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Given By
Forty -sixth Annual Report
of the
BUREAU OF AMERICAN
ETHNOLOGY
1928-1929
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
WASHINGTON
D. C.
FORTY- SIXTH
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
BUREAU OF
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
1928-1929
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1930
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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington. D. C. - - - Price 31.90 (Paper cover)
U.S. SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUmMiS
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
Smithsonian Institution,
Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington, D. C, Septemhcr 15, 1929.
Sm : I have the honor to submit herewith the Forty-sixth
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for
the fiscal year ended Jime 30, 1929.
With appreciation of your aid in the work under my
charge, I am
Very respectfully yours,
M. W. Stirling,
Chief.
Dr. C. G. Abbot,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
CONTENTS
REPORT OF THE CHIEF
Page
Systematic researches 1
Special researches 11
Editorial work and publications 13
lOustrations 14
Library 15_
Colleetions 15
Property 16
Miscellaneous 16
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS
Anthropological Survey in Alaska, by Ales Hrdlicka 19
Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri, by Edwin T. Denig, edited by
J. N. B. Hewitt 375
V
REPORT OF THE CHIEF
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
M. W. Stirling, Chief
The operations of the Bureau of American Ethnologj'
during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, were conducted
in accordance with the act of Congress approved May 16,
1928, making appropriations for simdry civil expenses of
the Government, which act contains the following item :
American ethnology : For continuinf;; ethnological researches among
the American Indians and the natives of Hawaii, the excavation and
preservation of archseologic remains under the direction of the
Smithsonian Institution, including necessary employees, the prepara-
tion of manuscripts, drawings, and illustrations, the purchase of
books and periodicals, and traveling expenses, $60,300.
Mr. M. W. Stirling entered upon his duties as chief of
the bureau August 1, 1928, succeeding Dr. J. Walter
Fewkes, who retired January 15, 1928. '
SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES
During the months of September and October Mr. Stir-
ling worked with a group of Acoma Indians who were
visiting Washington and secured from them in as com-
plete form as possible the origin and migration myth of
that very conservative tribe. This myth not only de-
scribes the emergence of the first human beings from the
underworld but also explains the origin and functions
of the pantheon of demigods and heroes connected with
the legend. The myth likewise explains the origin and
function of the clans and the medicine societies and the
Z BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
reason for the many ceremonies practiced. In connec-
tion with this work phonograj^hic records were made of
66 songs, many of which have been transcribed by Miss
Frances Densmore, as described in her report. This in-
formation fills an important gap in onr knowledge of the
oldest inhabited pueblo in the United States.
Mr. Stirling spent the months of March and April in
Florida, where a survey was made of the mounds in the
vicinity of Tampa Bay. An interesting discovery was
made of a series of mounds composed of mixed sand and
shell, constructed at a distance of about 4 miles inland,
parallel to the shore, and in each instance directly back
of a large shell mound located on the salt water. Pre-
liminary excavations were made at Cockroach Point,
Palma Sola, and Safety Harbor. The shell mound at
Cockroach Point is the largest on the west coast of Florida
and is composed entirely of shell and bone, refuse from the
meals of the Indians who formerly occupied the site.
Collections of shells and bones were made in the different
levels of the mound, together with human artifacts asso-
ciated with them, with a view to establishing a culture
sequence.
The site at Safety Harbor was determined to be of the
same culture as that excavated at Weeden Island during
the winters of 1923 and 1924.
The large sand mound at Palma Sola proved to be of
exceptional interest and was selected as a site for intensive
excavation next winter.
During the latter part of April Mr. Stirling visited Chi-
cago for the purpose of delivering lectures before the Geo-
graphic Society of Chicago and the anthroiDologists of Chi-
cago and vicinity. From Chicago he went to Memphis,
Tenn., where he attended the meeting of the Tennessee
Academy of Sciences and addressed the society at their
annual banquet. Proceeding from Memphis to Macon,
Ga., he visited the large mounds on the site of Old Ocmul-
gee Town, traditional founding place of the Creek Con-
federacy.
ADMINISTRATH^E REPORT
During the third week in May Mr. Stirling attended the
conference of Mid- Western Archeologists, which was held
at St. Louis under the auspices of the National Research
Comicil, and as representative of this body went to Mont-
gomery, Ala., to deliver an address at the unveiling of a
nionvmient by the Alabama Anthropological Society on the
site of old Tukabatchi.
He also attended the meeting of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science in New York in
December, 1928, as representative of the United States
Government.
Dr. John R. S wanton, ethnologist, was engaged during
the year in completing the proof reading of his bulletin on
the Myths and Tales of the Southeast, which has been re-
leased for publication.
Considerable material was added to his manuscript pa-
per entitled " Source Material for Choctaw Ethnology.'*
Part of this was collected from the archives of the State
Department of Archives and History at Jackson, Miss.,
and some from the eastern Choctaw at Philadeli^hia, Miss.,
in July, 1928. Also, a great deal more work was devoted
to the projected tribal map of aboriginal North America
north of Mexico and to the accomi^anying text, including
the incorporation df some valuable notes furnished by Mr.
Diamond Jenness, chief of the division of anthropology
of the Geological Survey of Canada,
Work was continued throughout the year on the Timu-
eua dictionary which, in spite of the elimination of a large
number of cards on account of closer classification and the
correction of errors, still fills 14 trays.
Shortly after July, 1928, Dr. Trmnan Michelson, eth-
nologist, left Washington to renew his research among the
Algonquian tribes of Oklahoma. He first studied the
linguistics, sociology, and physical anthropology of the
Kickapoo. Kickapoo in certain respects is very impor-
tant linguistically. While working on Arapaho he was
able to formulate many phonetic shifts of complexity.
Even so, the amount of vocabulary that can be proved to
4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
be Algonquian is very small. The grammatical structure
is, however, fundamentally Algonquian. It is also true
that there are a few traits which are distinctly un- Algon-
quian ; for example, the order of words.
The first week in August Doctor Miehelson went to
Tama, Iowa, to renew his work among the Foxes. He
there restored phonetically some texts previously obtained
in the current syllabic script and worked out some transla-
tions. He also obtained some grammatical notes on these
texts. Some new Fox syllabic texts were collected and
new and important ethnological data were obtained.
Doctor Miehelson returned to Washington in Septem-
ber. He corrected proofs of Bulletin 89, Observations on
the Thunder Dance of the Bear Gens of the Fox Indians,
and prepared for publication by the bureau a memoir
entitled " Notes on the Great Sacred Pack of the Thunder
Gens of the Fox Indians. ' ' Early in June Doctor Michel-
son left for Oklahoma, where he obtained more Kickapoo
linguistic notes, further elucidating the relation of Kicka-
poo to Fox. From this it appears that Kickapoo diverges
more widely in idiom than hithereto suspected. He also
secured some Kickapoo texts in the current syllabic script
and obtained new data on social organization. Some brief
Shawnee linguistic notes were collected. These show that
while Shawnee is in certain respects very important for
a correct understanding of Fox phonology, as a whole it
is not as archaic. It is also now clear that Shawnee is
further removed from Sauk and Kickapoo than he had
previously surmised. Doctor Miehelson witnessed several
Kickapoo dances and attended a Shawnee ball game.
In June, 1929, Mr. John P. Harrington, ethnologist,
completed his report on the Taos Indians, who inhabit
a large pueblo on an eastern affluent of the Rio Grande
in north-central New Mexico. These are the northernmost
of the New Mexico Pueblo Indians and are peculiarly in-
teresting because of the long intimate relations they have
had with the Jicarilla Apaches, Utes, Comanches, and
other tribes of Great Plains culture. During the period
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
of Spanish domination in New Mexico the Taos had to
play the double and difficult role, because of their frontier
position, of persuading the Spanish that they were really
on their side, and the Plains Indians that they were really
on theirs. The relations with the Plains Indians existed
far back in Taos history and amounted at times to the
incorporation of large bodies of these Indians in the blood
which went to make up the present-day Taos. And there
is still more remote and fundamental connection with one
group of Plains Indians, namely the Kiowa. The Taos
language, which was the language of one of the ancient
groups which contributed to the composition of Taos, has
been determined to be a dialect of Kiowa, which seems
to indicate that this contingent of the Taos population at
least, like the Kiowas themselves, once lived in the north-
ern region of the Rocky Momitains, probably in what is
now Canada.
Grasping still another opportunity to check the old and
new information on this region, studies on the related
Karuk Indians of the central Klamath River region of
California were resumed during field work on the coast
and were continued throughout the year, resulting in an
accumulation of carefully analyzed material, a large part
of which is now ready for publication. The work consists
of many divisions of information, including the grammar
of the language, its sounds, its peculiar musical intona-
tions, and the system of long and short consonants and
vowels ; the history of the tribe, which remained intact and
unspoiled up to 1850; the census, with the peculiar old
personal names ; the villages, which were strung out along
the river and its tributary creeks ; the construction of the
living houses and sweat houses, and the description of all
the manufacti;res, and the process of making the objects,
all in Indian; the social life, an organization without
chiefs ; the great festivals and the various dances ; feuds,
Avars, and peace making ; sucking and herb doctors, and the
sources of their power ; medicine formulas and myths, all
in the language, for any other record of them would be
6 BTJEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
inadequate. This information is accompanied by photo-
graphs and phonograph records and is rapidly appi'oach-
ing completion for publication as a report of the bureau.
Early in June Mr. Harrington went to Chaco Canyon,
N. Mex., for the purpose of making further study of the
Pueblo Indian languages, notably the relation of Zuhi and
Keresan to the newly discovered Kiowan family. Coop-
erating with students at the University of New Mexico
attending the university summer school being held at
Chaco Canyon under the joint auspices of the State Uni-
versity and the School of American Research, a minute
comparison was made of the Taos and Zuiii languages, re-
sulting in the discovery of the genetic relationship of these
two languages, a relationship which can be traced through
himdreds of words of similar sound and identical con-
struction, which was long ago hinted at by the discovery
of such words as lana, big, and papa, older brother, which
are the same in sound and meaning in both languages.
About 200 kymograph tracings were made. Similar gen-
etically related words and features were also discovered in
the Keresan language. Cooperating in this work were
Miss Sara Godard, Miss Clara Leibold, Miss Anna Ris-
ser, Miss Janet Tietjens, Miss Winifred Stamm, Mr. Regi-
nald Fisher, and several other students. The results are
ready for publication, including the kymographic alpha-
bet, which is mounted and ready for the engraver.
The months of July and August, 1928, were spent by
Dr. F. H. H. Roberts, jr., archeologist, in completing
archeological investigations along the Piedra River in
southwestern Colorado. During that time the remains of
50 houses belonging to the first period of the prehistoric
Pueblo peoples were excavated and examined. As a re-
sidt of these researches it was possible to determine a
three-stage chronological development of the house types
in the district as well as to postulate very definite recon-
structions of the dwellings. An additional discovery was
that in the arrangement of the structures the builders had
developed the prototype of the unit house which was the
ADMINISTRATR'E REPORT 7
characteristic building of the following stage, the Pueblo
II period. Besides the work in house remains, a nimiber
of burial mounds were explored and many skeletons and
objects of the material culture of the people were obtained.
The latter include a large number and variety of pottery
specimens, many of which represent an entirely new fea-
ture in the ceramic industry, bone and stone implements,
and ornaments. The work as a whole gives a clear-cut
picture of the life and conditions prevailing at a time of
instal:>ility and disturbance due to an influx of new
peoples, with its attendant cultural transition.
On the completion of the work along the Piedra River
one week was spent in a reconnaissance of the Governador
district in northern New Mexico. The Governador region
includes the Governador, Burns, La Jara, and Frances
Canyons. The latter are of special archeological and
ethnological interest, because it was to that section that
a large group of the Pueblo Indians from the Jemez vil-
lages fled after they had been disastrously defeated in the
Battle of San Diego Canyon during the month of June,
1696, by Spanish forces engaged in the reconquest of the
Southwest. The ruins of the dwellings built by the
refugees are in a good state of preservation and furnish
excellent information on the methods and styles of house
building prevalent at that time. At the close of the Gov-
ernador explorations Doctor Roberts returned to Wash-
ington, reaching there the middle of September.
During the autunm illustrations were prepared to ac-
company a manuscript entitled "Recent Archeological
Developments in the Vicinity of El Paso, Tex.," which
was published in January, 1929, as volume 81, No. 7,
of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Proof of
another paper entitled "Shabik'eshehee Village, a Late
Basket Maker Site in the Chaco Canyon, New Mexico,"
was corrected, and this appeared in June, 1929, as Bulle-
tin 92 of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Considerable time was spent in the laboratory of the
division of American archeology of the United States Na-
8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
tional Museum in working over the collection made during
the excavations along the Piedra River. A portion of
this work included the restoration, from fragments found
in the various houses, of a number of unusually fine culi-
nary and storage jars and a series of decorated bowls.
From January to Jime a 545-page manuscript on the
work in southwestern Colorado was prepared. Accom-
panying this report are 40 text figures drawn by Doctor
Roberts. The figures include 64 drawings, consisting of
maps of the San Juan areheological area and the Piedra
district, outlines of the various village and house groups,
restorations of the different forms of dwellings, details in
building construction, outline groups of pottery forms,
and designs from decorated ceramic containers.
On May 11, 1929, Doctor Roberts left Washington for
Denver, Colo., where one week was spent in studying
museum specimens. From Denver he proceeded to Gal-
lup, N. Mex., where he outfitted for work in the region of
the Long H Ranch, eastern Arizona, 45 miles from the
Pueblo of Zuiii. After conducting a reconnaissance a site
was chosen on the Long H Ranch, 1 mile northwest of the
ranch buildings, and a series of excavations started. As
work progressed it was found that the site was one which
had been occupied by Basket Maker III and Pueblo I peo-
ples and that it showed the transition from the one period
to the other. At the end of June, eight fine examples of
pit houses had been uncovered. Excellent data on the
type and character of this form of structure were obtained
and several new features in the method of house group-
ings were observed. The burial mounds of three house
clusters were examined and 30 interments exhumed. The
latter were accompanied by mortuary offerings of pottery ;
bone and shell implements; shell beads, bracelets, and
pendants; and turquoise ornaments. With the various
objects found in the houses the total number of specimens
reaches 300. The work has furnished valuable informa-
tion on a little-known phase of the prehistoric sedentary
cultures of the Southwest.
ADMINISTBATIVE EEPOKT 9
During the year Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnologist, con-
tinued his studies on the Iroquois. In 1900 and immedi-
ately subsequent years Mr. Hewitt undertook seriously to
record in native texts the extant rituals, ordinances, and
laws pertaining to the institutions and structure of the
League or Confederation of the Five (later Six) Tribes
or Nations of the Iroquois of New York State. At that
time there were still living two or three men among the
Iroquois of Canada who grasped more or less fully the
intent and purpose of the various institutions of this
league, and Mr. Hewitt had then acquired a conversational
knowledge of the two languages in which these rituals, or-
dinances, and laws were chiefly expressed, to wit, the
Mohawk and the Onondaga. The use of the Cayuga,
Oneida, and Seneca was exceptional.
From these men Mr. Hewitt obtained standard texts
in the native tongues of the informants. The death of
two of these informants made a study of the material
furnished by them difficult. Resort was had then to other
less noted informants in these matters, and there was ob-
tained a large number of versions of portions of the stand-
ard texts already mentioned, which disclosed views and
statements which it seemed impossible to harmonize with
those appearing in the standard texts. It was imperative
that the value of these discordant statements should be
ascertained where possible and that paljDable omissions
from the standard texts should be utilized. The task was
to ascertain in these analytical studies what was trans-
mitted tradition and what was the personal opinion of
the informant, unwittingly expressed.
This work of comparison was undertaken to secure the
best possible translations, interlinear and free, of the sev-
eral native texts thus studied. The texts of the Installa-
tion Chant, the Eulogy of the Founders, of the Traditional
Biography of Deganawida which describes in great detail
the years of difficult work which had to be done to estab-
lish the League of the Five Tribes of the Iroquois in the
Stone Age of America, and also the native text of the
SS253°— 30 — 2
10 BUEEAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY
Requickening Address of Installation, were subjected to
this kind of study.
Mr. Hewitt represented the Smithsonian Institution on
the United States Geographic Board. In addition to at-
tending the meetings, he spent about three days in
researches for the executive committee.
As custodian of manuscripts of the bureau, Mr. Hewitt
did some classificatory linguistic work on new items
acquired.
Mr. Hewitt left Washington on May 6, 1929, to con-
tinue his studies among the Iroquoian tribes dwelling
in Canada and in the State of New York. His work con-
sisted chiefly in literal and free translation of formal
native diction embodying legislative, ritualistic, and fo-
rensic thought ; and, also in the coordination of divergent
traditional statements of traditionally hstorical events, in
eliminating the incongruous, and in conserving the congru-
ous. He secured 15 parcels of wampum strings, severally
bearing the name of one of the ))urdens of the ritual, the
Requickening Address of Installation.
Dr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, during the last
fiscal year completed Wa-sha'-be A-thi", an Osage war
ceremony, composed of 270 pages of manuscript, with
diagrams and illustrations; also the Wa'wa-tho", a cere-
mony pertaining to the peace pipes, composed of 129 pages
of manuscrijit, with illustrations. In this paper is a full
and detailed description of the discoidal pipes, ancient and
modern, found in the Eastern States, many of which may
be foimd in the various museums.
With the assistance of Mrs. Grace D. Woodburn, he has
revised the work on the Osage Dictionary. There are
approximately 19,000 words of the Osage language in com-
mon use among the tribe, with English equivalent; about
17,000 English words with Osage transcriptions are given.
The words, with their meanings, can not be given posi-
tively, but a clear idea of usage has been given. About 35
illustrations have been completed for this work.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPOET 11
SPECIAL EESEAECHES
The study of Indian music lias been continued during
the past year by Miss Frances Densmore, a collaborator
of the bureau. Material has been submitted on the songs
of the Menominee, Winnebago, Pawnee, Ymna, Acoma,
and the Indians living on the Eraser, Thompson, and
Squamish Rivers in British Columbia; also on a small
group of songs recorded at Anvik, Alaska, and obtained
through the courtesy of Rev. John W. Chapman. A com-
parison of the songs in this wide territory has been im-
portant in the develojoment of the research.
Eight manuscripts have been submitted with the follow-
ing titles: "Menominee Songs of Pleasure, Dances, and
Manabus Legends"; "Songs of Indians Living on the
Fraser, Thompson, and Squamish Rivers in British Co-
lumbia"; "Origin Song of the Dice Game and Other Win-
nebago Songs"; "Winnebago Songs Connected with the
Recent War ' ' ; and 17 analytical tables comparing Pawnee
with songs previously analyzed; "Winnebago Songs Con-
nected with Legends, Games, and Dances" ; "Acoma Songs
of the Flower Dance and Corn Dance"; "Acoma Songs
Used in Treating the Sick and Other Acoma Songs" ; and
"A Comparison Between Yuma, Acoma, and Alaskan In-
dian Songs," with 18 tables of analysis of Yuma songs.
The number of songs transcribed and analyzed is 117, and
a large nimiber of dictaphone song records were stvidied
without transcription. Miss Densmore corrected the
proof of her book on Papago Music and the galleys of
Pawnee Music; the tinal work of preparing the Pawnee
material for publication was also done during this year.
A large amount of work was done upon the preparation of
Menominee and Yuma material for publication. Cata-
logue numbers have been assigned to all transcribed songs,
except the Acoma, the highest catalogue number in her
series being 1848.
During August and September, 1928, a field trip was
made to the Winnebago and Menominee tribes in Wis-
consin. A large dance, continuing three days, was held
12 BUKEATJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
by the Winnebago near Black River Falls. This dance
was witnessed, as well as numerous incidents of life in the
camp, and about 50 photographs were taken.
At the conclusion of this gathering Miss Densmore went
to Keshena, Wis., for further work among the Menominee.
The manuscript already prepared was read to reliable
members of the tribe and details were added. An inter-
esting oportunity for seeing Menominee dances was af-
forded by the annual Indian fair which continued four
days. Among the old dances presented were those in
imitation of the fish, frog, crawfish, rabbit, partridge, and
owl. The songs of these dances, together with their ac-
tion and origin, were recorded. The Manabus legend con-
cerning the first death was obtained, together with its
songs, and the work included the recording of other old
material.
A drum-presentation ceremonial dance, commonly
called a dream dance, was held at the native village of
Zoar on September 2 to 5. This was attended each day
and closely observed. Miss Densmore remaining 10 hours
beside the dance circle on the third day of the ceremony.
Many photographs were taken.
On September 14 Miss Densmore proceeded to Tomah,
Wis., and resumed her study of Winnebago music. Addi-
tional songs of the war-bundle feast, also called the winter
feast, were recorded, together with several old legends and
their songs, and the origin of the bowl-and-dice game, with
its song. The legend of this game origin had previously
been obtained among the Menominee. Numerous photo-
graphs were taken, and two drumming sticks were ob-
tained, one being decorated with otter fur and used a
generation ago by the leader at the drum.
During October, 1928, Miss Densmore went to Wash-
ington, D. C, and recorded 27 Acoma songs from Philip
Sanche, who, with several Acoma Indians, was engaged
in work for the chief of the Bureau of American Ethnol-
ogy. A larger niunber of Acoma songs had previously
been recorded for the chief of the bureau and these records
ADMIlSriSTRATIVE REPORT 13
were studied, 16 being transcribed as representative
examples.
EDITORIAL WOEK AND PUBLICATIONS
The editing of the publications of the bureau was con-
tinued through the year by Mr. Stanley Searles, editor,
assisted by Mrs. Frances S. Mchols, editorial assistant.
The status of the publications is presented in the following
summary.
PUBLICATIONS ISSUED
Forty-first Annual Eeport. Accompanying papers : Coiled Basketry
in British Columbia and Surrounding Region (Boas, assisted by
Haeberlin, Teit, and Roberts) ; Two Prehistoric Villages in Middle
Tennessee (Myer). 626 pp., T37 pis., 200 figs., 1 pocket map.
Forty-third Annual Report. Accompanying papers: The Osage
Tribe: Two Versions of the Child-naming Rite (La Flesche) ;
Wawenock Myth Texts from Maine (Speck) ; Native Tribes and
Dialects of Connecticut, a Mohegan-Pequot Diary (Speck) ;
Picun's Children's Stories (Harrington and Roberts) ; Iroquoian
Cosmology — Second Part (Hewitt). 828 pp., 44 pis., 9 figs.
Forty-fourth Annual Report. Accompanying papers: Exploration
of the Burton Mound at Santa Barbara, Calif. (Harrington) ;
Social and Religious Beliefs and Usages of the Chickasaw Indians
(Swanton) ; LTses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians (Densmore) ;
Archeological Investigations — II (Fowke). 555 pp., 98 pis., 16
figs-
Bulletin 84. Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language (Harrington).
255 pp., 1 fig.
Bulletin 86. Chippewa Customs (Densmore). 204 pp., 90 pis., 27
figs.
Bulletin 87. Notes on the Buffalo-head Dance of the Thunder Gens
of the Fox Indians (Michelson). 94 pp., 1 fig.
Bulletin 89. Observations on the Thunder Dance of the Bear Gens
of the Fox Indians (Michelson). 73 pp., 1 fig.
Bulletin 92. Shabik'eshchee Village: A Late Basket Maker Site
in the Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (Roberts). 164 pp., 31 pis.,
32 figs.
PUBLICATIONS IN PRESS
Forty-fifth Annual Report. Accompanying papers: The Salishan
Tribes of the Western Plateaus (Teit, edited by Boas) ; Tattooing
and Face and Body Painting of the Thompson Indians, British
Columbia (Teit, edited by Boas) ; The Ethnobotany of the Thomp-
son Indians of British Columbia (Teit, edited by Steedman) ;
The Osage Tribe: Rite of the Wa-xo'-be (La Flesche).
14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
Bulletin 88. Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians (Swan-
ton).
Bulletin 90. Papajro Music (Densmore).
Bulletin 91. Additional Studies of the Arts, Crafts, and Customs
of the Guiana Indians, with special reference to those of Souih-
eastern British Guiana (Roth).
Bulletin 93. Pawnee Music (Densmore).
DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLICATIONS
The distribution of the publications of the bureau has
been continued under the charge of Miss- Helen Munroe,
assisted by Miss Emma B. Powers. Publications were
distributed as follows :
Report volumes and separates _* 7,605
Bulletins and separates 11,890
Contributions to North American Ethnology 34
Miscellaneous publications 583
Total 20, 112
This is an increase of 10,986 iiublieations distributed,
due to the fact that 5 more publications were distributed
to the mailing list than in the previous year. The mail-
ing list, after revision during the year, stands at 1,642.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Following is a summary of work accomplished in the
illustration branch of the bureau under the supervision
of Mr. De Lancey Gill, illustrator :
Photographs retouched and lettered and drawings made ready
for engraving 874
Drawings prepared, including mafis, diagrams, etc 53
Engravers' pi'oofs criticized 690
Printed editions of colored jjlates examined at Government
Printing Office — 23,000
Correspondence attended to 125
Photographic laboratory work by Dr. A. J. Olmsted, Na-
tional Museum, in cooperation with the Bureau of Ameri-
can Ethnology :
Negatives 143
Prints 275
Films developed from field exposures 12
ADMINISTRATR'E EEPOET 15
LIBRARY
The reference library has continued under the care of
Miss Ella Leary, librarian, assisted by Mr. Thomas Black-
well. The library consists of 28,512 volumes, about 16,377
pamphlets, and several thousand unbound periodicals.
During the year 591 books were accessioned, of which 112
were acquired by purchase and 479 by gift and exchange ;
also 200 pamphlets and 4,100 serials, chiefly the publica-
tions of learned societies, were received and recorded, of
which oidy 112 were obtained by purchase, the remainder
being received through exchange. The catalogue was in-
creased by the addition of 1,400 cards. Many books were
loaned to other libraries in Washington. In addition to
the constant drafts on the library of the bureau, requisi-
tion was made on the Library of Congress during the year
for an aggregate of 200 volumes for official use, and in turn
the bureau library was frequently consulted by officers of
other Government establishments, as well as by students
not connected with the Smithsonian Institution.
While many volumes are still without binding, the con-
dition of the library in this respect has greatly improved
during the last few years ; 431 volumes were bound during
the year.
COLLECTIONS
100,592. Several thousand anthropological specimens and small col-
lections of mammals, plants, moUusks, and minerals from various
localities in Alaska, secured by Henry B. Collins, jr., during 1928.
(3,730 specimens.)
102.768. Small collection of archeological objects gathered by Charles
T. Earle at an aboriginal camp site at Shaws Point, Fla. (26
specimens.)
102.769. Two textile fragments collected in the Canyon de Chelly,
Ariz., by Dr. W. H. Spinks. (2 specimens.)
102,896. Collection of 61 ethnological specimens secured from the
Hupa Indians of California by E. G. Johnson. (61 specimens.)
103,344. Two specimens of sheet mica collected from unidentified
mounds in Ohio by the late Dr. E. H. Davis and presented to the
bureau by Miss Betsey B. Davis. (2 specimens,)
16 ' BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
103,964. Pair of charms used by the Karuk Indians of northern Cali-
fornia to ward off pains and bewitchments. Made by Mrs. Phoebe
Maddux, of the Karuk tribe. (2 specimens.)
105,865. Collection of ethnological objects gathered from the Hupa
Indians of California by E. G. Johnson and purchased from him
by the bureau. (27 specimens.)
PROPERTY
Oflfice equipment was purchased to the amount of
$292.70.
MISCELLANEOUS
The correspondence and other clerical work of the office
has been conducted by Miss May S. Clark, clerk to the
chief, assisted by Mr. Anthony W. Wilding, assistant clerk.
Miss Mae W. Tucker, stenographer, assisted Dr. John R.
Swanton in his work of compiling a dictionary of the Ata-
kapa and compiled two catalogues of the manuscripts in
the archives of the bureau — one arranged according to
author and the other numerically. Mrs. Frances S.
Nichols assisted the editor.
During the course of the year information was furnished
by members of the staff in reply to numerous inquiries
concerning the North American Indian peoples, both past
and present, and the Mexican peoples of the prehistoric
and early historic periods to the south. Various speci-
mens sent to the bureau were identified and data on them
furnished for their owners.
Personnel. — Mr. M. W. Stirling was appointed chief of
the bureau August 1, 1928. Dr, J. Walter Fewkes retired
as associate anthropologist of the bureau November 14,
1928.
Respectfully submitted.
M. W. Stirling, Chief.
Dr. C. G. Abbot,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS
17
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
By ALES HRDLICKA
19
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 29
General remarks 31
Northwest coast — Juneau 32
The Coast Indians 32
Notes of archeological interest 33
The writer's trip on the Yukon 39
Tanana — Yukon 39
Ancient man 41
The Indians at Tanana 42
Ruby 48
Galena 51
Nulato 53
Kaltag 54
The Anvik jjeople 57
Bonasila 60
Holy Cross 61
Ghost Creek 62
Paimute 66
Russian Mission 70
MarshaU 72
St. Michael 84
About Nome 88
Aboriginal remains 89
Nome — Bering Strait — Barrow 90
Savonga 92
The Diomedes 94
The Yukon Territory — Sites, the Indians, the Eskimo 123
The Tanana 123
Brief historical data 123
Population 124
Indian sites and villages along the Tanana 125
Lower Tanana, Nenana to Yukon 126
The Yukon below Tanana 126
Brief history 126
The Yukon natives 129
Native villages 131
Present conditions 133
Archeology of the Yukon 134
The random specimens 134
Location of villages and sites on the Yukon 136
Pre-Russian sites 140
Archeology of Central Alaska 144
Ancient stone culture 144
The pottery 146
The yUaskan grooved stone ax 147
21
22 CONTENTS
Page
Anthropology of the Yukon 150
The living Indian 150
Pure bloods 150
General type 151
Color 151
Stature and strength 151
Head form 151
Body 151
Photographs 151
Skeletal remains of the Yukon 151
Detailed measurements of skuUs 152
Lower middle Yukon Indian crania 153
Skeletal parts 156
Skeletal remains from the bank at Bonasila 156
The crania 157
Additional parts 159
The Yukon Eskimo 161
The living 161
Measurements on living Yukon Eskimo 162
Skeletal remains of Yukon Eskimo 162
Skeletal parts of the Yukon Eskimo 163
Notes on the archeology of the Western Eskimo region 165
Old sites in the region of the Western Eskimo 168
Present location of archeologieal sites 171
Sites and villages 176
Burial grounds 183
Prince WiUiam Sound, Kodiak Island, Alaska Peninsula 184
Kodiak Island and neighborhood 184
Alaska Peninsula 186
Bristol Bay to Cape Romanzof 190
Cape Romanzof to Northern (Apoon) Pass of the Yukon and north-
ward 195
St. Michael Island 195
Norton Sound 195
South shore of Seward Peninsula west of Bluff 196
Scammon Bay, Norton Sound, south coast of Seward Peninsula, to
Cape Rodney 198
The northern shore of the Seward Peninsula 202
Kotzebue Sound, its rivers and its coast northward to Kevalina 204
Seward Peninsula, Kotzebue Sound, and northward 204
Kevalina — Point Barrow 205
Point Hope (Tigara) 205
Point Hope to Point Barrow 206
Barrow and Point Barrow 206
The St. Lawrence and Diomede Islands 209
St. Lawrence Island 209
The Diomede Islands and the Asiatic coast 210
Physical anthropology 213
Earlier data 213
Older anthropometric data on the western Eskimo 228
Stature and other measurements on the living 228
TheskuU 231
CONTENTS 23
Physical anthropology — Continued. Page
Present data on the western Eskimo 238
The living 238
Measurements of Uving western Esliimo 238
Stature 238
Height sitting , 239
Arm span 239
The head 239
The forehead 240
The face 241
Lower facial breadth 242
The nose 242
The mouth 243
The ears 243
The chest 244
The hand •_ 245
The foot 246
Girth of the calf 246
Physiological observations 247
Summary of observations on the living western Eskimo 249
Remarks 250
Present data on the skull and other skeletal remains of the western
Eskimo 254
The skull 254
Skull size 255
Module and capacity 258
Additional remarks on cranial module 258
SkuU shape 258
Height of the skuU 261
The face 263
The nose 267
The orbits 270
The upper alveolar arch 275
The basion-nasion diameter 277
Prognathism 282
Skulls of Eskimo children 294
Crania of Eskimo children 295
Southwestern and midwestern Eskimo 295
Principal cranial indices in children compared with those in
adults 297
The lower jaw 299
Strength of the jaw 301
Breadth of the rami 303
Other dimensions 303
The angle 305
Rfeumg 306
Mandibular hyperostoses 306
Main references 310
Skeletal parts other than the skull 313
The long bones 314
Comparative data 315
Long bones in Eskimo and stature 316
Length of principal long bones, and stature in the living, on the St.
Lawrence Island 317
Long bones vs. stature in Eskimo of Smith Sound 317
24 CONTENTS
Page
A strange group of Eskimo near Point Barrow 318
Anthropological observations and measurements on the collections-- 321
Physical characteristics 323
Origin and antiquity of the Eskimo 329
Origin of the name ' ' Eskimo " 329
Opinions by former and living students 330
Origin in Asia 330
Origin in America 330
Origin in Europe — Identity with Upper Palaeolithic man 331
Other hypotheses 332
Theories as to the origin of the Eskimo 333
Asiatics 333
American 340
European 347
Opposed to European 351
Miscellaneous and indefinite - 351
Discussion and conclusions indicated by present data 355
Summary 361
Bibliography 367
Index. 629
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
Page
1. a. "Old Minto" on the Tanana. Indian village. (A. H., 1926.)
6, Present Nulato and its cemetery (on hill to the right of the
village) from some distance up the river. (A. H., 1926.) c, The
Greyling River site, right bank, 22 miles above Anvik; site and
graveyard (male skeleton) from top of knoll. (A. H., 1926.) 54
2. o, View on the Yukon from above Kaltag. (A. H., 1926.) b, Indian
burial ground, middle Yukon. (A.H., 1926.) c, Anvik, from the
mission. (A. H., 1926.) 54
3. o. Midnight on the Yukon. 6, Lower middle Yukon: painted burial
box of a Yukon Indian (before 1884) said to have been a hunter of
bielugas (white whales), wliich used to ascend far up the Yukon 64
4. o, Eskimo camp below Paimute, Yukon River. 6, Old "protolithie"
site 12 miles down from Paimute, right bank, just beyond " 12-mile
hill" (skuU, bones, stones), c, "Old" site in bank seen in middle of
picture, 12 miles down from Paimute, opposite that shown in pre-
ceding figure. (A. H., 1926.) 64
5. a, Cape Prince of Wales from the southeast. (A. H., 1926.) 6, Vil-
lage and cemetery slope. Little Diomede. (A. H., 1926.) 96
6. a, Asiatics departing for Siberia from the Little Diomede Island.
(Photo by D. Jenness, 1926.) 6, c, "Chukchis" loading their boat
with goods on Little Diomede Island, before departure for Siberia.
(Photos by D. Jenness, 1926.) 96
7. a, Eskimos from East Cape arriving at Nome, Alaska. 6, East Cape
of Asia (to the southward). (Photo from Joe Bernard.) 96
8. A group of women at Sliishmaref. (Taken at 2 a. m. by A. H., 1926.).. 96
9. a, My "spoils," loaded on sled, Point Hope. (A. H., 1926.) 6, The
load is heavy and sledding over sand and gravel difficult. (A. H.,
1926.) \ 136
10. Characteristic stone axes, middle Yukon. (A. H. coll., 1926.) 136
11. Crude stone artifacts, found at Bonasila, lower middle Yukon. (A.
E. coU., 1926.) 136
12. Crude stone artifacts, found at Bonasila, lower middle Yukon. (A.
H. coll., 1926.) 136
13. Tanana Indian woman 150
14. Chief Sam Joseph, near Tanana village, on the Yukon. (A. H.,
1926.) 150
15. a, Yukon Indians, at Kokrines, Jacob and Andrew. Jacob probably
has a trace of white blood. (A. H. 1926.) 6, Yukon Indians at
Kokrines. (A. H., 1926.) 150
16. Yukon Indians, a, Marguerite Johnny Yatlen, Koyukuk vOlage.
(A. H., 1926.) 6, Lucy John, Koyukuk, daughter of a former chief.
(A. H., 1926.) 150
17. Yukon Indians, a, George Halfway, Nulato on the Yukon. (A. H.,
1926.) b, Jack Curry of Nulato, 41 years. (Now at Ruby, middle
Yukon; Eskimoid physiognomy.) c, Arthur Malamvot, of Nulato. 150
88253°-^0 3 25
26 ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
18. a, Indian children, mission school at Anvik, lower middle Yukon.
6, Indian children, mission school at Anvik, lower middle Yukon.
c, Two women of Anvik, on the Yukon, somewhat Eskimoid 150
19. Terminal piece of a lance or harpoon, northern Bering Sea. Black,
high natural polish. Most beautiful piece of the fossil ivory art.
(A. H., 1926, U.S.N. M.) 174
20. Fossil ivory specimens showing the old curvilinear designs. Northern
Bering Sea. (A. H. coll., 1926, U.S.N.M.) 174
21. Objects showing the old fossil ivory art, northern Bering Sea.
(U.S.N.M., Nos. 1 and 3 coll., A. H.," 1926.) J74
22. Fossil ivory needle cases and spear heads, northern Bering Sea, show-
ing fine workmanship. (A. H. coll., 1926, U.S.N.M.) 174
23. a, Small, finely made objects in fossil ivory and stone (the head),
from the ruins at Point Hope. (A. H. coll., 1926.) 6, Old fossil
ivory olijects, northern Bering Sea. The article to the right is
almost classic in form; it is decorated on both sides. (A. H. coll.,
1926, U.S.N.M.) 174
24. Fossil ivory combs, upper Bering Sea. (A. H. coll., 1926) 174
25. Fossil ivory objects from the upper Bering Sea region. Transitional
art. (Museum of tlie Agricultural College, Fairbanks, Alaska.) 174
26. Old black finely carved fossil ivory figure, from the northeastern
Asiatic coast. (Loan to U.S.N.M. by Mr. Carl Lomen.) 174
27. Wooden figurines from a medicine lodge, Choco Indians, Panama.
(U.S.N.M. colls.) 174
28. Left: Two beautiful knives lately made of fossil mammoth ivory
by a Seward Peninsula Eskimo. (Gift to the U.S.N.M. by A. H.,
1926.) Right: Two old ceremonial Mexican obsidian knives.
Manche de poignard en ivoire, avec sculpture reprSsentant un
renne. Montastruc (Peccadeau de I'lsle; in De Quatrefages (A.) —
Hommes fossiles, Paris, 1884, p. 50.) 174
29. Billings and Gall's map of Bering Strait and neighboring lands, 1811.. 178
30. Eskimo villages and sites, Norton Sound and Bay and Seward Penin-
sula, and the Kotzebue Sound, from Zagoskin's general map, 1847. 178
31. Graves at Nash Harbor, Nunivak Island. (Photos by Collins and
Stewart, 1927.) 214
32. The school children at Wales 214
33. a. Children, Nunivak Island. (Photo by Collins and Stewart, 1927.)
6, Adults, Nunivak Island. (Photo by Collins and Stewart, 1927.) _ 214
34. King Island Eskimo; a family group 214
35. King Island native 214
36. A fine full-blood Eskimo pair, northern Bering Sea region, a, Young
Eskimo woman, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo by Lomen
Bros.) 6, Eskimo, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo by F. H.
Nowell.) 214
37. Typical full-blood Eskimo, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo by
Lomen Bros.) 214
38. Elderly man, St. Lawrence Island. (Photos by R. D. Moore, 1912.
U. S. N. M.) 214
39. The Wales people. (Photo by Lomen Bros.) 242
40. The long broad-faced types, Wales. (Photo by Lomen Bros.) 242
41. a, The broad-faced and low-vaulted Eskimo, St. Lawrence Island.
(Photo by R. D. Moore, 1912. U. S. N. M.). 6, Broad-faced
type, St. Lawrence Island. (Photo by R. D. Moore, 1912. U. S.
N. M.) 242
rLLUSTRiTIONS 27
Page
42. The long-faced type, n, A young man from Seward Peninsula.
6, A boy from St. Lawrence Island 242
43. A "Hypereskimo," King Island. Excessively developed face 242
44. Eskimo "Madonna" and child, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo
by Lomen Bros.) 242
45. Young woman, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo by Lomen Bros.)- 250
46. Young women, full-blood Eskimo, Seward Peninsula. (Photo by
Lomen Bros.) 250
47. A Point Hope group 250
48. a. Eskimo woman, Kevalina. (Photo on the "Bear" by A. H., 1926.
U. S. N. M.). 6, The body build of an adult Eskimo woman,
upper Bering Sea 250
49. Elderly woman, St. LawTence Island. (Photos by R. D. Moore, 1912.
U. S. N. M.) 2.50
50. a, Yukon Eskimo, below Paimute. (A. H., 1926.) 6. Norton
Sound Eskimo woman and child. (A. H., 1926.) 250
51. Eskimo,. Indianlike, northern Bering Sea region. (Photos by Lomen
Bros.) 2.50
52. Eskimo, Indianlike, northern Bering Sea region. (Photos by Lomen
Bros.) 250
53. Eskimo, Indianlike, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo by Lomen
Bros.) 250
54. Eskimo, Indianlike, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo by Lomen
Bros.) 250
55. Eskimo, Indianlike, northern Bering Sea region. (Photo by Lomen
Bros.) 250
56. Eskimo, Indianlike, Arctic region. (Photo by Lomen Bros.) 2.50
57. Siberian Eskimo and child, Indian type 250
58. a, Mrs. Sage, Kevalina. Fine Indian type. Born on Notak. Both
parents Notak "Eskimo." (Photo by A. H., 1926.) 6, Eskimo
family, Indian-like, near Barrow. (Photo by A. H., 1926.) 250
59. Skulls from old burials. Point Hope; right skull shows low vault.
( U. S. N. M.) 262
60. Skulls from old burials. Point Hope; right skuU shows low vault.
(U. S. N. M.) 262
61. Western Eskimo and Aleut (middle) lower jaws, showing lingual
hyperostoses. (U. S. N. M.) 308
TEXT FIGURES
1. The Tanana River between Nenana and Tanana, with Indian villages, 125
2. The Yukon from Tanana to below Kokrines 137
3. The Yukon from below Kokrines to below Koyukuk 137
4. The Yukon from below Koyukuk to Lofkas 138
5. Old map of the Nulato district 139
6. Map of Kaltag and vicinity. (By McLeod) 139
7. The Yukon from Bystraia to below Holy Cross 140
8. The Yukon from above Holy Cross to below Mountain Village 141
9. The Yukon from below Mountain Village to near Marshall 141
10. The Yukon from near Marsliall to below Kavlingnak 142
11. From above Kobolunuk to mouth of river 143
12. Conventionalized design from fossil ivory specimen shown in Plate 19. 174
13. World map 177
28 ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
14. Dall's map of the distribntion of the tribes of Alaska and adjoining
territory, 1875 178
15. Nelson's map, Eighteenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., 1898 179
16. Linguistic map, United States census, 1920 180
17. Villages and sites on Kodiak Island 185
18. Villages and sites on the proximal half of Alaska Peninsula 187
19. Villages and sites on the distal half of Alaska Peninsula 188
20. Eskimo villages and sites on Nushagak Bay to Kuskokwim Bay 191
21. Eskimo villages and sites, Kuskokwim Bay to Scammon Bay 193
22. Eskimo villages and sites, Scammon Bay to Norton Sound and Bay
to Cape Rodney 198
23. Eskimo villages and sites, Wales. (By Clark M. Garber, 1927) 201
24. Eskimo villages and sites, Sevv'ard Peninsula, Kotzebue Sound, and
Arctic coast, to Kevalina 203
25. Eskimo villages and sites, Kevalina to Point Barrow 207
26. Russian map of St. Lawrence Island, 1849. (Tebenkof) 209
27. Eskimo villages and sites, St. Lawrence Island, the Diomedes, and the
eastern Asiatic coast 211
28. The Bering Strait Islands 212
29. Probable movements of people from northeastern Asia to Alaska and
in Alaska. (A. Hrdlicka) 360
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
By Ales Hrwlicka
INTRODUCTION
Alaska and the opposite parts of Asia hold, in all probability, the
key to the problem of the peopling of America. It is here, and here
alone, where a land of another continent approaches so near to
America that a passage of man with primitive means of navigation
and provisioning was possible. All the affinities of tlie American
native point toward the more eastern parts of Asia. In Siberia,
Mongolia, Tibet, Manchuria, Formosa, and in some of the islands
off southeastern Asia, living remnants of the same type of man as
the American aborigines are to this day encountered, and it is here
in the farthest northwest wliere actual passings of parties of natives
between the Asiatic coast and the Bering Sea islands and between
the latter and the American coasts have always, since these parts were
known, been observed and are still of common occurrence.
With these facts before them, the students of the peopling of this
continent were always drawn strongly to Alaska and the opposite
parts of Asia; but the distances, the difficulties of communication,
and the high costs of exploration in these far-off regions have proven
a serious hindrance to actual investigation. As a result, but little
direct, systematic, archeological or anthropological (somatological)
research has ever been carried out in these regions; though since
Bering's, Cook's, and Vancouver's opening voyages to these parts a
large amount of general, cultural, and linguistic observations on the
natives has accumulated.
For these observations, which are much in need of a compilation
and critical analysis, science is indebted to the above-named captains ;
to the subsequent Russian explorers, and especially to the Russian
clerics who were sent to Alaska as missionaries or priests to the
natives; to various caijtains, traders, agents, miners, soldiers, and
men in collateral branches of science, who came in contact witli the
aborigines; to special United States Government exploratory expe-
ditions, with an occasional participation of the Biological Survey
and the Smithsonian Institution, such as resulted in tlie fine '" Cor-
win " reports and the highly valuable accounts of Leffingwell, Dall,
29
30 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. la
Nelson, and Murdoch ; to the separate pieces of scientific work by men
such as Goidon and Jennes; and to Joclielson and Bogoras of the
Jesup exploring expedition of the American Museum.
As a result of all these contributions, it may be said that there has
been established a fair cultural and linguistic knowledge of the Aleut,
the Eskimo, and the Chukchee, not to speak of the Tlingit, considera-
tion of which seems more naturally to fall with that of the Indians
of the northwest coast.
There are also numerous though often very imperfect and occa-
sionally rather contradictory notes on the physical status of these
peoples, and some valuable cultural and even skeletal collections were
made. Since 1912 we possess also a good series of measurements on
the St. Lawrence Island natives, together with valuable cranial ma-
terial fi'om that locality, made, under the direction of the writer, by
Kiley D. Moore, at that time aide in the Division of Physical
Anthropology in the United States National Museum.
The need of a further systematic archeological and somatological
research in this important part of the world was long since felt, and
several propositions were made in this line to the National Research
Council (Hrdlicka) and to the Smithsonian Institution (Hough,
Hrdlicka) ; but nothing came of these until the early part of 1926,
when, a little money becoming available, the writer was intrusted
by the Bureau of American Ethnology with the making of an exten-
sive preliminary survey of Alaska. The objects of the trip wei'e,
in brief, to ascertain as much as possible about the surviving Indians
and Eskimos; to trace all indications of old settlements and migi-a-
tions ; and to collect such skeletal and archeological material as might
be of importance.
The trip occupied approximately four months, from the latter
part of May to the latter part of September, affording a full season
in Alaska. It began with the inside trip from Vancouver to Juneau,
where at several of the stopping places gi-oups of the northwest coast
Indians were observed. At Juneau examination was made of the
valuable archeological collections in the local museum. After this
followed a trip with several stops along the gulf, a railroad trip with
some stops to Fairbanks, a return trip to Nenana, a boat trip on the
Tanana to the Yukon, and then, with little boats of various sorts, a
trip with many stops for about 900 miles down the Yukon. This
in turn was followed by a side trip in Norton Sound, after which
transportation was secured to the island of St. Michael and to Nome.
From Nome, after some work in the vicinity, the revenue cutter Bear
look the writer to the St. Lawrence and Diomede Islands, to Cape
Wales, and thence from place to place of scientific interest up to
Barrow. On the return a number of the more important places.
iiRDLicKA] INTRODUCTION 31
besides some new ones, were touched upon, while the visit to others
was prevented by the increasing storms, and the trip ended at
Unalaska.
Throughout the journey, the writer received help from the Gov-
ernor, officials, missionaries, traders, and people of Alaska; from
the captain, officers, and crew of the Bear; and from many indi-
viduals; for all of which cordial thanks are hereby once more ren-
dered. Grateful acknowledgments are especially due to the follow-
ing gentlemen : Governor George A. Parks, of Alaska ; Mr. Harry G.
Watson, his secretary ; Mr. Karl Thiele, Secretary for Alaska ; Judge
James Wickersham, formerly Delegate from Alaska; Father A. P.
Kashevaroff, curator of the Territorial Museum and Library of
Juneau ; Dr. William Chase, of Cordova ; Mr. Noel W. Smith, gen-
eral manager Government railroad of Alaska; Mr. B. B. Mozee,
Indian supervisor, and Dr. J. A. Romig, of Anchorage ; Prof. C. E.
Bunnell, president Alaska Agriculture College, at Fairbanks; Mr. and
Mrs. Fullerton, missionaries, at Tanana; Rev. J. W. Chapman and
Mr. Harry Lawrence, at Anvik; Father Jette and Jim Walker, at
Holy Cross; Mr. C. Betsch, at the Russian Mission; Messrs. Frajdc
Tucker and E. C. Gurtler, near the mission ; Mr. Frank P. Williams,
of St. Michael; Judge G. J. Lomen and his sons and daughter, at
Nome; Rev. Dr. Baldwin, Fathers La Fortune and Post, Captain
Ross, LTnited States Coast Guard, and Mr. Elmer Rydeem, merchant,
at Nome; C. S. Cochran, captain of the Bear, and his officers, par-
ticularly Mr. H. Berg, the boatswain; Rev. F. W. Goodman and
Mr. LaVoy, at Point Hope ; the American teachers at Wales, Shish-
mareff, Kotzebue, Point Hope, and elsewhere; Messrs. Tom Berry-
man, Jim Allen, and Charles Brower, traders, respectively, at Kotze-
bue, Wainright, and Barrow ; Mr. Sylvester Chance, superintendent
of education, Kotzebue, Alaska ; the United States marshals, depvity
marshals, and postmasters along the route ; and the numerous traders,
miners, settlers, and others who were helpful with specimens, advice,
guidance, and in other matters.
")
General Remarks
The account of the survey will be limited in the main to anthro-
pological and archeological observations; but it is thought best to
give it largely in the form of the original notes made on the spot
or within a few hours after an event. These notes often contain
collateral observations or thoughts which could be excluded, but the
presence of which adds freshness, reliability, and some local at-
mosphere to what otherwise would be a rather dry narrative. A pre-
liminary account of the trip and its results was published in the
32 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
Smithsonian exploration volume for 1926 (AVashino^ton, 1927, pp.
137-158).
Not much reference is possible to previous work of the nature
here dealt with in the parts visited, except in the Aleutian Islands,
where good archeological work was done in the late sixties by
William H. Dall,i and in 1909-10 by Waldemar Jochelson.-
The archeology and anthropology of the Gulf of Alaska, the in-
land, the Yukon Basin, the Bering Sea coasts and islands, and those
of the Arctic coasts up to Point Barrow are but little known. The
archeology is in reality known only from the stone and old ivory
implements that have been incidentally collected and have reached
various institutions where they have been studied ; from the excava-
tions about Bari'ow, conducted by an expedition of the University
Museum, Philadelphia, in charge of W. B. Van Valin, and by the
trader, Mr. Charles Brower, the results of which have not yet been
published ; and from the recent diggings at Wales and on the smaller
Diomede Island by Doctor Jenness." Neither Dall. Nelson. Rau, nor
Murdoch conducted any excavations outside the already mentioned
work in the Aleutians.
Northwest Coast — jTJNEAtr
THE COAST INDIANS
Passage was taken on a small steamer from Vancouver. The
boat stopped at a number of settlements on the scenic " inside "
route — which impresses one as a much enlaiged and varied trip
through the Catskills — permitting some observations on the Indians
*of these parts.
The main opportunity was had at Aleut Bay. Here many British
Columbia Indians were seen on the dock, belonging to several tribes.
Names of these, as pronounced to me, were unfamiliar. They have
a large agency here; engage in salmon industry. A minority, only,
iDaU, Wm. H. : Alaska as it Was and Is; 1865-1895. Bull. PML Soc. Wash., 1900,
vol. XIII, 141. On Prehistoric Remains in the Aleutian' Islands. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci.,
November, 1872, toI. iv, 283-287. Explorations on the Western Coast of North America.
Smiths. Kept, for 1873, Wash., 1874, 417—418. On Further Examinations of the
Amaknak Cave. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., 1873, vol. v, 196-200. Notes on Some Aleut
Mummies. Proc Cal. Acad. Sci., Octohcr, 1874, vol. v. 399^00. Deserted Hearths.
The Overland Monthly, 1874, vol. xiii, 25-30. Alaskan Mummies. Am. Naturalist, 1875,
vol. IX, 433-440. Tribes of the Extreme Northwest. Contrib. N. Am. Ethnol., vol. i.
Wash., 1877. On the Remains of Later Prehistoric Man Obtained from Cavc-S in the
Catharina Archipelago, Alaska Territory, etc. Smiths. Contr. to Knowledge, No. 318.
Wash., 1878.
- Jochelson, W., Archjeological Investigations in the Aleutian Islands. Carnegie Inst,
of Wash. Publ. No. 367, Wash., D. C. 1925.
i' Rau, Chas., North American Stone Implements. Smiths. Rept. for 1872, Wash.,
1873. Prehistoric Fishing in Europe and North America. Smiths. Contr. to Knowl-
edge, Wash., 1884, vol. xxv. Thomas, Cyrus, Introduction to the Study of North
American Archaeology. Cincinnati, 1898. Jennes, D. Archieological Investigations in
Bering Strait. Ann. Rep. Nat. Mus. Canada for 1926 (Ottawa 1928), pp. 71-80.
HEDLK-KA] INTEODUCTION" 33
full bloods — of the younger a large majority mixed (white blood).
The full bloods all show one marked type, of short to moderate
stature, rather short legs, huge chest and head, i. e., face. Color
near onion-brown, without luster. Indians, but modified locally.
Remind one (chest, stature, stockiness, shortness of neck and legs)
of Peruvian Indians.
Indians at Prince Rupert same type; color pale brown; eyes and
nose rather small for the faces in some, in others good size. Look
good deal like some Chinese or rather some hand-laboring Chinese
and JajDanese look like them.
Indians at Juneau (the Auk tribe) very similar, but most mixed
with whites.
Jiuieau. — A week was spent at Juneau, gathering information, ob-
taining letters of introduction, and making a few excursions. The
city has an excellent museum devoted to Alaskan history and arche-
ology, under the able curatorship of Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff,
himself a part of the history of the Territory. The archeological
collections of Alaska Indians and Eskimos are in some respects —
e. g., pottery — more comprehensive than those of any other of
our museums; but they, together with the valuable library,
are housed in a frail frame building, under great risks from botli
fire and thieves. Fortunately the latter are still scarce in Alaska,
but the fire risk is great and ever present. The museum is a decided
cultural asset to Juneau.
NOTES OF ARCHEOLOGICAL INTEREST
Auk Point. — Thanks to Father KashevaroflP and Mr. Charles H.
Florv, the district forester, an excursion was arranged one day to
Auk Point, approximately 15 miles distant, a picturesque wooded
little promontoiy near which there used to be a settlement of the Auk
Indians. On the jjoint were several burials of shamans and a chief of
the tribe (all other dead being cremated), and near the graves stood
until a short time ago a moderate-sized totem pole. Of all this
we found but bare remnants. The burials of three shamans and one
chief had been in huge boxes above ground; but they had all been
broken into and most of the contents belonging to the dead were
taken away, including the skulls. The skeletal parts of two of the
bodies and a few bones of the chief remained, however, with a few
objects the vandals had overlooked. The latter were placed in the
Juneau Museum while the bones, showing some features of interest,
were collected and sent to Washington. A large painted board near
the graves of the shamans remained, though damaged. The totem
pole, however, had been cut down the year before by a young man
from Juneau, who then severed the head, which he carried home,
34 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
and left the rest on the beach, from where it was soon washed
away. Thus a group of burials, the only ones known of the once
good-sized Auk tribe, have been despoiled and their record lost to
science. And such a fate is, according to all accounts, rapidly
overtaking similar remains everj^where in southeastern Alaska.
Rare stone lamp (?). — At the museum one of the first and most
interesting objects shown the writer bj^ Father Kaslievaroff was a
large, heavy, finely sculptured oblong bowl, made of hard, dark
crystalline stone, decorated in relief on the rim and with a squatting
stone figure, cut from the same piece, near one of the ends. The
bowl looks like a ceremonial lamp, though showing no trace of
oil or carbon. Subsequently four other bowls of this same re-
markable type and workmanship were learned of, two, the best of
the lot, in the University Museum at Philadelphia; one in the
Museum of the American Indian, New York ; and one, somewhat in-
ferior and of reddish stone, in the possession of Mr. Miiller, the
trader at Kaltag, on the Yukon (later in that of Mr. Lynn Smith,
marshal at Fairbanks). The localities where the five remarkable
and higli-grade specimens have been found range from the Kenai
Peninsula in soutliwestern Alaska to the lower Yukon. The Juneau
specimen comes from Fish Creek, near Kuik, Cook Inlet (see De-
scriptive Booklet Alaska Hist. ]\Ius., Juneau, 1922, pp. 26. 27) : that
in the Heye Museum is from tlie same localitj-; the one in Philadel-
phia was found in the Kenai Peninsula; while that at Kaltag came
from an old Indian site on the Kaiuh slough of the Yukon. Locally,
there is much inclination to regard these specimens as Asiatic, es-
pecially Japanese, and a bronze Japanese Temple medal has been
found near that now at Juneau. On the other hand, a strong sug-
gestion of similarity to these dishes is presented by some undecorated
large stone lamps from Alaska, and by a class of pottery bowls with
a human figure perched on the rim at one end from some of the
Arkansas mounds, Mexico, and farther southward. (See Mason,
J. A. A remarkable stone lamp from Alaska. The Museum Jour.,
Phila., 1928. 170-194.)
Copper mask. — Shortly before leaving Juneau I became acquainted
with Mr. Robert Simpson, manager of the " Nugget " curio shop, and
found in his possession a number of interesting specimens made in
the past by the Tlingit Indians. An outstanding piece was an old
copper mask, which was purchased for the the National Musuem.
Mr. Simpson obtained it years ago from a native of Yakutat and
stored it with native furs and other articles of value. It originally
belonged to a shaman of the Yakutat tribe and was said to have been
worn by him in sacrificial slave killings, the shaman with the mask
representing some mythical being. It is an exceedingly good and rare
piece of native workmanship.
HKDI.UKA] . INTEODXJCTION 35
Copper '■'■ shield^ — Another interesting article secured from Mr.
Simpson is a large old shieldlike plate of beaten copper, decorated
on one side with a characteristic Tlingit engraved design. Mr. Simp-
son, in a letter to Doctor Hough, dated June 26, 1926, says : " The
shield, or to speak more correctly the copper plate — for it was not
used as a shield — was the most valuable possession of the Tlingits.
They were usually valued in slaves, this one, at the last known ex-
change, having been traded for three slaves. The possessor of four
or five such plates was a man of the utmost wealth. Some claim that
they got these copper plates from the early New England traders and
others that they came from the Copper River. Either is possible.
Lots of the Copper River nuggets were very large and flat and could
have readily been hammered into plate form. I bought this in the
village of Klawak on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. I
do not know of another one around here. All of the local elderly
natives are familiar with its previous value, and when they have
wandered into my shop to sell things they always made deep obei-
sance to this plate."
Talks. — While in Juneau the writer spoke before the Rotarians,
who honored him with a lunch ; and later, in the auditorium of the
fine new high school, gave a public lecture on " The Peopling of
America," etc. The object of these and the many subsequent talks in
Alaska was, on the one hand, to reciprocate as far as possible the
kindness and help received on all sides, and on the other to leave
wholesome information and stimulus in things anthropological. The
audience was invariably all that a lecturer could desire, and many
were left everywhere eager for help and cooperation. The aid of
some of these men, including prospectors, miners, settlers, engineers,
foresters, and various officials, may some day prove of much value
in the search for Alaskan antiquities.
Juneau — /Seward. — June 8, leave Juneau. It has been raining
every day, with one exception, and is misting now, depriving us of
a view of most of the coast. Wlierever there is a glimpse of it,
however, it is seen to be mountainous, wooded below, snowy and icy
higher up, inhospitable, forbidding.
June 10, arrive at Cordova, a former native and Russian settle-
ment of some importance. Will stay here large part of the day and
go to see about Indians, old sites, burials, and specimens, the main
liotel keeper, the assistant superintendent of the local railway, the
postmaster, the supervisor of the forests, and Dr. William Chase,
who has been connected with the work of the Biological Survey in
these regions. Mr. AV. J. McDonald, the forester, takes me out some
miles into the very rugged country, where there are still plenty of
bear and mountain goat. After which Doctor Chase takes me to the
old Russian and Indian cemetery. There are many graves, mostly
36 ANTHUOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. axn. 4G
Indian, but also a few whites, and even a Chinaman. Russian
crosses are still common. The older Indian part could be easily
excavated. Learn of skulls and bones on " mummy " island in Prince
William Sound.
hiMans. — See quite a few. Nearly all appear more or less mixed;
color in these more or less pronounced tan with red in cheeks and
.some tendency to paleness. Heads still all brachycephalic and of
only moderate height; faces bi'oad, noses not prominent, in males
tend to large.
Two adult men, evidently full-bloods — jDui-e Indian type of the
brachycephalic form, head moderate in size, medium short, face not
very large, nose slightly or moderately convex, not prominent, but
all Indian. Color of skin submedium to near medium brown, no trace
of whitish or pink. Stature and build medium; feet rather small;
hair typical Indian, black, straight ; beard sparse and short ; mustache
sparse, no hair on sides of the face.
The boat makes two or three more commercial and passenger
stops before reaching Seward, the main one at Valdez, the terminal
of the Richardson Trail to the interior. These stops permit us to
see some fish canneries, which are of both general and anthropologi-
cal interest. These establishments employ Japanese, Philippine, and
Chinese labor, and it was found to be (juite a task to distinguish
these, and to tell them from the coast Indians. The Chinamen can
be distinguished most often, though not always, the Japanese less
so, while the Filipino usually can not be told from the Indian, even
by an expert. Here was a striking practical lesson in relationships.
Seward — Anchorage. — Seward found to be a fine little town, full
of the same good brand of people that one finds everywhere in
Alaska and who go so far to restore one's faith in humanity. It
is the terminus of the Government railroad to Fairbanks and a port
of some importance.
Indmn hmket)n/. — No Indians were seen here, though some come
occasionally. But several of the stores, including that of the Seward
Drug Co. (Mr. Elwyn Swestmann), have an unexpectedly good
sujoply of decorated Alaska Indian baskets. It was found later, in
fact, that the Alaskan Indians, with the Aleutians, compare well in
basketry with those of Arizona and California.
Anchorage. — June 12-13. Anchorage, on Cook's Inlet, is a good-
sized town for Alaska and the headquarters of the railroad. Here
"were met some very good friends, particularly Mr. Noel W. Smith,
general manager of the railroad; Dr. J. H. Romig, formerly of the
Kuskokwim; and Mr. B. B. Mozee, the Indian supervisor. Here, at
Ellis Hall, I lectured on " The Origin and Racial Affiliations of
the Indians," and the large audience included seven male (some full
hrdluka] INTEODUCTION 37
blood) and two female (mix blood) Indians — of the latter, one very
pretty, approaching a Spanish type of beauty. Near town I also
visited with a launch two small Indian fishing camijs. From Doctor
Romig information was obtained about the Indians and some old
sites of the Kusltokwim ; and through the kindness of Messrs. Smith
and Mozee I was enabled to visit the Indian school at Eklutna. Here
at Anchorage I also was given the first and rather rare old Indian
stone implement.
The Indians at the camps included 6 full bloods — i men, 2 women.
One of the men tested on chest. Typical full-blood results.
Type of full bloods : Color slightly submedium to medium brown,
never darker; heads, subbrachyceplialic to full brachycephalic,
rather small; forehead in men more or less sloping in two; face,,
not large, Indian; nose tends to convex but not high. Indian in
features and behavior, but features not as pronounced as general
in the States tribes.
The full bloods in town : Medium to short stature, not massive
frames, moderate-sized faces, Indian type, but not the pronounced
form; head brachycephalic ; hair all black; mustache and beard
scarce, as in Indians in general; color of skin submedium brown.
Children in camp (up to about 5 years) were striking by a relative-
ly considerable interorbital breadth, otherwise typical Indian.
Birch-haTk dishes. — At Anchorage, in several of the stores, but
particulai'ly at one small store, were seen many nicely decorated
birch-bark dishes or recej^tacles. They are made by inland Indians,
are prettily decorated with colored porcupine quills, and evidently
take the place of the baskets of other tribes. It was difficult to learn
just what Indians made the best or most, though the Tananti
people were mentioned. No such fine assortment of these dishes
was seen aftei' leaving Anchorage.
EJilutua. — Sixteen miles from Anchorage, along the railroad, is
the Indian village and school Eklutna. ]\Ir. Smith made it possible
for me to reach this place on a freight and to be picked up later the
same day by the passenger train.
At Eklutna was found an isolated but prettily located and well-
kept Indian school, with about fifty children from many parts of
soutliwestern Alaska. More than half of these children showed
more or less admixture of white blood, but there was a minority of
unquestionable full bloods. There were two children from Kodiak
Island and two or three southern Eskimo. The main impression
after a detailed look at the children was that, while they all showed
clear Indian affinities and some were typically Indian, yet on the
whole there was a prevalent trace of something Eskimoid in the
physiognomies — an observation that was to be repeated more than
once in other parts of Indian Alaska.
38 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann, 46
Burials. — At a few minutes* walk from the school at Eklutna
there is in a clearing of the forest a small Indian village, with a
late graveyard showing Russian influence. A short distancje
farther, however, according to the Indians, there is an old burial
place of some magnitude, with traces of graves, although quite
obliterated.
Eklutiia — FaJrharikfi. — Since reaching Seward the almost inces-
sant drizzles have ceased and the weather has been fine and pleasantly
warm. Everything is green, grass is luxuriant, and there are many
flowers.
The railroad journey is a regular scenic tour, with its crowning
point a glorious view of Mount McKinley. The trains run only in the
daytime. For the night a stop is made at a railroad hotel, in a
quiet, picturesque location, at the edge of a good-sized river. They
have foxes in cages here and a tame reindeer. There are no nativesi
in this vicinity.
There are two interesting passengers on the train, with both of
vsrhom I became well acquainted. One is Joe Bernard, an explorer
and collector (besides his other occupations) in Alaska and Siberia.
He furnishes me with some valuable pictures and much information.
The other man is Captain Wilkins, the flier of Point Barrow fame,
who strikes me as an able and modest man.
The next day, as the train stops at Nenana, I am met, thanks to a
word sent by Mr. Noel W. Smith, by Chief Thomas and a group of
his people. These behave kindly and tell me of a potlatch to be held
at Tanana " after some days," where they will visit. The chief im-
presses me with his rather refined though thoroughly Indian
countenance.
Fairbanks. — Before reaching Fair-banks, the inland capital of
Alaska, I am met by Prof. C. E. Bunnell, head of the Alaska Agri-
cultural College. This college, located on an elevation about 4 miles
out of the city, I visit with Professor Bunnell soon after arrival, to
find there some interesting paleontological and archeological collec-
tions. Here are fair beginnings which well deserve the good will of
the Alaskans. Unfortunately the college has not yet the means
for any substantial progress or research in these lines, and the collec-
tions are housed in a frame building where they are in serious danger
from fire. But their presence will aid, doubtless, in the saving of
other material of similar nature from the Tanana region, and speci-
mens of special scientific importance will doubtless be i-ef erred to
scientific institutions outside.
Fairbanks is a good-sized town, built on the wide flats of the
Tanana River. Its population, now reduced, includes some civilized
natives, most of whom, however, are mix breeds. A large peti-ified
mammoth tusk on the porch of one of the semi-log houses shows
HRDi.irKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON" 39
that these are regions of more than ordinary biological interest. And
there is soon an occurrence which demonstrates this fuither. Mr.
John Buckley, the deputy marshal, takes me to an old Japanese
resident, now a rooming-house keeper, who has had a hobby of col-
lecting fossils, and who in the end is happy to donate to the Nationa.1
Museum a fine skull of a fossil Alaskan horse, together with some
other specimens, refusing all payment. Such is the human Alaska,
or at least the most of it.
Here, too, to a full hall in the library, a lecture is given on " The
Peopling of Alaska and America," after which follows a return to
Nenana to catch a steamer to the Yukon.
THE WRITER'S TRIP ON THE YUKON
TANAXA YUKON
June 17. Nenana: This is a small town on the Tanana, mostly
railroad buildings, with a hospital; there is one street of stores
(three short blocks), most of them now empty. About half a mile
off a small Indian settlement about an Episcopalian mission.
Country flat on both sides of the rather large river, except for
some hills back of the right shore beyond the railroad bridge, for a
short distance. The river flats seem scarcely 3 or 4 feet above water,
overgrown with brush and a few scrubby trees, later spruce thickets.
Purple flowers (fireweed) strike the eye.
No relics found at Nenana ; no information concerning old sites or
abandoned villages along the stream.
Physically, the Indians seen at Nenana were submedium brown,
good many still full blood, pure Indian type, brachycephalic, faces
(nose, etc.), however, of but medium prominence. Moderate to good
stature.
They are all fairly "civilized," wear white men's clolhing, to
which on gala occasions are added bands or collars of beadwork, and
sjjeak more or less English. The younger men are evidently good
workers.
The distance from Nenana to Tanana is given as about 190 miles
by the river.
The government boat Jacohs^ on which» we shall go down the
Tanana, is a moderate-sized, shallow-bottomed stern-wheeler, and,
like all such boats on these rivers, will push a heavily laden freight
barge before it. There are about a dozen passengers, the boat
labor, a trader or two. All kindly, open. A few women — most of
both sexes of the Scandinavian type. On barge some horses, a cow,
pigs, chickens.
Leave after lunch — very good, generous, and pleasant meal in a
local restaurant that would do credit to a large city ; only the people
40 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. axn. 40
are better, more human. Meals $1, the almost universal price in
Alaska.
Some quaint expressions : When anyone has been away, especially
to the States, they say he was " outside." I am an " outsider ;"
show it " by my collar." Underdone bacon is " easy." To assent
they say " you bet." In a restaurant, to a decent, cheerful girl :
"May i have a little hot coffee?" "You bet!" Which bright
answer is heard so often that one finishes by being shy to ask.
Dogs, of course, do not pull, but " mush." This is from the Cana-
dian French " marche." Dogs do not understand " go " or " go on,"
only " mush."
Extensive flats. Below Nenana these flats, plainly recent alluvial,
are said to extend up to 60 miles to the left (southwestward) and to
20 miles to the right. As one passes nearer they are seen to range
from 3 up to about 8 feet above the level of the river at this stage
of water.
Cabins and fishing camps along the river, mostly flimsy structures,
with a few tents. Indians in some. The Indians are said by the
whites to be pretty lazy, living from day to day; yet they seem
industrious enough in their own camps and in their own way.
Storage or caches, little houses on stilts. Dog houses in rows.
Curious wheel fish traps, revolving like hay or wheat lifting ma-
chines, run by the current. They scoop out the fish and let them fall
into a box, from which the fisherman collects them twice a day. It
is the laziest fishing that could be devised. The contraption is said
to come from the northwest coast, but has become one of the char-
acteristic parts of the scenery along the Tanana and the Yukon.
An Indian camp — stacks of cordwood — canoes.
The day is sunny, moderately warm and rather dry — about as a
warm, dry, fall day with us. The river shows bars, with caught
driftwood; also considerable floating wood. There are seagulls,
said to destroy young ducks and geese and water birds' eggs.
Shores now wooded, mainly poplar, not large. Farther back and
farther down, spruce.
The river averages about 200 to 300 yards but differs much in
places and there are numerous side channels (sloughs) . It is crooked ;
many bends. The current is quite marked, stated to run 4 to 6 miles
an hour. The water is charged with grayish-brown silt, part from
glaciers higher above, part from banks that are being " cut." The
banks are entirely silt, no trace of gravel or stone. Indian camps
getting very scarce. Boat making good time, but now and then re-
quires careful manipulation, with its big, heavy barge in front. Once
driven to shore, but no damage, and after some effort gets away
again. No trouble yet from mosquitoes, but there are some horseflies.
HRDLi.KA] WEITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 41
Pass a large camp — a Finn married to a squaw, and three or four
Indian families — all snug in a clearing of the fresh-looking woods
on the bank of the river.
Bend after bend in the stream, and boat has to follow them all,
and more, for the current and deeper water are now near this bank
and again at the opposite bank.
The water in many places is undermining the bank, exposing
frozen strata of silt. The top often falls in without breaking, with
trees and all, and it then looks like heavy, ragged mats hanging over
the bank, with green trees or bushes dipping into the water, and per-
haps a chnnp of wild roses pi-ojecting from the sward. There are
many low bushes of wild roses in this country, pink and red kinds,
now blooming. Also many small bushes of wild berries — cranberries
(low and high), raspberries, dewberries or blueberi'ies.
Meat is im])orted even to here from Seattle, and carried far down
the Yukon. When received they place it in a " cellar " or hole dug
down to the frozen ground and place the meat there — a natural and
thoroughly efficient refrigerator.
Past Old Minto, a little Indian village, a few little log houses in
a row facing the river, with a wheel fish trap in front (pi. 1, a).
Later a few Indian houses and a " road house '' with a store at Tolo-
vana. Most Indians there (and elsewhere here) died of tlie '' flu "
in 1918, the bodies being left and later buried by the Government.
A few isolated little Indian camps.
The boat ties to trees along the banks. No docks or anything of
that nature. Not many mosquitoes yet, more horseflies, which, how-
ever, do not botlier man very much.
After reaching Hot Springs (right bank), there is seen a long
range of more or less forested, fairly steep-sloped hills along the
right bank, coming right down to the water's edge for miles, with
bush and forested flats opposite. At the end of one of the ravines
with a little stream, right on the bank, remnants of a little glacier
melting very slowly in the sun. Strange contrast, ice and green
touching. Boat making good time along the hills.
June 18. Hardly any sleep. Sun set after 10 and rose about 2.30,
with no more than dusk between. Then heat in the cabin, and above
all the noises. The boat stuck five hours on a bar and there were all
sorts of jerks and shudders and calls.
Flats again on both sides, but hills beyond, with just one little
spot of snow. Will be warm day again.
ANCIENT MAN
Prospects of old remains of man all along the river are slight if
any. Old silt flats have doubtless been mostly washed away (as now)
and rebuilt. Only on the older parts, now often far from water,
88253°— 30 4
42 ANTHEOPOLOGtCA^L SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
could anything remain and there it is all a jungle of forest with un-
dergrowth, with all surface traces absent (no stone, no shell), and no
one here to find things accidentally. As to the hills that approach
the river, the slopes (shales, overlain by what looks like stratified
mud and silt rock) are mostly of recent exposure, and have doubt-
less been receding slowly through erosion, so that the bank line along
them is not old ; and their valleys are few, narrow, and were higher
formerly as well as more extended toward where the river flowed
then. The only hopeful spot is about Hot Springs, where fossil
animal remains are said to exist, but here nothing as yet has been
noted suggesting ancient man.
June 18, 4 p. m. River getting broader. Some low dunes. In
distance a range of bluish hills before us — the hills along the Yukon.
Boat meandering from side to side. Every now and then a necessary
steam blow-out of mud, or a short whistle, hurry of a man over the
top of the barge and of two half-breeds along its side to the prow
to test, with long pointed and graduated poles, the depth of the
water, calling it out to the captain. The calls range from " no
bottom '■ to " 4 feet," at the latter of which the boat begins to touch
and back water.
5 p. m. Arrived at Tanana, a cheerful looking town, extending
over about half a mile along the right bank of the Yukon, here
about 20 feet high ; but now, with the gold rush over, rather " slack "
on both business and population, as are all other Yukon towns.
Somewhat disappointed with the Yukon — not as majestic here as
expected. See storekeeper — introduced by captain. Hear good news.
The Indians have a big potlatch at the mission, 2 miles above.
Tanana Indians expected. And there will be many in attendance.
Rumors of this potlatch were heard before, but this was the first
definite information. Get on a little motor boat with Indians who
were making some purchases, and go to the St. Thomas Episcopal
Mission, Mr. Fullerton in charge.
THE INDIANS AT TANANA
The mission above Tanana is beautifully located on the elevated
right Yukon bank, facing Nuklukhayet island and point, the latter,
according to old reports, an old trading and meeting spot of the
Kuchin tribes, and the confluence of the Tanana with the Yukon.
The mission house, located on rising ground, the wooden church
lower down, the cemetery a bit farther up, and the Indian village a
bit farther downstream, with their colors and that of the luxuriant
vegetation, form a picturesque cluster.
I am kindly received by Mr. Fullerton and his wife and given
accommodation in their house. On the part of the good-sized In-
HKDLiCKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 43
dian village everything is life and bustle and we soon are over.
Motor launches owned and operated by the Indians in the river;
dogs, scores of the big, half -wild, noisy sled dogs tied to stakes along
the slope of the bank, fighting stray ones, barking in whole out-
bursts, feeding on smelly fish, or digging cooling holes into the bank
in which they hide most of the body from the warm rays of the
sun; and many Indians, about 400 in all, in whole families, in houses,
large canvas tents, cooking, eating, visiting — a busy multitude, but
with white man's clothes, utensils, etc., not nearly so interesting
as a group of more primitivie Indians would be.
