrs. Evan G. Moore, vice president; Mrs. George Barr McCutcheon II, record- ing secretary; Mrs. Philip D. Block III, cor- responding secretary; Mrs. Angelo R. Arena, board member-at-large; and Mrs. Hammond E. Chaffetz, board member- at-large. Continuing in their respective offices are Mrs. John C. Meeker, vice president; Mrs. Newton N. Minow, treasurer; and Mrs. Ben W. Heineman, board member- at-large. Public Relations Manager Honored Mary A. Cassai, Field Museum's public relations manager, has received a 1982 Merit Award from the Publicity Club of Chicago for individual management of a publicity campaign in the "Institutional Programs" classification. The award was given for the planning and coordination of a print-television-radio program on Field Museum produced by the advertising firm of D' Arcy-MacManus & Masius, Inc. The award is given to the top ten per- cent of advertising and public relations professionals in the Midwest. Last year Cassai was also honored by the Publicity Club of Chicago for outstanding promo- tion of the "Great Bronze Age of China" exhibit. Mr. Hisazo Nagatani, center, is presented a certificate by Field Museum President Willard L. Boyd at a dinner in Nagatani's honor, March 30. The certificate named Nagatani, donor of many fine works of Chinese and Japanese art, as a benefactor of the Museum. Seated at right is Dr. Lau- rence Sickman, distinguished sinologist and former director of the Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, Mo. IMPIRIAL ROIES "Azure Dragon," from stone coffin of Wang Hui, Szechuan, Han dynasty, 56 x 122 cm, #233583. Records from Stone faj Alice K. Schneider Associate, Department of Anthropology 12 The first time I exchanged appreciations with an elderly Chinese scholar on his country's art, he inquired, "Are you familiar with Chinese robins?" I gazed at his open, smiling face for clues to his meaning, but could only lamely reply, "No, I didn't know there was a separate species." Last summer I was to give a slide-show talk on Chinese rubbings, a subject I had been closely involved with for more than 15 years — ever since the "robins" were straightened out. The talk was to be for a senior citizens' study group, and on the morning of the presentation I over- heard a lady tell her husband that she wouldn't be able to join him for their customary afternoon stroll because she planned to attend a session on "Chinese massage." So what are these elusive objects, these Chinese rubbings? They are simply prints, mis- named "rubbings" because in English we do not have a close equivalent for that art form: impressions made by tamping indelible ink on mulberry paper that has been placed over an incised surface, usually stone or wood. This is called the "wet" method, as distinguished from the "dry." In the latter, paper is truly rubbed with charcoal or crayon. Because dry, or "English rubbings" (so-called because most were made from inscribed tablets in English churches), are more familiar to us, we borrow the term "rub- bings." The wet technique far outlasts the dry (I have seen a rubbing fragment from the seventh century). But for some reason, the wet method continues to be used almost exclusively in the Orient, notably in China and Korea. Still less familiar to the western world are the engraved stones themselves and what they represent: more than 2,000 years of cultural history. They include not only important com- memorations comparable to those found in the ruins of other ancient civilizations, but a variety of documents as well as religious works. This information is rarely found in books published in the West on China, possibly because there has never been a comprehensive study of this remarkable phenomenon in either East or West. But 80 years ago the exciting potential of this material came to the attention of a young sinol- ogist, Berthold Laufer. In 1901, Laufer, a recent emigrant from Cologne to the United States, was sent to China to obtain artifacts for New York's American Catalogue of Chinese Rubbings from Field Museum (1981), 746 pp., was researched by Hoshein Tchen and Kenneth M. Starr, prepared by Alice K. Schneider, photographed by Herta Newton and Field Museum Division of Photography, and edited by Hartmut Wal- ravens. Fieldiana Anthropology New Series Number 3; $67.50. Museum. While there, he was advised by Chinese scholars that for research purposes he must have rubbings made from the engraved stones which were to be found in temples, im- perial buildings, and their courtyards. The easily transportable rubbings would provide an inex- pensive permanent library of research tools from original sources that he could always use in the convenience of his own study. Ultimately, Laufer acquired some 4,000 rubbings in China, shipping them back to the American Museum for safekeeping. In time, the collection was to be one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. But for many years, because of Laufer's involvement in so many other research activities, he had little opportu- nity to use these rubbings. In 1907, Laufer joined the curatorial staff of Field Museum, and in 1923, upon his request, the American Museum presented the entire collection to him. In 1929 Laufer sought funds to finally re- search and catalog the collection. He proposed the establishment of an "Oriental Research Institute" in Washington, D.C., which would underwrite his "project of a corpus inscriptio- num Sinicarum," as he called it. Over a period of 15 years, the rubbings were to be cataloged into 15 volumes. The projected cost: $150,000. But in October, 1929, the American economy collapsed, and the ambitious project never ma- terialized. A catalog of only the non-Chinese portion of the collection was published in his lifetime. Laufer died in 1936, leaving a body of published and unpublished work that was as remarkable for its intellectual amplitude as for its size. Included in his will was a bequest to the Field Museum of his entire library of rubbings. It was fitting that the cataloging of the rub- bings collection was finalized by another scholar equally dedicated to achieving a bridge between the cultures of the East and West: Dr Hoshien Tchen, a refugee from China who came to Field Museum in 1954; he remained until 1973, serving as consultant for the East Asian collection. A collector of Chinese art as well as former legal adviser to the Palace collection in Peking, ^i. f 4-V^ C'^ ^ 'i^^^^ -*. 't»^M. ^^^-^M^.} ff> ^^-^• i^ .t% •i ^M^i^^m^^-^^,^ .J^,Sii>^.~^^^^^^. % "Prancing Deer/Horse and Rider" tomb brick relief from Szechuan, mid-2nd century; 43 x 44 cm: #233533. 13 "Landscape, Pine Tree, Cranes," from Confucius Temple, Hsi-an; 189 x 79 cm, #244810. 14 Tchen was curious to view the Field Museum's holdings in Chinese art and artifacts. What was not then known, not even to Dr. Kenneth Starr, the East Asia curator, was the importance of the contents of some 30 boxes from the American Museum that had remained in storage for more than a quarter century. Dr. Tchen has spoken often of opening these boxes as "a tremendous, exciting discovery," describing their contents as "the best part of the Chinese collection." In 1961 Starr and Tchen began to curate the rubbings collection, Tchen doing the research, largely with the aid of Chinese sources, and Starr doing the editing — a responsibility I grad- ually took over after coming to the Museum as a volunteer in 1965. Cataloging collections is a large part of mu- seum work. Usually it involves identification of the specimen, determination of its age and pro- venience, when and where it was obtained by the Museum (not always identical with pro- venience), physical characteristics, by whom it was made, etc. A photo, ideally, rounds out the catalog entry — all of this posted on a 3 x 5 index card for the curator's file and duplicated in a set of ledgers, kept in the department office. Today, in Field Museum's Department of Anthropology, most of this information has been stored in a Computer as well. (See "Cannibals, Catalogs and Computers," September 1977 Bulletin, p. 10.) In the late 1950s, Starr designed an 8 x 11-inch card that would accommodate more information about the rubbing or engraving it documented. Fortunately, for those of us interested in Chinese antiquities, cataloging in that country is an ancient, highly respected tradition, and among the Chinese literati there is also a cher- ished tradition of collecting objects of historic or aesthetic value. So in addition to information available in public archives, were those orderly notebooks kept by private collectors; some col- lectors even published memoranda on their art works or antiquities. And then there were the ti-pos — colophons written on the mountings of valuable rubbings, sometimes even engraved into the stones. However, from the mid-Ming dynasty {ca. 1500) on, the Chinese did not consider their contemporary engravings important enough to record. By then, many engravings were recuts, copies of older stones which time had worn away or which had entirely disappeared, leaving only rubbings to trace from. Therefore, for those rubbings not described in any publication, Tchen had to glean his data from the rubbings them- selves— no simple task. This required the ability to read classical Chinese (a skill roughly com- parable to that of a present-day Englishman reading Chaucer), for many inscriptions were written in this antique style. It also required a familiarity with the Chinese classics and their writers, with collections of rubbings and their collectors, artists, calligraphy and writing styles of various periods, and an eye for recognizing a recut stone. Few young people in China today can do any of this. This ability to distinguish between originals and recuts was perhaps the most recondite of the skills involved. Recuts were made at least as early as the Sung dynasty (960-1279), and in some instances there were even forgeries of famous calligraphers. A recut was made from a fresh stone slab on which a rubbing of the origi- nal stone had been imposed as a pattern. Recut engravings, therefore, contained all the original information, including dates, signatures, and even seals of the original. Recut stones were also made from copies of earlier copies of pos- sibly a freehand copy of an original painting. The condition of a rubbing is not necessarily an indication of its age; the condition depends on how well the paper has been preserved. I have seen beautiful rubbings from the Sung dynasty which had been carefully preserved in private collections; I have also seen twentieth- century rubbings that were already victims of neglect. Laufer's meticulous field notes were of particular help to Tchen — except for his data on proveniences. For the last millennium, inscribed stones of historic significance had been removed from their outdoor settings to pagodas, temples, and other structures that offered some protection from the elements; but in being moved, infor- mation about the original site was not always recorded. For this reason, the provenience given for a large number of rubbings in our collection may be a particular temple, though that temple was in fact merely a repository. An early catalog, based upon Laufer's field notes, had been prepared by C. Y. Hu and Rose G. Miller, who worked at Field Museum between 1939 and 1944. In his research, Tchen frequently referred to the Hu-Miller catalog; but mistakes and omissions had to be corrected. And Hu- Miller covered only the acquisitions made by Laufer, not later additions to the collection. Rubbings acquired from other people, such as some 300 fascinahng prints made from Han (206 B.C. -AD. 220) tomb tiles and stones in Sze- chuan by D.C. Graham in the 1930s, required sources of information other than Hu-Miller. These various sources were not always in agreement. In contrast, a well known private collection of old rubbings mounted in book form and purchased by the Museum in the 1960s was thoroughly documented. Tchen often referred to our work as "very delicate" because it was so easy for errors to be committed. In early 1972 it looked as though we were actually going to finish researching this vast collechon. Our completed 8 x 11 catalog cards could have made a stack nine feet high. The rubbings — some as large as 4 x 7 feet — were all returned to their enormous storage cabinets. One final question remained: What was to happen now? Was all this work to remain buried in stor- age, the final resting place of so much research, or should it be made available to scholars hungry for research tools? Few scholars knew of this collection, even fewer that information about each item in the collection was now readily accessible. A modest catalog list would do; but how does such a list reach its intended readers? Dr. James VanStone, editor of Fieldiana, the Mu- seum's continuing monograph series, proposed that a comprehensive compendium be prepared. I blithely agreed to spend one more year on this work. It was to take nine. Approval for publication in Fieldiana was dependent upon several conditions: first, con- firmation by a recognized scholar in at least a closely related field that the results of our research were worth publication. This posed something of a problem since there was no authority in this country on Chinese rubbings. Funding for the project was also required. In addition, compiling a book required an editor with a thorough knowledge of Chinese. Dr. Tchen would no longer be available. Reaching the respectable age of 80, he was to retire in 1973. Fortunately, none of these problems proved insurmountable. Professor T. H. Tsien, director of the University of Chicago's East Asian Library, and an eminent authority on the development of writing in China, heartily approved the idea Catalogue of Chinese Rubbings from Field Museum 15 of the proposed work. He based his endorse- ment on recognition of the importance of the collection and on his respect for the scholarship of Dr. Tchen. Funding for the project was ob- tained from the National Endowment for the Arts. And from Laufer's home town of Cologne, in 1974, came another young graduate in Chinese studies and one of the world's three experts in the Manchu language. Dr. Hartmut Walravens. He had come to examine manuscripts of Laufer's for a bibliography he was preparing, and he remained, in his words, "to act as midwife" for the rubbings collection catalog. Walraven's contributions went far beyond the duties of editing. He compiled an extremely useful bibliography from Tchen's sources — a task that would have been an impossibility for me, since most of these sources were in Chinese. He did further research in areas of his expertise such as Manchu, Mongolian, and on rubbbings from two Christian cemeteries in China, which were of particular interest to him. He also helped to design and execute the extremely complicated indices and other sections of the book. He did the editing in Cologne and later Hamburg, over a period of years, for it had been agreed that we would work by mail. I was to send him dupli- cates of manuscript copy in installments of about 100 sheets each to minimize difficulties in the event of loss. And indeed one packet was lost with neither of us being aw^re of it at the time. The Post Office had placed its stamp over my envelope number. By the time we realized that a packet was missing, a complete numerical order of catalog entries had been worked out. As a consequence of the loss the numbering had to be redone — a task of several months. This was just the beginning of many problems exacerbated by thousands of miles between us. Because of a long delay in receiving an antici- pated introduction, both of us — independent of the other — solicited another. After four years we had three! A specialist in Arabic was needed. Wal- ravens found one in Germany; 1 found one here. And the opinions of the two on certain texts differed. Duplicates of file cards, prepared because there were duplicate rubbings in the collection, were endlessly turning up; so the duplicate entries they generated in the book had to be weeded out. Even some new rubbings materialized, overlooked by Tchen and myself in our research. And finally, two boxes of rub- bings sent to us by the American Museum in 1970 turned out to be ours; they, too, had to be included. Unaccountably, these Laufer rubbings had remained at the American Museum all these years. The appendices grew. It was at this point that reconstruction of rooms in the Department of Anthropology began. The incessant drilling of pneumatic hammers and flying dust made work there so difficult that I bought an electric typewriter and continued the project at home. One of 16 illustrations of steps in processing cotton, from stone sl(W in the Imperial Palace, Peking: 1765 or later; 26x26 cm, #118293. 16 (Cropped at top) In May, 1977, five years later, the finished manuscript was submitted to the Fieldiana editor for final processing before being typeset. What had we accomplished? A behemoth catalog of 2,014 printed rubbing entries with titles in English and Chinese characters, plus translit- erations. Some titles, where called for, were done in transliterations of Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, etc. Individual indices of titles, personal names, temples, proveniences, and so forth, as well as the usual subject index ran to 148 printed pages. The indices alone had involved three years of cross-checking, shaping, and refining by several dedicated volunteers as well as by Walravens and me. The illustrations filled 137 full pages. Again, a dedicated volunteer, Herta New- ton, a former professional photographer, and I, working three days a week at the Museum, "finished" the photography for the book in two years. Not that the selection of photographs was by any means then completed; it was most difficult to represent pictorially a collection of such enormous proportions and variety. In the case of very large rubbings of calligraphy, only details were photographed, because it would have been impossible to see anything adequately in a small photograph. Still ahead were four years of editing and proofreading by the Fieldiana editor and several of us, paid and unpaid, associated with the project. Why do we do these things? Fortunately, we cling to ideas, beliefs, and morsels of encouragement. I had absorbed Dr. Tchen's conviction that we were compiling the first catalog of its kind anywhere in the world, important not only because its subject was rub- bings, but for its extraordinary breadth and scope. The final product, I am satisfied, is a valuable, unique research tool — "Project of a Corpus Inscriptionum Sinicarum," even though I had known nothing of Laufer's ambitious attempt until after the book was finished. D Map of China during general Sung period and places visited by the legendary Emperor Yii, from Confucius Temple, Hsi-an, dated 1137: 79 X 78 cm: #245523. This has been described by schol- ars as the most remark- able cartographic work of its age in any culture. 17 Probing the Roots of The Lhteoln Park Totem Pole br Virginia A. Leslie The City of Chicago can boast of two monu- mental family trees: carved cedar totem poles from the Pacific Northwest Coast. One was acquired by the city more than half a century ago; the other went on view outside Field Museum on April 24 of this year. The former is a 40-foot pole located in Lincoln Park at Lake Shore Drive and Addison Street. It was given to the Chicago Park District in 1929 by James L. Kraft, founder of Kraft Foods, Inc. (now Kraft, Inc.), and dedicated to the schoolchildren of Chicago. It is the remarkable story of the Lincoln Park pole that concerns us. Mr. Kraft, an accomplished lapidary and collector of jade, made trips to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest in his search for jade and other rare minerals; while on these trips the unique art and culture of the Northwest Coast Indians attracted him. In 1926, after several Lincoln Park totem pole as it apyeared at Alert Bay, B.C., about 1910. Courtesy American Museum of Natural 18 History. years' negotiation, he purchased through inter- mediaries two totem poles (including that in Lincoln Park) and a 15-foot-long feast dish; the three huge carvings were shipped to Chicago from British Columbia on railroad flatcars. In 1927 the feast dish was given to the Wis- consin State Historical Society, in Madison, and in 1952 the society loaned the dish to the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle, where it remains on exhibit. One of the totem poles now stands on pri- vate property, "Kraftwood Gardens," of the Kraft family in northeastern Wisconsin. The other pole lay on the Chicago River dock of a Kraft plant for three years. Finally, in 1929, James Kraft gave the pole to the City of Chicago. It was erected in Lincoln Park and officially dedi- cated in June of that year. Preparations at Field Museum for the new maritime peoples exhibit in Hall 10 (which fea- tures 24 totem poles) stimulated renewed inter- est in the Lincoln Park pole. Dr. Ronald L. Weber, visiting assistant curator for the Northwest Coast Project, was skeptical of information on the pole's bronze plaque, which attributes the pole to the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. For a number of reasons, including stylistic features and motifs in the pole's design, he concluded that it was actually the work of the Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, rather than of the Haida. His doubts led to my investigations. Kwakiutl poles are often dramatic and col- orful, as is the Lincoln Park pole. Kwakiutl pole figures are frequently painted in several colors, notably white and green, and the proportion of head to body of carved figures is relatively real- istic; thunderbirds and eagles are embellished with outstretched wings and other appendages for heightened effect. Haida poles are greater in diameter than the Kwakiutl. Carving is deep in Haida poles, but the cylindrical form of the log is retained; large and small creatures are inter- twined, prominent heads are half the full length of figures, and detail work in Haida poles is Virginia A. Leslie was a volunteer for the Northwest Coast Project. more apt to be carved than painted; red