Walk, visit, talk, and observe. Note many mix-bloods, especially
among the younger ones and the children. Among the full bloods,
many, about one-half, with features reminding more or less of Eski-
moid; but a few typically Indian, i. e., like most of the States
Indians.
Medium stature, substantial but not massive build, quite a few of
the older women stout. Color of full bloods generally near medium
bi-own. features regular Indian but not exaggerated, noses rather
low especially in upper half, eyes and hair Indian. Epicanthus
not excessive in children, absent in adults (traces in younger women),
eyes not markedly oblique. Behavior, Indian.
The more pi'onounced Eskimoids have flatter and longer faces,
more oblique eyes, and more marked epicanthus. They should come,
it would seem, from Eskimo admixture. The Tanana Indians
(Nenana) did not, so far as seen, show sucli physiognomies.
Toward evening, and especially after supper, natives sing and
dance. Songs of Indian characteristics, and yet different from those
in south ; some more exiDressive. A song " for dead mother," very
sad. affects some to crying aloud (a woman, a man). A wash song — a
row of women and even some men imitating, standing in a row, the
movements in washing, while others sing; humorous. A dance in a
line, curving to a circle, of a more typical Indian character. Late
at night, a war dance, with much supple contortion. Also other
songs and dances up to 2.30 a. m. — heard in bed.
June 19. With dogs barking and whining and Indians singing, got
little rest. All Indians sleep until afternoon. No chance of doing
anything, so go down to town to get instruments and blanks. Find
that storekeeper has an old stone ax — sells it to me for $1. Also
tells of a farmer who has one — go there with the boat and obtain
it as a gift; told of another one — a Finn — has two, sells them for $i.
Come from the gravelly bank of the river or are dug out in garden-
ing. There may well have been old settlements in this favorable
location. After return, visit some tents to see sick. Much sickness —
eyes, tuberculosis — now and then probably syphilis.
44 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SUEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann.46
Indians relatively civilized, more than expected, and most speak
tolerable English. Have flags, guns, sleep in some cases on iron
beds and under mosquito netting, smoke cigarettes and cigars; and
even play fiddles. Of course some have also learned the white man's
cupidity and vices.
This day I met with something unexpected, due to perversity of
mix-breed nature. Seeing so many Indians present, and after a
good reception by them the evening preceding, I thought of utiliz-
ing the occasion for taking some measurements. I therefore men-
tioned the thing to some of the head men shortly after my arrival
and receiving what seemed assent, went to-day to Tanana to
get my instruments. On coming back and finding a few of the old
men. who were quite friendly, I invited them into the "kashim"
(community house) and began to question them on old sites, etc.,
when in came, probably somewhat under the influence of liquor,
a mix-breed to whom I had been introduced the night before and
who at that time acted quite civilly, but now coming forward began
rather loudly and offensively to question about what I wanted here
and about authority, giving me to understand at last quite plainly
that he wanted to " be paid "' if I was to take any measurements.
He claimed to be one of the " chiefs," and I would not be allowed
to do anything without his help. His harangue quite disturbed
the other Indians, who evidently were both ashamed and afraid
of the fellow. And as I would not be coerced into employing and
paying him, and there being no one, as I learned, of supreme author-
ity, the "chief" of these Indians being little more than a figurehead,
it was decided to give up the attempt at measurements. The rest
of the visit was therefore given to further observations and to the
witnessing of the potlatch. Chief Joseph (pi. 14), nominally the
head of these Yukon Indians, expressed his sorrow and tried to
make amends by offering himself.
The potlatch was evidently in the main a social gathering of
the Yukon Indians, with the Tanana natives as visitors. It con-
sisted mainly of eating, singing, and dancing, to be terminated
by a big " give-away." This latter was witnessed. It proved a
disappointing and rather senseless affair. The whole transaction
consists in the buying and gathering, and on this occasion giving
away, of all sorts of objects, by some one, or several, who have lost
a husband, wife, mother, etc., during the preceding year. The pos-
sessions of the deceased are included in this and doubtless often
transmit disease. All the color of the observance is now gone.
The goods — blankets, clothing, fabrics, guns, and many other ob-
jects, even pieces of furniture, trunks, or stoves — are gathered in
the open and when the time comes are one after another selected
HKDLICKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 45
by those dispensings and brought to this or that man or woman of
those who have gathered around. No song, no ceremony, no talks,
no thanking, no " wake " following. Just a poor shadow of some-
thing that formerly may have been a tragic, memorable, and meaning
occasion.
Eeturned to Tanana near 10 p. m. and found lodging with a store-
keeper who kept a " hotel." Got a big room, big bed, and when
store closed was alone in the house, the storekeeper sleeping else-
where.
June 20. But, Alaska was evidently not made for sleepers. Had
not a wink until after 3 a. m. — daylight, people talking loud and
walking on the board walk outside, and heard so clearly in my
room — loud-laughing girls, the dogs, and at last another boat with
its siren; and every now and then a singing mosquito trying to get
at me through even the small opening left under the sheet for
breathing — there being no netting. Finally doze off, to wake near
9 a. m., but everything closed, deadlike. However, go to a little
frame house for breakfast, and in waiting until it is made find my-
self with two elderly men who go to-day down the river with their
boats. One is a former store clerk, etc., and now an " optician " —
peddles eyeglasses down the river ; the other was a prospector, miner,
and blacksmith, now an itinerant " jeweler " and a reputed " hootch "
peddler. As the latter — otherwise a pretty good fellow — has a
good-sized though old boat, arrange to go down with him. See the
marshal, storekeeper, settle with my hotel man (had to go at 11 to
awake him), and ready to start.
The outfit is largely homemade, not imposing, old, unpainted, and
unfit for the rough — but it could be worse. It consists of a scow,
a low, flat-bottomed boat, partly covered with canvas roof on birch
hoops, in which Peake (the owner) carries fresh meat to some one,
a stove, dishes, bedding, and many other things ; and the motor boat
proper, in which there is little room except for the machine and its
tender. The latter sits on a soap box ; I, on a seat extemporized from
a cylindrical piece of firewood with a little board across it, with my
two boxes aJid bedding within easy reach. Sit in front of the scow,
except when driven back by spray. But our motor works and so we
start quite well at some time after 11. The arrangement is to stoj) at
every white man's camp or settlement down to Ruby. I could have
gone on a better boat with its owner, but they charge here $15 a day,
with " keep," and twice the amount for the return of the man and
the boat, which is beyond my resources.
Tanana — Ruby. The river is clearer than the Tanana, and much
broader. It is a great fine stream and its shores, while mostly still
low on the left, on the right rise here and there into moderate loess
46 ANTHROPOLOGICAL. SUEVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
bluffs, far beyond which are seen higher elevations and bluish for-
ested mountains. All covei-ed with poplar and spruce.
2.15 p. m. Wind has so increased that the scow bumps and squeaks
and there is danger of opening its seams. Therefore side to the
beach and make lunch — a roast of fat pork, oversalted, canned
spinach, dry bread, and black coffee. All on a simple, old, but effici-
ent little stove in the boat. Our companion, the oculist, rides not
with us but in a nice little green canoe with a plaything of a gasoline
motor fastened to the backboard, but we all eat and sleep together.
But a few small Indian camps seen, and no white man's house.
Soon after lunch, however, approach "The Old Station," where
there are a few Indian houses, and later a white man's place (Bur-
chell's). Stop at the latter. Learn that we are 20 miles from
Tanana and on a 5-mile-long channel. There are here 15 to 40 feet
high loesslike (silt) bluffs with a flat on the top, which latter
was from far back one of the most im'portant sites of the Indians
of these regions. Mr. Burchell and his partner kindly take me back,
with their better boat, to the main old site. Many old gi-aves there,
a few still marked. Traces of dugouts (birch-bark lined), houses,
caches, etc., from Burchell's place to old main site. Important
place that deserves to be thoroughly excavated, though this wiU
entail no little work. Site was of the choicest, dominant, healthy.
Connects by a trail, still traceable, with the Koyukuk region.
There are said to be no traces of pottery in any of these parts.
But average to very large stone axes are washed out occasionally
from the banks, and other articles are dug out (long ivory spear,
bone scraper, etc.). Promise of bones, etc., by Mr. Burchell.
One hundred miles more to Ruby. Near 8 p. m. start again — sun
still high, little wind — endeavor to get to the " bone yard," a great
bank bearing fossils. Fine clean scenery, flat on left, flat to elevated
with grey-blue mountainous beyond on right. Water now calm and
we make good progress. Very few camps — dogs on the beach, fish-
drying racks a little farther, then a little log cabin and perhaps a
tent, with somewhere near by in the river the inevitable fish wheel,
turning slowly with the current.
Had %upper at Burchell's ; white fish, boiled potato, coffee, some
canned greens.
Scenery in spots precious, virginal, fiat at the river, elevated be-
hind, foreground covered by the lighter green of poplars and birches,
with upright, somber, dark spruce behind. Sun on the right, half
moon on the left, and river like a big glassy lake, just rippling a
little here and there. Cooler — need a coat. On right, getting
gradually nearer the mountains.
HEDLiOKA] WEITER'S TRIP OX YUKON 47
Near 10 p. m. Snn still above horizon. On left a long (several
miles), mostly wooded, but here and there denuded, palisadelike
bank, apparentl}' 200-400 feet hiirh — the " graveyard."
Monday, June 21. Just at sunset last night — after 10 oclock —
came to the " bone yard " bank — a long curving line of loess bluffs
100 to 300 feet high, steep right to ^Yater's edge, riven by many ra-
vines. Lowest third (approximately) light compact loess; then a
thick layer of river sand (stratified more or less) and small gravel,
then from one-third to nearly two-fifths of darker loess. In spots
quite dark, frozen, but on surface melting, " running," also tumbling
in smaller or larger masses. Wherever darker there emanates from
it and spreads far out over the river a decided mummylike smell.
Too late to photograph from boat, and no other place available.
Also impracticable to explore with any detail — would take several
days and be a difficult work. The bluffs become gradually lower
downstream. Xo bones seen from boat, but mostly were not near
enough to discern. A remarkable formation, in many ways, and
in need of masterly study as well as description.
Night on a low gravelly and pebbly beach. Many mosquitoes.
Mosquito netting found bad — sides too short (gave directions, but
they were disregarded) and mesh not small enough. In a short time
impossible to stay under. Supplemented by old netting of Mr.
Peake, who will sleep under his canvas in the boat ; but the old dirty
net has holes in it and the mosquitoes keep on coming through the
two. Fighting them imtil some time after midnight, then under all
my things — netting, blanket, clothes — find some rest, sleeping until
4.30 a. m. After that — full day. of course^sleep impossible. The
"optician," who slept well under proper Alaska netting, gets up,
wakes my man; we both get up, shake, roll up bedding, have a cat-
wash, then breakfast, and at G.30 off once more along the beautiful
but not hospitable river.
Inquiry at a local white man's cabin about fossils and Indian
things negative — has paid no attention, and fossil bones that he
sometimes comes across generally not in good state of preservation.
Eight bank now hilly, with greater hills and then mountains be-
hind. Warm, river smooth, just a light breeze. How puny we are
in all this greatness.
A lot of trouble develops with the engine to-day — bad pump.
Will not get to Ruby until evening. Meat, on which I must sit
occasionally, begins to smell, and there are numerous horseflies,
probably attracted by the smell.
Four p. m. Visit Kokrines, on a high bank, native village, ceme-
tery. Photograph some natives, are good natured, talk pidgin Eng-
lish. Clearly considerable old Eskimo admixture, but the substratum
48 ANTHROPOLOGICALi SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
and main portion is Indian. All kind and cheerful here, glad to
have pictures taken. Only white man is a " road-house " keeper ;
i. e., storekeeper. Store, however, poorly stocked, probably in all not
over $200 worth of goods. " Optician," who is hoggish, has head-
ache, but eats and drinks all he can nevertheless. " Jeweler " re-
paired his pump, and so we are once more on the way — 35 miles more
to Ruby. No trace of any relics at Kokrines.
River now a mile wide, with many " slews " (side channels,
sloughs), and many low, flat, forested islands. Mountains to right,
higher, traces of snow. Smoke wall from forest fire advancing from
the west — now also smell. Islands beautiful, fresh colors and clean —
light grass on border, then green and grayish poplars, birches, and
alder, from among which rise the blacldsh green spruces. Little
native fishing camps a mile or two apart, right bank — on left wilder-
ness of flats, as usual.
A few miles above Ruby conditions change — ^liigh bluffs (rocky)
now on left, flat on right side. Ruby, from a distance and after the
loneliness of the day, looks quite a little town on the left bank, at
the base of the higher ground.
Ruby
June 22-23. Our approach to Ruby was very modest. With
Mr. Peake paid off, we just sided against and tied to the bank, on
which are the lowest houses of the village, and carried out my boxes
and bedding on the bank. There two or three men were idly watch-
ing our arrival. I asked about the local marshal, to whom I had a
note, and had my things carried to the combined post office and hotel.
In almost no time I meet Mr. Thomas H. Long, the marshal, become
acquainted with the people about, tell my mission, and begin to col-
lect. It does not take long for one properly introduced to be thor-
oughly and warmly at home in Alaska. The first specimen I get is a
fine fossilized mammoth molar. It is brought to me by Albert
Verkinik, who was about to depart for some mines, but went back to
get the tooth. And he asks no compensation.
The parts of two days spent at Ruby were quite profitable. Visit-
ing, and in the jail, were several Indians who could be noted and
photographed. At the old jail there were two skulls of Indians
that were donated. The teacher had two of the characteristic Yukon
two-grooved axes. The postmaster, Mr. H. E. Clarke, gave a col-
lection of fre,sh animal skulls. Mr. Louis Pilback donated two mam-
moth molars, found 2 miles up the Yukon on Little Melozey Creek,
about 8 feet deep, in the muck right over the gravel. Mrs. Monica
Silas brought me a good old stone knife. Several of the men took
me down to the beach to see a damaged fossil elephant skull, also to
HBDLieKA] WEITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 49
see some fossiliferous workings above the town. Another party took
me a few miles up and across the river to see an Indian camp and
near by some old burials. The collections were sent through parcel
post; and the evening before departure I gave a lecture to an atten-
tive and respectful audience.
The town itself, however, is now a mere damaged and crumbling
shell of what it was in the heyday of its glory, during the gold rush.
Many of the frame dwellings and stores are empty ; the board side-
walks are rickety and with big holes; and in the air is a general lack
of impetus.
June 23. Failing to find another suitable boat, I once more made
an arrangement to go farther down the river with Mr. Peake and
his friend. Peake's boat and scow were not much to look at, and
the troubles with the engine, and with its owner's raw swearing at
times, were somewhat trying; but for my purpose the outfit did well
enough, and I was treated very well and given all needed oppor-
tunity to examine what was of importance on the banks. I was
quite sorry when eventually we had to part company, and I know
Mr. Peake has not forgotten my quest, for I heard of his talking
about it to partie^, with whom I was very glad to come in contact,
on the Kuskokwim.
June 23. The sunny evening of my second busy day at Ruby,
near 10 p. m., Peake unexpectedly comes to the hotel to tell me he
will be ready to start to-night, on account of quiet water. His
wash " is being ironed " and will be ready soon. The marshal comes
in, calls the prisoners to take down my baggage, and at 10.15, after
true, hearty good-byes, I am once more in the old scow. Then Peake
goes for his wash, with an Indian woman, and does not come until
near 11. River peaceful, sun shortly set, sky somewhat cloudy, for-
est fire on opposite shore below still smoking a great deal. Leaving
good people at Ruby, who promise to help in the future. It is
getting much cooler after a pretty warm day. Will lie on the hard
boxes and try to get a little sleep.
Thursday, June 24. We went long into the night, then stopped
at a lone cabin. Up timely, but slow start — it is 10.10 a. m. before
we go. The time gained at night lost now — bad habits. Breeze up
the river, occasionally strong, but not severe.
The cabin was the " Dutchman's," or Meyer's. He came out at
1 a. m. to meet us, at the bark of his big dogs, a good-heai'ted,
weather-seared prospector, fisherman, and trapper of about 40, alone
with his huskies. Asked me into his little log hut, prepared a place
for my bedding on a frame, burned powder against the mosquitoes,
brought out from cool " cellar " a bottle of root beer he brews, and
then we went to sleep. But dogs kept waking us and Meyer went
50 ANTHROPOLOGIC.Uli SURVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
out several times to qtiiet them. Fall asleep at 3.20 and oblivious
imtil near 7. Meyer forces on me six bottles of root beer. I leave
him some prescriptions, and taking my bed roll we go down to the
boat. M}^ men still sleeping, as I expected. And then slow awaken-
ing, breakfast, and late starting.
Meyer never saw any Indian bones or stones, but promises cheer-
fully to watch for them hereafter and to make inquiries. Of course,
he also, like so many in these lands, tells of a " prospect " of a gold
find, and is quite confident he'll " make good." As usual, also, it
is a " lead " that was " lost " and he believes he has found it. And
all the time the gold is inside, not outside, of these hunters of the
yellow star.
Hills on the right again; flat islands, banks, etc., on the left.
Meyer's is 18 miles down from Ruby, right bank. About 5 miles
farther down on the slopes of the right bank is a pretty little In-
dian graveyard (pi. 1, 6), and a little lower down there are three
now empty Indian huts.
Hills and mountains seen also now beyond the wide flats of the
left bank. The hills on right, along which we pass, are more or less
forested, but often just bushy and grassy. They' rise to about 600
to 700 feet and the slopes are seldom steep. Along their base there
are many elevated platforms, low swells, and nooks, that could have
served of old — as they serve here and there now — for native habita-
tion, though only few could have accommodated larger villages.
Pass an Indian camp — the inevitable staked dogs; a swimming
boy — first being seen bathing in the open.
Whiskey Creek next. Sixty-two dogs, all along the bank, and
each one-half or more in his own cooling hole ; holes they dig down
to near the frozen ground. A settler, and two Indians — a photo-
graph. No relics or bones now, but will watch ; promise also to save
some animal skulls, etc.
Twelve o'clock. Off again. Day better now, less squally, warm.
Hills above and below lower and earthy — loess, at least much of
it. The right shore is all along sunnier, higher, more beautiful, and
more open to wind (less mosquitoes). These are the reasons, doubt-
less, why it was of old and is still the favored side for habitations
by natives as well as whites.
Just before reaching " Old Lowden," overtaken by a rather crazily
driven small motor boat with four young Indians, who hand us a
crude message for the storekeeper at Galena, telling him that a baby
in the camp is to die to-night. I offer to see the baby. Find a boy
infant about one year or a little over, ill evidently with bronchitis.
Father and mother, each about 30, sit over it brooding in dumb
grief, each on one side. Respond not to my presence, and barely so
to my questions. And when I begin to tell to the fellow who inter-
HRDLifKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 51
prets and is some relative that the baby need not die, and what to
do — I note that he is somewhat under the influence of liquor and a
little flushed — to my dismay he begins to rant against me as a doctor
and against the Government, and wants me perforce, seemingly, to
say that the child is going to die and die to-night. There are two
guns around and I almost anticipate his catching hold of one. The
gist of the piecemeal talk is that they believe I am a Government
doctor, who ought to stay four or five days with them and take over
the child's treatment, and yet the fellow insists that the child will
die before next moining. I do not know what they would say or
do to the doctor if he undertook to stay and the child died — or if it
recovered. It is dismal. They have the idea that the " Government "
is obliged to do all sorts of things for them, without being clear
just what, and that it does not do them. They believe, and try to say
so, that I am sent and paid by the Government to treat them.
Probably they have heai'd about the Government medical party that
is to examine conditions along the river this summer, and think that
I do not want to do or give what is necessary. I give all the possi-
ble advice, but there is plainly no inclination to follow it. I offer
some medicine ; they sneer at medicine. Even the father says he does
not understand it or want it. They are all surly and in a dangerous,
stupid mood. So there is nothing left but to go away as well as
one may.
On way down the bank a woman is seen cleaning and cutting
fish — knife steel, with wood or ivory handle, of the Chinese and
Eskimo type. A porcupine, bloated, and with flies and maggots on
it already about the nose, mouth, and eyes, lies next to the woman,
and its turn will probably come next after the fish.
Have modest lunch — canned peai's, a bit of cold bacon left from
morning, a bit of cheese, and coffee; and start once more onward.
So much beauty here, and such human discord.
3.30 p. m. Passing on right bank a line of bluffs, wholly of loess,
about 200 feet high and approximately 4 miles long, and as if shaven
with knife from top to water's edge. After that flats only on both
sides, with but one hill far ahead of us.
Motor trouble again — same old pump; but not for long; in half
an hour on again. A steamer upward passes us — like a stranger, and
power.
Galena
A little town (village), on a flat promontory. An old consump-
tive storekeeper — no knowledge of any old implements or skeletal
remains. Lowden village moved here due to mine opposite and better
site. About 10 Indian houses here; inhabitants now mostly in fish-
ing camps.
52 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. is
From Galena down, low shores and islands as on the Tanana, as
far as can be seen, with mountains, grayish blue, in far distance
(and only occasional glimpses). River never less than three- fourths
of a mile and sometimes together with its sloughs and islands several
miles broad. Some geese; occasional rabbit seen on land; otherwise
but little life. First gulls.
Tlie Indians at Ruby and Galena show here and there an Eskimoid
type, with the younger nearly all mix bloods (with whites). Full
bloods of same type as all along the river, brachycephalic, low to
moderate high vault of head, moderate to medium (rarely above)
stature, medium brown, noses not prominent, concavo-convex, moder-
ately convex or nearly straight, Indian cast of the face, but quite a
few more or less Eskimoid. Not very bright.
Sit in the bottom of the scow, in front, before the stove and make
notes. When we stop, jump out to tie the boat; when leaving, push
it off. Getting sunburnt dark. Forgetting once again that I have
a stomach or any other organ. Only sleep, never fully, much less
than ought to; but even that is somehow much more bearable here
than it would be at home.
6.45 p. m. Suddenly, after a turn, confronted with a steep rocky
promontory about 500 feet high — stratified mud rocks. On side,
high above, a tall white cross; learn later an Indian murdered a
bishop here. A little farther, on a flat below the slope, a small settle-
ment. A remarkable landmark, known as the Bishop's Rock. After-
wards again flats, but some more elevated than before to the left.
River like a great looking-glass. Same character of vegetation and
colors as farther above, but details varied.
At Ruby had made a genuine, effective. Alaska mosquito netting,
and so now feel quite independent of the pest ; also have two bottles
of mosquito oil, which helps. Forunately on the water we are not
bothered.
Toward night reach Koyukuk River, and later on. Koyukuk village,
a pleasant row of houses, white and native, on a high bank. Here,
at last, pass one good night, sleeping under good mosquito netting
in the house and on the bed of an Italian trader. Also had good sup-
per of salmon, and good breakfast of bacon and eggs, and so feel
rested and strong.
Friday, June 25. But in the morning the sky is overcast and every
now and then there is a loose shower. Of course my boon comjjanions
are not ready again until long after 9 o'clock, and then the engine will
not go again, so a longer delay. They were inclined, in fact, to
" lay over," but I urged them on. But they are detei-rained if it rains
a bit more to "tie to" somewhere. Fortunately there is no wind.
About 3 miles below Koyukuk and its flats, the high bluffs with
hrdliCka]
WRITHE'S TRIP ON YUKON 53
Steep more or less shavedlike barren slopes recommence. A gloomy
day.
About 7 miles down, after a large rocky promontory, a small grave-
yard on the side of a hill, with a little native camp about a third of a
mile beyond.
10.'±5 a. m. Beautiful wooded great hills, 400 to 800 feet high, all
along the right bank again, with large V-shaped valleys between. A
fine, rounded, slightly more than usually elevated island ahead. Left
banks flat.
Sun coming out a little; cool, but not unpleasant. No more
showers, river smooth, boat making time. Blue hazy mountains far
to the left front.
Hills to right rocky, strata horizontal to warped, mud rocks, broad
banks of sandy, gravelly or mucky materials, not consolidated, be-
tween hard strata.
Now and then a small Indian camp, usually two or three tents,
Indians, dogs, boats; some drying fish (not much).
11.00 a. m. Another isolated little graveyard, right slope, near an
old camp.
There is no possibility now of excavating any of these graveyards, for
the Indians are in unpleasant disposition toward the Government for
various reasons. But such a place as that near Burchell's could be
excavated as soon as conditions impi'ove. Also that above Ruby and
another opposite and just below Ruby. There are no longer any
superstructures left at these (or but traces) , and the graves, as seen
above Ruby, are near (within 2 feet of) the surface.
No trace or indication of anything older than the double-gi-ooved
ax culture has thus far been seen anywhere in the valley ; and large
stretches of present banks are quite barren.
As we approach Nulato the horizon before us becomes hilly and
mountainous. The sun is now fully out and its waimth is very
pleasant. Pass an Indian woman paddling a canoe ; later an Indian
family going upstream in a motor boat. Most of these Indians
possess a motor boat of some sort, and know how to run it, though
it is not in their nature to be overcareful.
NuLATO
(PI. 1, 6)
Arrive midday. Quite a village, as usual along the water front
on a high bank. Large fancy modern surface burial ground with
brightly painted boxes and flying flags on a hill to the right. Met
by local marshal and doctor ; my things are taken to a little hospital.
Natives here have poor reputation, but now said to be better. Boys
nearly all mix bloods. Several men and women show Eskimo type.
54 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ANN. 48
but majority are Indian to somewhat Eskimoid. Soon find they are
not very well disposed — want pay for everything, and much pay.
Have a few specimens, but to obtain anything from them is difficult.
Have been spoiled.
A visit with the marshal to the site of old Nulato on the proxi-
mate point; nothing there, just a rabbit's skull and a lot of mos-
quitoes. Photograph old graveyard (that of old Nulato), on the
distal point beyond the creek.
Mr. Steinhauser, trader, of Czech descent, helpful and kind. But
nothing further to do here. Steamer that was to be here to-night
or to-morrow will not arive, just learned, until Tuesday (this is
Friday) ; and so must engage a little gasoline boat to the next station,
Kaltag, 40 miles down the river.
Sleep under my new netting in the hospital. In the morning, after
Ijarting with doctor and marshal, start 8.30 a. m. Boat little, shaky,
run by a half-breed boy of about 18. My old scow with Peake and
his companion will stay a day longer. Partly cloudy, warm.
Pass flats, and come again to similar shaved-oil bluffs like yester-
day. We are now running close to the shore so that I can see
everything. Flowers, but not many or many varieties.
9.50 a. m. Pass (about 8 miles from Nulato) a few burials (old
boxes) on right slope. (PI. 1, c.) Indian camp about one-half
mile farther, and a few old abandoned huts and caches.
Everything on and along thei river about the same as yesterday,
except in little details. Sky clouded: light clouds, however. The
boy with me has had good schooling (for a native) and is a good
informer. But there is little of archeological or anthropological
interest hereabouts. (PI. 2, a.)
12.10 p. m. Another rounded island ahead of us; far beyond it
grayish-blue hills and mountains. Six miles more to Kaltag. But
little life here — a few small birds, a lone robin, a lone gull.
Kaltag
1.00 p. m. Kaltag in view — a small modern village on right bank,
less than half the size of Nulato; a nearly compact row of log and
plank houses. Nothing of any special interest seen from distance,
and but little after landing. The old village used to be somewhat
higher up the river.
There is an old abandoned .site also just opposite the present
Kaltag. Another site, " Klenkakaiuh," is, I am told, in the Kaiuh
slough south of Kaltag, in a straight line about 10 miles, but no one
there; and several other old villages in that region along that
slough — same Indians as those of Kaltag. All of Kaltag go there
on occasions, but do not live there permanently any more.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE I
i."
m^^w^
a, "Old Minto" on the Tanana. Indian village. (A. H.. 192fi)
::-::. ^SB^
6. Present Ntilato and its cemetery (on hill to right of village) from some distance up the river.
(A. n., 192(i)
c. The Greyling River site, right banlc. 22 miles ahove Anvik; site and graveyard (male skeleton)
from top of knoll. (A. II., 1926)
BLIREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 2
a, View on the Yukon from above Kaltag. (A. H., 192(j)
b, Indian burial ground, Middle Yukon. (A. n., 192G)
c, Anvik, from the mission. (A. U., iy2(ij
iirdliCka] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 55
At Kaltag Eskimoid features already predominate and some of
those seen are fully like Eskimo.
There is a tradition of an Asiatic (Chukchee) attempt at Kaltag
once.
Later in the afternoon photogi'aph some natives and go with
Mr. Miiller, the storekeeper, and Mr. McLeod, the intelligent local
teacher, on the latter's boat, " hunting " along the banks up the
stream. Meet an old Indian (Eskimo type) paddling a birch-bark
canoe, said to be the only canoe of that sort now on the Yukon.
About three-fourths of a mile above the village see caved bank and
find a skull and bones — " split " old burial of a woman.
A canoe coming, so we all go farther up the beach, pretending to
examine stones. It is only the boy who brought me, however, going
home with some planks, and he grins knowingly.
After that we locate three exposed coffins, two undisturbed and
covered with sod. These two, for fear of irritating the natives, are
left. But the third is wrapped only in birch bark. It was a power-
ful woman. With her a bone tool and a white man's spoon. With
the burial that had tumbled out of the bank there were large blue
and gray beads and three iron bracelets — reserved by the teacher.
I gather all the larger bones and we put them temporarily in a
piece of canvas. It is hard to collect all — the men are apprehensive —
it might be dangerous for them if detected. Everything smoothed
as much as jDossible, and we go across the river to examine two fish
nets belonging to the trader. One of these is found empty ; but the
other contains five large king salmon, 1.5 to 20 pounds each, three
cirowned, two still alive. The latter are hooked, hoisted to the edge
of the boat, killed with a club, and, full of blood, thrown into the
boat — great, stout, fine fish. To secrete our other findings from the
natives the storekeeper gets a large bundle of grass and ties it to
my package. We shall be bringing " medicine."
Arrive home, only to learn that against our information the river
boat has left Tanana on schedule time, is now above Koyukuk. and is
expected to arrive at Kaltag before 8 p. m. Hurriedly pack, a few
more photographs, supper, and the smoke of the steamer begins to
be visible. In a little while she is at the bank, my boxes are brought
down, a greeting with old friends on the boat — the same boat
(Jacobs) on which I went from Xenana to Tanana — and we start off
for Anvik.
Mr. Miiller. the trader at Kaltag, German by birth, has a young,
fairly educated Eskimo wife, a good cook, housekeeper, and mother
of one child. The child is an interesting white-Eskimo blend.
In his .store Mr. Miiller showed me a good-sized heavy bowl of red
stone with a figure seated in a characteristic way near one end. The
specimen was said to have come from an old site on the Kaiuh and
56 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
is of the same type as that at the museum in Juneau and the two
in the east, one at the Museum of the American Indian, New York,
and the other at the University Museum, Philadelphia. Regret-
tably Mr. Miiller would not part with the specimen. (See also p. 34.)
The natives of Kaltag, .so far as seen, are more Eskimoid than
those of any of the other settlements farther up the river.
Fine evening; sit with a passenger going to Nome, until late.
Learn that the boat to St. Michael is waiting for this boat and will
go right on — not suitable for my work. Also we are to stop but a
few minutes at Anvik, where I am to meet Doctor Chapman, the
missionary.
Sunday, June 27. About 5 a. m. arrive in the pretty cove of
Anvik. Received on the bank by Doctor Chapman, the head of the
local Episcopalian mission and school, and also the Anvik post-
master. The doctor for the present is alone, his wife and daughter
having gone to Fairbanks, and so he is also the cook and everything.
In a few minutes, with the help of some native boys, I am with
my boxes in Doctor Chapman's house, and after the boat has left
and the necessities connected with what she left attended to we
have breakfast. I am soon made to feel as much as possible " at
home," and we have a long conversation. Then see a numlier of
chronic patients and incurables; attend a bit lengthy service in
Doctor Chapman's near-by little cliurch; have a lunch with the
ladies at the school; visit the hill graveyard. They have reburied
all the older remains and there is nothing left. Attend an afternoon
service and give a talk to the congregation of about half a dozen
whites and two dozen more or less Eskimoid Indians on the Indians
and our endeavors; and then do some writing, ending the day by
going out for about a mile and a half along the banks of the Anvik
River, looking in vain for signs of something older, human or
animal. (PI. 2, c.)
There are many and bad gnats here just now — how bad I only
learned later, when I found my whole body covered with patches
of their bites ; and also many mosquitoes, which proved particularly
obnoxious during the lunch. As the doctor is alone, the three excel-
lent white ladies of the school, matron and teachers, invited us, as
already mentioned, to lunch with them. We had vegetable soup,
a bit of cheese, two crackers each, a piece of cake, and tea. But I
chose an outlandish chair the seat of which was made of strips of
hide with spaces between ; and from the beginning of the lunch to its
end there was a struggle between the proprieties of the occasion and
the mosquitoes that kept on biting me through the spaces in the seat.
Chairs of this ty{>e, and I finally told that to the ladies to explain
my seeming restlessness during the meal, should be outlawed in
Alaska.
hedliCka] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 57
The Anvik People
The Anvik people, it will be recalled, were the first Yukon natives
seen by a white man. They were discovered in 1834 by Glazunof,
and since then have occupied the same site, located favorably on a
point between the Anvik and the Yukon Rivers. They belonged
to the Inkalik tribe, a name given to them, according to Zagoskin,
by the coast people and signifying " lousy," from the fact that they
never cut their hair, which in consequence, presumably, harbored
some parasites. Their village was the lowest larger settlement of the
Indians on the Yukon, the Eskimo commencing soon after.
The Anviks to-day are clearly seen to be a hybrid lot. There are
unmistakable signs of a prevalent old Eskimo mixture. The men
are nearly all more or leas Eskimoid. and even the head is not infre-
quently narrower, fairly long, jaws much developed. The women,
however, show the Eskimo type less, and the children in a still smaller
measure — they are much more Indian. Yet even some women and
an occasional child are Eskimoid — face flat, long, lower jaw high,
cheek bones prominent forward (like welts on each side of the nose),
whole iDliysiognomy recalling the Eskimo. The more Indianlike
types I'esemble closely those of the ujjper Yukon. There is percep-
tible, too, some mixture with whites, particularly in the young.
To bed about 11. Attic warm and window can not be opened
because of the insects. Sleep not very good; some mosquitoes in
room anyway. Wake up after 3 and just begin to doze off again
when the doctor gets up. About 4 he puts his shoes on—one can
hear every sound throughout the frame house, even every yawn —
and then goes to the kitchen where there soon comes the rattling of
pots. At 4.30 comes up to bid me good morning and ask me if I am
ready to get up and have breakfast. A man with a boat is to be
ready at 6 to take me to some old site. So a little after 5 I get up,
shave, dress and go down. Another night to make up for sometime,
somewhere.
We finish breakfast and the doctor goes to look for the man, but
everything deadlike, no one stirring anywhere. So I pack my stone
specimens from the river above and the bones from Kaltag, etc. It
is 8 a. m. and then at last Harry Lawrence, our man, appears —
having understood to come about that time — and before long we
start, in a good-sized boat, up the Yukon.
Day mostly cloudy but fairly good ; no wind. Must use mosquito
mixture all the time, even after I get on boat, but they quit later.
Am standing on the back of the boat against and over the " house "
over it — inside things shake too much and I can not see enough.
Passing by fish wheels — heaps of fish in their boxes — some just
being caught and dumped in. Picturesque bluffs passed yesterday
88253°— 30 5
58 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IX ALASKA [eth. axn. m
seen to be of volcanic stone, near basalt, not granite, with indication
of minerals. Passing close to vertical cliffs of fissured and frag-
mented rocks 200 to 500 feet high^dangerous. Consolidated vol-
canic ashes with inclosure of many bowlders — fine lessons in geologiy.
Slides of soil and vegetation here and there. Large spruces and
altogether a richer vegetation since this particular rock region was
reached. There was in fact a plain line of demarcation in the vegeta-
tion where the rocks changed.
Sleepy. Afraid to doze and fall off. so go inside. But there the
motor thumps and shakes too much for a nap to be possible.
About 12 miles upstream from Anvik, on the north bank, the min-
eralized rocks and tufa suddenly cease, to be superseded by a line,
several miles long, of sheared-off loess bluffs about 200 feet high.
Here the vegetation changes very perceptibly. Two mammoth jaws
obtained from these deposits have a few years ago been given to Mr.
Gilmore, of the United States National Museum.
22 to 23 miles up the river, north bank, a fine large platform and an
old native site. Many signs still of pit and tunnel houses. A little
farther upstream a hill with abandoned burials. Excavate a grave
on a promontory over the river — not very old — wet and not much
left of soft parts, but succeed in getting the skeleton. Fine middle-
aged adult, somewhat Eskimoid, about typical for this region.
Carry down in a bag, dry on the beach gravel. Lunch on beach;
cheese, bread, coffee. The site is known as that of the Greyling River.
(PI. 2, i.)
Start back a little after 3. Very warm day. River smooth. Sky
looks like there might be a storm later.
Hear of pottery — 40 j'ears ago it was still made at Anvik. Was
black, of poor quality. The women used to put feathers in the clay
" to make the pots stronger." When buried it soon rotted and fell
to pieces. In shapes and otherwise it was much like the Eskimo
pottery. Its decorations consisted of nail or other impressions, in
simple geometrical designs, particidarly about the rim. It was
rather gross, but better pieces did occur, though rarely.
It is becoming plain that there are no known traces of any really
old settlements along the present banks of the Yukon ; nothing be-
yond a few hundred years at most. If there was anything older no
external signs of it have been noted, and no objects of it have ever
been found. It seems certain that the stone imijlements thus far seen
were used and made by the pre-Russian and probably even later
Indians. They all belong to the polished-stone variety. No " paleo-
lithic " type of instrument has yet been seen.
It is also evident that the Eskimo admixture and doubtless also cul-
tural influence extended far up the liver. The farther down the
HHDLlcKA] WRITER'S TRIP OST YUKON 59
river, particularly from Ruby, the more the Eskimoid physical char-
acteristics become marked and the Indian diluted, until at Anvik
most, or at least much, physical and cultural, is clearly Eskimo.
Have further learned quite definitely that native villages on the
Yukon were seldom if ever stable. Have been known (as at Kaltag
and elsewhere) to have changed location as much as three times
within the last few scores of years, though in general they keep to the
same locality in a larger sense of the word. Anvik alone seems to
have remained on the old site since the advent of the whites.
Anvik. Tuesday, June 29. Last night gave talk on evolution to
white teachers, etc. Quite appreciated, regardless of previous state
of mentality.
Caught up with some sleep, even though my attic room was so
hot that the gum from the spruce boards was dropping down on me.
Good breakfast with the doctor — canned grapefruit, corn flakes with
canned milk, bread toasted in the oven, and coffee. .
Pack up my Greyling skeleton — much drier to-da_y — and dispatch
by parcel post, through the doctor as postmaster.
Photograph school children and village. Gnats bad and have to
wear substantial underclothing (limbs are already full of dark red
itching blotches where bitten by them) though it is a hot day again.
The full-blood and especially the slightly mixed children would
be fine, not seldom lovely, were they fully healthy; but their lungs
are often weak or there is some other tubercular trouble.
The color of the full-bloods, juvenile and others, on the body, is
invariably submedium to nea^ medium brown, the exposed parts
darker; and the chest test (mine) for full-bloodedness holds true.
The young are often good looking ; the old rather ugly.
All adults fishing now. the fish running much since a day or
two: all busy at the fish camps, not man}', in the daytime especially,
about the mission.
At noon air fills with haze — soon recognized as smoke from a fire
which is located at only about a mile, and that with the wind, from
the mission. We all hasten to some of the houses in the brush —
find enough clearing about them for safety. The school here burned
two years ago and so all are apprehensive. Natives from across
the river hasten to their caches. Luckily not much wind.
After lunch children come running in saying they hear thunder;
one girl saying in their usual choppy, picturesque way, " Outside
is thunder"; another smaller one says, "It hollers above.'' Before
long a sprinkle and then gradually more and more rain until there
is a downpour followed by several thunderclaps (as with us) and
then some more rain. That, of course, stops the fire from ap-
proaching closer and all is safe. Such storms are rare occurrences
hereabouts.
60 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. axn. 46
My limhs are a sight from the gnats. Must apply Aseptinol.
Worse than any mosquitoes; like the worst chiggers. Poisonous —
some hemolytic substance, which causes also much itching, especially
at night.
Arrange to leave to-morrow. Good people these, unpretentious,
but white through and through.
Mr. Lawrence, the local trader, who with his boy was with me
yesterday, is going to take nie to an old site down the river and then
to Holy Cross. Donates a fine old ivory arrow point from the site
mentioned. Doctor Chapman gives three old dishes and two stone
axe.s — haft on one of recent manufacture. The natives seem to have
nothing of this nature, and no old site is near. The nearest is
Bonasila, where we go to-morrow.
This is truly a fish country. Along the placid Anvik River fish
smell everywhere — dead fish on shore here and there, or fish eggs,
or offal. •
Wednesday, June 30. Hazy and cool. 52° F. Take leave with
friend. Doctor Chapman, then at school, and leave 8 a. m. for
Bonasila.
The gnat pest was bad this morning — could hardly load my bag-
gage; had to apply the smear again, but this helps only where
put and for a time only.
BOXASILA
Close to 10 a. m. arrive at the Bonasila site. Not much —
just a low bank of the big river, not over 4 feet high in front, and
a higher rank grass-covered flat with a' little stream on the left and a
hill on the right. But the flat is full of fossae of old barabras
(pit and tunnel dwellings), all wood on surface gone; and there is a
cemetery to the right and behind, on a slo^ie.
Examine beach and banks minutely until 12. Modest lunch — two
sandwiches, a bit of cake and tea — and then begin to examine the
shore again. Soon after arrival finding bones of animals, some
partly fossilized ; beaver, deer, caribou, bear, fox, dog, etc., all
species still living in Alaska, as found later, though no more in the
immediate neighborhood.
Mosquitoes and gnats bad — use lot of oil. Begin soon to find
remarkably primitive looking stone tools, knockers, scrapers, etc.
Crawl through washed-down trees and brush. Many stones on the
beach show signs of chipping or use. Very crude — a protolithic in-
dustry; but a few pieces better and .showing polished edge. Also
plenty of fragments of pottery, not seldom decorated (indented).
Make quite a collection. And then, to cap it, find parts of human
skeleton, doubtless washed out from the bank. Much missing, but a
HBDLiiKA] WBITEB'S TRIP ON YUKON 61
good bit recovered, and that bit is very striking. (See p. 156.) Also
a cut bone (clean cut, as if by a sharp knife) in situ in the mud
of the bank, and a little birch-bark basket still filled with mud from
the bank, with later a larger basket of same nature in situ; could
save but a piece. Conditions puzzling. Was there an older site
under one more recent ?
2 p. m. About 2 p. m. go to the cemetery. About a dozen burials
recognizable. A pest of mosquitoes and gnats — Lawrence soon
bleeds over face and neck, while I keep them off only by frequent
smearing. He soon has to smear, too. Open five graves — placed
above ground, wooden (split and no nails) boxes covered with earth
and sod. Skeletons all in contracted position, head to the east and
lying on right side. Some in poor condition. Three women, one
man, one child. Gnats swarm in the moss and the graves, and with
the smears, here and there a trickle of blood, the killed pests and
the dust, we soon look lovely. But there is enough of interest.
With each burial appears something — with the man two large blue
Russian beads; first woman — a pottery lamp (or dish), iron knife;
with the second two fire sticks, stone objects (sharj)eners), partly
decayed clay dish; with the third, a Russian bead and a birch-bark
snuffbox; with the child a "killed" (?) glass bottle of old form
and an iron flask; in the grave of an infant (bones gone) a Russian
bead. A grave of a child — bones burned.
6.15 p. m. Rest must be left. Lawrence may be enabled to do
some work in the fall. Leave 6.15; carry quite a lot — in sacks, gaso-
line cans, lard cans. Wonder how I shall be able to send things from
Holy Cross, and what next. Cool, sky overcast whole day.
Holt Cross
Thursday, Julj' 1. Slept on the floor of a little store last night
at Ghost Creek. The Catholic mission at Holy Cross, with all sorts
of room, about li^ miles down, and where, though late and tired, I
visited Father Jules Jette, a renowned student of the dialects of the
Yukon Indians, did not offer to accommodate me, and the trader in
their village could only offer me a " bunk " in one little room with
three other people. So after 10 p. m. we went down to the " Ghost
Creek," where I was gladly given a little corner in the store of Alec
Richardson. Of course there were whining dogs outside, right next
to the store on both sides, and they sang at times (or howled) like
wolves, whose blood they seem to carry. And a cat got closed in with
me and was pulling dried fish about, which she chewed, most of the
night it seemed. So there was not much sleep until from about 5
a. m. to 8.30, after the cat was chased out and the dogs got weary.
Then no breakfast till near 9.30.
62 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [BTH. ANN. 46
Went to mission again to see Father Jette — he is not of the mis-
sion — a fine old Frenchman and scliolar. He was not responsibls for
last night and anyway I was spoiled farther up the river. His
meritorious work deserves to be known and published.
After a verj' simple lunch packed yesterday's collections from the
Bonasila site — five boxes. The parcel post here alone will cost
$20.40. How odd that the transportation of the collections of a
Government institution must be paid for from the little appropria-
tion received for scientific work to another department of the same
Government.
It is cloudy, drizzly, cold. Am endeavoring to leave to-morrow,
but they want $35 to the next station, and the boat does not leave
for St. Micliael until the 11th. Fortunately I am able to send away
the collections, and there will surely be some way down the river.
Ghost Creek
July 1-2, 10.30 p. m. A night on the Yukon. (PL 3, a,) They
have lit a powder against the mosquitoes. Smear the many gnat
bites with Mentholatum — helps but for n, while — and having now my
fine meshed netting, my own bedding, and a clean pillow, I feel
fine, safe from all the pests, and ready for a quiet night, all alone.
Commenced dozing off when a he-cat, who hid in the store at
closing, begins to make all kinds of unnamable noises. Stand it for
a while, but he does not stop and one could never sleep — so crawl
out from the bed, catch the beast, and throw him out.
In again and settling down, when another cat — did not know there
were two here — begins to mew and tries to force its way out under
the door, which is about 2i^ inches above the floor. Persists until
I have to get up the second time. Throw that cat out and in bed
once more.
In a minute, however, the dogs outside espied the cats and began
a pandemonium of howls and yelps and barks. Try hard, but can
not stand it. Moreover, the last cat got on the roof, where I hear
him walking, and he seems in no hurry to get off. So finally have
to get out, catch the cat on the edge of the roof, throw him back into
the store, and to bed for another trial. But soon have to smear the
body; the bites itch too much. The sleepiness is now quite gone.
A mild amusement as to what next. It must be midnight or later
now, and it has grown cold. One blanket is not sufficient. Doze off
a little, wake up with cold, readjust blanket and flaps of bag, doze
off a little again — the dogs commence to howl, just for a song this
time, in two, thi-ee, then a unison. The bites itch bitterly, now here,
now there. The sun has risen ; it is real cold, probably no more than
about 40° to 45° F. And so on until 5.30, when at last fall into
IrEDLICKAJ
WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 63
a deep, dreamless sleep, regardless of light, cats, dogs, and everything
and sleep until 8.30.
Wake up, can not believe my watch; but it goes, and so probably
is right. But no one anywhere yet stirring.
Dress, wash a bit in the muddy river; head feels as if it had been
knocked by something heavy. Make my " roll '' of bedding and
then work on notes, putting down faithfully what has transpired.
About 9.30, at last, the storekeeper comes to say they overslept and
that a cup of coffee will be ready before long.
Friday, July 2. " Ghost Creek " was named so bectiuse of many
burials about the creek. The flat between the hills here is about
three-fourths of a mile long by the water front, with rising slopes,
and used to extend considerably farther out, but was " cut " or
washed away by the river. It has been used for a village site and
burial ground by the old Indians of the vicinity. As the banks
tumble away, bone arrow points, barbed and not, stone scrapers, and
other objects wash out. Graves are found in the ground as well as
above it. Russian influence prevalent in the objects buried with the
bodies, but site extends to pro-Russian time. Same type graves as
at Bonasila, with slight local modifications.
At Bonasila the burials above ground were in boxes of hewn wood,
joined somewhat as the logs in a log house, and without any base.
The body inside was covered with birch bark (three or four pieces),
then covered with the top planks, unfastened, and these in turn
covered with about a foot of earth and sod. At Ghost Creek the
same, but there is an undressed-stake base or platform on which the
sides of the " coffin " rest and with somewhat less earth and sod on
the top of the box. But graves differ here from underground and
birch bark alone (no trace of wood, if any was ever there; but
probably none used) to such aboveground as have iron nails and
sawed planks. Here, as at Bonasila, a few simple articles are
generally found buried at the head, and for these many of the graves
were already despoiled and the skeletal remains scattered or reburied.
There appears to be no line of demarcation between the under-
ground and aboveground graves; possibly the latter were winter
burials, but this must be looked into further.
The bodies here, except the latest, are buried flexed. Exception-
ally, both at Bonasila and here, the planks surrounding the grave
were painted with some mineral pigments which resist decomposition
better than the wood, and decorated in a very good native way with
series of animals and men, caribou, bear, etc. Too faint to photo-
graph, and too bulky and decayed to take away; but decoration much
superior to ordinary Indian pictogra^^hs, and apparently connecting
with the type of art of the northwest coast. It is of interest that
64 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. axn. 46
practically the same decorated burials were seen by Dall amon<i the
Eskimo of Norton Sound (Unalaklik)/ In this case it was prob-
ably the Indian habit that was adopted by the near-by Eskimo, for
none of the more northern Eskimo practiced such burials. The habit
was also known in southeastern Alaska. (PI. 3, b.)
Jim Walker, the helpful local mix-breed trader, has dug out many
of these graves (alone or witli Harry Lawrence), and a good many
of the objects are said to have been taken away by Father O'Hara,
formerly of the Holy Cross Mission.
According to all indications the stone culture of Bonasila and of
Ghost Creek (li^ miles upstream from Holy Cross) were related,
both passing apparently into the Russian period, and that at Ghost
Creek continuing down to our times, for there is still living here an
old man who belongs to this place which once had a large village.
Much could be done yet and saved in both places.
Saturday, July 3. At last slept, notwithstanding everj^thing, and
succeeded even in being warm.
Breakfast 8.30, for a wonder. Two soft-boiled Seattle eggs, two
bits of toast with canned butter (not bad at all), some over-pre-
served raspberries, and a faded-looking nearly cold "flapjack" with
sirup, also mediocre tea. But all goes here, and the stomach calls
for no other attention than to fill it.
Finishing work, getting further information from the old Indian,
writing, and waiting to go away with a trader to Paimute, the first
all-Eskimo village. 25 miles farther down the river. Rains occa-
.sionally, but not very cold. Many gnats when wind moderates.
Lunch — canned sardines ( in this land of fresh salmon ! ) . a bit of
toast, some canned fruit, and that unsavory tea.
Have utilized this day in a profitable manner. Have learned
that there was another burial ground alwut half a mile farther up-
stream, behind an elevation. So got a rowboat and with Jim
Walker's young boy rowed over. Had to wade through high grass
over a wet flat, and then up the rank grass and bush-covered slope,
and there found a number of old burials. All rifled, but most of
the bones still there. So send boy back, on the quiet — there is above
the store the camp of the old man with an old Indian woman and
sick girl — for some boxes, and meanM'hile collect. It is an unceasing
struggle with the mosquitoes and gnats in the tall grass and weeds;
but one after another I find what remains of the usual old box
* .Vlaska and Its Resources, p. in : " Onr attention was/ attracted by the numerous graves.
These are well worth the careful attention of the ethnologist ; many of them arc very old.
The usual fashion is to place the body. (Inuhled up. on its side, in a box of plank hewed
out of spruce logs and about 4 I'cct long ; this is elevated several feet above the ground
on four posts, which project above the coffin or box. The sides are often painted with
red chalk, in figures of fur animals, birds, and fishes."
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 3
a. Midnight on the Yukon
6, Lower middlt; "i iiko:, I ii];i( .1 i.uriil i.dx of a Y'ukon Indian (before 1884) said to have been a
hunter uf Bielui^ai. (.white whalesj, which used to ascend far up the Yukon
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 4
a, Eskimo camp below Pairaute, Yukon River
b, GUI "]iruhiliiliit'" sile V2 miles down from Palmate, ritthl h;ink, jusi tieyomi " r2-m.ile bill.'
(skull, bones, stones)
' site la bunk seon in middle of picture, 12 miles down from Panniite, oppo:?ite that sliown in
preceding figure. (A. li., 1926)
HKDLIOKA] WRITER'S TRIP 0>f YUKON 65
burials. The bones are mostly in good condition. The boy arrives
with several empty gasoline boxes, we gather drier grass and moss,
and pack right on the spot, eventually get to the boat, strike off as
far as pos.sible from the shore so none could see what is carried, and
proceed to Walker's storeliouse. Old Indian and his old crony
nevertheless stand on bank and look long at us. In storehouse boxes
closed, later delivered by the boy to the mail boat, and so that mucli
is saved; for were it not collected, in a few years the weather, vegeta-
tion, and animals, human and other, would destroy everything.
Moreover, the utmost care is taken always to leave everything in as
good shape as found ; and the i-emains taken will be treated so well
and may give us so much that we need that there is no more hesita-
tion in securing them than there would be on the part of a paleon-
tologist in securing old bones for his purposes.
For suj^per, though it is still early, am invited by Simel. an elderly
Jew mail carrier. Have fine meat-and-potato soup, lettuce-and-
cucumber salad (even if the cucumbers from the Holy Cross hot-
house are overripe and bitter), fresh (storage) meat, cooked dried
apples, and poor but hot coffee — all seasoned with the best will and
genuine, simple friendliness.
Max Simel, whose home is at Ophir, has been in this country 29
yeai's, and "never needed to buy a quarter's worth of medicine."
Has a wife in Seattle, also a daughter and a son ; has not seen them
for four years. Wants me to call on them and tell them I met him.
With his companion, Paul Keating, of Holikachakat. gives me some
interesting information. They tell me indejsendently and then to-
gether of an occurrence that shows what may happen along this great
river. A well-known white man and woman, prospectors on their
mail route, have last year thawed and dug out a shaft, nearly 40 feet
deep, through muck and silt, to the gravel, in which they hoped to
get gold; and just before they reached the gravel they found a piece
of calico, old and in bad condition, but still showing some of its
design and color.
7 p. m. It rains, but wind has moderated, and so near 7 p. m.
we start on our way farther down the river, stopping just long enough
at Holy Cross to attend to mj^ reservation for St. Michael. The agent
has no idea when the boat will go — maybe the 11th, maybe not until
the 14th or later.
Going on an old leaky scow with an elderly, faded, chewing, not
very talkative but for all that very kindly and acconunodating man,
who with one hand holds the steering wheel and with the other most
of the time keeps on bailing. He carries supplies for his store and I
my outfit, camera, and umbrella. Sky has here and there cleared,
66 ANTHKOPOI.OGICAL, SXTEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
even patches of sun appear on far-away clean-cut hills. Water not
very rough; make fair time downstream. Banks flat now, river
broad, some hills in distance.
8.00 p. m. Hills nearer ahead of us. Some of the flats look from
distance like fine tree nurseries. Getting cool. Cloudy ahead. The
banks flat and low, no good site for habitation. Not even fishing
camps here — just long " cut-banks " (banks being cut by the river)
and low beaches. Here and there new bars and islands that are
being built by the river. No birds, no boats, just an occasional
floating snag or a rare solitary gull,
Paimute
Paimute down river, I am told, has nothing but Eskimo; Holy
Cross, but a few natives now. mainly Indian; above Holy Cross,
Indian, Eskimo only as adapted or in admixture.
July 3, 8.30 p. m. Hills on right now right before us. Behind first
a fish camp of the Holy Cross Mission natives. River narrows and
bends. Two other fish camps become visible. Stop ; damp, cold,
smoke, fish smell, a few natives, Eskimo. River now like molten
glass, but air damp and cold, and I must sit behind the engine and
keep my hands over the hot exhaust pipe to keep somewhat com-
fortable.
Pass bulging bluffs on right — old stratified shales.
11.00 p. m. Arrive at our destination about 11 p. m. But a few log
huts on the right side of the river, with few others and a primitive
frame church in the back. A little store and a big storehouse (with
skins, etc.), trader's house (log cabin) a few rods away. Open
store, only to find that a pup had been forgotten there, made a lot
of mess and dirt and ate most of one side of bacon.
12.00 p. m. Got to bed in the cabin at 12. Spread bed roll on
two reindeer skins which, with fire in the stove, keep me fairly warm.
Rain in night and several earth tremors — common in these parts;
feel several light ones every night and a stronger one occasionally
even in daytime (a big " fault " in the Alaskan range and a prox-
imity to the Aleutian volcanic zone).
Awake before 8, but as it still rains nothing can be done, while
my man within a few feet of me still snores; stay in blanket till 9.
Modest breakfast at 10 a. m.
10.00 a. m. A little house cleaning — watch kitten clean windows
of the many flies, which it eats; and then my man, a Swede by birth,
sailor, self-taught painter (of ships and sea scenes), and musician
(accordion), goes to bail out the boat. Still full of bites that itch
and need a lot of Aseptinol, which in turn makes underwear look
dreadful. And no liath possible.
hkdliOka] WKITEE-S TRIP OX YUKON 67
Last night met some of the local Eskimo, full bloods, mostly from
the Kuskokwim River. Stronfr, kinder than the Yukon Indians.
But they differ but little in some cases from the latter. They are
medium brown in color, hair exactly like the Indian, beard also —
only the rather flat (not prominent) mid parts of the face, with
rather long and narrow (upper two-thirds) nose, and the cheek
bones protruding more or less forward, with face long (often), due
to the vertical development of the jaws, helps to distinguish them as
Eskimo. There is no clear line of demarcation between the Indian
farther up the river and the Eskimo down here, yet in some here
the Eskimo type is unmistakable. They have more epicanthus,
flatter, longer, and stronger (more massive) face, stronger frame,
rather submcdium length of legs, and less Brachycef)halic (or more
oblong) head, but not the characteristic, narrow and high, keel-
shaped dome that one is used to associate with the Eskimo.
1 p. m. A little lunch — just a cup of coffee and a few crackers.
Photograph two natives.
1.30 p. m. Start toward Russian Mission. Trader carries sugar
in bags and tea for camps.
Near 2. Stop at an Eskimo camp, see sick baby, photograiDh a
few individuals. Get an ax for a pocketbook — old man happy as a
child at the exchange. Made another one happy this morning in
payment for information with one of my steamer caps. (PI. 4. a.)
Pass along the still continuing bulging hills on the right. They
are forested over lower joarts, barren, though mostly greenish, above.
As usual flats on left, devoid of man. Occasionally a fish camp on
right, or a small village, somewhat different, though in essentials
like the Indian (more gregariousness noticeable — up river mostly
individual or at most two or three families) . Every favorable higher
flat or low saddle among the hills on the right and facing the river
(or a slough) is utilized by tlie natives, but such places are scarce.
The ax obtained looks as if it had been broken after found, to make
of it a single-edge tool. Tumbled out of a bank. Old Eskimo knew
not who made it. Found some miles below Paimute by the old man.
Others found, but lost. Ivory arrow and spear points also known
to natives, but no one now has any.
A mountain ahead of us. Sky clouded mostly, high diffuse vapors
and low, heavy but separated cumuli in the east; one would expect
soon a heavy rain. Visibility exceptionally good, horizons far
away, uncommonly clear. Mountains sharply outlined against the
sky.
About 12 miles below Paimute, on left, some higher banks (old silts
and dunes). The ax from the old man had been found here. Stop.
Find pottery 12 feet, charcoal 15 feet from surface, Also polished
68 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann, k
and worked stones. But most of bank has already been cut off and
what remains shows no signs of man on the top. (PI. 4, h.)
Cross river obliquely to right bank, just beyond last (" 12-mile '')
hill. Find at once numerous evidences of stone work along the stony
beach. In an hour have a fair collection, mainly rejects, but interest-
ing. On top of bank find several mounds and ridges, doubtless dunes,
though the one farthest up the river looks very much like a large
oval man-made mound. Parts of two much-weathered skulls and
one bone lay on the top of this. No definite marks of graves except-
ing perhaps in one instance. A sign of old clearing farther down,
but no "barabras." A spot well worthy of exploration. It was, I
learned a little later from Nick Williams, a native who used to act
as a pilot on the river, the old mountain village or " Ingrega-miut,"
and the site is 12 miles downstream from Paimute. (PI. 4, c.)
Beyond are flats and cut banks, both sides, but with hills (old
water front) behind on the right and mountains in front. River
here very wide.
Many of the worked stones, and occasionally, according to native
information, skulls and bones, are washed out from the banks and
deposited (rolling, etc.) lower on the beach in something like strata,
and in that way evidence is being perverted. Some day a new bank
or even a dune may be formed over these secondary deposits and a
great source of possible future error be completed.
All the natives along the river (to here) like to bury on the lower
slopes of near-by hills.
To bed on floor of kitchen tent at the fine, clean little place of
Tucker's, at 10.30. At 1.30 the 20 dogs start a fine, sustained, unison
howl song, and I seem to hear an approaching boat. As the Gov-
ernor of Alaska is ex23ected, slip on shoes and necktie, brush hair,
and run out. There is a little boat at the little " dock " (the only
one seen so far on the Yukon). Tucker and his son are already
there, and I soon hear that the governor is on the boat, which is
that of Mr. Townsend, of the Fish Commission. In a few minutes
we meet, both in shirt sleeves. And I learn the Matanfrnka, the
boat that was to take me from the Russian Mission to St. Michael,
has broken down and is not coming. In her place, but no telling
as to time, will be sent the AgTies, a smaller and slower boat, on
which three people have already this season been " gassed " (over-
come by the exhaust gases), one of them jumping into the river.
She has accommodation for four persons at most, and that of the
most primitive, they say. The governor fortunately gives me some
hope that I may be picked up and taken down by the same boat which
is taking him to Holy Cross. He also tells me of a skull for me at
one of the sto^jping places, Old Hamilton. A frank, good, strong
man.
HRDllfKA]
WEITEE''S TRIP ON YUKON 69
Boat leaves in a few minutes. Back to bed, but now almost full
daylight — also cold, and so no more than a doze until 6.15, at whicli
time the boy comes to the kitchen where I was kindly accommodated
to start fire and breakfast. So up with a drowsy head. At 7 break-
fast — coffee, oatmeal, flapjacks, and good company. Everything
about this place is neat, fresh, pleasing — the best individual place
on the river. Cloudy, blustery, cool; can not start, so go 11/2 miles
down to Dogfish village, or I-ka-thloy-gia-miut — probably the same
as Zagoskin's I-ka-lig-vig-miut. Only three or four families there
now; nearly all the inhabitants died of influenza in 1900. But
already before reaching the village, in examining the stones along
the beach. I find some chipped ones, and they represent the same
industry evidently as those at the two sites yesterday. Later find
numerous chipped scrapers, pointed hammers, crude cutters and
chisels, and a few axes. Make quite a collection, including a few
objects found in possession of natives.
This is a good site, above high water. Must be old. Pottery also
encountered occasionally by present occupants, but not one bead ;
little if any river cutting here for a long jjeriod. Worth exploration.
Photograph another Indianlike Eskimo. Want to buy an old dish
from an Eskimo, border inlaid with six white stones, shaped like an
oblong lozenge with rounded corners, but he wants $20. Lunch all
together, some Eskimo included, at Tucker's, and then as the wind
moderates and the sun comes out, start for the Russian Mission.
Mostly still clouds and cool, with some rain in the mountains to
the right.
Finds and inquiries made at Dogfish village make it positive that
the stone culture there is Eskimo, i. e., of the Eskimo of this region
who are probably not a little mixed with Indians. Their head is
but moderately oblong, not keel shaped. The majority, however,
have Eskimo features.
But the cupid-bow (double-grooved) axes are not known to have
been made by these people, and when used after being found or
brought down ft-om farther up the river they apparently were
broken. One such example was seen already at Ruby — another one
at Anvik — secured ; and one found yesterday at Mountain village.
The axes here are most often oblong, quadrilateral, without gi-oove,
or approaching the single-grooved axes of the Indians in the States.
July 6. Proceed down the river toward Russian Mission, examin-
ing the banks as closely as possible. Toward evening stop at
" Gurtler's," a short distance above the mission.
Mr. Gurtler is a German by birth ; his wife is half Indian, of Rub}'.
She, as well as her 14-year-old daughter, are neat, apt. and very in-
dustrious, quiet and nice mannered. With an Eskimo woman, she
70 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 4«
cleans and cuts up — a whole art of its own — on the average over 200
ffood-sized salmon a day. Clean place, very good smoking house —
much superior to those up the river, except Tucker's.
Sleep in a clean bed of theirs; would much prefer my own and
the hard floor, but fear to offend.
RussiAx Mission
Pack my stones and bones collected between here and Holy Cross,
and after lunch go to Russian Mission. Meet Mr. Cris Betsch. the
trader, and find him both friendly and anxious to help. Teacher
and her mother invite me to supper. Before that Mr. Betsch calls in
a number of the older men, and we have a talk about ancient things,
but they know nothing worth while beyond a few score of years at
most ; they give me, however, some data and names of old villages.
A few years ago some human bones and skulls were dug up here
and reburied. Eskimo readily agree to help us find them and to let
me take them. Moreover, they are quite eager to dig up an old medi-
cine man sujiposed to be buried under a good-sized (for this country)
blue spruce. They get shovels, soon find some of the old bones and a
damaged skull, and later on, with the help of information given by
an elderly woman, uncover also a female skull. Uncover further
the end of two birch-bark-covered coffins, from Russian time, and
would readily dig them out did I not restrain them; as also with
the medicine man. We shall probably get some such specimens from
this locality later, so there is no need of disturbing the burials.
Mrs. Barrick, the teacher, gives us a " civilized '' supiDer, at which I
am introduced for the fir.st time to a great and fine Yukon specialty,
namely, smoked raw strij^s of king salmon, and find them excellent.
Then a good talk with all, after which pack specimens — still some-
what damp, but it would be difficult to wait — deliver to the post, and
am sent to niy place around the hill at a little past 10 p. m. with an
invitation by Mr. Betsch to go to-morrow to* " the slough of the 32
kashims (council or communal house)," about 10 miles down the
river. But I have already been promised by Gurtler to take me
down to this place, and so I can not accept. Just now I need sleep.
July 7. After breakfast examine banks and beach along Gurtler's
place and find two stone implements, two pieces of decorated pot-
tery, and a bone of some animal. Wash, dry, and pack, then a cup
of coffee — the Gurtler's have a habit of drinking a second cup at
about 10 a. m. each day — and then, after some of the seemingly
inevitable trouble with motor, start down the river. It rained yes-
terday; the clouds show low pressure; it is not warm and the water
is somewhat rough.
HRDi.irKA] WKITER'S TRIP ox YUKOlSr 71
Stop a bit at the mission to give Mrs. Barrick a fish and get a bag
or two from Mr. Betsch. and then proceed. From the river the
Eussian Mission settlement is seen to be very favorably situated at
the foot of the southern slope of a big hill. But the recency of the
iiat below and in front of the church and schoolhouse is clearly
seen again. The site about where the church and school are may —
in fact must, it is so favored — be a very old one, and doubtless a
thorough excavation of the sloj^e from the back of the houses
upward would be both easy and very instructive. The place should
by all means receive attention.
Reach and examine the " 32 kashim slough," a beautiful side chan-
nel about T miles long; reach about V/o miles from its entrance.
examine banks and pass through jungle, find tracks of foxes and of
a bear, also see one big beautiful red fox trotting ahead of us on the
other beach — but not a trace of man. Examine also the " mounds "
on Grand Island, but find them to be only dunes.
Lunch on the beach; remarkably few mosquitoes and no gnats;
smoked raw salmon strips again, and coffee; and at 5 leave for home,
it being impossible so late to go down to the end of the channel.
On return all going nicely until 5. Then, in a slough 3i/o miles
from the Russian Mission, after an examination of another likely site,
breakdown of the motor. Do everything possible to make it go until
about 8, but in vain. Then I take the crazy little rowboat that luck-
ily we took with us, bail out the water with our shovel, and row to
the mission for help. Get there about 9, send back a launch with some
natives, have a little supper with the teacher, and row home around
the hill, reaching Gurtler's near 11. In a few minutes the launch
is towed in and all is well once more. Mr. Betsch got for us two
good native '' kantags " or wooden dishes. Also we fix to go down to
the " 32 kashims " to-morrow once more with Mr. Betsch and the
teacher.
July 8. Up a littl§ after 6 ; breakfast ; and then comes in a native
from the mission with two letters and information that the Agnes,
the little mail-carrier boat, has arrived during the night and is wait-
ing for me to take me to Marshall and to Old Hamilton, whence
another boat will take me in a day or two to St. Michael. So get
ready in a minute, put my baggage on a native's boat, pay my bill,
leave another lot of good friends, and row to the mission. There is
the little dinghy Agnes with its "accommodation" for three passengers
already two-thirds filled up, and towing two big logs as a freight.
Put my things partly in a "bunk," partly on the roof, give good-byes
to Betsch and the teacher, help to push off the boat which is stuck in
the mud, and we are off for another Yukon chapter.
72 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
We pass by the lower end of the "32 kashim " sloun;h — no sign of
any site — all I'ecently made flats. If there is anything left of the old
sites it must be at the foot of the hills, or has been covered with silt.
The site is so favorable that in all probability there was once there
a good-sized settlement, but due to river action and the jungle it
could not be located. Mr. Betsch visited the place that day, and again
with some old natives on another occasion, without being more
fortunate.
Cloudy, slightly drizzly day, no trace of sun, mists over the tops of
the hills. Could not stand it in the boat, so sitting on my box on
the roof of the boat, wrapjDed, due to the cold, in a blanket.
A little below the " 32 kashim " slough a small stream enters from
inland — a place to be examined ; but this boat can not stop for such
8 purpose.
A half mile or so farther down a few graves and crosses, with
remnants of a native habitation.
Over 3 miles down, just beyond first bluff, fine site, with low hills
stretching far beyond it — now but a few empty, half-ruined native
houses. Should be explored.
South of second rocky bluff a live camp, and farther down an-
other.
The left side of the river is still all flats as far as one can see,
but about 17 miles below Russian Mission human bones came out of
a bank there (on a slough).
Marshall
At 3 p. m. reach Marshall, a little cheerful-looking mining town,
high on a bank. See the place, identify the skeleton from the above-
mentioned bank as that of a missing white man, see telegraph oper-
ator, i^ostmaster, teacher, commissioner. Sun comes out, is warm.
Almost no mosquitoes here and no gnats. Hills above and beyond
town belong alreadj' to the coast range and are barren of trees, even
largely bare of shrubs and bushes. Leave 4.30.
Soon after Marshall — after passing by an Eskimo village (white
man's style of buildings) — leave the hills and enter flats on both
sides. This is the beginning of the delta region. River like glass,
and it is warm in the sun but very perceptibly cooler when sun is
hidden.
The boat has only three bunks, and there are five of us with the two
pilots. But on the last trip up, there were, fortunately only for
about eight hours, seven, incltuling two women and a child, and that
without any privacy or conveniences whatsoever. It is almost crim-
inal, and they chai-ge a very steep fare. However, for me it will
soon be over — only about 36 hours. Still it is hard to believe this
bedliCka] WEITER'S trip ON YTJKOST 73
is yet in the United States ami presumably under some sort of
supervision.
Which brings me to a realization that the first half of my jour-
ney — the preliminary survey of the Yukon — is slowly closing; a
little, and it will be the sea and other conditions, which also brings
the realization that I have seen much but learned not greatly. What
should be done would be to own a suitable fast boat ; to locate on each
of the more important old sites a partj' for careful, prolonged exca-
vation ; and to try to locate, in the rear of or on the liigher places on
the present river flats, more ancient sites than are known to date.
Tliese steps, together with the enlisting of the interest in these mat-
ters of every jDrospector, miner, and trader, would before many years
lead to much substantial knowledge.
Friday, July 9. Must keep up these notes, for they alone keep me
posted on the day and date ; even then I am not always sure. There
are no Sundays in nature.
Slejjt in my bag on the roof of the Agnes. Her namesake must
have been one of these goodly but insufficient and but indifferently
clean native women, plodding, doing not a little work, but wanting
in many a thing. It was cold and dreary, but I found an additional
blanket, and so, with mosquito netting about my head — one or two
got in anyway — would have slept quite well had it not been for a
dog. At about 1 a. m. we stopped in front of a little place caUed
also ■' Mountain Village." And almost at once we began to hear a
most piteous and insistent wail of a dog who either had colic or thirst
or hunger, and he kept it ujd with but little stops for what seemed
like two hours, making my sleep, at least, impossible.
Saturday, July 9. Morning. Cold, cloudy, rough — head almost
beginning to feel uncomfortable, the boat is tossing so much. A
teacher comes aboard with an inflamed hand which I fix; a few
questions, the mail bag, and we are off again. Enter a slough where
it is less rough and warmer. Later the sun will probably come out
again. This evening we sliall be at Old Hamilton and then a new
anxiety — how to get to St. Michael.
Just had a little walk over the roof — my roof, for the other two
passengers prefer to sleep in the gassy, dingy room below, though how
they can stand it is beyond my medical ken. It is four short steps
long, or five half steps in an oblique direction.
Every object in distance ai^pears magnified all along the river for
many days now. An old snag will look like a boat or a man, hills
look higher, a boat looks much more pretentious than she proves to
be on meeting.
Firs and spruce have now completely disappeared, also forests of
birch, etc., are reduced to brush both on flats and lower parts of hills.
. 88253°— 30 6
74 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [BTH. ANN. 46
Very large portion of the hills in distance just greenish with grass
and lichens, not even a brush.
9.45 a. m. Meet the Mataiiushm bound upward. Looked from dis-
tance like an ocean steamer; from near, just a lumbering, moderate-
sized river boat with a barge in front. But a whole lot better than
ours.
The scenery has become monotonous. The gray river, although
only one of the '' mouths," is broad, and the country is all low.
Nothing but bushy or grassy cut banks on the right, and mud flats,
" smoking ■' under the wind, to low banks on left. It is a little
warmer and the warm sun shows itself occasionally, but I still need
the wrapping of a double blanket. The wind luckily is with us and
the waves not too bad.
Noon. Passing " Fish village " ; a few huts and tents.
No " camps " here outside the few villages ; just an endless dreary
waste and water.
New Hamilton — a few native huts only now — no whites.
Keach Old Hamilton — about a dozen houses with a warehouse,
a store of the Northern Commercial Co., and a nice looking but now
unoccupied school.
Here the governor told me there was somewhere a skull waiting
for me, and the storekeeper would tell me of it. But when we arrive
there are only two or three natives to meet us. The storekeeper,
who is also postmaster, is said to be sick in bed. He is supposed to
have an ulcer or some other bad thing of the stomach. So we go to
his house and find him in bed, with a lot of medicine bottles on a table
next to him. Is alone ; no wife. Shows no enthusiasm in seeing me,
though heard of my coming. Reads letters — no attention to me.
Gets up — I ask him about his illness — answers like a man carrying a
chip on his shoulder. Goes to store to attend to mail, and barely
asks me to follow. I wait in store ; he finishes mail and goes out — ■
orders the Eskimo present out gruffly, and to me says, " You may
stay in the store; I'll be back." But I wait and wait, and finally
decide the man for some reason is unwilling to help me. Asked him
before he went out about the Matanuska, but he told nie she might
not be back from Holy Cross in a month, trying doubtless to dis-
courage me to stay. On going toward the Agnes I find him sitting
on a log and talking to a couple of men from a tugboat that has
arrived — just talk, no business, judging from their laughing. So I
go on the boat, write a few words to Mr. Townsend of the Bureau of
Fisheries, who makes this place his headquarters, and with some
feeling hand this to the man, telling him at the same time that
plainly he does not wish to assist me in any way. This, of course,
rouses him; he gets red and says a few lame words, ending with,
" Do you think I would touch any of them dam things or that
HKDLIlKA]
WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 75
I would let any of my men (natives) touch them? Not on your
life !" So I leave Old Hamilton, for he is the only white man there
now. But the place had other distinctions. Until recently, I am
told, they have had a teacher, a young girl, who in her zeal had the
natives collect all the burial boxes with their contents and had them
all thrown into the river. Xot long after she accomplished that she
left. The storekeeper told me that " If I want them so bad I could
pick them up (skulls and bones) along the river where the water
washed them out after the teacher threw them in." Luckily there
were not many " Old Hamiltons."
We met here a boat from St. Michael with Mr. Frank P. Williams,
the well-known postmaster and trader of St. Michael, who comes
for the two men. my fellow passengers. We get acquainted and, to
escape the gases of the Agnes, I go with them. The boat is heavier
and free from fumes, though without acconmiodation. At about 7
p. m. we arrive at Kotlik, at the mouth of the river — an abandoned
wireless station, a store, and four tents of natives. But the old
wireless building, now the storekeeper's house, is the dwelling place
of a clean white man, Mr. Backlund, who is now "outside," but
with whom Mr. Williams is in some partnership; so we occupy the
building. Outside the wind has risen to half a gale and there are
squalls of rain and drizzle. The Agnes has to " tie to," as she would
be swamped in the open. My boxes and bedding, which were on the
roof of the Agnes, are soaked, though the contents will be dry. So
both boats are fastened to a little "dock," and we soon have fire in
the stove, supper, and then — it is 11 p. m. — a bed, not overclean,
somewhat smelly, but a bed and free from mosquitoes, rain, wind,
and cold.