and black are used, but sparingly. Several Northwest Coast symbols are miss- ing from the Lincoln Park pole or are incorrectly placed. Plumes characteristically found on the thunderbird's head are missing, but those of a seesioohl (mythological serpent) are between the whale's tail and the thunderbird's claws; the whale has large, outspread wings, though winged whales are not to be found on any other known Northwest Coast pole or even in the mythology of the region. The probable explanation for these oddities is that before the two poles were shipped to Chicago, the wings and plumes were detached to prevent damage. When reassembled, the thunderbird's wings were correctly attached to the Lincoln Park pole, but both the thunderbird's wings and the seesioohl plumes of the Wisconsin pole were reattached by mistake to the Lincoln Park pole. A rudimentary set of wings unlike any to be found on Northwest Coast poles were added to the Wisconsin pole; apparently these were carved in Wisconsin. Close inspection of photos taken at Alert Bay between 1903 and 1910 leaves no doubt that the two poles once stood in that village and are of Kwakiutl, not Haida, origin. There are also paintings by well known Canadian artist Emily Carr of these poles as they stood at Alert Bay in 1912. According to information in the Kraft archives, the two poles are so old that no one knows when they were carved, but Alert Bay was settled in the 1870s, and 1898 photos of the village fail to show them. Further evidence that the Lincoln Park pole is Kwakiutl rather than Haida is to be found in records about the pole held by Kraft: "It was not carved by human hands," says a recorded legend, "but came floating down the Nimpkish River in prehistoric times to the steelheaded man, . . . founder of the tribe, as a symbol of pro- tection from the Great Spirit." The Nimpkish River flows into Johnstone Strait, across from Alert Bay (home of the Kwakiutl). This is some 200 miles south of the Queen Charlotte Islands (home of the Haida). The bronze plaque in front of the Lincoln Park pole names that pole "Kwa Ma Rolas," which, says Bill Holm (curator at Thomas Burke Museum), is a corruption of "Gwa mo las," or "K'wamaxalas" — the name of the Alert Bay owner of the Wisconsin pole. Kraft's interme- diaries, probably not well informed about North- west Coast art, were apparently confused about the poles' identities and legends. "The Kraft version of the myths," says Holm, "includes many correct names and recognizable snatches of the stories, but it has all been garbled." The pole that once stood before Chief Lincoln Park totem pole about 1967 (left) and during 1929 dedication ceremony (right). Note differences, particular- ly in painted design. Photos courtesy Kraft, Inc. 19 Waxawidi's house, in Alert Bay, is described by Holm as having "a thunderbird at the top, next a baleen whale (Gwa' yam) with a man on the back and at the bottom a sea monster. The baleen whale has a small dorsal fin, very long pectoral fins, and a row of white spots on each side." This description of the whale accurately de- scribes that on the Lincoln Park pole. "By com- parison, the killer whale on the Kraftwood Gardens pole has a very long dorsal fin, short wide pectoral fins, no spots, and a differently shaped head." The idea of the Haida origin and antiquity of the two poles, he concludes, "is preposterous." Gloria Cranmer Webster, curator of U'Mista Cultural Society at Alert Bay and granddaughter of Chief Gwa mo las, reports that in 1978 her brother Doug Cranmer designed a new version of the Gwa mo las pole in honor of their father. The pole bears a striking resemblance to the Kraftwood Gardens pole. So we have every reason to believe that the two poles (as well as the feast dish now in Seattle) were carved by the Kwakiutl of Alert Bay in the early 1900s. Perhaps the mistake of attribution of these three pieces is partly because a number of small Haida argillite (dark carbonaceous slate) sculptures were also shipped in 1926 to Kraft from the Queen Charlotte Islands. Conservation of the Lincoln Park Pole The victim of carpenter ants, vandals, and the normal processes of weathering and decay, the Lincoln Park pole has undergone more than a dozen modifications since 1929. All of this res- toration has been done under the direction of Kraft, since it was arranged at the time of pre- sentation that the company would continue to assume the task of maintenance. In 1958 the arm positions of the pole's hu- man figure were changed because rotting had occurred in the arm sockets; one hand was moved so that it covered the figure's eyes. (A visitor observed that the figure no longer had to watch the spectacle of rush hour traffic which passed before it.) In 1966 the pole was drastically renovated: the sea monster at the base, the thunderbird at the top, and the human figure Bronze plaque at Lincoln Park totem pole. Corrected, it should read: "Waxawidi, historic Kwakiutl Indian totem pole from Alert Bay, Vancouver Island, B.C., carved from a single red cedar The figures from top to base represent the Kulos, member of the thunderbird family, the baleen whale with a 20 man on its back" [A4,^ COTKNV i'i eaKr.KT va tit Ui l%ktX Uv2UI iSsirKr' ««..->^bx>H;vY FEET men m,., . . , feTKK, TELLS THE TRlh^L US AOi^ TM O OV ONE OF THE Q] LAltON'^ tN TfciE^.^VORt _J^RyED . ; ^OTflE^P6Ll|.; « RESENT THE XDLt>S;GREA:ife ;._, - tONDERBlRD; FOUNDER OF THtv .t ^V. ^H&-.\DSO MAN;AND TUE RILLElQifEALi m- .rtiE SCHdOL ClULDREH OK _ JlMXMK: ROLAS'rSTANtiiS %i LlNJCOLi ' ■'^HmiiAMERtCACN.riNDK i^ w^ % •^■* The Kraftwood Gardens (Wisconsin) totem pole as it appeared in Alert Bay, B.C., about 1910 (left pole in left photo), and in Kraftwood Gardens, about 1950. Left photo courtesy Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association — the Vancouver Museum; right photo courtesy Edith Dahlberg. were recarved by skilled Kraft workers. Their work appears to be a faithful attempt at restora- tion, but the painted symbols were inaccurately reproduced. The significance of features in the original painting, which had been more elabo- rate, could never have been appreciated by a restorer unacquainted with Northwest Coast art. A Kraft supervisor of the restoration has suggested that Kraft workers trying to copy the intricate symbols perhaps didn't realize how important it was to duplicate features with great accuracy. The original painted symbols on the pole have almost totally disappeared. Kraft has tried conscientiously to hold back and to repair the onslaughts of time as well as acts of vandalism against the pole. This historic monument should be restored to its original form by a skilled Kwakiutl craftsman. D Of particular help to the author in researching this article were Ronald L. Weber, visiting assistant curator in Anthropology, Field Museum; Bill Holm, curator of Northwest Coast Indian art at the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle; Peter Macnair, curator of anthropology at the British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria, B.C.; Everett Kuhn, Sarah M. Mauro, John X. Thomas, and Albert F. Schuber — all of Kraft, Inc.; and Edith Dahlberg (daughter of James Kraft), who loaned photographs and other material. Additional information was found in the Chicago Historical Society Library and in archives of the Chicago Park District. 21 Field Museum Tours for Members Australia Tour August 23-September 12 Tour Price: $4,998 (double occupancy) Leader of this extraordinary tour is Dr. Alan Solem, curator and head. Division of Invertebrates, who has made nine trips to Aus- tralia in connection with his study of land snails. The tour will fea- ture the glory of the Western Australia spring, the greatest display of wildflowers in the world, the charm of an English countryside in South Australian vineyards, a face-to-face meeting with eastern Australian wildlife in Victoria, and the awesome expanses and spectacular mountains of central Australia. The tour will arrive in Sydney on August 25, then take a 75- minute flight to Melbourne. The two days in Melbourne will in- clude visits to a local wildlife sanctuary as well as to various sites of cultural interest. A 40-minute flight on August 27 will take the group to Ade- laide, followed by visits to local vineyards. A 90-minute flight that evening will terminate at Alice Springs, the group's base of opera- Hons for six days. Highlights here include sight-seeing into the outback, bush barbecues, and a visit to spectacular Ayers Rock. September 3 will be spent in and around Perth. Rides by hydrofoil and river boat will be optional. September 4 will be spent traveling by motorcoach to Augusta while viewing some of Aus- tralia's most delightful scenery. September 5: A trip to Walpole-Normalup National Park, see- ing 200-foot-high stands of red tingle trees, September 6: Colorful Albany, an old whaling port. September 7: A day trip to the Poron- gorup and Stirling mountain ranges. September 8: Return to Perth via the Albany Highway, with views of the Darling Range. September 9: Perth, with time for shopping and sight-seeing. September 10: In Sydney for a day of leisure for shopping, sightseeing, or day tours. September 11: Depart from Sydney for U.S. Having lost a day by crossing the International Date Line, we overnight at San Fran- cisco's Sheraton Airport Hotel. September 12: Arrival in Chicago. For additional information on this tour, please write or call Dorothy Roder, Tours Manager, at Field Museum, 322-8862. Reindeer Transport in Alaska by James W. VanStone Curator of North American Archaeology and Ethnology In 1892 domestic reindeer were brought from northeastern Siberia to the southern Seward Peninsula region of western Alaska through the joint efforts of the Reverend Sheldon Jackson, Presbyterian missionary and first general agent of education in Alaska, and Captain Michael A. Healy of the U.S. Revenue Marine Service. This relocation program, supported by the U.S. Bureau of Education, was intended to pro- vide Alaskan Eskimos with a new source of food that would offset a recent decline in sea mam- mals; during the second half of the nineteenth century, commercial interests had indulged in unrestricted killing of whales, walrus, and seals. There also appeared to be a small market for the meat and skins of the reindeer, and it was hoped that Eskimos could derive a cash income from their sale. The first deer were landed by the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear in July 1982 on the north shore of Port Clarence at a place that the Rever- end Jackson had named the Teller Reindeer Sta- tion (after John M. Teller, a United States senator who had helped steer appropriations for the pro- ject through Congress). Chukchi herders were brought from Siberia to teach Eskimos the tech- niques of herding and the proper methods of car- ing for the animals. Between 1892 and 1902 more than 1,200 reindeer were landed at Teller and, as herders were trained, the deer were eventually dispersed to Eskimo communities. At the opening of the station. Miner W. Bruce, a former Nebraska journalist, was ap- pointed