July 10. Up at 6.30. Outside a storm and rain — just like one of
the three-day northeasters with us, and cool. Both boats were to
leave, but are unable to do so. I find that Mr. Williams's tug will
come back here and go to St. Michael on the 13th, so arrange with
Mr. Williams to take me and leave the Agnes for good. This partly
because I learn of two graveyards near, one li/2) the other 4^4
miles distant.
After lunch, rain for a while ceasing, I set out for the nearer
burial place. This is already a tundra country — treeless and bush-
less flats overgrown with a thick coat of moss, into which feet bury
themselves as in a cushion, and dotted with innumerable swampy
depressions with high swamp grass. Walking over all this is very
difficult — lucky I have rubl)er boots. Even so, it is no easy matter,
except where a little native trail is encountered.
The graveyard, belonging to the now abandoned little village above
Kotlik, consists of only about half a dozen adult graves. These
consist of boxes of heavv lumber laid on a base raised above the
76 ANTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ANN. 46
ground level, and covered with other heavy boards. Some of the
burials are quite recent. Open three older ones. In two the re-
mains are too fresh yet, but from one secure a good female skeleton,
which I pack in a practically new heavy pail, thrown out probably
on the occasion of the last funeral. Then back, farther out, to avoid
notice, through swamps and over moss, and with a recurring wind-
ilriven drizzle against which my umbrella is but a weak protection.
Reach home quite wet and a bit tired. Have to undress and,
wrapped in a blanket, dry my clothes and underwear about the
stove.
Nothing further this day and evening — just wind and heavy low
clouds and rain.
July 11. Up at 4.40. Weather has moderated. The Affiles left
at 4 and Mr. Williams's boat, due to^ favorable tide, must soon go
also. Breakfast, and all leave me before 6.
Yesterday we brought up my needs — i. e., collection of skeletal
material — to the few natives here, explaining to them everything,
and they do not object in the least. One of them, in fact, is to take
me to-day to the more distant cemetery in a rowboat and help me
in my work.
My man, after being sent for, comes at a little after 7. He is a
good-looking and well-behaving Eskimo of about 35. He brings a
good-sized tin rowboat — a whaling or navy boat probably; but "he
leaks a whole lot." The oarlocks are not fastened to the boat, the
plate of one is loose, and the oars are crudely homemade of drift-
wood and pieces of lumber fastened on with nails; in one the shaft
is crooked, while the other is much heavier. But we start, with the
sky still leaden and gray but no wind and calm water. I row
and he paddles; then he rows and I paddle. We carry but the
camera, a little lunch, a heavier coat each, and a box and two bags
for the specimens. We pass a number of broods of little ducks, the
mother prancing before us until the young are in safety, and there
are several species of new kinds (to me) of water birds, some of
which fly right above us, examining us. In the distance we see a
big abandoned dredge, then a few empty log houses and " barabras "
on the bank of a stream and the edge of the tundra. This is Pas-
tolik, our destination. There is no one anj'where near, an ideal con-
dition for work, if work there'll be. And tliere will be — for almost
inmiediately upon landing I see, beginning at a few rods distance
on the tundra, a series (about 50) of old graves, in all grades of
mossiness and preservation. A few are, we later find, quite late, but
the majority are old — 60 years and over according to information
given by the natives of Kotlik. They do not, except perhaps the
few late ones, seem to belong to anyone still living. Yet " Pash-
URDii. KA] WRITER'S TRIP OX YUKON 77
tolik," as they wrote it then, used to be a phice of some importance
in the Russian times, and even later.
We settle in an empty native house, and I start investigation.
The older graves are found widely spread in several clusters, but a
few are isolated at a distance.
The graves are all aboveground and resemble in substance those
along the lower Yukon (Bonasila and downward). They consist
of a base of small logs or splits; a rude box about 3 feet long by
about 2 feet wide, of heavy, unpainted, unnailed, split boards; four
posts near the four corners ; a cover, unjoined, of two to three heavy
split boards; two crosspieces over this, at head and base, perforated
and sliding over the uj^right posts, and a few half splits (smaller
drift logs split in two) laid over the top of the crosspieces.
On the first cover lies as a rule a stone — generally a piece of a
slab or a good-sized pebble — unworked, though now and then show-
ing some trace of use. The pebble is generally broken.
When the grave is opened there is usually over the body, as a
canopy on a light frame, a large (probably caribou) skin — rarely
birch bark. Neither covers or envelops the body but simply forms
a covering over it, with some space between it and the body. The
body lies flexed, on left or (rarely) right side, with the head toward
(or near) the east (same as at Bonasila). It is often covered with
or enveloped in a native matting. There are but few traces of
clothing on women; none on men. And very seldom is there any-
thing else in the coffin.
Some ^f the oldest graves were found tumbled down and could
not be examined. The moss and roots envelop the bones, and it is a
tough job to get them out ; also they eat the bones and destroy them.
Even in the older boxes, however, the downward part of the skele-
ton — generally the left — is, due to moisture, usually in much worse
state of preservation than the upper.
Childi-en have been buried in large native wooden dishes and
these were in some cases placed on the tojs of adult graves, but more
generally about these, or even apart.
Many household articles, from matches and pails to dishes, alarm
clocks, lamps, etc., are placed upon the ground near the more recent
dead. Excavation would probably recover here many older objects,
though wood decays.
The wind has died down and the flat is as full of mosquitoes as a
Jersey salt meadow, and there is an occasional gnat. They bite, and,
having been almost free of the pest at Kotlik, I failed to take my
"juice" along, so just have to do the best possible. The gnats enter
even the eyes, however.
78 ANTHBOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [BTH. ANN. 46
Woi-kas never before. Decide to utilize the rare opportunity to
the limit, and to take the whole skeletons, not merely the skulls, leav-
ing only the few fresher ones and those that are badly damaged. A
great Sunday; burial after burial: opening the wooden grave —
taking out and marking on the spot bone after bone — fighting mos-
quitoes all the while — and packing temporarily in any convenient
receptacle. Fortunately there are quite a few boxes and pails and
oil cans on the spot, left by the dredge people and the few natives
who evidently sometimes come to the place. At about 2 eat lunch —
coffee (the Eskimo put what was for three cups into about two
quarts of water, so there is but a suggestion of coffee), raw smoked
fish for me and eggs with bacon (left over from breakfast) for my
companion, and on again until about 5 p. m. or a little later. Last
two or three hours, however, work with some difficulty. A gnat bit
me in an eyelid, or got into my eye, and that has now swollen so
that I can hardly see with it. My Eskimo, however, is about all I
could wish. He just looks at me working in a matter-of-fact way,
and carries the filled boxes, or looks around for something I could
take with me, and even helps on a few occasions with the bones, find-
ing evidently the whole proceeding quite right and natural. Brings
me, among other things, an old copper teakettle, but to his wonder I
do not want it and leave it. I find a fine large walrus-ivory doll
and a handsome decorated "kantag" (wooden bowl), besides smaller
objects, and also a large piece of a poor quality clay pot (no pottery
now), with a fragment of a decorated border as on the lower Yukon.
Pack up, we load on the boat — lucky now she is so spacit)us — get
into the shallow river — the tide has run out — push the boat out and
start for home.
Thus far we had but slight drizzles. But the clouds now grow
heavier, and as we have much farther to row than this morning,
due to the low water, we are caught by showers. The last mile or so
we have to hurry, see a big rain approaching. My man pushes her
with a pole while I row all I can, with both hands, with the heavy
oar. Of course the whole population of Kotlik has to see our arrival.
And more, too, for in our absence a schooner came in with wood and
a number of the natives. They talk, but no one is either angry or
excited. We two carry the boxes, pails, etc. — grass covered — into the
house; how lucky I am now alone. Inside I remove the wet grass
from them — the bones, too, are somewhat wet — then pay my Eskimo
$5, which again is taken as a matter-of-fact thing, without thanks,
but he well deserved the amount, even if I rowed a full half.
It is 9 p. m. My man comes again, we have a modest supper, he
some left-over meat and I again the smoked fish, which I feel is
strengthening me as well as agreeing with my stomach, and then to
bedliCka] WKITEE'S TRIP ON YUKON 79
rest, quite earned to-daj^ Seldom have done as much in a day.
Thirty-three graves collected, with over twenty nearly complete skele-
tons, and all restored so that I had to take considerable care not to go
again into some already emptied. But this place should be dug
over. The tundra in a few years swallows up everything on the
surface. It literally buries or assimilates bones' and all other objects,
the moss and other vegetation with probably blown dust covermg
them very effectively. Finding anything below the surface and that
even a foot or more, as was actually experienced, means something
quite different under these conditions than it might elsewhere.
Monday, July 12. Slept fairly well and feel refreshed, but the
eye still badly swollen. The Eskimo believe, I think, I got it from
the bones. Yet they are quite sensible — a marked mental difference
between them and the Yukon Indians.
Breakfast before 7 — cereal, raw smoked fish, and coffee. Then
pack. At the store buy empty gasoline boxes, but no nails to be had,
and no packing. Lunch at 1 — macaroni, raw smoked fish, sauer-
kraut, coffee; then pack again, fix boxes, break old ones to get nails,
even pull a few unnecessary ones from the boards of the house, go
see my man's wife, a hopeless consumptive, and at 6 through with all
except cleaning. Another fair work-day, 12 tightly packed boxes.
Then clean up, burn rubbish, and ready for departure early to-
morrow.
Supper — macaroni, raw smoked fissh, greengage plums, a little
sauerkraut, and coffee. Then a little walk outside, watch Eskimo
women and children jump the rope (hilariously, but awkwardly),
and go in to catch up with my notes. Nobody scowls at me, so that
although thej^ probably fear me as a " medicine man " they are not
at all resentful for what I did yesterday. They are grown-up chil-
dren, nmch more tractable than the ludians. But otherwise they
show so much in common with the Indian that the moi-e one sees of
them the more he grows drawn to the belief of the original (and that
not so far distant) identity of their parentage. It seems the Es-
kimo and the Indian are after all no more than two diverging fingers
of one and the same hand; or they were so a bit farther back.
Mental differences thei'e are, yet these are no more than may be found
in different tribes of the Indians or difi'ei-ent groups of other races.
Tuesday, July 13. Rise a little after G. Eye still sore after
Simday's gnat and sweat and dirt; must use boric acid frequently.
An Eskimo actually said yesterday it was a sickness from touching
the bones. A little breakfast — have no more salmon strips, so just
cereal, canned plums, and coffee. And then with the help of two
young Eskimo carry my spoils and baggage on to the tug, which has
come for me. By about 7 start. Good-by Kotlik, what little there
is of it.
80 ANTHEOPOLOGIC-U. SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth.ann.4G
At 9 arrive at Mr. Williams's reindeer camp farther up the coast.
There are five tents and two small log houses of natives — the herders
with their families, dogs, and fish racks; and three whites, Mr.
Williams, owner of the boat and of most of the herd of about
8,000 animals; Mr. Palmer, of the United States Biological Survey;
and a Dane, Mr. Posielt, here for the Biological Survey of Canada.
All are already at the corral some distance over the hill, branding,
counting, etc., the great reindeer herd, which belong to several
owners.
A short walk along the shore brings me in sight of the herd.
The animals can be heard grunting a good distance off. The herd
is so large and so compact that it looks like a forest of horns. The
animals keep on moving in streams, but remain in the herd. They
go to the shore to drink some of the salty water, instead of salt.
All is of interest, even though the branding, the cutting off of big
slices from the ears, and castration, is rather cruel.
At lunch, for the first time, reindeer meat, a select steak. It is
tender and decidedly good. Has no special flavor and is poor in
fat, but tender and good.
Afternoon, once more to tlie corral, and then various things,
including a photograph of a little impromptu native group.
Supper once more on reindeer meat. This time prepared as a
sort of a stew with onions — again very good. But we were to leave
after supper for St. Michael and I see no intention to that effect.
Instead they all go once more to the corral to continue the work
until about 11 p. m. So I have to settle for the night, with some
hope that we may leave in the morning. We sleep four side by
.'ide in a tent 10 feet wide. Luckily they had a spare clean blanket
or two, and but one of the three snores, and he like a lady; also
the weather has cleared and is warmer, so the night is fairly good.
Wednesdaj% July 14. Morning bright, calm. Breakfast, and all
hurry off to corral without even any explanation- — just a few casual
words, from which I understand that we shall not go. So I write
whole forenoon, though feeling none too good about the delay.
Had I my own boat, as one should have in this country, all would be
different. As it is I am utterly helpless. At lunch speak to Mr.
Williams; and though not much willing, he half promises that we
may go to St. Michael tonight.
Afternoon. Walk 8 miles along the beach, to a cape and back,
looking in vain for traces of human habitation and collecting along
the beach what this offers, which outside of some odd, flat, polished
stones is but little. Come back near 6 — soon after supper — and hear
with much satisfaction that, after all, we will go to-night to St.
Michael.
hbdliCka] WEITEB'S trip ON YUKOIT 81
RESUME
So ends the Yukon and its immediate vicinity. What has been
learned ?
1. The great and easily navigable river, extending for many hun-
dreds of miles from west to east, could not but have played a ma-
terial part in the peopling of Alaska, and quite probably in that
of the continent, and all human movements along it must have left
some material remains. It seems, therefore, a justified inference that
the valley of the Yukon harbors human remains of much scientific
value.
2. Such remains, judging from the present conditions, were left
exclusively along the banks of the river, on the flood-safe elevated
platforms of the banks, and especially about the mouths of the
tributaries of the Yukon of those times.
3. But the banks and mouths of the past are seldom, if ever, those
of to-day. The river, with its currents, storms, and ice pack every
spring, is changing from year to year. It is ever cutting and eroding
in places, and building bars and islands or covering with flood silts
in others. In many stretches no one can be sure where the banks
were 500 or 1,000 years ago, not to speak of earlier periods.
4. The banks and islands of to-day, therefore, are for the most
part recent formations, in which it would be useless to expect any-
thing very ancient. And there is nothing like the successive ocean
beaches at Nome and elsewhere, which would guide exploration.
5. The right hilly side of the river alone seems to offer some hope
of locating some more ancient sites and remains; yet it is quite
certain that the river ran once far to the left, for all the vast flats
on that side are of its consti'uction ; so that the more ancient re-
mains of man may lie in that direction. But there everj'thing is,
from the point of view of archeology, a practically unexplorable
jungle and wilderness, and there is no one there who might make
accidental discoveries.
6. It would seem that the best hope for the archeologist along the
Yukon, so far as the more ancient remains are concerned, lies along
the tributaries of the stream, and that particularly at the old limits
of the more recently made lands.
7. Nevertheless the banks of the Yukon as they are now are not
wholl}' barren. Up from Tanana, at the Old Station, probably about
Ruby and Nulato, about Kaltag and the Greyling River, at Bona-
.sila. Holy Ci-oss and Ghost Creek, and at the Mountain village. Dog
village, Russian Mission, and doubtless a number of other sites, they
contain both cultural and skeletal remains that, if recovered, will be
invaluable to the anthropological history of these regions.
82 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
8. The line of demarcation between tlie Indians of the Yukon and
the Eskimo, outside of language, is indefinite. Traces of old Eskimo
admixture are perceptible among the Indians far up the river, and
the cultures of the two peoples in many respect* merge into each
other; while among the Eskimo of the lower river and farther on
there are physiognomies that it would be hard to separate from the
Indian. Whether all this means simply extensive past mixture, or
whether, as would seem, the Alaska Indians as a whole are nearer
physically to the Eskimo than are the tribes in the States, remains
to be determined. Among the Athapascan Mescalero Apache, who
have reached as far south as New Mexico, a somewhat Eskimoid
tinge to the face, especially in young women, was by no means very
unusual 25 years ago when I studied this tribe. This problem will
be touched upon again in this volume.
9. All along the Yukon, from near Tanana (Old Station) to the
mouth of the river, in the Indian and in the Eskimo region, there pre-
vailed the same type of winter house, namely, a largely subterranean
room with a subterranean timnel or corridor entrance; and also a
similar type of summer dwelling, formerly a skin, now a canvas, tent.
The winter dwellings were built within of stout posts and covered
with birch bark and sod, looking from outside much like the present-
day Navaho hogan; while the pits left by them remind one of the
southwestern " pit dwellings," the kashims of the Pueblo kivas. As
a hogan, so these largely subterranean dwellings along the Yukon
had a smoke-air-and-light hole in the center of the top, a fireplace
in the middle of the floor, and benches (of heavy hewn planks in the
north) along the sides. Each village, furthermore, had at least one
larger structure of similar nature, the " kashim," or communal house.
All this may still be traced more or less plainly on the dead sites
along the Yukon, and houses as well as a kashim of this type were
seen at Kotlik and Pastolik, at the mouth of the river.
10. The native industry of the river presents also much similarity,
though there are differences.
Pottery, of much the same type and decoration, was made at
least as far as the lower middle Yukon.
Stone implements were made and used all along the river, and
were much alike. But the double-grooved, cupid-bow ax of the
Yukon Indian, hafted in the center and used for chipping rather
than cutting, is lower down replaced by the same ax, in which one
end has been broken off (or has not been finished), and which is
hafted as an adze ; or by oblong quadrilateral flat axes which have
not been found up the river.
The peculiar and apparently very primitive stone industry of
Bonasila is, it seems, just a development of local conditions — nature
HRDLR'KA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 83
of most available stone, and essentially hunting habit of the people
that resulted in many skins which called for numerous scrapers.
Nevertheless the site deserves a thorough further exploration.
There was apparently not much basketry along the river, the place
of the baskets being taken by the birch-bark dishes of the Indian and
the kantag or ingeniously made wooden dish of the Eskimo part of
the river.
Canoes among the Yukon Indians were mainly of birch bark,
while the Eskimo had mainly skin canoes.
11. Neither the Indians nor the Eskimo of the Yukon practiced
deformation of the head or of any other part of the body, or dental
mutilation. The Indians as well as the Eskimo occasionally pierced
the septum of the nose, for nose pieces, while the Eskimo cut on
each side a slit in the lower lip for the introduction of labrets. The
Eskimo cut their hair short in a characteristic way, reminding
strongly of cei'tain monks; the Indians left their hair long. But
at Anvik the Indians both cut their hair and wore labrets. They
also used the wooden dish.
12. From all the preceding it appears that there must have been
long and intensive contacts between the Yukon Eskimo and Indians;
that, through war or in peace, they became mutually admixed; and
that there were mutual cultural transmissions.
13. No further light for the present could be gained on the origin,
antiquity, or early migrations of the Yukon Indian. It was deter-
mined, however, that he represents but one main physical type, and
that this type is the same as that of the Indians of the Tanana and
most other Alaskan Indians of the present time.
14. Exceptional skeletal remains were washed out from the banlc
at Bonasila. They are of Indians (?), but appear to be not those
of the Yukon Indian of to-day. They present a problem which is
to be solved by further exploration of the site.
15. The Eskimo of the lower parts of the river are in general
better preserved and more coherent than the Indians. They are
more tractable people and are taking more readily to woi-k and
civilization.
16. These Eskimo show, in the majority of cases, fairly typical
Eskimo physiognomies. But their heads are not as those of the
northern and eastern members of the race. The head is less narrow,
less high, and has but now and then a suggestion of the scaphoid
form that is so characteristic of the Greenland, Labrador, or north-
ern Eskimo cranium; also, the angles of the jaws are less bulging
and the lower jaws themselves do not appear so heavy.
17. The Yukon Eskimo burials are in all essentials much like
those of the Indians up the river. Here again a cultural connection
84 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
is very evident, in this case there having in all probability been an
adaptation of methods by the Eskimo from the Indians.
18. Archeological prospects along the delta flats occupied by the
Eskimo appear very limited.
St. Michael
Thursday, July 15. In the morning, after a good trip, reach St.
Michael — quite a town from a distance, with many boats on the
shore in front of it; but soon find that it is largely a dead city and
ships' graveyard, not harbor. With the gold rush over, and the Gov-
ernment railroad from Seward to the Xanana, men and business
have departed. Before the smnmer is over most of the large build-
ings and the fine large boats are to be demolished, and there will
be left but a lonely village.
Unload my collections on the old dock. The postman kindly comes
down from his place, which, with Mr. Williams's store, is far up on
the hill above the harbor, the boxes are weighed and stamped for
the parcel post, and relieved of them I go to the hotel and spend the
day in visiting the teacher, the marshal, Mr. Williams's store, where
I see a whole lot of recent Eskimo ceremonial masks decorated with
colors and feathers, and the wireless station to send a message to the
Institution. All native (Eskimo) character is almost gone from the
place, what remains being mainly civilized mix bloods; and also
little, if anj'thing, remains to be collected, particularly now when all
vacant land is thickly overgrown with grass and weeds. An occa-
sional skull appears, one having been seen recently on the beach and
one on Whale Island, but there is little besides, though things could
be found doubtless by excavation.
Items of interest in Mr. Williams's store, and also in that of the
N. C. Co., are various articles cut handsomely by the Eskimo
from walrus ivory, both fresh and " fossil " (old and nicely dis-
colored). There are beads, napkin rings, hairpins, cigar and ciga-
rette holders, and other objects, generally exceedingly well made and
decorated. It is, of course, well known that the Eskimo are very apt
in this work; it is not, however, so well known that every island
or village has certain specialties and types of decoration. This is
so true that an observer before long can tell in many instances just
where a given article has been made.
The fossil ivory industry is, it was soon learned, becoming a
serious detriment to archeological work in these regions; of which,
however, more later.
During the day I find that a small boat, the Silver Wave, belong-
ing to Lomen Bros., will leave St. Michael for Nome that same eve-
ning. As this suits me very well I engage a berth on the boat, help
hbdliCka] WKITER'S TRIP ON YL'KOX 85
to get my baggage ,on deck over a broken landing place, and get
ready to depart.
At 6 leave St. Michael. The Silver Wave is a tub — ^too short — am
told if it were of proper length they would have to have more help.
Result — very unsteady. Fortunately the weather is fair, and the
captain gives me a berth in his cabin. I had originally a stateroom,
right in the back, with three bunks or beds, so small that one could
barely get into the beds ; but there came two mix-breed women with
a girl and so they turned me out and put me in the " hole " — seven
bunks in an ill-ventilated cabin under the deck in the stern of the
ship. She is only about GO feet long by about 15 broad. As it is I
have a bunk in what would have been a well-ventilated little cabin,
had it not been for rough weather which came on later in the night
and which necessitated the closing of the window.
Friday, July 16. The rougher weather came and the boat began
to pitch and roll. Luckily I slept for the most part. At about 6.30
the captain called me to breakfast with him. I got up rather groggy
from the sea, but managed to wash my face and get to the little
messroom, where the cook stai'ted to bring eggs, bacon, coffee, etc. —
and then I had enough and had all I could do to reach my bunk
again without getting seasick. I was kept on the verge of it until
after 10, when we arrived off Nome.
This, however, meant no relief. There was no bay, no dock, no
shelter for even such a small boat, and so we anchored a few hundred
yards off the shore along which stretch the long line of unpainted
(mostly), weather-beaten frame dwellings of this northern capital.
By this time I barely keep my feet, but they lowered a heavy row-
boat, and several of us — there were four other men passengers — are
helped to tumble in. I get back, and to steady myself catch hold
of the borders of the boat, only for this the next moment to be
dashed against the larger boat with my hand between. It was almost
too much, the seasickness and added to it the very painful hurt.
Fortunately the fingers were not crushed, just bruised badly — they
might easily have been mashed to a pulp.
They row us in and we tumble out on the sand, and there is no one
to receive anybody or take any notice. However, after a while there
comes accidentally an old two-seated Ford. Three of us crowd in,
leave the few bulkier things we brought along on the beach un-
guarded, and are driven to the other end of the town, to the Golden
Gate Hotel.
This is a big old frame building, out of plumb in several directions.
There is no one in the spacious lobby. However, after a time some
one, not looking much like a proprietor — more like a groom at work —
comes out from somewhere and without much ado shows us each to a
room. Mine smells nuisty, old sweat and blankets and mould, and
86 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
looks out on a dilapidated tin roof — must ask for another. Finally
get one " front " for $3 — the other was only $2.50. Musty too, but
fairly large, and with a double bed with, at last again, clean covers.
Unshaven — in the khaki worse for rain and work — with fingers
so sore they can not bear a touch, feverish, and head still dizzy — I go
to lunch. On my way stop at Coast Guard building — no one there ;
at the Roads Commission — office empty; at the Customs — not a soul.
But at the courthouse they tell me where Judge Lomen sometimes
lunches, and so I go there. It is near by — nothing hei'e is far dis-
tant — and so I soon sit at Mrs. Niebeling's, a justly famed Nome's
"for everybody," at a clean table and to a big civilized dinner.
Order reindeer roast — find it this time, in my condition, not much to
boast of — one could hardly tell it from similarly done beef — and
begin on the coffee when in comes a young man, asks me if I am the
doctor, and introduces himself as Mr. Alfred Lomen, the judge's
son; and in a minute or two in comes the judge himself, a kindly
man of something over 70. It all makes me feel a lot better, though
still weak. Have rest of lunch together and talk, but do not get
very far in anything that interests me; but the judge takes me to
the Catholic Fathers here, who have an orphanage somewhere near
where I want next to go, and leaves me with Father Post. The
father is kindly, but himself does not know much, and so makes
arrangements for me to meet next day Father Lafortune, who works
among the E.skimo.
Then I go once more to the Coast Guard building and meet Cap-
tain Eoss, in charge. The Bear, I learn, has just arrived here, and
is soon going north. She is my godsend, evidently. So Captain
Ross sends me over to see Captain Cochran. The meeting is good,
and I have a promise to be taken to t^e cape and some other stations.
But the Bear goes first to coal at St. Michael, and then will make
a visit to St. Lawrence Island. So I propose to go to Teller first,
see what I can of the Chukchee-Eskimo " battle field " near there,
and be taken from there by the Bear. The priests give me some
hope for getting there over an inland route, but later on tell me one
of the boats of the orphanage which is located in that region is away
and the other has broken down, so that there will be no possibility
of making the trip through the Salt Lake and to Teller. But the
Victoria (the Seattle boat to come to-night) will go to Teller. Un-
fortunately, if weather is rough or there are no passengers she will
not stop at Nome, so all is again uncertain. The Silver Wa.ve goes
northward next Monday, but I have a dread of her. All of which
is put down merely to show slightly what an explorer without a
boat of his own may expect in these regions.
Nome, Saturday, July 17. Poor night again — it surely seems to
be the fashion in Alaska. The Victoria came at night (or what
HRDLR-KA] WEITEE"S TRIP ox YUKON^ 87
should be night). The ramshackle big frame hotel, with partitions
so thin that they transmit every sound, got about 40 guests, and next
room to mine came to be occupied by two women who had visitors,
female and male, were taken out for a ride after 12 and returned
about 2 a. m. One of them, or their visitor, had a perpetual vocal
gush, the others chimed in now and then, and a strong male voice
added the bass from time to time, with old Fords noisily coming
and going outside, and people going up and down the stairs. So
sleep for some hours was out of the question. And there was nothing
to do about it.
After breakfast went to meet Father Lafortune, a Catholic mis-
sionary priest to the Eskimo, who speaks their language well and
who promised to accompany me to their habitations; and together
we spent the forenoon on one side of the town, among the natives
of the Diomedes, and most of the afternoon on the other end among
the people from King Island. It was a good experience, resulting
in seeing a good many of the Eskimo and getting some information,
a few photographs, and quite a few old specimens. Then we went to
the parsonage, where I got a few good photos from Father Lafor-
tune's collection. He is a matter-of-fact, always ready to help,
natural he-man, rather than a priest and teacher, and a great prac-
tical helper to the natives, who all are his friends.
Also saw Judge Lomen, arranged for lecture to-morrow, saw
Captain Ross about the Bear, and various other people; but there
is not much to be obtained here about old sites and specimens. Tele-
graphed Institution, and also to the Russian consul at Montreal for
permission to visit the Great Diomede Island. Evening packing.
Natives bring walrus ivory, some excellent pieces. Weather whole
day cloudy, threatening, occasional showers, cool but not cold.
Sunday, July 18. Heavy sleep 10 p. m. to 7 a. m., regardless of
a typewriter going in the next room and the women (now quieter,
however) on the other side.
Forenoon spent in talking with people and attending a little
service, for the natives mainly, at the Catholic Church of Fathers
Post and Lafortune. Poor, simple, but sincere and interesting.
After lunch more consultations, then a visit to bank where they
smelt gold dust (even to-day), and then a lecture on '* The Peopling
of America," at the courthouse. Well attended, and many came to
shake hands after. Then a dinner, with examination of a number
of interesting and valuable specimens, at Judge Lomen's. Among
other objects there is a duplicate, in ivory, of the l)roken double ax
from the Yukon, the two grooves and even the break being well
represented. Evening — examination of specimens at Reverend Bald-
win's. Cloudy, cool, threatening, but stormy weather abating.
88 ANTHROPOLOGICAL StTEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 4(5
About Nome
Due to the delay with the Bear, the next few days until July 23
were spent at and about Nome. They proved more profitable than
was expected. Numbers of interesting specimens were found in the
possession of some of the dealers, and more of those of scientific
value were secured either through gift or by purchase for the
National Museum. These collections consisted of objects of stone —
i. e., spear points, knives, axes, etc. — but above all of utensils,
spear points, effigies, etc., some of them of remarkable arti.stry and
decoration, were made of walrus ivory that through age has turned
" fossil."
Among the stone objects were several axes made of the greenish,
hard nephrite which came from the " Jade Mountain " on the Kobuk
River. The objects from fossil ivory came principally from the St.
Lawrence Island, the Diomede Islands, Cape Wales, unknown parts
of the nearer Asiatic coast, and here and there from the Seward
Peninsula.
A large majority of these objects are now collected by the natives
themselves, who assiduously excavate the old sites, and are sold at
so much per pound as " fossil ivory " to crews of visiting boats or to
merchants at Nome and elsewhere, to be worked up into beads,
pendants, and other objects of semijewelry that find ready sale
among the whites.
In addition a certain part of these objects is reserved by the
natives, esiDecially those of the Diomede Islands, and worked up by
themselves. The more striking the coloration of the ivory, the more
desirable it is for the beads, etc., and the less chance of the object,
regardless of its archeological or artistic value, to be preserved.
The most artistic pieces, nevertheless, are usually disposed of sepa-
rately, bringing higher prices than could be obtained for beads.
In this way hundreds of pounds collectively of ancient imple-
ments, statuettes, etc., are recovei-ed each year from the old sites on
both the Asiatic and the American side of the Bering Sea, and are
cut up, their scientific value being lost. Most of the fossil ivory,
fortunately, consists of objects which, though showing man's work-
manship, are of relatively little scientific value; nevertheless it was
seen repeatedly that specimens of real archeological value and artistic
interest would be destroyed if their color and texture made them suit-
able for some of the higher-priced jewelry.
The Eskimo, as rejieatedly found later, have not the slightest hesi-
tation about excavating the old sites, and whatever they can not
use, which as a rule includes animal and human bones, and in fact
everything else except stone tools and ivory, is left in the excavated
soil and lost. The amount of destruction thus accomplished by the
hrdliCka] WEITER'S TRIP ON YUKOjST 89
women, children, and even men each year is large and promises to
grow from year to year as long as the supply lasts. This means that
unless scientific exploration of these old sites is hastened there will
be little left before long to study.
The fossil ivory trade lias become such that many of the officers
and the crews even of the visiting vessels, including the revenue cut-
ters, engage in buying the ivory from the natives and cutting it up in
their spare time into beads and other ornaments. A captain of a well-
known boat who with his crew visited in the summer of 1926 a small
island on which there is an extensive frozen refuse heap containing
many bones and tools of the natives who once occupied the place,
exclaimed, " Gad, there's $50,000 of ivory in sight."
The boat crew t«ok away about " 2 bushels " of it, or all that could
be removed from the extensive frozen pile. I saw some of this ivory
later, all cut up, but with a number of the pieces still showing old
hiunan handiwork, and some beads made of other parts of the lot
were brought later to my office in Washington.
If American archeology and ethnologj' are to learn what they need
in these regions it is absolutely essential that they take early steps
for a proper exploration of the old sites, besides which every effort
should be made by the intelligent traders, missionaries, teachers, and
officials to save the more artistic and characteristic pieces of human
workmanship in the old ivory, and bring them with such data as
may be available to the attention of scientific men or institutions.
It would in fact be of much value, and the writer has suggested
this to the Governor of Alaska, to establish a local museum at Nome,
where such objects could be gathered and saved to science.
ABORIGINAL REMAINS
The coast of which Nome is now the human center, up to Cape
Wales, together with the nearer islands, was occupied by the Maigle-
miut (Zagoskin), or Mahlemut (Dall et al.) subdivision of the
Eskimo. They were a strong group, and great traders. During
the Russian times the Aziags, from what is now the Sledge Island,
with probably others from the coast, visited yearly foi' trading pur-
poses as far as St. Michael and the Yukon, while the Wales people
were known to trade up to fairly recently as fai- as Kotzebue, both
at the same time having trading connections with Asia.
Of these natives, with the exception of those at Wales, there
remains but little. On Sledge Island there are only two dead vil-
lages, and on the coast from Port Clarence to far east of Nome there
is not a single existing native settlement. A few remnants of the
people live in Nome, but they have lost all individuality.
88253"— 30 7
90 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
Dead sites are known to exist from west to east, at Cape Wooley ;
at the mouth of the Sonora or Quartz Creek; at the mouth of the
Penny River — some natives are said to still go to fish there in sum-
mer; at the mouth of a small river 3 miles east of Nome; both west
(a larger village) and east (a small site) of Cape Nome; and 18
miles east of Nome (the " Nook " village).
Most of these sites have been peopled within the memory of the
oldest inhabitants.
Thanks to the kind aid of the Reverend Doctor Baldwin, I was
able to visit several of the sites east of Nome, more particularlj' the
Nook village, and it was still possible to find two skeletons and a
skull on these sites.
The Nook site must have been one of considerable importance.
It was an especially large village, or rather two near-by villages, in
one of which I counted upward of 30 depressions, remnants of the
semisubterranean houses with vestibules, such as are elsewhere de-
scribed from the Yukon.
Here a clear illustration was had of what changes on sites of this
nature may be wrought in a short time by the elements.
Fifteen years ago, I was assured, there were still many burials
and skeletal remains scattered along the coast near the Nook village.
Then in 1913 came a great southwestern storm, which at Nome
ripped up the cemetery and carried away some coffins with bodies,
scattering them over the plains in the vicinity. Since that storm
not a vestige remains of any of the burials or bones near the large
Nook village. On prolonged examination I found nothing but sands
overgrown with the usual coast vegetation. Everything had been
carried away or buried and the pits of the houses were evidently
themselves largely filled in.
The burials on this coast west of Golovnin Bay were evidently all
of a simpler nature than those on Norton Sound and the Yukon.
There is plenty of driftwood, but for some reason this was not hewn
into boards with which to make burial boxes. The dead were merely
laid upon and covered with the driftwood, though this was done,
as later seen on Golovnin Bay, rather ingeniously. One of the two
skeletons found near Cape Nome, an adult male, lay simply among
the rocks on the lower part of the slope of the hill.
Old sites, though often small, may be confidently looked for along
all these coasts in the shelter of every promontory, at the mouth of
each stream, and on the spits which separate the ocean from inland
lagoons (as in the case of the Nook village).
Nome— Bering Strait — Barrow
Friday, July 23. Received word to be on the Bear, which ar-
rived yesterday, before 10 o'clock this morning. Due to the shallow-
HRDLICKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 91
ness of the water the boat, though drawing only 18 feet, stands
far out from the shore and makes a pretty sight, looks also quite
large in these waters where there is nothing above a few hundred
tons.
Am soon at home. The captain's cabin, with thi-ee beds, is nicely
furnished, but has the disadvantage of being situated at the very
rear of the vessel, above and beyond the sei'ew. There is another
passenger, a teacher-nurse for Barrow. I take the isolated bunk on
the right, and this becomes my corner for the next six weeks.
Toward 11 a. m. the wind begins to freshen, soon after which we
leave for St. Lawrence Island. After midday the wind increases
considerably, waves rise, and the Bear begins to plunge. Before
the afternoon is over the wind blows a half gale and we are being-
tossed about a gi-eat deal. Have to take to bed. The boat is being
tossed up and down and in all directions. Resist in vain, then at
last become ill, and this passes into a long spell of about the worst
seasickness I have ever endured. There were a good many sick on
the Bear that evening and night.
Saturdaj^, July 2-1. AVind and water slowly quieting down, and
the boat is approaching Cape Chibukak off St. Lawrence Island,
where is located the main of the two villages of the island, known
as Gambell. The Bear gradually approaches to within about a
half mile of the shore, where we anchor. The water here is quieter,
and before long a large baidar (native skin boat) is shoved off from
the land and approaches our boat. This is the usual procedure
when the sea permits. There are no docks, and closer in there is
danger from rocks and shallows. There are a number of natives
in the boat, together with the local teacher, and each one, including
the teacher, carries a smaller or larger bag of fossil ivory, various
articles made of fresh ivory, and some other objects, for sale to
the officers and crew of the boat. They climb on our deck, where
(hey evidently feel quite at home, and in a few minutes carry on
a busy trade and barter with everyone. I succeed in getting a
fine fossil ivory pick; but the main supply had evidently been pre-
empted and I only see it later in the possession of the officers, who
kindly let me have what is of less value to them and more to
science.
Some of the Eskimo bring, in addition to the ivory, other articles
for sale — fish, birds, and the meat of the reindeer, which are for the
ship's messes and constitute very welcome additions to the diet.
Besides all this the natives also frequently bring skins of foxes and
even bear, which also find buyei-s. In return the boats carry off the
mail and such supplies as they have obtained by barter or purchase.
These visits are mutually enjoyable as well as profitable occasions.
92 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
and afford one the opportiinitj^ of seeing many of the natives, even
if prevented, as in tliis case, from visiting their village.
The Eskimo impress one here as in every further locality as a
lively, cheerful, and intelligent lot, good traders, and advancing
in many ways in civilization. The latter is perhaps especially true
of the St. Lawrence Eskimo, who from what was seen now and
later must have had especially good missionaries and teachers as
well as a considerable freedom from bad influences from the outside.
Savonga
About 40 miles east-southeast of Gambell is the second and smaller
village of the St. Lawrence Island, known as Savonga, which was
the object of our next visit. It was here that we were to buy two
or three reindeer carcasses, the animals being killed and dressed for
us by the natives in an astonishingly short time. The little village
is prettily situated on the green flat of the elevated beach. It con-
sists of less than a dozen modern small frame dwellings. One of
these, that of the headman, Sapilla (who regrettably died during the
following winter), is of two stories — a unique feature for an Eskimo
dwelling in these waters. Here we were visited by three boats and
the previous scenes were repeated, only, due to the proximity of
a rich old site, there were more objects of old ivory.
The captain made me acquainted with Sapilla. whom I found
remarkably white-man-like in behavior. Then the shijj doctor, not
feeling very well after yesterday's storm, filled my pockets with
tooth forceps and I was taken to the shore, to see the women and
children who would not venture out and to attend to any tooth ex-
traction that might be needed.
We were considerably farther from the shore than even at Gam-
bell, but I was sent on one of our motor boats and so it did not take
long to land. Upon landing we came to bright and clean and
smiling little groups of women and children, full of color in their
cotton dresses, and I was soon in one of their houses. All these
dwellings were built by the Eskimo themselves, and it was a most
gratifying surprise to find them as clean and wholesome as any
similar dwelling of whites could be. Moreover, these houses were
furnished with stoves, chairs, tables, crockery and other utensils
exactly as if they were those of a good class of whites, with the smell
oif the seal, which as a rule is so clinging to and characteristic of
the Eskimo house, barely perceptible.
It was a busy and interesting hour that I spent at Savonga. I
saw probably all the inhabitants that were at home; pulled five
teeth — the teeth of these quite civilized people are no more as sound
and solid as were those of their fathers and mothers — and found and
HRDLicKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 93
purchased cheaply many smaller objects of fossil ivory, which they
excavate from a near-by old site.
These objects are obtained from an old village located on the coast
about 4 miles farther east, on or near the North Cape, visible from
our boat. The natives excavate in this site as far as it thaws every
summer, and find many objects. They, moreover, make an occa-
sional trip to the two little rocky Punuk islands located about 12
miles south of the East Cape of the St. Lawrence, which, though
accurately charted by the Russians as early as 1849, yet until the
summer of 1926 remained practically unknown. On one of these
islands there is now known to exist an extensive frozen refuse heap,
containing large quantities of old ivory implements as well as other
objects of scientific interest.
The land visit was a great tonic after the wild and mean preced-
ing night, and I did not relish at all the Bear's whistle calling us
away. What a great thing it would be if a revenue cutter could for
just one season be given to science !
Sunday, July 25. Left St. Lawrence 9.30 last night, sea quieting.
We are now passing, on our right. King Island, isolated roclcy mass.
Day fair, cool, water getting smooth.
About 50 miles north one can now see plainly Cape Prince of
AVales (pi. 5, a), and to the left, hazy, the two Diomedes. We are
now 95 miles from St. Lawrence. On really clear days one could see
from here even the Asiatic heights. Therefore, from the latter on a
clear day one sees the Diomedes, the Cape, the highlands beyond,
and King Island, while a little farther south there is on such a day
a good view from Asia of the St. Lawrence Island. All this was in
good weather easily reached from Asia and must have been utilized
from the earliest time in passing onward from one continent to
the other.
We can now see also much of the coast in the direction of Teller
and the York Mountains behind.
From hour to hour there is growing on one a profound apprecia-
tion that the Bering Sea was a most favorable amphitheater of
migration, particularly from the less hospitable Asia eastward into
America. And practically the whole trend of native movements to
this day is from Asia towai'd America.
Later in the day, now a fine, bright summer day, arrive off Wales.
Here again anchor far out. Last year the Bear grounded here and
our captain is apprehensive. Wales is a straggly village — or two
villages — located on a large, flat sandy spit, dotted with water pools,
and projecting fi-om the Seward Peninsula toward Asia. Near by
are old sites, probably of much archeological value, and in these
for some weeks now excavations have been carried on by Dr. D.
94 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth.ann.4G
Jenness, of the Victoria Memoiial Museum of Ottawa. Here also
is located an exceptionally educated and observant teacher, Mr. Clark
M. Garber.
A big umiak comes to us with many natives bringing the usual
trade, and on it, much to my pleasure, are both Doctor Jenness and
Mr. Garber. Doctor Jenness asks to go with us to the Little Diomede
to do some work there. He has had encouraging experience here,
finding evidences of occupation dating many centuries back, and
has collected some valuable specimens, including a few with the
fine old curved-line decoration. Mr. Garber gives me some valuable
information about the skeletal remains of this place and engages
to collect for me, who can not leave the boat, a few boxes of these
specimens, which promise is fulfilled later.
The natives are a jolly and sturdy lot, even though they bear, and
that since their earliest contacts with whites, a rather bad reputa-
tion. That this is founded in some fact, at least, is told us in the
annals of the Kussians, and is also shown by the little structure on
the hillside off which we are anchored. This has a tragic and at the
same time quaint history. It is the grave of a missionary Doctor
Thornton, who was killed, we are told, by two local young fellows.
These were apprehended, sentenced to die, and were to be shot by
their relatives, which all evidently found quite just. On the ap-
pointed day they were taken out to the burial ground, helped to
prepare their burials, one asked yet to be allowed to go to the village
to get a drink, went and returned, and then both were shot. The
executioner of the boy who went to get the drink is said to have been
his uncle.
The Diomedes
Late that night we leave slowly for the Diomede Islands, the
nearer of which is only about 18 miles distant. The two islands
lie, as is well known, just about in the middle of the Bering Strait.
One is known as the larger or Russian, the other as the smaller
or American Diomede. The boundary line between Russia and the
United States passes between the two. Both islands have been oc-
cupied since far back by the Eskimo. To-day there is one small
village on the American and two small settlements on the Russian
island.
July 26. Up at 5.40, breakfast 6, and off in one of our staunch
motor boats, with Jenness, for the Little Diomede. Countless birds
flying in .streams about the island.
The island is just a big rock, with barren flat top and steep
sides, covered where inclination permits with great numbers of larger
and smaller granite bowlders. There is neither tree nor brush here.
The village, if it deserves that name, with a school, occupies an
HEDLiOKAj WEITEE'S TRIP ON YUKON 95
easier slope, facing the larger island across a strait seemingly about
a mile broad. There are but a few dwellings, due to local necessities
and conditions built above ground and outside of stone. One that
was entered showed a dark foreroom, a storage attic, and a cozy
somewhat lighted living and sleeping back room, entered through
a low and narrow entrance. The houses seem to be built on old
debris of habitations, and there are refuse heaps, one of which was
eventually worked in by Doctor Jenness, though without much
profit.
The bowlder-covered slope above the village was the burial ground
of the natives. (PI. 5, h.) Unfortunately most of the skeletal re-
mains have been collected by a former teacher and then left and lost.
With Doctor Jenness and the present teacher, himself an Eskimo, we
climb from bowlder to bowlder and collect what remains. The work
is both risky to the limbs and difficult in other respects. The large
bowlders are piled up manj- deep; and there being little or no soil,
there are all sorts of holes and crevices between and underneath the
stones. Deep in these crevices, completely out of sight or reach, nest
innumerable birds (the little auk), and their chatter is heard every-
where. But into these impenetrable crevices also have fallen many
of the bones and skulls of the bodies that have been " buried " among
the bowlders, and also doubtless many of the smaller articles laid
by the bodies.
The burials here were made in any suitable space among the rocks.
The body was laid in this space, without any coffin and evidently
not much clothing. About it and on the rocks above were placed
various articles. We found clay lamps, remnants of various wooden
objects, the bone end pieces of lances, and finally one or two pieces
of driftwood to mark the place. Here the bodies decayed and what
was left had either tumbled or was washed by rain into the crevices.
It was suggested, however, that much may have been taken hj dogs
and foxes. Some of the skulls and here and there one of the larger
bones remained, to eventually be covered by moss and eroded. With
the help of Doctor Jenness and the teacher I was able to find five
male and seven female crania in fair condition, wliich will be of
much value in the study of this interesting contingent of the Eskimo.
No evidence in the graveyard among the rocks of any great an-
tiquity, nothing more than perhaps a few scores of years. But traces
of older burials would surely be completely lost among the rocks,
though they may lie in the deep crevices and holes where they can
not be reached.
Upon return am treated to a cup of good hot coffee — never can
get a real hot cup of coffee on the boat — and excellent bread, made
by the Eskimo wife of the teacher ; and see his family of fine chubby
96 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
children. Can not help but kiss his girl of about 10 — she is so
fresh and innocent and pretty. Obtain also from the wife of the
teacher a good old hafted " jade " ax, though she hesitates much
to part with it — it used to belong to her grandmother; and from
the teacher himself a number of interesting articles in old ivory.
Leave Doctor Jenness. Have learned to like him much, both for
his careful work and personally, in our short association; and at 11
a. m. return to the boat.
Cold, but calm and sunny. Sit on boxes at the very end of the
good old Bear. See Asia, the two Diomedes, and Seward Peninsula,
all in easy reach, all like so many features of a big lake. Pass around
Greater Diomede.
There never could have been any large settlement on the Diomede
Islands — they are not fit for it. The Great Diomede has just two
mediocre sites, which are occupied now each by about half a dozen
dwellings. A small old settlement, a few stone houses, has also
once existed. I am told, on the elevated top of the larger island op-
posite the Little Diomede. On the latter only the one visited — every-
vrhere else the steep slopes or walls come right down into the water,
and there is even no landing possible (or only a precarious one at
best) except where we landed. The old natives of the Little Diomede
are said to have believed that another village had once existed farther
out from the present site and that it has become submerged. The
evidence cited (told by the native teacher) is not conclusive, and
no indication of such a settlement could be seen from the beach. But
in front and possibly beneath the native houses, in the old refuse,
there may be remnants of older dwellings.
Just passed from Monday to Tuesday, and then back to Monday,
all in a few hours — the day boundary. We are now just north of the
Bering Strait and see all beautifully, in moderate bluish haze.
A grand panorama of utmost anthropological interest. A big lake,
scene of one of the main migrational episodes of mankind. Sea
just wrinkling some, day calm, mostly sunny, mildly pleasant,
with an undertone of cold.
How trivial feel here the contentions about the possibilities of
Asiatic migrations into America. There can be no such problem
with those who have seen what we now are witnessing. Here is a
great open pond which on such days as this could be traversed by
anyone having as much as a decent canoe. As a matter of fact it
has always been and is still thus traversed. (PI. 6, a.) The Chuk-
chee carried on a large trade with America, so much so that we find
the Russians complaining of their interfering with their trade.
(PI. 6, J, c.) The Diomede people stand in connection on one hand
with the northeastern Asiatics and on the other hand with the whites
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 5
n, Cape Prince of \\ ulf^ Irum iIil- ^uiuiiea^i. i,A, H . rj
I, \ lUage ;md (.cmelcTi duliu, LlUk' Diuiiiuili. >A. LI., 1926)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 6
a, Asiatics departiui: for Siberia from the Little Diomede Island. (Photo by D. Jenness, 1926)
(), "('hukchis" loading their boat witli goods on Little Diomede Island, before departure for Siberia.
(Photo by D. Jenness, 1926)
c, " Chiikchis" loading their boat with goods on Little Diomede Island, before departure for Siberia.
(Photo by D. Jenness, 1926)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 7
0, Eskimos from East L'ape arriving at Nome, Alaska
b, East Cape ol Asia (to tlie southward;. U'hoto by Joe Bernard)
•<
§
3
Z
2
<
>■
8
D
CO
HRDLiOKAl WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 97
as fai- as Nome, where most of them go every summer to sell their
ivory and its products and bring back all sorts of provisions. And
in the same way the King Islanders come every summer to Nome,
on the east end of which, as the Diomedes on the west, they have
their summer habitations. (PI. 7, a, h.) Only a year or two ago.
the natives tell, an Eskimo woman of St. Lawrence Island set out
alone in a canoe with her child to visit a cousin on the Asiatic coast,
60 miles distant, and i-eturned safe and sound after the visit was
over.
To bed dressed — the captain tells me we shall soon be at Shish-
maref , on the north shore of the Seward Peninsula, and that he will
have me called, if I want to visit the village.
Awake 11.30 p. m. At 11.4.5 word comes that we have arrived and
a boat is getting ready. On tleck in five minutes. Of course it is
still light — there is no real night any more in these regions.
Have a cinnamon roll — the night specialty for the crew on the
Bear — and a bowl of coffee. The natives, two boats full, already
coming, and a fine full-blooded lot they show themselves to be. They
are accompanied hj Mr. Wegner, a big, pleasant young teacher.
Leave natives trading and set off in ship's boat. The Bear is
anchored about ly^ miles off. Fortunately fairly quiet or we should
not be able to go ashore. Teacher and a young English-speaking
native go with us. We have the launch and the skin whaleboat.
Anchor first off shallow beach and transfer into the skin boat for
the landing.
Tuesday, July 27. It is about 12.30 a. m. Many native women,
youngsters, and some men gather about us at the school. Talk to
them — explain what I want, which is mainly skulls and bones — all
quite agieed. Take two young natives, some bags, and proceed to
where they lead me.
Find, about half a mile from the present village, a big and im-
portant old site, which existed up to the white man's time. But
dunes on which burials were made and house sites have been largely
graded by a fox-farm keeper and trader, Mr. Goshaw. He had
gathered many skulls — shows me a photo of two rows, at least 40 —
will not tell what he did with them. Says he sent " many things to
the Smithsonian," but can give no details, " and to the universities,"
but will not mention which. Also "J3uried a lot." Bad business.
Gathering what is possible from the debris thrown out by the
Eskimo woi'king for the fox farm, we proceed rapidly from mound
(dune) to mound. Find burials still on the surface in situ — i. e.,
nearly buried by the rising carj^et of the vegetation — but skulls gone.
Many of those on remaining heaps imperfect, but at least something
can be saved. Collect all that is worth collecting. See Mr. Goshaw —
98 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUEVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ann. ie
get but little out of hira. Donates a few archeological specimens of
no great value — has no more.
We hurry on to the other village and burial ground, almost a mile
west of the present settlement. Find only a small pile of bones,
with one whole male skeleton of fairly recent date.
Then back, as fast as possible, the Indians carrying the bags with
bones, and load on boat. My shoes and feet have long since become
thoroughly wet, after which Mr. Wegner loaned me wool socks and
native shoes that protected my feet. But now these must be left
behind and I have to get into my wet, cold shoes — socks too wet.
Officers in a hurry to get back. It is now 3.00 a. m. ; the sun rose
about 1.30. Pay my men, change shoes, photograph women (pi. 8)
and then men — all pleasant and willing. See a few poor articles of
archeological nature — not worth getting; and after a hearty hand-
shake with the teacher we take off through the somewhat rougher
water to the whaleboat. then on to the motor boat and the ship. Ar-
rive with six bags of specimens, reaching boat just a little after 4.
Sleepy captain meets us, but luckily shows no grudge, though this
stop and his loss of sleep were essentially for me. Tliongh it would
seem they could have readily waited for our going ashore until morn-
ing, or have given me a little more time at the Diomedes, which
would have brought us here later. Am too much awake now and
worked up to sleep. Lie down a while but fully awake. Total sleep
last night 21/2 hours. But it was worth it, except for the vandalism.
Pack — inadequate boxes — until 3.30 p. m. \\Tiole collection made
last night put in order. But back and knees stiff. Weather two-
thirds fair (my own estimate), some wind, sea choppy. Lie down but
can not sleep.
At 5.30 off Kotzebue. Due to shallowness of water must anchor
far out of sight. At 6 go to land in ship's larger launch. Waves
rather bad. much tossing about and spray, have to get behind the
canvas canopy that is raised over one seat. It is 15 miles from where
the Bea/' is anchored to the Kotzebue village — over two hours of (at
times) rather violent to.ssing up and down and side wise. Run for
a part of the time not far from beach — a number of isolated, orderly
fish camiD.s — lots of fish drying. Wonder at not getting seasick
again — it must be the open air or difference of movement.
Kotzebue village lies around sj point on a not very high, flat bank,
facing the bay of three rivers (Selavik, Kobuk, Noatak). As we ap-
proach I count over 50 clean tents of Eskimos, about 15 frame houses
and stores, and many skin and other boats on beach or in water.
Many natives hurry to meet us.
Go ashore. Thomas Berryman, the trader, with the local judge
and two or three other whites come also to meet us. After getting ac-
hrdliOka] WEITEB'S TRIP ON YUKON 99
qiiainted inquire about possibility of exploring the Kobuk and reach-
ing the Kovukuk and Yukon. But all that I learn is uncertain and
discouraging. There are but few native villages on the river, all Es-
kimo; and higher up the water is rapid, necessitating much hauling
of the boat by the natives, which is costly; upon which follow three
or four days' portage. The trip would cost much, and no loads
over 40 pounds to a man could be carried.
Only a few old sites hereabouts are known by those whom I have
a chance to ask. Say there is a somewhat important one at Cape
Krusenstern. Mr. Berryman has from tliere a big stone (slate)
lance. He also has a huge j^iece of serpentine, over 80 pounds in
weight, with a moderate depression in top and some cutting (old
native work), said to have been used as a lamp. Wants to keep this
and si^earhead, but donates an old rusty tin box full of smaller
things and promises to obtain skulls for us; and I get a similar
promise from a man (probably one of Mr. Berr3'man's storekeepers)
from farther up the counti'y.
Later meet here Mr. Chance, the school superintendent of these
parts; a young and not prepossessing man, but one who steadily
improves on closer acquaintance. Learn from him of a skeleton
recently dug out from the ground under the schoolhouse.
See many natives, all Eskimo, good looking, clean, and kind.
Some mix bloods, but the majority pure. Good to moderate stature,
well proijortioned though not fat body, medium to somewhat^ lighter
brown color, physiognomies less typical Eskimo than hitherto and
often strongly like Indian. Too late and dusky to photograph.
Go to see the teacher and find that the skeleton he dug out was
placed by him in an open box, pushed as far as possible under the
rafters of the floor of the schoolhouse and covered with gravel and
earth. There are four of us — start hurriedly digging for it, remove
with shovel, hoe and arms about a ton of the " filling " — and can not
reach the box. It is 10 p. m., the wind rising, officer comes and
urges me to get back to the boat. So must leave with promise that
the box will be gotten out and await me on our return from the
north. Have by this time decided the best policy will be to go
with the Bear as far as she may go. Load empty boxes, some pack-
ing — and one of the young white men who have been digging with
us runs up from the distant schoolhouse announcing that they
" struck "' the box. Urge him to run back as fast as he can and get it.
Luckily the postmaster and a good many others who came to see us
off delay us; also the transfer of the mail and boxes to the larger
boat. Finally, after a good many anxious looks, I see at last the
two young men appear, one with a wheelbarrow on which is the box
of bones. Bones look not very old, and Eskimoid at first sight, but
100 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
take box, which contains a good deal of gravel, carry it througli the
very interested Eskimo to the boat, all get in, hurried good-bys to
everybody, and we are off.
A two and a half hours' trip once more, and the last more than
half of it very rough. Such tossing and dancing and dipping and
twisting, with the spray, fortunately not cold, shooting high up at
times, or an angry wave splashing over. But the boat is large and
strong and so eventually we reach the Beai% which was completely
out of sight until about an hour after we started, and in a few min-
utes off we go to the north. A little fruit, bed. and know nothing
more until near 7 the next morning. It was a long day — over 25
hours in a stretch without a wink. Yet did not feel bad; the work
and good nature of people about and those met with, with some
success, are good tonics.
Wednesday, July 28. All of us have to consult the calendar to be
sure of the day and date.
Sort and wash Berryman's specimens — a nic€ lot of little things,
mainly of stone, slate, flint, etc.
Then go after my bones. Find the spray made the earth and
gravel in the box thoroughly wet, so that it is necessary carefully to
excavate all the bones. Find a male, rather short-statured, typically
Eskimo. May have been a burial of the Russian times. Wire for all
details. Must dry bones. Meanwhile try to catch up with notes.
Toward evening expect to be in another village. Weather fair.
Have passed the Arctic Circle during night, but it is not cold nor in
any way strange here. Sunset coloring lasts long and passes into
that of sunrise — no real night, no stars; but moon seen late at night
and far to the south.
May this weather continue, for in rough weather landing at any of
these places — ^there are no harbors whatever and always shallows and
bars and shoals — would be extremely risky or impossible and my
work, for which I feel ever more eager, would suffer. If only I could
see all worth seeing, and stay a little longer when I find what I am
after.
We reach Kevalina. It is just a schoolhouse and about seven sod
houses. Only a native school teacher, from whom I do not get much.
No remains or old site very near, but an old village, with *' good
many things," exists on the Kevalina River within a few hours' dis-
tance (by canoe) from Kevalina.
Natives bring old adzes (mounted- by them, however), and a har-
poon handle from the old site — bought.
Spend rest of day in washing, sorting, and packing specimens.
After supper am invited to the officers' room and given by Lieut.
M. C. Anderson a fine selection of old ivory harpoon heads and other
hrdliCka] WEITER^S TEIP ON YTTKON 101
things. Many of these are from the old site on the St. Lawrence
Island, and especially from little isles off that island named Punuk.
All this strengthens the importance of those islands for regular
exploration.
Thursdaj', July 29. In anticipation of being called up again dur-
ing the night, at Point Hope, which is evidently another important
spot for archeological exploration, for the natives are said to bring
many old articles for sale each year, I do not undress and go to bed
eaidier, but have, because of the anticipation, closeness of air, and a
cat jumjDing on my face just as I am dozing off, a very poor night;
and no call came after all. In the morning there are cold showers,
the sky is much clouded, and the wind keeps on blowing from the
north-northwest, threatening, the officers say, to drive the ice toward
this shore, which would be bad for us. It is cool and disagreeable.
We have anchored to the south of the spit on which stands the vil-
lage and can not unload or get ashore. Nor can the natives come
here to us.
The village consists of a schoolhouse, a little mission (Rev. F. W.
Goodman), an accumulation of houses, semisubterraneans, and tents.
A few tents are also seen a good distance to the right — a reindeer
camp. Otherwise there is nothing but the long, low, sandy, and
grassy spit projecting far out into the ocean.
Later. The north-northwest still blows, and so the ship has to
a'nchor to the south of the long. spit on the point of which is the vil-
lage. Of this but little can be seen, just a few houses, and it seems
near and insignificant.
The captain is evidently waiting again for the natives to come out,
and I am helpless. Finally, however, a boat is made ready and I
am taken to the shore with the mail. This is piled on the beach, and
with two officers we start to walk toward the dwellings opposite to
us, which are the mission. Heavy walking in the loose sand and
gravel of the steep beach, and as we ascend it is seen the buildings
which seemed so near to the shore are about a mile or more away.
A man coming toward us — the missionary, Archdeacon Goodman.
Tell him my mission ; says ho has some business on the ship, but will
come, and there will be no trouble in helping me to a " good deal of
what I want," which sounds fine.
In the absence of the missionary, go to see the teacher. The school
is over a mile in the direction toward the point. Find him at home
and helpful. In 15 minutes, with his aid, engage two native boys,
give two sacks to each, and send them out over the long flats (old
beaches) to pick up every skull and jaw they can find. They go
cheerfully, and we depart shortly after to see Mr. La Voy, a movie-
picture man, who has been staying here for some time making movie
102 / NTKROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 4g
pictures of the natives, and at the same time collecting all the
antiquities they could bring him. We go to see his collection, but
find him not home ; has gone for mail. The rare mail in these regions
is, of course, the most important of events. So back to the school
(a good many rods from the sod house part of the native village to
the left), and then — it is now near noon — to the mission, a good
mile from the school and more from the village.
Road staked on one side with whale ribs about 2 rods distance.
Flats on both sides show many parts of bleached human bones. They
are a part of the old extensive burial grounds. Unfortunately, about
two years ago the predecessor of the present missionary had most of
the skulls and bones collected and put in a hole in the new cemetery,
now seen in the distance to the right of the mission. This new
burial place is surrounded by a unique whale-rib fence. Reach mis-
sion, but no one there. Does not look good. Try one building and
door after another — no one — learn later that the missionary has no
family. Twenty minutes to 1. Nothing remains but to go back to
the school for some lunch. So leave my raincoat, camera, and re-
maining bags (expecting to do main work on the buried bones) and
hurry back to the school, which I reach just after 1, and, thanks to
their late clock, just in time for a modest lunch, but with a real hot
cup of coffee. Queer that the only genuinely hot cups of coffee I
got on this journey were furnished by Eskimo — for Mrs. Moyer, the
wife of the teacher, is an Eskimo.
Then comes the mail and Mr. La. Voy, and I go to see the latter's
collection.
Find a mass of old and modern material, of stone, bone, and
wood. All the older things are from an old site on the point. It is
an important and large site, as found later (at least 50 houses), which
the natives (getting coffee, tea, chewing gimi, chocolate, candy, etc.,
for what they find) are now busy digging over and ruining for
scientific exploration. Women dig as well as men, confining them-
selves to from 2 to 3 uppermost feet that have thawed ; but even thus
finding a lot of specimens. Bones, of course, and other things are
left and no observation whatever on the site is made. It is a pity.
Mr. La Vo}^ donates some stone objects, mainly scrapers, and then
I go with a native he emijloys to the '' diggings." Find much already
turned over- — one woman actually digging — but very much more still
remaining. Examine everything — site evidently not ancient but of
the richest — and then return with the woman to get some of her
" cullings."
On the way am called by a man whose sod house (semisubter-
ranean) we pass. We sit on the top of his house and soon establish
a regular trading place, with a big flat stone as a counter. One
HBDLICKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 103
after another the native women and men bring out a few articles,
good, Ijad, or indifferent, hiy them on the stone, I select what I want,
lay so much money against the articles, and usually get them.
Everybody in the best of humor. The natives surely enjoy the
sport, and so do I. if only I was not hurried. Thus trade for at
least an hour until my pockets are bulging. Then once more to the
school and once more to the mission. In the latter get my things,
as nobody is there yet. Doctor Goodman having doubtless been de-
layed on the boat. I hear that there are prospects of both him and
Mr. La Voy going north with us on a little vacation. Send the coat
with S23are bags to the school by a native I meet, while I go to look
at the rib cemetery and photograph it. Find the bones have been
interred in its middle and a low mound raised over them, so there
is for the moment notliing to do there. Therefore go over the
plain a little farther, picking up a few odds and ends, a damaged
skull, and finally, from a fairly recent burial box. a fine skull with
its lower jaw. Then attempt to pass a pool of water and sink in
the mud to above my rubber boots, so that the icy water runs in,
wetting me thoroughly, and gurgling henceforth with every step
in the shoes. Try to get these off but can not. Tlie feet must be
congested. So spill out all I can by raising the feet, and then do
some hard walking which takes away the cold.
Evening, thougli no dusk approacliing. Sit on gravel to empty
more water from shoes, but can still hardly get one off. And just as
I succeed I see. across another long pool, two men, one with a cap of
an officer of the ship, waving their arms, evidently signifying to
me that the time is up and I am to return. Call to them to wait.
Impossible to make them hear me or for me to hear them. All
here is elusive — enchantedlike — distances, sounds. Finally they
stop. I catch up with them after passing a broad ditch and learn
that the ship is about to sail and they are waiting for me. My coat,
however, and collections are still at tlie school, over a mile away,
so once more it is necessary to hurry to the school and then back
to the ship. So things go wlaen promises go wrong and one is
alone under a constant apprehension.
The boys collected four bags full. Moreover, they undertook to
bring them toward the boat, and are bringing the last two just as
I approacli the beach. There are Eskimos on the beach with dog
teams and sledges waiting to cart off what was unloaded from the
ship. Photograph one of the teams and then on into the boat and
to the Beat' with the four bags, a box full, part of another bag, and
all pockets full of specimens. Only to learn when we reach the
boat that both Doctor Goodman and Mr. La Voy are going with
us and that the former after supper is still to go and get his things
104 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ANN. 46
from the mission. I have no boat to go back with, and so lose
several hours.
July 30. Gloomy morning, windy, cool, sea not good. Do not
feel easy. But need to pack. One of the officers, Boatswain Berg,
lends me his short sheepskin coat, and I pack up to lunch. The sea
is getting worse. Have but little lunch and soon after have to take
to bed or would again be sick. To avoid the pitching of the end
of the boat where my bed is I go to the dispensary and lie until 6.
From 6 on the sea moderates somewhat, so that I am able to have a
little supper. After that go to officers' wardroom, play two games of
checkers with the doctor, get some more specimens from two of the
officers, and retire.
When I boarded the Bear it became plain to me that I must earn
as much as iDossible the sympathetic understanding of my woi-k by
both the officers and the crew, and so I gave two talks, one to the
officers and the other to the men, telling them of our problems in
Alaska, of the meaning and value of such collections as I was making,
and of other matters that I felt would be useful on this occasion. As
a result I had throughout the voyage nothing but the friendliest feel-
ings of all and their cooperation. Sincere thanks to the officers and
the crew of the Bear, from the captain downward.
Saturday, July 31. At 4.30 a. m. suddenly a heavy bump forward,
followed by several smaller ones. Ship rises and shivers. Have
struck ice floes. Going very slowly. Further bumps at longer or
shorter intervals and occasionally the ship stops entirely. Seas
fortunately much calmer.
Up at 7. We are in a loose field of ice — aquamarine-blue ice
covered with hillocks of snow, all shapes and sizes, as after a hard
winter on the Hudson, only floes mostly larger and especially deeper.
Soon after breakfast hear walrus and seals had been observed on
the ice, and shortly before 9 the captain comes down hurriedly to tell
us they have just spiecl^ — they now ha^-e a man in the crow's nest up
on the foremast — a white bear.
Kun up — everybody pleasurably excited — to the front of the ship.
See a black-looking head of something swimming toward a large ice
floe about 500 yards in front of us. As we approach the head reaches
the floe, then a big yellowish paw comes out upon the ice, then the
shoulders, and finally the whole bear. The officei-s hurry forward,
each with a gun. Soon men all there. Some one fires. Bear stands
broadside watching us. The bullet goes way over. Then other
shots — still missing — water spouting high in many places. Bear
bewildered, does not know what to do, lopes off a little here and there,
stops again, looking at us, and now — we are less than 100 yards from
him it seems — a bullet strikes him above the loin — we can see him jerk
HRDLiCKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 105
and the red sj^ot following. He runs clumsily, but other shots follow,
some seemingly taking effect, and then he drops, first on his belly,
then, twisting, turns over on his back. A few more movements with
his paws and head, and he lies still, quite dead. Can not but feel
sorry for the poor bear, who did not know why he was being killed,
and had no chance.
A motor boat is lowered and goes to get him. They find on the floe
the remains of a seal on which he fed. Tie a rope to him, drag him
into the water, tow him to the Bear, which has stopped and where
all stand on the bows in expectation and with all sorts of cameras,
and prepare to hoist the brute aboard. Captain says it is the second
case of this nature in 20 years. Ropes are fastened about the big
body, attached to a winch, and the big limp form is hauled up. thougli
not without some difficult}, due to its size and weight. All stand
about him, examine, photograph. They will let the natives at Wain-
wright skin it and give them the flesh. It is a middle-sized, full-
grown male. It shows only two wounds, the one in the side and one
where the bullet passed through his mouth, knocking out one of the
canines.
Cold — must put on second suit of underwear. Very gloomy, but
storm abated. No land in sight^ — above Cape Lombard all is flat.
It rains in that direction. We meander among the floes, now and
then bumping and shivering. Should a wind come up and blow the
ice landward we would be in danger of being closed in and stopped
or delayed.
Evening. Arrive off Wainwright. Village recent — older site 20
miles away. People the usual type of Eskimo. Visit the village, but
soon return.
After supper the boat stops — fear the ice. Another pa.ssenger is
added here, Jim Allen, the local trader, with a bagful of white
fox skins and a bear skin. Conditions becoming a bit crowded.
Sunday, August 1. No movement to-day. They are apprehensive
of the ice, and so we stay here, the one place of all where there is
nothing for me to do. Of course there are the natives, but with the
constant uncertainty as to when we shall start and a lack of facilities
I can not do much with them.
The weather is quiet but still cloudy, though the sun may possibly
peep out. Ice seen in the offing. Would be more interesting to be
in it, as yesterday. The bear has been skinned, cut up, and we shall
try some of its flesh at noon. Rest of day quiet but still mostly
cloudy, though occasionally a little of pale, lukewarm sun. At
3.30 give lecture to the officers and fellow passengers on the subject
of evolution. Seems quite appreciated. Reading, writing, and
walking the deck fills the time. Ate a little of the bear meat — some-
88253°— 30 8
106 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth.ann.40
what tough, otherwise not much different from reindeer or even beef.
If better prepared (especially roasted on coals) would be quite
palatable.
Yesterday there were several flurries of snow, none to-day, but air
cold enough to make a long stay outside disagreeable.
Toward evening Captain announces that he is going to try to reach
Barrow, about 80 miles northeastward, and soon after supper we
start. He also tells me we may be there at or not long after mid-
night and so to be ready, for the boat will be unable to stop more
Ihan an hour or two. As the only place where a few skulls and
bones may be found is about ll^ miles outside of the village and it
takes a good 30 minutes to make a mile over the tundras, I shall
have to rush once more. But I am promised a man to help me.
August 2. With clothes on, and anticipation, slept poorly. Ship
.stopped about 1 a. m. and I imagined we were off Barrow. But on
rising find that we have gone on and tlien backward again, encoun-
tering ever more ice. It is cold and foggy outside, and cloudy and
gloomy. We now meander among the big floes, now and then bump
into one until the whole ship heaves and shivers, and occasionally
the siren, stop for a while to diminish the shock. We are now on
way back to Wainwright. If we only could go as far back as Point
Hope, where there is so much of interest. I might have stayed over,
but would surely have reproached myself for missing the remainder
of the coast.
Back off Wainwright, cold, windy, sky gloomy as usual.
Late in the afternoon go with the trader to land, to visit the site
of an older village, about a mile down the shore. Walk along the
beach. Cold wind, raincoat stiffens. Walrus meat and blubber
chunks (slabs, etc.) along the beach at several places, also a large
skinned seal. Traces, as one nears the village, of worked stones, but
all waterworn and no finished objects. At one place in bank, about
3 feet deep, a layer of clear blue ice about 20 inches thick — .strangely
pure ice, not frozen earth or even inclusion of any dirt or gravel.
Village site small, along the edge of the low (about 10 feet) bluff.
Count remains of eight dwellings. Some animal bones, but nothing
else on surface or in vicinity. Burial place not seen. Companion
says there is nothing.
A simple supper at the trader's, prepared by his Eskimo wife, and
good company: Doctor Smith, of the Geological Survey, with two of
his men; Jim Allen, the storekeeper, a big, good-hearted fellow;
La Voy. the big, active movie man. who knows all the gossip and
enjoys telling it with embellishment; and two men of the ti'ader.
Menu : Soup, boiled reindeer meat, underdone biscuits, coffee.
After supper go to a meeting at the school, where our missionary,
Doctor Goodman, is to talk to the natives. Large .schoolroom
hedliOka] WRITER-S TRIP OX YUKOX 107
crowded. I talk through an interpreter — a serious disadvantage —
on cleanliness. Fine study for me on the many present, though like
elsewhere on such occasions they are mainly women and children.
Good many Indianlike faces, though cheekbones more prominent
and more flatness between them. But hair, low foreheads, eyes (ex-
cept in children where they are more superficial, less sunken, and
with more epicanthus than in Indians), lips, and other character-
istics the same as in Indians. Some of the faces are strong, many
among the younger pleasant, some of the young women handsome.
A moderate number of mix bloods, even among the adults. Color
of skin in full bloods medium to submedium brown, exactly as in
full-blood Indians along the Yukon, but cheeks more dusky red.
The behavior of these peojDle is in all important points radically
that of the Indian, but they are more approachable and open and
matter-of-fact people. More easily civilized. Good mechanics.
Less superstitious, more easily converted to white man's religion.
And good singers. Their singing at the meeting in the schoolhouse
would have shamed a good many whites in this respect.
Except for epidemics, I am told, these natives would more than
hold their own in numbers. They are fecund, if conditions are
right. Sterility is rare. They marry fairly young.
August 3. Still standing, though we had to pull out farther
south and away from the shore. The water was pretty rough and
I had to go to bed again, but weather moderated.
We are in touch with the world through the ship's radio, but get
more trash — same all through the radio service in Alaska — than
serious news. Spend time in reading, talking; some play solitaii-e
games; captain and Allen play cribbage. Deck too small for any
outside games, even if it were not so cold.
Ice floes floating about us, now scarce, now thicker; water splashing
against them and wearing them out into pillared halls, mushrooms,
and other strange forms. Due to their snow covering, the water
upon them, so far as it results from melting, is sweet, and in it swim
many small fishes. It snowed a bit again to-day.
August 4. No change, except that the sea is somewhat calmer,
and for a while we have once more seen the sun, but it was hazy
and just mildly warm, while the same wind, from the sea, even though
now subdued, has an icy undertone. It snowed a little this morning.
Thursday, August 5. Sea calm, atmosphere hazy, but the wind
has turned at last slightly ofl.shore and the sun penetrates thi-ough
the mists, until it conquers and shines, warm and bright if not
wholly clear, once more. Ice visible only on the horizon. At 7.15
we start on another effort to reach Barrow.
Pass Wainwright, and aU is well until after lunch, when fog
(though fortunately not thick) develops and the floes increase until
108 ANTHROPOLOGICALi SUEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
they are as thick as at the first attempt in this same region. Heavy
bumps and strains follow one another and the boat must often go
very slow or even stop altogether. Sometimes the heavy ship just
staggers from the impact, but the floes are generally broken by the
shock and swirl away out of our way, or scraping the ship pass
to the rear. All aboard show new interest and energy. The forced
stops and inaction were dulling even to the crew.
File a wireless to be sent from Barrow. It will reach Washington
to-morrow after we shall have started on the return journey.
Two dogs on board fight fiercely. An officer, the owner of one,
trying to separate them is bitten by his own through a finger.
A marine, in swinging the heavy lead with which they are con-
stantly sounding the depth, gets the cord caught about his hand
and suffers a bad sprain witli fracture.
The captain's little black cat, Peter, helps to entertain us by his
antics. No wonder sailors in their often monotonous existence like
all sorts of mascots.
Friday, August 6. Of course our dates got mixed, and more than
one has to consult the calendar and count. The Bear had to turn
back once more last night; ice too heavj'. Anchored, however, not
far to south. This morning very cloudy, rainy, chilly, but wind
from near to east, and so from about G a. m. we are once more labori-
ously on our way. Now and then a bump, heave, stagger, then again
the screw resumes its cheerful song. We are passing through the
most dangerous part of all the coast here where many vessels have
been lost, sometimes whole small fleets of whalers. But very few
come here now — we have seen but one since leaving Kotzebue. They
call this stretch " the boat graveyard."
Saturday, August 7. Stalled, about 30 miles from Barrow. An-
chored in the protection of a great grounded flat, in a clear pond of
water, with ice all around it, but especially seaward, where the pack
seems solid. Some open water reported beyond it. but wind (wild)
keeps from the wrong quarter and the captain will mal^e no further
attempt until conditions change. Of course it is cloudy again and
has rained some during the night and morning, but the temperature
is somewhat higher, so that one does not need an overcoat and
gloves, although the officers wear their sheep-lined short coats which
are nice and warm.
After noon asked the captain for the skin whaleboat to explore
the sliore. The latter is nearly a mile distant and shows about 60
feet high dirt bluffs. Got the boat and went with the boatswain.
Berg, a young "hand," Weenie, and the movie man, La Voy.
Rowed with La Voy. Had a wholesome two and a half hours
exploi'JDg, Found a little stream, with traces of native deer camp
HKOLicKA] WEITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 109
(collected two seal skulls) ; a moderate number of flowers and grasses
(collected some mushrooms) ; some fossil shells from the bluffs; and
two Eskimo burials. One of these, a woman, nearly all washed away
and lost; of the other, a man, secured the skull, jaw, one shoulder
blade and jDart of a diseased femur with corresponding socket
(mushroom arthritis), also the two humeri. A good specimen. Re-
turned, rowing again, near 4. All there playing cribbage and
solitaire.