superintendent. He and one assistant had charge of four Chukchi herders, an equal number of Eskimo apprentices, and approxi- mately 175 reindeer. Bruce served as superin- tendent for only one year, then became a trader to widely scattered areas of Alaska, where a size- able portion of his business was the collecting of Eskimo manufactures for resale. It was during this period that he negotiated sales of important collections of Eskimo material culture to Field Columbian Museum (later named Field Museum of Natural History); these were acquired by the Museum in 1894 and 1896. The Reverend Jackson, who traveled exten- sively in Alaska every summer between 1886 and 1906, also obtained Eskimo artifacts, and his col- lection of approximately 270 undocumented specimens from western and northwestern Alas- ka was acquired for the World's Columbian Eskimo herders with reindeer at Port Clarence, Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Note small stature of reindeer. N17013 23 The Reverend Sheldon Jackson, Presbyterian missionary who helped introduce reindeer into Alaska. NW8676 24 100km -v ^«J^-°'- Exposition and accessioned by Field Columbian Museum in October 1893 (accession 126). This collection contains a number of interesting speci- mens associated with the reindeer project and related to the use of these creatures as draft animals. Although the Chukchi herders who were brought from Siberia proved to be unsatisfactory and were soon replaced by Norwegian Lapland- ers, the Siberians were responsible for the intro- duction of certain items of material culture associated with reindeer transport that had been previously unknown in mainland Alaska. In Alaska, dogs had been the only animals used by Eskimos to pull sleds, and although the intro- duced reindeer had originally been perceived as a food source, it was only natural that the Chuk- chi would stress the value of these animals for transport, since this type of use was important to them in their Siberian homeland. The collection of Eskimo material culture made by Jackson contains two Siberian-style sleds, a reindeer collar, and three whips specif- ically associated with reindeer transport. It is possible that Jackson obtained these articles in Siberia himself or that they were brought from there by Chukchi herders; but it is more likely that the items were made in Alaska by Eskimos who modeled them after Siberian prototypes. In any event, they closely resemble reindeer equip- ment used by Eskimos on St. Lawrence Island in Bering Strait and by Eskimos and Chukchi on the adjacent Siberian coast. The first sled (cat. no. 13122), top photo, op- posite, is about 6y2 feet long, 17 inches wide, and weighs slightly over 20 pounds. The wooden runners, curving up toward the front, are fas- tened to narrower strips which curve over and are spliced to short sections; these, in turn, are lashed to parallel pieces forming the sides of the bed. The bed itself is formed by two long pieces of wood which run parallel to the side pieces and five short crosspieces lashed at right angles to them at approximately one-foot intervals. Under each crosspiece is a curved antler stanchion lashed to the bed and the runners. Further sup- port is provided on each side by slanting pieces which extend from the second stanchion (from the front) to the runners between the third and fourth stanchions. The bed is about half the length of the sled Vertical wooden stanchions are on each side between the first and second antler stanchions. For additional support, lash- ings extend from this point to the runners both in front and behind . At the rear of the sled, a curved piece of wood arches from one side of the back stanchion to the same place on the opposite side. On the left side a curved support piece — actually two pieces spliced — extends from the runner be- Siberian-style Alaskan Eskimo sleds (above #13122, below #13123). m08462, m08460 > / k o Re inclccx. (/(fltA^n_h.> Late 19th-century drawing by unknown Bering Strait Eskimo. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives. 25 Above, left: reindeer collar (#19360, N108251 ); above right: harnessed reindeer (photo courtesy Archives and Historical Collections, the Episcopal Church): below: 19th-century drawing by Eskimo, showing harness apparently made of skin or leather (photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives). tween the fourth and fifth stanchions to the side of the curved back piece. The sled shoes are rec- tangular sections of whale rib with paired lashing holes connected by a lashing slot. All lashings and splices are with strips of untanned sealskin. The second sled (cat. no. 13123), second photo from top, previous page, is about 20 inches longer than the first and about the same width. Although constructed in much the same manner, it is somewhat heavier and more solidly built. Construction of the bed is similar except that there are seven crosspieces and a corresponding number of curved antler stanchions. The runners extend to within a foot of the front, where they are spliced to curved pieces which extend over and are spliced to the sides of the bed just in front of the first stanchion. There is a stabilizing cross- piece which joins the two runners at the front of the sled. Slanting reinforcements for the stan- chions extend on either side from the bed at a point just beyond the second stanchion to the runners between the fifth and sixth stanchions. All lashings and splices are made with tanned strips of sealskin. There is no upright curved piece at the back of this sled and one-piece whale bone shoes are lashed to the runners. A sled similar to the above two being pulled by a pair of reindeer is shown in a late 19th- century drawing on the previous page by an unknown Bering Strait Eskimo. Flat-bedded Alaskan Eskimo sleds, also used with reindeer, were probably more suitable for heavy loads. The Jackson collection contains a single rein- deer collar (cat. no. 19360), above, which consists of three curved pieces rather carefully fashioned of spruce driftwood. All are approximately 36 inches in length; the harness fragments adhering to them are strips of tanned sealskin with the hair removed. All pieces are slightly countersunk on one side in the area of harness slots, and the side pieces are decorated with engraved half circles and parallel lines. The side pieces of such a collar fit rather far back on the reindeer's neck and were tied togeth- er at the notches on the bottom (see reindeer photo, opposite). The top piece fits across the animal's back in the same area. Strips of harness extend from both sides and the top. A late 19th- century Eskimo drawing (opposite page, bot- tom) shows a complete reindeer harness appar- ently made entirely of skin or commercially tanned leather, rather than with a wooden collar like Field Museum's specimen. Dimensions of the collar just described indi- cate that domestic reindeer were small animals. They seldom grew to more than three feet at the shoulders and were usually less than two-thirds the size of their wild caribou relatives. The small stature of reindeer is clearly illustrated in the photo on page 23, which shows two of the ani- mals with three Eskimo herders near Port Clar- ence on Seward Peninsula. The remainder of a herd can be seen in the background. There are three reindeer whips in the Jack- son collection, two of which are shown at left. The whip on the right in the photo (cat. no. 13146) is 55 inches long and consists of a wood shaft which widens slightly at the proximal end, where a round antler ferule is attached. The length has been increased by means of a much shorter piece of wood spliced to the distal end with sinew. A small ivory knob fits over the distal tip and is attached with sinew. The harnessed reindeer was encouraged to move faster by sim- ply being touched with this knob. The driver in the drawing on page 25 holds a similar whip. The left whip shown here (cat. no. 13148) — 95 inches long — has an ivory ferule at the proximal end of the shaft; at the distal end a sealskin cracker is attached with braided sinew. Items of Siberian material culture like those described here are among the few tangible re- mains of an early government program to pro- mote the welfare of Alaskan Eskimos. Although domestic reindeer owned by Eskimos lasted in some areas of Alaska as late as the mid-1940s, the animals eventually disappeared and the herding program must be regarded as a failure. Reasons for this failure were multiple; among them were poor herding techniques, predation, disease, marketing problems, and vacillating govern- ment policies. Most important, perhaps, was the fact that the nomadic routine required for good close herding was scarcely compatible with the seden- tary pattern of village life traditional to most Alaskan Eskimos. Failure on the part of the gov- ernment to appreciate this incompatibility was probably the single most important reason for the eventual complete failure of the reindeer herding program. D Reindeer whips (#13148 at left, #13146 at right). m08689 27 Arctic Housing— Eskimo Style by Daniel J. Joyce StafTMember of the Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast Project Cutaway replica of Alaskan Eskimo house in Gallery III, Hall 10. Photo by Ron Testa. 28 Gallery III ("Village and Society") of Hall 10, where the new exhibit, "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast',' was installed in April, features a cutaway full-scale replica of an Eskimo* house of western Alaska. The house is furnished with items of daily life that were typical at the turn of the century. In the soft glow of firelight during the long winter nights, family members lounged about in such a dwelling, talking of everyday affairs in their remote comer of the world. For them, this was the only world that mattered. They stretched out on sleeping platforms, naked under their animal-hide covers. To them, the cool temperatures were comfortable. In the half- light, they saw only walls of driftwood and whalebone darkened with soot. Through the smokehole in the ceiling, they may have caught glimpses of the northern lights. The tiny dwelling was partly underground; a passageway, several feet long, led from the entrance to the house interior. A drop of a few feet in the passageway floor level trapped incom- ing cold air (which is heavier) before it could reach the main living area. Outside, the house was covered with layers of sod, which also helped keep out the cold. The house was thus * Anthropologists place Eskimos, on the basis of geography, in three groups: Alaskan and Siberian, Central (Canadian), and Greenland. As used here, the term Eskimo designates all native Arctic people. The Eskimos of the central Canadian Arctic prefer to be called Inuit, meaning "real people" The Algonkian word eskimo ("raw flesh eaters" ) is the only term that refers to all Arctic peoples as a whole. There is no native word that refers to all the people of the Arctic from Siberia to Greenland. The term Eskimo is used here because of its famil- iarity to the general readership. Eskimos of the central Arctic live in tempo- rary igloos. Photo cour- tesy Smithsonian Institution. 