Am tempted to walk to Barrow ; but there are some streams in the
way which it might be impossible to ford. Moreover, no one knows
the distance.
Sunday, August 8. Morning finds us once more thwarted, and
standing at our place of refuge. No change in conditions, but there
will be a change of moon to-night, so I at least have hopes. In my
travels I learned too much about the moon not to believe in it.
Toward evening ice begins to move out.
Monday. August 9. At 12.30 a. m., unexpectedly, a new start.
The wind has turned at last (new moon!) to northeast, but is mild.
Soon in ice. Many bumps and much creaking and shaking. Cap-
tain's collie gets scared and tries to get into our beds, one after
another. But very little sleep under these conditions.
In the morning we find ourselves in a thicker ice field than any
before, with floes on all sides. Boat barely creeps. Toward 10 a. m.
further progress found almost impossible, and so forced to turn back-
ward once more. However, can not even go back and so, near 12,
anchor about a mile offshore opposite a small river with lagoonlike
mouth and two tents of natives — " Shinara," or " Shinerara."
Ask captain for a boat to visit and explore the coast. Consents,
and so at 1 we go forth, about eight of us, with the captain's dog.
Reach Eskimo, photograph the group. All look remarkably Indian-
like. Then go to look for skeletal material. Nothing near, so return
for the Eskimo boy. He leads me about a mile over the highland
tundra to two burials in boxes — not old. Look through crevices
shows in one an adolescent, in the other a female (or a boy) with
hair and skin still on. Leave both.
Then into the boat once more after buying some fossil teeth, and
with the boy Isaac — his father is Abraluim — try to go into the river,
and soon get stuck in the stickiest mud (oily shale) imaginable —
gi-eat work to clean even the oar with which we had to push ourselves
off. Land then on the beach and for the next two hours explore
that side of the basin. Find remains of two small settlements —
seven huts in all, none very old.
Gather five skulls with parts of four skeletons, most bones missing ;
also some mushrooms, several interesting humeri of seals, and a piece
110 AXTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. axn. 46
of piimicelike fossil bone. Near 4.30 begins to rain a bit so we hurry
to boat, and in a little while, after depositing Isaac near his camp,
reach the Bear.
Eskimo on shore had two skinned seal lying on the ground, and
there were many reindeer horns. A pile of them was over a fire,
being smoked.
Tlie wind has been the whole day from the northeast, the long-
wished-for wind, and the ice has moved out sufficiently to induce
the captain to make another start. So at 5 p. m. off we go again,
and for quite a while the screw sings merrily, until we reach some
remaining ice, when there are more bumps and staggers.
The waters about the ship show, whenever calmer, the heads of
swimming .seal, grown and little. But they are wary and keep at
a distance. Otherwise the only live things are an occasional gidl,
and rarely a couple of ducks. In the icy water, however, on and
alwut the floes, are seen again numerous small, dark fish (from the
size of a big minnow to that of a tomcod) ; and along the shore swim
merrily hundreds of very tame and graceful little snipes, lovely small
birds, too little, luckily, to be hunted.
Little enthusiasm about my collecting, but the boatswain and some
at least of the men are genuinely helpful. I believe some of the
others ai'e a bit superstitious. But I get some chance at least, and
that is precious.
Expect to reach Barrow before 12 p. m.. and to start back before
morning — a big chance for some sleep again if I want to do some
collecting. Sleep, through the frequent lack of it, has become a
kind of obsession in one's thoughts, yet when there were chances dur-
ing the days of waiting it would not come.
August 9, evening, to 10 next morning. This is a land of odds and
wonders. In the morning tilings looked hopeless; toward evening
the wind has driven away enough ice to make a narrow open lane
near the shore, and utilizing this we arrived without difficulty
at 8 p. m. at the long unreachable Barrow. At 9 boat takes us
ashore. At 9.30 p. m. I start with an Eskimo and a seaman (Wee-
nie) from the Bear on a collecting trip over about 3 square miles
of tundra behind Barrow, and at 12 :30 return to ship with four bags
of skulls and bones. But sleep ! Hardly any since 12.30 last night,
and very little after return to-day, foi- due to fear of ice they
called in everybody from shore before 3 a. m., and the newcomers
keep on walking and talking and banging with their baggage until
.5, when, fearing a return of the ice, we start once more southward,
toward — it feels strange, but it is so — home. It was a remarkable
good fortune, our getting there thus and getting out again, as we
did, without damage.
KRDLI.^KA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 111
Barrow is a gond-lookinp and rather important place. It stretches
about 2 miles aloufr the low shore, in three clusters, the two main
ones separated b}' a lagoon. It has a radio station, a mission
hospital, and a school. There are over 200 natives here, and also quite
a few whites, including Mr. Charles Brower, the trader, observer
and collector, with his native wife and their family, the teacher, the
missionary and his family, and the nurses.
The liurial place here is the most extensive in the Eskimo territory.
Taking the older parts and the new, it covers over a square mile of
the tundra, beginning not far beyond the site of the hospital and
extending to and beyond a small stream that flows over a mile inland.
But the burials were grouped in a few spots, the rest being barren.
This extensive burial ground is now aliout exhausted for scientific
purposes, excej^t for such skeletons and objects as may have been
assimilated — i. e. buried — by the tundra. That such exist became
quite evident during our search, and they naturally are the oldest
and most valuable. We secured two good skulls of this natui-e. They
were completely buried, only a little of the vault showing, and had
there been time we should doubtless have found also parts of the
skeletons. The skulls were discolored brown.
Of tile later skeletal material we found but the leavings, the best
having lieen carried off by other collectors. There were remnants
of hundreds of skulls and skeletons, but for the most part so dam-
aged as not to be worth saving. Nevertheless our diligent midnight
search was not in vain, and we brought back four sacks full of speci-
mens, the Eskimo carrying his with the utmost good nature. The
destruction here is due to sailors and other whites and to dogs, foxes,
and reindeer.
The reindeer herds, going in lumdreds over the ground, help
materially to scatter and damage the bones. So, the older material
gone, while the more recent burials are, at least so far as the
younger element is concerned, quite worthless to science, containing
many mix bloods of all sorts — even occasionally with the negro
(men from the wrecked whaleboats). The collection now secured
was the last one possible from this locality, except through exca-
vation.
Tuesday. August 10. The boat is now crowded. We lost one
woman and got three; also about five or six men — newspaper, movie,
radioman, a dog teamster, a trapper. Quite a variety, in every way,
nnd most are to go with us at least as far as Nome. They will have
to hang up two hammocks in our little cabin each night, and some
must sleep elsewhere.
Packing the whole morning. Five boxes. My man of last night
helloing, a fine, big young fellow. This aid in the work is a great
112 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann.40
boon to me, and the transportation of the many specimens by the
Bear down to Seattle or San Francisco will be a fine service to the
Institution.
The older of us, that is those who have been longer on the ship,
feel like veterans and are drawn closer together. The new lot,
heterogeneous, do not attract, particularly' one of the women. An
older one, evidently a well-liked nurse, goes off at Wainwright,
which we reach once more at 8 p. m. Hei'e goes off also Jim Allen,
the trader, who is a good fellow in a rough shell and whom I
learned to like. He lielped us all a good deal while in the ice.
The movie man from Point Hope is a somewhat spoiled, gossipy,
and roughshod, but otherwise a good-hearted big kid — not verj'
wise, but not mischievous, and more than efficient in his own calling.
Is 40, but already- aging, like a weather-beaten poplar — not pine
or oak. Is violently against all " kikes," or eastern money-lending
Jews, from whom he used to borrow at usurious interest and who
sold him out once or twice when he could not paj'.
Lost Jim Allen and dropped the nurse, but are still too many.
At 10 p. m.. just as the minister and I have retired, there comes a
call for the former to go up. A couple of Eskimos have arrived,
with their friends, to be married. So he dresses and performs the
function. I am too weary to rise and dress to go and look at it.
He says it was quite tame. Then the anchor, and once more we
are off. No ice any more, and the sea has again a swell, which was
absent in the ice-covered waters.
Wednesday. August 11. Swell, but not bad, though one of the
women, another nurse, is ill, and the other, a " writer," etc., will not
get up for breakfast. Quite a problem now to get washed and
shaved. Both the minister (archdeacon) and the movie man like
to use perfumed things, and the former takes much time with his
toilet, so I endeavor as before to be first up.
August 12. A great da3^ Was called a little after 12.30 a. m., after
but little sleep (through anticipation), to examine a site ashore — -
a coal mine, a water source, and possibly something human. Two
miles to shore, in semidarkne&s ; no night yet in these regions. A
long tramp over the mossy and grassy tundra; mosquitoes. One
native igloo, and on a little elevation some distance off a grave of
a child; otherwise nothing. After examination of the coal strata,
a curious secondary inclusion in sand and gi'avel. and the stream
of water (good to drink, even if not clear), we depart and reach
shi^D again after 4 a. m.
Beginning to be — in fact am already — a " night doctor," for sure.
Never thought I could stand such doings, but am standing it, and
that even with some cold and bothersome night cough. But am
IIKDIKKA] -SVRITEK'S TRIP ON YUKON 113
sure short on sleeping, for it is impossible for me to catch up during
the days: am not a day sleejjer. I suppose when one is most of
the time half hungry his mind naturally reverts to hunger, as mine
does to sleep.
We are due to-day again at Point Hope, and I am anxious for a
little time there.
At night. This was a day of harvest. Reached Point Hope about
3 p. m., but had to go ai'ound again to the other side, due to the
swell and surf on the north. I went to shore in the first boat, about
4 p. m. Doctor Goodman, with whom we are very friendly, was
with me and promised to go over and help me get some men with
whom I want to excavate the burial hole of his predecessor. But
when on the shore stays behind and remains. So we go on with my
man from the ship to the whalebone graveyard. Near there see
two Eskimo men with some dogs. They smile ; so I tell them what
I want; in two minutes have engaged them; in about three more
we begin to dig, and in about five minutes after strike first bones.
My good friend the boatswain, Mr. Berg, comes to help, and as I
now have four to work I take a bag and go on collecting a little
more over the plains beyond where we are. Get a good bag. Find
another good-natured Eskimo, Frank, coming from fishing, engage
him to help carrying and eventually to take place of one of my first
workers, who is an old man. Then we see Doctor Goodman, far
away, coming to the mission. Borrow two more shovels from his
stock and a few coal bags. Meanwhile bone and skull pile is fairly
exposed from one side and top gravel parth' removed, so I give up
intended trip to old village site and, as we were given only to 9.30
p. m., go to work on the pile.
A great deal here. More than anticipated, though all is a jumble,
with the long and other bones of the skeleton on the top. The work
is to get down in the moist gravel, disengage one bone and skull afrer
another as rapidly as possible, give it a rapid look-over, and either
save, if fairly well preserved or showing some special feature, or
discard. If saved, the specimen is handed to one of the Eskimo,
who cleans it of gravel, lays it out to dry a little, and then places it
gently in a bag.
Many of the bones and skulls were found so damaged that they
had to be left. But much was also good. The strenuous work, how-
ever, had to go on without interruption and at the fullest possible
speed, if the main part of what Avas there was to be saved. So no
supper, no stop for even a minute, until after 8 p. m. Sixteen bags
full, and some of the sacks quite spacious. At last had to give up —
no more time, no sacks, and lower down everything frozen as hard
as flint. The main part, however, secured — 183 good skulls, several
114 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IX ALASKA [eth, axn. 40
hundred lower jaws, and a lot of long and other bones. This, to-
gether with the rest of the material from this place, ought to give
us data of much value.
But now, how shall the lot be got on the boat. Luckily, one of the
Eskimo that has been working for me has a dog team and sled. So
I engage these; and shortly after we finish putting everything in
order — in the presence now of Doctor Goodman, who comes to look at
us — the man arrives, with a good-sized sled and 13 whitish dogs.
Load all the bags on — and then a sight never to be forgotten — the
dogs pulling the load across the tundra, depressions, gravels, right
down to the water's edge and to the motor boat that is waiting for us.
How they strained, pulled with all will, and obeyed. A wise leader
in front, six pairs behind. No reins, only a few calls from the
Eskimo, and they knew just what to do. Tried to photograph them,
but light already poor — advancing season. (PI. 9, a. b.)
Then hurry to the teacher, not home ; to La Voy, not home. Find
teacher in tent, sick, trembling; I fear beginning of typhoid. Did
not get anything for me in our absence. La Voy promised to give
me some things from his collections, but now is not here. A native
woman, however, meets me far out on the beach, and I learn she has
dug out for me since our first visit five good skulls from the ground —
some, she shows, deep to above the elbow. She has them near the
ship — we go on — on the road boys and women overtake me with a
few things to sell. Then the woman brings her skulls, in a bag on
her back, in excellent condition. I pay her for her trouble. Reach
our boat, and the bell on the Bear rings 9.30.
The bone pile — the sled and dogs and load over the tundra — the
woman carrying a native (seal) bag with skulls — will be three rare,
indelible pictures.
On the Bear at 10. A little sandwich, fruit, and a cinnamon cake
with coifee, and to bed. But irritating tire-cough keeps me up for
another hour.
Friday, 13th. Packing. A nice day. Toward evening stop at
Kevalina. Obtain a few things and pictures. To bed soon, but
cough .still bothers. I have nothing for it; there is but little on the
boat in the way of medicines outside of the most ordinary things.
Saturday, 14th. Up .5.30, early breakfast, and 6.45 start once more
for Kotzebue. The Bear has anchored about 12 miles off, so do not
reach village until 8.35, and have to go back at 9.10. Rush to store,
get boxes, barrels, and packing. And then to the schoolhouse, where
I expect some information about the skeleton found under the house
and obtained on my former visit. Also promised information from
Mr. Chance, the supervisor, about old sites. But Mr. Chance is gone,
and no letter or message — it came later, to Washington. A few
HRDLicKA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 115
words with the teacher, and one of the boys from our boat is already
calling me.
Return at 11 a. m. and spend the rest of the day packing, finishing
just at supper. A curious sunset at 8, a horizontally banded sun,
several clear-cut, fairly broad, dark bands. Sea getting rougher.
Sunday, August 15. Bad sea, wind, waves, fog. Have to take to
bed and do without breakfast. Stay in until lunch. We could not
stop again at Shishmareff ; could not get ashore. The nest stop, late
afternoon, is to be at the Little Diomede, to take oS Jenness; but if
too rough we shall go on to Teller. The wind is from the northwest
and the foghorn keeps on blowing.
The whole day continues rough, foggy, unfriendly. The ship can
not stop at the Diomede, nor go to Teller; obliged to go to Nome.
After supper all chairs and movable articles have to be tied up.
Most day in bed, but escaped I'eal seasickness, and got some sleep.
Monday, 16. AVeather moderated. We are in lee of the mountain-
ous part, of Seward Peninsula. After breakfast oiF Nome, and at
11 a. m. in town. First stop at Lomen's. Then from one to another
till 4.55 p. m., when Dan Sutherlantl, the Alaska Delegate to Con-
gress, escorts me to the boat. Saw many friends, got some mail,
and. best of all, got a fine deposit collection for the National Museum
from Mr. Carl Lomen. The judge asked me for another lecture for
next Saturday, when we are to see Nome for the last time.
About 5 a. m'. arrive at Golovnin Bay to take water. At this place
this is generally a day of jjartial rest and recreation for the crew.
The water is taken from a small stream fed by a spring that comes
out from a cave of the mountain, and is put direct into the whale-
boats, brought to ship, and pumped into its tanks.
Shortly after breakfast the captain gives us the larger motor boat,
and with Mr. Berg and two of the seamen I start for a little survey
trip along the northern .shore of the bay. In less than an hour we
reach a sheltered nook with a small stream, where there is an old
frame dwelling with some outstructures, all evidently abandoned,
though various articles of use hang or lie about, including several
guns of old patterns.
On a bluff to the left of the house are six burials, some old, wood
near all rotten, some more recent. The latter, two in number, both
show a large animal skin covering of the body, besides which the
latter shows remnants of clothing. Secure two good skeletons,
practically complete; also head and a few parts of a newborn (or
near) child. A unique feature — with one of the male skeletons is
found a complete skeleton of an eagle. Could have got also a female
skeleton, but was still unclean, and we perceived a small native motor
boat coming toward us from the reindeer camp about I14 miles
116 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
farther inward. So we replaced everything (outwardly) and started
off to meet the native boat. Found in it two young men and three
women. Inquired about old sites and learned of one about 3 miles
farther inward.
Stopjjed at the reindeer camp. Found there about a dozen in-
dividuals. Got more information, also a young man to go with us,
bought for the Bear a dozen good-sized silver salmon — caught this
morning and lying for protection against flies, in a pool of water —
and left for the old site " around the point."
A nice site, but small. Fine beach for bathing if it were in a
wai-mer climate. Remains of about a half dozen semisubterranean
houses. A coj^iaer nail from one shows they were not very ancient.
And no burials left, save one. more recent, of a child, most of which
is gone. But there is a green elevated plane rising from the beach
and we soon find several varieties of berries, especially large and good
blueberries, a variety of huckleberry, and a sort of wine-tasting
dwarf blackberry. Collect enough for immediate consumption — a
most welcome diversion in every way — and get some for the captain.
Leave near 1 p. m. A little lunch on boat, then once more the
reindeer camp, where the young women make us good hot coffee
with as good biscuits as one could find anywhere. Buy more berries
from them, load our fish (12 salmon i-anging about 12 pounds each,
for $3), and start off for another site just around Stony Point.
Eound up one point, then another and another, up to five, and by
that time the going has become so rough that we get much tossed
about, ship water, dog gets frightened and near sick, and just
as we reach what we thought must be the last point there juts out
still another. It is now so rough that the boatswain thinks we could
not land, and so nothing remains but to turn back to the mother
boat. Reach there near 3.30 p. m. Soon all boats are hoisted, and at
4 the Bear is on her way to St. Michael.
August 18. Arrived about midnight off St. Michael ; must stay out-
side due to shoal water. Somewhat rough.
In the morning boat coaling, dirty work, so all who can go ashore.
Meet Mr. Williams again; buy a few native articles in stores, visit
Mrs. Evans, the teacher-nurse, who has on an occasion successfully
amputated a native's finger. The deputy marshal takes me to his
house, gives me some dried deer meat and smoked salmon strips, and
promises to be on a lookout for specimens for us. Near noon return.
Still rough.
At night a bad blow and the ship tossing a great deal, almost as
during the .storm to St. Lawrence. Feel it considerably, but after
3 a. m. wind and water moderate. Feel effects of it, however, whole
morning. For an explorer to be ever in rough weather subject to
seasickness is a horrid affliction.
btrdliOka] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 117
August 19. Off Xonif once more. Everything, city, mountains,
appear exceedingly, unnaturally clear — not a good sign. After
9 a. m. go to town. Soon at the Lomens' headquarters, and the sons,
particular!}' Carl, bring out three smaller boxes full of things from
St. Lawrence and Nunivak Islands, and give me the choice of all.
And after I am through — near two hours' fast work — Carl adds one
beautiful tusk (carved) from Nunivak Island, and then adds another,
and two big bones of a mammoth, some as gifts, some as an addition
to his loan to our institution. Excellent men.
Lunch with Rali^h and Carl; then a good walk in the open; and
then another lecture. All pleased, and two bring me sjjecimens for
our museum. Slowly back to boat and 4.45 on the Bear again. Nice
day, but getting cooler and blustery.
Captain Koss comes to port, the graphophone starts its usual jazz
songs next (ward) room, then the supper, all visitors gone, and the
Bear raises anchor to be off for the north once more.
August 19. evening. A new, hnal chapter begins with to-day.
What will it contain when over ?
August 20. Rough. Go north until in plain sight of the Diomedes
as well as Cape Wales, and then the captain decides landing wovdd
be risky, if not impossible; and so reluctantly we turn back and
proceed toward Teller. What a tantalizing experience this must
have been to poor Jenness, who is waiting for us on the Little
Diomede. a most dreary place, to be taken off'; and I, too, expected
collections at both the Diomedes and the Cape.
Saturday. August 21. Port Clarence, off Teller. This proved
a day never to be forgotten; for failure of a rigid system, for bad
weather, for strain and endurance, and nearness to almost anything.
My purpose was to utilize the Bears visit to Teller for a survey
of a Chukchee-Eskimo battle field, of which I heard repeatedly
from the Yukon onward. Sometime during the earlier half of the
last century the Chukchee from Asia are said to have made an in-
vasion of the peninsula and to have reached as far as the Salt Lake,
east of Teller, when they were met by the united Eskimo and badly
defeated. The exact spot where this happened is, however, some-
what uncertain, and it was to locate it, examine, and collect what
might be possible of the remains that were said to be still there
that I asked Captain Cochran to let me have one of the motor boats,
to which he kindly consented, uniting the trip with some topographi-
cal observations for his own purposes.
The evening before I was told by the second officer that we shall
start some time soon after midnight for that part of the old battle
field — there seemed to be two of them — at the eastern point of the
Salt Lake. As a result could not undress, and after ship stopped in
118 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. axn. 46
Port Clarence, near 11 p. m., had but a little rest. The call came at
4 a. m. A little breakfast, a package of lunch, and start at 5.10.
First note. Ship about 7 miles from Teller. Water deep enough
much nearer, but we came at night. Here there are already dark
nights between about 9 p. m. and 4 a. m., and so they were cautious.
Second. The officer says he has orders not to stop at Teller, where
there is an old Indian (Dunak) from whom I expected to get exact
bearings, and where there is also a white trader, Mr. Peterson, who
Iniows the place and might possibly have accompanied us.
Third. Distances, as usual, longer than estimated. We find even-
tually that the destination is about 32 miles from Teller.
Fourth. A brisk head wind and sea retarding us.
Fifth. As we approach our spot, a shoal water, with grass, prevent-
ing us from going straight to the most likely place, and no other way
was tried. It is 11 a. m. and already I hear an intimation that we
shall not have time for anything except to make a lunch. This is
the same officer, a v'ery good man at his post but rigid and without
much interest in anything else than his own field, who after 10
miles' trip to Kotzebue gave us 25 minutes there, when it required
15 minutes alone to reach the school from the boat.
So we end by landing on the extremity of a spit there to make
lunch, and I have only the time it takes to prepare the latter. I find,
in hurry, remains of five old semisubterranean dwellings on the
northern side of the point, and about as many low mounds with
remnants about of rotten driftwood — undoubtedly old burials.
Probably the skeletons have been assimilated by the tundra vege-
tation and blown material. A single native skull, a female, without
face, is lying about. Collected.
"\^Tiile lunch is being made ready the officer and the boatswain,
Mr. Berg, each shoot a duck. Then the lunch, a hurried loading,
and departure, after some delay in setting the sail, at 1.30 p. m. I
saw nothing that looked like a battle field. Its determination and
survey must be left for some future explorer.
Sail rapidly. Wind fresh, with us, also waves. Cross Salt Lake,
and Tussoc " River." About 4.30 reach Grantly Harbor and wind
increases; also waves. We run fast, and well enough, but the
umiak (skin boat) we are pulling begins to suffer. It rides crazily
and is jerked over the seething waves. The crossbar by which it is
partly held breaks, and now the boat goes more sidewise, with water
lapping over its border and getting in. Wind now quite a gale,
breaking waves everywhere — every now and then a big one — white-
caps all over. A dim view of Teller in distance, when the skin
boat begins to fill more rapidly and sag. Must stop engine— waves
toss us like mad — one could be thrown bodily out of the boat if
HRDLICKA] WEITEE'S TRIP ON YUKON 119
not careful in bending or moving and holding. The sail comes
down and the mast is laid down, a bad piece of work. Berg and
Pete Brant (an elderly trapper with us but formerly of Coast
Guard Service at Nome, a good sailor and knowing these waters)
work very hard and well. The skin boat has to be pulled alongside
and bailed out by young Weenie, a very hard and dangerous task.
Mr. Berg's rain hat (" souwester ") blows off and is lost in the
seething waves. Later Weenie nearly loses his — snatches it out
between the boats with a narrow escape for his head. Then Weenie
climbs into the skin boat — a brave act — and finishes the bailing, but
is much " in '" after getting back. Then our big staunch motor
launch starts again at reduced speed. But the skin boat does great
antics and threatens to fill again or break; so Pete Brant holds the
rope and is jerked every now and then, until I fear that he may
any moment be jerked out into the waves and watch to catch his
legs. Fortunately he succeeds in preventing it, but there was a
slim margin.
It has drizzled or rained, besides the wind, most of the afternoon,
and there is a lot of spray to splashes from the waves. All this has
to be taken as it conies, but the water is not cold, and our boots and
oilskins give protection. Nevertheless my right knee to hip gets
thoroughly wet and chilly, and I was not alone. But there is little
time to think of such things. We see at Teller the waves breaking
high on the shore, some boats already on the beach and others being
driven there, a few people looking helplesslj^ on.
About 5.50 we round the Teller spit and come in the lee of it into
calmer water. But the visibility over the water is probably not
over a mile now. and we see no trace of the Bear. The gasoline
supply is getting rather low ; and all are more or less cold, though
dressed warmer than I and, due to their hip-high rubber boots —
mine reach only to the knee — not wet. I now shake a lot with
the cold, without being able to stop it. So we skirt the protecting
bluffs southward to where everyone thinks the Bear is, near a little
stream from which they were to take fresh water. But though we
all strain our eyes to the limit, there is no trace of the ship.
Thus reach Cape Riley and the stream, which is found dry, without
a drop of water. Get on the pebbly beach, turn skin boat over to
get the water out, and hurry to chop wood. No wood save the water
troughs, so chop these. Must have fire. I warm up a little by
running around and chopping. They pour gasoline on the wood,
make a big fire, cook a pot of coffee, and with bread and preserved
meat make a supper, though it is mainly coffee.
Near 8 and getting dark. Storm, outside of pi-otection of cliffs,
unabated. There is a second watering place, 7 or 8 miles across the
120 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 4G
bay, and our only chance to find the Bear is to rush for this. But to
do this we must go diagonally across the waves and similarly against
the wind — a bad prospect. Also, we have only just about enough
gasoline to reach the place. But there is no help.
Thus a new start, and before long we are once more in the waves.
It is now quite obscure. The waves break now and then and splash
over us. Before long the slrin boat is again sagging and in danger
of sinking. Once more pull alongside and dangerous, exhausting
bailing by Weenie.
And so on, tossed, driven aside, but thanks to the good engine
never stopping. I hold to seat not to be thrown against things or
even out : the others are becoming gruff, irritable. And then Higsby
makes out a faint light far ahead. No one certain, but in a while
it seems moving. A solitary small light somewhere far on the sliore,
probably, not the boat.
But soon another stronger light discerned, seemingly moving to
the left, and later .several — the ship in all probability.
We toss and I'eel and .stagger nearer, but motor still going strong.
For the skin boat they found at last a position in which it takes but
little water. Finally see decisively a blinking light, the mast signal.
We show our lantern a few times. Then the ship looms before us,
but there is still the risky task of getting alongside and aboard.
However, all is accomplished without real damage.
The cabin — the good and anxious captain — a little canned grape-
fruit, and bed. But head falls and rises, the events of the day re-
appear, wonder what has become of the trade schooner we saw being
driven on the beach — and so on until consciousness passes into deep
sleep. The Bear is fairly quiet, not in the brunt of the weather.
And this eventually moderates, so that a little after 4 we start again,
only to anchor once more at 6, a little below where last night we had
our supper.
Augu.st 22. Cloudy, drizzly, rough still, and wireless news of
widespread bad storms, even in the States. So we shall wait. One
more hojDe for my collections at the Cape and with Jenness.
Captain sa^'s this morning the officer misundei-stood his orders
about Teller. The trip demonstrated a numlier of things. One of
the main and most gratifying was the sterling quality of the men
with me, officer, boatswain, motorman. Weenie. Pete, in the teeth of
real danger. They were all that men should be under such conditions,
which is the best way I can express it. The trip may have been
in vain so far as its scientific object was concerned, but it brought
a number of men face to face with life's stresses and found their
mettle of the truest quality, without exception, to witness which
was worth the whole experience.
hedliCka] WRITER-S TRIP ON YUKON 121
Auirust 22-23. During the niffht have left Port Clarence and
endeavored once more to reach Wales and the Diomedes, to be again
turned away by fog and rough weather. The captain doubts if
there will be any more decent " spells." The season for this stormy
sea is too far advanced. Unable to land anywhere.
The da}' is followed by another horrid night, again off the St.
Lawrence Island. Boat tossing and heaving and rolling, waves
reaching and even splashing over the level of the high upper deck
in the back, everything tied up and cleared or fastened, a danger
in making even a few steps of being thrown against something, or
on the deck of being thrown overboard, and everything constantly
cracking, creaking, with every few minutes an impact big thudlike
or a splash of a wave, the floor heaving and twisting; and thus from
before evening until morning. Then a trace easier, but the whole
day gloomy and rough and the night again more unsettled. To-day
better, wind which began east then turned northwest, then almost
north, now stoiDjied, but a heavy swell is running, heaving us nearly
as much as yesterday. We have gone very slowly.
Have arrived off Savonga. The sky is now clear and there is
not much wind, but the swell is and keeps on such that, not-
withstanding the I'epeated calls of our siren, the Eskimo whom we
see above the beach near their boats, do not dare to launch these
and come, nor does the captain care to risk one of our own launches,
though we need fresh reindeer meat and all would like once more
to meet the nice lot of natives of this village. After a prolonged
wait and as conditions show no iminovement, nothing remains but
to leave the island.
Our next stop, if the weather permits, is to be at Nunivak Island.
This is a large island off the Alaskan coast, well below the present
delta of the Yukon and some distance above Kuskokwim Bay. The
island is one of the least explored, and the people living upon it
one of the least known. It is only during the last few years that
a trading and a reindeer post has been established on this island,
and only the second year that there is a teacher. What little is
known of the natives, a branch of the Eskimo, shows that they have
many different habits from those fai"ther north, in clothing, decora-
tion, etc. They make rather good black pottery, and from this
island come the most elaborate carvings in ivory, reminding strongly
of small totem poles. A photograph of a group of these people,
seen at the Lomen Studio at Nome, showed remarkably lu'oad and
short faces, unlike the Eskimo of the north. All of which made me
very anxious to visit the island.
To be brief such a visit, though promised to me by the captain,
could not be realized. The waters about the island are so im-
88253°— 30 9
122 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IX ALASKA Ieth. ann. 4g
jjerfectly charted that in weather that continued half rough it was
thought unwise to risij a hmding. I felt this keenly, as the various
other impossibilities of the trip. But I could never forget all the
unexpected help I received from the Revenue Cutter Service, for
which I was deeply grateful, and had to aclniowledge the justice of
the captain's position. We came so near that the land birds from
the island were ali'eady about us, but then turned toward the
Pribilofs and Unalaska. . .
Only little remains to be told. At the Pribilof Island, St. Paul,
we stopped at night, to take on four live fur seals for the Academy
of Sciences of San Francisco, and there we ran once moi'e into
stormy weather. Here are a few notes from this period :
August 27. Toward evening again a gale, southwest. At night
worse. Ship tossing rather wildly. No possibility to me of either
getting up or resting. Barely keep from being horribly ill again.
Later in night ship had to be turned back and just drift.
August 28. All day the storm continues. I could take no meals,
not even a drop of water. In bed and barely standing it. Ship
hove to at last and just drifting.
August 29. Gale keeps on just as bad, howling till 1.30 a. m.
Then it moderates somewhat and ship starts going again. Last night
we were only 60 miles from Unalaska, now a good deal farther out.
Steam, still in half a gale and big sea, until after midday, when, not
without some difficulty and danger, we reach the fine little protected
harbor of Unalaska. Feel weak, near worn out.
August 30, p. m. Rest, and all is Mell again. Secure a little row-
boat and go with old Pete Brant to near-by islands. Storm over
for the day and fair, though not entirely. Row, climb hills, pick
berries and mushrooms, watch a bearlike semiwild pig, out whole
afternoon, returning strengthened, refreshed. Only no appetite yet.
Found no traces of human occupancy, but heard of some in the
" Captain's Bay "' and at other spots.
The few Aleuts in Unalaska at this time show physiognomies
akin to the brachj^cephalic Indian, and not the Eskimo type.
August 31-September 1. A new gale, with drizzles. Luckily we
are at a dock, but I can do little. They are cleaning the boilers and
coaling. Evening of 1st have a good dinner — captain and the rest
of us from the Bear's cabin — at a friendly local trader, Louis Strauss,
and after that give lecture on "Man's Origin, etc." Introduction
by Capt. Van Buskirk, local commodore of the Revenue Cutter
Service. Lecture well received, make numerous fi'iends, get good
information. Strauss's supper was the first I could eat with some
taste and hunger. But the lecture did me good.
September 2. Coaling and overhauling of boilers finished. Gale
stopped. Ship leaves 1 p. m. Lay fairly sunny. Everyone sees us
HRDLieKA] THE YUKON TEKRITOEY 123
off. Harbor and hills look fine, though sky again clouded. Outside
quite a swell after the gales. Pass the Ilaida, practicing with her
cannon. The Algonkiri was here too, with the story of their visit to
the Punuk Islands. The fresh green steep mountains toward the
entrance of the harbor are refreshing to the eye.
Pass through Akitan. Pass picturesque, especially the outstanding
isolated rocks near the islands.
Toward evening, far to the left (east), see under the clouds a
glorious icy cone, the " Pogrovemoi," and later a lower but still great
mountain a little farther and to the right an old but not so very old
volcano. Other volcanoes there are, the captain tells me, now hidden
by the low clouds.
Have a new passenger, Mr. Charles Brower, the trader of Barrow.
Came from the Brower^ ship of his own company, a little larger and
faster than the Bear, and going also to San Francisco, but with
poorer accommodations. Brings with him a box of archeological
specimens from the Barter Island, in the north. Examine them, but
find little of special interest.
It takes us a little less than 10 days of a fairly good journey to
reach San Francisco. Dock at Oakland late in the evening. The
next morning, after breakfast, the boxes and barrels with collections
are taken on the dock — a big jjile. Then the Santa Fe officials
kindly run a flat freight car to the pile, the boxes, etc., ai'e loaded
on, the main part taken to the freight depot, the most valuable ones
to express, shipped, and shortly after what remains of the expedi-
tion is on the Santa Fe Limited for Chicago. It onlj^ needs to
be added that, notwithstanding the variety of receptacles and the
difficulties of packing, the collections reached the Institution with-
out damage to a single specimen. Thanks once more for the help
received in making all safe to the captain and officers of the Bewr, to
Mr. Berg, the best of boatswains, to the carpenter, and to all those of
the crew who assisted.
THE YUKON TERRITORY— SITES. THE INDIANS, THE
ESKIMO
The Tanana
brief historical data
The Tanana is the largest tributary of the YiJcon. It is over
600 miles in length, and in its breadth, though not in its volume, it
appears to equal, if not to exceed, the Yukon at their junction. The
first white men to see the mouth of the Tanana were the Russian
traders (about 1860), followed before long by the employees of the
124 ATSTTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN' ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
Hudson Bay Co. Dall says that it has long been noted on the
old maps of Russian America, under the name of the River of
the Mountain Men, while the Hudson Bay men called it the Gens-
des-Buttes River. (Alaska and Its Resources, 281-282.) Dall
mapped the junction of the river with the Yukon. The first who
descended a part of its course were two traders, Harper and Bates,
who reached the river higher up, sometime in the late seventies.
The name of Harper is preserved by having been given to the
big bend of the stream, 12 miles above its mouth. Its scientific
exploration begins only in 1885, with the passage down nearly its
entire length of Lieut. Henry T. Allen, United States Army;=* the
main work concerning the geography and geology of the river being
done m 1898 by A. H. Brooks."
POPULATION
The native population of the Tanana has always been remarkably
scarce. Dall obtained an estimate of their whole number as about 150
families.' Petrof, in 1880, thought they numbered perhaps seven
or eight hundred; * Allen in 1885 estimated them at between 550 and
600;^ Brooks, in 1898, thought there were less than 100; " and the
1910 United States Census gives the total number of the " Tenan-
kutchin,"' full bloods and mix bloods, as 415."
According to Brooks (Reconnaissance, 490-491), the Tanana na-
tives were separated into two geographic contingents, the eastern or
highland and the northwestern or lowland groups. The most east-
erly group included the Indian settlements in the vicinity of Forty-
mile and Mentasta Pass trail; the northwestern comprises to-day
those from Xenana to the mouth of the river.
The Tanana Indians were generally regarded by other natives
as warlike and dangerous, but so far as their relation with the whites
was concerned there was little justification for this notion.^- Physi-
cally they were reported by Brooks to " average rather better than
the Indians of the Yukon" (Reconnaissance, 492). There are but
a few and scanty other references to them in this connection.
■'Allen, Henry T., Military Reconnaissance In Alaska. Comp. Narr. Expl. Alas., 415-416.
440-452.
° Brooks, A. H., Reconnaissance in the Tanana and White River Basins. Twentieth
Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., Washington, 1900, pt. vii, 437^38 ; also the Geog. and Geol.
-Mas., U. S. Geol. Surv. Doc. 201, lOOfi.
' " Their numbers are supposed not to exceed 150 families." Alaska and Its Resources,
p. 108.
'Notes Alas. EthB.. 161.
» Brooks, op. cit., 493.
'» Brooks, op. cit., 493.
" Population, m, 1137.
•- See Castner, J. C, A Story of Hardship and SuEEering in Alaska : Comp. Narr. Expl.
.\laska, 686-709.
HKDLicKA] THE YUKON TEKEITORY 125
Indian Sites and Villages Along the Tanana
Upper course. — On this much larger part of the river it is possible
to report but indirectly.
A. H. Brooks, in 1898, reports thus on this subject : ^^ " Several
Indian houses are found on and near the Tanana between the Good-
paster and Salchakat and constitute a subgroup of the upper Tanana
Indians. * * * The most thickly settled part of the region is
along the sluggish portions of the lower Tanana. The largest vil-
lages are at the mouth of the Cantwell and Toclat Rivers, and each
of these consists of a number of good cabins. In the intervening
region there are a number of isolated houses and fishing stations,
which are marked on the accompanying map."
FiGL'RE 1.
151° ISO' WS"
-The Tanana Hiyer between Nenana and Tanana, with Indian villages
To which Lieutenant Castner, who explored the upper Tanana,
adds the following : " " On 750 miles of the Tanana proper and its
tributaries I saw seven small hamlets, and not to exceed 100 Indians—
men, women, and children."
From information obtained by me at Fairbanks, at the United
States marshal's office and from miners, it appears that the following
villages are better known :
Village, 150 miles east of Fairbanks.
Mansfield Lake village, 300 miles east of Fairbanks.
Tetlen, 410 miles east of Fairbanks.
East Tetlen, 7 miles southeast of Tetlen.
" Brooks, A. H.. A Reconnaissance in the White and Tanana River Basins, Alaska, in
1808 : Twentieth Ann. Kept. L'. S. Geol. Surv., 1900, pt. ^^I, p. 401.
" Castner, op. cit., p. 706.
126 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IKT ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
LOWER TANANA, KENANA TO TTTKON
No old sites were learned of on this part of the river, and few, if
any, are probably preserved, due to lowness of banks and extensive
destruction (cutting of the banks) by the river.
The present Indian villages on the river are as follows:
1. Nenana (or Tortella), al)Out a mission, half a mile from the
railroad station and town of the same name, on the left bank of
the Tanana and near the mouth of the Nenana Eiver. (Fig. 1.)
2. "Old Minto," 27 miles from Nenana, right bank; but a small
number of Indians there now.
3. Village at the mouth of the Tolovana, right bank (where the
Tolovana entei's the Tanana) ; the village is on the distal (down-
stream) point. Nearly abandoned; only two families there now.
Summer (fishing) camp on the opposite point.
4. A small settlement at mouth of Baker Creek, right bank, about
4 miles upstream from Hot Springs.
5. "Crossjacket village," on left bank, about 45 miles above Ta-
nana, 40 miles below Hot Springs. Used to be called "Cosna."
Occupied, though only a few there.
6. Near 5, but on the opposite bank, a few habitations.
During the open season the Indians live scattered along the river
in fishing camps. This is especially true along the right bank down-
stream from Nenana.
The Yukon Below Tanana
briee history
The Yukon is the principal river of Alaska. It is one
of the greatest and most scenic rivers in the world. It is ap-
proximately 2,300 miles long (from the headwaters of the Lewes
River), in its middle and lower courses ranges at times with its
sloughs to several miles in breadth, and includes many hundreds of
islands of its own formation. Its scenery is still essentially primeval,
afi'ected but little by human occupation or industry. It has, in fact,
gone considerably back in these respects since the gold rush was over.
This great stream has lieeii known to the white man for less than
a century. Cook, in September of 1778, sailed near, discovering
Stuart Island and Cape Stephens of the St. Michael Island, but
missed the river.
In 1829 P. E. Chistiakof, director (1826-1830) of the Eussian-
American colonies, sent the naval officer Vasilief to explore the
coasts between the Alexander Redoubt (at the mouth of the Nush-
agak) and the Shaktol or Norton Sound, and in 1830 Vasilief ex-
jjlored the larger part of the Kuskokwini River, of which the Russians
HRDLii^KA] THE YUKON TERRITORY 127
knew already from their earlier explorers. Here they heard of an
even gfreater stream to the north.
In 1831, on the recommendation of Vasilief, Michail Dmitrievich
Tebenkof was sent to Norton Sound with tlie view of further explo-
ration and the establishing of a post in that region. Tebenkof dis-
covered that Cape Stephens was not a part of the mainland but of
an island; and he built here a fortified post which in honor of his
patron saint is called St. Michael, a name which subsequently passed
to the whole island. The post was to serve both trade and further
exploration.
From St. Michael, at the end of 1834, a small party is sent out
under the leadership of an educated " kreol " (son of a native mother
and Russian father), Andrei Glazunof, and on January 26, 183.5, they
reach the good-sized Indian village of Anvik, on the Kwikhpak, or
Yukon. ^^ From here Glazunof travels down the river to the large
village of Aninulykhtykh-pak (above Holy Cross), the last Indian
(as distinguished from Eskimo) village down the river, whence
Glazunof sends most of his party back to St. Michael and himself
proceeds to the Kuskokwim.
In 1836 the Russians effect the first settlement on the Yukon, at
Ikogmiut (Zagoskin, 6), later known as the Russian Mission.
In 1838 Malakof, over land portage, reaches Nulato and builds
there a trading post, which, during his absence the next winter, is
burned by the natives. In 1841 Dieriabin rebuilds and fortifies this
post, becomes its headman, and is there eventually (1851) killed by
the Indians.
In 1841 Lieut. Laurenti Alexief Zagoskin is delegated to explore
the " Kwikhpak," with its portages to the Kotzebue Sound, and the
Kuskokwim River; and in 1843 he navigates and maps 600 miles of
the Yukon, or from about the mouth of the Apkhun (northern) pass
to the mouth of the Novitna River, with approximately 100 miles of
each, from their mouth, of the Koyukuk and of the Ittege (or
Innoko) Rivers.
Tlie Russian post at Nulato remains until the sale of their American
dominions bj^ the Russians to the United States in 1867. From it and
from St. Michael individual Russian traders ranged over the river
1= There is some confusion about tlie exact date of Glazunof's .lourney, partly duo per-
haps to the fact that he started on Dec. 30. Wran.^-eU (St;it. and Ethnog. Nachricht., 1.38)
says th.Tt Glazunof's expedition was outfitted the same year (ISS."!) in which the St.
Michael redoubt was established. In Zeleny's abstract of Zagoskin's report (p. 212) and
liy Zagoskin himself (pp. 6, 23) the departure of the expedition is put a year later, or
1834, which is jjrobably correct. Dall's remarks (Alaska and Its Resources, 276, 338)
on the subject contain several errors, both of dates and facts. There is also considerable
confusion as to the names Kvikhpak and Yukon. The terra Kvikhpak ( Kvikh, river; pak,
large) is of Eskimo origin and was applied by these to that part of the river which they
occupied. The name Yukon, or something near this, is of Indian derivation and was
applied to those parts of the river, below Tanana at least, that were peopled by the
Khotana or Indians.
128 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
and its lower affluents, but there was no further noteworthy scientific
exploration. In 1863, however, Lukin, who after Vasilief and Kol-
niakof helped to explore the Kuskokwini. readied to Fort Yulvon.
Meanwhile the river has been visited by both the Enj^jlish and
the Americans. In 1847 Mr. Bell, of the Hudson Bay Co., having
heard of the great stream from some of the Indians who visited the
fort on Peels River, set out in quest of it, accompanied by a native
guide, and reached it by the Rat and the Porcupine Rivers."
Between 1843 and 18G7 the river in its lower and middle reaches
is freely traversed by the Russian traders. In 1851 Nulato is reached
by Lieutenant Barnard, of H. M. S. Enterprise^ in search of Frank-
lin, only to be massacred there with some of the Russians and natives
by the ofPended Indians of the Koyukuk. In 1861 Robert Kennicott
traverses a part of the Yukon, and in 1865 he. with Capt. Charles
S. Bulkley, leads there the expedition of the Western Union Tele-
graph Co., which is accompanied by William H. Dall and Frederick
Whymper, and results in much information. Already, however, in
1863, Slrahan Jones, commander of the Peels River Fort, has de-
scended the Yukon to the mouth of the Novitna River or the upper-
most point reached by Zagoskin, thus completing its identification
as one and the same great stream. This point and the Tanana mark
the westernmost penetration by the English (the Hudson Bay Co.).
In 1865 begin American exjilorations proper. In that year, under
an agreement with the Russians, Maj. Robert Kennicott, heading a
party of the Western Union Telegi-aph exi^lorers, crosses from St.
Michael to Nulato. Kennicott dies in Nulato a year later, but the
explorations are carried on to result eventually in a series of valuable
publications, more particularly by Dall and Whymper.^'
The researches under the auspices of the Western Union Telegraph
Co., themselves backed by the Government, are followed by ex-
plorations under the direct auspices of the American Govern-
ment. Thus, in 1869 there is a reconnaissance of the river by Capt.
C. W. Raymond; in 1883, that by Lieut. Frederick Schwatka; in
1885 by Lieut. Henry T. Allen; in 1898 by Capt. W. P. Richardson;
and these are succeeded by the geological surveys of A. H. Brooks
and companions.^*
From 1878 on commenced placer and mining explorations for gold
in Alaska leading gradually to the eventual great gold rush of the
later nineties, which brought a whole flotilla of large river steamers
and other craft to the Yukon and led to a rapid growth of some of
the old and the establishment of a number of new settlements along
'" Ricbardson, J., Arctic Searching Expedition, London, 1851, ii, 206.
"For details see Ball's Alaslia and Its Resources. Boston, 1870.
"" See Compilation of Explorations in Alaska. .Senate Rept. 1023, Washington, 1900 ; and
reports on Alaska of the United States Geological Survey.
HRDLiCKA] THE YUKON TERRITORY 129
its banks. The rash passed in turn, many of the miners and others
departed, boats became idle and were beached or taken to the St.
Michael ship " bone yard," where, together with most of the build-
ings, they are now (1926) being broken up; and the Yukon has
reverted in a large measure to its former primeval, dormant, lonely
state.
Such, in brief, is the white man's history of the Yukon, with all of
which the river remains but half known, at best. It has never
been fully surveyed, which would be a vast and unending task. It
contains a large number of barely known little tributaries that are
lost in the jungle-covered flats with their many pools and lakes.
It has innumerable islands and channels, in which the traveler is
easily lost, and it cuts and builds constantly during the open season.
Its valley is squally and rai^y. The stream may one moment be
like a great, liquid, softly flowing mirror, to be in a few minutes
churned into an ugly and dangerous roughness from which every
smaller boat must seek shelter. Its shores are inhospitable, except
for the native fisherman and hunter, and torment man with swarms
of gnats and mosquitoes.
But there is no malaria ; no snakes or other poisonous things. And
when the weather is decent the water, the wooded shores, and the
fresh, clean virginal parklike islands have a greatness and charm
that compensate for mucli. Besides which there is the still more
intensive allure of original exploration. Botany, zoology, and above
all paleontology, find here still a fruitful field, while for anthro-
pology, and esijecially archeology, the land is still largely a terra
incognita.
The Yukon Natives
Upon their arrival on the Kvikpak and Yukon, the Russians found
the banks of the stream peopled in its upper and middle courses by
Indians and lower down by the Eskimo.'^ The last Indian village
downstream was Aninulykhtykh-pak, since completely gone. Its
site is identifiable with one that used to exist in front of the present
mission of Holy Cross or just above. The first Eskimo village of
some note was Paimute.
As to the Indians of the Yukon and its tributaries, there is a con-
siderable confusion of names, almost every author using his own
spelling and subdivisions. It is evident that there were two sets of
names of the various Indian contingents, namely the names, some-
times contemptuous, given to them b}' outsiders, and the names in
*® See .\uszug aus dem Taireburho dps Schiffer-gohiilfpn Andreas Glasunow. In Wrangpll.
Ferd. v., Statistische und ethnograpbische Nachrichten u. d. Russichen Besitzungen a. d.
Nordwestkiiste v. Amerika. Ed. by K. 0. v. Baor. St. Petersburg, 1839, 137-160. Zagos-
kia, A., I'eSechoduaia opis Oasti russkick vladenii v. AmerikS. 2 parts. St. Pet6rsburg.
1847-1848, pp. 1-183, 1-120, and 1-43 ; with a map.
130 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
use among themselves, which generally meant the people of this or
that locality. The facts are that they all belonged to the Tinne or
Dene family ; ="• -'^ that there were two probably related generic names
for them, namely Kutchin (used especially on the upper Yukon) and
Khotana (used mainly along the central and lower parts of the
stream) ; and that along the Yukon itself, with its channels, there
were three main subdivisons of the people: The Kutchin (with va-
rious qualifications) on the upper parts of the river, down to Fort
Yukon ; the Yukonikhotana, from Fort Yukon to Nulato ; -^ and the
Kain (Petrof) or Kaiyuh (Dall) Khotana, or Inkaliks (of the
Russians), from Nulato to Holy Cross.
In addition there were the Tenan-kutchin Tenan-khotana or
Mountainmen of the Tanana ; and the Yunnaka-khotana (Zagoskin)
or Koyukuk-khotana (Dall). the peoplfe of the Koyukuk.
These groups were settled in a moderate number of permanent or
winter villages along the rivers, in the summer spi-eading along the
streams in camps. The population found by the first Russian ex-
plorer, Glazunof, from Anvik to Aninulykhtykh-pak, was seemingly
a rather large one. He is reported by Wrangell to have counted, at
Anvik, 240 grown males; at Magimiut, 35; and at Aninulykhtykh-
pak 300. At the last-named village in particular there were present
" many people," Glazunof estimating altogether nearly 700. These
figures, except for Magimiut, seem too large and were not even ap-
proached later ; but before the next count, that by Zagoskin, all these
settlements had been visited by smallpox; and at the big village
Glazunoff may have seen a potlatch, such as may still yearly be
witnessed at some settlements on the river.
Zagoskin in 1843 made a detailed and evidently reliable count of
all the villages that became known to him. His data in this respect,
as in others, being of fundamental value, are here given, the Eskimo,
for convenience, being included.
=<>Dall, Contr. N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 17.
==■ Zagoskin : " ' * * great family of tile Ttynai nation, wbich occupies the interior
of tlic mainland of our colonies and known to us under various names — Yug-elnut, Tutna,
Golcanf' or Kilrane [according to the pronunciation of those giving the information].
Kenaici, lukaliti, Inkalich-liuatov [distant Inkaliks], and others — names given to them
by the neighboring coastal people."
— Petrof, Ivan, p. 161 : " This tribe, comprising the Yunakhotana and the Kutcha-
kutchin of UaU, inhabits the banks of the Yukon River from Fort Yukon westward to
Nulato."
HIlDLlCKAJ
THE YUKON TEERITORY
131
Native Villages on the Yukon and in the Vicinity, 1843 (Zagoskin, III,
39-41)'
Villages
Total
Adult
males ^
Inkalit-Iugelnut:
Inselnostlende
Khuingitatekhten
Ilteiileiden
Tlego
Khuligichagat
Kvygympainag-miut_
Vazhichagat
An vig
Makki
Anilukhtakpak
Total.
Inkiliks proper:
Kunkhogliuk
Ulukak
Ttutago
Kakoggo-khakat _
Khutul-khakat _ _ .
Khaltag
Khogoltlinde
Takaiak
Khuli-kakat
Total.
Yunnaka-khotana:
Notaglit
Tlialil-kakat
Toshoshgon
Tok-khakat
Nok-khakat
Kakliliakhlia-kakat.
Tsonagogliakhten. .
Tsogliachten
Khotyl-kakat
Unylgakhtkhokh
Nulato
Total -
Tlegon-khotana:
Innoko natives seen on the Yukon
Village totality
Total
All Indians counted on Yukon and Koyukuk.
' See also Petrof (Ivan). Tenth Census Rep., Wash., 1880, VIII,
is not always correct.
* This doubtless included many subadults.
5 31 per cent, or 1 in 3.2.
33
37
100
45
70
71
80
120
44
170
770
11
35
32
9
16
9
60
81
11
264
37
27
30
6
50
26
11
7
65
17
13
289
44
45
89
1,359
11
30
14
25
25
18
37
9
48
225
5
10
8
3
4
3
17
27
3
80
8
7
5
3
11
7
4
2
19
2
2
70
33
14
47
422
43
24
23
6
l32
37; but his transliteration of names
132
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN" ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
Native Villages on the Yukon and in the Vicinity, 1843 (Zagoskin, III,
39-41)— Continued
Villages
ESKIMO
Kavliunag-miut
N ygyklig-miut
Kauyg-miut
Ankachag-miut
Takchag-miut
Ikuag-miut
Nukliluiag-miut
I kog-niiut
Ikaligvig-miut
Pai-miut
Total of Kvikhpag-miut
Total
11
13
45
122
40
130
60
92
45
123
681
Adult
males
3
4
11
32
12
35
17
22
14
35
185
Houses
38
Dall, referring to 1866-G7 (Contr. Am. Ethn., I, 23, 39), esti-
mated the number of the Yukon Eskimo at 1,000 and that of the
Yukon and Koyukuk Indians, from the mouth of the Tanana down-
ward, at 2,800. Only a few sites of villages are incidentally given
by Dall.
Ivan Petrof, as a special agent for Alaska of the United States
Census for 1880, reports himself the following Indian settlements
and numbers of inhabitants on the Yukon (Compil. Narrat. Expl.
Alaska, 68; gives also data on Eskimo, but his arrangement and
unidentifiable localities prevent these data from being used here) :
Aiivik station and village 94
Single house 20
Single house 12
Single house 15
TanaUh'ithaiak 52
Single house 15
Chageluk settlements 150
Khatnotoutze 115
Kaiakak 124
Kaltag 45
Nulato, station and village 163
Koyukuk settlements 150
Terentu'fs station 15
Big Mountain 100
Single house 10
Sakatfllan 25
Yukokakat 6
Melcizikakat 30
Jlentukakat 20
Soonkakat 12
Medvednaia 15
Novo-kakat 106
Kozmas 11
Nuklukaiet 27
Ramiiart village 110
Fort Yuk'iu 82
Later demograjahic records on the Yukon and its tributaries and
on the coast comprise additional data by Petrof, published as a
part of the Eleventh (1890) United States Census and arranged
by districts and linguistic groups; and the data of three subsequent
HKDrirKA] THE YUKON TERRITORY 133
United States Censuses, 1900, 1910, and 1920, which are given in dif-
l'erin<r ways, but in the main by major ethnic and territorial or
jurisdictional subdivisions.
Due to incomplete enumerations; to the use of native estimates for
actual count (as seems to have been the case with Dall'a figures, as
well as others) ; the different methods and classifications employed ;
and the inclusion of units now into one and now into another group
(as with Petrof, who includes three Indian villages below Anvik
among the Eskimo, etc.), the various counts are not comparable and
give but hazy ideas of the true conditions. Yet they are not without
value, particularly in showing the earlier population of the villages
and the relative proportion of the sexes and ages. The more help-
ful details are given in the appendix; for still others see references
in bibliography.
PRESENT CONDITIONS
To-day, judging from all the obtained evidence, which comprised
information, the witnessing of a potlatch at Tanana at which were
assembled practically all the Indians above Nulato, and a visit below
the Tanana of nearly all the villages where the Indians still live,
the total number of the Tinneh on the lower Tanana (from Fair-
banks to the moutli of the river) and on the Yukon from Tanana
to Anvik, can scarcely be estimated to reach 1,000. It is probably
well below that number. Moreover, not one-half of the adults and
much fewer among the j'oung are still full bloods. Disease, bad
liquor (Yukon), and mostly as yet imperfect accommodation to
changing conditions are steadily diminishing the numbers. Since
our visit many have died from influenza, especially at Anvik. Their
future is not hopeful. On the Tanana, however, and with the more
educated in general, conditions are better, and much good is being
done by the four missions on the two rivers (Nenana, Tanana, Anvik,
and Holy Cross).
The old Indian settlements along the Yukon are gone, with a few
exceptions. On some of the sites, as at Tanana, Nulato, Kaltag, etc.,
there are new villages bearing the old names but built by or in imita-
tion of whites and sheltering a mixed population. The very names
of not a few of the older Indian sites have gone into oblivion; or
the natives call those they still know by a corruption of a white man's
name, such as " Ulstissen " (for Old Station). Anvik alone has kept
its original site and some of its old character, the mission and the
white trader being across the river.
In the Eskimo part of the Yukon, below Holy Cross, conditions on
the wliole appear to be somewhat better. There has also been a
diminution in. population. The majority of the old villages have
ceased to exist, while under the influence of whites some new settle-
134 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IX ALASKA [eth. axn. 46
ments or names have appeared. Yet there are respectable remnants
of the Eskimo, and, being better workers than the Indian and seem-
ingly more colierent, they manage to sustain themselves somewhat
better than he does. Their greate.st handicap is disease. The bene-
ficial effect among them of the old Russian Mission has declined, but
(here are a number of Government schools which have a good in-
fluence. They are more tractable, sensible, and in some I'espects
perhajDs more able than the Indians.
But there exists to-day no clear-cut demarcation, geographical,
cultural, or even physical, between the two people. Anvik, the last
Indian village downstream, is in every respect at least as much
Eskimo as Indian; more or less Eskimolike physiognomies are seen
again and again among the Indians ; and Indianlike features are com-
mon among the Eskimo. There has either been an old and consider-
able admixture on both sides, or there are some fundamental similari-
ties of the two groups; perhaps both.
Archeolooy of the Yukon
Up to 1926 no archeological work had been done along the Yukon
or its tributaries, and barring a few isolated specimens there were no
archeological collections from these regions.
The archeology of the river consists, (1) of the dead but formerly
known villages; (2) of older sites, " dead " and unloiown before even
the Russians arrived ; and (3) of random stone objects worked by
man that now and then are washed out from the river banks or are
found in working the ground. Except in details conditions are much
alike along the whole river and will best be dealt with as a whole.
THE RANDOM SPECIMENS
Wherever the beach of the river shows more or less of stones
that are not talus or just pebbles, there are generally found stones
worked by man. Such localities are scarce. The first exists between
Tanana (the village) and the mission above it. Here specimens are
found occasionally on the beach and occasionally in the soil of the
local gardens. Other such sites were located at Bonasila, below
Anvik, and in four places between Paimute and the Russian Mission.
A few are also present from Marshall seaward.
An examination of the terrain adjacent to such parts of the beach
shows mostly, but not always, traces of an old settlement.
The specimens consist of characteristic axes or adzes, stone scrap-
ers, hammers, stone knives (along the Eskimo part of the river),
tomahawk heads (probably), objects less well defined, and chips.
There may be semifossilized animal bones, and rarely a bit of char-
HEDLicKA]' THE YUKON TERRITORY 135
coal, a piece of pottery (for details see Narrative), or an object of
ivory.
The ax proper is peculiar. It is a cupid's-bow ax, double-edged,
and with one or two grooves across its middle. (PI. 10.) It is as
a rule made of heavy basaltic stone, and its edges are sharpened by
polishing. Rough parts may have been polished also on the body.
Its distal surface is convex (from sharp edge to sharp edge), its
proximal surface straight or mildly convex. I succeeded in getting
a specimen remounted recently by one of the Indians near Tanana.
This form of an ax is still remembered by the old Indians when in
use. They cut trees with it, cutting sidewise and detaching the wood
in splinters. They also remember clubs with stone heads, and told
me they were carried on the back over the right shoulder so as
to be ready for instant and effective use.
These axes have apparently been used by both the Indians and the
Eskimo, but there is an interesting difference. The several specimens
I obtained or saw from Tanana to Ruby were all complete. But
from about the vicinity of Ruby downstream the bi-edged ax seems
to disappear, or, rather, one-half of it disappears, the butt hence-
forth either being left unfinished or one-half of the double ax being
broken oft' and the remainder being mounted now as an adze on a
shorter handle. This form, and it exclusively, with various sec-
ondary modifications, is found over a wide area among the Eskimo
and may reach into Asia, for I obtained a specimen of it from one
of the Diomede Islands. It connects directly with the Bering Sea
Eskimo ivory adze and chisel. On the other hand the bi-edged ax
appears, in various modifications, to extend widely over Indian
Alaska.
The remaining stone implements need but little mention here.
They will be studied and reported separately by our archeologist.
A special note will, however, be necessary later about the very primi-
tive stone industry of Bonasila, below Anvik. (See p. 144.)
Of pottery I have seen no example above Anvik, but this can
not be taken as evidence of its absence above that point. At Anvik,
Bonasila, and farther down the pottery is like that of the western
Eskimo. It is coarse ware, hand shaped, and of rather poor quality.
It consists of small round bowls to fairly large, more or less conical,
jars. It is never painted but is frequently decorated with thumb
marks and especially with grooves running parallel with the border.
Ivory implements were encountered first at Bonasila and consisted
of a few fine long points barbed on one side, looking like those of
the Eskimo and probably of Eskimo origin. There were also a few
tools of bone, generally scrapers.
136 ANTHEOPOLOGICAl, SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
Russian beads, especially those of the large blue variety, are oc-
casionally encountered, usually singly or in small numbers, especially
in some spots.
A unique archeological specimen from the lower middle portion
of the Yukon Valley is the large stone dish obtained by Mr. Miiller,
the trader at Kaltag. (See p. 34.)
Besides these random specimens, other cultural objects are found
along the Yukon in connection with old burials. These consist of
an occasional wooden dish, sharpening or polishing stones, rarely a
figurine (doll?) in ivoi-y, Russian snuffboxes, fire sticks, dishes of
birch bark, etc. The cuUings in this field are quite poor, but there
has been no excavation of older burials that have been assimilated by
the tundra and lie now in the earth beneath.
The archeology of the old habitation sites, on the other hand,
particularly perhaps on the Shageluk and between Holy Cross and
Marshall, is decidedly promising and invites careful excavation.
Location of Villages and Sites ox the Yukon
Especial attention was given to the location of the numerous dead
villages and older sites along the Yukon. This task was found, in
most instances, fairly easy with villages that " died " since the
Russo-American occupation, for mostly they still show plain traces
and are generally remembered by the old Indians or even old white
settlers. Their precise allocation on a map, however, is not always
easy or certain. As to the prehistoric sites the search is much more
difficult and depends largely on chance discoveries.
The villages still existing give only a partial clue, in many cases,
to the old, even where these bore the same name, for on occasions a
village changed its location, though remaining in the same general
vicinity and retaining the same name. Thus there existed at differ-
ent times apparently, between the earliest contacts with whites and
the present, at least 2 Nuklukhayets, 2 Lowdens, 3 Nulatos, 3 Kaltags,
2 Anviks, etc. ; besides which there were differences in recording the
names and changes due to efforts at translation of the native term,
or an application by the whites of a new name, often that of a trader
or settler, to an old site.
In places even late village sites, in others burials, were witnessed
being undermined by the river or the sea. Such sites with their con-
tents will probably sooner or later be completely lost from this
cause. Many doubtless have thus been lost previously.
The villages and sites located along the Yukon are here enumer-
ated and as far as possible charted. Information about them was
obtained from the older Indians or river Eskimo and from such
whites as had direct knowledge in that line. Most of these sites were
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 9
u, My •spoils," loaded uii slud, Poiut ilope. (A, ij., ia2S)
'', The load is heavy and sledding over sand and gravel difficult. (A. II., 1920)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 10
Characteristic stone axes Middle Yukon
(A. IL colL, l'J2(i.j
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 1 1
Crude stone Artifacts. Four-JO at Bonasila. Lower Middle Yukon
(A. H. coll., 1926.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 12
Crude stone artifacts, found at Bonasila, Lower Middle Yukon
(A. H. toll., 11.128.)
hbdliCka]
THE YUKON TEEEITORY
137
examined personally, but in some instances this was impossible. The
details concerning those seen will be found in the Narrative,- but a
few generalizations may here be useful.
I5'^° 153°
Figure 2. — The Yukon from Tanana to below Kokrines
The dead village sites are much alike along the whole river.
They are generally located at the mouth of some inland stream that
carries clear fresh water, particularly if on the other side there is
the protection of a hill. The dwellings were invariably on a flat
and were throughout semisubterranean and of the same general
Figure 3. — The Yukon from below Kt)krines to bf'low Koyukuk
type; which applies also to the larger communal houses or
" cashims."' The sites can often be told from afar in summer by
the rich gi-ass that covers them.
882.53°
-1(1
138
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[HTH. ANN. 40
The burials were as a rule not far from a village and preferably
on the slopes of the nearest hill. They veere mostly above ground,
but under the influence of Russians there were also shallow-ground
Figure 4. — The Yukon from below Koyukuk to Lofkas
burials. The latter can readily be told by the sawed planks of
the coffins and the iron nails by which they are fastened. In
many places no surface burials remain or there are mere traces. In
HEDLICKAJ
THE YUKON TERRITORY
139
such places little mounds may betray old burials assimilated by the
tundra. Trenching in likely spots would doubtless reveal others of
which no trace remains on the surface.
FiGCKE 5. — Old map of the Nulato district
No excavations of any of these sites have ever been attempted,
but many of the surface burials were disturbed or destroyed by
seekers of relics and the curious vandal, who is present on the
Yukon as in other parts of the country.
Figure 6. — Map of Kaltag and vicinity. (By McLeod)
The majDs shown here were made imder my direction on the basis
of maps and charts provided by the Geological and Geodetic Sur-
veys, in Washington. Additional old sites will doubtless be located
in the future and may be added to these records.
140
anthropological survey in alaska
Pre-Russian Sites
[ETH. ANN. 46
As already told in the Narrative, a search for truly ancient sites
along the Yukon has proven largely negative. A more intense and
prolonged archeological survey, with exploratory trenches wherever
there is promise, may one day prove more fruitful. But, as pointed
Figure 7. — The Yukon from Bysti'aia to below Holy Cross
out before, much can never be expected. Man could at no time
have occupied the Yukon Valley and watershed in large numbers.
He would not have found enough sustenance. Even with fair re-
sources he would hardly have tarried in these inclement regions as
long as the ways toward the south were open. He never built here
of lasting materials and had little chance to develop or even keep up
IIKDI.ICKA]
THE YUKON TEKEITOEY
141
160°
Figure S. — The Yukon from above Iloly Cross to below Mountain Village
162° 161''
FiGDEE 9. — The Yukon from below Mountain Village to near Marshall
142
ANTHBOPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[BTH. ANN. 46
any higher culture, and since he is gone the ever-cutting river has
taken away whatever it could reach and scattered it through its
silts and gravels. There is nevertheless a number of small elevated
plateaus along the right bank that ought to be sounded by explora-
tory jjits or trenches, particularly perhaps where there are traces of
later habitations.
There are. of course, some sites that are older than others. The
most interesting of these was found at Bonasila, beneath the old
site of Makki or Magimute, 18 miles downstream from Anvik. (See
Narrative.) The main facts concerning this site are as follows:
At the above distance from Anvik, on tlie right bank of the river
and following a wooded hill, is a low flat backed by rising ground
163°
Figure 10. — The Yukon from near Marshall to bcluw Kavlingnak
and cut across by a little .stream. The flat is narrow, at present about
300 feet; and the part above the stream is deeply pitted by the re-
mains of semisubterranean houses of a " dead " native village, which
I believe is identifiable with the Magimute of the Russians. On the
slope behind the village were still about a score of old surface burials,
with an article here and there of Russian derivation.
The bank of the flat rises at present only about 4 feet above the
beach of the river, but the flat behind is higher. The bank itself
contains many specimens sliowing human workmanship, consisting
of objects of stone, birch bark, bone, and rarely also of ivory, besides
many fragments of pottery, many bones of wild Alaskan animals,
and here and there a human skeleton. Some of these objects are low
down in the bank. All the bones from the bank, including the
human, and even the rare points of ivory, are semifossilized ; the
brdlicka]
THE YUKOlsr TEERITORY
143
20' 16V +0
FiGiRB 11. — From above Kobolunuk to mouth of river
144 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 4ii
stone industry is peculiar; and the human remains differ plainly from
both those of the later Yukon Indian and from those of the Eskimo.
They are apparently Indian (see section on physical characteristics),
but a tall Indian of a type that now is only met with much farther
south.
The stone industry from the bank appeared at first sight so
primitive that even the term " paleolithic " would not fit and the
only term that seemed to meet the situation was " protolithic." It
consists predominantly of scrapers and knockers, with here and there
a tool sharjjened for cutting. The scrapers look especially crude.
They consist simply of pieces of smaller or larger andesite-like vol-
canic slabs broken to the desired size and chipped more or less
roughly along what was to be the scraping edge. A closer exami-
nation of the stones, which were obtained from a base of a cliff
farther down the river, showed, however, that they were of material
which is hard to work, and that the chipping, under the circum-
stances, was not really bad. (Pis. 11, 12.) Pottery must have been
fairly plentiful and quite up to the average of the river, both in make
and decoration.
Two fine long, partly fossilized ivory points picked up formerly
on the site were obtained from Mr. Lawrence. They are handsomely
barbed on one side and show a high grade of skill. They must have
come from the Bering Sea and may belong to the old fine ivory
culture of the western part of that region, of which more later.
There are also some fairly ancient sites farther down the river
(see Narrative), but just what they are and how old remains to be
determined.
A report on the archeological remains from the bank of Bonasila
by Mr. H. W. Krieger, one of the curators of the Department of
Anthropology, United States National Museum, follows:
ARCHEOLOGY OF CENTRAL ALASKA
Ancient Stone Cultuee
"Until the results of Doctor Hrdlicka's Alaskan reconnaissance
were first made known to science it had been generally assumed that
Alaskan and Canadian subboreal regions were archeologically bar-
ren. It had been currently accepted that only as one approached
the great river valleys of the Skeena, the Eraser, and the Columbia
could anthropological exploration be conducted to advantage. One
might expect to uncover cemeteries and ancient village sites only
tliere where a dense and sedentary population had long been estab-
lished. Through the discovery of ancient village sites and centers
HEDLiCKA] ARCHEOLOGY OF CENTRAL ALASKA 145
of poi^iilation in the lower and middle Yukon Eiver Valley, Doctor
Hrdlirka has extended the northern archeological horizon into the
sub- Arc tic.
" Of the many sites examined, the old village site at Bonasila, 18
miles helow the confluence of the Anvik and Yukon Rivers, yielded
the most interesting data. Crudely flaked implements of trap rock
■with cutting edges showing evidence of chipping and grinding were
uncovered. These implements are unique among Alaskan artifacts
and have no relationship with Imown types of Eskimo or Indian
stonework. In the shaping technic employed by their aboriginal
makers; in form, and in type; and, generally, in tlieir undeveloped
character, the stone artifacts from Bonasila and other ancient arche-
ological sites on the middle Yukon may be classified as primitive
neolithic.
'■ The stone implements uncovered at Bonasila are so crudely fash-
ioned and are apparently of such an improvised nature as to sug-
gest an extreme conservatism in culture development, or perhaps a
degeneration, due largely to lack of better materials. Due to the
lack of basalt, jadeite, or other hard stone in the valley of the lower
middle Yukon, recourse was had to sandstone and trap rock by the
jDrimitive makers of stone axes and celts.
" Crude pottery vessels and potsherds were discovered associated
with the objects of stone. This ware incorporates elementary dec-
orative designs distinct from the known historic Eskimo or Indian
types of pottery decoration. There can be no intimation that this
ware is archaic or that it belongs to any archaic culture offshoot
from farther south. It therefore becomes a question of some un-
known earlier Asiatic culture connection that manifested itself in
crude forms of flaked and ground stone implements and in miique
pottery forms. It is uncertain that the ancient fossil ivory culture
of northwest Alaska, of which Doctor Hrdlicka has brought in some
excellent examples, is in any manner associated with the primitive
neolithic stone and potterj^ forms uncovered at Bonasila. It is
established, however, beyond a doubt that both cultures and types of
artifacts are Asiatic in origin and have little or no connection with
the culture of the western Eskimo.
"The Eskimos of the lower Yukon Valley made extensive use of
slate and of jadeite in the production of their polished knives and
celts. Slate knives and polished celts of jadeite are characteristic of
Eskimoan culture throughout the whole of its extent in Alaska.
Each of these materials as well as the finished products shaped from
them were subjects of native barter. Eskimos often undertook long
journeys for their procui-ement. It is therefore noteworthy that no
146 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46
single object fashioned from slate or jadeite and but few points of
fossilized ivory were recovered at any of the sites characterized by
the primitive stone culture and pottery of the Bonasila type.
" The most characteristic finds at Bonasila are the crudely flaked
implements of stone, some of wliich show incipient chipping and
grinding. The coarse type of pottery is unlike that of the modern
Eskimo in temj)ering, firing, and decorative design.
" The stone culture of the site, although rich in forms, is deficient
in technical development and is scarcely worthy of being classed as
neolithic. There were found in numbers the following types of
artifacts: Circular, discoidal stone pebbles with rim fractures due
to use; river wash pebbles of irregular form used as improvised
scrapers and hammerstones ; basaltic, discoidal hammerstones with
abraded edges and pitted at the center; large flake saws of trachyte
(trap rock) triangular in section but provided with sharply
fractured cutting edges; slender flaked fragments of trap rock
tapered to the form of wedges with intentionally worked end .sections
and cutting edges; crudely flaked stone knives with evidence of
secondary chipping at cutting edges; other knives of thin slabs of
trap rock with flaked and bilaterally ground beveled cutting edges;
oblong axes of flaked sandstone with hafting notches struck off at
the edges midway from the base; abrading tools of sandstone; celts
of sandstone with ground and beveled working edge and notched
for hafting as an ax; stone scrapers with ground and beveled cut-
ting edges; fragmentary perforators of stone; rechipped, flaked
knives sha}>ed by grinding; roughly worked, multiple-grooved
hammers or mauls ; and many stone objects unformed and unworked
but classified generally as hammerstones.
THE POTTERY
"About a hundred pottery shards and smaller pottery vessels were
recovered from the site at Bonasila. Pottei-y vessels representative
of the Bonasila culture were shaped out of the solid and show no
trace of coiling. In this respect they conform to the generalized
north Asiatic and Eskimo ware. There is, however, no check stamp
decorative design that is applied with a paddle by the Eskimo nor
evidence that pottery vessels had been built up about a basketry base.
The paste is light buif or gray in color, the buff ware being better
fired and of the same color on the inside, while the gray ware is either
gray or black on the inner surface. A well-defined unfired area covers
one-half o'f the sectional diameter. Both buff and gray wares show
evidence of better firing than in modern Eskimo pottery. Tempering
hrdliCka] archeology OF CENTRAL ALASKA 147
is of coarse fragments of steatite, which is much more durable than
tempering materials such as blood, feathers, and ashes formerly em-
ployed by the primitive Eslrimo potter.
" The pottery from Bonasila is utilitarian and consists of shallow
spherical lamj^s, globose bowls, and cooking pots without feet or
bases. The ware is coarse, side walls and bottom varying from 1 to
2 ccnitmeters in sectional thickness. This type of i^ottery is prac-
tically duplicated in shards recovered by Doctor Hrdlicka from what
is now Eskimo territory in the Yukon Valley near the Russian Mis-
sion. It is probable that further search would bring to light an ex-
tensive region yielding this type of ancient pottery of distinctive
design and unrelated either to Tinne or Esldmo ware.
"Decorative attempts consist of bold incised parallel transverse
lines on the upper sector of the outer surface of the vessel. Deep
corrugations ajspear on the inside of the rim flare. Both corrugations
and incised line decorations were made with a paddle or wood
splinter shaped for the purpose. Some of the shai-ds have deeply
incised pimctations irregularly encircling the outer surface of the
vessel just below the rim extension.
" Shallow spherical pottery lamps accompanied surface burials at
Bonasila. These lamps have a less durable tempering material than
the other pottery fragments recovered. The paste is porous and is
poorly fired. Decorative designs incised on the interior surface of
the lamps are reminiscent of typical Eskimo punctate designs as
traced on the inner cii'cumference of rectilinear or curvilinear etch-
ings on ivory and bone. It is very probable that these pottery lamps
are of a later date and are of Eskimoan handicraft.
THE ALASKAN GROOVED STONE AX
[PI. 10]
" The grooved stone ax is a typical New World implement. Its dis-
tribution is limited to tribes of the eastern maize area, the Pueblo
tribes of the Southwest, the Athapascans, and the northern woodlands
tribes. Elsewhere in America grooved stone implements of any de-
scription are rare, although not unknown. The groove for the at-
tachment of cord or sinew binding is common also to the stone adze,
which is characteristic of Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest and
of the Eskimo of Arctic America. The distribution of the stone adze
is more intensive but is much less extensive than is that of the grooved
stone ax and appears to be an environmental form borrowed from
the Arctic tribes by the Indian of southeast Alaska and of British
Columbia.