1f9^ „Xc ' :^'Wr'"'" 1,1 f-;--* msmw ^ ^* H Ch ief reindeer herder "^ at Point Hope, Alaska, with his family outside semisubterranean house. Note the use of sod blocks. Courtesy the Archives and His- torical Collections, the Episcopal Church. 29 Eskimo woman mends sealskin tent. Courtesy Smithsonian Institu- tion National Anthro- pological Archives. Eskimo village at Point Hope, Alaska, in the early 1880s. Whalebone, stone, and driftwood were used in the construction of these semisubterranean houses. Note the drying racks and barrels. On the left is a tent. Courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Mass. comfortably insulated against the bitter weather. It was situated among several other houses on a hill near the Bering Sea. The nearest houses were those occupied by relatives within the large extended family. Near the center of the village was the somewhat larger kashgee, or kajiji, used for ceremonies. Next to each house were racks for drying fish and meat, raised caches for storage, and racks for boats and sledges. From the hill, the villagers could scan the area for the game essen- tial to their survival. They were also able to observe from this vantage point any hostile persons when still at a distance. These people were fishermen, as are the Eskimos of today; but they also hunted and continue to hunt land and sea animals. Their struggle for survival was a difficult one, with the threat of starvation never far off. The central concern of Eskimos, wherever they may live, is the hunt and the struggle for survival. Most Eskimos live on the tundra, with its vast, rock-strewn hills. Vegetation here con- sists of little more than moss, lichen, and low shrub. During the brief summer, the topsoil thaws down to the permafrost, but the melt- water remains, resulting in a marshy, mosquito- infested area, where walking can be difficult if not treacherous. In the winter it is frozen solid and snow covered. In this environment, the Eskimo has developed a material culture using only ice, snow, dirt, animal skins, and bone. The bodies of animals provide not just food, but clothing, tents, tools, utensils, weapons, lamp oil, and ornaments. Eskimos of the central Arctic, unlike those of Alaska, live in temporary villages. They spend their winters in large groups on the ice, where hunting is better; and there they live in igloos. In May, when the ice of the igloos begins to melt, the roof is replaced with seal skin; the walls, made of snow blocks, are left intact. Sum- mer villages, with fewer Eskimos, consist of tipi-shaped tents made up of double layers of seal skin. Sixty or more skins may be used to make a large tent. In the fall, when it is still too warm for building igloos, they make only the walls of their houses with blocks of lake ice; the roof is covered with seal skin. Greenland Eskimos make block-shaped houses of stone and turf; the windows are covered with translucent gut. This type of con- struction may be attributable to the influence of Norse settlers arriving on the island as early as AD. 900 or to Danish colonists, who came in 1721. The coming of explorers, traders, and whalers affected the style of Eskimo life, but the changes occurred gradually. Many Eskimos continue to live by the hunt today, but this activ- ity has greatly changed since the introduction of the repeating rifle. With this new ability to kill game quickly and at much greater distances, the old technology of the hunt became obsolete. Other twentieth-century changes included the type of dwelling: many Alaskan Eskimos now live in frame buildings constructed from milled lumber, though tents and igloos are still to be seen. D Members of the Department of Exhibition who constructed and furnished the Eskimo House in Hall 10 were Mark Staff Brandl, Barbara Burkhardt, Raoul Deal, Kathryn Field, Jeff Hoke, Mitch Kane, Ed Kestler, Tom Lucas, Marty Matin, Dan Oppenheimer, and the author. James VanStone, curator of North American archaeology and ethnology, was consultant. Drawing of semi- subterranean Eskimo house on Nunivak Island, used as basis for Field Museum's Eskimo house replica. From Archaeology of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, byH.B. Collins, Jr. (1937). Kaniagmiut house near the Naknek River, Alaska, about 1890. A cache is at left and the house is at right. Evi- dences of enculturation may be seen: wash tubs, white clothing, metal can, and chimney. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives. iW FIELD MUSEL^ Come with Us to Kenya! Field Museum Tbur for Members September 11-30 Tour Price: $3,195 per person, double occupancy single supplement: $430 optional extension to the Seychelles Islands: $1435 additional Itineraiy Sept. 11: Depart Chicago via British Airways for London. Sept. 12: Depart London in the evening via British Airways for Nairobi, Kenya. Sept. 13: Nairobi. Early morning arrival in Nairobi, where you will be met and taken to the luxurious Norfolk Hotel. The rest of the day will be at leisure to relax, sleep, swim, or wander around the shops. Sept. 14: Mountain National Parks. Today you are off on safari, driving past estates and plantations to one of Kenya's gracious up-country hotels, the Outspan. Enjov a buffet lunch here; this afternoon continue into the Mountain National Parks — a deeply forested area. Overnight will be at Mountain Lodge, a "tree house" sitting high above a lighted waterhole where you watch the game. Sept. 15: Samburu Game Reserve. Leaving the park, continue along the vallev and the slopes of Mt. Kenya, descending into rugged Northern Province. Pass through the town of Isiolo where your vehicle will be surrounded by smiling Kenyans holding out wares. Proceed to Samburu Game Reserve and view game as you drive to the lovely Samburu Lodge. Later in the day, a game drive. Sept. IG: Samburu Game Reserve. A full day of viewing giraffe, zebra, and gerenuk. Samburu is also a very good park for elephant and leopard. Evening at the lodge. Sept. 17: Mt. Kenya. After breakfast, drive to Mount Kenya Safari Club. Spend a restful afternoon at this resort with its magnificent gardens situated under Mt. Kenya. Sept. 18: Mt. Kenya. Taking a picnic lunch, there will be a full day visit to a ranch for a rare opportunity to view game on foot, or you may wish to stay behind to enjoy the club's tennis, swimming, horseback riding, and trout fishing. Sept. 19: Lake Naivasha. After breakfast, drive towards Lake Naivasha. The bird life is spectacular. In the afternoon you can swim in the pool or just relax. Sept. 20: Masai Mara Game Reserve. This morning you will drive through the town of 32 Narok, the main Masai town where you may wish to buy various wares. Proceed on to Masai Mara Game Reserve and your luxury camp, Kichwa Tembo. You will have an afternoon game drive, followed by cocktails around the campfire and a gourmet dinner. Sept. 21: Masai Mara Game Reserve. A full day of game viewing. Game here is limitless. The lion population is very large. Also elephant, rhino, giraffe, hyena, cape buffalo, hartebeeste, topi, impala, gazelle, and bird life. Explore the river area, seeing crocodile or hippos. There is also the opportunity of a walking safari — where you will track animals on foot. After a long day in the bush, enjoy drinks around the campfire and dine in an elegance quite unexpected in the wilderness. Sept. 22: Nairobi. After breakfast drive back to Nairobi, stopping en route for lunch at the home of Mrs. Mitchell, a life-long resident of Kenva, whose family began the first tea plantation in Kenya in the 1920s. Arrival back in Nairobi will be in the mid-afternoon and will be at leisure for your own activities. Sept. 23: Amboseli National Park. Off on safari again, heading towards Amboseli National Park, famous for its big game and superb view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Following lunch at the lodge, spend the afternoon game viewing. Sept. 24: Amboseli National Park. Following early breakfast, a full day of game vie\ving, taking a picnic lunch with you. Sept. 25: Tsavo National Park. This morning continue further south to Tsavo National Park. View game before arriving at Kilaguni Lodge for lunch. From the lodge watch the game wander in to drink at the waterhole. This afternoon go out in search of the great herds of elephant. You will also visit at Mzima Springs where you will view from an underground tank hippo, crocodile and fish. Late this afternoon arrive at Ngulia Lodge. Sept. 2G: Mombasa. This morning drive to the luxurious Taita Hills Lodge, set among beautiful gardens. Continue southwards to Mombasa and the TWo Fishes Hotel. Here the balance of the day will be at leisure. Sept. 27: Mombasa. A full day excursion to Shimba Hills National Reserve, a forested plateau. Later this afternoon return to the comforts of your hotel. Sept. 28: Mombasa. A full day at leisure to relax on the beach, swim in the Indian Ocean, or just soak up the tropical sun. There is also the opportunity to hire a boat and search for fish such as marlin, sailfish and shark. If your preference is the underwater world, you can go diving off the reef. This evening wander down to a local hotel for a cocktail or relax in the quiet of the Leopard Beach Hotel. Sept. 29: Nairobi. Morning flight back to Nairobi, where day rooms have been reserved at the Norfolk Hotel for your convenience. The balance of the day will be at leisure for shopping and sightseeing. Late evening transfer to the airport for flight to London. Sept. 30: Chicago. Arrive London early this morning and transfer to day rooms at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel. Your Chicago flight will leave early this afternoon, arriving in Chicago later the same day. An optional excursion to the Seychelles Islands is available upon request. Operation of this extension is contingent on the enrollment of four or more people. The Seychelles, in the heart of the Indian Ocean, are acclaimed as one of the loveliest and most unspoiled beauty spots. Thev offer an atmosphere of timelessness and tranquility. Please let us kno\v ifyou wish to have further information. Audrey Faden, a native of Kenya, will be our guest lecturer. With her keen interest in wildlife, conservation, and plant life, she is a natural to lead our tour. Audrey served as Officer in Charge of Education at the National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, and was instrumental in organizing Wildlife Clubs of Kenya. She served on the Field Museum volunteer staff and has done field research and general collecting of plants in Kenya. For further information on this su- perb tour, please call or write Dorothy Roder, (312)322-8862. OUR ENVIRONMENT Squabbling California Condors Have Second Egg The pair of California condors that acci- dentally lost their egg in a domestic squab- ble in late February (as reported in the May Bulletin) have laid a second egg, giving condor biologists cause for rejoicing. Biologists of the Condor Research Cen- ter got their first look at the egg shortly after noon on April 8, when the female rolled it out of a dark corner of the nest- hole into full view of an observation station a half mile distant. The egg was produced some time during the previous day, judging from the behavior of the female, and was laid in a cave about 100 yards distant from the cave the pair used for their first egg. Both sites are located in a remote mountainous region northeast of Ventura, California. The condor pair's first egg, laid on Feb- ruary 14, was lost over the edge of the cliff 12 days later as the birds fought over which would sit on it. The condors, believed to be the same pair that successfully fledged a chick in 1980, also squabbled at that time over which would feed the young, but the disputes did no apparent harm. The condor biologists are not only con- cerned about discord between the condor pair, but are also worried about a pair of opportunistic ravens that have already in- truded into the condors' nest cave. Ravens are known predators of the eggs of other birds. Progress in the 60-day incubation of the California condor egg laid on April 7 will be closely watched by the research team. The time between loss of the first egg and laying of the second was about 40 days, according to Noel Snyder of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and John Ogden of the National Audubon Society, co-lead- ers of the Condor Research Center. "This is the best evidence yet obtained that the critically endangered California condor will re-nest after a nesting failure early in the breeding season',' Snyder said. Relaying after early egg loss has long been known for captive Andean condors, but whether the California species might act similarly has been a matter of conjec- ture. The question now appears to be resolved. The ability of the Andean condors to re-lay after failure has enabled zoos and research institutions such as the Patu- xent Wildlife Research Center to greatly increase the breeding rate of this close relative of the California condor. Andean condors, like California condors, normally lay only a single egg every other year. If an egg is removed from the nest to be hatched in an incubator, the pair can usu- ally be expected to lay a second egg about a month later, a process called "double clutching'.' If the second egg is likewise removed, the parents sometimes will lay even a third egg. In this way, capHve re- production can be multiplied greatly over what pairs normally produce in the wild. Biologists hope to be able to double and triple clutch captive California condors. Captive breeding of California condors re- cently received federal and state approval as an important part of the efforts to save the species from extinction. Only about 30 California condors remain in the wild, all in southern California. There is only one individual in captivity, a male bird at the Los Angeles Zoo, named Topatopa. Snyder and Ogden emphasize the im- portance of the recent proof of natural double clutching to the captive breeding program. If wild pairs will re-nest after early failure, it should be possible to estab- lish a captive population by taking wild eggs for artificial incubation without having much effect on natural wild pro- duction and without reducing the size of the wild population. Only four other active pairs of condors have been located by the research team. One of these produced a fledgling last year and is not expected to breed this year as they are still caring for this youngster. None of the other three pairs has laid as yet, with one month to go in the egg-lay- ing season. The research team is keeping close track of all these pairs from a safe distance. Federal Studies of Bird and Aircraft Collisions Like oil and water, birds and planes don't mix. When they do, the skills of the wild- life biologist and the professional airport manager are often needed to get them apart, and keep them separated. Each year, more than 1,400 collisions between birds and aircraft occur in the United States. Although the toll in deaths and injuries is fortunately low, an estimat- ed $20 million in damage is caused to air- craft annually. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Federal Aviation Administration are working on research projects that may help reduce bird strikes and improve the margin of safety for the traveling public. These studies are part of an existing agreement between the two federal agen- cies to step up the identification of bird ha- zards at airports. They range in scope from a study of bird strike hazards at air- ports as part of the development of proto- type risk maps that could be used nation- wide, to surveys of bird-tempting earth- worms that emerge on rain-soaked run- ways at particular airports. Bird hazards have grown since the early days of flight, as airplanes have be- come larger and faster and air traffic lanes more congested. Since the 1940s, when re- cords were first kept on the death toll from bird strikes, more than 150 people have been killed in collisions blamed wholly or partly on birds. Serious air collisions with birds most typically involve small private jets or tur- boprop airplanes. In September 1981, for instance, a collision between seagulls and a U.S. Air Force T-38 at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport claimed the life of the commander of the military's famed Thun- derbird Demonstration Team. Another death occurred last spring when a migrat- ing common loon crashed through the windshield of an executive jet near Cincin- nati, killing the co-pilot and injuring the pilot. (A four-pound bird struck by an air- plane traveling at 300 mph exerts almost nine tons of force at its point of impact; at 600 mph, the force jumps to 36 tons.) Occasionally the death toll and air- craft damage can reach even more serious proportions. A 1960 collision between a commercial airliner and a flock of starlings claimed the lives of 62 people at Boston's Logan Airport. In 1975, a plane with 129 passengers at Kennedy Airport in New York sucked a flock of seagulls into an en- gine on take-off. A fire broke out that con- sumed the plane within five minutes, although all passengers were evacuated safely. "As long as man competes with birds for airspace, there will be the danger of collisions. The trick is to avoid having them compete for the same space at the same time and to reduce the attractiveness of airports to birds," says a Fish and Wild- life Service official. "Through the research projects that we are currently conducting, we hope to gain a much greater under- standing of the natural forces that draw birds to airports, so that they can be com- pensated for in the design, siting, and op- eration of these facilities." The service provides technical assist- ance to nearly 200 airports with bird prob- lems each year. That assistance can range from solutions that temporarily disperse problem flocks of birds through the use of noisy propane cannons and shellcrackers to full biological surveys that recommend altering vegetation or drainage patterns around airports. In this latest series of re- search projects, however, biologists hope to learn more about the basic biological factors that draw birds to airports. 33 June & July at Field Museum June 16 through July 15 New Exhibits "Exhibitions, Expeditions and Expositions" This photo- graphic essay offers the viewer a look at the construction of Field Museum's building more than 60 years ago and of some famous exhibits. It is now on display between the Anniversary Exhibit in Hall 3 and the entrance to "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast" (Hall 10) . Designed by Don Emery and researched by Beverly Serrell, Exhibition, and the Field Museum Photog- raphy Department. Continuing Exhibits "Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast'.' Just opened! Field Museum's new permanent exhibit compares the theatrically ornate cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast with the austere but individualistic Eskimo societies. Their prehistoric origins, history, food- gathering, social life, spiritual beliefs, art ranging from massive totem poles to exquisite basketry— all are shown in five galleries through displays, dioramas, full-sized replicas, and films. It's an exhibit you'll return to again and again for new insights into these remarkable peoples and their triumph over the environment. "Place FOR Wonder? "Touch everything!" is the motto of this mini-museum, a delight to young and old alike. Look for a new exhibit in the People's Center showcasing clothing, toys, and everyday objects from India, opening injune. Continuing exhibits include "Earthquake Charlie^ a huge Alaskan polar bear; volcanic ash from Mt. St. Helens; and collections of fossils, minerals, and shells. Many labels also in braille. Open 1-3 daily. Saturday and Sunday 10-12, 1-3. "The Insect World? View butterflies from many parts of the world, with their brilliant turquoise, purple, orange, and red hues. Madagascar's iridescent "Less" butterfly alone displays 8 dazzling colors! Moths range in size from the "Hercules" of New Guinea, with a 10-inch wing span, to the tiny "Blackberry Borer? Rivaling the "Her- cules" is the huge African "Rhinoceros beetle" — 8 inches long, including 2-inch-long pincers. Main floor, outside Hall 21. 34 New programs "The Art of Papermaking? Field Museum's June Family Feature for parents and children of all ages. Saturday's program includes a slide lecture on papermaking tech- niques such as coloring, sizing, pressing, and drying; and the opportunity for participants to make their ovin sheet of paper. On Sunday, the slide program will be followed by a film on Japanese papermaking. Lecture Hall I. Saturday and Sunday,June 19 and 20 at 2 p.m. "Tales from the Smokehouse? The Theatre Sans Fil (No Strings Puppet Theatre) from Montreal uses giant puppets (6 to 12 feet tall) to retell the legends of Canada's Indians. The stories are told by tribal elders to the younger men as they gather in a smokehouse to purify their souls. More than 40 stringless pupp)ets in costumes inspired by Northwest Coast designs are used to act out two stories. The first, "Blue Sky Takes a Wife',' is an Ojibway love story; the second, "The White Raven',' explains the Tsim- shian view of creation. Members $3; nonmembers, $4. James Simpson Theatre. Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27 at 2 p.m. "In Search of Dinosaurs? Take a Summer Journey among Field Museum's dinosaur specimens! Discover the basic facts about dinosaurs and their closest relatives. For a self-guiding tour, free Journey pamphlets are available at Museum entrances. Summer Fun Workshops for Young People. Field Museum's exhibits will come alive for the young people ages 4 to 15 who participate in one of the more than 80 workshops offered this summer. These workshops take place Monday through Saturday and are taught by Field Museum staff, Chicago area teachers, and visiting artists. Children can, for instance, press flowers, make flutes, write in Chinese, or make a casting of a giant fossil tooth. Workshops include "Bug Hunt',' "Inside the Volcano',' "Northwest Coast Masks," "Whales," "Dragons and Dinosaurs," "Sum- mer Sprouts," and many more. For more information and to receive a brochure, call (312) 322-8854. July 6- August 2. Weekend Discovery Programs. These weekend programs of tours, films, and slide presentations will provide the springboard for a better understanding of natural history. Check "Weekend Sheet" at Museum entrances for addi- tional programs and locations. June 19 at 11:30 a.m.: "Ancient Egypt" tour. at 2 p.m.: "Malvina Hoffman" film and slide lecture. June 26 at 1 p.m.: "Tibet Today" film program. at 2 p.m.: "Tibet" tour. July 3 at 2:30 p.m. : "Indians of North America" tour. July 10 at 3:00 p.m.: July 11 at 2:00 p.m.: "Life in Ancient Egypt" tour. "Northwest Coast Indians: Cedar Carvings" tour. Continuing Programs Museum Hours. Field Museum instituted new hours beginning May 1. The Museum is now open daily, includ- ing Saturdays and Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., year- round. There will be no more late Friday hours. The free day is now Thursday, instead of Friday. The Museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Library Hours. Duringjune and July the Museum Library is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be closed on Monday, July 5. To visit the Library, obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals with scientific interests and backgrounds are needed to work in various Museum departments. Contact the Volunteer Coordina- tor, 922-9410. Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 Fieldiana: 1981 Titles Fieldiana is a continuing series of sci- entific papers and monographs in the disciplines of anthropology, botany, zoology, and geology; the series is in- tended primarily for exchange-distri- bution to museums, libraries, and universities, but all titles are also available for public purchase. The following titles, published in 1981, may be ordered from the Divi- sion of Publications. Members are entitled to a 10 percent discount. Pub- lication number should accompany order. A catalog of all available Fieldi- ana titles is available on request. (Please specify discipline: anthropol- ogy, botany, geology, or zoology.) Fieldiana: Anthropology 1326. "An analysis of Santa Maria Urn Painting and Its Cultural Implications',' by Ronald L. Weber. New Series Number 2. $3.75. 1327. "Catalogue of Chinese Rubbings from Field Museum',' researched by Hoshien Tchen and M. Kenneth Starr, pre- pared by Alice K. Schneider, photo- graphed by Herta Newton and Field Museum Division of Photography, edited by Hartmut Walravens. New Series Number 3. $6750. 1328. "Athapaskan Clothing and Related Objects in the Collections of Field Museum of Natural History,' By James W. Van- Stone. New Series Number 4. $7.00. Fieldiana: Botany 1317. "Ferns and Fern Allies of Guatemala — Part II Polypodiaceae',' by Robert G. Stolze, the Genus Elaphogiossum by John T. Mickel, the Genus Thelypteris by Alan R. Smith. New Series Number 6. $23.50. 1319. "Flora of Peru — Family Compositae Part II, Tribe Anthemideae',' by J. Francis MacBride and Collaborators and Michael O. Dillon. New Series Number 7 $2.75. 1322. "Five New Species of Brunfelsia from South America (Solanaceae)',' by Timothy Plowman. New Series Number 8. $2.50. Fieldiana: Geology 1315. "The Mammalian Fauna of Madura Cave, Western Australia, Part IV',' by Ernest L. Lundelius, Jr. and William D. Turnbull. New Series Number 6. $7.50. 1318. "Review of the Hathlyacyninae, an Extinct Subfamily of South American 'Dog-like' Marsupials',' by Larry G. Mar- shall. New Series Number 7 $11.75. 1320. "The Families and Genera of Marsu- pialia',' by Larry G. Marshall. New Series Numbers. $6.75. 1321. "Geology and Geochronology of the Mammal-bearing Tertiary of the Valle de Santa Maria and Rio Corral Quemado, Catamarca Province, Argentina',' by Larry G. Marshall and Bryan Patterson. New Series Number 9. $8.00. 1323. "Introduction and Index to Fieldiana: Geology Volume 33',' by Eugene S. Rich- ardson, Jr. and William D. Turnbull. Vol- ume 33, Number 31. No charge. Fieldiana: Zoology 1316. "A Multivariate Study of the Family Molossidae (Mammalia, Chiroptera): Morphology, Ecology, Evolution',' by Pa- tricia Waring Freeman. New Series Number 7 $13.25. 1324. "The Blennioid Fishes of Belize and Honduras, Central America, with Com- ments on their Systematics, Ecology, and Distribution (Blennidae, Chaenopsidae, Labrisomidae, Tripterygiidae)',' by David W. Greenfield and Robert Karl Johnson. New Series Number 8. $11.50. 1325. "Taxonomy and Evolution of the Sin- ica Group of Macaques: 2. Species and Subspecies Accounts of the Indian Bonnet Macaque, Macaca Radiata',' by Jack Food- en. New Series Number 9. $5.50. 35 !lllJ}J Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin July/August 1982 Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin Published by Field Museum of Natural History Founded 1893 President: WiUard L. Boyd Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Editor/Designer: David M. Walsten Production Liaison: Kathryn Laughlin Calendar: Mary Cassai Staff Photographer: Ron Testa Board OF Trustees James J. O'Connor chaitviaii Mrs. T. Stanton Armour George R. Baker Robert O. Bass Gorden Bent Bowen Blair Willard L. Boyd Stanton R. Cook O.C. Davis William R. Dickinson, Jr. Thomas E, Donnelley 11 Marshall Field Richard M. Jones Hugo J. Melvoin Charles F. Murphy, Jr. Lorin 1. Nevling, Jr. James H. Ransom JohnS. Runnells William L. Searle Edward Byron Smith Robert H. Strotz John W. Sullivan William G. Swartchild, Jr. Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken E. Leland Webber Julian B. Wilkins Blaine J. Yarrington Life Trustees Harry O. Bercher Joseph N. Field Paul W. Goodrich Clifford C. Gregg Samuel Insull, Jr. William V. Kahler William H, MitcheU John M. Simpson J. Howard Wood CONTENTS July/August 1982 Volume 53, Number 7 New Exhibit ofPhilippine Art and Culture Opensjuly 17 Field Museum and the Philippines bvBennet Branson, associate curator of Asian archaeology and ethnology Peru's Preceramic Menu by Barbara Jackson and Terry Stacker ■a, Morpho: Thejewel of TVopical Rain Forests by Allen M. Young 24 26 Kenya Tbur for Members Egjpt Tbur for Members 34 Field Briefs 35 July, August, and September at Field Museum Calendar of Coming Events back cover COVER Wooden santo: San Isidra.ar St. Isidore, the patron of good harvests. Polychrome over this gesso on hardwood. 18th-19th centun: 54 cm. Lent bv Luis Ma Araneta, Manila. One of the 420 objects displayed in the new exhibit, "The People and Art of the Philippines," on liew in Hall 26 from July 17 through December 31. Photo by Ron Testa. Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin (USPS 898-940) is published monthly, except combined July/ August issue, bv Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, n. 60605, Subscriptions: $6.00 annually, $3.00 for schools. Museum membership includes Bulletm subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policv of Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Museum phone (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send from 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 60605. 1SSN:11015-0703. Second class postage paid at Chicago, II. The People and Art of the Philippines Exhibit Opens July 17 Members' Preview July 16 ^Noven cotton headcloth from Sulu Archipelago; Samal or Yakan. 98 cm. Collection of Field Museum. Gift of Dr. Alexander Spoehr. #257291. This impressive assemblage of 420 artifacts, on view until December 31, is the largest spe- cial exhibition of traditional Filipino art to be held anywhere since 1905, with loans from 16 museums and 13 private collections in the United States, Europe, and the Philippines. The objects were selected to give a compre- hensive view of the culture of this former Spanish and then American colony, now a major Southeast Asian nation. Special emphasis is on prehistoric ceramics and gold, Catholic arts of Spanish colonial times, wood sculpture of the northern Philippines, and the extraordinary textiles of the southern Philippines. On view in Hall 26. Members' preview: Friday, July 16 from 1 to 9 p.m. 3 Field Museum AND The Philippines by Bennet Bronson Associate Curator, Asian Archaeology^ and Ethnology Colonialism and The Cummings Expedition The Museum's first serious involvement with the Philippines came as an indirect result of the great St. Louis World Exposition of 1904, where objects and peoples from the colonies of several nations were on display. As the Philippines had only recently become an American colony, having been acquired during the Spanish-American War of 1898, and as America had no other colonies, the extensive Philippine exhibits at St. Louis created both a sensation and an awareness of a problem. The sensation came from the rich variety of cultures that existed in the new colony, ranging from those of headhunters to those of sophisti- cated city dwellers. The handsome and magni- ficently costumed Bagobos impressed most visitors, as did an exhibit of Philippine export crafts and industries, and a contingent of notably fierce-looking Bontocs. Few visitors seem to have been uncomfortable at the zoo-like aspects of having colonial subjects on display. Such things George Dorsey. N108072 were customary at world's fairs in those days, and besides, many of the colonial subjects are reported to have enjoyed the experience. The problem that bothered thoughtful vis- itors was that America had obviously bitten off more than it could easily, or should, chew. Many agreed with Mark Twain that a free nation should not have colonies in the first place. Others were uncomfortable about a point the exposidon brought home with special force: our sheer ig- norance about what we had gotten into. Com- pared with the English or Dutch, Americans knew nothing about running colonies, and com- pared with most colonies of most European pow- ers, the Philippines were poorly known in the first place. The Spanish had controlled only the central three-fifths of the country. Parts of the northern and southern ends of the Philippines were sHU as much terra incognita as the basins of the Congo and Amazon. It may have been because of this that, in late 1905, a grain merchant from Clifton, Illinois, Robert F. Cummings, approached the Museum with a startling proposition: he was willing to fund extensive anthropological research in the Philippines with two apparent provisions, that the people of Illinois should benefit and that the work should begin immediately. The Museum was definitely interested. It had just failed in an attempt to purchase some of the Philippine material exhibited at St. Louis (which had already been promised to the Smithsonian) and was pleased to find another way of building up its collections. Several months of discussions between Cummings and George Dorsey, chief curator of the Anthropology Department then followed. Agreement was abruptly reached in March, 1906. Cummings pledged no less than $20,000 to cover all expenses of fieldwork. In return, the Museum seems to have guaranteed to bear the costs of setting up a large permanent Philippine exhibition. After that, things moved