148 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth, ann. 48
" The double-bitted, multiple-grooved stone ax has two areas of dis-
tribution in North America. One of these is the country of the
northeastern woodlands Indians, extending as far south as the Central
Atlantic States. The other area of distribution is the extreme north-
west, or the mainland of Alaska.
" In the collection brought to the National Museum from Alaska by
Doctor Hrdlicka are eight grooved stone implements. All but one
of these have cutting edges for use as axes or adzes. The exception,
Cat. No. 332809, U.S.N.M., is a grooved spherical stone maul or
club 9.5 centimeters (3.7 inches) long and 7.5 centimeters (2.9
inches) in sectional diameter. This grooved object was found near
Tanana on the beach of the Yukon River. Like the grooved stone
axes in Doctor Hrdlicka's collection, the groove is incomplete. A
flattened space of approximately 2 centimeters is left ungrooved for
the hafting of a flat surfaced handle end with binding, which is
passed around the transverse groove and then through a hole in the
wooden handle.
" Three single-grooved, double-bitted stone axes were collected from
various points on the Yukon River. These are of interest because
of their similar grooving and double cutting edges. Each is identical
in form, each has been shaped by pecking, except in the sector near
the cutting edges where they have been sharpened and polished by
grinding. Between the raised borders of the centrally pecked groove
and the cutting edges the surface has been shaped to a slight con-
cavity by pecking. In Cat. No. 332805, U.S.N.M., this concavity
is replaced by a well-defined convex bevel. The pecked groove is
at right angles to the longitudinal axis and is comparatively shallow
but has a wide diameter of 2 centimeters or more. The material is
uniformly of basalt. The axes are 20 centimeters or more long, while
the sectional diameter varies from 6 to 10 centimeters according to
whether the ax is flattened or oval in section.
" Grooved, double-bitted stone axes similar to those collected by
Doctor Hrdlicka from the Middle Yukon region have since become
known also from stations farther south in Alaska. One was plowed
up in a field near Matanuska and is now in the chamber of commerce
exhibit at Anchorage, while another was collected in 1927 by the writ-
er from near Chitna, Alaska. This Alaskan type of grooved ax is
practically identical with that of the central Atlantic seaboard
States, as figured by Walter Hough in tlie Proceedings of the United
States National Museum, volume 60. article 9, page 14.
"Another grooved type of stone object brought to the National
Museum by Doctor Hrdlicka is a stone war club of unusual type.
It was found on the Yukon River beach li^ miles below the Mis-
HRDLidKA] ARCHEOLOGY OF CENTRAL ALASKA 149
sion at Tanana. It is 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) lon^ and is slender,
the maximum sectional diameter being but 3.5 centimeters (1.4
inches). Like the single-grooved axes, it was shaped by pecking,
but much of the surface was also gi-ound. The reverse or hafting
surface is flat; the obverse is convexly tapered to sharjs cutting
edges which are at right angles to the haft. The material is basalt.
The hafting grooves, two in number, are comparatively deep and
closely spaced. As to form this stone weapon is unique, appearing,
so far as is known to the writer, nowhere else on the American
Continent. It has been entered on the records of the National
Museum as Cat. No. 332807, U.S.N.M.
" One form of the double-bitted, multiple-grooved stone axes re-
sembles closely ivory forms made from walrus tusks in the Bering Sea
region. This form also gives evidence of secondary modification,
specimens having been broken intentionally to reduce the tool to a
simple adze. The material is basalt and its range in the north is
limited to the Eskimo area, but becomes widespread to the south in
southeastern Alaska and in British Columbia. The form of this
widely diffused stone adze is approximated in a series of broken
stone axes collected by Doctor Hrdlicka. Two such broken and
originally double-bitted axes. Cat. Nos. 332806 and 332810, U.S.N.M.,
were collected from the banks of the Yukon at an old village site
below Anvik. These axes are broken with a crude irregular fracture
just above the upper transverse gi'oove. Another stone ax, Cat.
No. 332812, U.S.N.M., is from Ruby, Alaska, and is practically iden-
tical with the double-bitted but single-grooved stone ax from Tanana.
" It would appear from this brief presentation that there is a re-
markable similarity of form, approaching identity, in the ancient
stone axes from the river valleys of central Alaska. Whether the
particular ax has one cutting edge or is double-bitted ; whether it is
provided with one of with two parallel transverse hafting grooves,
the general identity of form remains. The striking thing about the
presence of the double-bitted ax among archeological finds from cen-
tral Alaska is tliat we do not find it represented in such numbers
anywhere until it again reappears in the Atlantic seaboard States.
The very interesting cultural objects discovered by Doctor Hrdlicka
and supplemented by my collection in 1927 show that Alaska is far
from sterile or fully known areheologically and make further explo-
ration both jJromising and important."
150 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ANN. 46
ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE YUKON
Notes on the physique of the Yukon natives are found in the reports
of all the explorers of the river, but they are imperfect and of little
scientific value; the principal ones are given below.^^ Anthropo-
metric observations on the living people of the middle and lower
Yukon, with its tributaries, are nonexistent.'* As to crania, there
are a few measurements on two " Yukon Indian " skulls (No. 7530,
and probably No. 7531), and on three crania of the Yukon Eskimo,
by Jeffries Wyman (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1868, XI, 452) ; on
one " Ingaleet " and three " Mahlemut " or Norton Soimd Eskimo
skulls by George A. Otis (List of Specimens, etc., 35) ; and on four
skulls collected by Dall, one from Nulato and the i-est presumably
from St. Michael, by Hrdlicka (Catal. of Crania, p. 30, Nos. 242925,
242899, 242901, 242936).
The Living Indian
Notes on the living Indians of the Yukon have already been given
in the Narrative. They will be briefly summarized in this place.
Measui'em^nts of the living were impracticable during the journey.
Pure bloods. — The Yukon Indians are a sparse and largely mixed
=^ Glazunof (Wrangcll, .Stat, und Ethnog. Nacbr., 146-147) : "The men are big,
brunette, with bristly black hair."
Zagoskin (pt. ii, 61-62) : " Tbe Tinneb belong in general to tbe American family of
redskins, but marked external differences are perceptible in those who are mixed with the
Kskimo. The Tinneh are of medium stature, rather dry but well shaped, with oblong
face, forehead medium, upright, frequently hairy, nose broad and straight, hooked, eyes
black and dark brown, rather large « • • expression intelligent, in those of more
distant tribes somber, roving ; lips full, compressed ; teeth white, straight ; hair straight,
black to dark brown, fairly soft ; many of the men hairy over the body and with fairly
thick, short mustache and beard; hands and feet medium, calves small; in general lively,
communicative, cheerful, and very fond of pleasure and song."
I^all, William FI., Alaska and Its Resources, 53-54 : " The Ingaliks are, as a rule, tall,
well made, but slender. They have very long, squarely oval faces, high, prominent cheek
bones, large ears, small mouths, noses, and eyes, and an unusually large lower jaw. The
nose is well formed and aquiline, but small in proportion to the rest of the face. The
hair is long, coarse, and black, and generally parted in the middle. * * * Their com-
plexion is an ashy brown, perhaps from dirt in many cases, and they seldom have much
color. On the other hand, the Koyukuns, with the same high cheek bones and piercing
eyes, have much shorter faces, more roundly oval, of a pale olive hue, and frequently
arched eyebrows and a fine color. They are tbe most attractive in appearance of the
Indians in this part of the territory, as they are the most untamable. The women espe-
cially are more attractive than those among the Ingaliks. whose square faces and ashy
complexion render the latter very plain, not to say repulsive." (Some of these statements
were evidently somewhat in error. — A. H.)
Schwatka, F. (Milit. Eeconn. (1883), Comp. Narr. Explor. Alas., 350) : "As regards
these Ingaliks as a class, they are, as a rule, of average beisht. tolerably well built, but
slender, differing in this respect from the natives farther down the river. They have
long black hair and a complexion brown by nature, but often verging toward black on
account of a liberal covering of dirt."
See also Richard.son, J. (.\rctie Search. Exp., I, .379). Jones. S., The Kutcbin Tribes
(Smiths. Rept. for 1866, 320-327). Whymper, F., Travel and Advent., etc.; and later
writers (including Bancroft's "Native Races," etc., I, 127 et seq.).
'-•Ten (8 m. 2 f, ) Loucbeux, or Kucha-Kuchin, from the upper Yukon, were measured
by A. J. Stone and reported by F. Boas (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., New York, vol. xiv,
pp. 53-68, 1901).
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 13
Tanana Indian Woman
H
a:
o
a.
1
^^^^^^B^^^^^^^^^98I^^^^^\.^^^^^^^B
^
^^^^fcL_r^
-5
■^F^^^P'^ V'J '•^.
-j
-^ --^^^^^Mj^^jgys^^^^^^^^^^pB
.:<ial
l^^^l
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 15
Q, Jacob and Andrew. Yukon Indians at Kokrines. Jacob probably has a trace of white blood.
(A. H., 1926.)
b, Viikuii InUiLLDi at Kukiuit'i. tA. H., 1926.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 18
a, Indian c-liildren, Mission Schiml at Anvik, Lower Alid-ilo Vukou
b, Indian cliiMren. Mission School at Anvik. Lower Middle Yukon
'■^.'."•'.V>'V.','; •••'i
c, Two women of Anvik, on the Yukon, somewhat Eskimoid
HRDLicKA] ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE YUKON 151
population. The mixture is especially evident in the children and
the younger generation. It is mainly that with whites, but in the
lower settlements there is also a good deal of older mixture with the
Eskimo. There is fortunately as yet no Negro admixture.
General, type. — The full bloods are typically Indian, though not
of the pronounced plains type. The type is fairly uniform, but there
is not seldom, even up the river, as elsewhere in Alaska, a suggestion
of something Eskimoid in the physiognomy.
Color. — The color in general is near medium brown, ranging to
lighter rather than darker. The hair is the usual full black of the
Indian.
Stature amd strength. — The stature and build are generally near
medium, rather slightly below than above.
Head form. — The head is generally moderately rounded high meso-
to moderately brachycephalic. The face is medium Indian.
Body. — The body proportions seldom impress one with unusual
strength, yet some of the men are by no means weaklings. The most
fitting term by which to characterize conditions in this respect is
again " medium," with an occasional deviation one way or the other.
Photographs. — The accompanying photographs, taken by the
writer from Tanana to Anvik, show a few of the physiognomies.
Some of the girls and women, as well as boys and men, are quite
good looking. (Pis. 13-18.)
From Anvik downward along the river the type of the people
becomes plainly more Eskimoid and on the whole more robust. But
as one can frequently meet farther up the river individuals who
remind one more or less of the Eskimo, so here it is frequent to see
faces that look like Indian. Whether due to old mixture or to other
reason, the fact is that there is no line of somatological demarcation
in the living populations of the river, and the same applies, as will
be seen later, to the skulls.
";
Skeletal Remains of the Yukon •
The first Yukon Indian skull measured was that of a half-chief
of the Nulato group, collected in the early sixties by William H.
Dall. There are now three records of this skull, originally and again
now a Smithsonian specimen, one in Wyman ("Observations on
Crania," Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1868, XI, 452, No. 7530), one in
the Otis "Catalogue" (35, No. 259), and one in Hrdlicka's " Cata-
logue of Human Crania in the United States National Museum
Collections" (p. 30, No. 242925). It is a normal, well-developed
male slvull, which gives no suggestion of mixture. The true meas-
urements of this " type " specimen, taken by present-day instruments
ajid methods, are as follows :
152
ANTHROPOLOGICAL. SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
Yukon Indian skull No. 242925
Vault :
Length cm
Breadth cm
Height to bregma cm
Cranial index
Mean height index
Height-breadth index
Cranial module (mean di-
ameter) cm
Cranial capacity c. c
Face:
Menton-nasion ( teeth but
slightly worn) cm
Alveolar point-iiasion cm
Diameter bizygomatic maxi-
mum cm
Facial index, total
Facial index, upper
Facial angle
Alveolar angle
18.
4
14
13.8 1
76'.
1
So.
2
9S
6
15.
40
1, 520
12
1
7.
3
14
S6
i
52
1
69
53
5°
Orbits :
Right-
Height cm-
Breadth cm-
Left—
Height em-
Breadth cm_.
Mean index
Nose:
Height cm-
Breadth cm_.
Index
Upper alveolar arch :
Length cm_.
Breadth cm-
Index
Basio-facial diameters :
Basion-alveolar point cm—
Basion-subnasal point_cm_
Basal-nasion cm_.
3. 25
4.2
3.45
4
81
5.1
2.5
Jfi
5.7
6.7
So.l
10.6
9.4
10.5
The skull is seen to be mesocephalic, rather high, and of good
brain capacity; the face is of medium Indian proportions; the orbits
are unequal, rather low; the nose is of medium height and breadth;
the upper dental arch, the basio-facial diameters, and the facial and
alveolar angles, are all near medium Indian.
There was another Indian skull in the five Wyman reported, but
its identity is uncertain. A later collection by Dall included three
Indian female crania from Alaska, but their exact provenience is
uncertain; their measurements are given in my catalogue.
On the 1926 trip I succeeded in collecting directly from the burials
along the lower middle Yukon 17 adult skulls and skeletons. Such
material is both scarce and dilRcult to obtain, due to the attitude
of the Indians. All the specimens in the collection are from the
Russian, times on the river. A few of the skulls show traces of
Eskimoid in their features, but none offer a suspicion of a mixture
with the whites. The measurements are given below. They partly
agree, partly disagree, with those of the Nulato skull. The vaidt,
the breadth of the nose, the dimensions of the dental arch, are much
alike, but the height of the face, nose, and orbits in the Nulato speci-
men is somewhat lower. These may be tribal but also simply indi-
vidual differences. We may generalize by stating that the lower
middle Yukon Indian was mesocephalic, with a fairly high vault,
and moderate capacity. The face was of relatively good height but
moderate breadth, resulting in a high upper facial index. Facial
and alveolar prognathism and other features apjiroach the prevalent
Indian medium.
HKDLR' KA ]
ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE YUKON
153
LOWER MIDDLE YUKON INDIAN CRANIA
SEX: MALE
Approxi-
6 S'3"
s; 3 9
t. ^ d
a
■a
sa
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2
5
J3
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a
d
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3
to
o
2
O
Collection
Locality
mate
age of
subject
1^^
las
>
1
§
M
a
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1
o
1
a
£
1
td
3
o
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03
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332512
A. HrdliCka
Magi (Bonasila) . .
Adults.,
18.4
13.8
14.0
75.0
87.0
101.4
16.40
1,480
332517
do
Ohost Creek, near
Holy Cross.
...do....
18.1
13.8
13.4
76. t
83. 8
97.1
15.10
1,375
332514
do_
do
...do....
18.0
13.9
14.0
77.2
87.5
100.7
15.30
1,425
332503
do
Qreyling River
(above Anvik).
...do
1(17.3)
(13.4)
(12. 7)
77. S
8S.6
94.8
(14.47)
(1,220)
332507
do
Ohost Creek
...do....
18.2
14.1
13.2
77.5
81.5
93.6
15.17
1,480
332526
do
do...
...do
18.5
14.4
13.7
77. «
83.5
95.1
15.53
339752
H, \V. Krieger..
do...
...do
17.5
13.9
13.5
79. i
86.0
97.1
14.97
1,515
332502
A. Hrdlifka
do
...do....
17.8
14.2
13.3
79.8
83.1
93.7
15.10
1,370
(7)
(7)
(7)
m
(7)
(7)
(7)
(6)
Total .
126.5
18.07
17.5
18.5
98.1
14-01
13.8
14.4
95.1
IS. 59
13.2
14.0
106.57
15. SI
14.97
15.53
8,645
77.5
75.0
79.8
8i.7
81.5
87.5
96.9
93.6
Ml. 4
l.Ul
Minim
um
1,370
una
1,515
Catalogue
No.
Teeth:
Wear
men-
ton-
nasion
height
(a)
Alveo-
lar
point-
nasion
height
(bj
Diam-
eter
bizygo-
niatic
maxi-
mum
(c)
Facial
index,
total
Facial
index,
upper
Ba-
sion-
alveo-
lar
point
Basion-
sub-
nasal
point
Basion-
nasioD
Facial
angle
Alveo-
lar
angle
Height
sym-
physis
332512
332517
112.3
7.5
7.4
7.7
8.1
13.4
13.4
13.3
13.6
14.1
91.8
56
55. S
57.9
59.6
10.2
10.2
10.2
10.5
8.9
8.9
9.4
9.5
8.6
10.2
9.7
10.4
10.4
10
10.4
10.1
9.7
68.5
64.5
69
66.5
61
61.5
63.5
59.5
3.9
4
332514
832503
332507
'13
'12.8
(')
97.7
94.1
4.5
3.7
3.7
332626
332552
(')
1 13
8.1
13.6
14.1
8.8
9.2
3.8
332502
91. S
57 4
10.4
62
53
4.2
(4)
51.1
It 78
12.3
13
(5)
38.8
7.76
7.4
8.1
(5)
67.8
13.16
13.3
14 1
U)
(«
(5)
61.5
10.3
10.2
10.5
(7)
63.3
9.04
8.6
9.5
(8)
80.9
10.11
9.7
10.4
(5)
(5)
(7)
27.8
Averages
Minimum. -
Maximum..
93. 9
91.8
97.7
57.1
55. S
59.6
66
62
69
55
51
63.5
3.97
3.7
4.5
(7)
95.5
13.64
13.3
14.1
Totals
f-
Maximum..
1 Premature occlusion of sagittal and subdevelopment of vault; probably a moron, facial and skeletal parts
all normal.
' Medium.
> Slight.
' Moderate.
• Cons.
8 Unknown; all lost.
88253°— 30 11
154
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
LOWER MIDDLE YUKON INDIAN CRANIA— Continued
SEX: MALE— Continued
Catalogue No.
332512_
332517.
332514.
332503.
332507.
332526.
332552.
332502-
Orbits:
Height,
right,
left
Breadth,
right,
left
3.8
3.8
3.9
3.8
3.7
3.7
4
3.95
3.85
3.95
Orbital
index,
mean
Nose
Height
88.3
916
91. S
95. S
Breadth,
maxi-
mum
5.3
5
5.5
6.7
5.2
2.55
2.6
2.3
2.45
2.5
Nasal
index
J,8.1
62
41.8
iS
iS.l
Palate:
Exter
nal
length
(a)
5.5
5.6
5.3
5.4
External
breadth,
maxi-
mum
(b)
6.4
6.5
7
6.3
Palatal
index
SB. 9
86.1
76.7
86.7
3.9
3.9
4.15
4
Si
5.35
5.8
2.6
2.96
,50.9
Eight-
Left...
Totals
Averages...
Minimum..
Maximum.
(71
(7)
24.85
24.80
S.6S
S.5J,
3.35
3.4
3.76
3.7
O)
(7)
27.30
27.10
a. 90
3.87
3.7
3.7
4.16
4
91
91.6
V)
37.85
S.il
5
5.8
17.85
2.66
2.3
2.96
(.7)
47.:
41..
62
(5)
27.7
6.64
6.3
5.9
32.7
6.64
6.3
7
(«)
84.7
76.7
90.8
SEX: FEMALE
a
ho
■6
5^
Ap-
^ « 2
tr a c!
■sBg
•a
.a
"^
proxi-
aa
oi
p
"2
3
Collection
Locality
mate
age of
subject
i -
3 £"50
C3 ti^^
~a
1
s
be
i
1
•a
1
a
£
"S
73
a
'a
=3
aB
.''as
oS
c.
o
>
p
(0
o
ri
a
u
332506
A. Hrdlifka
Magi (Bonasila)...
Adult.
18.2
13.4
13.1
73. e
82.9
97.8
14.90
1,400
332520
do ---
Ghost Creek
...do...
17.9
13.2
12.7
73.7
81. 4
96.1
14.60
1,335
332508
do
Magi
...do...
17.2
12.8
13.1
74.4
87.3
102. S
14.37
1,225
332519
do
Ghost Creek
...do...
16.2
12.3
12.3
76.9
86.6
100.0
13.60
1,070
332610
do
Magi
...do...
17.6
13.5
13.2
76.7
84.6
97.8
14.77
1,375
332504
do
...-♦lo...
...do...
17.9
13.8
13. 5 77. 1
86.4
97.8
16.07
1,3.W
332525
do -.-
Ghost Creek
...do...
17.4
13.5
12. 6,77. e
81.2
9S.6
14.47
1,260
332525
do
Magi -
...do...
17.2
13.4
12.6
77.9
82.4
94-0
14.40
1,230
332522
do
Novi River
...do...
16.7
13.4
12.8
80. S
86.3
95.6
14.30
1,210
339751
H. W. Krieger.-..
Magi
...do...
16.4
13.4
12.6
81.7
84.6
94.0
14.13
1,210
(10)
(10)
(10) (M)
(.10)
(/O)
(10)
(10)
Totals
172.7
17. B7
132.7
13.27
128.4
12. 84
144.6
14.46
12,670
Averag
es -
76.8
84.1
96.8
1,267
16.4
18.2
12.3
13.8
12.3 \7S.6
81
92.6
102.3
13.60
15.07
1.070
Maxim
iim
13.5 l«/.7«7.S
1,400
bkdliCka]
ANTHBOPOLOGY OF THE YUKON
155
LOWER MIDDLE YUKON INDIAN CRANIA— Contmued
SEX: FEMALE— Continued
1 Catalogue
No.
Teeth:
Wear
men-
ton -
nasion
height
(a)
Alveo-
lar
point-
nasion
height
(b)
Diam-
eter
bizygo-
matic
ma.xi-
mum
(c)
Facial
index,
total
(aXIOO)
c
Facial
indes,
upper
(bxlOO)
c
Ba-
sion-
alveo-
lar
point
Basion-
sub-
Divsal
point
Basion-
nasion
Facial
angle
Alveo-
lar
angle
Height
of
sym-
physis
332506
332520
1 12.1
7.5
6.9
-7
6.7
-7
-8
6.8
7.1
6.7
12.7
13.3
12.6
12.1
-12
13.6
12.9
12.8
13.3
13.1
9o.S
69.1
61.9
66.6
66. i
68. S
66
9.9
10.6
9.6
9.3
9.7
10.4
8.8
• 9.4
8.5
7.8
8.4
9.1
8.7
8.4
8.6
8.5
-10
9.7
9.9
8.8
9.5
10.5
9.9
9.6
-10.
9.3
-69
-63
-71
64.6
-67
-68
-64
-62
-61
42.6
-51
54.6
3.8
332508
332519
no. 8
86.7
-3
332510-
332504
332525
+11.6
>13. 1
W
'11.8
96.7
91. S
3.7
3.9
3.6
332505
332522
9S.S
6S.1
Si.l
61.1
9.5
9.2
9.6
-70
74.6
-67
-51
-64
48.5
3.7
332751
•11
-84
3.36
Totals
(6)
70.4
11.73
10.8
13.1
(9)
63.7
7.08
6.7
-8
(10)
128.4
IS. Si
-12
13.6
(6)
(9)
(9)
87.8
9.76
9.2
10.6
(10)
86.2
8.62
7.8
9.4
(10)
97.2
9. 71
8.8
10.5
(9)
(9)
(7)
26.05
Averages...
Minimum.,
Maximum..
91.7
-Si
96.7
66.1
61.1
69.1
-6S
-63
74.5
-6S
42.6
-64
S.68
-3
3.9
Catalogue No.
332506.
332520.
332508.
332519.
332510.
332504.
332525.
332505.
332622.
332751 .
Right.
Left...
Total..
■ll-.
Average..]. '
Minimum. -■
Maximum..] "
Orbits:
Height,
right,
left
3.65
3.6
3.3
3.4
3.7
3.4
3.5
3.3
3.2
3.7
3.65
1 3.26
j 3.8
1 3.6
I 3.7
i 3.6
I 3.1
I 3.2
(9)
(9)
31.55
31
3.61
3.44
3.1
3.2
3.8
3.65
Breadth,
right,
left
3.8
3.8
3.7
3.7
4
3,7
3.66
3.66
3.66
3.95
4.06
3.8
3.95
3.86
3.96
3.95
3.8
3.7
(9)
(9)
34.4
34.05
S.Sl
S.78
3.55
3.55
4
4.05
Orbital
index,
mean
;
6
9S.S
I 90.
95.9
91.6
91.9
86. 6
S4
(9)
(9)
91.7
91
Nose:
Height
5.5
4.76
6.2
4.7
4.7
6.4
5.15
4.9
5.46
6
(10)
60.76
6.07
4.7
6.6
Breadth,
maxi-
mum
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.3
2.3
2.16
2.2
2.35
2.3
2.4
(10)
23.1
S.Sl
2.15
2.5
Nasal
index
iO
60. b
iS.I
48.9
48.9
39.8
4i.7
48
ii.2
m
46.6
S9.8
60.6
Palate:
Exter-
nal
length
(a)
6.2
6.4
5.2
5.4
5.3
6.7
5.3
5
6.3
(9)
47.8
6. SI
5
6.7
Rxtemal
brciidth,
maxi-
mum
(b)
6.1
6
6.8
5.5
6.4
6.7
5.8
(9)
55.4
e.ie
6.6
6.7
Palatal
index
86. t
90
89.7
98 B
8g.a
86. t
91. i
75.8
SI. 6
(9)
76.8
98. e
I Slight.
' Cons,
* Medium.
< Moderate.
' U. medium; 1. mod.
156 ANTHEOPOLOGICAIi SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann, 46
Skeletal Parts
There are seven adult skeletons of males and seven of females. For
present purposes it will suffice to take the males alone and to restrict
consideration to the long bones. The essential data on these are
given on page 160, where they are contrasted with those of North
American Indians in general, and with those of the western Eskimo.
The bones show both relations to as well as differences from the
bones of Indians in general and fair distinctness from those of the
Eskimo.
Contrasted with the long bones of miscellaneous North American
tribes taken together, the Yukon Indian bones show absolutely
slightly shorter humerus (or arm), somewhat shorter radius (or
forearm), a slightly shorter femur (or upper part of the leg), and
a plainly shorter tibia. These Indians had therefore relatively some-
what shorter forearm and especially the leg below the knees than their
continental cousins. These facts are plainly evident from the radio-
humeral and tibio-femoral indices of the two groups. In this rela-
tive shortness of the distal parts of the limbs the Yukon Indian ap-
proaches the Eskimo, standing near midway between the Indian in
general and the Eskimo. There might be a ready temptation to
attribute this to a mixture with the Eskimo ; but an examination of
the records will show that the same condition, so far at least as the
upper limb is concerned (lower?), is already present in the old
Bonasila skeleton, which gives no suggestion of an Eskimo mixture.
It is more likely, therefore, that these are generalized characteristics
of functional origin such as a considerable use of the small canoes.
This view seems to be supported by the relative strength of the bones.
In the Yukon Indian the humerus is stouter, the femur of the same
strengtii, and the tibia very perceptibly weaker than they are in Indi-
ans in general. In the Eskimo, with even greater dependence on the
canoe, both the humerus and the fenuir are notably stouter, while
the tibia is weaker, than are similar bones in the Indians in general.
The humero-femoral index in the Yukon Indians is unusually
high, indicating a relative shortness of the femur. This character
is not present in the Eskimo, nor in the continental Indian. It is
probably also of old functional origin, though this for the present
must remain a mere suggestion.
All of this shows clearly the interest and value of other skeletal
parts than the skull, and particularly of the long bones, for anthro-
pological studies.
Skeletal Remains from the Bank at Bonasila
The skeletal material from the bank at Bonasila consists now of
portions of three adult skulls, one male and two females, and of 13
bones of the male skeleton. All the specimens are more or less
hrdlicka]
ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE YUKON
157
stained by manganese and iron and all are distinctly heavier than
normal, sliowing some grade of fossilization. They closely resemble
in all these respects the numerous animal bones from the bank and
in all differ from the later surface burials of the place.
THE CRANIA
Tlie male skull, No. 332513, is represented by the frontal bone
united with a larger part of the face, a separated left temporal, and
the right half of the lower jaw. A large Inca bone, recovered from
the beach a year later, may also belong to the same specimen. The
missing parts are probably still somewhere in the sands of the
beach where there is going on a very instructive scattering and redep-
osition on a 4 to 6 feet lower level of the contents of the old bank.
The skull is that of a male of somewhat over 50 years of age, judg-
ing from the moderate to marked wear of the remaining teeth. It is
a normal undeformed specimen, and the same applies to the bones
of the skeleton.
Notes and measurements. — The frontal shows a medium develop-
ment, no slope. The supraorbital ridges are rather weakly developed
for a male, leaving the upper borders of the orbits rather sharp.
Cm.
Diameter frontal minimum t>. 75
Diameter frontal maximum 11.8
Diameter nasion-bregma 11. 5
The skull as a whole was evidently mesocephalic, and neither low
nor very high. The thickness of the frontal is about medium for
an Indian.
The face is of medium proportions and strength, with rather large
orbits, good interorbital breadth, medium malars. medium broad
nose, and but moderate alveolar prognathism. The nasal bridge is
not high, nasal bones fairly broad, spine moderate, lower borders
well defined though not sharp. The submalar (canine) fossae are
shallow.
Measurements
Alveolar point-nasion
height cm 7.8
Facial breadth about medium
for an Indian.
Nose:
Height cm 5.5
Breadth, near cm 2. 7ri
Index 50
Left orbit:
Height cm 3. 75
Breadth cm 4
Index 93. 7
Minimum interorbital dis-
tance cm 2.6
Upper dental arch :
Length, approximately-cm 5. 6
Breadth, approxi-
mately cm 7
Index, approximately SO
Lower jaw :
Height at symphysis ap-
proximately em
Thickness at Mj (witii the
tooth held midway be-
tween branches of com-
pass) cm
Height of asc. ramus cm
Breadth minimum of asc.
ramus cm
4.1
1.5
6.9
158
ANTHEOPOLOGICAl, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[BTH. ANN. 46
The condyloid process of the lower jaw is high, mandibular notch
deep. The whole jaw is strong but not thick or massive. It is In-
dianlike, not Eskimoid, in all its features. The teeth are of good
medium size.
Skull No. 333383.— Oi this skull I brought the right parietal with
about one-third of the frontal ; Mr. Krieger, a year later, the remain-
der of the frontal. Other parts are missing.
The specimen was evidently a good-size female skull, normal, un-
deformed, probably mesocephalic in form, and moderately high. The
thickness of the bones is not above moderate.
Cm.
Diameter frontal minimum 9.7
Diameter frontal maximum 12.5
Diameter nasion-bregma 11.1
Skull No. 3339S0. — Of the third skull, recovered from the sands
of the beach at low water in 1927 by Mr. Lawrence, there are only
the two parietals. The specimen is that of a young adult female.
The bones, rather submedium in thickness, indicate a skull of slightly
smaller size and slightly shorter than the preceding but of much the
same general type.
The skeletal parts of mal^ No. 332613. — Humeri : The long bones
all give the impression of straightness, length, and of a certain
gracility of form combined with strength, but without massiveness.
The right humerus presents a small but distinct supracondylar proc-
ess, a rarity among Indians. The fossae ai"e not perforated. Meas-
urements :
Length, maximum :
Riglit cm— 35.8
Left cm__ 35.3
Major diameter at middle:
Right cm— 2.5
Left cm__ 2. 4
Minor diameter at middle:
Right cm— 1. 65
Left cm— 1.6
Index at middle :
Right 65
Left 66.'i
at middle,
cm.
cm_
Type of shaft
prismatic :
Right
Left
Right radius :
Length, maximum,
near cm 27
Radio-humeral index, ap-
proximately 75. 5
There is but small
The shaft approaches type IV (quadrilateral),
curvature.
Eight ulna: Lacks the olecranon; shaft prismatic, with anterior
and posterior surfaces fluted; but a moderate curvature backward
upper third.
HBDLK^KA] AjSTTHEOPOLOGY
OF
THE YUKON
159
Femora :
Femora — Continued.
Length, bicondylar, right
Diameter maximum at up-
cm
48.2
per flattening —
Humero-femoral index
7^.3
Right cm__
3.5
Diameter autero-posterior
Left cm_.
3.7
maximum at middle —
Diameter minimum at up-
Right cm —
3.05
per flattening —
Left cm__
3.2
Right cm__
2.1
Diameter lateral maximum
Left cm-
2.25
at middle —
Index at upper flattening — ■
Eight cm
2.5
Right
60
Left cm__
2.65
Left
GO.S
Index at middle —
Type shaft at middle —
Right
S2
Right
1
Left
82\.S
Left, near
1
The bones, especially the right, are remarkable for their graceful
form and approach to straightness. The linea aspera is high but
not massive or rough.
Right tibia : Length ( ? ) , extremities wanting. A moderate physio-
logical curvature forward, middle third.
Diameter antero-posterior at middle, right cm 3. 25
Diameter lateral at middle cm 1.95
Index at middle 60
The bone is distinctly platycnaemic, as the femora are platymeric
and the humeri platybrachic, a harmony of characters which is often
met with in the continental Indian.
ADDITIONAL PARTS
These include four ribs, the atlas and two lumbar vertebrae. The
first rib ai^proaches the semicircular in type and is rather large,
indicating a spacious chest. Otherwise there is nothing special.
A comparison of the long bones of this interesting skeleton with
those of the later Indians from the same and near-by localities as
well as with those of the western Eskimo (see table, p. 160) shows
a number of striking conditions. The length of the bones of the
skeleton is far above the mean of both those of Indians and the
Eskimo, indicating a stature of at least 10 centimeters (4 inches)
higher. In none of their characteristics are tlie bones near to tho.se
of the Eskimo, making it doubly certain that the subject was not of
that affiliation. Comi^ared with those of the later Indians of the
same territory, the bones show in one line remarkable differences, in
another remarkable likenesses. The differences concern all the rela-
tive proportions of the shafts — the bones of the old skeleton give
without exception indices that are markedly lower; they are dis-
tinctly more platybrachic, platymeric, and platycnaemic. But the
more basic humero-femoral and radio-humeral indices are practically
160
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
the same; showing fundamental identity. The hiimero-femoral
index is esiDecially important in this case. It is exceptionally high in
the Yukon Indians, due to a relatively long humerus, and the same
condition is seen in the old skeleton. It seems safe, therefore, to
conclude that the owner of the old skeleton was not only an Indian
but an Indian of the same ishysical stock from which were derived
the later Indians of the Yukon ; but he was evidently of an earlier
and differe-nt tribe or of a purer derivation than those who followed.
To more fully establish and then trace this type, both as to its
derivation and extension, will be tasks of future importance.
YUKON INDIANS : MAIN LONG BONES
SEX: MALES 1
Paired bones
Yukon Indians
Older
skeleton
at Bona-
sila
From
Russian
times
Miscel-
laneous
North
American
Indians
Western
Eskimos
Humerus:
Mean length
At middle —
Diameter, major.
Diameter, minor.
Index
Radius:
Mean length
Radio-humeral index..
Femur:
Mean length (bicondylar)
Ilumero-femoral index
At middle —
Diameter, antero-posterior, maximum.
Diameter, lateral
Index.
At upper flattening —
Diameter, maximum
Diameter, minimum ,
Index ._
Tibia:
Mean length
Tibio-femoral index..
At middle —
Diameter, antero-posterior, maximum..
Diameter, lateral
Index
(2)
35,55
2.45
1.68
ee.i
(1)
n.27
1. 7S. B
(2)
48.2
IIS
3.12
2.57
8S.I,
3.60
2.18
60. i
(1)
3.25
1.95
eo
(10)
31.17
2.38
1.67
70
(10)
23.61
75. 7
(H)
41.92
7i.5
2.96
2.58
S7.t
3.26
2.30
70.7
(14)
34.19
81.5
3.04
2.
66
' (378)
31.8
2.22
1.63
73.1
(378)
24.7
77.7
' (902)
42.7
n. 72.5
2.96
2.58
87. S
3.27
2.42
74
(324)
36.9
84.4
3.28
2.16
6S.S
'(76)
30.88
2.42
1.82
75.2
(76)
22.86
7i
(84)
42.70
Q. — 72
3.03
2.71
89.5
3.37
2.48
7S.B
(84)
33.61
78.7
3.10
2.12
88.1
' See also data in writer's "Physical Anthropology of the Lenape," etc.. Bull. 62, Bur. Amer. Ethn.,
Washington, 1916; and his " Anthropology of Florida." Fla. Hist. Soc. Pub. No. 1, Deland. Fla.. 1922.
' These numbers apply to length only: under the other items the numbers are in some cases smaller, in
some larger. The differences are due to defects in some of the old bones.
3 See also data on p. 165.
hbdliCka] anthropology OF THE YUKON 161
The Yukon Eskimo
the livtng
As with the Indians farther up the river, the necessities of the
writer's journey did not permit more than visual observations, but
in 1927 Henry B. Collins, jr., succeeded in measuring six adult males
at Marshall.
In general, the people of the Yukon delta and from this to Paimute
are true Eskimo. By this is meant that in the majority of indi-
viduals they can readily be told as a tyjje apart from the Indian and
belonging plainly to that of the extensive family of the Eskimo.
But when the differences are to be defined the task is not easy ; some
of the distinguishing marks, though well appreciated, are somewhat
intangible.
The physical differences are essentially those of the lihysiognomy.
The head is neither narrow nor scaphoid, or even very high. The
Indian face is more prominent and more sculptured; that of the
Eskimo appears fuller, especially in the lower part, and flatter. Part
of this is due to the bony structure, part to the differing amounts
of fat. An eversion of the angles of the lower jaw, M'hich is relatively
frequent and sometimes excessive in the Eskimo male while almost
absent in the Indian, may give the Eskimo face almost a square ap-
pearance. Take with this the seemingly somewhat low Eskimo fore-
head, the not verj^ widely open and somewhat on the whole more
slanting eye, and the characteristic Eskimo nose with its rather
narrow and not prominent nasal bridge, the ridiculous monklike cut
of the hair (in the older males), the often rather full lips with, in
the males, a tuft of sparse mustache above each corner of the mouth;
add to all this a mostly smiling or ready-to-smile " full-moon " ex-
pression, and it would be impossible to take the subject for anything
else than an Eskimo. The Indian's face is more set, less fat, in the
males at least, less broad below, with seemingly a higher forehead,
sensibly made-up hair, not seldom a bit more mustache, and a nose
that generally is both broader and more prominent.
But the differences are less marked in the women and still less so
in the children, especially where similarly combed and clothed. And
there are, pai'ticularly on the Yukon, not a few of both Indian and
Eskimo who even an expert is at a loss where to class. They may be
due to old mixtures ; no new ones are taking place ; but it seems that
there may be present another important factor, that of a far-back
related parentage.
In the color of the skin and eyes, in the color and nature of the
hair, there is no marked difference between the two peoples of the
Yukon. In stature the Eskimos are slightly higher.
162 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUBVEY IN ALASKA [EIH. ANN. 46
MEASUREMENTS ON LIVING TTIKON ESKIMO
The exact provenience of the six men measured at Marshall is
uncertain, but they seemingly were all from the lower Yukon and
all were apparently full-blood Eskimo. But the measurements are
rather peculiar. They are given, for comparison, with those of the
western Eskimo in general (p. 165). They approach nearest to those
of the Togiak Eskimo, well down below the Kuskokwim. They
show a higher stature than all of their relations farther south, ex-
cept the Togiaks, and they have a rounder head. They .oi-e, in fact,
moderate brachycephals, a veiy unexpected form in this strain of
people. The Togiaks also are brachycephalic. The vault is rel-
atively somewhat higher than it is in the other groups, though the
height is not excessive. The nose is slightly lower as well as nar-
rower than it is in all the other contingents. The face is close to
those of St. Lawrence Island. The ear is jDerceptibly smaller and
especially narrower than elsewhere, but perhaps the age factor enters
into the case. The hand is much like that of Togiak and St. Law-
rence, the index being identical.
The brachycephaly of the group for the present is hard to explain.
It can not be ascribed to a mixture with the river Indians, for these,
as has been seen from the skulls, were meso- rather than brachy-
cephalic. There is need here for further inquiry.
SKELETAL REMAINS OF YUKON ESKIMO
As with the Indian, such remains are still rare. Some measure-
ments of three " Smithsonian Mahlemute " skulls from the Yukon,
collected by William H. Dall, are given by Jeffries Wyman, and
probably the same sjoecimens appear in the Otis Catalogue, the meas-
urements in which are regrettably not very reliable. These speci-
mens can not now be located, and the scarce data are of but little
value. The three skulls examined by Wyman were all mesocephalic.
It is now possible to report on 40 adult skulls from the lower
Yukon and the delta. An abstract of the measurements is given in
the next table. The data indicate a considerable local variation.
All the skulls, or very nearly all, are mesocephalic; but they differ
considerably in height and in all the facial features. The Pilot
Station group, from the apex of the delta, and hence the midst of
the Eskimo territory on the Yukon, is especially peculiar. Both the
vault and the face, in the series as a whole, range from low to high,
and much the same is true of the height of the nose and that of the
orbits, while the palate is exceptionally broad, giving a low index,
all of which would seem to indicate instability or conditions in
UBDLICKA]
ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE YUKON
163
change, together probably with admixtures from farther up the
river. We need more material, particularly from the stretch of the
river between the apex of the delta and Paimute.
YUKON ESKIMO CRANIA
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEI0M
17 males
Pilot
station
"Lower
Yukon'
Kashu-
nolc (of
Yuiton)
Kotlik
and
Pastolik
23 females
Pai-
mute
Pilot
Station
Kashu-
nok
mouth
Kotlik
and
Pastolik
Number of adult skulls
Collector __ _,
Vault:
Length
Breadth
Height
Module
Capacity
Cranial index
Mean height, index
Height-breadth, index
Face:
Menton-nasion
Alveolar point-nasion
Diameter bizygomoticmax-
imum
Facial index, total _
Facial index, upper
Orbits:
Mean height
Mean breadth
Mean index
Nose:
Height
Breadth
Index
Upper alveolar arch:
Length
Breadth _,
Index
Basi-facial diameters:
Basion-alveolar point
Basion-subnasal point
Basion-nasion
Facial angle_
Alveolar angle
Height of lower jaw at symphy-
(3)
18.90
15.07
13.77
15.91
,660
79.7
81. e
91.4
12.40
7.85
14.97
Si.i
BS.S
3.58
4.07
S7.7
5.27
2.67
iS.7
6.70
7.40
77
10.35
9.07
10.60
70
55
3.63
CD
C)
18.8
14.2
13.7
15.57
1,535
75.5
SS
96.5
(2)
(!)
18.45
14.10
13.65
15.40
1,408
78. i
SS.9
96.8
7.1
14.4
3.55
4
88. 7
5.05
2.15
4S.6
5.4
6.6
81.8
n.10.3
9.4
10.8
74
60
57.9
3.80
3.91
97.1
6.65
2.28
iO.S
5.4
6.65
SI. 2
10.15
9.10
10.16
66
60
(11)
m
18.44
13.90
13.60
15.31
1,486
75. i
811
97.8
12.67
7.78
14.13
90.1
55
3.67 I
3.98
9tS
5.53
2.51
i5.i
5.57
.6.70
10.40
9.17
10.41
68
52
3.76
(1)
(=)
18.7
H
n.l3. 6
15.40
7 J,. 9
n.8S. S
71.96. i
(3)
17.80
14
13.20
16
1,442
78.7
8S
9i.S
11.90
7.40
13.47
89.1
55
3.54
3.89
91
5
2.33
i6.7
5.40
6.60
81.8
10.17
8.80
9.97
67
52
3.67
(1)
(')
18.7
13.9
12.4
16
7 J,. 3
76.1
89.2
3.60
3.80
92.1
6.60
2.45
U.5
8.90
10.20
(18)
(■')
17.72
3.62
13.04
14.81
1,359
76.8
83. B
95. S
11.82
7.49
13. 26
89
56.5
3.62
3.86
94.1
5.19
2.31
U.5
6.45
6.38
85.4
10.09
8.86
9.98
67
53
3.56
' Howgate & Schwatka Exp.
! Rev. P. I. Delon.
i A. HrdliCka.
SKELETAL PARTS OF THE TUKON ESKIMO
The next table gives the measurements of the long bones in both
sexes in the Yukon Indian (for comparison), in the Yukon Eskimo,
and in the western Eskimo, the latter coming mainly from the coast
164 ANTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 40
south of the Yukon and from the Nunivak and St. Lawrence Islands.
The Yukon Eskimo material, collected from intact burials by the
writer, is unfortunately limited to the northern mouth of the river.
The skeletons from St. Lawrence Island were collected on the
Smithsonian exi^edition to th^ place in 1912 by Riley D. Moore,
1927 expedition by H. B. Collins, jr., and T. D. Stewart, all of the
National Museum.
The Yukon Eskimo show perceptibly longer bones than do either
the Indians or the southeastern and mid western Eskimo, indicating
a somewhat taller stature.
The humerus in the males is less broad than either in the Indians
or the midwestern and southwestern Eskimo and has as a consequence
high shaft index; but in the females the index in the Yukon and
western Eskimo series is identical. The radius is relatively even
shorter in the Yukon that it is in the other Eskimo, giving low radio-
humeral index.
The femur is notably less platymeric in the male and slightly less
so in the female Yukon Eskimo than it is in both the Indians and
the rest of the southwestern and midwestern Eskimo, giving a higher
index at the upper flattening. The meaning of these facts is not
obvious and they may undergo some modification with more material.
As to strength, measured by the mean diameter of the shafts, the
Yukon Eskimo in comparison to the southwestern and midwestern
show a slightly weaker humerus, and in the males a sliglitly weaker
femur at middle, but in the males again, a slightly stronger tibia.
If, however, the mean diameters of the bones are taken in relation
to the length of the bones, then in both sexes and in all the parts the
southwestern and midwestern Eskimo are slightly stronger. This
would seem to indicate more exertion, with harder life, among the
coastal and insular than among the river Eskimo. As a matter of
fact Kotlik and the near-by Pastolik, from which our skeletons came,
were favorably situated at the northern mouth of the river.
The Yukon Eskimo females, as compared with the males, have a
somewhat weaker and especially somewhat flatter humerus, with a
consequently lower shaft index; they have relatively even a shorter
radius, giving a lower radio-humeral index; their humerus itself is
relatively short, giving a lower humero-femoral index ; their femur is
relatively somewhat flatter at the upper flattening, giving a lower
index of platj'mery; while their tibia is relatively less strong antero-
posteriorly, resulting in an index that is more than four points higher
than that of the males.
hrdliOka]
ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
165
YUKON INDIAN, YUKON ESKIMO. AND WESTERN ESKIMO LONG
BONES '
Paired bones of the two sides
Humerus:
Mean length (right and left)
At middle —
Diameter, major _
Diameter, minor.
Index
Radius:
Mean length..
Radio-humeral index..
Femur:
Mean length (bicond.)
Humero-femoral index _
At middle —
Diameter antero-posterior maxi-
imnm
Diameter lateral
Index
At upper flattening^
Diameter, maximum
Diameter, minimum
Index ,
Tibia:
Mean length (I. A.) ,
Tibio-femoral index.
At middle —
Diameter, antero-posterior mas-
imnm
Diameter, lateral
Index
Male
Yukon
Indian
(10)
31.17
2.38
1.67
m
(10)
23.61
75.7
(14)
41.92
2.96
2.58
SI.l
3.25
2.30
70.7
(14)
34.19
S/.5
3.04
2
66
Yukon
Eskimo
(16)
32.10
2.33
1.80
IS.i
(16)
23.44
7S
(22)
43.78
n. 73
3.05
2.67
87.6
3.31
2.57
77.4
(22)
35.14
80. S
3.16
2.15
68.3
South-
western
and niid-
westem
Eskimo
(143)
30.69
2.40
1.80
7S.1
(98)
22.90
74. S
(196)
42.50
3.08
2.70
87.6
3.35
2.51
76
(141)
33.86
79.7
3.12
2.12
67.9
Female
Yukon
Indian
(4)
28.12
1.90
1.40
7S.7
(4)
21.10
(8)
40.16
7S
2.69
2.46
94.7
2.84
2.16
75. «
(8)
31.97
79.6
2.72
1.82
66.9
Yukon
Eskimo
(16)
28.31
2.07
1.61
73. S
(16)
20.18
71.3
(27)
41.11
n.69
2.74
2.44
3.02
2.27
7S.4
(27)
32.01
79.8
2.61
1.90
72. S
South-
western
and mid*-
western
Eskimo
(136)
28.40
2.10
1.64
75.2
(109)
20.60
7S.2
(132)
39.36
72. S
2.69
2.46
91. S
3.02
2.26
71 S
(147)
31.32
79. S
2.71
1.89
69.9
' See also data on p. 160.
NOTES ON THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE WESTERN
ESKIMO REGION
Archeological work in the va.st area of the western Eskimo is still
in its infancy. Until the 1926 Smithsonian expedition nothing what-
ever had been done in this line in the Eskimo parts of the south-
western coasts of Alaska -^ or on the Kiiskokwim or Yukon Rivers.
Some time between 1877 and 1881 E. W. Nelson made limited exca-
vations on St. Michael Island -'^ (see p. 170) and also dug on Whale
Island.
^ Dall, W. H., and Jochelson, W., made, as is well known, valuable excavations In the
Aleutian Islands ; but the Aleuts were not E.skimos. (See Cat. of Crania, etc., U.S.N.M.,
1D24, 39.)
^ Nelson, E. W., The Eskimo About Bering Strait ; Eighteenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer.
Ethn., pt. 1, Washington, 1800, p. 263.
166 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA rBTH. ANN. 46
In 1912 V. Stefansson excavated at Barrow.-' Having two months
to spend at this place he engaged numerous Eskimo of the village and
had them excavate the native village sites in the neighborhood. He
says (p. 388) : " It was a small army that turned out to dig wherever
there was a ruin or a kitchen midden, and they worked energetically
and well. While the excavations were not done as methodically and
scientifically as could have been wished, still we were able to get from
them a collection of over 20,000 archaeological specimens within the
space of six weeks. This collection (which is now safely stored in
the American Museum of Natural History) brings out man}' signifi-
fcant and some revolutionary ideas with regard to the prehistoric
history of the Eskimo. My method was to dig as much as possible
myself, and to go around as best I could to see the others at work. In
many cases I was able to see the exact position from which the im-
portant finds were taken." The specimens have since in part been
described by Wissler.^' Stefansson brought also some archeological
specimens from Point Hope, where, however, no excavations were
made; and collected a valuable series of crania from Point Barrow.
In 1917-19 excavations near Barrow were conducted by W. B. Van
Valin, leader of the John Wanamaker expedition to northwestern
Alaska, for the Univei'sity Museum at Philadelphia. The excava-
tions were made in some mounds located about 8 miles southwest of
Barrow and about 1,000 yards back from the beach on the tundra,
and uncovered six old igloos containing, aside from many cultural
objects, the skeletal remains of 83 individuals. These remains have
since been found to be those of an intrusive group of people and to
be of special interest.^'
In 1924 Easmussen during the last parts of his great journey
gathered numerous archeological specimens at Point Hope and from
other localities along the west coasts of Alaska.
In 1926, finally, the year of mj' survey, some careful initial excava-
tions, with very interesting results, were carried on at Wales and
on the Little Diomede Island by Dr. D. Jenness, of the National
Museum of Canada, Ottawa. A preliminary report on the results
of this work has been published in the annual report of the National
Museum of Canada for 1926.
Besides such more professional work a good deal of archeological
collection has been done in the regions under consideration by local
people, particularly traders and teachers; and the demand for speci-
^ My Lifo with tho Eskimo. N. Y., 1913, 387, 388. See also his The Stefansson-Ander-
son Arctic Expedition : Preliminary Ethnological Report. Anthrop. Tapers Am. Mus. Nat.
Hist, XIV, N. Y., 1914.
™ Wissler, Clark, Harpoons and Darts in the Stefdnsson Collection. Anthrop. Papers
Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., 1916, XIV, 401-443.
=» Sec section devoted to this find, p. 318.
hrdliOka] AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 167
mens has made assiduous excavators of some of the Eskimo them-
selves, particularly at Point Hope and at St. Lawrence Island.
Beginning with the north, the first white man to be mentioned
in this connection is Charles Brower, the well-known trader at
Barrow. Mr. Brower has not only aided all the explorers who
have reached this northernmost point, but he has also been directly
instrumental in excavating and the making of archeological col-
lections, though, regrettably, some of these have been scattered.
During 1925-26 there lived at Point Hope a very active and inter-
esting man, sent there by the Fox Film Co. to photograph the
Eskimo — Mr. Merle La Voy. La Voy, whom I met at Point Hope
and who for a time became our fellow-passenger on the Bear, had
not only succeeded remarkably in his own line, but had also amassed
during his stay a large archeological collection. He did not exca-
vate himself, and unfortunately paid no attention to the scientific
side of the case; but by offering the natives sugar, tea, chocolate,
chewing gum, tobacco, etc. in exchange for specimens, he so stimu-
lated them that they engaged most assiduously in the excavation, or
rather picking over as they thawed, of their old ruins, and brought
him thousands of objects, some of which are of considerable interest.
At the time of my visit there were several barrels full of specimens,
largely of stone and ivory. Skulls and bones, regrettably, were
neglected and reburied in the debris. Later this collection was
transjDorted to San Francisco, where it remains at the date of this
writing, in Mr. La Voy's possession.
At Kotzebue Mr. Tom Berryman, the trader, has made some col-
lections of Eskimo archeological material, from which I benefited
for the National Museum ; and the local teacher, Mr. C. S. Replogle,
informed me that he had a large collection at his home in the States.
At Nome I found a valuable lot of specimens in fossil ivory, pot-
tery, and stone, in the possession of the well-known Lomen bi'others,
members of one of the foremost families in Alaska. The best parts
of this collection I was fortunate to secure for exhibit in the United
States National Museum.
A large and valuable collection of western Eskimo archeological
material was made some years ago by Dr. Daniel Neuman. A part
of this collection is in the museum at Juneau; the whereabouts of
the rest and of Doctor Neuman himself I was unable to discover.
There are several collections of archeological material from the
western Eskimo region at Seattle and San Francisco, but none repre-
sents scientific excavation.
The names of Joe Bernard, Prof. H. N. Sverdrup, and O. W.
Geist should be mentioned in this connection, all having collected
archeological objects in the western Eskimo region. Many speci-
168 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL SUEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
mens of value collected by these men and others are in various
museums or in private hands in Fairbanks, along the west coast or in
Europe.
My own small part in the archeology of Bering Sea and the north-
western coast of Alaska was, as ah-eady stated, mainly that of mak-
ing a survey of conditions. The object was to obtain a good general
view of what there was in the line of archeological sites and re-
mains, and thus help to lay a foundation for more organized re-
search in the future. In addition all possible effort was made to
collect and obtain specimens of distinct archeological value. Both of
these endeavors met with results of some importance.
Old Sites in the Region of the Western Eskimo
The shores of the Alaska rivers, the littoral parts of Alaska, the
more northern Bering Sea islands, and those portions of the Asiatic
coast that were once or are still occupied by the Eskimo, are strewn
with " dead " villages and old sites. Many of these dead villages or
sites are historic, having been abandoned, or very nearly so, since
the coming of the whites ; some are older, in instances doubtless con-
siderably older. Collectively they offer a large, almost wholly vir-
ginal and highly important field to American archeology. They
may contain much of the secrets of Eskimo origin and of his cul-
tural, as well perhaps as physical, evolution. But these secrets are
not to be given up easily. They are held within a perpetually
frozen ground, which on one hand preserves everything, but on the
other will not yield its contents except to assiduous and prolonged
labor.
Ruined or " dead " villages began to be encountered by the earliest
Russian and other explorers. Beechey (1826) tells us that between
approximately the latitude of Nelson Island and Point Barrow
(60° 34' to 71° 24' N.) they noticed 19 (Eskimo) villages, some
of which were very small and consisted only of a few huts, and
others appeared to have been deserted a long time.^"
Hooper, in 1884, reports Eskimo ruins on the Asiatic side:
" Near the extremity of the cape [Wankarem] we found the ruins
of houses similar to those now in use by the Innuits, half under-
ground, with frames of the bones of whales. Probably they were
former dwellings of Innuits, who for some reason crossed the
straits and attempted to establish themselves on the Siberian side.
These houses have been found by different travelers at many places
along this coast, and various causes assigned for the abandonment
of the attempt to settle here by the Innuits. * * *
'" Beechey, P. W., Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Bering's Strait. Phila.,
1832, 474.
HEDLiCka] ABCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 169
"At Cape Wankarem and at other places on the Siberian coast we
found the ruins of houses sfinilar to those now in use by the Innuits.
These houses, which have been found by different travelers at many
places along that coast, are not at all like those used by the Tchukt-
chis, which, on account of the migratory habits of the reindeer
tribes, are so constructed that they can be taken down and put up
again at will." ^^
Ray and Murdoch both speak of old sites. The very spot they
selected for their observatory at Barrow was one of these. Ray says
of it:
"A point about 12 feet above the sea level, lying between the sea
and a small lagoon three-fourths of a mile northeast from Uglaamie,
was finally selected. The soil was firm and as dry as any unoccupied
place in that vicinity, and as it was marked by mounds of an ancient
village would be free from inundation." ^-
And farther on :
" That the ancestors of those people have made it their home for
ages is conclusively shown by the ruins of ancient villages and win-
ter huts along the seashore and in the interior. On the point where
the station was established were mounds marking the site of three
huts dating back to the time when they had no iron and men ' talked
like dogs'; also at Perigniak a group of mounds mark the site of
an ancient village. It stands in the midst of a marsh ; a sinking of
the land causing it to be flooded and consequently abandoned, as
it is their custom to select the high and dry points of land along
the seashore for their permanent villages. The fact of our finding
a pair of wooden goggles 26 feet below the surface of the earth,
in the shaft sunk for earth temperatures, points conclusively to the
great lapse of time since these shores were first peopled by the race
of man." ^^
The village of Sidaru. southwest of Cape Belcher, which in Ray's
time had a population of about 50, has since gone " dead."
The most direct attention to this subject has been given by Nelson.
In his excellent large memoir on " The Eskimo about Bering
Strait " ^* he states as follows :
" Ruins of ancient Eskimo villages are common on the lower Yukon
and thence along the coast line to Point Barrow. On the Siberian
" Hooper, C. L., Report of Arctic Cruise ot the Revenue Steamer Corwin, 18S1. Wash-
ington, 18S4, 63, 90.
'^ R.iy, Lieut. P. H., Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow,
Alaska. Washington, 1S8.5, 22.
^ Ray, P. H., Ethnographic Sketch of the Natives. Report of the International Polar
ExpcdiHon to Point Barrow, Alaska. Washington. 1S8S, 37.
'' Eighteenth Ann. Kept, Bur. Amer. Eth., pt. 1, Washington, 1900, 203 et seq.
88253°— 30 12
170 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 4e
shore they were seen from East Cape along the Arctic coast to Cape
Wankarem. ...
" On the shore of the bay on the southern side of St. Michael Island
I dug into an old village site where saucer-shape pits indicated the
places formerly occupied by houses. The village had been burned,
as was evident from the numerous fragments of charred timbers
mixed with the soil. In the few cubic feet of earth turned up at
this i^lace were found a slate fish knife, an ivory spearhead, a doll,
and a toy dish, the latter two cut from bark. The men I had with
me from the village at St. Michael became so alarmed by their super-
stitious feelings that I was obliged to give up the idea of getting
further aid from them in this place. I learned afterward that this
village had been built by people from Pastolik, at the mouth of the
Yukon, who went there to fish and to hunt seals before the Russians
came to the country.
" On the highest point of Whale Island, which is a steep islet
just offshore near the present village of St. Michael, were the ruins
of a kashim and of sevei-al houses. The St. Michael people told me
that this place was destroyed, long before the Russians came, by a
war party from below the Yukon mouth. The sea has encroached
upon the islet until a portion of the land formerly occupied by the
village has been washed away. The permanently frozen soil at this
place stopped us at the depth of about 2 feet. Here, and at another
ancient Unalit village site which was examined superficially, we
found specimens of bone and ivory carvings which were very ancient,
as many of them crumbled to pieces on being exposed.
" Along the lower Yukon are many indications of villages de-
stroyed by war parties. According to the old men these parties
came from Askinuk and Kushunuk, near the Kuskokwim, as there
was almost constant warfare between the people of these two sec-
tions before the advent of the Russians.
" Both the fur traders and the Eskimo claim that there are a large
number of house sites on the left bank of the Yukon,^'* a few miles
below Ikogmut. This is the village that the Yukon Eskimo say had
35 kashims, and there are many tales relating to the period when it
was occupied. At the time of my Yukon trips this site was heavily
covered with snow, and I could not see it ; but it would undoubtedly
well repay thorough excavation during the summer months. One
of the traditions is that this village was built by people from Bristol
Bay, joined by others from Nunivak Island and Kushunuk. One
'^ This is the " villago of 32 kashims," which I mention in the Narrative and of which
I heanl independently (p. 71). The present Esicimo claim that it existed on the right
bank, about 12 miles below Uussian Mission (Ikogmut). My visit and subsequently that
of Mr. f'liris Betsch, the kind and interested trader at Russian Mission, the latter with
an old Eskimo, failed to definitely locate the site, but further efiforts are desirable.
hkdliOka] archeology OF WESTERN ESKIMO 171
informant said that a portion of tliis village was occnpied up to
1848, when the last inhabitant died of smallpox, but whether or not
this is true I was unable to learn.
"Another informant told me that near the entrance of Goodnews
Bay, near the mouth of the Kuskokwim, there is a circular pit about
75 feet in diameter, marking the former site of a very large kashim.
A few miles south of Shaktolik, near the head of Norton Sound, I
learned of the existence of a large village site. Both the Eskimo
and the fur traders who told me of this said that the houses had been
those of Shaktolik people, and that some of them must have been
connected by underground passageways, judging from the ditchlike
dej^ressions from one to the other along the surface of the ground.
The Shaktolik men who told me this said that there were many other
old village sites about there and that they were once inhabited by a
race of very small people who have all disappeared.
" From the Malemut of Kotzebue Sound and adjacent region I
learned that there are many old village sites in that district. Many
of these places were destroyed by war parties of Tinne from the
interior, according to the traditions of the present inhabitants.
" On Elephant Point, at the head of the Kotzebue Sound, I saw
the site of an old village, with about 15 pits marldng the locations
of the houses. The pits sloped toward the center and showed by their
outlines that the houses had been small and roughly cii'cular, with a
short passageway leading into them, the entire structure having been
partly underground.
"The Eskimo of East Cape, Siberia, said that there were many
old village sites along the coast in that vicinity. These houses had
stone foundations, many of which are still in place. There is a large
ruined village of this kind near the one still occupied on the cape.
" On the extreme point of Cape Wankarem, and at its greatest
elevation, just above the present camp of the Reindeer Chukchi, a
series of three sites of old Eskimo villages were found."
To this, on pages 269 et seq.. Nelson adds an account of the villages
that " died " on St. Lawrence Island during the winter of 187&-80.
Capt. C. L. Hooiier. in the "Cruise of the Corwin in 1881, Notes
and Observations " (published in Washington, 1884, p. 100) gives the
date as 1878-79, and adds further details about these villages.
Present Location of Aecheologioal Sites
Through personal visits, wherever possible, and through informa-
tion from all available sources, an effort was made to locate and
learn the character of as many of the old sites as could be traced. In
this endeavor I was aided by many whose services are hereby grate-
fully acknowledged. Especial thanks are due to Captain Cochran
172 ANTHROPOLOGICAIi SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
with the officers and men of the Bear^ particularly Boatswain H.
Berg; to the Lome.n brothers and their esteemed father, at Nome;
to Father B. La Fortune and the Reverend Baldwin at Nome; to
Mr. Sylvester Chance, superintendent of the northwestern district,
Bureau of Education; to Mr. Charles D. Brower, trader at Barrow;
to Mr. Jim Allen, trader at Wainwright; and to Dr. E. P. Walker,
head of the Biological Survey of Alaska. The list to follow, supple-
mented by maps, will give in brief the name, location, and description
of the remains.
The old sites occur, (1) in the form of refuse heaps; (2) as late
village sites, smaller or larger areas of ground covered with mostly
circular elevations and depressions, with occasionally the wooden re-
mains of igloos or kashims, or only partly ruined dwellings; such
remains are the most common; (3) as old village sites in the form of
a long irregular ridge mound or of more or less separate heaps;
(4) as heaps or " mounds " of individual structures. And as
" passed " sites, covered completely by sand or silt and unknown until
uncovered through the washing away by the sea or rivers of some of
the deposits.
In addition there are the remains of burial grounds which are
occasionally marked by small low mounds or hummocks produced by
decayed burials that have been more or less assimilated by the tundra.
Stony beaches with chips, implements, etc., such as are found off old
sites on the Yukon, have not been seen in the region now dealt with
in any instance.
The ruined dwellings and communal houses throughout this region,
with a few minor exceptions, were of one general type. They were
circular, yurta-shaped, semisubterranean structures, with a more or
less subterranean tunnel approach, built of hewn driftwood and
earth. These dwellings, when the wood decays and the dome falls
in, leave characteristic saucer-and-handle-like depressions. But
where such dwellings were close, and especiifilly where they were
heaped up or superimposed on older ones, the remains, together with
the refuse, may form an irregular elevated ridge or a large irregular
mound.
On the Diomede Islands the dwellings are built of stone, and ruins
of stone houses have been reported to me from inland of the western-
most parts of the Seward Peninsula. Stone dwellings wei'e also
known on Norton Sound.
Some of the ridges and heaps, as at Shislmiaref , Point Hojse, one
of the Punidj Islands, etc., are large and may be up to 15 feet and over
in depth, but mostly the remains are of moderate to small size. The
latter sometimes could easily be confounded with natural formations.
The older remains may supei'ficially be indistinguishable even to an
HBDLieKA] AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 173
experienced observer; and if there is anything still more ancient, it
lies somewhere in the old sands and beaches where, except through
some fortunate accident, it can not be discovered. Except for their
surface, the remains are generally frozen hard, and no excavation is
possible except through gradual exposure and the melting of layer
after layer by the warmth of the sun or a melting of the ground
with water or by some other artificial means.
Some at least of these ruins are rich archeologically. They greatly
exceed in this respect a large majority of village ruins and mounds
in the interior of the continent. This apjiears from their gradual
excavation by the natives at Barrow, Point Hope, St. Lawrence
Island, and elsewhere. The natives have now for many yeai-s been
selling thousands of articles thus obtained to traders, teachers, and
crews of visiting vessels. A regular and growing trade detrimental
to archeology is now being carried on in " fossil ivory," which gen-
erally consists of pieces showing human workmanship and occasion-
ally includes specimens of rare beauty and importance.
The archeological contents of such old sites as that near Savonga
on the St. Lawrence Island, or those at Wales, Point Hope, Barrow,
etc., are varied, and in instances exceedingly interesting. They com-
prise a large variety of objects of stone, ivory, bone, and wood, while
in the more superficial layers are also found occasionally glass beads
or objects of metal. Some ruins, such as those at Point Hope and
Kotzebue, are very rich in stone objects; others, as those at the St.
Lawrence Island, are rich in articles of ivory and bone. Pottery is
generally scarce. Articles of stone comprise mainly points, Iniives,
adzes, and lamps; those of wood, goggles and masks; of bone, various
parts of sleds, a large assortment of snow and meat picks, and scrap-
ers; of ivory, barbed points, harpoons, and lance heads, and a large
variety of tools, fetishes, and ceremonial objects; of clay, a few dishes
and pots for culinary purposes. Traces of objects made of whalebone
or even birch bark may also appear.
The stones used were mainly slate and flint, but there may also
be met with quartz, quartzite, and especially the Kobuk " jade."
The workmanship is as a rule good to excellent. Tlie arrow points
show a number of interesting, not yet fully known, types, the long
blade with parallel sides predominating. The stone lamps and rare
dishes also need further study. The knives all approach the Asiatic
semilunar variety.
The bones and wooden objects and the pottery from this region
are fairly well covered by the writings of Ray, Murdoch, Nelson,
Rau, Thomas, and others; the masks need further study.
The most interesting archeological specimens from the region of
the western Eskimo, however, are some of those in " fossil ivory,"
the term being applied to walrus ivory that through long lying in
174
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
the ground has assumed more or less of a pearly yellow, variegated,
sepia-brown or black color. These objects are known as yet very
imperfectly. They are scarce at and especially north of Point Hope,
and again along the west coast south of Norton Sound. Their center
of frequency comprises seemingly the St. Lawrence Island, some
parts of the Asiatic coast, the Diomedes, and parts of the Seward
Peninsula. But they occur at least up to Point Hope, while west
of Bering Strait they are said to appear as far as the river Kolyma.
Some of the objects in fossilized ivory show the well-known Esltimo
art, with geometrical design. But besides these there occur here and
there beautiful specimens, har-
poon heads, figures, needle cases,
etc., which are of the finest work-
manship and which both in form
and design differ from the pre-
vailing Eskimo types. They are
examples of high aboriginal art;
and their engraved decorative
lines are not geometrical but
beautifully curvilinear. (Fig.
12.) The accompanying illustra-
tions of specimens I succeeded in
obtaining from different sources
will show the nature of this art.
(Pis. 19-26.) Isolated specimens
of this nature have been secured
before by Nelson, Neuman, Sver-
drup, Stefansson, and others.
Jenness in 1926 dug out a few
from the old sites at Wales.
There are several in the Museum
of the American Indian in New York. But the largest and best
collection of these remarkable articles is now that of the United
States National Museum.^'"'
The large fossil ivory figure (20.3 cm. maximum length, pi. 26)
collected by Mr. Carl Lomen and now in the National Museum is of
special interest. It comes from the Asiatic side. It is a handsomely
made piece, belonging in all probability to the high fossil ivory
culture. Its peculiarity is the bi-bevel face, a face made by two
planes rising to a median ridge. It is so far a unique specimen of
its kind. But with the aid of Mr. H. W. Krieger, curator^ of
ethnology. United States National Museum, we found similar bi-
i^" MacCurd.v described the first specimen of this liind in 1921 as "An Example of Eslcimo
Art," in Amer. Anthrop., vol. 23. No. 3. pp. 384-385. See also Collins (H. B.. jr.). Prehis-
toric Art of the Alaskan Eskimo, Smith. Misc. Coll., toI. 81, No. 14, 52 pp., Washington,
1929.
FiGCEB 12. — Conventionalized design from
fossil ivory specimen shown In Plate 19
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 19
Terminal Piece of a lance or harpoon. Northern Bering Sea
Black, high natural polish. Most beautiful piece o( the fossil ivory art. (A. H., 1926, U.S.N.M.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 20
FOSSIL IVORY SPECIMENS SHOWING THE OLD CURVILINEAR DESIGNS.
NORTHERN BERING SEA
(A. U. coll., 1926, U.S.N.M.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 21
OBJECTS Showing the old fossil ivory art. northern
BERING SEA
(U.S.N.M., Nos. 1 and 3, coU. A. H., 1926.)
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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 23
a, Small, finely made objects in fossU ivory and stone (the head), from the ruins at Point Hope
(A. H. coll., 1926.)
b, Old fussU ivory objects, northern Bering Sea. The article lo the right is almost classic in form;
it is decorated on both sides. (A. H. coll., 1926, U. S.N.M.)
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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 26
Old Black Finely Carved Fossil ivory Figure, from the North-
eastern ASIATIC COAST
(Loan to U.S.N.M. by Mr. Carl Lomen.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 28
Top; Manche de poignard en ivoire, avec sculpture repr^sentant un renne. Montastiuc {Peccadeau
de risle; in de Quatrefages (A.), Homnies fossUes, Paris, 1884, p. 50)
Left: Two beautiful knives of fossil mammoth ivory latelv made by a Seward Peninsula Eskimo.
(Gift to the U.S.N. ^L by A. H., 1926.)
Right; Two old ceremonial Mexican obsidian knives.
HKDLicKA] ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTEEN ESKIMO 175
beveled faces in wooden figures from northeast Asia, in wooden
Eslcimo masks from the Yukon, and in wooden ceremonial figures
from Panama. The latter are shown herewith. (PI. 27.) The
whole presents evidently a nice problem for the archeologist and
student of culture.
I had further the good fortune to secure, through the kindness of
Reverend Baldwin, two handsome and remarkable knives from
fossil mammoth ivory. Tliese knives were said to have been made
recently by the Eskimo of the Seward Peninsula. They are shown in
Plate 28. They each bear on the handle a nicely carved crouching
animal figure. With them are shown, somewhat more reduced, two
probably ceremonial knives from Old Mexico; and also the handle
of a late palaeolithic poignard from France, illustrated by De
Quatrefages.^'^ Regarding the latter form we read the following in
Mortillet : ^' " D'autres poignees de poignard, faites dans des donnees
pratiques et artistiques analogues, ont ete recueillies dans diverses
collections. Les j^lus remarquables sont deux poignees en ivoire
trouvees i^ar Peccadeau de I'Isle, a Bruniquel. L'une se rattachait a
la lame, comme dans la piece precedente, i^ar le train de derriere;
I'autre, au contraire, jjar la tete." Knives with similar crouching
animal figures on the handle are being made by the ICing Islanders.
Here, evidently, is one more interesting problem for the archeolo-
gists.
Tlie art shown by these objects, the conventionalization, and
especially the decorations, apj^ear to show affinity on one hand to
deeper eastern Asia and on the other to those of tlie American north-
west coast and even lower. This may prove to mean much or little.
The fact that these specimens establish beyond question is that at one
time and up to a few hundreds of years ago there existed in the lands
of the northern Bering Sea native art superior to that existing
there later and at the present, and comparable with the best native
Siberian or American.
The meaning of this fact seems to me to be of importance. The
evidence suggests, aside from other things, that Americon cultural
developments may after all not have been purely local or even
American, but that they may, in part at least, have been initiated or
carried from Asia. In view of these and other recent developments
it seems rational to consider that America may have been peopled
by far eastern Asiatic groups that not merely carried with them
differences in language and physique but also in some cas'-s i datively
high cultural developments. But these for the present are mere
hypotheses.
M Quatrcfages, A. de., Hommes fossiles et liommes sauvages. Paris, 1884.
" Martinet, G. de., Le pr^historique engine et antiquity de rhomme. Paris. 1900,
20&-207.
176 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
There is no definite indication as yet that the people of the high
fossil ivory art in the northern Bering Sea and neighlxiring parts
were any others than the ancestors of the Eskimo. The skeletal re-
mains from these regions, as will be shown later, rather support
this view. But those ancestors may not yet have represented the
characteristic present type of the peoj^Ie. Here, too, nothing definite
can be said before the results of sufficient scientific excavations
become available.
Sites and Villages
The location of the western Eskimo villages has received more or
less attention by most of the explorers in their region from the
Russian time onward ; but sucii eiforts are generally limited to the
living villages in the area visited by the observers.
Perhaps the earliest Russian map of value in this connection on
the Bering Sea region is that which I find in Billings and (Jail's
Voyage or " Puteshestvie " of 1791, printed in St. Petersburg 1811.
The map bears no date, but is evidently quite early. It gives three
villages on the western jjoint and north coast of the Seward Penin-
sula, namely Kiemile (later Nykhta, now Wales), Chegliukh, and
Tykiak. (PI. 29.)
The most notable and valuable of the Russian contributions to this
subject is that of Zagoskin. This refers to the period of 1812-1844
and is contained partly in his " Peshechodnaia Opis," etc. (St.
Petersburg. 1847), but especially on his maps. There are, I find,
two of these maps — the " Merkatorskaia Karta Casti Sieverozapad-
nago Berega Ameriky " and the " Merkatorskaia Generalnaia Karta
Casti Rossijskich Vladenii v Amerike." I came across the first in
one copy of Zagoskin's invaluable account, which should long ago
have been translated into English, and the other in another copy.
Part of the second is here reproduced. (PI. 30.) Both bear the
statement that they were made by Zagoskin as the result of his ex-
plorations on the Yukon in 1842-1844. The second (" general ") map
is much the clearer and richer. Both maps, but especially the second,
give a good number of villages, especially about Norton Sound and
along the southern shore of Seward Peninsula. The orthography
differs somewhat on the two charts.
The Tebenkof Atlas of 1849 includes a remarkably good map of the
St. Lawrence Island. As on other Russian maps it gives the Punuk
Islands, that later are lost by most map makers, and indicates the
location of what probably were all the living settlements of that
time, except on the Punuk. (Fig. 27.)
Finally, in 1861, Tikhmenief, in his " Istoriceskoie Obozrenie "
(history of Russian America) gives a detailed maja with many loca-
tions of Eskimo villages.
erdliCka]
AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
177
The Aleutian Islands and Kodiak are excellently dealt with by
Veniaminof and also Tikhmenief, though little special attention is
given to the location of the settlements.
None of the Russian exi3lorei-s, regi'ettably, report verbally on the
deserted sites or ruins. But their registration and location of many
villages that have since become " dead " is of much historical as
well as anthropological value.
Of later and particularly American authors who gave attention to
the location of the western Eskimo settlements, the foremost is E. W.
Nelson. Beginning in 1877 with the St. Michael Island and ending
with the cruise of the C'orwln in 1881, Nelson made trips down the
coast to the Kuskokwim, up the Yvikon to Anvik, over the Bering
Sea, the St. Lawrence Island and parts of the Chukchee Peninsula,
FiGCKE 13. — World map
and finally, with the Corwin, along the northern coasts to Point Bar-
row. And these journeys were devoted largely to biological and
ethnological observations and collections, the latter including the
location of the western Eskimo habitations of that time. His loca-
tions are given on the accompanying map (fig. 15) taken from his
classic memoir, " The Eskimo about Bering Strait," published in 1900
in the Eighteenth Annual Report of tlie Bureau of American Ethnol-
ogy. This memoir contains a section of "Ruins" (pp. 263-266), a
brief account of the recently dead villages on St. Lawrence Island
(p. 269), and an instructive section on Eskimo burials (pp. 310-322).