quickly. S. C. S. C. Simms. N78430 Simms (then assistant curator of ethnology) was already on a ship to Manila by the end of April, and within the next three years no fewer than four other Field Museum anthropologists de- parted for the Philippines. Simms was there from June through December 1906 and again from April 1909 to January 1910. Faye Cooper Cole stayed from January 1907 to June 1908 and from October 1909 to January 1911; Laura Benedict from August 1906 to February 1908; William Jones from September 1907 to March 1909 (when he was killed before his work was completed); and Dorsey himself for a flying visit in December 1908. By the end of 1911, when all objects, photographs, recordings, and notes were back in Chicago, the Museum found itself with not only an unparalleled collec- tion but a treasure trove of written data that has thus far resulted in at least eight books and numerous articles. The next few pages present excerpts from field letters that did not appear in any of those books or articles. These have been chosen partly for their anthropological and historical interest but also partly because of the (sometimes unflat- tering) light they shed on the attitudes and prob- lems of scientists working in the field. Letters from the field SIMMS TO DORSEY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1906 S. C. Simms, more museologist than fieldworker, was thrown into the breach as the only person in the An- thropology Department who could be spared from his Chicago duties at the time the Cummings agreement was finalized. He was sent out almost immediately, without time to learn much about either the Philippines or its cultures. Considering the disadvantages under which he worked, he made a passable collection but, as this and many of his other letters show, he did not enjoy the experience. Here Simms is writing from comforta- ble surroundings in the then newly established resort town ofBaguio: My dear Dorsey: No one regrets more than I in having to abandon Tinguian cargadores in Bangued, Abra Province, Luzon. Photo by Charles Martin] ca. 1905. N28788 Embroidered men's jacket 0/ abaca cloth, from Mindanao, Bila-an. 53 cm. Collection of Field Museum. #129374. my collecting in Benguet Prov/^^ — at least until I am able to be about. Nothing serious but it came mighty near it and I don't care for a repetition of it. The Aguo river, which Prof. Wooster warned*^' me about did the trick. I reached the bank of the Aguo Sunday morning after 4 hours of hiking to find the river up a bit. Could not get my personal cargadores*^' to cross it then. River kept rising with increased rainfall. Did not prepare for chow as was told was not necessary for I could get rice, camotes, etc. along trail. Two of the cargadores were dispatched to find a house but could not. So under the shelter of a huge rock on a very rocky bed we stayed while it rained and rained — and until the following morning without a single mouthful to eat — 29 hours since last meal. Built fires and attracted attention to natives on other side of river who came on Monday to river edge. After river had fallen slightly and plunged in way up stream and landed on my side. After many gestures they understood to carry cargo, cargadores and myself over. Every thing and person but myself and horse got over without accident. I was it. Two natives leading horse ^vith me in saddle to give it weight — and just in midstream the brute stumbled, fell, went under and me with him. Downstream we went at a very lively pace, finally landing against a large boulder with horse against me and my back and shoulder testify that I hit something pretty hard and for the poor brute he received a gash over his eye. As soon as we could get the horse out- — and it was a hard job — 1 went as fast as possi- ble to Bangras'"*' where I had something to eat and a change of clothes — proceeded then to Caboyan where I slept and left next morning for Ambuklao trying to get to Baguio where there is a sanitorium. Bruises and wrenches hurting 1. He was collecting among the Kankanay and Ibaloi, ethnic groups inhabiting the area around and near Baguio. 2. Dean C. Worcester, who often appears in these letters, was then America's leading expert on the minority peoples of the Philippines. He had recently finished serving on the Presidium-like Taft Committee and held the powerful post of colonial secretary of the interior. Simms misspells his name deliberately; the two men were not fond of each other. 3. Spanish for "porters" or "bearers." 4. Several of the place names in Simm's account can- not be identified. like body [?]. Had to cross the same (Aguo) river at Ambukeo by being pulled across on a high stretched carabao hide rope of slender diameter — seated in carabao yoke — however I got across — likewise cargo and cargadores the same way — had chow at Ambukeo — then for Baguio and while on top of mountain near Ambukeo typhoon drove me to shelter in native house near Tabyo — 4 hours from Baguio. Been here but a day nursing. Typhoon continues at rate of 1 in. rainfall one hour and it will take days and days for the trails to dry and my injuries to improve. DORSEY TO COLE, JUNE 3, 1907 George Dorsey kept close track of his fieldworkers from Chicago. While his rather frank criticisms of Simms seem a bit harsh, they reveal the writer as a good anthropologist. He not only gives generally sensible advice but has a surprisingly modern attitude toward the goals of fieldwork. . . .1 have commented on Simms collection before. 1 may say to you confidentially again that it is very unsatisfactory from many points of view; especially it represents nothing completely, no art, no industry, no ceremonies; represents odds and ends which were found in site, but which have no particular coherence. Simms is a good judge of good material, and of course his specimens all are of high excellence individually, but they represent links rather than a chain which exhibits a story. The collection represents no processes; it is quite devoid of games, traps, snares; has no foods, nothing illustrating the methods of preparation of foods; and is of course very weak in all the little ephemeral things which are in themselves trite and trivial, but which are essential to illustrate the culture. We want col- lections which will illustrate completely all the different groups of people which you encounter. Do your work deliberately; be in no hurry; do it thoroughly, completely and well. I have no doubt of your ability, and no fear of your failing. It would possibly be more to the Museum's interest for you to keep moving from one place to another, rapidly amassing material, but this would be of no great credit to you. It is much more to your credit, more to our honor and glory if you do nothing else than to cover one distinctive group of peoples, doing them thoroughly and well. Upper right: Faye Cooper Cole. N44788 COLE TO DORSEY, APRIL 22, 1907 Faye Cooper Cole was younger, better trained, and much more field-oriented than Simms. He also had more local background, having just completed several months' study in Berlin, than a leading center for Philippine studies. In this letter, written from Bangued in the northwestern corner of Luzon, he is de- scribing part of a recent journey in Tinguian country, seeking a little known subtribe called "Alzados" by their neighbors. Cole seems a good deal more cheerftd than Sirmns about the rigors of the field. . . .At last, we reached the summit, and after a rather more rapid descent, came to the first rice fields where about fifty Alzados,*'* armed with shields, spears, and axes, awaited us. It was a mighty interesting sight but one which made my cargadores hunt for padlocks to be sure that their heads were fastened on securely. When they learned our mission, the whole party fell in behind and accompanied us to the first rancheria,'^' Am-ti, where we had a big feast of venison and eels. After Amti, we spent two days at Danoc, and were always given the fat of a lean land. Leaving Danoc, I started down the Ikmin River to Duamon, also spelled Doa-angan, a town no white man had ever seen, and the reason for this was soon evident; the river in places ran through a canon not fifty yards wide and cut through solid granite; the "trail" ran above the river ten or fifteen feet, and in few places could you put your feet together. The smooth rocks offered no hand hold, and a slip meant at least a bath in the rushing waters and perhaps broken bones. With ordinary shoes, the trip could not be made, but 1 was provided with rope sole pragatos and got along nicely. Until near the village, we had crossed the river when necessary on two bamboo poles which served as bridges, but just at dark, we had to plunge in and ford where the water was waist deep and so swift as almost to carry us away. We were two days with these people and while there accidentally saw an interesting ceremony'"*' which I have since learned is also practiced by the Tinguianes. The plunge in the river resulted in wet clothes which we hung out to dry over night. In the morning, a pair of trousers was missing, and diligent search failed to disclose the thief. After a con- sultation, the old men brought out a rice mortar 1. Cole later concludes that the Alzados are a mixed group, partly Bontoc and partly Tinguian. 2. "Rancheria" here means a small settlement or ham- let, not a ranch. 3. Oath rituals for detecting malefactors are common in many societies. This particular ritual seems more effective in providing free beer for everyone than in restoring Cole's trousers. Bagobo women in gala dress, Davao Province, Mindanao. Photo by Faye Cooper Cole, ca. 1910. N34859 Bagobo musicians of Davao Province, Mindanao. Photo by Faye Cooper Cole, ca. 1910. N21460 on which they put a dish containing basi and a knife; they then prayed to the spirits that the thief might die, the snakes bite him, or disaster come to his fields and family. This done, they made every man, woman, and child stand before the mortar and pray to the spirits that these calamities might fall on them if they were guilty. A jar of basi*"** was then opened, and we had a drinking bout after which, they presented us with a spear and shield to make good the loss. They told me that they would soon know the thief as the guilty one would have the misfortune he had invoked, and that then he or his family must pay for the basi and the presents; if he should not be detected, the expense would be divided among the whole people. JONES TO DORSEY, MARCH 19, 1909 William Jones was murdered by the Ilongots with him nine days after the following letter ivas written. One- quarter Crow Indian and brought up as an Indian in Oklahoma, Jones had been a remarkable success story, becoming in succession a cowboy, a pupil in a school for Indians, and then graduating from Andover, Harvard, and Columbia, where he became the first American Indian to get a Ph.D. in anthropology. His frontier background and his acute love of na- ture seems to have eased his acclimatization in what then, as now, was one of the wildest parts of the Philip- 4. "Basi" is the rice beer of the Luzon mountain area. '^^