Nelson brought also the first more substantial collection of Eskimo
crania.
The next deserving man in these connections is Ivan Petrof. Of
Russian-American extraction, Petrof was charged in 1880 with the
178
ANTHBOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 48
census enumeration of the natives in Alaska, and he later published ^*
a valuable report on his work, together with detailed demogi-aphic
data and a map on which are given all the living settlements of his
time. Nelson's map is partly based on Petrof 's data.
Since Nelson and Petrof but little has been done in this field.
But the maps of these two observers have been utilized more or less
by the map makers of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey,
the Geological Survey, and other Government agencies concerned
with Alaska. The result is that some of these charts are exception-
ally useful to the anthropological explorer in Alaska; neverthe-
less the data they carry are incomplete and the locations or names
R\ xj T/NA/eH MOS.
^^AVA'Wr TRIBES
f,^ I \ ALruTS
^ — zX'JSrA CHOHCHIS
\ ^A,-^CRICA TimaiTS
^^1 NAIDA "A Ky&AHS/
V. ■■ v-rt^ ■
FiGUBB 14. — Ball's map of the distribution of the tribes of Alaska and adjoining
teiTitory, 1875
are not always exact, a good many of the villages shown are now
dead, and old ruins, as usual, have received no attention.
A very valuable supplement to all the maps has in 1902 been
published by the United States Geological Survey. It is the
Geograjihic Dictionary of Alaska, by Marcus Baker. This
volume, besides brief but serviceable historical data, gives in
alphabetical order nearly all the then-known names of localities in
Alaska, including those of the Eskimo and Indian settlements; and
each name is accompanied by brief but in many instances most
helpful information. This highly deserving volume, indispensable
=« Tenth Census, viii ; rcprintod in Compilation of Narratives of Explorations in Alaslsa.
U. S. Senate Kept. 1023, WasUington, 1900, 50-281.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 29
Xa 31; E -P 13 .. K
■ ^nr u^ert^f
Billings and Galls Map of Bering strait and Neighboring Lands.
1811
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 30
II I .Uni-riivin
ESKIMO VILLAGES AND SITES. NORTON SOUND AND BAY AND SEWARD
PENINSULA. AND THE KOTZEBUE SOUND. FROM ZAGOSKIN'S GENERAL MAP.
1847
hkdliCka]
ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
179
to every student of Alaska, has for many years been out of print,
but it is understood that a new revised edition is slowly being
prepared.
LE&END
I I MB
,5-J/f/A70 YU/T CHUKCHI ATff/tPASOIIV
SCALE OF MILES
o ^z, ao lao tbo
FiGCKE 15. — Xilsou's map. (Eighteenth Ann. Kept. Bur, Amer. Ethn., 189S)
Otlaer useful publications in these connections are the United
States Coast Pilots of Alaska, the various accounts of travelers, ex-
plorers, and men in collateral branches of science (geology, biology.
180
ANTHEOPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 4«
etc.), the publications of the Alaska Division of the United States
Department of Education, the annual reports of the Governor of
Alaska, and the decennial reports on Alaska of the United States
Census.
Z77777?i
ESKIMAUAN ATHAPASCAN ALEUT TLlNfalT
Figure 1G. — Linguistic map, United States census, 1920
The object of the following notes and data is some measure of
usefulness to future anthropological and archeological workers in
Alaska. They are surely incomplete and very imperfect, yet they
may be of some service.
HUDLICKA] AKCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 181
Archeological and anthropological research in the highly impor-
tant western Eskimo region is bound to develop in a not far distant
future; for this is the region through which in all probability
America was peopled. It is this region that promises to solve flie
problem of the antiquity of the Eskimo and may throw much light
upon the origin of these people, and one that, as shown above, has
begun to reveal highly interesting old cultural conditions. And it
is a region in whicli destruction of the remains by nature, but most
so recently by the natives themselves, proceeds at an alarming i^ace.
The information on which these notes and the accompanying
charts are based has been obtained largely from the Russian and
other maps, from local traders, teachers, missionaries, and natives,
and from a few exi^lorers.^^ Only in a minority of cases was it
possible to visit the places in person ; to have visited all would have
been a task of pleasure, but would have required a staunch boat of
my own and at least three full seasons.
Many of the sites to be given are now " dead " and there may be
several old sites in the vicinity of a living village. Others combine
ruins with present habitations. Still others are partly or even wholly
abandoned a part of the year when the inhabitants go camping or
hunting, and are partly or wholly occupied during the rest of the
year. Finally, there are some new settlements, with modern dwell-
ings and ways, and their number will increase, the Eskimo taking
kindly to civilization and individual property.
The data to be given here are limited to the Eskimo territory
in southwestern and western Alaska, leaving out those in Silieria
where much is uncertain. Due to the uncertainties of the Prince
William Sound region they will begin with Kodiak Island. There
are also on hand, principally due to Dr. E. P. Walker, numerous
locations of old sites and villages in the Indian parts of southern
and southeastern Alaska, but these will best be reserved for another
occasion.
The Eskimo area will be roughly seen from the accompanying map
published on the basis of the enumeration by the Fourteenth United
States Census of 1920. A very great part of the territory allotted
to the Eskimo, as well as that of the Indian, is barren of any popu-
" I am especi.illy indebted to the two maps of Zagoskin (one prepared by himself, one
from his data) ; to the 1840 Russian map of the St. Lawrence Island : to the various maps
of the U. S. Geolotrical Survey and the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey : to the maps and
data of W. H. Dall, E. W. Nelson, and Ivan Petrof ; to the various reports of the Concin
and other voyages in the Bering Sea and the western Arctic ; to the Geographic Dictionary
of Alaska, by Marcus Baker, and to the V. S. Coast Pilots of Alaska ; to the data of the
Alaska Division, U. S. Department of Education ; to Dr. E. P. Walker, of the Biological
Survey : to Father La Fortune, the Reverend Baldwin, and to Mr. Carl J. Lomen at Nome :
to Mr. Sylvi'sfiT Chance, superintendent in 1026 of the schools of the Kotzebue district :
to Messrs. James Allen at Wainwright and Charles Brower at Barrow ; and to numerous
other friends who aided me in this direction.
182 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46
lation or its traces; the divisions represent the hunting grounds or
grounds claimed by each people, not an occupied territory. The data
will be given in south-to-north order.
Nearly all the settlements in these regions are now, and have
evidently always been, on the shores of the seas and bays, as close
to the water as safety would permit. A few villages and sites occur
also, however, on inland lakes and rivers. The favored locations
have been an elevated flat near the mouth of a fresh-water stream
or the outlet of a lagoon, a sufficiently elevated spit projecting into
the sea, or an elevated bar between the sea and an inland lake. The
essentials were an elevated flat, a supply of fresh drinking water,
and a location favorable for fishing and hunting; if there was some
natural protection, so much the better. There were no inland settle-
ments except on the lakes and rivers. In a few cases, as at the
Kings and the Little Diomede Islands, very difficult locations were
occupied only because outweighed by other advantages.
Caves throughout the occupied region north of the Aleutian chain
are absent, and there was therefore no cave habitation.
None of the settlements were very large, though a few were much
larger than others. They ranged from one or two family camps
or houses to villages of some hundreds of inhabitants. A large ma-
jority of the settlements had from but two or three to approximately
a dozen families.
There were two main types of dwellings, the semisubterranean
sod houses for the winter and the skin tents for summer. In some
jDlaces the two were near each other ; in others the summer dwellings
were in another and at times fairly distant locality.
The "zimniki" (in Russian) or winter houses were throughout
the region of one general type. They were fair-sized circular semi-
subterranean houses, made of driftwood and earth, and provided
with a semisubterranean entrance vestibule. Their i-emains are char-
acterized everywhere by a circular pit with a short straight trench
depression, the same pot-and-handle type as found along the Yukon.
Rarely for the construction of the houses, where driftwood did
not suffice, recourse was had to whale ribs and mandibles. The
" letniki," or summer houses, were constructed on the surface of
wood, sod and skins, or of whale ribs and skins, approaching on one
hand the summer huts of various continental tribes and on the other
the " yurts " of the north Asiatic peoples. The " kashims," or com-
munal houses, were built, much as on the Yukon, like the family
dwellings, but occasionally quadrilateral and nmch larger. Smaller
semisubterranean storage houses of driftwood and sod near the
winter dwellings were seemingly general.
Ruins of stone dwellings, without mortar, are said to exist in
places on Norton Sound and Bay and on a lagoon near the western
unDLicKA] ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 183
end of the Seward Peninsula. The few houses on the Little Diomede
are made of loose unhewn stone slabs. The dwellings of the King
Islanders are built on the rocky slope of the island on platforms sup-
ported by jDoIes, all of driftwood.
There is as a rule an absence of separate refuse heaps near the
villages. The refuse apparently has been dumped about and be-
tween the houses rather than on separate piles.
Dead villages abound. On consulting the older Kussian records,
however, it is seen that nearly all were still " living " as late as the
early forties of the last century. Yet there are sites that were
" dead " already when the Russians came, and the accumulations in
other cases denotes a long occupation.
The site of a dead village, in summer, is generally marked by
richer and greener vegetation; same as on the Yukon. The site
itself is usually pitted or humped in a line forming a more or less
elevated ridge, or the pits may be disseminated without apparently
much order. An^ there may be irregular moundlike heaxjs without
external traces of any structure.
In the older sites no trace of wood is visible ; in the later rotten
posts, crosspieces, parts of the covering of the house or tunnel, or even
a whole habitation may be present. In the old sites the wood is
hewn with stone axes ; in the later it is sawed, and there may be nails.
Older accumulations lie occasionally beneath more recent ones,
though no interruption of continuity may be traceable. Of a super-
position of villages no trace was observable.
Btxrial Grounds
Due to the impossibility of digging sufficiently deep into the frozen
ground the western Eskimo buried their dead neAr or on the surface
or among rocks. Occasionally they utilized also, it seems, old dwell-
ings for this jnu-pose, and in more recent times at least the surface
burials, wherever there was driftwood, would be protected by heavy
rough-hewn planks put together in the form of boxes or by drift-
wood. They bear close fundamental resemblance to those of the
Yukon. On the Nunivak Island occur graves made of rough stone
slabs piled up without much order. (PI. 31, «., b.)
Throughout the region the burials were located near the village,
but the distance varied according to local conditions and habits. In
some of the Eskimo villages of the lower Yukon, as at Old Hamil-
ton, some burials were close to the houses of the living. In the Bering
and Arctic regions the burial grounds, though sometimes of necessity
not far from the houses, as at the Little Diomede, in other places,
as at Point Hope and Barrow, were at a distance extending to beyond
a mile and a half from the village.
184 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. a.-^s. 4o
As a rule the wood of burials older than about 80 years was found
fully decayed with the bones secondarily buried. Of earlier burials
there is generally no trace on the surface, but on excavation skeletal
remains are found at various depths below the surface. These char-
acteristic self-burials, or rather tundra burials, may j^rove of much
importance to anthropology in the future. As outlined before (see
Narrative, pp. 77, 79) the process is a decay of the wood ; the sagging
down of the bones, covered more or less by the decayed material; an
encroachment of moss or other vegetation on the little mound thus
produced ; and gradual accumulation through wind or water carried
materials of more covering over the bones, imtil the mound disap-
pears and the remains, generally still in good condition, are buried
as if intentionally inhumed.
The Eskimo everywhere were found to be exceedingly sensible
about the older, and even recent, skeletal remains, and assisted readily
in their collection, as well as in excavation, offering thus the best
possible conditions for anthropological and arct^ieological work in
these regions.
The notes, charts, and a detailed list of the sites and villages fol-
low. In numerous cases it was found impossible to say whether a
site was completely " dead " or still occasionally partly occupied, so
that distinctive markings had to be abandoned.
Prince William Sound, Kodiak Island, Alaska Peninsula
Very largely still a terra incognita for anthropology and arche-
ology. Partly occupied by Indians (Prince William Sound, Kodiak
Island?), partly by mix-blood Aleut (parts of Peninsula, and of
Kodiak), partly by Eskimo. There is but little skeletal or arche-
ological material from the whole extensive territory.
kodiak island and neighborhood
[Fig. 17]
1. Litnik (probably the Russian "Lietnik," the name for a .sum-
mer village). — Indian village on Afognak Bay, Afognak Island.
This name is foimd on a map made by the Fish Commission in 1889.
Apparently it is the Afognak of other maps (G. D. A.).**"
2. Afoffnak. — On the southwestern part of Afognak Island. Vil-
lage or row of scattered dwellings on shore of Afognak Bay, in
southwestern part of Afognak Island. Population in 1890, 409.
(G. D. A.) According to Walker, "an important, occupied native
*° G. D. X. : Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, by Marcus Baker, L'. S. Geol. Surr., Wash-
ington, 1902.
IIEDLlC'KA]
ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTEEN ESKIMO
185
village which has probably been occupied for a long time. No doubt
there are other native villages in this immediate vicinity."
3. Spruce Island. — Ouzinkie, or Uzinki; an occupied native vil-
lage and cannery. (E. P. W.)."
Figure 17. — Villages and sites on Kodialt Island
4. Eagle Harbour or Ugak Bay. — Possibly the native village
" Orlova " of the Russians. (G. D. A.)
5. Kiliuda. — Native village, on the north shore of Kiliuda Bay,
Kodiak. Has been generally written Kiliuda. (G. D. A.)
« E. p. W. : Dr. E. P. Wallser.
88253°— 30 13
186 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 40
6. Nvrnxmniut. — Native village, on the shore of Three Saints Har-
bor, Kodiak. (G. D. A.) Better known locally as Three Saints
Bay. There was formerly an old native and Russian settlement at
this point and vicinity, and fishing operations are frequently now
conducted here. (E. P. W.)
7. Kaguyah. — Village, at Kaguyak Bay, on the southwestern shore
of Kodiak. It may be identical with the Kaniag-miut of the Rus-
sian-American Co., in 1849. (G. D. A.) An old native village at
present occupied by only one or two families. Possibly an old
site. (E. P. W.)
8. AiaktaJik. — Village on one of the goose islands, near Kodiak.
Population in 1890, 106. (G. D. A.) An occupied native village
consisting of about a dozen houses, but which has probably been
occupied for a long time. (E. P. W.)
9. Akhiok. — Native village on the northern shore of Alitak Bay,
Kodiak. Native name from Petrof, 1880. Apparently identical
with Oohaiack of Lisianski in 1805. (G. D. A.) An occupied native
village consisting of about a couple of dozen houses. This or pos-
sibly other villages in the vicinity have undoubtedly been occupied
for a long time. It is possible that there was a native settlement at
Lazy Bay near this point, for Lazy Bay was formerly a native head-
quarters for sea otter hunting. (E. P. W.)
10. Karluk. — Village at mouth of Karluk River, Kodiak. Native
name from the Russians. (G. D. A.)
11. ZJyak. — Bay indenting the northwestern coast of Kodiak; also
a village. Native name from the Russians. Lisianski, 1805, spells it
Oohiack and the village Ooiatsk. Petrof, 1880, writes it Ooiak. Has
also been written IJiak. (G. D. A.)
12. Larsen Bay. — A cannery has been located at this point for a
number of years, and there is an old native trail from Larsen Bay
to Karluk River, so presumably natives have frequented this section
and no doubt have at some time had settlements there. Definite
information regarding this is not available. (E. P. W.)
13. Ugamik. — Native village at head of Uganik Bay. Shown by
Lisianski, 1805, who spells it Oohanick. (G. D. A.) An occupied
native village and one which has apparently been in use for a con-
siderable period. (E. P. W.)
ALASKA PENINSULA
[Figs. 18, 19]
Native settlements or old villages at one or more points in Kam-
ishak Bay, Ursus Cove, or Iliamna Bay are reported, but there is
nothing definite on the subject. (E. P. W.)
HIiDLlCKA]
AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
187
14. U'tmnna. — An occupied native village, and undoubtedly there
are various village sites on Iliamna Lake regarding which informa-
tion could be obtained from parties in Iliamna. (E. P. W.)
15. Ashivak. — Native village (population 46 in 1880), near Cape
Douglas, Cook Inlet. Native name reported by Petrof in 1880.
(G. D. A.)
16. Kayayak. — Village, on Svikshak Bay, Shelikof Strait, about
25 miles southwest of Cape Douglas. Tebenkof, 1849, has Kaiaiak
Figure 18. — Villages and sites on tbe proximal half of Alaslia Peninsula
settlement, which has on many charts appeared as Kayayak.
(G. D. A.)
17. Kukak. — Native village, on Kukak Bay. Lutke, 1835, has
Koukak Bay and village. (G. D. A.)
18. Katviai. — Village, on Katmai Bay, Shelikof Strait, northwest
of Kodiak. This is one of the most important of the native villages.
Population in 1880, 218; in 1890, 132. (G. D. A.) A native village
which was occupied up to the time of the Katmai eruption but was
abandoned at that time. (E. P. W.)
188
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IjST ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 40
19. Cold 5a?/.— Small village.
20. Kanatak. — A native village consisting of about half a dozen
houses until in 1922, when oil activity in the vicinity caused a small
vdiite settlement to locate at this point. This, however, has since
been almost entirely abandoned by whites. (E. P. W.)
21. Kuiukuk. — Small village.
22. Chignik. — Fishing station on Chignik Bay, Alaska Peninsula.
Population in 1890, 193. (G. D. A.) There are three canneries in
this immediate vicinity, a number of natives, and undoubtedly some
native villages and probably old village sites. (E. P. W.)
Figure 10. — Villages and .sites on the distal half of Alaska Peninsula
23. Kaluiak. — Native village, on the southern shore of Chignik
Bay, Alaska Peninsula. So given by Petrof in 1880 and the Fish
Commission in 1888. (G. D. A.)
24. Mitrofania. — An old native village which has recently been
abandoned or practically abandoned ; was apparently a rather im-
portant village at one time. (E. P. W.)
25. Peri^viUe. — A recently established native village consisting of
natives from various points along the Alaska. Peninsula who were
moved there primarily by the Bureau of Education since the Katmai
eruption. (E. P. W.)
26. Kujulik. — Walker has been informed that there is an old vil-
lage site of that name either in this bay or on Kumlik.
BHDLirKA] AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 189
27. Old village mentioned on this island; uncertain.
28. Wo,m>ese>iski. — An old village site on this island reported.
(E. P. W.)
29. Pat'Iof.—Rev. D. Hotvoitzky. of Belkofski, informed Walker
that there is a very old abandoned village site at the head of this bay.
30. Belhofshi. — Bay, cajse. and village on south coast of Alaska
Peninsula. Named by the Russians as early as 1835 and probably
earlier. (G. D. A.) The most important occupied native village on
the Alaska Peninsula. Quite an old village and a former head-
quarters for sea-otter hunting. (E. P. W.)
31. 32. Morzhovol. — Nftive village at western end of Alaska
Peninsula. Named Morzhovoi (Wah-us) by the Russians. Variously
spelled. There are or were two villages, one called Old Morzhovoi,
the other New Morzhovoi, being about 12 miles apart. Old Mor-
zhovoi was at the head of Morzhovoi Bay; New Morzhovoi is on
Traders Cove, which opens into Isanotski Strait. The Greek church
here is named Protassof, and Petrof, 1880, called the settlement
Protassof. (G. D. A.) An occupied native village. The natives
from this village also live during the canning season at the cannery
in False Pass directly across the strait from Morzhovoi and at Ika-
tan a short way to the south. (E. P. W.)
33. Herendeen. — Walker has been informed that there are some
shell mounds or kitchen middens about this bay. Walter G. Culver,
formerly an employee of the Bureau of Education, but who is at
present in Anchorage in care of the Alaska Railway, can give infor-
mation regarding this and can also give information regarding most
of the other native villages along the Alaska Peninsula. (E. P. W.)
34. Port MolJcr. — Eskimo site somewhere in this vicinity; name
and exact location uncertain.
35. Unanffashik. — A native village, or portage, near Port Heiden.
36. Meshilc. — A village on Port Heiden.
37. Ugashik. — A native village on the Ugashik River. Reported
by Petrof, 1880.
38. Igagik {or Egegik). — A ^yllage at the mouth of the Egegik
River.
39. Kiniak {or Naknak, or Swvorof). — A village (of "Aleuts,"
Sarichef ) at mouth of Naknak River, Bristol Bay, south side.
40. Pawik {or Pakwik). — Eskimo village, at mouth of Naknak
River, Bristol Bay, north side.
41. Kogmnk. — Eskimo village at mouth of Kvichak River, Bristol
Bay. Native name, reported in 1880 bv Petrof, who spelled it Kog-
giung. (G. D. A.)
42. Lockaiiok. — Small village.
43. Kaslianak. — Small old village.
190 ANTHROPOLOGICAL. SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
44. Kvichak. — Old Eskimo village on river of same name between
Kvichak Bay and Iliamna Lake.
Bristol Bay to Cape Romanzof
From the northern part of Bristol Bay to Cape Romanzof a
partial survey of the coast was made in 1927 by Collins and Stewart
(U. S. National Museum Expedition). In these regions and on
the Nunivak Island it was possible to locate a series of villages
some of which are still '" living," others in ruins. In the late
seventies of the last century, as stated before, the coast between
Kuskokwim Bay and St. Michael Island was visited and its villages
recorded by Nelson. A detailed archeological survey of this coast
remains for the future. Doctor Romig, formerly a medical mis-
sionary at Bethel, told me of a number of old sites on the river.
Some notes of interest by T. D. Stewart are given in the details.
Mr. F. W. Bundy, for a time my companion on the Bear, told of
an old site on the Kuskokwim. In March, 1927, H. W. Averill,
writing from Bethel, tells of a deep-lying old site on the southern
coast of the Kuskokwim Bay. (See details.) And later the same
year Father Philip I. Delon, of the Holy Cross Mission, sent in
three skulls from Kashunuk, in the Yukon delta, with information
of much additional material in that locality.
45. Nv^hagak. — Old Russian post, "Alexandrovsk." Eskimo vil-
lage, a few whites; a number of old native sites scattered about
head of Nushagak Bay.
46. Ekuk. — Eskimo settlement near the mouth of Nushagak River.
Name from Lutke, 1928, who spelled it Ekouk. Has also been writ-
ten Yekuk. (G. D. A.)
46a. Reported site of Eskimo village.
47. UaJik. — Native village, on the western shore of Kulukak Bay,
Bristol Bay, Bering Sea. Given by Petrof, 1880, as Ooallikh and
by Spurr and Post as Oalligamut; i. e., Oallik people. (G. D. A.)
48. Togiak. — Old Eskimo settlement.
49. Ekilik. — Possibly the same as Togiakmute, reported in 1880
by Petrof. Eskimo village on the west bank of Togiak River,
about 10 miles from its mouth. Eskimo name obtained by Spurr
and Post, in 1898, who write it Ekiligamut; i. e., Ekilik people.
50. A small Eskimo village.
51. Mwntmk. — Eskimo village at head of Goodnews Bays, Ber-
ing Sea. Population in 1890, 162. Name from Petrof, 1880, who
spelled it Mumtrahamute. (G. D. A.) Visited 1927 by Collins
and Stewart ; collections.
52. Site of a village, at junction of Bessie Creek and Arolic
River.
HRDLIrKA]
ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
191
63. Arolik. — A village. H. W. Averill of Bethel write.s me under
date of jVIarch 3, 1927, as follows : " I am sending you some old stone
pieces that came from the Aralic River, a tributary of the lower
Kuskokwim River, that were washed up by a bend in the river from
an old village that is now 6 feet underground."
Figure 20. — Eskimo villages and sites on Nushagak Bay to Kuskokwim Bay
54. KwlrMk. — Eskimo village on the eastern shore of Kuskokwim
Bay, at the mouth of the Kwinak or Kanektok River, Bering Sea.
So given by Sarichef, 1826, and Tebenkof, 1849. Petrof, 1880, writes
it Quinehahamute, or, omitting the termination mute, meaning peo-
ple, it would be Quene-a-ak. (G. D. A.)
55. Apokak. — Eskimo village on the eastern shore of Kuskokwim
Bay, at the mouth of Apoka River. According to Nelson, 1878-79,
192 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann.46
its native name is Apokagamute; i. e., Apokak people. In the
Eleventh Census, 1890, it is called Ahpokagamiut. (G. D. A.)
56. Eek. — Eskimo village at mouth of Eek River.
57. Akiah. — Eskimo village on the right bank of the Kuskokwim,
about 30 miles above Bethel. Petrof, 1880, wrote its name Ackiag-
mute; i. e., Akiak j^eople. Spurr and Post, 1898, write Akiagmut,
following Missionary J. H. Kilbuck. (G. D. A.) Reindeer camps
in vicinity.
58. Bethel. — White and Eskimo settlement and mission at or near
the old Eskimo village Mumtrelega.
59. Napaiskak. — Eskimo village on the left bank of the Kuskok-
wim, about 4 miles below Bethel. According to Nelson, 1878-79, its
native name is Napaskiagamute, and according to Missionary Kil-
buck, 1898, it is Napaiskagamut; i. e., Najiaiskak people.
60. Old sites. — Mr. Bundy, my comi^anion for a time on the Bear,
gives the following details : " Specimens found about 12 miles below
Bethel, Alaska, at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, beneath
about 10 or 12 feefc of alluvial soil deposits of sand and clay.
"Mr. Jack Heron, of Bethel, first noted the presence of old im-
lilements, and upon returning with him about August 1, 1923, we
found the river had cut into the bank quite a bit and had brought to
A'iew, after the high waters had receded, additional specimens.
" Those found included : A large copper kettle of perhaps 8 gal-
lons capacity of early Russian pattern, several arrowheads of slate
or dark gray flint, and two spearheads of bone with several broken
Imife blades of slate and one or two small ivory ornaments resembling
birds."
61. Napakiak. — Eskimo village on the right bank of the Kus-
kokwim, about 10 miles below Bethel. Nelson, 1878, reports the
native name as Napahaiagamute. (G. D. A.)
62. Klnak. — Eskimo village on right bank of the lower Kuskok-
wim. Visited by Nelson in January, 1879, who reported its native
name to be Kinagamiut; i. e., Kinak people. Its population was at
that time about 175. Population in 1880, 60; 1890, 257. (G. D. A.)
63. Village site (?).
64. Kus-lcovcck. — Eskimo village, on the right bank of the Kus-
kokwim River, near its mouth. Name from Nelson, who passed near
it in January. 1879, and who writes it Kuskovakh. (G. D. A.)
65. Popokak. — Native village.
66. Kulvagavik. — Eskimo village, on the western side of Kus-
kokwim Bay. Bering Sea. Visited by Nelson in January, 1879, and
its native name reported by him to be Koolvagavigamiut. (G.
D.A.)
hrdliCka]
AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
193
67. KongiffanaA\~^skimo village (of about 175 people in 1878)
on north shore of Kuskokwim Bay. Visited by Nelson in December,
1878. (G. D. A.)
68. Anogok. — E.skimo village, on the mainland shore just west of
Kuskokwim Bay, Bering Sea. Visited by Nelson in December, 1878.
(G. D. A.)
69. Choi it. —Eskimo village, of about 60 people in 1878, on left
bank of the Kuguklik River, northwest of Kuskokwim Bay. Visited
by Nelson in December, 1878. (G. D. A.)
FiGURB 21. — Eskimo villages and sites. Kuskokwim Bay to Scammon Bay
70. ChichiTiak. — Eskimo village on the mainland, east of Nunivak
Island, Bering Sea. Visited by Nelson in December, 1878.
(G. D. A.)
70a. Old village site.
71. Sfaganuk. — Eskimo village, on the mainland, east of Nunivak
Island, Bering Sea. Visited by Nelson in December, 1878
(G. D. A.)
72. Agiukchuk. — Eskimo village, on the mainland, east of Nuni-
vak Island, Bering Sea. Visited by Nelson in December. 1878.
(G.D.A.)
73. KasMgaluk. — Eskimo village, on Nelson Island, Bering Sea.
Visited by Nelson in December, 1878. (G. D. A.)
194 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA Ieth. ANN. 4C
74. KaJmkluk. — Eskimo village, on Nelson Island, near Cape Van-
couver, Bering Sea. Visited by Nejson in December, 1878.
(G. D. A.)
74a. Old village site.
75. Tamwnak. — Eskimo village, at Cape Vancouver, Nelson Island,
Bering Sea. Name from Nelson, who visited it in December, 1878.
Visited 1927 by Collins and Stewart; collections.
75a. Village site.
76. UkaJc. — Eskimo village, in the Yukon Delta, on shore of Hazen
Bay. Visited by Nelson in December, 1878, and its name reported
by him as Ookagamiut; i. e., Ulvak people. Petrof, 1880, calls it
Ookagamute. (G. D. A.)
77. Vnakak. — Eskimo village, in the Yukon Delta, near Hazen
Bay. Nelson, who visited it in December, 1878, reports its name
to be Oonakagamute; i. e., Unakak people. Petrof, 1880, calls it
Oonakagamute. (G. D. A.)
78. Kvigailuk. — Eskimo village, in the Big Lake country, between
the Yukon and Kuskokwim. Nelson in 1879 passed near it and re-
ports its name to be Kvigathlogamute. (G. D. A.)
79. Nurwchok. — Eskimo village, in the Big Lake region. Visited
by Nelson in January, 1879, who reports its native name to be
Nunochogmute ; i. e., Nunochok people.
80. Nanvogaloklak. — Eskimo village, in the Big Lake country.
Visited by Nelson in January, 1879. Population in 1880, 100; in
1890, 107. (G. D. A.)
81. Nash Earhor. — Living village, Nunivak Island; school; Col-
lins and Stewart, 1927, anthropometric data, collections (also from
other parts of island).
82. Koot. — ^Village, Nunivak Island, near Cape Etolin; partly oc-
cupied. Population in 1890, 117.
83. Inger. — (In Eleventh Census: Ingeramiut.) Dead village, in
southeast part of Nunivak Island. Population, 1890, 35.
84. Kvigak {or Kwik). — Dead village, southern part of Nunivak
Island.
85. Taohikuga. — ^Dead village, Nunivak Island, below Cape
Mohican.
86. Kashwimk. — Eskimo village; some collections; skeletal mate-
rial in vicinity reported 1927 by Father Del on, of the Holy Cross
Mission, Yukon.
87. AsMnuk. — Eskimo village on the southern shore of Hooper
Bay, Yukon Delta. Native name, from Nelson. Population 1878,
200. (G. D. A.)
87a. Village site.
88. Agia-k. — Eskimo village on promontory north of Hooper Bay.
88a. Village site.
HEBLifKA] AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESFIMO 195
89. Igag. — Small village.
90. kut {Kutrmut). — Small village on Kut River, head of Scam-
mon Bay.
Cape Romanzof to Northern (Apoon) Pass of the Yukon and
Northward
On this coast there is little information since the time of Nelson.
There are a number of occupied villages as well as of old sites. The
region is bleak and the Eskimo there are reported to live miserably.
The principal Eskimo villages and sites along the lowermost
branch of the Yukon have been given previously. (Fig. 11.)
From the northernmost pass of the Yukon to St. Michael Island
the coast is poor in Eskimo remains. A site of interest here is the
old camj^ing ground, with a few permanent houses, of Fastolik, and
there are two small sites farther up the coast. Fastolik to the
writer's visit was still occasionally occupied by a few Eskimo fami-
lies. There are onlj' three houses, but a relatively large and old
cemetery speaks of a larger population, probably camping here in
tents during the summer seasons of the past. The burial grounds
were found to be rather extensive and give indications of containing
human bones as well as artifacts below the present surface (buried
by the tundra). The main part of the burial grounds may well
repay an excavation.
St. Michael Island. — Eskimo remains exist on the northeastern
point of the island beyond the present white man's village, and also
on the rock (Whale Island) opposite this point. During my visit
the ground was so overgrown by high weeds that details were
hidden. On this same northeastern point near the extension of the
white settlement is a small living Eskimo village, most of the in-
habitants of which are now of mixed blood. Across St. Michael
Bay are said to be some old traces of Eskimo, and Nelson reported
an old site in the southern part of the island. Finally at Cape
Stephens, in the western extremity of the island, there is " Stebbins,"
another living village. Nothing could be learned of any human
remains on the opposite Stuart Island.
Norton Sound. — North of St. Michael Island is Norton Sound
and Norton Bay. Along the east coast of the Sound there are three
villages still occupied, but with old accumulations. It is reported
that in this region there are some ruined houses in which mammoth
tusks had been used in the construction, but nothing definite could
be learned as to the location of these houses and the whole may be
but a story. The village of Unalaklik was of importance in the
past and its older remains would probably repay excavation. Old
196 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN^ ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
sites are reported from the vicinity of Shaldolik and at Cape
Denbigh.
The Norton Ba_y region (fig. 22), now almost depopulated, had in
1840 a whole series of moderate-sized living Eskimo settlements, both
on the east and the west shore. These shallows are but little visited,
and it is probable that the remains of the villages and some at least of
the skeletal material of their burying grounds are well preserved.
They call for early attention.
To the west of Norton Bay, on the southern coast of Seward
Peninsula, is Golovnin '- Bay. On the eastern shore of this bay
are now, as there were in Russian times, two settlements, but the
name of one has been misplaced. On Zagoskin's map it is clearly
seen that the village Ching or Chinig corresponds in location to
what now is the mission, while what is now called " Cheenik " was
in 1840 Ikalik or Ikalikhaig. There will soon be seen another
instance of such a misapplication of the original names.
To the west Golovnin Bay is bounded by a large promontory end-
ing in Rocky Point. To the east of this point is a shallow bay,
where I found a late Eskimo house and on the elevated shore a lit-
tle to the left four fairly recent adult burials. Farther down the bay
was an Eskimo camp, without signs of anything older; but Zagos-
kin's map gives a settlement, probably also a camp, at this place,
named Knikhtak. From this a rocky point projects eastward into
the bay. Behind this point is a shallow cove with elevated ground
above the beach, and at the inland end of this bay I found the re-
mains of a small old village. Traces of burials were seen on the ele-
vated ground but skeletal remains were absent.
On the southwestern shore of the promontory that bounds Golov-
nin Bay on the west the Russians (Zagosldn) recorded two villages,
the one near to Rocky Point being Chiukak, that on a point farther
northwest being named Chaimiut. Later the name Chiukak became
ap2)lied to tlie former Chaimiut, while Chiukak proper was dead and
forgotten. On latest maps, such as Chart 9302 United States Coast
and Geodetic Survey, neither of the old names appears. The name
Bluff denotes a small settlement in about the location of the former
Chaimiut. Some Eskimo met in Golovnin Bay said that there are
skeletal remains near the original Chiukak, but an attempt to reach
the place failed through rough water.
South Shore of Seward Peninsula West of Bluff
A number of dead villages are found along this coast. The first
and largest is located a few miles west of Port Safety, 18 miles east
"This is the correct orthography. See Russian maps.
HUDLicKA] .ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 197
of Nome. This was a large village extending for a considerable
distance along the elevated beach separating an inland lagoon from
the sea. The depressions of the dwellings, of the usual dipper-with-
handle type, are very plain. Old settlers at Nome remember when
the village was still occupied. Nearer the sea the beach is said to
have been lined with burials, but the storm of 1913 took or covered
everything. (See Narrative, p. 90.)
A small Eskimo settlement existed on a rocky elevation east of
Cape Nome. There are some house sites, but the place gives little
promise of archeological importance. We found evidence that the
site must have been occupied until fairly recently. Among the
bowlders were found two skeletons.
A larger dead village is located near the mouth of a little stream
west of Cape Nome. It is doubtless the Azachagiag of the Zagoskin
general map. It gives no great promise archeologically.
From Nome to Point Spencer there are several old sites, all
" dead "; and there are one or two recently " dead " villages on Sledge
(the old Aiak or Aziak) Island. Of the coast sites, the most impor-
tant is reported to be tliat at Cape Woolley. It is said to have been
the stopping point of the King Islanders and may have been their
old mainland village.
A number of old sites and burial grounds have been seen or learned
of in Port Clarence and Salt Lake. They are marked on the map,
and those of the lake have been discussed in the Narrative (p. 117).
Those on Salt Lake (Imuruk Basin) deserve attention.
Between Port Clarence and Cape Prince of Wales only one, and
that evidently not a very large site, was learned of at Cape York.
The most important site of the peninsula region is doubtless that
at the cape. Thanks to the able local teacher of that time, Mr. Clark
M. Garber, I am able to present a detailed map of this locality. It
is here that Doctor Jenness in 1926 conducted some excavations with
interesting results. But the site has bai-ely been touched. It is the
nearest point to Asia. There are ample indications that it has been
occupied for a long period and by relatively large numbers of people.
Besides the ruined parts and old heaps there are still the skulls and
bones of many burials among the rocks about the village, and there is
evidence that more are in the ground. It is one of the chief sites of
the far northwest for systematic thorough exploration, and such ex-
ploration is a growing necessity for all branches of anthropology
interested in the problems of the Bering Sea and Asiatic-American
connections.
198
ANTHROPOLOGICAL. SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
ScAMMON Bat, Norton Sound, South Coast of Seward Peninsula,
TO Cape Rodney
[Fig. 22]
91. MelatoKk. — A small coast village.
92. Bimiuf. — A small coast village.
93. Kwlhak. — Eskimo village on the outer coast in the Yukon
Delta, a little south of the mouth of Black River. Native name, from
the Coast Survey, 1898, which gives it as Kwikagamiut. (G. D. A.)
Figure 22. — Eskimo viUagPs and sites, Scanimon Kay to Norton Sound and Bay to
Cape Rodney
94. Kipniak. — Eskimo village and Coast Survey tidal station at
mouth of Black River in the Yukon Delta. Nelson, 1879, reports
its name to be Kipniaguk and Dall writes it phonetically Kip-nai-ak.
(G. D. A.)
95. Kogomiuf. — A small village.
96. W aklarok. — A small village.
hedliOka] AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 199
97. N~unam.ehrok. — A small village.
97a. Eleutak. — A small settlement.
98. Nil^. — A small village.
99. Kuv'kluak. — A small village near the mouth of the Kwikluak
Pass of the Yukon, south bank.
100. Alahomuk. — A small settlement.
101. Kwiguk. — ^A village on Kwikluak Pass of the Yukon, north
bank.
102. Kunkpak. — Village near mouth north bank of pass of same
name, Yukon River.
103. Nakhli'wak. — A small village, occupied part of time, about 2
miles from mouth of Apoon Pass, Yukon; visited by the writer; small
skeletal collection.
104. Kotlik Paint. — ^A store and Eskimo camp (summer) at mouth
of Apoon Pass, north bank. (A. H.)
105. Pa-ttol/'k. — Four Eskimo houses, occupied winter. Extensive
burial ground near. Collections, A. Hrdlicka. Good prospects for
excavation in burial places.
106. Pikmiktalik. — Eskimo village, near the mouth of Pikmiktalik
River, about 30 miles to the south of St. Michael, western Alaska.
(G. D. A.)
106a. Pastoliak. — A site near mouth of next small stream to the
north. A few houses. Some burials.
107. St. Michael and Whale Islund. — Old sites, northeast end of
St. Michael and on Whale Island, opposite. A small living village
near the point of the main island, mostly mix bloods. (A. H.)
107a. Dead village. Nelson reports it had been peopled by the
Pastolik Eskimo ("Eskimo about Bering Strait," p. 263).
108. Stebbins. — A living Eskimo village at Ca2:)e Stephens.
110. Golsova. — A small camp at mouth of river of same name.
111. TJnalaMeet {or Unalaklik) .- — Important old Eskimo village,
Norton Sound; western end of portage to Yukon. Population in
1880, 100 ; in 1890, 175.
112. Shaktolik. — Eskimo village, at mouth of Shaktolik River,
Norton Sound. Population in 1880, 60; in 1890, 38. (G. D. A.)
Old settlement ; several old sites in this region.
113. NitMit. — Eskimo village, on the eastern shore of Norton
Sound, immediately behind Cape Denbigh. (G. D. A.) Originally
given on Zagoskin's general map. (A. H.)
113a. Tapkhalik. — Old village on east shore of Norton Bay.
114. Unakhtuglig or Unagttdig. — Originally given on Zagoskin's
general map. (A. H.)
115. Kviguk. — Eskimo village, on north shore of Norton Bay, at
mouth of the Kviguk River. Eskimo name, from the Russians.
200 ANTHROPOLOGICAL STJEVEy IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
Tikhmenief, 1861, has Kviegmiut and Kvieguk-miut ; i. e.,'Kviguk
people. (G. D. A.) Originally on Zago&kin's general map.
116. Kvig-tiMut. — Old village, above the preceding; originally on
Zagoskin's general map.
117. Kvinl'hak {n.ow Inglestat). — Old village at head of Norton
Bay. Originally on Zagoskin's general map.
118. TuJukhtidig {at or ivear Elim). — Old village on west coast
of Norton Bay.
119. Atn'tk. — Old village below the preceding.
120. Camp {Reindeer).
121. Chinig.— Old village at or near the site of present mission;
name now erroneously applied to village at Point Golovnin.
122. Ikalikhvig. — Present Cheenik. at Point Golovnin.
123. Old site; located 1926 (A. H.) ; a moderate-sized village;
not promising for excavation.
124. Knikhtak. — Originally on Zagoskin's general map; now a
camp, no old remains in evidence ; a house and four burials on same
shore, 2 miles farther south; collection (A. H.).
125. Chiukak. — Dead village; on Zagoskin's general map; some
skeletal material remaining; name-now applied to a village farther
up the coast.
126. Chainmut. — Dead village; originally on Zagoskin's general
map ; name belonged to village nearer the point.
127. VkvikhtuUg. — Dead village at Topkok Head; originally on
Zagoskin's general map.
128. Dead village, 18 miles east of Nome, near Port Safety.
(A.H.)
129. Azacha-glag. — Dead village, west of Cape Nome; originally
on Zagoskin's general map.
130. Nome. — Probably small native village at this site in the past.
Now principal white settlement in western Alaska. King Island,
Diomede, and some Wales natives reside on the outskirts during
summer.
131. Aziak Island {Sledge Islarul). — Two dead villages; the prin-
cipal one at the northern point of the island. Visited by Collins,
1928. Collections.
132. >S7«.wA-.— Small old site.
133. King Island {Ukiook). — Old village, still occupied in winter;
in summer inhabitants live at Nome.
133a. A village site at Cape Woolley ; said to be the stopping place
of the King Islanders.
134. Dead sites.
135. Burials.
136. Siniak. — Now a Lutheran Mission for the Eskimo.
brdliCka]
AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
201
Figithe 23. — Eskimo Tillages and sites, Wales. (By Clark M. Garber, 1927)
88253°— 30 14
202 ANTHROPOLOGICAL. SURVEY IN ALASKA [HTH. ann. 48
137. Teller. — Old Eskimo site; some still live here with a few
whites. A few Eskimo camps along Tuksuk Channel.
138. Salt Lake {Invur'uk Basin). — Ruins seen on north shore.
(A. H.)
139. Old sites near eastern end of lake ; a Chukchee-Eskimo battle-
field in vicinity. (A. H.)
140. Old village site on the St. Marys River.
141. Burials reported.
142. Wales. — Old Nykhta, Zagoskin's maps; see special descrip-
tion; collections.
The Northern Shore of the Seward Peninsttla
This shore is but little known to science. It is dangerous of ap-
proach to any except small boats. The only place that could be
visited by me was Shishmaref, a good-sized thriving Eskimo village,
on both sides of which along the sea are remains of old sites with
burials. The more important old settlement was that to the east
of the village. Here are found large and extensive heaps, the tops
of which have recently been leveled for fox cages, the whole site
belonging, regrettably, to a newly established fox farm. It is an
old site, though probably occupied up to white man's times, and
is doubtless of some importance. Excavations would still be possible,
as the bulk of the remains is intact; and though the surface skeletal
material has been removed (part saved for our collections), there are
indications of surface burials (assimilations by the tundra) in the
ground.
Between Wales and Shishmaref are several dead sites, as shown
on the map, and some of them, judging from the information ob-
tained, are of promise. One of these settlements, " Tapkhaig," was
evidently still a living village at the time of Zagoskin (1840).
Northeast and east of Shishmaref the coast is known even less than
that to the west. A few miles off Shishmaref I saw from a distance —
the boat could not approach nearer — what to all appearances was a
large ridge of ruins, and from various maps and other sources in-
formation was obtained of several other sites, all of which represent
former villages. From one of these sites on the Bucknell River Mr.
Carl Lomen secured a fine piece of fossil ivory carving, and the site
is said to be of much promise. The whole coast is a virgin field for
archeology.
143. Mitletukemk.— Old village site. Visited by Collins, 1928;
collections.
144. Tapkhaig or Ekpik. — Old village site, originally shown in
Zagoskin's general map.
145. Sinrazat. — Old site.
HRDLICK4]
ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
203
146. Karatuk or Shishinwef. — Living village, with ruins on both
sides. Visited by A. H. ; collections.
147. Kimdlow. — Old site.
148. Old site reported.
148a. 8ivk.—<d\^ site.
149. Old site (?).
150. Paapkuk. — Old site.
151. Deenng. — Recent settlement, but old sites probable in vicinity.
151a. Kualing. — Old village, now long dead, shown by Zagoskin.
(General map.)
Figure 24. — Eskimo Tillages and sites, Seward Peninsula, Kotzebue Sound, and Arctic
Coast, to Kevalina
152. Kivmlik. — A village at mouth of river of same name.
153. Dead villages reported on the two promontories; promising
archeologically. On Elephant Point Nelson saw the site of an old
village " with about 15 pits marking the locations of the houses."
(Eskimo of Bering Strait. 264.)
153a. Buckland River. Camp sites.
153b. Old village site.
154. Old whaling place, occupied summers only. (S. Chance.)
155. Seloiwik. — Old village. Old igloos and camps at various
places in the Selawik Basin. (S. Chance.)
156. Camps. (S, Chance.)
204 AXTHEOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. axn. 46
166a. Chilvvik. — A village, now long dead, shown on the general
map of Zagoskin.
157. Fish camps. (A. H.)
KoTZEBUE Sound, Its Rivers and Its Coast Northward to Kevalina
Figure 24 shows the village sites that it was possible to locate in
these regions. Nearly all these are now " dead villages," though some
Eskimo may still occasionally camp in their vicinity. A large
present settlement of the Eskimo, well advanced toward civilization,
is found at Kotzebue, and fish camps extend from here along the
shore in the direction of Cape Blossom. Another important recent
living village and school center is Noorvik on the lower Kobuk
River.
Inquiries as to old sites in this region were greatly assisted by Mr.
Sylvester Chance, at the time of my visit the supervisor of the Gov-
ernment schools of the district. At my request and with the aid
of the natives Mr. Chance has compiled a list of such sites and
settlements as could st^ill be remembered, and the information has
been incorporated into these records.
Among the more important ruins of this vicinity are apparently
those at and near Cape Krusenstern, and again those near Kevalina
farther to the northward. Archeological specimens of considerable
interest were seen and partly secured from both localities. The old
Kevalina especially should receive early attention, for it is being
excavated by the Eskimo of the present village, though fortunately
this is at some distance.
Seward Peninsula, Kotzebue Sound, and Northward
158. Kotzebue. — Old name : Kikikhtagiulc. (Zagoskin, general
map.) A small white with a large Eskimo settlement. Old burials
in ground (assimilated). A. H. collections.
159. Noorvik. — White and native village; school center.
160. Oksik. — Old camp, still occupied. (S. Chance.)
161. K'lana. — Old village, still occupied. (S. Chance.)
162. ShesoaUk. — Old camjD, still occupied in summer. (S. Chance.)
162a. Kuhok. — Old village shown on general map of Zagoskin.
163. Aniyak. — Old camp, still occupied. (S. Chance.)
164. Old site reported here ; said to be promising archeologically.
165. Tikizat. — Eskimo village, at Cape Krusenstern, Arctic Ocean.
Eskimo name, from Petrof, 1880, who reported a population in that
year of 75.
166. KUigmak. — Old camp, still occupied.
167. Noatak, — A living village,
HRDLieKA] ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 205
168. Old camp, exact location not certain. (S. Chance.)
169. Matthew or Aniyak. — Old camp.
170. Ottalu. — Camp, occupied. (S. Chance.)
171. Old site reported; exact location ( ?).
172. Old site, rich archeologicalh% exact location undetermined;
small collection. (A. H.)
173. Kevalina. — Living Eskimo village.
174. Plngo. — Old dead village. (S. Chance, Jim Allen.)
Kevalina — Point Barrow
POINT HOPE (TlG.iRA)
This is tlie most important ruin as well as living Eskimo village
in Arctic Alaska. It is unanimously declared by the Eskimo of the
coast to be one of the oldest settlements and has always been the
largest native center on the coast. The point was called Golovnin
Point by the early Russians; it was called Point Hope by Beechey
in 1826 in honor of Sir William Johnston Hope. At the time of its
visit by the revenue cutter Corwin, 1884, there are said to have been
two villages ;" the second being possibly at the site of the old whaling
station. Rasmussen, who visited the village about 1924, speaks of
it in part as follows : ^* " Point Hope or Tikeraq, ' the pointing finger,'
is one of the most interesting Eskimo settlements on the whole coast
of Alaska, and has doubtless the largest collection of ruins. The
old village, now deserted, consists of 122 very large houses, but as
the sea is constantly washing away jDarts of the land and carrying
off more houses, it is impossible to say what may have been the origi-
nal number. Probably the village here and its immediate neighbor-
hood had at one time something like 2,000 souls, or as many as are
now to be found throughout the whole of the Northwest Passage
between the Magnetic Pole and Herschel Island."
The ruins are to the northwest and west of the j^resent village.
Those to the northwest consist of imposing hea^is, which together
form an elevated ridge facing the sea. It is said that this old
settlement was abandoned because of the encroachments upon it by
the sea, particularly during storms.
The ruins of this main compound have been for several years
assiduously excavated inch by inch by the local Eskimo, and thou-
sands of articles of great variety, of stone, bone, ivory, and wood,
with here and there in the uppermost layers an object of metal, are
being gathered and sold to all comers. With these are found a few
human skulls and bones, but esj^ecially the skulls and bones of various
animals, all of which unfortunately have hitherto been left behind in
«" Healy, M. A. Cruise of the Concin in the Arctic Ocean 18S4. Washington. 188!>. p. 27-
" Rasmussen. Knud, Across Arctic America. New T01I5, London. 1927, 329-330.
206 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
the mud. But the probably most valuable central and lower por-
tions of the piles remain. The locality calls loudly for proper ex-
ploration, which will well repay any museum by the quantity and
value of the specimens that are sure to be recovered.
POINT HOPE TO POINT BARROW
Information about this i^art of the northwesternmost coast of
Alaska was obtained principally from Jim Allen, the trader at
Wainwright, and Charles Brower, the trader at Barrow; but parts
of the coast were also examined in person. The number of old sites
is rather large, but it appears that there is not much of special
promise until we reach near Barrow.
Old " igloos " southwest of Barrow : From 5 to 8 miles south-
west of Barrow and at some distance (up to about 400 yards) from
the shore there existed, and in part still exist, a series of elevations
which the natives of Barrow always regarded as natural. On
excavation the larger of these elevations proved to be old structures
with numerous burials and cultural objects, and the remains, as
shown elsewhere, are exceptional for this coast. Six of these
" mounds " have been excavated by the University of Pennsylvania
Expedition (Van Valin), while several are still remaining. It is
very important that these should be carefully excavated before they
are attacked by the natives of Barrow for mercenary puriDoses.
BARROW AND POINT BARROW
Two large living villages, with old sites and inhumed (natural)
burials in their vicinity, and w'ith some old remains between them.
Barrow is the most important present mixed settlement and center of
civilization in the Arctic. Besides the school, it contains a mission
hospital and recently a meteorological observatory and wireless sta-
tion. The tundras to the east of the village for about lyo miles show
patches of burials, particularly in the more distant parts of this
region on the elevations to both sides of a small stream.
Much archeological work remains to be done about Barrow, par-
ticularly in the remainder of the old " igloos." East of Point Bar-
row the population is very sparse and no ruins of any note or settle-
ments are rei^orted before those of the Barter Island and the mouth
of the Colville River.
175. Prngishufftiruk. — A small old site.
176. Ketchemeluk. — A small old site.
I76a. Ijmot. — Eskimo village on the Arctic coast, near Cape
Thomson, a little south of Point Hope. Name from Petrof, who
wrote it Ip-Not and Ipnot, and reported a population of 40 in 1880.
177. Old whaling station.
hrdlilka]
AECHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
207
178. Point Hope or Tigara. — Eskimo village at Point Hope, Arctic
Ocean. It is Tiekagag-miut of Tikhmenief , 1861 ; Tikirak of Petrof,
1880, who reports a population in that year of 276. Spelled Tikera
in the Eleventh Census. Herendeen gives Tik-i-rah. The Eskimo
name of the settlement is said to be Tik-i-rah-mum. Visited by
A. H. ; important collections.
179. Weumk {or Wevok). — Eskimo village on the Arctic coast,
near Cape Lisburne. Eskimo name, published by the Hydrographic
Office in 1890. (G. D. A.) (Jim Allen.)
Figure 25. — Eskimo villages and .sites, Kevalina to Point Barrow
180. Iniktilik. — Small village, occupied. (S. Chance.)
181. Pittivegia. — A small old site at the mouth of river of same
name, north side. (Jim Allen, S. Chance.)
e. Napayochak. — Old camp, two igloos. (S. Chance.)
/. Tolageak. — ^A small old site. (S. Chance.)
g. Emelik. — A small old site. (S. Chance.)
?L Pingasoogarook, — Old village, still occupied. (S. Chance.)
182. UTnalik.
183. Koochik.
184.
185.
Trapping stations; igloos. (S. Chance.)
208 ANTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IS ALASKA [eth. ANN. 40
186. KokoJik. — Eskimo settlement, at Point Lay, Arctic coast.
(G. D. A.) Old but still partly occupied village. (S. Chance.)
Kelik. (Jim Allen.)
187. Napaijochik. — Old camp, two igloos. (S. Chance.)
188. Tolageak. — Old dead igloos. (S. Chance.)
189. Utukok. — Old small settlement at northern mouth of Utukok
River.
190. Enielik. — Old deserted igloo. (S. Chance.)
191. Kayakshulik, — A live village at Icy Cape. (Jim Allen, S.
Chance.)
192. NokotJih (f).— Old igloo. (S. Chance.)
193. Mitliktcbvik. — A dead moderate-sized village, about 5 miles
below Kilik. (Jim Allen.)
194. Kilimantavic. — Eskimo village, near Wainwright Inlet, Arc-
tic coast. Tikhmenief , 1861, calls it Kilametagag-miut ; Petrof , 1880,
calls it Kolumalrturook; Hydrographic Chart 68 calls it Kelamanto-
wruk, while later charts omit it or call it Kilimantavic. According
to Murdoch this name is Ke-lev-a-tow-tin (sling). (G. D. A.) A
large dead village about 20 miles below Wainwright. (Jim Allen.)
Kilamitavic. (S. Chance.)
195. Old abandoned camp. (S. Chance.)
196. Wamv:righf. — A large living native village; some remains
of old habitations on its eastern outskirts. (A. H.) About a mile
south of present settlements are the remains of the old village once
occupied by the Wainwright people. (Jim Allen.)
197. KMiii.—Old site.
198. Sedaini. — Old dead village.
199. Atnik. — Old dead village. (S. Chance.) Possibly same with
next.
200. Itanik. — On maps Atanik. Old village, still partly occupied.
(S. Chance,- Jim Allen.) Called Ataniek in Tikhmenief, 1861.
(G. D. A.)
201. PmoshMragin. — Petrof, 1880, shows a native village of this
name (population 29) on the Seahorse Islands. On British Ad-
miralty Chart 593 (ed. of 1882) it is called Pingoshugarun.
(G. D. A.) Pingasoogarook : Old village, still occupied. (S.
Chance.)
202. Kok/oJak. — Two old igloos, still occupied. (S. Chance.)
203. Sakmnna. — Small camp.
204. Sinm'u. — Small camp about 22 miles from Barrow; visited
by A. H. ; small skeletal collection.
205. Walakpa. — A small dead old settlement about 12 miles from
Barrow.
206. Nunava. — Small camp.
bhdliCka]
ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
209
207. " Old Igloos." — A veiy important site archeologically. Ex-
plored partly by Van Valin. (See special section devoted to this
site.)
208. Barvoxo. — Known also as Utkiavik. Uglaamie, or the Cape
Smyth village. Important white and Eskimo settlement. Old re-
mains. Extensive burial grounds east of village. (A. H. collec-
tions.)
209. Nvmmwa. — Remains of old camping site, about 4 miles from
Barrow.
210. Point Ban'ow. — The Eskimo Nuwuk. Good-sized living vil-
lage. Remains of older habitations. Population in 1853, 309.
(G. D. A.)
The St. Lawrence and Diomede Islands
ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND
Ranking in archeological and anthropological importance with
Wales and in some respects perhaps even exceeding the latter, is
the large island of St. Lawrence, with the almost forgotten little
Punuk group at its eastern extremity.
Figure 26. — Russian map of St. Lawrence Island, 1849. (Tebenkof)
The main island was discovered by Bering on St. Lawrence Day,
August 10, 1728, and it was found peopled by the Eskimo. In 1849
an excellent map of it was published by Tebenkof in Novo-Archan-
gelsk, and on this map (fig. 26) are indicated about a dozen smaller
or larger Eskimo settlements, some of which, however, are not named
and may already have been " dead."
About 1878 there were still six settlements with somewhat less than
1,500 Eskimo inhabitants on the island. That winter (1878-79) not
210 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46
less than 1,000 of the population died of famine (Hooper), three of
the villages becoming completely depopulated and a fourth nearly so.
The Punuk Island village may have become extinct about the same
time.
To-day there are on the St. Lawrence Island but two living settle-
ments, the main one, now known as Gambell, at the old site of Chi-
bukak on the northwestern cape, and the other, Savonga, about 40
miles east of it, near Cape North.
A number of the old sites on this island, and also that on one of the
Punuks, indicate a long occupation, antedating by far the advent
of the Russians. The accumulations rise in some places to imposing
heaps or ridges. Their frozen contents yield quantities of fossil
ivory, all of which shows the work of man, and among them occur
specimens with fine curvilinear designs and of high scientific as well
as artistic value.
Through Nelson in 1881 and R. D. Moore in 1912 the Smithsonian
Institution has acquired a large quantity of human skeletal material
from the main island, and there is now (1928) an expedition of the
Institution under Collins on the Punuk as well as the St. Lawrence
exploring some of the principal ruins.
THE DIOMEDE ISLANDS AND THE ASIATIC COAST
[Figs. 27 and 28]
The smaller or American Diomede, though a very inhospitable
place, supports, and that evidently since long, a small Eskimo vil-
lage of stone houses, below and about which there is a considerable
accumulation of refuse. Doctor Jenness dug here for a short time
in 1926.
The larger or Russian Diomede has two villages, each of which is
larger than the one on the smaller island. There are also said
to be some remains in a broad depression on the eastern side of the
island, while skeletal remains are reported by the natives to exist
among the rocks on the top. This island is in need of thorough
attention. Its people are reputed to be skilled ivory workers. They
come yearly to Nome, where they were visited and seen at their
work by the writer. They bring each year some fossil ivory, said
lo come mainly from the Asiatic coast, and among this are occa-
sionally articles of much interest.
Ruins of Eskimo villages are also present along the coasts of the
Chukchee Peninsula, both those facing the Bering Sea and those
along the Arctic. Very little is definitely known or can be found
from the American Eskimo about these ruins, and some of them
may not be Eskimo. Nelson in his book (p. 26.5) reports briefly
HRDLIC'KA]
ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO
211
on a few about Cape Wankarem. Interesting objects of the fossil
ivory culture are said to occur in these old sites as far west as the
Kolyma, but nothing is certain except that there are ruins, that a
good number of them are probably Eskimo, and that fossil ivory,
both worked (walrus) and unworked (mammoth), comes from these
tJUOHAN \
'AS ,
66"
64-
172° 170°
FiGL'RE i7. — Eskimo viUages and sites, St. Lawrence Island, the Diomedes. and the
eastern Asiatic coast
coasts. A noteworthy report is that of a large native cemetery
on the Bering Sea side, with hundreds of burials in rough stone-
slab graves. Information of this was given me by Joe Bernard,
well known in connection with Bering Sea explorations, who had
seen the site in person.
212
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
211. Gatnhell {or Chibukuk). — Old Eskimo settlement on the
northwest cape of St. Lawrence Island. United States National
Museum expedition, 1912, by Riley D. Moore; anthropometric data;
important collections.
212. Small sites, north bay, St. Lawrence Island, indicated on 1849
Russian map (q. v.).
213. Savonga. — A small modern Eskimo village. A. II., 1926;
some collections.
214. Ruins of an old site 4 miles northeast of Savonga. Impor-
tant archeologically.
215. Kwluliak. — Dead village.
216. Former summer site. Given on the 1849 Russian map.
N
<^s
:i/vf//v-
CE: or WALES'
FlGLBE 28. — The Ili-ring Strait Islands
217. Important old site with large accumulations on one of the
two Punuk Islands. Explored 1928 by Collins; collections.
218. Kidegak. — Dead village. Important archeologically. Partly
explored by Collins, 1928; collections.
219. Chitnak. — One of the dead villages of 1879. (Nelson,
Hooper.)
220. Pugwviliak. — One of the dead villages of 1879. (Nelson,
Hooper. )
221. Old site; no details available.
222. Living small village on the smaller (American) Diomede Is-
land. Some old accumulations. A. H., 1926, collections; some exca-
vations same year by D. Jenness.
HkdliCka] physical ANTHROPOLOGY 213
223. Nunarhuk. — Village still occupied, on greater (Russian)
Diomede, located on an elevated slope around the southern cape of
the island. Skeletal and other remains reported on top ot mesa.
224. Village, still occupied, on an elevated saddle near middle of
west coast of island.
225. Eskimo village, East Cajoe of Asia. Other villages indicated
along the coast of Chukchee Peninsula. Others on north coast.
(See Nelson, The Eskimo of Bering Strait, p. 265.)
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Earlier Data
The previously published data on the western Eskimo are few in
number and mostly not as well documented as would be desirable.
There are, however, a good number of references to the physical
characteristics of the people by explorers. The main of these are
given below. These references in general are not of much scientific
value, yet in some instances they approach this closely and are of
considerable interest collectively.
1784,' Cook:"
The inlet which we had now quitted, was distinguished by Captain Cook
with the name of Prince William's Sound. * * * The natives whom we
saw were in general of a middling stature, though many of them were under
it. They were square or strong chested, with short thick necks, and large
broad visages which were for the most part rather flat. The most dispropor-
tioned part of their body appeared to be their heads, which were of great mag-
nitude. Their teeth were of a tolerable whiteness, broad, well set, and equal
in size. Their noses had full round points, turned up at the tip; and their
eyes, though not small, were scarcely pi'oportioned to the largeness of their
faces. The.v had black hair which was strong, straight, and thick. Their
beards were in general thin or deficient, but the hairs growing about the lips,
of those who have them, were bristly or stiff and often of a brownish color;
and some of the elderly men had large, thick straight beards. * * * The
complexion of some of the females, and of the children, is white without any
mixture of red. Many of tlie men, whom we .saw naked, had rather a swarthy
cast, which was scarcely the effect of any stain, as it is not their custom to
paint their bodies.
Vol. 3, page 31. All the Americans we had seen since ovfr arrival on that
coast (west coast of Alaska) had round, chubby faces, and high cheek bones,
and were rather low of stature.
Ibid., page 72: Norton Sound.— The woman was short and squat and her
visage was plump and round. * * » Her husband was well made and about
5 feet 2 inches in height. His hair was black and short, and he had but little
beard. His complexion was of a light copper cast. * * * The teeth of both
of them were black, and appeared as if they had been filed down level with
the gums.
" Cook, Capt. James, and Capt. James King. A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. London,
1784, II, vol. 2, p. 300.
214 ANTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
1821, Kotzebue : ^^
Kofxrbue Sound. — The Americans [i. e., Eskimo] are of a middle size, robust
make, and healthy appearance ; their countenances * * * are characterized
by small eyes and very high cheek bones.
1832, Beechey : "
The western Esquimaux appear to be intimately connected with the tribes in-
habiting the northern and nortlieastern shores of America, in language, fea-
tures, manners, and customs. They at the same time, in many respects, re-
semble the Tschutschi. from whom they are probably descended. * * *
They are taller in stature than the eastern Esquimaux, their average height
being about 5 feet 7Vi inches. They are also a better looking race, if I may
Judge from the natives I saw in Baffin's Bay, and frohi tlie portraits of others
that have been published. At a comparatively early age, however, they (the
women in particular) soon lose this comeliness, and old age is attended with a
haggard and careworn countenance, rendered more unbecoming by sore eyes
and by teeth worn to the gums by frequent mastication of hard substances.
1850, Latham : ^«
Pliysically the Eskimo is a Mongol and Asiatic.
The Eskimos of the Atlantic are not only easily distinguished from the
tribes of American aborigines which lies to the south or west of them, and with
•which they come in contact, but they stand in strong contrast and opposition
to them — a contrast and opposition exhibited equally in appearance, manners,
language, and one which has had full justice done to it by those who have
written on the subject.
It is not so with the Eskimos of Russian-America, and the parts that look
upon the Pacific. These are so far from being separated by any broad and
trenchant line of demarcation from the proper Indians or the so-called red
race, that they pass gradually into it, and that in respect to their habits, man-
ner, and api>earance, equally. So far is this the case tliat he would be a bold
man who should venture, in speaking of the southern tribes of Russian- America,
to say here the Eskimo area ends and here a different area begins.
1853, Hooper : *^
Kotzebue Sound Esgui'meaux. — The men generally were taller than the aver-
age of Europeans, strongly built and well foraied ; some had well-marked fea-
tures * * *. The women were generally short, the visages of the younger
ones tolerably good but * * * the very reverse was the case with the dames
of more advanced age. Their figures inclined to the squat, their mien and ex-
pression promised intelligence and good nature. Although both sexes had in
most instances the round flat face of the Mongolian cast, a few individuals
possessed well-defined, though petite features, and all had fine eyes.
"Kotzebue. Otto von, A voyaRe of discovery into the South Sea and Bering Strait,
1815-1818, vol. 1, p. 209. London, 1821.
*' Beechey, F. W., Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Bering Strait. Philadelphia,
1832, pp. 474-47G.
•"Latham, Robert G., The varieties of man. London, 1850, pp. 290-292.
" Hooper, W. H., Ten months among the tents of the Tuski. London, 1853, pp. 223-224.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 31'
Graves at Nash Harbor. Nunivak island
(Photos by Collins and Stewart, 1927.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 33
-^iiir^
a, Children, Nunivak Island. (Photo by Collins and Stewart, 1927)
b, Adults, Nunivak Island. (.Phuto bj Cuilins and Stewart, Vj21)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNTAI. REPORT PLATE 34
King island Eskimo; A Family Group
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 35
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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 37
Typical Full-blood Eskimo, northern Bering Sea Region
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HRDLifKA] PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 215
1853, Seemann, vol. ii, pages 49-51: ^"
The Eskimos. — By comparing the accounts transmitted by different writers
we find that the various tribes, however widely separated geographically, differ
but slightly from each other in appearance, manners, customs, or language.
They are, however, by no means as uniform in size as might have been
expected. Those inhabiting the vicinity of Norton and Kotzebue Sounds are
by far the finest and tallest, while those li\'ing between Cape Lisburne and
Point Barrow are, like the tribes of the eastern jwrtions of America, much
shorter in stature, and bespeak the inferiority of the districts in which
they live.
Both sexes are well proportioned, stout, muscular, and active. The hands
and feet are small and beautifully formed, which is ascribed by some writers
to their sedentary habits, but this cannot be the case, as probably no people
take more exercise or are more constantly employed. Their height varies. In
the southern parts some of the men are 6 feet ; in the more northern there is
a perceptible diminution, though by no means to the extent generally imagined.
Their faces are flat, their cheek bones projecting, and their eyes small,
■ deeply set, and, like the eyebrows, black. Their noses are broad ; their ears
are large, and generally lengthened by the appendage of weighty ornaments ;
their mouths are well formed, their lips are thin. * * *
The teeth of the Eskimos are regular, but from the nature of their food and
from their practice of preparing hides by chewing, are worn down almost to
the gums at an early age. Their hair is straight, black, and coarse; the men
have it closely cut on the crown, like that of a Capuchin friar, leaving a band
about two inches broad, which gradually increases in length towards the back
of the neck; the women merely part their hair in the middle, and, if wealthy,
ornament it with strings of beads. Tlie possession of a beard is very rare,
but a slight moustache is not infrequent. Their complexion, if divested of its
usual covering of dirt, can hardly be called dark ; on the contrary, it displays
a healthy, rosy tint, and were it not for the custom of tattooing the chin
some of the girls might be called pretty, even in the European acc^tation of
the term.
1861, Kichardson : ^^
The Eskimos are remarkably uniform in physical appearance throughout
their far-stretching area, there being perhaps no other nation in the world so
unmixed in blood. Frobisher's people were struck with their resemblance in
features and general aspect to the Samoyeds and their physiognomy has been
held by all ethnologists to be of the Mongolian or Tartar type. Doctor Latham
calls the Samoyeds Hyperborean Mongolidae, and the Eskimos he ranges among
the American Mongolidae, embracing in the latter group all the native races of
the New World. The Mongol type of countenance is, however, more strongly
reproduced in the Eskimos than in the red Indians — the conterminous Tinng
tribes differing greatly in their features, and the more remote Indians still
more.
Generally the Eskimos have broadly egg-shaped faces with considerable
prominence of the rounded cheeks caused by the arching of the cheek bones, but
few or no angular projections even in the old people, whose features are always
" Seemann, Berthold, Narrative of the voy.ige of H. M. S. Heralil. London, 1S53, vols.
I— n. On the Anthropology of Western Eskimo Land and on the Desirability of Further
Arctic Research. J. Anthrop. Soc, London, 1865, vol. in, p. 301.
"Richardson, Sir John, The Polar Regions. Edinburgh, 1861, p. 301.
216 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [BIH. axn. 4«
much weather beaten and furrowed. The greatest breadth of the face is just
below the eyes, the forehead tapers upward, eiidiiis narrowl.v, hut not acutely,
and in like manner the chin is a blunt cone ; both the forehead and the chin
recede, the egg outline showing in profile, though not so strongly, as in a
front view. The nose is broad and depressed, but not in all, some individuals
having prominent noses, yet almost mil have wider nostrils than Europeans.
The eyes have small and oblique apertures like the Chinese, and from frequent
attacks of ophthalmia and the effect of lamp smoke in their winter habitations
adults of both sexes are disfigured by excoriated or ulcerated eyelids. The
sight of these people is, from its constant exercise, extremely keen, and the
habit of bringing the eyelids nearly together when looking at distant objects
has in all the grown males produced a striking cluster of furrows radiating
from the outer corners of each eye over the temples.
The complexions of the E.skimos when relieved from smoke and dirt are
nearly white and show little of the copper color of the red Indians. Infants
have a good deal of red on the cheeks, and when by chance their faces are
tolerably clean are much like European children, the national peculiarities of
countenance being slighter at an early age. Many of the young women appear
even pretty from the liveliness and good nature that beams in their counte-
nances. The old women are frightfully ugly * * *.
The young men have little beard, but some of the old ones have a tolerable
show of long gray hairs on the upi>er lip and chin. * • * The Eskimo
beard, however, is in no instance so dense as a European one.
The hair of the head is black and coarse, the lips thlckish, and the teeth of
the young people white and regular, but the sand that, through want of cleanli-
ness, mixes with their food, wears the teeth down at an early age almost to
the level of the gums, so that the incisors often have broad crowns like the
molars.
The average stature of the Eskimos is below the English standard, but thej
can not be said to be a dwarfish race. The men vary in height from about
5 feet to 5 feet 10 inches or even more. They are a broad-shouldered race,
and when •■seated in their kayaks look tall and muscular, but when standing
lose their apparent height by a seemingly disproportionate shortness of the
lower extremities. This want of symmetry may arise from the dress, as the
proportions of various parts of the body have not been tested by accurate
measurements. The hands and feet are delicately small and well formed.
Mr. Simpson (Blue Book, 1855) observed an undue shortness of the thumb in
the western Eskimos, which, if it exists farther to the east, was not noted by
the members of the searching expeditions.
1870, Dall : '-
Page 136: The Innuit, as they call themselves, belong to the same family as
the northern and western Eskimo. I have frequently used the term Eskimo
in referring to them, but they are in many respects very different people.
* * * It should be thoroughly and definitely understood that they are not
Indians nor have they any known relation, iihysieally * * * to the Indian
tribes of North America. Their grammar, appearance, habits, and even their
anatomy, especially in the form of the skull, separate them widely from the
Indian race. On the other hand, it is almost equally questionable whether
they are even distinctly [distantly?] related to the Chukchees and other prob-
ably Mongolian races, of the eastern part of Siberia.
" Dall, W. H., Alaska and Its Resources. Boston, 1870. .
HBDLIl'KA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 219
fully shaped bands and feet ; " a pyramidal head ; " a broad egg-shapetl face ;
high rounded cheek bones ; flat nose : small (iblique eyes : large mouth : teeth
regular, but well worn;'" coai-se black hair closely cut up<in the crown, leav-
ing a monk-like ring around the edt'e."" and a paucity of beard." "'
more than 5 feet Id heigbr." — Figuier's Flumaii Race, p. 211. At Kotzebiie Sound "tallest
man was 5 feet incbes : tallest woman 5 feet 4 incUes." — Beechey's Voy., i, 360.
"Average lieiglit ivas 5 feet 41^ incbes " ; at tbe mouth of the Mackenzie tbey are of
" middle stature, strong, and muscular." — Armstrong's Nar., 140, 1S2. " Low, broad set,
not well made nor strong." — Hearne's Trav., p. IGG. " The men were in general stout." —
Franklin's Nar.. i, 29. " Of a middle size, robust make, and healthy appearance." —
Kotzebue's Voy., i, 209. " Men vary in height from about 5 feet to 5 feet 10 inches." —
Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 304. " Women were generally short." " Their figure inclines
to squat." — Hooper's Tuski, p. 224.
^" Hands and feet. — " Tous les individus qui appartiennent 4 la famille des Esquimaux
se distingucnt par la petitcsse de leurs pieds et de leurs mains, et la grosseur toorme de
leurs tetes." — De Pauw, Recberches I'bil. I, 2C2. " Thi; hands, and feet are delicately
small and well formed." — Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 304. " Small and beautifully made." —
.Seemann's 'N'oy. Ilernld, ii, 50. At Point Barrow " Their hands, notwithstanding the great
amount of manual labor to which they are subject, were beautifully small and well formed,
a description equally applicable to their feet..' — Armstrong's Nar., p. 101.
<* Head. — " The head is of good size, rather flat superiorly, but very fully developed
posteriorly, evidencing a preponderance of tbe animal passions ; the forehead was for the
most part low and receding ; in a few it was somewhat vertical but narrow." — Arm-
strong's Xar., p. 193. Their cranial characteristics "are tbe strongly developed coronary
ridge, the obliquity of the zygoma, and its greater capacity compared with the Indian
cranium. The former is essentially pyramidal, while the latter more nearly approaches a
cubic shape." — Dall's Alaska, p. 376. " Greatest breadth of the face is just below the eyes,
the forehead tapers upwards, ending narrowly but not acutely, and in like manner tbe
chin is a blunt cone." — Richardson's Pol. Keg., p. 302. Doctor Gall, whose observations on
the same skulls presented him for phrenological observation are published by M. Louis
Choris, thus comments upon the head of a female Eskimo from Kotzebue Sound :
'• L'organe de I'insinct de la propagation se trouve extremement develops pour une tete de
temmo." lie finds the musical and intellectual organs poorly developed, whUe vanity and
love of children arc well displayed. " En gf-ncral," sagely concluded tbe doctor, " cette
tcte femme prc!sentait une organization aussi heureuse que celle de la plupart des femmes
d'Europc. " — Voy. Pitt., pt. iij p. 16.
"" Feice. — " Large, tat, round faces, high cheek bones, small hazel eyes, eyebrows slant-
ing like * *. Tlieir most noticeable personal peculiarity consists in their hairy
bodies and strong beards.
1884, Hooper : "
About 3,000 Innuits inhabit the northwest coast of America, from the Col-
ville River, on the east, to Bering Strait, including the islands therein, on the
west. Many of these came under my observation while cruisin;; in the Arctic
Ocean in command of the Corwin.
In apiJearance they are tall and muscular, many being 6 feet in height, and
some were seen that would exceed that even. Their peculiar dress gives them
" Dall, W. H., Tribe.> of the Extreme Nortliwest. Contribution to Nortli American
Ethnology, i, Washington, 1877.
" Hooper, C. L,, Report of cruise of the revenue steamer Conein, 1881. Washington,
1884, p. 101.
222 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN" ALASKA [bth. ann. 4G
a squat appearance, anil their stature seems less than it is in reality. The
women are much shorter than the men, but both sexes are strong and active,
though not equal in these respects to the Tchuktchis and other reindeer tribes
of Siberia.
The face of the Innuit is broad below the eyes, the forehead is narrow and
receding, the chin and lower jaw broad and heavy. The nose is usually broad
and flattened, but not always ; occasionally one is seen whose features are well
formed and handsome. In the young children this is the almost invariable
rule ; many of them are really beautiful. The eyes are .small and black, and
appear to be slightly oblique, and for this reason, perhaps nmre than any other,
they have been classed with the Mongolidce. They have large mouths, thick,
loosely hanging lips, and fine, strong teeth. These, however, from eating raw
food, are usually vei-y much worn. The labrets worn in the lips are hideous-
looking things, made of bone, glass, stone, ivory, or in fact anything within the
reach of the native which can be worked into the requisite shape.
They have rather light skin, very different from the Indians of the plains;
and in this also they differ from the Tchuktchis, being much lighter, and when
cleansed from the dirt which usually covers them, and freed from the sunburn
and tan due to long exposure, they become quite fair. Tbey have small, well-
formed hands and feet, much smaller in proportion than white men. This was
particularly noticeable when buying boots and mittens from them for our
use ; only the langest sizes made by them could be used at all. They are gen-
erally without beard, but as the men grow old, they sometimes have a thin,
straggling mustache and beard, but it is never full and regular. The hair is
coarse and black.
1885, Ray: ^'
Pages 37-38: The following table will .show that physically the Inyu of
North American coast does not conform to the typical idea of the Eskimo.
They are robust, healthy i)eople, fairer than tlie North American Indian, with
brown eyes and straight black hair. The men are beardless until they attain
the age of from 20 to 25 years, and even then it is very light and scattering,
and is always clipped close in the winter; at this season they also cut off
their eyebrows and tonsure their crown like a priest, with bangs over their
forehead. Their hands and feet are extremely small and symmetiical ; they
are graceful in their movements when unincumbered by heavy clothing.
Page 46 : Physically both sexes are very strong and possess great powers of
endurance.
1888, Murdoch : <■'"
In stature these people are of a medium height, robust, and muscular, inclin-
ing rather to spareness than cnrpulence, though the fullness of the face and the
thick fur clothing often gives the impression of the latter. There is, however,
considerable individual variation among them in this respect. The women are
as a rule shorter than the men. occasionally almost dwarfish, though some
women are taller than many of the men. The tallest man observed measured
5 feet 91/0 inches and the shortest 4 feet 11 inches. The tallest woman was
5 feet 3 inches in height and the shortest 4 feet V2 inch. The heaviest man
weighed 204 pounds and the lightest 126 pounds. One woman weighe<l 192
pounds and the shortest woman was also t he lightest, weighing only 100
" Ray, P. H., Ethnographic sketch of the natives. Report of the International Polar
Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska. Washington, 1885.
""Murdoch, .1., Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition. Ninth Ann. Kept
Bur. Ethn., 1887-88, pp. 33-39. Washington, 1892.
hedliOka] physical ANTHROPOLOGY 223
pounds. The hands and feet are small and well shaped, though the former
soon become distorted and roughened by work. We did not observe the pecu-
liar breadth of hands noticed by Doctor Simp.sun, nor is the shortness of the
thumb which he mentions sufficient to attract attention. Their feet are so
small that only one of our party, who is much below the ordinary size, was
able to wear the boots made by the natives for themselves. Small and delicate
hands and feet appear to be a univer,-;al characteristic of the Eskimo race and
have been mentioned by most observers from Grei'nlaud to Alaska.
The face is broad, flat, and round, with high cheek bones and rather low
forehead, broad across the brow and narrowing above, while the head is some-
what pointed toward the crown. The peculiar shape of the head is somewhat
masked by the way of wearing the hair and is best seen in the skull. The
nose is short, with little or no bridge — few Eskimo were able to wear our
spring eyeglasses — and broad, esj>ecially across the alie nasa>, with a peculiar,
rounded, somewhat bulbous tip, and large nostrils. The eye.s are horizontal,
with rather full lids and are l)ut slightly sunken below the level of the face.
The mouth is large and the lips full, especially tlie under one. The teeth are
naturally large, and in youth are white and generally regular, but by middle
age they are generally worn down to flat-crowned stumps, as is usual among
the Eskimo. The color of the skin is a light yellowish brown, with often con-
siderable ruddy color on the cheeks and lips. There apiiears to be much natural
variation in the complexion, some women being nearly as fair as European.s',
while other individuals seem to have naturally a coppery color. In most cases
th£ complexion appears darker than it really is from the effects i^f exposure
to the weather. All sunburn very easily, especially in the spring, when there
is a strong reflection from the snow.
The old are much wrinkled, and they frequently suffer from watery eyes,
with large sacks under them, which begin to form at a comparatively early
age. There is considerable variation in features, as well as complexion, among
them, even in cases where there seems to be no suspicion of mixed blood.
There were several men among them with decided aquiline noses and some-
thing of a Helirew cast of countenance. The eyes are of various shades of
dark brown — two pairs of lisht hazel eyes were observed — and are often
handsome. The hair is black, perfectly straight, and very thick. With the men
it is generally coarser than with the women, who sometimes have very long
and silky hair, though it generally does not reach much below the shoulders.
The eyebrows are thin and the beard scanty, growing mostly upon the upper
lip and chin and seldom appearing under the age of 20. In this they re-
semble most Eskimo. Back, however, siwaks of the " luxuriant beards and
flowing mustaches " of the Eskimo of the Great FLsh River. Some of the
older men have rather heavy black mustaches, but there is much variation
In this respect. The upix-r part of the body, as much as is commonly exposed
in the house, is remarkably free from hair. The general expression is good
humored and attractive.
The males, even when very young, are remarkable for their graceful and
dignified carriage. The body is held erect, with the shoulders square and
chest well thrown out, the knees straight, and the feet firmly planted on the
ground. In walking they move with long swinging elastic strides, the toes
well turned out and the arms swinging. * * *
I should say that they walked like well-built athletic white men. The women,
on the other hand, although possessing good physiques, are .singularly un-
graceful in their movements. They walk at a sort of shuflling half trot, with
the toes turned in, the body leaning forward, and the arms hanging awkwardly.
224 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SUEVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
A noticeable thing about the women is the remarkable flexibility of the
body and limbs and the great length of time they can stand in a stooping
posture. * * * Both men and women have a very fair share of muscular
strength. Some of the women especially showed a iwwer of carrying heavy
loads superior to most white men. We were able to make no other comparisons
of their strength with ours. Their power of endurance is very great, and
both sexes are capable of making long distances on foot. Two men some-
times spend 24 hours tramping tbrou.i;h the rough ice in search of seals, and
we knew of instances where small parties made jnurneys of 50 or 75 miles on
foot without stopping to sleep.
The women are not prolific. Although all the adults are or have been
married, many of them are childless, and few have more than two children.
One woman was known to have at least four, but investigations of this sort
were rendered extremely difficult by the universal custom of adoption. Doctor
Simpson heard of a " rare ease " where one woman had borne seven children.
We heard of no twins at either village, though we obtained the Eskimo word
for twins.
1890, Murdoch : "
The people who live on the extreme northwest corner of our continent are
far from being an ugly or an ill-made race. Though they are not tall — a man
of 5 feet 10 inches is a tall man among them — they are well proportioned,
broad shouldered, and deep chested. The men, as a rule, are particularly well
" set up," like well-drilled soldiers and walk and stand with a great deal of
grace and dignity.
The women do not have such good figures, but are inclined to slouchiness.
They are seldom inclined to be fleshy, though their plump, round faces, along
with their thick fur clothing, often give them the appearance of being fat.
They generally have round, full faces, with rather high cheek bones, small,
rounded noses, full lips, and small chins. Still, you now and then see a person
with an oval face and aquiline nose. Many of the men are very good looking,
and some of the young women are exceedingly pretty. Their complexion is a
dark brunet, often with a good deal of bright color on the cheeks and especially
on the lips. They sunburn very much, especially in the spring, when the glare
of the sun is reflected from the snow. They have black or dark-brown e.ves and
abundant black hair. The women's hair is often long and silky. When they
are young they have white and regular teeth, but these are worn down to
stumps before middle life is reached. Cheerful and merry faces are the rule.
1890, Kelly :««
Personal appearance. — There are three types observable among the Arctic
Eskimos of Alaska. The tall, cadaverous natives of Kangoot. Seelawik, Koovuk,
and Kikiktowruk, on Kotzebue Sound, who live on fish, ptarmigans, and mar-
mots. They always have a hungry look and habitually wear a grin of fiendish
glee at having circumvented an adverse fate. There is a tendency among these
people to migrate north.
Then there is the tall, strongly knit type of the Nooatoks, a gigantic race, of
a splendid physique that would be remarkable in any part of the world.
°' Murdocb, J., Dress and physique of the Point Barrow Eskimos, Popul. Sci. Montb.,
Dec., 1890, 222-223.
■"^ Kolly, J, W,, Arctic Eskimos iu Alaska and Siberia, Revised and edited by Sheldon
Jackson. Bull. No. 3, Soc. Alaskan Nat. Hist, and Etbnol,, Sitka, 1890, p, 15.
HEDLKlKAl PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 225
Rugged as the mouutains amons which they live, vigorous and courageous,
they stop at nothing but the impossible to accomplish a desired end. Their
food supply i.s the reindeer, mountain sheep, ptarmigans, and fish. There are
many of the coast natives of this type, but they lack the healthy glow and the
indomitable will of the Nooatoks.
The third type is the short, stumpy one, probably that of the old Eskimo be-
fore the admixture with southern tribes, now found on the Arctic coast. * * *
The Eskimos have coarse, black hair, some with a tinge of brown. Many of
the coast people of both sexes are bald from scrofulous eruptions Males have
the crown of the head closely cropped, so that reindeer may not see the waving
lock.s when the hunter creeps behind bunch grass. They have black eyes and
high cheek bones. The bones of the face are better protected from the severity
of the climate by a thicker covering of flesh than southern races.
Among the coast people the nose is broad and flat, with very litt'e or no ridge
between the eyes. The adult males have short mustaches, and some of the
elder ones — more noticeable in the interior — ^have rough, scraggy beards. Gen-
erally their beard is very scant, and most of them devote otuerwise Idle
hours to pulling out the hairs.
1900, Nelson:"^
The Eskimo from Bering Strait to the lower Yukon are fairly well-built
people, averaging among the men about 5 feet 2 or 3 inches in height. The
Yukon Eskimo and those living southward from that river to the Kuskokwim
are, as a rule, shorter and more squarely built. The Kuskokwim people are
darker of complexion than those to the northward, and have rounder features.
The men commonly have a considerable growth of hair on their faces, be-
coming at times a thin beard 2 or 3 inches in length, with a well-developed
mustache. No such development of beard was seen elsewhere In the territory
visited.
The people in the coast region between the mouths of the Kuskokwim and the
Yukon have peculiarly high cheek bones and shaip chins, which unite to give
their faces a curiously pointed, triangular appearance. At the village of
Kaialigamut 1 was Impressed by the strong development of the superciliary
ridge. From a point almost directly over the pupil of the eye and extending
thence inward to the median line of the forehead is a strong bony r'dge cau.s-
ing the brow to stand out sharply. From the outer edge of tliis the skull
appears as though beveled away to the ears, giving the temporal area a con-
siderable enlargement beyond that usually shown. This curious development
of the skull is rendered still more striking by the fact that the bridge of the
nose is low, as usual among these people, so that the shelf-like projection of
the brow stands out in strong relief. It is most strongly marked among the
men and appears to be characteristic at this place. Elsewhere ia this district
it was noted only rarely here and there.
All of the people in the district about Capes Vancouver and Romanzof, anil
thence to the Yukon mouth, are of unusually light complexion. Some of the
women have a pale, slightly yellowish color, with pink cheeks, differing but
little in complexion from that of a sallow woman of Caucasian blood. This
light complexion is so exceptionally striking that wherever they travel these
people are readily distinguished from other Eskimo, and before I visited their
territory I had learned to know them by their complexion whenever they came
to St. Michael.
69 Nel8on, Edward W., The Eskimo about Bering Strait. Eighteenth Ann. Rept. Bur.
Amer. Ethn., Washington, 1900. pp. 26-29.
226 AJJTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [kth. axn. 40
The people of the district just" mrntioned are nil very short and squarely
built. Inland from Cape Vancouver lies the flat marshy country about Big
Lake, which is situated between the Kuskoknim and the Yukon. It is a
well-jwpulated district and its inhabitants differ from those near the coast
at the capes referred to, in being taller, more slender, and having more
squarely cut features. They also differ strikingly from any other E.skimo
with whom I came in contact, except those on Kowak River, in having the
bridge of the nose well developed and at times sufficiently prominent to sug-
gest the aquiline no.se of our southern Indian tribes.
The Eskimo of the Diome<le Islands in Bering Strait, as well as those of
East Cape and Meehigme and Plover Bays on the Siberian coast, and of St.
Lawrence Island are tall, strongly built people and are generally similar in
their physical features. These are characterized by the unusual heaviness of
the lower part of the face due to the very .square and massive lower jaw, which,
combined with broad, high cheek bones and flattened nose, produces a wide,
flat face. These features arc frequently accompanied with a l<iw retre-ating
forehead, producing a decidedly repulsive physiognomy. The bridge of the nose
is so low and the cheek hones so heavy that a profile view will frequently show
only the tip of the person's nose, the eyes and upper portion of the nose being
completely hidden by the prominent outline of the cheek. Their eyes are less
oblique than is common among the people living southward from the Yukon
mouth. Among the people at the northwestern end of St. Lawrence Island
there is a greater range of pliyslognomy than was noted at any other of the
Asiatic localities.
The Point Hope people on the American coast have heavy jaws and well-
developed superciliary ridges. At Point Barrow the men are remarkable for
(he irregularity of their features, amounting to a positive degree of ugliness,
which is increased and rendered specially prominent by the expression produced
by the short, tightly drawn upper lip, the projecting lower lip, and the small
beady eyes. The women and children of this place are in curious contrast,
having rather pleasant features of the usual type.
The Eskimo from Upper Kowak and Noatak Rivers who were met at the
summer camp on Hotham Inlet are notable for the fact that a considerable
number of them have hook noses and nearly all have a cast of countenance
very similar to that of the Yukon Tieinif. They are a larger and more robustly
built people than these Indians, however, and speak the Eskimo language.
They wear labrets, practice the tonsure, and claim to be Eskimo. * * *
Among them was seen one man having a mop of coarse curly hair, almost
negroid in character. The same feature was observed in a number of men and
women on the Siberian coast between East Cape and Plover Bay. This latter
is undoubtedly the result of the Chukchi-Eskimo mixture, and in the case of
the man seen at Hotham Inlet the same result had been brought about by the
Eskimo-Indian combination. Among the Eskimo south of Bering Strait on the
American coast not a single instance of this kind was observed. The age of
the individuals having this curly hair renders it quite improbable that it came
from an admixture of blood with foreign voyagers, since some of them must
have been born at a time when vessels were extremely rare along these shores.
As a further argument against this curly hair having come from white men,
I may add that I saw no trace of it among a number of people having partly
Caucasian blowl. As a general thing, the Eskimo of the region described, have
small hands and feet and the features are oval in outline, rather flat and with
.slightly oblique eyes.
Children and young girls have round faces and often are very pleasiint and
attractive in feature, the angular race characteristics becoming prominent after
hkdliCka]
PHYSICAX, ANTHKOPOLOGY 227
the individuals approach manhood. The women age rapidly, and only a very
small proportion of the people live to an advanced age.
The Malemut and the people of Kaviak Peninsula, including those of the
islands in Bering Strait are tall, active, and remarkably well built. Among
them it is common to see men from 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall and of pro-
porti(mate build. I should judge the average among them to be nearly or quite
equal in height to the whites.
Among the coast Eskimos, as a rule, the legs are short and poorly developed,
while the body is long with disproportionately developed dorsal and lumbar
muscles, due to so much of their life being passed in the kaiak.
The Eskimo of the Big Lake district, south of the Yukon, and from the Kaviak
Peninsula, as well as the Malemut about the head of Kotzebue Sound, are on
the contrary very finely proportioned and athletic men who can not be equaled
among the Indians of the Yukon region. * * * There were a number of
half-blood children among the Eskimo, resulting from the intercourse with
people from vessels and others, who generally show their Caucasian blood by
large, finely shaped, and often remarkably beautiful brown eyes. The number
of these mixed bloods was not very great.
1905, Jackson : "
The Eskimos of Alaska are a much finer race physically than their kindred
of Greenland and Labrador. In the extreme north, at Point Barrow, and
along the coast of Bering Sea they are of medium size. At Point Barrow the
average height of the males is 5 feet 3 inches and average weight 153 pounds;
of the women, 4 feet 11 inches and weight 13.5 pounds. On the Nushagak
River the average weight of the men is from 150 to 167 jwunds. From Cape
Prince of Wales to Icy Cape along the Arctic Coast and on the great inland
rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean they are a large race, many of them
being 6 feet and over in height.'^ They are lighter in color and fairer than
the North American Indian, have black and brown eyes, black hair, some
with a tinge of brown, high cheek bones, fleshy fiices, small hands and feet,
and good teeth. The men have thin beards.
1916, Hawkes:"
The Alaskan Eskimo are a taller and more symmetrical people than their
brethren of the central and eastern districts. They lack that aijpearance of
stoutness and squatness inherent in the eastern stock, and for proportion and
development of the various parts of the body they do not compare unfavorably
with Indians and whites. It is not unusual to tiud in an Alaskan Eskimo
village several men who are 6 feet tall, with magnificent shoulders and arms
and bodily strength in proportion. The usual height, however. Is about 168
centimeters for men, which is some 10 centimeters above the height of the
eastern Eskimo. * * * xhe average for women among the western Eskimo
is 158 centimeters, which approximates the height of the men in the Hudson
Bay region, 158 centimeters (Boas). The female type in Alaska is taller and
slimmer than in the east, and the width of the face is considerably less.
Eskimo women of large stature are often seen in the northern section of
™ Jackson, Sbeldon, Our barbarous Eskimos in northern Alaska. The Metropol. Mag.,
Vol. xxn. New York. .luce. 1905, pp. 257-271.
•' Either a bad misprint or bad error. — A. H.
'- Hawkes, Ernest William. Skeleta? measurements and observations of the Point Barrow
Eskimo, with comparisons with other Eskimo groups. Am. AntUrop., n. s. xviii. No. 2,
pp. 206-207, Lancaster, 1916.
228 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
Alaska. The individual variation here is more conspicuous tlian in Labrador
or Hudson Bay.
1923, Jenness : "
In hi.s report on tile Copper Eskimos, D. Jenness gives excellent descriptive
notes on tliis group vsrith references to others. These notes, too voluminous to
be transcribed, may well be consulted in these connections.
Older Anthropometric Data on the Western Eskimo
stature and other measurements on the living
• The earliest actual measurements of the living among the western
Eskimo are those given in Captain Beechey's Narrative (1832, p.
226) , where we read that of the Eskimo of Cape Thompson (north of
Kotzebue Sound) "the tallest man was 5 feet 9 inches (175.3 centi-
meters), the tallest woman 5 feet 4 inches (162.6 centimeters) in
height." As seen before, Beechey also stated that the stature of the
Eskimo increases from the east to the west.
In 1881-82, Lieutenant Ray collects and in 1885 reports evidently
careful measurements of 51 men and 30 women from the villages of
Uglaamie, at Cape Smythe, now Barrow, and Nuwuk, on Point
Barrow.'* An abstract of the data shows as follows:
Average height : Male. 5 feet 3V{. inches (161.3 centimeters) ; female. 4 feet 11%
inches (151.8 centimeters).
Average weight : Male, 153% pounds ; female, 135% pounds.
Talle.st male: 5 feet 8% inches (174.6 centimeters).
Tallest female: 5 feet 3 inches (160 centimeters).
Shortest male: 4 feet 11 inches (149.9 centimeters).
Shortest female: 4 feet % inch (123.2 centimeters).
Weight : Male, 126 to 204 pounds ; female, 106 to 172 pounds.
In 1892, in connection with the preparation of the anthropological
exhibits for the World Exposition at Chicago, an extensive effort was
made under the direction of Frederick W. Putnam and Franz Boas
to secure, by the help of a group of specially instructed students,
physical data on many tribes of the American aborigines, and this
included a contingent of the western Eskimo. An abstract of the
results was reported by Boas in 1895." The locality where the
Eskimo were measured is not given, but it was most likely Nome
or St. Michael Island. Thirty-four men gave the high (for the
Eskimo) average of 165.8 centimeters, an unstated number of
women an equally elevated average of 155.1 centimeters. No details
" Jenness, D., Physic.il characteristics of the Copper Eskimos. Ropt. Canail. Arct. Exp.
1913-1918. Ottawa, 1923, p. 38.
" Ray, Lieut. P. H., Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow,
Alaslia. Washington, 1885. p. 50.
'°Zur Anthropolo),'ie der Nordamerikanischen Indianer. Verh. Beii. Ges. Antbrop.,
Sitz. Mai 18, 1895 (with Z. Ethnol. for same year).
HEDLlfKA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
229
are given. There is also given the mean and distribution of the
cephalic index on 114 living western Eskimo of both sexes. (On
chart, p. 395, the number is 141.) The mean index was 79.2. There
are again, as under Stature, no details as to locality, and none
could be obtained from the author. '
In 1901 Deniker, in his Races of Man (p. 580), reports the stature
of 85 Eskimo of Alaska, doubtless males, as 163 centimeters.
There are no details, no references, and I have not been able to trace
the source of the measurement.
During the years 1897-1899 A. J. Stone made an extended jour-
ney along a portion of the upper Yukon and through parts of
northwestern Alaska and the Mackenzie River basin, for the Amer-
ican Museum of Natural History. On this journey he made some
measurements of Indian and Eskimo, and these were published in
1901 by Fi-anz Boas.'" The Eskimo measured were the " Nunatag-
miut " (11 males, 5 females), of the Noatak River, Alaska, and the
"Koukpaguiiut," (12 males, G females), east of the mouth of the
Mackenzie. The Noataks, who alone interest us more closely here,
gave the relatively high (for Eskimo) stature of 167.9 centimeters in
the men and 155.6 centimeters in the women. The number of subjects
is small and there may possibly have been some unconscious selec-
tion ; yet it is clear that in this group there are numerous fairly tall
individuals.
Stone's Data on the Noatak Rrer Eskimo
Stature
Stretch of arms
Height of shoulder.
Length of arm
Height sitting
Widthof shoulders.
Length of head
Width of head
Width of face
Height of face
Males (11)
Females (5)
167.9
155. 6
173.0
159. 2
139. 7
128.4
73.9
66.0
86.8
81. 8
38.0
34. 2
18.9
18. 1
15. 45
14. 26
15. 57
14. 46
12.84
11. 98
Height of nose
Width of nose
Index of stretch of
a rms
Index of arm
Index of height
sitting
Index of width of
shoulders
Cephalic index
Males (11) Females (5)
5. 63
3. 76
103. 1
52. 6
22. 6
81. 6
5. 3
3.34
102. 4
42. 6
52.4
22
78.8
™ A. J. Stone's Measurements of Natives of the Northwestern Territories. Bull- Am.
Mus. Nat. Hist., 1901, xiv, pp. 53-68.
230
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
In addition, Doctor Jenness, in 1913, measured 13 adult male Point
Hope Eskimo for stature, head length, and head breadth." He
obtained the following records :
stature
Head
length
HAd
i breadth
Cephalic
index
Stature
Head
length
Head
breadth
Cephalic
index
160.5
19. 7
15. 1
76. 6
174. 3
18. 6
15. 1
81. 1
168. 5
19.6
14.7
75.0
158. 3
18.7
15. 4
82.3
167. 3
19. 4
14.5
74.7
168.2
19.2
16.3
84. 9
162. 9
21.0
14.6
69.5
167.3
18.7
15.9
85.0
162.4
19. 2
14.5
75.5
167.8
19.5
14. 9
76. 4
Means '
170.2
18.8
14.7
78.2
170. 4
18.8
14.8
78.7
168.2
19.28
15.06
78. 1
168. 3
19. 4
15.3
78.8
^ By present writer.
Doctor Jenness '^ also gives useful data on the stature and cephalic
index of living Eskimo from other localities which, with the addition
of the sources and a slightly different arrangement, are here ref)ro-
duced :
Statube
Place
Men
Cases Stature
Women
Cases Stature
Smith Sound (Steensby)
S. W. Greenland (Hansen)
Labrador (Duckworth and Pain)
Smith Sound (HrdHcka) '
S. E. Greenland (Hansen)
Point Barrow (Ray)
Hudson Bay (South Island and Aivilik)
(S. I. 35, Tocher; A. 9, Boas)
Mackenzie Delta (Jenness)
N. E. Greenland (Han,sen)
Coronation Gulf (Jenness)
Iglulik, Hudson Bay (Parry)
Point Hope (Jenness)
Mackenzie Delta (Stone)
Noatak River (Stone)
8
21
11
3
22
51
44
4
31
82
20
13
12
11
157.4
157. 6
157.7
157.7
160. 4
161. 5
162.
162. 2
164. 7
164. 8
166.0
166. 5
167.5
167. 9
10
24
10
23
28
12
15
42
20
145.4
151. 8
149. 7
152. 9
153.6
151. 8
155. 1
156. 4
153.7
151.5
155.5
1 Added from author's Anthropology ot Central and Smith Sound Eskimo, 1910, 228; the stature of one
woman was 146.7.
"Physical Characteristics of the Copper Eskimo. Rep. Canad. Arch. Eiped. 1913-1918, Ottawa, 1923,
Introd., also p. B37.
" Kep. Canad. Arct. Exped., 1913-1918, B50.
hrdliOkaJ
PHYSICAX, ANTHROPOLOGY
Cephalic Index '
231
Men
Womea
Cases
Indei
Cases
Indei
Mackenzie Delta (Stone)
12
4
22
11
35
82
31
73.9
76. 1
75.7
77.0
77.2
77.6
77.8
Mackenzie Delta (Jenness) . _ _
6
23
10
75. 2
75.0
Labrador (Duckworth and Pain)
74.5
Coronation Gulf (Jenness) _ _-
42
15
10
24
76. 6
Northeast Greenland (Hansen) __ _ _ _.
76. 5
Smith SoiinH (Stppnshv)
8 ' 78.
21 j 78. 1
13 i 2 78. 3
11 1 81.6
1
77. 4
Southwest Greenland (Hansen)
76. 8
Point Hope (Jenness)
Noatak River (Stone) _ _ _ _ . _
5
78. 8
> Physical Characteristics of the Copper Eskimo. Rep. Caoad. Arct. Eiped., 1913-191S, Ottawa. 1923
p. B55.
' The totals of the measurements give 75./ — X. H.
THE SKULL
The first western Eskimo skull collected for .scientific purposes
was apparently that of a female St. Lawrence Islander. It was
taken from the rocks of the island by the Kotzebue party in 1817.
It was reported upon j^hrenologically in 1822 by Gall.'**
In 1839 Morton, in his "Crania Americana" (p. 248), gives
measurements and the illustration of a western Eskimo skull from
Icy Cape, collected by Dr. A. Collie, surgeon of H. M. S. BJossoni.
The principal measurements of this evidently female skull were:
Length, 17.02 centimeters; breadth, 12.70; height, 12.70. Cephalic
index, 7^.6.
In 1862"' and 1863 «" Daniel Wilson reports briefly on six
Tchuktchi skulls, which were probably those of Asiatic E.skimo. He
says:
M.v opportunities for examining Esquimaux crania liave been sufficient to
furnish me with very satisfactory data for forming an opinion on the true
Arctic .sliull form. In addition to the measurements of 38 slculLs, * * *
I have recently compared and carefully measured six Tchuktchi [probably
Asiatic coast Eskimo] skulls, in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution,
exhumed from the burial place of a village called Tergnyune, on the island of
Arikamcheche, at Glassnappe Harbor, west of Bering Strait, and during a
" Voyagp pittoresquc autour du Monde, by Louis Choris. Paris, 1S22, pp. 15, 16.
™ Wilson, Daniel, Prehistoric man. Two vols. Lond., 1862 ; ii, pi. 15 ; 3d ed., 1876,
II, 192, 15.
*» Wilson, Daniel, Physical ethnology. Smith.sonian Report for 1862, Washington, 1863.
pp. 261-262. The measurements of the Tchuktchi are given in the Prehistoric Man,
vol. II, Table 16.
232 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
recent visit to Philadelphia I enjoyed the advantage of examining, in company
with Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, a series of 125 [eastern] Esquimaux crania, ob-
tained liy Doctor Hayes during his Arctic journey of 18(10. The comparison
between the Tchul^tchi and the true Esquimaux skull is interesting. Without
being identical, the correspondence in form is such as their languages and
other affinities would suggest. Of the former, moreover, the number is too
few, and the derivation of all of them from one cemetery adds to the chances
of exceptional family features ; but on carefully examining the Hayes col-
lection with a view to this comparison, I found it was quite possible to select
an equal number of Esquimaux crania closely corresponding to the Tchuktchi
type, which indeed presents the most prominent characteristics of the former,
only less strongly marked.
In Prehistoric Man, Volume II, Plate XV, this author gives also
the measurements of the Icy Cape skull recorded by Morton.
The principal mean measurements of the six Tchuktchi skulls (both
sexes) were: Height, 17.60 centimeters; breadth, 13.59; height. 13.77;
cranial index, 77.3.
The next measurements on western Eskimo crania are those given
in 1867 by J. Barnard Davis {Thes. crau.). This author measured
skulls, 3 of which were from Port Clarence (Seward Peninsula),
2 from Kotzebue Sound, and 1 from Cape Lisburne. The measure-
ments, regrettably, are in inches. They include the greatest glabello-
occipital length, greatest breadth, height (plane of for. magn. to
vertex), height of face (chin-nasion), and breadth of face (d. bizy-
gom. max.). The cranial index of the 4 specimens identified as
male averaged 75.5 (75-76), that of the 2 females 77.5 (77-78). On
page 226 the author mentions also an artificially deformed skull
of a Koniag; this was in all probability a wrong identification for
no such deformations are known from the island (Kodiak).
In 1868 Jeffries Wyman*' published measurements of 5 skulls of
" Tsuktshi," the same as those of Daniel Wilson, and of 5 from the
Yukon River, " three of which are Mahlemuts."
The identification of the specimens was partly erroneous. The
data with corrected identification are republished by Dall (q. v.) in
1877. And the same skulls figure in all future measurements.
In 1875 Topinard*^ gives the Barnard Davis measurements in
metric form without, so far as the western Eskimo are concerned,
any additions.
The main measurements of Barnard Davis's western Eskimo skulls,
converted to metric values, follow. The sex identification in some
of the specimens is doubtful.
" Observations on Crania. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xi, 440-4G2. Boston, 1868.
'^■- Topinard, P., Mesures craniometriques des Esquimaux. Rev. d'Anthrop., 1873, il,
499-522.
HRDLK'KA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
233
Skull
length
Breadth
Height (to
vertex)
Cranial
index
Port Clarence, male
17.8
17.8
-IS
13.45
13. 45
-14
-14
14. 2
13. 45
75. 7
Do
75. 7
Port Clarence, female .
77.6
Means of the three.. .
17. 86
13.64
13. 59
76. 4
Kotzebue Sound, male.. _
17.55
17.3
13. 2
13.45
13.45
13.7
75.4
77. 9
Kotzebue Sound, female . ..
Means of the two (probably both
females)
17. 4
13.35
13.6
76. 6
Cape Lisburne, male
18.3
14. 2
-14
77.8
The next records are those by George A. Otis, published in 1876
in the Check List of the Specimens in the Section of Anatomy of the
United States Army Medical Museum, Washington (pp. 13-15).
Aside from those on Greenland crania the author gives here the meas-
urements of 3 presumably Eskimo skulls collected by Dall ; of 2
western Eskimo skulls, no locality; and of 3 Mahlemut skulls, prob-
ably from Norton Sound (St. Michael Island). In his later (1880)
catalogue,**^ page 13. Otis adds to the above three skulls from Prince
William Sound, which, however, were more probably Indian; the
three Mahlemuts, on the other hand, are given with the Alaskan
Indians (p. 35). These data are of but little value. The Eskimo
skulls are the same Smithsonian specimens that were reported upon
in 1868 by Jeffries Wyman.
In 1878. Rae ^^ mentions some measurements or observations on
the skulls of Western Eskimo by Flower, but no records of these
could be located. Rae says:
I had the privilege of attending.' the series of admirable lectures so ably
given by Professor Flower at the Royal College of Surgeons a few weeks ago
on the " Comparative Anatomy of Man," from which I derived much useful
information and on one point very considerable food for thought.
I allude to the wonderful difference in form exhibited between the .skulls of
the Eskimos from the neighborhood of Bering Strait, and of those inhabiting
Greenland, the latter being extremely dolichocephalic, whilst the former are
the very opposite — brachycepUalic, the natives of the intermediate coast, from
the Coppermine River eastward, having mesocephalic heads.
*" List of the specimens In the Anatomical Section of the Army Medical Museum.
Washington, 18S0.
** Rae, John, Eskimo skulls. J. Anthrop. Inst. Gr. Brit., London, 1878, vii, 142.
88253°
234
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
In 1879 Lucien Carr, in his " Observations on the Crania from the
Santa Barbara Islands, California'"*^ (p. 281), gives erroneously
Otis's measurements of Aleut skulls as those of " Alaskan Eskimo."
Meanwhile W. H. Dall has published (1877) his monograph on
the " Tribes of the Extreme Northwest," *" in which he includes
Wyman's and also some of Otis's data on the Eskimo (and Aleut)
skulls from Alaska and Asia. The Tshuktshi are now classed as
Asiatic Eskimo, the Mahlemuts as Eskimo from St. Michael Island.
The total number of skulls described in the former series is 11, in
the latter series 6 (of Aleuts the number of skulls measured is 27
adults and 7 children). The means of the princijDal measurements
of the Eskimo series, both sexes together, are as follows :
Jeffries Wtman's and Otis's Measurements of Western Eskimo Crania
Crania (both sexes)
Length
Breadth
Height
Cranial
index
Asiatic Eskimo
(11)
17.8
(6)
17. 5
(11)
14. 1
(6)
13. 2
(7)
13. 2
(6)
13. 1
(11)
79. 3
Northwest American Eskimo.. _ . __ _
(6)
75. 1
There were also taken the weight, capacity, circumference, longi-
tudinal arch, length of the frontal, parietal, and occipital, " zygo-
matic diameter," and in two specimens of each series the facial
angle. To-day these data have but a historical value.
In 1882, Quatrefages and Hamy,*' in their " Crania ethnica "
(p. 440) give the measurements of two male Kaniagmiouts (Kodiak
Indian, A. Pinart, collector) and one female Mahlemiout. The prin-
cipal measurements of these skulls are as follows :
SkuU:
Length
Breadth
Height (bas.-
bg.)
Cranial index
Males (2) Female (1)
18.6
14. 2
14 3
76.34
17. 9
13.9
13. 2
77. 65
Nose:
Length
Breadth
Nasal index
Facial index, total
Orbital index
Males (2) Female (1)
5.9
5. 1
2.3
2.3
38.08
45.09
77.69
70. 37
92.68
90.24
In 1883 Dr. Irving C. Rosse, in his " ^ledical and Anthropological
Notes on Alaska," *** refers to his examination of a number of Eskimo
S5 Rep. U. S. Geogr. Surv. W. of 100 Mericl.. vol. vii.
»" U. S. Geog. and Gcol. Surv. Rocky Mt. Reg. Contributions to North .Vmorican Eth-
nology, I. Washington. 1877. p. 63 et seq.
"'Quatrefages, A. de, and Hamy, E. T., Crania ethnica. Paris, 1882. 438, 440.
»> Cruise of the Coiiein in 1881. Washington, 1883, p. 38.
hbdliCka]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
235
skulls from the St. Lawrence Island brought to the Army Medical
Museum.*** There are no measurements outside of a reference to the
capacity, but there are two excellent chromolithographs showing two
female crania, besides a number of outline drawings.
The next data on the western Eskimo skull are in rather unsatisfac-
tory condition. They are those of Boas. In his report on the "An-
throjjologie der nordamerikanischen Indianer," '"" Doctor Boas men-
tions the cranial index of the Alaska Eskimo to average 71-^ and on
page 397 he reports the same index as secured on 37 "Alaska Eskimo "
skulls, apparently of both sexes. The only note relating to these
figures is found on page 393, where it is stated that these results
proceed from measurements that had been made for the author at
the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, the American Museum, New York,
the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, and the United States Army
Medical Museum, Washington; and that he utilized also the measure-
ments of Barnard Davis and Otis. On 22 of the above western
Eskimo skulls there is also given the length-height index of 76.6.
There is no information as to either sex or locality. There are no
other measurements.
Deniker (1901) and later Martin (1914) repeat the data given by
Boas.
In 1890 Tarenetzky ^^ publishes measurements and observations on
four Koniag (Kodiak) skulls and one Oglemute (Aglegmute, Alaska
Peninsula). The main measurements (pp. 70-71) are:
Eoneag9«
Koneage
Koneage
Eoneage
Means ' of
the four
from
Kodiak
Island
Aglegm-
jute
{Alaska
Peninsula)
Skull:
Length
Breadth, ..
17. 1
13. S
13. 1
50. 7
4. 7
2. 4
51.
87.5
16. 4
15.7
14.4
95. 7
5. 3
2.5
47.1
97.6
17. 2
15.8
14.0
91. 8
5. 7
2. 6
46.6
92. 7
16. 8
14.4
13. 2
85. 7
5.9
2.3
39.0
80.9
16. 88
14.93
13. 68
88. 4
5. 40
2. 45
■i5.4
89. 7
19.0
13. 7
Height
Cranial index
Nose:
Length
Breadth
Nasal index
Orbital index
14. 1
7S. 1
5. 8
2.3
39.6
88. I
■Most if not all the Kodiak skulls are doubtless females, the Oglemute a male. Quite probably also
the Kodiak skulls are those of Aleuts and not of Eskimo.
(•By present author.
'*" Now in the Division of Physical Anthropology of the U. S. National Museum.
^'' 1895, Verb. Berliner, Ges. Anthrop. p. 3G7 et seq.
■*" Tarenetzky. Al., Beitrii^^p zur CrnnioloEcie der Ainos auf Sachalin. Meuj. Acad, imp.
Sc. St. P^tersb., 1890, XXXVII, No. 13, 1-55.
236
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ITH. ANN. 46
In 1900 Sergi "^ reports on four Kodiak skulls that he examined in
Paris. Two of these are probably Aleut (or Indian). The cranial
indices were, respectively, 75.8, 78.3, 88, and 88.2.
In 1916 E. "W. Hawkes presented a thesis on the " Skeletal Measure-
ments and Observations on the Point Barrow Eskimo, with Compari-
sons from other Eskimo Groups." "- The number of skulls measured
was 27, of which 14 were identified as adult males, 5 adult females, 6
adolescents, and 2 infants. In addition there ai-e measurements by
Ealph Linton of other skeletal parts than the skull of three skeletons.
The measurements, though the first tjken by this author, have evi-
dently been taken in a painstaking manner and according to modern
methods, and are therefore of some value. An abstract of those on
the adults follows:
Principal Meastjbements of Point Babkow Ceania, by Hawkes
Vault:
Length
Breadth
Basion-bregma
height
Cranial index..
Height-length
index
Height-breadth
index
Face:
Diam.bizygom.
max
BF:BH pro-
portion
Chin-nasion
height
Alveolar point-
nasion
Males (14)
18.
91
13.
73
13.
86
73.
65
73.
U
100.
68
14.
10
102.6
(6)
13.
15
(14) 1
7.
42
Females (6)
17. 86
13.58
13. 30
7^.06
74- 45
98.01
13. 40
98. 7
(3)
11. 60
(5)
6. 80
Face. — Continued
Facial index,
total
Facial index,
upper
Nose:
Height
Breadth
Index
Orbits:
Height
Breadth
Index
Dental arch:
Length
Breadth
Index
Males (14)
Females (6)
92. 13
62.48
86.20
54.05
5. 66
5.24
2.30
2. 18
40. 69
1,1.62
3. 76
3.59
4. 13
4.05
91. 3
88.5
5.31
6.27
4.96
6.06
95. 4
96. 7
In 1923 Cameron "^ published the following data on six western
Eskimo skulls from Port Clarence, collected by the Canadian Arctic
Expedition :
»' Sergi, G., Cranl Esquimesi. Atti della societa Romana di antropologia, Roma, 1900,
VII, 2, 93-102.
"'Am. Anthrop., 1916, xTiii, 203-244.
" Cameron, John, Osteolog.v of tho westorn and central Eskimo. Rep, Canad. Arctic
Exp., 1913-1918. Ottawa, 1923. With a report on the teeth by S. G. Ritchie and J. S.
Bagnall. Table and means by the present writer.
hedmCka]
PHYSICAL .\NTHROPOLOGY
237
Poet Claeence (Sewabd Peninsula) Eskimo Crania
Vault
Nose
Length
Brpadth
Height
Cranial
index
I.«ngth
Breadth
Nasal
index
Orbital
index
Males:
18.9 -
13.9
14.3
13.25
13.
13.7
13.63
13. 1
14. 1
13.7
14.2
13.3
13.82
12.8
73.6
76.5
70.2
73.4
71.4
72.97
73. 1
5.9
5.3
6.0
2.5
2.5
2.2
41S.4
47.2
36. 7
86.4
18.7
85. 7
18.8
86. 4
17 8
88.9
19 2
Mean: 18.68
Female: 17.85
5.73
2.40
41.9
86.9
The last contribution to the craniology of the western Eskimo
before the present report are the data embodied in my " Catalogue
of Human Crania in the United States National Museum Collec-
tions," published in 1924.^* These data are embodied in those of the
present report.
For ready survey the old records on western Eskimo crania are
given in the following table. A sex distinction in the earlier reports
was mostly impracticable or remained doubtful.
Pbevious JVIeasueements of Westebn Eskimo Skulls
1 Icy Cape, 9 (Morton, 1839)..
6 Asiatic Eskimo {" Tschtiktchi ") :
mean (Daniel Wilson, 1862).
3 Port Clarence (Banard Davis,
1867)...
2 Kotzebue Sound, 9 (Barnard
Davis, 1867)
1 1 Asiatic Eskimo (Wyman and Otis,
1868-1876)
6N. W.Amer. Eskimo (St. Michael
Island)(Wym:mand Otis, 1868-1876).
2 Kodiak Island, cf (Quatrefages and
II amy, 18S2)
1 Kodiak, 9 (Quatrefages and Hamy,
1882)
(37 western Eskimo) " (Boas, 1896)...
4 Kodiak Island, 9 ' (Tarenetzky,
1900)
Vault
Length Breadth Height '^j^'^ei'
4 Kodiak Island, ' (Sergi, 1900)
14 Point Barrow, cf (Hawkes, 1916)..
5 Point Banow, 9 (Hawkes, 1916)...
5 Port Clarence, & (Cameron, 1923)..
1 Port Clarence, 9 (Cameron, 1923)..
17.02
17.60
17.86
17.40
17.80
17.50
18.60
17.90
16.88
18.91
17.86
18.68
17.85
12.70
13.59
13.64
13.36
14.10
13.20
14.20
13.90
14.93
13.73
13.68
13.63
13.10
12.70
13.77
13.59
13.60
13.20
13.10
14.30
13.20
13.1
13.86
13.30
13.82
12.80
7i.e
77. t
76. i
76.6
79. S
75.1
76. SS
77.65
(77)
88. i
2:7?./
2 : 88.1
7S.65
76.1
73
73.1
Nose
Length I Breadth Index
6.9
5.1
5.66
5.24
6.73
2.3
2.3
2.30
2.18
2.40
iS.l
iS.i
40.7
il.6
il.9
Orbital
index
S9.7
91. S
83.5
86.9
a No details; series comprises specimens measured by Wyman, Otis, and Barnard Davis.
" Probably Aleuts, not Eskimo.
' Not the same with those of Tarenetzky; two probably Aleut.
■" No. 1 : The Eskimo, Alaska and Related Indians, Northeastern Asiatics. Proc. U. S.
Nat. Mus.. 1924. Lxiii ; spp.. 51 pp.
238 anthropologicaii sxjevey in alaska [eth, ann. 46
Present Data on the Western Eskimo
THE LI\1XG
Barring the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands in the south and the
Chukchee territory in the west, the Bering Sea is wholly the sea of
the Eskimo, tlie Indians occupying the inland but reaching nowhere
to the coast. There is doubtless mucli of significance in this remark-
able distribution. It is now quite certain that the Eskimo has not
been pressed out by tlie Indian; there are as a rule no traces of liim
farther inland than wliere he has been within historic times. On
the other hand no Indian remnants or remains are known from
any part of the coasts or islands within the Eskimo region ; though
the study of the older sites in these regions has barely as yet begun,
besides which (see Narrative) it is a serious question whether really
old sites could now be located in these I'egions at all even if they had
once existed. At all events the Eskimo appears from all indications
to be the latest comer, and judging from his remains liis occupancy
here is not geologically ancient ; it is one to be counted, apparently, in
many hundreds of years rather than in thousands. The Aleuts in the
south are, as I have pointed out in the Catalogue (No. 1. 1924. p. 39),
not Eskimo but Indians, related to the general Alaska Indian type;
and the Pribilof Islands appear never to have been occupied until
fairh^ recently, when a good number of Aleuts, mostly mixed bloods,
have been transported and established there in the interest of the
seal fisheries.
MEAStTREMENTS OF LIVING WESTERN ESKIMO
Thanks to Moore, Collins, and Stewart, all of the National
Museum, instructed by me and working with the same instru-
ments, we now have several small to fair series of measurements on
the living western E.skimo of both sexes. They are tabulated below.
They are the first made on these groups and will be of much interest
both in general and in connection witli the measurements made on the
skulls and bones of most of the same people. The main points shown
are as follows :
Stature. — The stature of the males ranges from markedly to mod-
erately submedium. There is a considerable similarity. Only the
Yukon group and that of Togiak I'each near or slightly above me-
dium, the general human medium for males approaching 165 centi-
meters. The female stature on the St. Lawrence Island averages 12
centimeters less than that of the males, which is about the difference
found in most other peoples. At Hooper Bay, and esjDecially at the
Nunivak Island, the difference is less, indicating either that the males
are sliglitly stunted or that the growth of the females is somewhat
favored.
hrdliCka] physical ANTHROPOLOGY 239
Height sifting. — The hei<];ht-sittin<r-stature index ranges from
slightly to quite notably higher than it is in other races, indicating
a tendency toward a relatively long trunk and somewhat short limbs.
A study of the long bones shows that this is due especially, if not
wholly, to the relative shoi'tness of the tibia ; and the subdevelopment
of this bone may, it seems, be ascribed to a great deal of squatting
both at home during the long winters and in tlie canoes. The male
Eskimo show more difference from other males in this respect than
the Eskimo females show from other females.*"^
A7'm span. — Relatively to the stature the length of the arms in the
Eskimo males is shorter than it is in other racial groups, though there
appears to be some inequality in this resj^ect. This shortness would
be especially marked if we compared the arm span with the height
sitting. It is due essentially to a shortness of the distal half of the
upper limbs. The males once more show tliis disproportion more
as compared to other males than the females compared with others
of their sex. (See comp. data in Old Americans.) This may be
connected in some way with the male Eskimo work and habits ; or it
may be an expression of a correlative subdevelopment with that of the
lower limbs. It is a good point for further study.
The head. — The head, especially when taken in relation to the
stature, is of good size, particularly on the Nunivak Island and on the
Yukon. This agrees with what is known of the Eskimo head, skull,
and brain elsewhere.
The size of the Eskimo head — which is not caused by a thick skull —
will best be appreciated by contrasting it with that of civilized whites.
In whites in general the mean head diameter or cephalic module
ranges in males from approximately 15.70 to 16.40; in the male west-
ern Eskimo groups the range is 15.87 to 16.08, and 16.11 in the group
at Marshall on the Yukon. The percentage relation of the module to
stature in 12 groups of male whites, including the old Americans,
averages 9.31 to 10.11 ; in the male Eskimo groups it is from 9.57 to
9.9^. In females, the cephalic module is 15.57 in the old Americans,
15.36 to 15.68 in the Eskimo; the relation of the module to stature in
the former being 9.59, in the latter 10.15 to 10.^5.
In the western Eskimo woman the head dimensions are particu-
larly favorable. In the old American whites the mean head diameter
in the female is to that of the male on the average as 95 to 100; in
the two main groups of tlie western Eskimo it is as 96.1 and 96.7 to
100. Nothing is known as to the cause of this apparently favorable
status of the Eskimo woman; it is another interesting point for
further inquiry.
•^ For compar.Ttive data on theso and othor proportions see writer's Old Americans,
Baltimori', 1925 ; also Topinard's and Martin's textbooljs.
240
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUEVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
In shape, the head of the western Eskimo is highly mesocephalie
to moderately brachycephalic and of only fair height, and it seldom
approaches the scaphoid or dome-shaped. It is not the narrow, high,
keeled skull of the northeastern and often the northern Eskimo.
The physiognomy, the characteristics of the body, and the mental-
ity and behavior, are in general typical Eskimo ; but the form of the
vault is substantially diiferent. It is a form which approaches on
one side that of the northwesternmost Indian, and on the other that of
the northeastern and Mongoloid Asiatics. More must be said about
this when we come to consider the skull.
The forehead. — Anthropometric studies have shown repeatedly ^'^'^
that the height of the forehead is not a safe gauge of intelligence,
as commonly believed, but is controlled by the variable height of
the hair line. Thus the common full-blood American Negro
laborer and servant show a slightly higher forehead than the edu-
cated old American whites.
Something of a similar nature is found in the Eskimo. As seen
in the following table, in the males the western Eskimo forehead is
absolutely, and especially relatively to stature, higher than it is in
the whites. In the females the absolute height in the two races is
identical, but relatively to stature the Eskimo again shows a clear
though somewhat lesser advantage. The condition is apparently not
due to the size of the head, for this is not greater than in the whites,
in the males; while in the females, where the Eskimo shows a
slightly larger head than the white in relation to stature, the fore-
head fails to correspond.
Dimensions op Forehead
Western Eskimo
old Americans
Male
Female
Male
Female
cm.
6.86
4.23
10.58
71. 1
64.8
cm. E
6.45
4.23
10. 54
73. 7
61. 2
cm.
6.59
3. 78
10. 59
76. 4
63. 7
cm.
6.45
3. SO
Breadth: Diameter frontal minimum
Percentage relation of diameter frontal
minimum to breadth of face
10. 12
77.8
Forehead index (HX100)_
62. 1
(d)
With the lower breadth of the forehead, conditions are also inter-
esting. The absolute figures for the two races show a reversal.
^° See 01(1 Americans ; al.so the writer's The natives of Kharga Oasis. Egypt, .Smiths.
Misc. Coll., Washington, 1912 ; Anthropology of the Chippewa, Holmes Anniv. Vol.,
Washington, 1916 ; and Measurements of the Negro, Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 1928, xii.
No. 1.
HRDLlfKA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
241
The height of the forehead is larger in the Eskimo than in the white
males, equal in the females; the lower frontal breadth is equal in the
males but larger in the Eskimo than in the white female. Propor-
tionately to stature, which is so much lower in the Eskimo, both sexes
of the latter show an advantage in the dimension over the white.
The percental relation of the breadth of the forehead to that of
the face reflects the excess of the latter in the Eskimo, particularly
the male. There is evidently not a full direct correlation between
the two dimensions. Yet relatively to its height the face is broader
in the females than in the males (see below), which is doubtless
not without influence on the lower breadth of the forehead in the
former.
To summarize, the western Eskimo forehead exceeds in area that
of the American whites, in both sexes, and that particularly in rela-
tion to stature. As to the individual measurements, the male Eskimo
forehead as contrasted with that of the white is especially high, the
female esi^ecially broad.
To which should be added that in the Eskimo the spheno-tem-
poral region is often remarkably full, almost bulging, so that, con-
trary to what may be observed in the Negi'o, the frontal maximum
diameter is also probably larger than in the whites, all of which
doubtless has significance, even though this is not yet fully under-
stood.
The face. — The principal measurements and relations are given
below. They show a face large and especially broad. Moreover,
relatively to its height the face is especially broad in the Eskimo
female, in connection doubtless with the well-known excess of the
work (in softening leather, etc.) of her jaws, with consequent de-
velopment of the muscles of mastication, which in turn broaden the
zygomae. »
Dimensions of the Face
Western Eskimo
old American whites
Height menton-nasion
Females to males (M = 100)
Diameter bizygomatic maximum
Females to males (M = 100)
Facial index, anatomic
Facial module (or mean diameter), ana-
tomic
Female to male (M = 100)
Percentage relation of female and male to
stature
Male Ftwxle
12.67 n. 64
91. 9
14. 88 14. 30
96. 1
85. 2 SI. 4
13. 77 12. 97
94. 2
8. 49 8. 50
Male FeiTiale
12. 15 11. 09
91. 3
13. 87 12. 99
93. 6
87. 6 85. 4
13. 01 12. 04
92.5
7. 46 7. 44
242
ANTHBOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
The great size of the Eskimo face is especially apparent in the
relations of the mean diameter of the face to stature; it is in this
respect no less than 12 per cent in excess of that of the whites in the
males and 12.5 per cent in the females.^"
Lomer facial breadth. — Due to the great development of the mas-
seter muscles and the consequent frequent lesser or greater eversion
of the angles of the lower jaw, the bigonial diameter in the Eskimo
is very large, jDarticularly when taken in relation to stature, and in
such relation it looms especially large in the females. Compared
with the old American whites, the bigonial breadth in its relation to
stature is higher in the Eskimo males by 15.5 per cent, in the Eskimo
females by 17.7 per cent. And measurements of Eskimo lower jaws
in general show that this breadth in the western contingents is not
exceptional
Lower Facial Breadth
Western Eskimo (St.
Lawrence Island)
Old Americans
Diameter bigonial
Female vs. male
Percentage relation to stature
Percentage relation to breadth of face
Males Females
11.78 11.18
7. SI 7. 39
80 79. 5
Mates Females
10. 63 9. 84
92. 6
6. 09 6. 08
76. 7 75. 8
The nose. — The nose of the western Eskimo promises to be of
much importance in the study of Eskimo origins in general. No-
where in this region is it like the nose of the northern or north-
eastern groups. It is decidedly broader. Its breadth is intermediary
between that of the Alaska and other Indians and that of the north-
ern and northeastern Eskimo^ connecting with both, and these charac-
teristics are so generalized throughout western Alaska and the Bering
Sea islands that they can not possibly be attributed to Indian or
other admixture. Nor can this relatively broad nose of the western
Eskimo be well attributed to environmental effects, i. e., to a broaden-
ing of a formerly narrow nose through climatic conditions. There
do not appear to be any such conditions. The only rational explana-
tion seems to be that this is the more original condition of the
Eskimo nose, and that the northern and northeastern narrowness
is a later derivation. More may be said on this point when we
come to consider the skeletal remains.
«" A word of slight caution is due here. In all these cases the proper way would be to
compare the Eskimo with whites of same mean stature. But we have no such whites
available. As it is the comparisons must be taken merely as approximations, but they
are so close approximations that the substance of the conclusions is probably correct.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 40
THE LONG AND BROAD-FACED TYPES. WALES
(1*11010 by Lomen Bros.)
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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 43
A ■■Hypereskimo," King island. Excessively Developed
Face
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 44
ESKIMO ■MADONNA" AND CHILD. NORTHERN BERING SEA REGION
(Photo by Lomen Bros.)
HEDLlfKA]
PHYSICAL .ANTHROPOLOGY
243
The Eskimo nose is also high, which goes with the height of the
whole face ; that in turn evidently is attributable to more work and
demand — in brief, more mastication. The nose, face, lower jaw, and
other parts of the Eskimo anatomy offer rare opportunities for
studies in the heredity of acquired characters.
No.sE Meusukbmbnts
American whites
old Americans
and immigrants
Old Ameri-
cans
Western Eskimo
Males
Females
Males
Females
Height - . . ..
(13 groups)
4. 95-5. 4
3. 45-3. 6
62. 5-73
4. 94
3.25
66
(6 groups)
5. 47-6. 03
3. 82-3. 93
63. 7-71. 9
5.03
Breadth .__ . .
3. 61
Index - -_ -
71.9
The mouth. — The western Eskimo mouth is large. It is con-
siderably larger (wider) than in the old American whites, though
these are of much higher stature. In relation to stature the width
of the western Eskimo mouth exceeds that in the white old Ameri-
cans by 13 per cent in the males and by nearly 14 per cent in the
females, but there is a close relation with that of a large group
of Indians. The details follow :
Mouth Width
Western Eskimo
(Nunivak and
St. Lawrence Is-
lands)
16 tribes of Indians
of the Southwest
and northern
Mexico.
Old American
whites
Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
Width
5. 73 5. 44
5. 85 5. 49
93- fl
5. 37 4 95
Females versus males-
92 3
Pereentage relation to stature
S.53
3.67
3.50
3.55
3. 07
3.08
The ears. — The ears of the western Eskimo are large. They are
especially long. They exceed in both size and relative length those
of whites, but are in both resjDects much more like those of the
American Indian. The excess in length, both in the Eskimo and
the Indian, is especially marked when this measurement is taken in
relation to stature.
Eelatively to its length, the ear of the female Eskimo in all our
groups is somewhat narrow, giving a lower index. This is not
observed in the available whites and Indians.
244
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
None of the series below are affected seriously by the age factor;
though with an organ so much influenced by age as the ear the ideal
way would be to compare only groups of the same age.
Eaes
Western Eskimo
Miscellaneous North
American Indian
old American whites
(Labor Ser.)
Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
Height of left ear
Breadth of left ear
Ear index.. .
7.05
3.82
54.2
4.34
6.61
3. 49
52.8
4.33
7.25
3.90
53.2
4. 25
6. 95
3. 70
53.6
4.35
6. 69
3. 79
56. 7
3.S4
6. 10
3.47
56. 9
Percentage relation of
ear length to stature _
3.68
Western Eskimo groups
Whites in general
Height of left ear..
Breadth of left ear
Ear index
6. 71- 7. 40 6. 49- 6. 73
3. 72- 4. 04 3. 45- 3. 57
>S. 3 -58. 9 52. 3 -53. 1
6. 20- 6. 69
3. 58- 3. 79
56 -58. 6
The chest. — The best measurements of the chest, experience has
shown, are the antero-posterior and lateral diameters at the nipple
height in the males and at the cori-esponding level of the upper border
of the fourth costal cartilages in the females. They give not merely
the individual dimensions but also their relation, which is of much
ontogenic as well as other interest, and their mean gives the chest
module which in relation to the stature is anthropologically as well as
individually (medically) important.
The table following gives the chest measurements in the western
Eskimo, in a large group of Indians (my older data), and in the old
American whites as well as others.
The Eskimo chest is large. In the males, in addition, it is very
deep. Compared to that of the white old Americans it is markedly
deeper in the males and broader in the females, notwithstanding the
fact that the Americans are much taller. It is even larger, besides
being relatively deeper in the males and somewhat broader in the
females, than it is in many tribes of the Indian. Only tall and
bulky Indians such as the Sioux show a chest that is absolutely
somewhat larger, but in relation to stature, with which the dimen-
sions of the chest stand in close correlation,^" the Eskimo prevails
even in this instance. This excess in chest development in the Eskimo
must be ascribed in the main to his occupations and exertions, par-
ticularly again, it would seem, in connection with the canoe.
"The chest dimensions correlate with stature, respectively the trunk height, and the
breadth correlates with the depth ; but both are Influenced by function.
hedliOka]
PHYSICAL .ANTHROPOLOGY
Chest MEA.strKEMENTS
245
Western Eskimo.
Nunivak Island
Ifi tribes of southwestern
and New Mexico
Indians
Old Americans
Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
stature .
161.8
29.97
24. 63
82. 2
27.30
16.87
153. 1
28. 63
-22.
76.8
25.32
16.53
167.3
29. 89
22.77
76. 15
26.33
15.74
-155.
28. 21
21.91
77.66
25.06
16. 17
174.3
29.76
21.70
72.9
25.73
H. 75
161.8
Breadth - -
26.62
Depth ...
20.03
Index
75. 3
23. 32
Module vs. stature. -
14.41
4 other groups of west-
ern Eskimo, males
72 Sioux Indi-
aas, males
12 other groups of
white males
Stature- _
- 160. 6-166.
-29. 6- 30.
-23. - 24. 75
76. 7- 83. 3
26.97
16. 56
-174.
31.92
-26.
81. 4
28.96
16. 6 A
163. 4-171. 6
Breadth . ...
-25. 9- 28.
Depth
20. 9- 22. 6
Index .........
72. 9- 81. 5
Module ..... . .
23. 4- 25. 7
Module vs. stature. _ _. ...
14. 22- IL 8A
The hand. — The hand of the Eskimo is small, both absolutely and
relatively to stature. But it is rather broad relative to its length,
giving a high index. The index is higher than that of any of the
groups available for comparison, white or Indian, excepting a few
groups of immigrant whites, laborers.
Hand
Western Eskimo (group
means)
Males
Females
16 tribes of
southwestern
and Mexican
Indians
Males
Fe-
males
Old Americans
Males
Fe-
males
12 groups
of immi-
grant
whites
Males
Left hand:
Length _
Breadth
Percentage relation of hand
length to stature
17. 35-18. 42
8. 60- 8. 90
w.m
16. 60-16. 85
7. 78- 8. 20
10. 9i
18.63
8.61
11.07
17.20
7.71
19.28
9.18
11.06
17.34
7.87
-11. -11. S
Western Es-
kimo
Southwestern
and Mexican
Indians
Sioux
Old Ameri-
can whites
12 other groups
of whites
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Hand index...
49.6
47.5
45.9
44.8
47.6
47.6
45.4
47.6-50.3
72 Sioux males: U.iO.
246
ANTHEOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
The foot. — The foot of the western Eskimo, like his hand, is both
absohitely and relatively to stature rather short, but it is broad,
giving a high breadth-length index. Its actual breadth perceptiblj^
exceeds that of the much taller old American whites, though not
I'eaching that of any of the immigrant laborers.
Contrary to what was seen in the case of the hand, the relative
))roportions of the Eskimo foot, as expressed by the index, are almost
identical with those of the southwestern and Mexican Indians. The
Sioux foot is relatively longer, and so is that of whites except
southern Italians, who, though their foot as a whole is larger, give
the same index as the Eskimo.
Foot
Western
Eskimo
16 tribes of
southwestern
and Mexican
Indians
Old Americans
12 groups
of immi-
grant
whites
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Left foot:
24.23
9.72
22.13
8.70
25.42
10.15
23.30
9.07
15. OS
26.12
9.49
H.S7
23.33
8.36
Breadth . __.
Percentage relation foot length- stature. -
15.S6-ie.7S
Western
Eskimo
Southwest-
ern and
Mexican
Indians
Sioux
Old American
whites
12 other groups
of whites
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
Males
Fe-
males
40. 1
39.3
39.9
38.9
37.1
36.3
36.8
37. 9-40. 1
72 Sioux males: IS. 40.
Girth of the calf. — The western Eskimo, lilce the American Indi-
ans, are characterized by a rather slender calf. The size of the
calf correlates in a large measure with stature. Reducing our meas-
urements to calf girth-stature ratios, these are seen to be much alike
in the three racial groups used for comparison, namely the Eskimo,
the Indian, and the old American white. But this is deceptive.
The correlation of size of calf with stature is not uniform (see " Old
Americans," p. 348) for all stature groups; as the scale in stature
descends the calf is relatively stouter. If we take white Americans
of approximately the same stature with the Eskimo here considered,
there appears a higher ratio, showing that stature for stature the
girth of the calf of the Eskimo is smaller, notwithstanding his gen-
erally more ample supply of adipose tissue. Once more his relation
HRDLU'KA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
247
is closer with the Indian. The Eskimo and the Indian women
are especially much alike, while the white women make a marked
exception — their calfs (as well as thighs) have more fat than is
found in those of their Eskimo and Indian sisters.
Measurements of the Leg
Western Eskimo
Southwestern and
Mexican Indians
(16 tribes)
Old white
Americans
Maximum girth of left calf. _
Percentage relation to stature.
Percentage relation to stat-
ure in those approaching
the Eskimo stature
Females v. males (M = 100)-
Male
33. 6
20. 7
Female
3L 4
20. 6
Male
34. 1
20. 52
Female
32
20.54
Male
36. 1
20. 3
Female
35. 5
21. 95
1.6
2.3
93. 5
93. 9
98. S
I
Physiological Observations
Due to various difficulties which do not exist to that extent elsewhere,
the physiological observations on the Eskimo are neither as numerous
or extended as would be desirable; yet there are some data of value.
They extend to the pulse, resijiration, temperature, and dynamome-
tric tests of hand pressure. They were made mainly on St. Law-
rence and Nunivak Islands, by Moore, Collins, and Stewart. They
quite agree, especially after elimination of some records that are
clearly erroneous or abnormal. The tests should be extended with
even more rigid precautions in future work among the Eskimo.
The results are given below. They were all made in the summer
season and on healthy subjects, yet there were numerous indications
of temporary disorders, pathological or functional. Even after a
careful elimination of the obvious cases of such disorders not a few
minor irregularities have doubtless remained, so that the data can
not be taken for more than fairly close approximations to the normal.
The data show remarkably low pulse, respiration rate and tem-
perature close to those of whites, with a submedium hand pressure.
(For comparative data see "Old Americans.'") The low pulse is
also characteristic in the Indian, as I have repeatedly pointed out
before (see especially my " Physiological and Medical Observations
among the Indians," etc.. Bull. 34, Bur. Amer. Ethn., Washington,
1908).
The dynamometric tests agree also better with those on the Indians
than with those on whites; they are valid only as to the hands, and
they embody not only the strength of the muscles but also that of the
conscious impulse behind them. The age factor, of importance, does
not here enter materially into the case.
248
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[BTH. ANN. 40
Pttlbb, Respiration, Tempekature, and Stretngth
ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND ESKIMO
MALES ALL
strength (Collins dynamometer)
Pressure right hand
Pressure left hand
(63)
(54)
(61)
(60)
(60)
62. 1
20. 1
98. 64
34. 36
28. 75
(40-78)
(15-25)
(97. 6-99. 4)
(19. 5-45. 5)
(19. 5-44)
(47)
(47)
(47)
(57)
(57)
♦61.3
♦20.4
* 98. 84
* 34. 34
* 29. 78
7EMALES SUSPICIOUS CASES ELIMINATED
(25)
72.4
(54-84)
(25)
20
(15-23)
(25)
99. 13
(98. 4-99. 9)
*
(47)
20. 13
(14. 5-29)
(47)
16.81
(12-22. 5)
NUNIVAK ISLAND ESKIMO
Pulse'
Respiration ^
Temperature ^
Males
(6)
63. 2
(52-68)
(6)
18.2
(16-21)
(6)
98.05
(97. 8-98. 4)
» Sitting, at rest, no signs of any health disorder.
^ Sitting, at rest.
3 Sitting, at rest, sub lingua.
* Subjects where all three determinations were not possible
and the most suspicious ones (abnormally above or below the
mean) eliminated.
The details of these six records were :
Age (year)
Time of day
(p. m.)
Pulse
Respi-
ration
Tem-
pera-
ture
40
33
19
45
40
4.40
2
2.30
1.25
1.30
60
66
88
68
64
21
18
18
18
(14)
98.1
97.8
98.2
98.4
97.8
In connection with the pressure tests in the two hands, some inter-
esting comparisons are possible between the Eskimo here dealt with
and the old white Americans. As all the tests were made with the
same instrument and method the results inspire confidence. It is in
details of this nature that the anthropologist finds again and again
the most striking proofs of the basal unity of the living races and
their necessarily common origin somewhere in the past.
HRDLIlKA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
249
Pbessube Foecb in the Hands in thb WESTsatN Eskimo and Old White
Americans
Western Eskimo
Male Female
Old Americans
Male female
Pressure:
Right hand
Left hand
Percentage relation of left to right
Percentage relation of female to male (M
100):
Right hand
Left hand
Kg.
34. 36
28. 75
S3. 7
Kg.
20. 13
16.81
83.5
Kg.
41. 8
36. 1
86. 4
Kg.
23. 3
19. 4
83.6
55.8
53. 7
55.5
53. 7
Summary of Observations ox the Li\tng Western Eskimo ''
These Eskimo are generally of submedium stature, occasionally
reachinfr medium. The distal parts of their extremities are relatively
short. Walk in adult males somewhat awkward.
In head form they are highly mesocephalic to moderately bra-
chycephalic; the height of the head averages about medium. The
head is of good size, especially when taken in relation to stature.
The forehead is above medium in both height and breadth.
The face is large in all dimensions, generally full and rather
flat. In men it not seldom approaches a square form. The lower
jaw region is largely developed, the angles of the lower jaw are
liroad to protruding.
The nose is of fair breadth, with bridge somewhat narrow above
and on the whole only moderately high. The mouth is large, lips
medium to somewhat above. The ears are long. Beard sparse on
-sides of face, mostly sparse on chin ; mustache sparse and often limited
to tufts above the corners of the mouth. Expression generally good-
natured, smiling.
The chest is large, in females bi"oad, in males especially deep.
There is but a mild lumbar curve and no steatopygy. The lower
limbs in females are less stout and shapely than they are in whites.
The hands and feet are small, but, particularly the foot, relatively
broad.
Temperature and respiration approach those in normal whites,
though they appear frequently to be slightly higher; pulse normally is
slow.
Dynamometric tests of strength (pressure, both hands) give some-
what lower records than in whites.
^ Incorporated in this are writer's own observations.
882.53°— 30 17
250 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. «
Kemaeks
The most noteworthy and important result of these studies on
the living western Eskimo is the evidence, coming to light again
and again, of their fundamental somatic relations to the Indian.
These relations are too numerous and weighty to be accidental. Nor
can tliey be ascribed to mixture with the Indian in such far-away
groups as the St. Lawrence Islanders, who so long as known have
never had any direct or even indirect contact with Indians. These
relations in dimensions and relative proportions of the body, and
in ijhysiological characteristics such as the slow normal pulse, are
sui^plemented by many phases of behavior, and often by a more or
less Indianlike physiognomy. They inevitably lead to the con-
clusion that the Eskimo and the Indian are in the root members of
the same family. They are two digits of the same hand, separate
and diverging, yet at base joined to and derived from the same
source. And this source, according to many indications, is the
paleoasiatic, "mongoloid," stem of northern Asia. The western
Eskimo shows to be nearer this source than his more northern and
northeastern relatives, indicating either that he is a later comer, or,
\vhich is more probable, that he has changed less in the south than
in the north. It may be possible to say something more on this
subject after the skeletal remains have been considered.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 45
YOUNG WOMAN. NORTHERN BERING SEA REGION
(Photo by Lomen Bros.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 46
Young Women, full-blood Eskimos, Seward Penjnsula
(Photo by Lomen Bros.)
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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 50
n. Yukon Eskimo, below Paimute. (A. H., 102'1)
b, Norton yound Eskimo woman and cbild. (A. H.> 1926)
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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 54
ESKIMO. INDIANLIKE; NORTHERN BERING SEA REGION
(Photo by Lomen Bros.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 55
ESKIMO, INDIANLIKE: NORTHERN BERING SEA REGION
(Photo by Lomen Bros.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 56
ESKIMO. INDIANUIKE; ARCTIC REGION
(Photo by Lomen Bros.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 57
SIBERIAN Eskimo and Child. Indian Type
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 58
a, Mrs. Sage, Kevaliaa. Fine Indian type. Boid on Nolak. Both
parents Notak " Eskimo." (A. H., 1926.)
6, Eskimo family, Indianlike; near Barrow. (A. H., 1926.)
urdliTka 1
PHYSICAL, ANTHEOPOLOGY
251
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252
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IX ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
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URDI.Il'KA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
253
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254 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 4o
Present Data on the Skull and other Skeleital Remains of the
Western Eskimo
the skull
Until recently collections of skeletal remains of the western Eskimo
were confined largely to skulls. The material in our own institutions
comprised a small collectiim of Mahlemut (St. Michael Island) and
"Chukchee '' (Asiatic Eskimo) crania made in the early sixties by
W. H. Dall; a larger series of crania gathered in 1881 on St. Michael
and St. Lawrence I.slands by E. W. Nelson; 28 skulls with 3 skeletons
brought in 1898 by E. A. Mcllheny from Point Barrow; a valu-
able lot of skulls from Indian Point, Siberia, with a few from St.
Lawrence Island, collected by W. Bogoras ; and some scattered speci-
mens by otlier explorers. To this were added in 1912 an important
collection of skulls, with a few skeletons, made by Riley D. Moore, at
that time my aide, on St. Lawrence Island ; an important lot of crania
gathered a few years later by V. Stef ansson at Point Barrow ; and a
third large and highly interesting lot, this time of both skulls and
skeletons, collected near Barrow for the University Museum at Phila-
delphia in 1917-1919 by W. B. Van Valin. But none of the later ma-
terial was described execepting the Mcllheny collection which, in 1916.
was reported ujDon by E. W. Hawkes.""
During the survey wliich is the subject of this report a special
effort was made to collect all the older skeletal material along the
Bering Sea and Arctic coasts that could be reached, and the result
was the bringing back of some 450 crania, nearly 50 with skeletons,
and many separate parts of the skeleton ; nearly all of the specimens
proceeding from localities thus far not i-epresented in the collections.
To which were added in 1927 nearly 200 skulls with a good number
of skeletons gathered by H. B. Collins, jr., assistant curator in the De-
partment of Anthropology, United States National Museum, and my
aide, T. D. Stewart, on Nunivak Island and along the west coast of
Alaska from Bristol Bay to near the Yukon delta."""
We tlms have now a relatively vast amount of skeletal material on
the western Eskimo; it is essentially a virginal material; it is well
identified as to locality; and the specimens are mostly in very good
condition.
Aside from Hawkes's thesis, nothing of note had been published
On these collections until 1924, when the first number of my Cata-
logue of Human Crania in the United States National Museum Col-
lections appeared, which includes the principal measurements on
•" Skeletal Measurements and Observations of the Point Barrow Eskimo, Amer. Anthrop.,
n s. XVIII, pp. 203-244. Lancaster, 1916.
""■ In 1(128 Mr. Collins brought another important accession to these collections.
hrdliCka] physical ANTHROPOLOGY 255
290 skulls of the western Eskimo. Since then, in view of the grow-
ing importance of the subject, I have remeasurecl every specimen
reported before; have measured personally all the new collections;
and thanks to the kindness of those in charge have been enabled to
extend the measurements to all the collections of Eskimo crania,
both from Alaska and elsewhere, that were preserved up to the
spring of 1928 at the National Museum at Ottawa, the American
Museum of Natural History of New York, and the Wistar Institute
of Philadelphia, which now contains the University Museum collec-
tions. The total records reach now to 1,283 adult skulls from prac-
tically all important parts of the total Eskimo area, besides a con-
siderable quantity of other bones of the skeleton. The main results
of the work will be given here, the detailed measurements being re-
served for another number of the Catalogue.
To save reiwtitions and possible confusion and to show more clearly
the status of the southwestern and midwestern Eskimo, the entire
cranial material will be dealt with in this section, and previous
records on the northeastern and a few other groups of the Eskimo
will not be drawn upon to preserve the advantage of dealing with
data obtained by the same methods, instruments, and observer.
In presenting the records it is found expedient, both on geo-
grajihical and anthropological grounds, to make but three groupings.
The first of these comprises the Eskimo from their southernmost
limit to Norton Sound and the Bering Sea islands ; the second group
takes in Seward Peninsula (or the larger part of it) and the Arctic
coast to Point Barrow; while the third embraces all the Eskimo
east of Point Barrow. The first of these three groups is i-emarkably
homogeneous, the second and third show each some exceptional units.
It may be said at once that the dialectic subdivisions of Dall,
Nelson, and others, in a large majority of cases are not found to be
accompanied by corresponding physical differences, so that in a
somatological classification they become submerged.
SKULL SIZE
The external size of the .skull is best expressed by the cranial
module or mean of the three jjrincipal diameters; the internal size,
respectively the volume of the brain, by the "cranial capacity."
The module among the southwestern and midwestern Eskimo aver-
ages 15.44 centimeters in the males and 14.77 centimeters in the fe-
males. For people of submedium .stature these are good dimensions.
Fifty-two male and 40 female skulls of the much taller Sioux (writ-
er's unpublished data) give the modules of only 15.2.5 and 14.27 centi-
meters; while 6 male and 9 female Munsee Indians, also tall,^ give
1 Bull. 62. Bur. Amer. Etta., p. 22. Nos. 320-313.
256 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
practically the same values as these Eskimos, namel.y 15.48 centi-
meters for the males and 14.75 centimeters for the females.
Not all the western groups, however, give equally favorable pro-
portions. In general, the coast people below Norton Sound, and
especially below the Yukon, give, so far as the males are concerned,
the lowest values. It is interesting to note that it is precisely these
people who among the western Eskimo are reputed to be about
the lowest also in culture. The Togiak and near-by Kulukak males
showed, as seen before, also about the smallest head in the living.
The St. Lawrence Island males stand just about the middle, but
the females of this island, as, interestingly, also in the living, show
markedly less favorably. The Nunivak sloills, as with the living, are
somewhat above the average, while in the small Pilot Station
(Yukon) group, just as in the near-by contingent of Marshall among
the living, the males have the largest heads in this western territory.
The lower Yukon Eskimo were also shown, it may be recalled, to be
of a higher stature than the majority of the coast people. It is a
group that deserves further attention.
The module of the female skull does not evidently stand always
in harmony with that of the male. The most striking example of
this is shown, as already mentioned, by the St. Lawrence Island
females, both skulls and the living. The females of this isolated
island are also unduly short, but their small head is not entirely
due to the defective stature. There must exist on this island, it would
seem, some conditions that are disadvantageous to the female. In
the small groups, such as that from the Little Diomede, the dishar-
monies are doubtless partly due to small numbers of specimens, but
there may also be other factors, such as the bringing in of women
from other places.-
Taking the mean of all the groups equalizes conditions, and it is
seen that the module in both sexes is almost identical with that of
the more northern groups, to Point Barrow. But the north Arctic
and northeastern groups give a cranial module that in both sexes is
somewhat higher, though their stature, according to the available
data (Deniker, Boas, Duckworth, Steensby, Thalbitzer), is not
superior.
A very remarkable showing is that of the percentage relation of the
female to male skull size in the three large gi'oupings. In the first two
it is identical, in the third it differs less than could confidently be ex-
pected among the closest relatives. Another remarkable fact is that
this important relation is found to be much like that in the Eskimo
in various groups of Indians ; thus it was 96 in the Indians of
' More or less danger in such cases as these lies in erroneous sexing of the skulls. Due
to experience, care, and especially to the relatively numerous accompanying Imnes or
skeletons, this danger in the present series has been reduced to the minimum.
HRDLIllKA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
257
Arkansas and Louisiana," .9J.-5 in the Munsee of New Jersey,^ and 96.It
in the Indian skulls of California/ But it is only 93.G in the Sioux
(52 male. 40 female skulls) and differs more or less also in other
tribes and peoples. A comprehensive study of this relation, with
due respect to age, will some day well repay the effort.
T. ^ HT /L + B + H\
Eskimo: Cranial Module I ^ I
MALES IN ASCENDING ORDER
Southwestern and inidwesteTU
Togiak
Mumtrak
Southwestern .41aska
Hooper Bay
St. Michael Island
Little Diomede Island..
Pastolik and Yukon
Delta
St. Lawrence Island
Golovnin Bay to Cape
Nome
Males
(5)
15.21
(4)
15.22
(3)
15. 25
(9)
15.30
(8)
15.30
(5)
15. 33
(14)
15.34
(145)
15.42
(4)
15.52
Females
(7)
14.73
(6)
14.68
(2)
14.90
(4)
14.68
(6)
14.72
(7)
15.09
(20)
14.83
(128)
14.27
(2)
14.65
Males
Females
(46)
(70)
Nuni vak Island
15.53
14.90
(13)
(16)
Indian Point (Siberia)..
15. 54
14 88
(3)
(2)
Chukchee
15.56
15.05
(4)
(1)
Port Clarence
15. 57 (14 57)
(9)
(16)
Nelson Island
15.59
14 64
(3)
(3)
Pilot Station, Yukon
15. 91
15
General averages, ap-
(275)
(290)
proximately
16. U
H. 77
Females vs. males (M =
100)
95. 7
Northwestern
(2) (1)
Kotzebue Sound 15.05(14 67)
(12) (8)
Shishmaref 15.19 14 71
(132) (84)
Point Hope 15.37 14 72
(47) (52)
Point Barrow 15. 45 14 75
(35) (34)
Barrow and vicinity 15. 46 14. 66
(27)
Old Igloos near Barrow. 15. 52
(19)
Wales 15. 66
General averages, ap- (274)
proximatelj' 15. 39
Females vs. males (M =
100) 96.
(24)
14 72
(14)
14 86
(217)
11 73
Northern and northeastern
(49) (52)
Greenland 15.51 14 72
Hudson Bay and vi- (5) (2)
cinity 15.55 14 57
Baffin Land and vl- (16) (17)
cinity 15.55 15.04
(6) (10)
Northern .'Arctic 15. 63 14 85
'Bull. 62, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 23.
Southampton Island
(9) (6)
15. 65 15. 18
(7) (2)
Smith Sound 15.81 15.15
General averages, ap- (92) (89)
proximately 15.62 14.92
Females vs. males (M =
100) 95.5
•Cat. Crania. U. S. Nat. Mus.. No. 2.
258 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUT?VEY IN ALASKA [BTH. ann. «
MODTILE AND CAPACITT
A comparison of considerable interest is also that of the cranial
module or mean diameter, to the capacity of the same skulls. This
comparison reveals an important sex factor.^ Relatively to the
module, the capacity is very appreciably smaller in the female than it
is in the male. This is a universal condition to which, so far as known,
there are occasional individual but no group exceptions. It appears
very clearly in the Eskimo. In 283 western male Eskimo skulls in
which we have so far measured the capacity," the module averages
15.38 centimeters, the capacity 1.490 cubic centimeters; while
in 382 female skulls thus far gauged the former averages 14.82
centimeters, the latter 1,337 cubic centimeters. The percentage
relation of the capacity to the module, the numbers taken
as a whole, is 9&.S in the males but only 9()£ in the females. This
means that relatively to the external size of the skull the female
Eskimo brain is 6.66 per cent smaller. Similar sex disproportion
exists in other American groups as well as elsewhere. Some day
when suitable data accumulate it will be of much interest to study
this condition on a wider scale.
ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON CRANIAL MODULE
Befoj-e we leave this subject, it may be well to point out two note-
worthy facts apparent from the data on the northwestern and north-
eastern groups. The first is that the figures on both sexes from
Barrow and Point Barrow are very nearly the same, suggesting
strongly the identity of the people of the two settlements; and the
Point Hope group is in close relation. The second fact is the curious
identity of the old Igloo group. 8 miles southwest of Barrow, with
the Gi'eenlanders. The import of this will be seen later.
SKULL SHAPE
Utilizing the materials of the Otis and Barnard Davis Catalogues
and with measurements taken for him on additional specimens in
several of our museums, Boas, in 1895 (Verb. Berl. anthrop. Ges.,
398), as already mentioned, reported the cranial index of 37 " west-
ern Eskimo " skulLs of both sexes (without giving localities or de-
tails) as 77. He also reports in the same place (p. 391) the cephalic
index of 61 probably male living "Alaska Eskimo," again without
locality, as 79.2. These i-ather high indices and the relatively elevated
stature (61 subjects, 165.8 centimeters) lead him to believe (p. 376)
'• See writer's " Relation of the Size of the Head and Skull to Capacity in the Two
Sexes," Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 1925, viil. No. 3.
" All measured de novo by my aide, T. D. .Stewart ; for procedure see my "An-
thropometry."
BKDLiiT'KA] PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 259
that both are probalilj' due to an admixture with the Alaskan Indian,
though the report contains no measurements of the latter.
The data that it is now possible to present may perhaps throw a
new light on the matter. As was already seen in part from the data
on the living, the head resp. the skull tends to relative shortness
and broadness throughout the southwestern, midwestern, and Bering
Sea region (excepting parts of tlie Seward Peninsula). Important
groups in this region, ^particularly those on some of the islands, had
little or no contact with the Indian. The cranial index in most of
the groups of the southwestern and midwestern Eskimo equals or
even exceeds that of the Indian. And Eskimo groups with a rela-
tively elevated cranial index are met with even in the far north, as
at Point Hope, Hudson Bay, and Smith Sound." Finally, the
shorter and broader head connects with that of the Asiatic Eskimo
and that of the Chukchee, as well as other northeastern Asiatics.^
The records now available show the highest cranial indices to
occur on the coast between Bristol Bay and the Yukon and on lower
Yukon itself, while the lowest indices of the midwest area, though
still mesocranic, occur in the aggregate of Nunivak Island and the
mouths of the Yukon. Another geographical as well as somatologi-
cal aggregate is that of the people of the St. Lawrence and Diomeile
Islands and of Indian Point, Siberia, tlie cranial index in these three
localities being identical.
Eskimo: Cranial Index
Mean of both sexes /Male + female index\ ^^ ^ 281 adult skulls
IN DESCENDING ORDER
Southwestern and midwestern
(11)
Togiak SO. 1
(13)
Hooper Bay 79. 7
(10)
Mumtrak 79. 6
(6)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon 79. 3
(5)
Chukchee (Siberia) 78. 6
(26)
Nelson Island 78
(6)
Southwestern Alaska 77. 7
(32)
Indian Point (Siberia) 77. 4
(12)
Little Diomede Island 77. 4
(299)
St. LawTenee Island 77. 2
(5)
Port Clarence 76. 6
(34)
Pastolik and Yiikon Delta 76. 1
(14)
St. Michael Island 75. 7
(116)
Nunivak Island 75. 6
■^ Compnre writer's ".\n Eskimo rtrnin,"' Amer. Anthrop. n. .s.. vol. ni, pp. 454—500,
Ntw York, 1901 ; and bis " Contribution to the Autliropology of Central and Smith Sound
Eskimo," Anthrop. Papers, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., v, pt. 2, New York, 1910.
* Compare, besides present data, measurements by Bogoras in his report on " The
Chukrhee," Mem. .Vm. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1904-9, xi, p. 33 ; 148 male and 49 female adults
gave him the mean stature of 162.2 and —152, the mean cephalic index of 82 and S1.8.
260 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
NoHhweslern
(222)
Point Hope 76.
Kotzebue Sound and Kobuk (3)
River 75. 4
(22)
Shishmaref 74. 5
(101)
Point Barrow 74. 1
(73)
Barrow 73. 5
(33)
Wales 73. 5
(7)
Golovnin Bav *°72. 6
(52)
Igloos, southwest of Barrow 69. 7
Northern and northeastern
(15)
Northern Arctic 73. 6
(33)
Baffin Land and vicinity 73. 2
(101)
Greenland 71. 9
(7)
Hudson Bay and vicinity 76. 3
(9)
Smith Sound 76. 2
(15)
Southampton Island 74. 8
The Seward Peninsula shows sudden differences. There are a
few localities along its southern coast where the cranial type belongs
apparently to the Bering Sea and southern area. One site at Port
Clarence was one of these. But already at Golovnin Bay, which
is not far from Norton Sound and St. Michael Island, and according
to the evidence of the most recent collections (Collins 1928), also
at Sledge Lsland, there is a sudden a^jpearance of marked dolicho-
crany, which is repeated at Wales, on the western extremity of the
peninsula, approached at Shishmaref, the main Eskimo settlement
on its northern shore, and, judging from some fragmentary material
seen at the eastern end of the Salt Lake, also in the interior. The
cause of this distinctive feature in the Seward Peninsula is for the
jjresent elusive. The little known territory urgently needs a thor-
ough exploration.
The distribution of the cranial index farther north along the
western coast shows several points of interest. The first is the
exceptional position of Point Hope, one of the oldest and most popu-
lous settlements in these regions, which by its cranial index seems
to connect with the Bering Sea groups. The second is the closeness,
once more, of Bari-ow and Point Barrow. The third and greatest
is the presence, in a small cluster of old igloos 8 miles down the coast
from Barrow, of a 'group of people that finds no counterpart in its
cranial index and, as will be seen later, also in some other character-
istics, in the entire western region; in fact, in the whole Eskimo
territory outside of Greenland. As noted before, the size of the head
in this group is also closest to that of Greenland. These peculiar
facts indicate a problem that will call for separate consideration.
'" Including 4 female skulls collected by Collins in 1928 and received too late for general
inchLsion into these series.
BRDLirKA] PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 261
The northern and northeastern groups, with the exception of the
mesocranic Hudson Bay and Smith Sound contingents, and the very
dolichocranic Greenlanders, show dolichocrany much the same as
that of Barrow and Point Barrow.
HEIGHT or THE SKULL
This is a measurement of mucli vahie, both alone and as a sup-
plement to the cranial index, for skulls with the same index may be
high or low and thus really of a radically distinct type.
The height of the vault is best studied in its relation to the other
cranial dimensions, particularly to the mean of the length and
breadth, with both of which it correlates. But in the Eskimo it is
also of interest to compare the height with the breadth of the skull
alone. The former relation is known as the mean height index
and the latter as the height-breadth index. Both mean the per-
centage value of the basion-bregma height as comjiared to the other
dimensions.
TT
The mean height index -Tnf-f T^r~rTT\> advocated independ-
'^ (Mean of JL + B) ^
ently by the writer since 1916 (Bull. 62, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 116),
is proving of much value in differentiation of types and has already
become a j^ermanent feature in all writers' work on the skull.
There is a corresponding index also on the living.
In the American Indian the averages of the index range from
approximately 76 to 90. (See Catalogue of Crania, U. S. Nat. Mus.,
Nos. I and II.) Where the series of specimens are sufficiently large
the index does not differ materially in the two sexes. Indices below
80 may Jae regarded as low, those between 80 and 84 as medium,
and those above 84 as high."
The southwestern and midwestern Eskimo skulls show mean
height indices that may be characterized as moderate to slightly above
medium. In general the broader and shorter skulls show lower
indices, aj^proaching thus in all the characters of the vault the
Mongolian skulls of Asia. (Compare Catalogue Crania, U. S. Nat.
Mus., No. I.) The Indian Point, St. Lawrence Island, and Little
Diomede Island skulls are again, as with the cranial index, very close
together, strengthening the evidence that the three constitute the
same group of people. (Pis. 59, 60.)
The northwestern Eskimo and most of those of the northeast
have relatively high vault. Barrow and Point Barrow are once
more almost the same. The Point Hope group shows a high vault,
though also rather broad. The somewhat broad Hudson Bay crania
"These subdivisions are somewhat arbitrary and may, as data accumulate and are
better understood, be found to need some modification.
262
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 4(5
are but moderately high, like those of the southwestern Eskimo. The
northern Arctic skulls give smaller height than would be expected
"with their type; the Southampton Island specimens give higher.
The old Igloo groujD from near Barrow stands again close to Green-
land; its skull is even a trace narrower and higher, standing in both
respects at the limits of the Eskimo. The whole, as with the cranial
index, shows evidently a rich field of evolutionary conditions.
Eskimo: Cranial Meam Height Index
(H-Floor-Line of Aud. Meatus to BgXIOO)
Mean of L + B
mean of both sexes in ascending order
Southwestern and midwestern
(11)
Togiak 81. 8
(2.5)
Nelson Island 82. 1
(6)
Southwest Alaska 82. 3
(6)
Pilot Station, Yukon 82. 3
(10)
Mumtrak 82. 5
(13)
Hooper Bay 82. 7
(116)
Nunivak Island 83. 3
(5)
Chnkchee 83. 3
(34)
Pastolik ajid Yukon Delta 83. 4
(4)
Port Clarence 83. 4
(29)
Indian Point (Siberia) 83.8
(279)
St. Lawrence Island 84. 1
(12)
Little Diomede Island 84. 5
(14)
St. Micliael Island 85. 1
Northwestern
(69)
Barrow 83. 8
(99)
Point Barrow 84. 1
Kotzebue Sound and Kobuk (2)
River 84.4
(20)
Shislimaref 84. 5
(33)
Wales 85.
(216)
Point Hope 85.7
(4)
Golovnin Bav-Cape Nome 85. 9
(51)
Igloos, southwest of Barrow 86. 3
Northern and northeastern
(7)
Hudson Bay and vicinity 82. 2
(15)
Northern Arctic 82. 7
(33)
Baffin Land and vicinity 84. 4
(0)
Smith Sound 85. 1
(101)
Greenland 85. 1
(15)
Soutliampton Island 85. 5
The height-breadth index - — ^^r — of the Eskimo skull shows in
substance the same conditions as did the mean height index, but
o
a.
u
a:
_]
<
3
Z
Z
•<
X
p
z
in
I)
a.
o
a.
<
Z
Z
<
>■
I-
a.
o
u.
>■
a
o
o
z
I
hrdhOka]
PHYSICAL, ANTHROPOLOGY
263
while less informative or dependable on one side, on the other it
accentuates the relative narrowness of the skull in some of the
groups.
Eskimo: Height-Breadth Index of the Skull
mean of both sexes in ascending order
Southweslern and midwestern
(12)
Togiak 91.9
(6)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon.,- 92.8
(10)
Mumtrak 93. 1
(5)
Chukchee 93. 1
(13)
Hooper Bav 93. 2
(25)
Nelson Island 93. 7
(5)
Yukon Delta 94.7
(5)
Southwest .41aska 95. 2
(12)
Little Diomede Island 96. 3
(279)
St. Lawrence Island 96. 5
(116)
Nunivak Island 96.7
(31)
Indian Point (Siberia) 96. 7
(29)
Pastolik 96. 8
(6)
Cape Nome and Port Clarence.. 97.
(14)
St. Michael Island 98. 2
Northwestern
(99)
Point Barrow 98.7
(69)
Barrow 98. 8
(20)
Shishmaref 98. 9
• (216)
Point Hope 99. 2
Kotzebue Sound and Kobuk (3)
River 99.6
(33)
Wales 100. 3
(51)
Igloos, southwest of Barrow 105.
Northern and eastern
(7)
Hudson Bav and vicinity 95. 3
(16)
North Arctic 97. 8
(9)
Smith Sound 98. 3
(15)
Southampton Island 99-8
(33)
Baffin Land and vicinity 99. 9
(101)
Greenland 101. 8
THE FACE
The facial dimensions of the Eskimo skull offer a number of points
of unusual interest. The face is absolutely and especially relatively
to stature very large in all measurements. It is particularly high
between the upper alveolar point and nasion.
The large size of the Eskimo face will best be appreciated from
a few ficrures.
264
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
Facial Dimensions of the Western and Otheb Eskimo Crania Compared
With Those of the Siouan and Algonquian Tribes
Southwestern and
midwestern Eskimo
Eskimo in general
Siouan
tribes
Algonquian
tribes
Mean of 14
groups
(male)
10 groups
(female)
27 groups
(male)
22 groups
(female)
12 groups
(male)
15 groups
(male)
Total height (ment.-
nas.). --
12.60
7.87
14.25
U. 06
(11. 63)
(7. 29)
(13. 27)
(10. 28)
12. 52
7.79
14.26
11.03
(11. 59)
(7. 21)
(13. 22)
(10. 22)
12. 26
7. 52
14. 16
10.84
12. 11
Upper height (alv. pt.-
iias.)
7.35
Diameter bizyg. max..
Module of upper face
(U. H. + B)
13. 89
10. 62
2
So far as known there are no larger faces among the Indians than
those of the Sioux, yet they remain very perceptiblj^, in all three
measurements, Iwhind the Eskimo. No face as large as that of the
Eskimo is known, in fact, from anywhere else in the world. In
whites the mean diameter of the largest faces (see data in Martin's
Lehrbuch Anthi-op., 789-791) does not exceed 10.36 centimeters.
The above showing assumes especial weight when it is recalled that
both the Siouan and the Algonquian tribes are among the tallest there
are on the American Continent. The cause of the large size of the
Eskimo face can only be the excessive use of the jaws; no other
reason even suggests itself. But the character may already be more
or less iiereditary. It furnishes another attractive subject for further
investigation.
With its large dimensions the face of the Eskimo skull presents
generally also large orbits, large molars, submedium prominence and
breadth of the nasal bridge, shallow suborbital (canine) fossae, large
dental arch above medium teeth, and a large and stout lower jaw
with broad not seldom more or less everted angles, giving the whole
a characteristic appearance. With partial exception of the orbits
and the nose, which are subject also to other factors, all these features
of the Eskimo face are explainable as .strengthenings resulting from
the increased function of mastication.
The main dimensions of the cranial face in the three large group-
ings of the Eskimo are given in the next table.
iinDii.KA] PHYSICAL ANTHEOPOLOGT 265
Western and Other Eskimo: Facial Dimensions in the Skull
Males
Men-
ton-
nasioD
Alve-
olar
point-
nasion
Diam
eter
bizy-
gomatic
maxi-
mum
Cranial facial
index
Total Upper
Females
Men-
ton-
nasion
Alve-
olar
point-
niision
Diam'
eter
bizy-
gomatic
maxi-
mum
Cranial facial
index
Total
Upper
Groups
Southwestern and
midwestern
Groups
Northwestern
Groups
North Arctic and
northeastern
(9)
12.60
(5)
12.58
(5)
12.22
(14)
(7)
7.73
(6)
7.69
(14)
14.25
(7)
14.23
(6)
14.32
(8)
(5)
88. S
(5)
(14)
65. S
(7)
51 i
(6)
53.7
(8)
11.63
(2)
11.55
(3)
11.61
(10)
7.29
(7)
7.19
(5)
7.13
(10)
13.27
(7)
13.18
(6)
13.15
(8)
87.7
(2)
(3)
86.7
(10)
SI
(7)
Si. 6
(5)
5i.2
These data show a number of interesting conditions. The heijjht
of the upper face (alveolar point-nasion) is greatest in the south-
western and midwestern groups, is slightly lower in the northwest-
erniers, and still further slightly lower in the north Arctic and the
northeast. On the other hand the facial breadth is slightly higher
in the north and east, and that although the vault has become
mostly decidedly narrower.
These facts are shown best by the upper facial index, which in the
males descends quite perceptibly in the west from the south to the
north and in the Arctic from the west to the east. In the females
there is a parallel gradual diminution in the upper facial height
from the south to the north and then east, but the facial breadth
diminishes very slightly also instead of increasing, as a result of
which the upper facial index shows only minor diiferences ; yet these
differences are in the same direction as those in the males.
These matters are involved with a number of factors — the stature,
the breadth of the vault, and the development and direct influence
of the temporal muscles, besides hereditary conditions. Their proper
study will necessitate even more — in fact, much more — material than
is now at our disposal.
The following table gives the distribution of the upper cranial
facial index in the various gi'ouiTs. Of the two indices that of the
whole face, including the lower jaw, is the less valuable; first, because
the jaw is often absent ; second, because it is influenced by the height
of the lower jaw, which does not con-elate perfectly with the upper;
and third, on account of the wear of the teeth, which in such people
as the Eskimo is very common and diminishes more or less the total
height of the face. Its averages in the three main gi-oupings have
already been given. Its figures are not very exceptional.
88253°— 30 18
266
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IS 4.LASKA.
[ETH. ANN. 46
Eskimo Skulls: Facial Index, Upper
mean of both sexes in ascending order
Southwestern and midwestern
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon.
(6)
53. 6
(5)
Cape Nome and Port Clarence. 54.
(10)
Hooper Bay 54.4
(9)
Mumtrak 54. 5
(93)
Nunivak Island 54. 6
(262)
St. Lawrence Island 54. 9
(8)
Togiak and vicinity 55.
(24)
Indian Point (Siberia) 55. 1
(23)
Nelson Island 55. 2
(4)
Southwestern Alaska 55. 4
(10)
St. Michael Island 55. 5
(25)
Pastolik 55. 7
(4)
Chukchee 55. 8
(11)
Little Diomede Island 56.
Norlhu'estern
(190)
Point Hope 52. 8
(2)
Kotzebue 53. 7
(17)
Shishmaref 54. 1
(42)
Igloos north of Barrow 54. 1
(41)
Barrow 54. 8
(75)
Point Barrow 55. 2
(31)
Wales 55. 4
Northern and northeastern
(9)
Smith South .. 51. 7
(14)
Southampton Island 52. 3
(23)
Baffin Land and vicinity 53. 8
(90)
Greenland 54. 1
(7)
Hudson Bay and vicinity 54. 3
(11)
Northern Arctic 56.6
The upper facial index of the Eskimo skull i.s hiph, thf)U<:h there is
considerable group variation. The reason is the height of the upper
face, for which the accompanying considerable expansion of the zygo-
matic arches does not fully compensate. In the white groups this
index ranges from approximately 50 to 54; it averages 5'2S in 15
Algonquian and 53.1 in 12 Siouan tribes. The means in the large
Eskimo groupings are from a little below 5Jf to a little over 55. Its
regional differences have already been mentioned. Sex differences
in the index are very small. There are a number of points of signifi-
cant agreement, the foremost of which is once more that in the
case of Barrow and Point Barrow, and especially that of the Old
Igloos near Barrow and Greenland.
hbdliCka]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
267
THE XCSE
Equally as engaging as the whole face of the Eskimo skull is the
cranial nose. Our data throw much light on this feature also.
Where the dimensions of the whole face are altered by some cause
the nose can not remain unaffected. This is especially true of its
height, which correlates directly and closely with that of the face
proper; the correlation of the breadth of the nose with that of the
face is weaker and more irregular, but not absent where not counter-
acted by other factors. Accordingly with the high Eskimo upper
face there is found also a high nose, both being the highest known
to anthropometry. But the nasal breadth, instead of responding to
the considerable facial breadth, has become smaller, until in some of
the Eskimo groups it is the smallest of all known human groups.
There is plainly another potent factor in action here. This factor
could conceivably be connected simply with the above-average growth
of the facial bones; but if this were so then individuals with smaller
development of these bones ought to have broader noses, and vice
versa. This point can readily be tested. Taking the largest and best
cranial series, that of St. Lawrence Island, and selecting the skulls
with the smallest and the largest faces, the facts come out as follows :
Smallest development of face
Largest development of face
Face height
(upper)
Face
breadth
Breadth of
nasal aper-
ture
Face height
Face
breadth
Breadth of
nasa! aper-
ture
10 males. _
7.52
6.81
13.64
12.56
2.37
2.37
22. Jt
8.46
7. 54
14.79
14.02
2. 49
10 females , -
2. 40
Percentage relation of
breadth of nose to
mean diameter of
face:
Male
21.4
22.2
Female
1
The above data show that while the narrow nose in the Eskimo is
to some extent affected by the large development in these people of
the facial bones, yet there must be also other factors.
But if not wholly connected with the development of the facial
bones, then some of the causes of the narrow nose in the Eskimo must
either be inherited from far back or must be due to influences outside
the face itself.
Pushing the character far back would be no explanation of its
original cause, but it may be shown that such a procedure would not
be justified. In the following important table are given the now
available data on the breadth of the nasal aperture of the Eskimo,
268
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SXJKVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN". 46
group by group and area by area, and these data show that narrow
nose is by no means universal in this family. The nasal aperture
is broader in the southwest and midwest than in the northwest, and
broader in the latter region than in the Arctic north and the north-
east. In general it is seen that the farther northward and north-
eastward the narrower the nose, until it reaches beyond that of all
other human groups; while in the west and southwest it gradually
ajiproaches until it reaches the nasal breadth of the Indian. And
that this latter condition is not due to Indian admixture is shown
by the fact that among the broadest noses are those of the Eskimo
in Siberia and those on the St. Lawrence Island, where there was
no known contact with the Indian, while the narrower noses are
along the midwestern coast, where Indian admixture might have
been possible.
Eskimo : Breadth of the Nasal Apeetuke
both sexes taken together in descending order
Southwestern and midwestern
(5)
Southwestern Alaska 2. 50
(31)
Indian Point (Siberia) 2. 48
(5)
Chukchee 2. 47
(6)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon 2. 45
(280)
St. Lawrence Island 2. 42
(29)
Pastolik 2. 41
(13)
Hooper Bav 2.39
(10)
Mumtrak 2.38
Cape Nome and Port Clarence.
Nelson Island
Togiak and vicinity
Yukon Delta
Nunivak Island
Little Diomede Island
St. Michael Island
}iorth ivcstern
(3)
Kotzebue 2. 41
(34)
Wales 2. 37
(20)
Shishmaref 2. 36
(56)
Barrow 2.35
Point Hope
Point Barrow
Igloos, north of Barrow.
Northern and northeastern
(9)
Smith Sound 2.29
(15)
Northern Arctic 2. 26
(14)
Southampton Island 2. 25
Baffin Land and vicinity..
Greenland
Hudson Bay and vicinity.
(6)
2.38
(23)
2.37
(9)
2.36
(4)
2.34
(107)
2.33
(11)
2.32
(13)
2. 21
(211)
2.33
(92)
2. 30
(48)
2.30
(29)
2. 25
(98)
2.23
(7)
2. 19
HRDLICKA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
269
It is hardly ijossible. therefore, to assume that a narrow nose is an
ancient inheritance of the Eskimo. From the facts now at hand it
seems much more probable that the Eskimo nose or respiratory nasal
aperture was not originally very narrow, but that it gradually
acquired this character as the people extended farther north and
northeastward; and there appears to be but one potent factor that
could influence this development and that increases from south to
north, namely, cold. A narrowing of the aperture can readily be
understood as a jjrotective development for the throat and the organs
of respiration.
It is not easy to see how the bony structures respond to the eifects of
cold or heat, but that they do, particularly where these are aggravated
by moisture, has long been appreciated, and shown fairly con-
clusively through studies on the nasal index by Thomson and later
by Thomson and Buxton."" An even more satisfactory study would
have been that of the nasal breadth alone. Perhaps the normal
variation with the elimination of the less fit are the main agencies.
The next two tables show other interesting conditions. The first
of these, seen best from the more general data, are the relations of
the nasal dimensions and index in the two sexes. The females in
all the three large groupings have a higher nasal index than the
males. Tliis is a general condition among the Indians as well as in
other races. It is usually due to a relative shortness of the female
nose. This condition is very plain in the Eskimo. The female nose
is actually narrower than the male, due to correlation with shorter
stature and lesser facial breadth, yet the index is higher. The reason
can most simply be shown by comparing the genei'al mean nasal
breadth and height in the two sexes. The breadth in the female is
approximately 96.2 per cent of that in the male; the height is only
92.7 per cent.
Nasal Dimensions in Western and Other Eskimo Crania
Males
Females
Height
Breadth
Index
Height
Breadth
(10)
2.32
Index
Groups - -
(14)
5.46
(14)
2. 42
(14)
44.3
(10)
5.06
(10)
Southwestern and mid-
western --
45.8
Groups
(7)
.5.42
(")
2.37
(7)
43. 7
(6)
5.06
(6)
2.30
(6)
Northwestern
45. 4
Groups ._ .
(6)
5.38
(6)
2.28
(6)
4^.4
(5)
4.95
(5)
2. 18
(5)
Northern Arctic and
northeastern
44-0
"" Thomson, Arthur, The correlation of isotherms with variations in the nasal index.
Proc. Seventeenth Intern. Cong. Med,, London, 1913, Sec. I, Anatomy and Embryology,
pt. II, S9 ; Thomson. Arthur, and Buxton, L. H. D., Man's nasal index in relation to cer-
tain climatic conditions, Journ. Koy. Anthrop. Inst., Liii, 92-122, London, 1923. Addi-
tional references in these publications ; also in the latter an extensive list of data on
nasal index in many parts of the world.
270
ANTHBOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
(ETH. AXN. 46
Detailed group data on the nasal index show that this ranges from
47.7 on the Yukon to Jfl.S in the northernmost contingent of the
Eskimo at Smith Sound. The Kotzebue group that shows even a
higher index than on the Yukon is too small to have much weight.
Barrow and Point Barrow are once more nearly the same, as are the
Old Igloos and Greenland; and there are some other interesting
relations.
Eskimo Skulls : Nasal Index
both sexes taken together in descending order
Southwestern and midwestern
(6)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon 47. 7
(5)
Southwestern Alaska 47. 5
(31)
Indian Point (Siberiaj 46. 5
(13)
Hooper Bav 46. 2
(6)
Cape Nome and Port Clarence _ . 46.
(280)
St. Lawrence Island 46. 8
(5)
Chukchee 45. 6
(10)
Mumtrak 45. 2
(107)
Nunivak Island 45. 1
(9)
Togiak and vicinity 45.
(29)
Pastolik :. 44.9
(23)
Nelson Island 44.6
(11)
Little Dioniede Island 44. 5
(13)
St. Michael Island 42. 9
(4)
Yukon Delta 42.7
North western
(3)
Kotzebue 49.
(20)
Shishmaref 46.
(34)
Wales 45. 3
(211)
Point Hope 44. 9
(56)
Barrow and vicinity 44.
(48)
Igloos north of Barrow 44.0
(92)
Point Barrow 43. 5
Northern and nortlieastern
(7)
Hudson Bay and vicinity 44. 6
(16)
North Arctic 44. 1
(29)
Baffin Land and vicinity 43. 8
(98)
Greenland 43. 6
(14)
Southampton Island 43.
(9)
Smith Sound --- 41. 8
THE ORBITS
In many American groups the orbits are notoriously variable, yet
their mean dimensions and index are of value.
UHDLIc'KA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROrOLOGY
271
Tlie EsskiiiKi dibits have lon<i; been known lor their ample propor-
tions. Their mean heiglit and breadth are hiryer than those of any
other known people and the excess is especially apparent when pro-
portioned to stature. Taking the family as a whole, the mean height
of the two orbits in males averages approximately 3.64 centimeters,
the mean breadth 4.03 centimeters; while the males of 23 Algonquian
tribes give for the same items 3.42 and 3.93, and those of 12 Siouan
tribes 3.58 and 3.96 centimeters.
The general averages for the female E.skimo approach for orbital
height 3.52 centimeters, for breadth 3.89 centimeters, dimensions
which also surpass those in the females of any other known human
group.
These large dimensions of the Eskimo orbit are, however, on closer
examination into the matter, found not to be racial characters except
m a secondary way. They are the direct consequence of the high and
broad face. The correlation of the orbital height and breadth with
the height and breadth of the face are shown by the following
figures. These figures indicate also some additional details of
interest.
Eskimo Orbits: Right and Left
MALES
Height
Eight Left
Breadth
Eight U'tt
Index
Eight Left
St. Lawrence Island
Nunivak Island
Point Hope
Greenland
(145)
3. 67 3. 68
(41)
3. 59 3. 59
(120)
3. 63 3. 63
(46)
3. 64 3. 65
(145)
4, 05 4. 01
(41)
4. 05 4. —
(120)
4. 05 4. 01
(46)
4. 02 3. 96
(145)
90. 7 91. 8
(41)
88. 7* 89.7
(120) ■
89. 6 90. 5
(46)
90. 6 92. 1
FEMALES
St. Lawrence Island
Nunivak Island
Point Hope
Greenland
(128)
3.
62 3.
(58)
60
3.
50 3.
(70)
52
3.
54 3.
(45)
54
3.
55 3.
56
(128)
3.
92 3.
(58)
89
3.
88 3.
(70)
84
3.
91 3.
(45)
88
3.
86 3.
83
(128)
91. 7 93. 6
(m
90. 2 91. 8
(70)
90. 5 91. 4
(45)
91. 9 92. 9
272
AJTTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
The general orbital index of the Eskimo is close to 90 in the
males, 90.5 in the females. Such orbits are classed as also relatively
high or 77iegaseme, a character in which they resemble many of the
American Indians. Thus the male crania of the Siouan tribes give
the practically identical general index of 90.o.
The slightly higher index in the females is the rule to which there
are but few exceptions, and those in individual groups where the
numbers of specimens may not be sufficient. The same tendency is
observable in the Indians, and appears in fact to be panhuman. It
is due to slightly lesser relative height as compared to the breadth
of the orbit in the males, which condition is due in all probability
to the greater development in the males of the frontal sinuses and
supraorbital arches.
Eskimo Crania: Dimensions of the Orbits in Relation to Those of the
Face
orbital heiont versus upper facial height
Males
(10)
Lowest faces (7.2-7.4)
(10)
Average faces (7.8)
(10)
Highest faces (8.4-9)
Face
Orbits
Face
Orbits
Face
Orbits
7.37
3.62
7.80
3.65
8.55
3.78
Females
(10)
Lowest faces (6.4-6.8)
•
(10)
Average faces (7.3)
(14)
Highest faces (7.8-8.4)
Face
Orbits
Face
Orbits
Face
Orbits
6. 69
3. 54
7. 30
3. 56
7.89
3.67
PERCENTAGE RELATIONS OF ORBITS TO FACE
49. 1
46. S
44.2
53
48. 7
46. 6
HRDLldKAl
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
273
Eskimo Crania: Dimensions of the Orbits in Relation to Those of the
Face — Continued
ORBITAL BREADTH VERSUS FACIAL BREADTH
Males
CO)
Narrowest faces (13.4 and
below)
(17)
Average faces (14.2)
(10)
Broadest faces (14.9 and
above)
Face
Orbits
Face Orbits
Face
Orbits
, 13. 30
3.96
14. 20
4.01
15. 11
4. 17
Females
(10)
Narrowest faces (12.7 and
below)
(14)
Average faces (13.3)
(10)
Broadest faces (13.9 and
above)
Face
Orbits
Face
Orbits
Face
Orbits
12. 57
3. 74
13. 30
3.88
14.09
3. 98
PERCENTAGE RELATIONS OF ORBITS TO FACE
29. S
28.4
28.2
29.8
29.2
27.6
Individual variation in the orbital index of the Eskimo is ex-
tensive, reaching from slightlj' below SO to well over 100. It ex-
tends more or less over the whole Eskimo area, without conveying
definite indication anywhere of either a mixture or of a special evolu-
tionary tendency. Yet it occasions group differences that eventually
might prove evolutionary, though they maj' merely rejaresent the
next or higher order of variability, namely, that of groups within
a family.
Orbital Dimensions and Index in Eskimo Skulls
Males
Females
Area
Mean
height
Mean
breadth
Mean in-
dex
Mean
height
Mean
breadth
Mean in-
dex
(13)
(13)
(13)
(13)
(13)
(13)
South and midwestern.
3.63
4.01
90. 6
3.56
3.87
92. 1
(6)
(6)
(6)
= (6)
(6)
(6)
Northwestern
3.62
(5)
4.02
(5)
90. 1
(5)
3.61
(5)
3.92
(5)
89. 7
(5)
Northern Arctic and
northeastern
3. 65
4. 07
89.5
3.54
3. 91
90.6
274
ANTHHOPOLOGICAL SUKVEY IK ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
The jrroup diiFerences in the orbital index of the Eskimo skull are
shown in the next table. They elude a satisfactory explanation, un-
less recourse is had to the above suggested tiieory of normal group
variability within a family. They have about the same range in
the three large areas, which would seem to .support this theory.
Group relations are indicated in the cases of Pastolik- Yukon Delta-
St. Micliael Island; Point Barrow-Barrow; and Old Igloos-Green-
land.
Eskimo Skulls: Mean Index of the Orbits
both sexes t.vken together in ascending order «
Southwestern and midweslern
(10)
Mumtrak 88. 4
(11)
Little Diomede Island 89. 4
(6)
Cape Nome and Port Clarence.. 89.7
(101)
Nunivak Island 90. 1
(31)
Indian Point (Siberia) 90. 3
(5)
Chukchee 90. 6
(6)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon 91.
(5)
Southwest Alaska 91. 4
(271)
St. Lawrence Island 91. 7
(24)
Nelson Island 91. 9
(13)
Hooper Bay 92. 5
(29)
Pastolik 93. 2
(7)
Togiak 93. 3
(4)
Yukon Delta 93.8
(13)
St. Michaellslaud 94.4
Northwestern
(3)
Kotzebue 86. 1
(20)
Shishmaref 88. 9
(34)
Wales 89. 4
(85)
Point Barrow 90. 3
(200)
Point Hope 90.4
(53)
Barrow 91. 1
(43)
Igloos north of Barrow 91. 1
Northern and northeastern
(9)
Smith Sound 87.6
(13)
Southampton Island 88. 4
(28)
Baffin Land and vicinity 90.
(16)
Northern Arctic 91.0
(94)
Greenland 91. 6
(7)
Hudson Bay and vicinity 92. 3
HnDLlCKA]
PHYSICAL ANTHIiOPOLOGY
275
THE UPPEK AL^'EOLAK ARCH
The dental arches correlate with function (use), with stature, with
the dimensions of the face, and with those of the teeth. The western
as well as other Eskimo show arches that ai"e about equal in absolute
dimensions to those of our taller Indians, such as the Munsee, Arkan-
sas, and Louisiana:" but^ relatively to stature the Eskimo arch is
decidedly larger.
The upper dental arch index ( — ^ — - ), now being used in pref-
erence to the unwieldy " uranic index " ( — j j of Turner, is
rather high, showing that the arch is relatively, as well as abso-
lutely, broad. The same index in the Munsee averaged in the males
82.S, in the females 82.7; in the Arkansas and Louisiana mound skulls
84-4 in the males and 85.1 in the females. Data are needed here for
more extensive comparisons.
Eskimo Crani.\: Alveol.\r .\rch
11 groups:
Southwestern and
midnestern
6 groups:
Northwestern
5 groups:
Northern Arctic
and northeast-
ern
Males
External
length
5. 56
5.63
5.68
External
breadth
6.66
6. 61
6.75
Module
imean
diam-
eter)
6. 11
6. 12
6.21
Index
LXlOO
53. 5
85. 1
54. 2
Females
External External
length breadth
5.34
5.38
5.37
6.38
6.31
6.28
Module
tmean)
(diam-
eter)
5.86
5.85
5.83
Index
LXlOO
8S.8
86. Z
85.6
•° See Bull, 62, Bur. Am. Ethn., and writer's Report on an Additional Collection of
Skeletal Remains from Arkansas and Louisiana, published with Clarence B. Moore's report
on the .\ntiqulties o£ the Ouachita Valley, Philadelphia, 190S.
276
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, StTRVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
Eskimo Skulls: Length-Breadth Index of the Upper Alveolar Arch
both sexes taken together in ascending order
Southwestern and midwestern
(5)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon 79. 4
(8)
Togiak and vicinity 80. 6
(4)
Chukchee 81. 1
(12)
Hooper Bay 81. 7
(9)
Mumtrak 81. 7
(9)
Little Diomede Island 82. 2
(234)
St. Lawrence Island 83.
(10)
St. Michael Island 84.3
(22)
Pastolik* 84. 4
(90)
Nunivak Island 84. 4
(4)
Southwest Alaska 84. 7
(5)
Cape Nome and Port Clarence- _ 84. 9
(22)
Indian Point (Siberia) 85.0
(22)
Nelson Island 85. 5
North western
(39)
Igloos north of Barrow 84. 1
(14)
Shishmaref 84. 4
(171)
Point Hope 84. 6
(31)
Wales 84. 9
(38)
Barrow 85. 8
^ (66)
Point Barrow 87. 1
Northern and northeastern
' (9)
Smith Sound 82. 7
(13)
Southampton Island 83. 7
(7)
Hudson Bav and vicinity 84. 4
(23)
Baffin Land and vicinity 85. 7
(89)
Greenland 85. 9
(10)
Northern Arctic 86. i
Sex differences in tlie index are small, nevertheless the females
tend to show a slightly higher index, due to relatively slightly
smaller breadth of the arch.
The size of the arch and its index differ but little over the three
main areas of the Eskimo territory, yet there are slight differences.
They appear plainly in the following table. Notwithstanding the
fact that on the whole the southwestern and midwestern groups are
somewhat taller than those of the far north and northeast, the largest
palate, in the males at least, is found in the latter area.
In the southwest and midwest the upper alveolar arch is rela-
tively (as well as absolutely, barring one group) somewhat broad and
short. This may be in correlation with the broader head in this
area, just as the absolutely slightly longer palates over the rest of the
Eskimo territory and particularly (in males) in the northeast may
correlate with the longer heads in those regions. This point may be
HRDI.ldKA]
PHYSICAL .ANTHROPOLOGY
277
tested on our splendid material from St. Lawrence Island. Takinor
the broadest and the narrowest skulls from this locality, the follow-
ing data are obtained for the proportions of the upper dental arch :
Eskimo Cbania : Dental Aech and Form of Skull
st. lawrence island material
Length
Breadth .^
Index
Mean diameter
Mean cranial diameter (cranial
module) of same skulls
Percentage relation of mean
dental arch diameter to the
mean diameter of the skull.
Length of same skulls
Percentage relation of length
of dental arch to that of skull.
Males
Females
Narroi
(C.L
Test skulls
70.7-7.3.5)
5. 68
6.83
83.3
6.26
15. 61
AO.l
19. 21
29.5
Broadest i Narrowest
skulls (80.6- I skulls (70.3-
83.1) 74.2)
5.58
6.77
83. 4
6. 18
15. 49
39. S
18. 10
30. 8
5.52
6. 66
83. 9
6. 09
14. 97
40. 7
18.35
30. 1
Broadest
skulls (80.9-
83.8)
5. 20
6. 36
83. 7
5.78
14 73
39. 3
17. 25
30. 1
The above figures show several conditions. The first is that the
arch is quite distinctly larger in the narrow than in the broad skulls
in both sexes. The second fact is that the skull (vault) itself is
slightly larger in the narrow-headed. The third is that the length of
the arch is somewhat greater in the narrow and long skulls than it is
in the broad and shorter, relatively to the skull size. The fourth is
that there appears a close correlation, more particularly in the
females, between the length of the arch and that of the skull.
THE BASION-NASIOX DIAMETER
The anterior basal length (basion-nasion) is a measurement of
importance, though its full meaning in anthropology is not yet
entirely clear. From data quoted by Martin (Lehrb., 715-716) it
appears to average in whites up to 10.3 centimeters in males and up
to 10.1 centimeters in females, and is known to correlate closely with
the length of the vault. Secondarily it also correlates with stature.
Data on American Indians are not yet generally available, though
in preparation. The Munsee skulls gave the writer for the diameter
the means of 10.27 for the males and 10.02 for the females; the
•mound skulls from Arkansas and Louisiana gave 10.45 for the males
and 9.77 for the females.
278
ANTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
An abstract of the data on the Eskimo skulls is given in the next
table. The values for the measurement are rather high, especially
for such short people. The percentage relation of the measurement
to the length of the skull appears also to be high. Manouvrier (1882,
quoted in Martin, Lehrb.. 716) found this relation in French skulls
to be 53.6 in the males and SJ-f.T in the females.
E.sKiM" Crania: r{ASi(iN'-NA.sioN Length
Groups of males
Corresponding groups of
females
Ba.sion-
nasion
diameter
Its i-»er-
centage re-
lation to
length of
skull
Basion-
nasion
diameter
Its per-
centage re-
lilion to
lent'th of
skuil
Southwestern and miflwestern. _
(13)
10.38
(6)
10. 58
(5)
10. 65
(13)
66. 4
(6)
56. i
(5)
56.2
(13)
9. 85
(6)
10.06
(5)
10. 06
(13)
■55. 7
Northwestern
(6)
56.3
Northern Arctic and northeastern
(5)
56.4
The female measurement to that of the male, in the Eskimo, is
as 94..9 to 100. As a similar relation of the cranial modules in the
two sexes is close to 95.7, the anterior basal length would seem to be at
a little disadvantage in the female Eskimo skull.
The same condition is seen also when the basion-nasion diameter
is compared with the length of the skull. In the males, notwith-
standing the fact that the length of the vault is increased through the
development of the frontal sinuses and not infrequently also through
that of the occipital ridges, the percentage relation of the basion-
nasion to tiie maximum total length of tlie vault is approximately
56.3, in the females but 55.8. It seems therefore safe to say that in
the Eskimo, in general, that part of the brain anterior to the fora-
men magnum is relatively somewhat better developed in the males
than in the females.
But to this there are some exceptions. Thus it may be seen in the
general table which follows that in the northwestern groups condi-
tions in this respect are equalized; and in the succeeding detailed
table it will be noted that while the males exceed the females in this
particular in 14 of the groups, in 5 groups conditions are equal (or
within one decimal), and in 5 the female percentage exceeds slightly
that in the males. In the numerically best represented groups condi-
tions are neai-ly equal, with the males nevertheless slightly favored.
hbdliCka]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
279
Eskimo Skulls: Basion-Nasion Length and Its Relation to Length
OF Skull
SEXES SEPARATELY IN ASCENDING ORDER
Males
Females
BNXIOO
B N- Skull 1
BNXIOO
'^ ^- Skull 1
Southwestern and midwestern
Little Diomede Island _
(4)
10. 18 56. 2
(3)
10. 20 .5^ 8
(3)
10. 27 5J,. 3
(9)
10.29 57.6
(4)
10. 32 67
(146)
10. 36 56. 3
(3)
10. 37 55. 8
(11)
10. 41 56. 5
(8)
10. 44 57. 3
(9)
10.46 56.8
(3)
10. 47 67. 2
(3)
10.47 67.6
(15)
10. 54 66. 6
(46)
10. 55 56. 1
(2)
10. 45 67. 3
(133)
10. 48 57
(12)
10. 50 66. 8
(47)
10. 54 56. 2
(35)
10. 61 66. 9
(19)
10. 64 56. 7
(27)
10.70 55.6-
(7)
9. 91 61 9
Chukchee -. . ..
(2)
10. 00 61 8
Pilot Station (Yukon)... ...
(3)
9. 97 56
Hooper Bay.
(4)
9. 70 56. 7
Mumtrak
(6)
9. 52 65. 1
St. Lawrence Island .. _ _. .
(133)
9. 93 66. 1
Yukon Delta
Pastolik ... .. .
(18)
9. 98 56. 3
St. Michael Island
(6)
9. 98 66. 3
Nelson Island
(15)
9. 73 65. 9
Togiak.. . . . ... _.
(7)
9.56 56.7
Southwestern Alaska ._ .
(2)
9.80 5Jf.8
Indian Point and Puotin
(16)
9. 97 56. 6
Nunivak Island. .......
(69)
10. 02 56
Northwestern
Kotzebue
Point Hope .. ._
(82)
10. 00 66. 9
Shishmaref . .
(8)
10.20 57.5
Point Barrow . . .
(52)
9. 94 56. 5
Barrow
(34)
10. 01 66. 3
Wales . .
(15)
la 01 65. 5
Igloos north of Barrow
(24)
10. 18 66. 2
280
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
Eskimo Skulls: Basion-Nasion Length and Its Relation to Length op
Skull — Continued
SEXES SEPARATELY IN ASCENDING ORDER
Males
B-N.
BNXIOO
SkuUl
Females
B-N.
BNXIOO
Skull 1
Northern and northeastern
Baffin Land and vicinity
Hudson Bay and vicinity
Greenland
Northern Arctic
Smith Sound
Southampton Island
(16)
(17)
10. 51 S5. 6
10. 11 5S.2
(5)
(2)
10. 60 56. Jt
9. 75 55. 6
(48)
(52)
10. 60 55. 9
10. 13 56. 2
(5)
(10)
10. 68 56. 1
10.07 65.3
(7)
10. 70 56. 4
(9)
(5)
10. 83 57. 3
10. 34 56. 9
An interesting point is that in the north and nortlieast, where the
skulls are longest, there is evidently a slightly greater relative de-
velopment of the occipital portion of the vault, or slightly lesser
development of the frontal portion.
Some additional points of interest appear when the basion-nasion :
skull-length index, taken collectively for the two sexes, is compared
in the different groups. All these comparisons suffer, naturally,
from unevenness and often insufficiency of thei numbers of specimens,
yet some of the results are very harmonious with those brought out
repeatedly by other data. Thus the St. Lawrence material stands
once more close to the medium of the southwestern and midwestern
groups ; Barrow and Point Barrow are almost identical ; and so are
the Old Igloos from near Barrow and Greenland. The St. Michael
islanders show very favorably in the midwest, the Shishmarefs in
the northwest and the Southampton islanders in the northeast.
HEDLIOKA]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
281
Eskimo Skulls: Basion-Nasion Line m Relation to Skull Length
/BNX100\
\ Sh J
BOTH SEXES TOQETHER IN ASCENDING ORDER
Southwestern and midwestern
(5)
Chukchee 54 8
(6)
Pilot Station, Lower Yukon 65. 2
(11)
Little Diomede Island 55. 6
(24)
Nelson Island 55. 9
(115)
Nunivak Island 56.0
(10)
Mumtrak 56. 1
(279)
St. Lawrence Island 56. 2
(5)
Southwestern Alaska 56. 2
(29)
Pastolik 56. 4
(10)
Togiak 56. 5
(31)
Indian Point and vicinity
(Siberia) 56. 5
(13)
Hooper Bay 56. 6
(14)
St. Michael Island 56. 8
Northwestern
(51)
Igloos southwest of Barrow 55.9
(99)
Point Barrow 55.9
(69)
Barrow 56.1
(34)
Wales 56. 1
(215)
Point Hope 57.0
(20)
Shishmaref 57. 1
Northern and northeastern
(33)
Baffin Land and vicinity 55. 4
(10)
Northern Arctic 55. 7
(7)
Hudson Bay and vicinity 56.
(100)
Greenland 56. 1
(7)
Smith Sound (male) 56. 4
(14)
Southampton Island 57. 1
The next table gives the percentage relations of the basion-nasion
diameter to the mean diameter of the skull. The correlation of the
two is even closer than in the case of the skull length, and the
grouping, while in the main alike, seems in general even more in
harmony with that in previous comparisons. The St. Lawrence
Island females are very exceptional, as was also apparent in other
connections. The unusual smallness of their skull (compare section
on Cranial module) is evidently due to a poor development of its
posterior half.
88253°— 30 1!4
282
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN'. 46
Eskimo Crania : Percentage Relation of the Basion-Nasion Diameter to
Mean Cranial Diameter (Cranial Module)
'BNX100^
/ BNX100 \
V CM ^
BOTH SEXES TOGETHER IN ASCENDING ORDER
Southwestern and midwcstern Northwestern
Pilot Station, Yukon..
Chukehee
Little Diomede Island -
65.6
66.0
... 66. 1
Hooper Bay 66. 4
Nelson Island 66. 7
Togiak 66.9
Southwest Alaska 67. 3
Indian Point, Siberia 67. 4
Mumtrak
Nunivak Island
Pastoli k
St. Michael Island
St. Lawrence Island:
Male
67.4
67. 6
67.6
68.
67.2
Female (69.6)
Wales
Point Barrow.
Point Hope
Barrow
67.7
67.8
68.1
68.4
Old Igloos 69.0
Shishmaref 69. 2
Northern Arctic and northeastern
Baffin Land 67.4
Hudson Bay 67. 6
Smith Sound (male) 67. 6
North Arctic 68. 1
Greenland 68.5
Southampton Island 68. 7
PROGNATHISM
Since better understood, the subject of facial prognathism has lost
much of its allure in anthrojDology ; yet the matter is not wholly with-
out interest.
Facial protrusion is as a rule secondary to and largely caused by
alveolar protrusion, which in turn is caused by the size and shape of
the dental arch ; and the dental arch is generally proportional to the
size of the teeth. The form of the arch is, liowever, quite influential.
With the teeth identical in size a narrow arch will be more, a broad
arch less jirotruding, and a narrow arch with small teeth may pro-
trude more than a broad one with larger teeth. Another influence
is that of the height of the upper face, the same arch jjrotruding more
in a low face than in a high one. And still another factor is the in-
cline of the front teeth, though this affects merely the appearance of
prognathism and not its measurements.
There are different ways of measuring facial prognathism, and
with sufficient care all may be effective; I prefer, for practical
reasons, linear measurements fi-om the basion, which, together with
the facial and subnasal heights, give triangles that can readily be
reconstructed on paper and allow a direct measurement of both the
facial and the alveolar angle. The three needed diameters from
basion are taken, the first to the " prealveolar point," or the nwst
anterior point on the upper dental arch above the incisors; the sec-
ond to the "subnasal point," or the point on the left (for con-
venience) of the nasal aperture, where the outer part of its border
passes into that which belongs to the subnasal portion of the maxilla
hbdliCea]
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
283
(the point where the subnasal slant begins) ; and the third to nasion.
The facial heifiht is that from the alveolar point {lowest point of
the upper alveolar border in the median line) to nasion; while for
the subnasal height, wliicli can not be measured directly, I utilize
the difference between the facial and nasal heights, which is very
close to the needed dimension.
The important basion-nasion diameter has already been considered.
That to the subnasal point needs no comment. That to the prealveo-
lar point shows in the western and other Eskimo as follows :
Eskimo Crania : Basion-Prealveolab Point Diameter
All Eskimo
Males:
Mean diameter centimeters.. 10. 54
Mean relation to length of skull per cent. _ 66. 3
Females:
Diameter centimeters. . 9. 99
Relation per cent.. 56. 8
MALES
A = Basion prealveolar point diameter
B = Its relation to length of skull
Southwestern and
midwestern
Northwestern
Northern Arctics
and northeastern
A B
10. 38 56. 4
18. 41
A B A B
10. 58 56. 4 10. 65 56. 2
Mean skull lengths
18. 75 1 18. 96
females
9. 85 56. 7 1 10. 06 56. 3 \ 10. 06 55. A
Mean skull lengths
17. 69 17. 86 1 18. 15
As in other details, so here there is a remarkable similarity between
the skulls from the three large areas, pointing both to the unity of
the people and to absence of heterogeneous admixtures. As the
skull length increases so does the basi-alveolar line, but the relative
proportions of the two remain very nearly the same.
The relative value of the basi-alveolar length in the males, com-
pared to the length of the skull, is in general about 0..5 per cent
higher than it is in the females. This is just about the excess of the
relative proportion of the length of the male dental arch when com-
pared to the same skull dimension. The general mean skull length
in the Eskimo male approximates 18.705, in female 17.899 centi-
meters; the mean length of the arch is, in the male, close to 5.625,
in the female 5.365 centimeters; and the percentage relation of the
latter to the former is 30.6 in the males, 30 in the females. The
relatively slightly greater basi-alveolar length in the males is evi-
dently, therefore, at least partly due to the relatively longer male
284 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
dental arch, which in turn is doubtless due to the somewhat larger
teeth in the males. ^^
Notwithstanding the just discussed slight sex difference in the
Eskimo, the facial angle, i. e., the angle between the basi-alveolar line
and the line nasion-alveolar point, is equal in the two sexes. This
equalization is due largely, if not wholly, to the effect in the males
of the relatively longer basio-nasion diameter (v. a.), while the
alveolar angle, or that between the basi-alveolar and the subnasal
lines, is in general by about 1 per cent lower in the females (males,
56° ; females, 55°), indicating a slightlj^ greater slant of the subnasal
region in the female, which can only be due to a relatively slightly
shorter in this sex of the basion-subnasal point diameter. As a matter
of fact, the percentage relation of this diameter to the length of the
skull amounts in the males to 56.3, in the females to but 55.6.
Compared to that in the Indians, the facial angle in the Eskimo
skulls shows close aiSnities. Its value (69°) is very nearly the same
as in the mound skulls from Arkansas and Louisiana (males 70.7°,
females 69°). In other Indians it ranges from close to 68° to 71.5°.
In the Munsee it reached 73.5°. In whites, according to Rivet's
data," it ranges from about 72° to 75° ; in a gi-oup of negroes it was
68.5°. In American and other negro crania measured by me ^^ it
ranged from 67° to 70.5°, in Melanesians from 66° to 68°, in Aus-
tralians from 67° to 69°.
The alveolar angle is more variable. It shows considerable indi-
vidual, sex, and gi-oup differences. It averages slightly to moder-
ately higher, which means a more open angle or less slant in the males
than in the females. In the Eskimo as a whole it was seen to be
approximately 56° in the males, 55° in the females; in the Munsee
Indians (Bull. 62, Bur. Amer. Ethn.) it was males 59°, females
57° ; in the Arkansas and Louisiana skulls (J. Ac. Sci., Phila., 1909,
XIV) it averaged males 55°, females 52°. In my catalogue material
it shows a group variation of 46.5° to 55.5° in the negro, 47.5°
to 52.5° in the Australians, 46.5° to 50.5° in the Melanesians. In the
whites it generally exceeds 60°.
Differences in facial and alveolar protrusion among the Eskimo
according to area are small, yet they are not wholly absent. The
figures below show that in the southwesterners and midwesterners,
where the skull is more rounded, the prognathism is smallest; and
that toward the north and northeast, where the skull is narrower
and the palate (dental arch) tends to become longer, prognathism
increases. The " Old Igloo " group shows once more such affinity with
the Greenlanders that it is placed with the third subdivision.
" Compare writer's Varintion in the dimensions of lower molars in man and anthropoid
apes. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., TI, 423-438. Washington. 1923.
"= Kivet, P., Recherches sur le prognathisme. L'Anthropologie, xx, pp. 35, 175 ; Paris,
1909. XXI, pp. 505. 637. 1910.
" Cat. Crania, U. S. Nat. Mus., etc., No. 3. Washington, 1928, 88, 105. 139.
HRDLI(-KA] PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 285
Eskimo Skulls: Facial and Alveolar Angle with Principal Areas
Groups
Facial angle
Alveolar angle -
Males
South- and
midwest
(13)
68
55
Northwest
(5)
69
56
North and
northeast
(6)
70
55
Females
South- and Northwest ^O'^^ and
midwest J^wthwest northeast
(13)
67. 5
54
(5)
69
55
(6)
70
54.5
Individual group differences in the facial and alveolar angle are
moderate, yet evidently not negligible. (See next table.) The most
prognathic, especially in the siibnasal region, are the skulls from
Nelson Island. A marked alveolar slant is also present in the Pilot
Station Yukon group, and in Greenland. The least prognathic are
the St. Michael Islanders, the Point Hope people, and those from
Southampton Island. St. Lawrence stands once more near the
middle of the southwesterners and midwesterners, and there are to be
seen the principal old relations.
The main points shown by the above conditions are the group
variability, particularly in the southwest and midwest; the tendency,
on the whole, toward a slightly greater prognathy, both facial and
alveolar, in this same area; and the evidence that the alveolar slant
has some individuality.
Eskimo SKtnxs : Groitp Conditions in Facial and Alveolab Angle ""
South and midwest
Facial
angle
Alveolar
angle
(20)
Nelson Island 66.3 51.5
(4)
Southwest Alaska 66.8 54.5
(4)
Chukchee 66.8 57.0
(21)
Indian Point 67. 56. 5
(8)
Togiak 67.0 54.0
(242)
St. Lawrence Island 67. 8 55. 3
(86)
Nunivak Island 67.8 56.5
(23)
PastoUk 68.3 54.8
(10)
Hooper Bay 68. 3 55. 3
(10)
Little Diomede Island. 68. 5 57. 5
(9)
Mumtrak 68.8 55.3
(5)
Pilot Station, Yukon.. 68.8 52.0
(10)
St. Michael Island 70. 56. 8
Northwest
Sledge Island 69.5
Facial Alvenlar
angle angle
(11)
54.9
(31)
Wales 67.8 56.0
(17)
Shishmaref 68.3 55.8
(73)
Point Barrow 69. 5 56.
(43)
Barrow 69.8 56.8
(181)
Point Hope 70.5 56.5
North and northeast
(11)
North Arctic 68.5 54.5
(24)
Baffin Land 70.0 55,0
(87)
Greenland 69.8 53.8
(35)
Old Igloos near Barrow. 70. 3 55. 8
(7)
Hudson Bay 70.3 56.8
(12)
Southampton Island 71 55
"» Lower angles mean higher, higher angles lower facial or alveolar protrusion.
286
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANX. 46
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294 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46
SKULLS OF ESKIMO CHH^DREN
A special effort in our work has been made to secure well-pre-
served skulls of children. As elsewhere, so among the Eskimo, more
children die than adults, but conditions are not favorable for the
preservation of their skeletal remains. Most of the bones are done
away with or damaged by animals (foxes, dogs, mice, etc.), while
others decay, so that generally nothing remains of the youngest
subjects and but a few bones and a rare skull of the older children.
The total number of such skulls in our collection now reaches 25.
They are all of children of more than 2 but mostly less than 6 years
old, and are all normal specimens. The principal measurements of
their vault — a study of the face is a subject apart and needing more
material — are given in the following tables.
HRDLIOKA]
SKULLS OF ESKIMO CHILDREN
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X) I 1 c3 !
OS , ■§ KH ,
c ca 0)
1 o - 1 i
1 a ^ ^
298
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[BTH. ANN. 46
The main interest centers in the comparison of the relative pro-
portions of these skulls with those of the adults from the same locali-
ties. These comparisons, given in the smaller table, are of consider-
able interest.
The cranial index is considerably higher in the children. On
analysis this is found to be due almost wholly to a greater relative
breadth of the child's skull. During later growth the Eskimo
cranium advances materially more in length than in breadth. A
further expansion in breadth is evidently hindered by some factor
outside of the bones themselves, for nothing appears in these that
could constitute such a hindrance. And the only evident outside fac-
tor capable of producing such an effect are the strong pads of the
temporal muscles.
The mean height index ( ^ j i p ) remains much the same
° \mean of L + B /
in the children and adults, indicating that the relative increase dur-
ing growth in skull length compensates for the lagging increase in
breadth, while the proportion of the height to the mean of the length
and breadth remains fairly stable.
The much greater growth in length than in breadth of the Eskimo
skull from childhood onward is shown even better in the second part
of the table by a dii'ect comparison of the mean dimensions. The
length of the adult skull is by over 9 per cent, the breadth by less
than 4 per cent, greater than that in childhood in the same groups.
The adult Eskimo skull has also grown very perceptibly more in
height than in breadth, though somewhat less so than in length. The
result is a notably higher height-breadth index in the adult. Com-
pared to that in childhood the adult Eskimo skull is therefore rela-
tively markedly longer, higher, and narrower.
These facts are probably of more significance than might seem at
first glance; for it is precisely by the same characters, carried still
further, that some of the Eskimo differ from others. Let us com-
pare two of our largest and best groups, those of St. Lawrence Island
and Greenland :
Number
of skulls
(both
sexes)
SkuU
length
Breadth
Height
St. Lawrence IslEnd _
(293)
(101)
1&05
18.51
13.90
13.30
13.45
Greenland -
13.54
The Greenland skull is longer, narrower, and somewhat higher.
The differences are less than those between a child and an adult
hkdlicka] the lower jaw 299
western Eskimo, but of the same nature. This apparently speaks
strongly for the development of the Greenland type of Eskimo
cranium from the western. On the other hand, the type of skull
shown by the Eskimo child approaches much more closely than that
of the Eskimo adult to the type of the skull of (Jie Mongol.
The above are mere observations, not theories, and they carry
a strong indication that mostly we are still floundering only on the
borders of true anthropology, embracing all phases of life and devel-
opment, which, if mastered, would give us with beautiful definition
many now vainly sought or barely glimpsed solutions.
A highly interesting feature is the relatively great development
in the Eskimo, between childhood and the adult stage, of the anterior
half of the skull or basion-nasion dimension. This augments, it is
seen, by even 3.4 per cent more than the length. This growth must
involve some additional factor to those inherent in the bones them-
selves and in the attached mu.sculature, and this can only be, it seems,
the development of the anterior half of the brain. Evidently this
portion of the brain between childhood and adult life grows in the
Eskimo more rapidly than that behind the vertical plane correspond-
ing to the basion. It is a very suggestive condition calling for fur-
ther study, and thus far almost entirely wanting in comparative data
on other human as well as subhuman groups.
THE LOWER JAW
The lower jaw of the Eskimo deserves a thorough separate study.
For this purpose, however, more jaws in good condition are needed
from various localities, and particularly more jaws accompanying
their skulls. As it is, a large majority of the crania are without the
lower jaw, or the alveolar processes of the latter have become so
affected in life through age and loss of teeth that their value is dimin-
ished or lost. Still another serious difficulty is that the measuring of
the lower jaw is difficult and has not as yet been regulated by general
agreement, so that there is much individualism of procedures with
limited i^ossibilities of comparison.
One of the principal measurements taken on the available Eskimo
mandibles was the symphyseal height. This is taken by the sliding
calipers and is the height from the lower alveolar point (highest
point of the normal alveolar septum between the middle lower in-
cisors) to the lowest point on the inferior border of the chin in the
median line.^* The results are given in the following tables.
" Shonid there be a decided notch in the middle, as happens in rare specimens, it Is
rational to take the measurement to the side of the notch.
300
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUBVEY IN ALASKA
Eskimo Lower Jaw : Height at Symphysis
[ETH. ANN. 46
Male
South-
western
and mid-
western
North-
western
Northern
and
eastern
Female
South-
western
and mid-
western
North-
western
Northern
and
eastern
Groups (main)
Specimens
Average
General mean in west-
ern Eskimo
Percental relation of
female to male
(M = 100)
(9)
(116)
3.75
(5)
(143)
3. 76
(5)
(40)
3.67
(9)
(121)
3.38
(5)
(134)
3.34
(5)
(25)
3.39
3.76
3.36
89.4
Males,
19 groups
(399 jaws)
Females,
19 groups
(280 jaws)
General mean for all Eskimo (approximate)
Percental relation of female to the male
General mean of total facial height
Percental relation of height of jaw to total facial height - .
General mean of upper facial height
Percental relation of height of jaw to upper facial height.
3.73
3.37
90.4
11.60
29
7.20
47
Just what these figures mean will best be shown by a table of com-
parisons.^' All these are my own measurements.
Lower Jaw of Various Races: Height at Symphysis
Eskimo (all)
North American Indians:
Sioux ,.
Arkansas
Florida
Munsee
Louisiana
Kentucky
" From my Phys. Anthr. of the Lenape, etc., the Anthropology of
Male
Female
(399)
(280)
3.73
3.37
(36)
(26)
3.60
3. 22
(52)
(50)
3. 66
3.24
(29)
(21)
3.69
3.38
(9)
(6)
3. 70
3.40
(15)
(14)
3.72
3. 29
(44)
(30)
3.49
3. 18
Female ver-
sus male
(M = 100)
90.4
89.4
88.5
91.4
91.9
88.4
91.1
Florida, and the Catalogue of Crania.
hedliCka] • THE LOWER JAW 301
Lower Jaw of Various Races: Height at Symphysis — Continued
Female ver-
sus male
(M = 100)
U. S. whites (miscellaneous)
Negro, full-blood, African and American
Australians
Male
Female
(50)
(30)
3.29
2.87
(41)
(8)
3. 54
.3.14
(261)
(191)
3. 44
3.07
87. 2
^ SS. 7
89. 2
' Approximately.
The table shows the Eskimo jaw to be absolutely the highest at
the symphysis of all those available for comparison, with the female
nearly the highest.^'' Relatively to stature it exceeds decidedly all
the groups, the Indians that come nearest matching it in the abso-
lute measurement being all much taller than the Eskimo. And the
female Eskimo jaw is relatively high compared with that of the
male, being exceeded in this resjject only in three of the Indian
groups, in two of which, however, the showing is due wholly and
in one partly to a lesser height of the male jaw. The relative excess
of the female jaw in this respect seems particularly marked in the
northern and northeastern groups, though it must remain subject
to corroboration by further material.
The white, Negro, and Australian data have an interest of their
own.
Strength of the Jaw
The Eskimo jaw is generally stout. Barring rare exceptions there
is nothing slender about it. The body, moreover, is frequently
strengthened by more or less marked overgrowths of bone lingually
below the alveoli and above the mylohyoid ridge. These neoforma-
tions will be discussed later.
The strength of the mandible may be measured directly in various
locations on the body. Due to the peculiar build of the body, how-
ever, and especially to its variations, these measurements are by no
means simple and wholly satisfactory. It is hardly necessary in this
connection to review the various attempted methods, none of which
has become standardized. As a result of experience I prefer since
many years to measure the thickness of the body of the jaw at the
^° Rudolf Virchow, as far back as 1870, in studying some mandibles of the Greenland
Eskimo, found that the height of the body in the middle (3.5 centimeters) was greater
than that of the lower jaws of any other racial group available to him for comparison.
Archiv. fiir Anthrop., it, p. 77, Braunschweig, 1870.
302
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
.second molars, and that in such a way that either the molars, if the
measurement is taken from above, or the lower border of the jaw if
it is taken from below, lies midway between the two branches of
the sliding calipers with which the measurement is taken. The two
methods (from above or below) give results that are nearly alike.
In some cases the one and in others the other is the easier, but
wherever the teeth are lost the measurement from below is perhaps
preferable. The records obtained on the lower jaws of the western
Eskimo and other racial groups are given in the next table.
Thickness op the Body of the Loweb Jaw at the Second Molaes in the
Western Eskimo and Othek Gboups
Male
Female
Female
versus male
Right side
Left side
Right side
Left side
(M = 100)
(240)
(243)
Western Eskimo millimeters - _
16. 2 16. 3
15. 1 15. 1
92.9
(29)
(28)
Florida Indians do
16.6
15.5
93.4
(21)
(16)
Louisiana Indians do
16.3
15. 3
93.9
(58)
(47)
Arkansas Indians do
15.2
14.7
96. 7
(40)
(22)
Kentucky Indians do
14 7
14.2
96.6
(50)
(20)
American whites (misc.). -do
14.5
12.8
88.3
The figures show that the Eskimo jaw is very stout. It is ex-
ceeded in thickness only by the jaws of Florida, which in general
are the thickest in America, and in males is about equaled, in females
very slightly exceeded by those of the prehistoric Indians of Loui-
siana, who belong to the same Gulf type with the Indians of Florida.
The old Arkansas Indians, though closely related to those of
Louisiana, show a very perceptibly more slender jaw, particularly
in the males; while in an old Kentucky tribe (Green Kiver, C. B.
Moore, collector) the jaws are still less strong. The lower jaws of
the American whites (dissecting-room material) are slightly less
stout than even those of the Indians of Kentucky in the males, and
much less so in the females. The interesting sex differences are
shown well in the last column of the above table.
hedliCka]
THE LOWER JAW
Breadth of the Rami
303
Still another character that reflects the strength of the lower jaw
is the breadth of the rami. The most practicable measurement of
this is the breadth minimum at the constriction of the ascending
branches. A great breadth of the rami is very striking, as is well
known, in the Heidelberg jaw, and the Eskimo have long been known
for a marked tendency in the same direction. The measurements of
the lower jaws of the western Eskimo show as follows :
LowEB Jaws of the Western Eskimo and Othee Raciai, Groups : Breadth
MiNIMtTM OF THE ASCENDING BRANCHES
Male
Female
Female
versus male
Right
Lett
Right
Left
(M = 100)
(243)
(240)
(237)
(228)
Western Eskimo... centimeters. _
3. 99
4.03
3. 68
3. 70
92
(20)
(20)
(13)
(13)
Florida Indians do
3.82
3.85
3.39
3.34
87. 7
(21)
(19)
(19)
(16)
Louisiana Indians do
3.72
3.72
3.29
3.27
88.2
(62)
(60)
(58)
(61)
Arkansas Indians do
3.47
3. 47
3.24
3.23
93.2
(42)
(40)
(30)
(29)
Kentucky Indians do
3. 44
3. 44
3. 18
3.21
92.9
(50)
(50)
(20)
(20)
United States whites (miscella-
neous) centimeters, _
3. 17
3. 14
2.89
2.82
90.5
The Eskimo jaws, and particularly that of the female (relatively
to other females), have the broadest rami. Otherwise the series
range themselves in the same order as under the measurement of the
stoutness of the body.
Other Dimensions
Four other measurements were taken on the jaws, namely the
length of the body (on each side) ; the height of the two rami; the
bigonial diameter; and the body-ramus angle. The results of the
first three may conveniently be grouped into one table.
304
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
Additional Measurements on the Lower Jaw
MALE
Length of body,
each side >
Length of
body as a
whole ^
Height of ramus ^
Diameter
bigonial *
Eight
Left
Right
Left
Western Eskimo
Florida Indian _
(236) (236)
10. 28 10. 28
(100)
8.03
(24)
8.45
(19)
8.44
(62)
7.88
(42)
7.45
(50)
7.57
(132) (131)
6. 45 6. 38
(18)
6.72
(15)
7
(52)
6.52
(37)
6.48
(50)
6. 53
(201)
11. 42
(22)
10. 75
Louisiana Indian
(17)
10.67
(57)
10.49
(38)
10. 48
(50)
10. 11
FEMALE
Western Eskimo
Florida Indian
Louisiana I ndian
Arkansas Indian
Kentucky Indian
U. S. whites (miscellaneous) .
(230)
9.61
(228)
9.60
(100)
7.47
(19)
7.72
(16)
7.38
(57)
7.46
(30)
7. 12
(20)
7.02
(134)
5.61
(128)
5.57
(18)
6.02
(15)
5.77
(52)
5.85
(25)
5.64
(20)
5.87
(199)
10. 57
(17)
9.70
(15)
9.90
(56)
9.58
(30)
9. 45
(20)
9. 12
1 Sliding calipers : Separate measurement of each half of the body, from the lowe-st point
on the posterior border of each ramus not affected by the angle to a point of corresponding
height on the line of the symphysis. The anterior point may, in consequence of a lower
or higher location of the posterior point, range from the chin to above the middle of the
symphysis, but the results are much alike. The measurement leaves much to be desired,
but is the best possible if the two halves of the body are to be measured separately.
= The length of the whole jaw is measured on Broca's mandibular goniometer, by laying
the jaw firmly on the board, applying the movable plane to both rami, and recording the
distance of the most anterior point of the chin from the base of the oblique plane. This
measurement is easier than the previous, though on account of the variation in the angles
and the lower part of the posterior border of the rami it is also not fully satisfactory, and
it does not show the differences in the two halves of the body.
' Sliding calipers : One branch applied so that it touches the highest points on both the
condyle and the coronoid, while the other is applied to the lowest point of the ramus
anterior to the angle, if the bone here is prominent ; if receding, the branch of the compass
is applied to the midpoint on the lower border of the ramus.
' Sliding calipers : Maximum external diameter at the angles ; the maximum points may,
exceptionally, be either anterior to or a little above the angle proper.
nnDLiOKA]
the lower jaw
Females to Males (M = 100)
305
Length
each side
Length as
a whole
Height of
rami
Diameter
bigonial
Western Eskimo
93. i
93.0
91.4
87.4
94.6
95.6
92. 7
87.3
89.6
82.4
89. 7
87.0
89.9
92. 6
Florida Indian
90. 2
Louisiana Indian
92.8
Arkansas Indian .
91.3
Kentucky Indian- _._ _ .
90. 2
U. S. whites (miscellaneous)
90. 2
The Eskimo lower jaw, which, as seen before, is characterized by
a high and stout body and the broadest rami, shows further that
these rami are remarkably low, and that the bigonial spread is
extraordinarily broad. The length of the body, on the other hand,
is not very exceptional, being perceptibly exceeded in some of the
Indians.
The Angle
The angle between the body and the ramus of the lower jaw is
known to differ with the age and sex as well as individually. Not
seldom it differs also, and that sometimes quite apj^reciably, on the
two sides. Racial differences are as yet uncertain.
The angle, es^Jecially in some specimens, is not easy to measure,
and the position of the jaw may make a difference of several degrees.
Numerous trials have shown that the proper way is to measure the
angle on the two sides separately, and to so place the jaw in each
case that there is no interference with the measurement by either
the posterior or the anterior enlarged end of the condyle.
Leaving out jaws in which extensive loss of teeth has in all
probability resulted in changes in the angle, the western Eskimo
material gives the following data :
Western Eskimo: Angle of the Lower Jaw
Right side.
Male Female
(224)
119. 6°
(217)
124. 5°
Left side-
Male
(218)
119. 5°
Female
(207)
124.3°
In the male Munsee Indians the angle was 118° ; in those of
Arkansas and Louisiana, 118.5° ; in those of Peru (Martin, Lehrb.,
884), 119°. In the whites, males, the average angle approximates
122° ; in the Negro, 121° (Topinard, Martin).
306 ANTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. la
The angle in the female in the Eskimo is to that of the male as
104 to 100; in the Arkansas and Louisiana series it was 103. In
the whites the proportion seems to be a little higher.
There are evidently, if we exclude the whites in whom the short-
ness of the jaw conduces probably to a wider angle, no marked racial
differences, but the subject needs a more thorough study on large
series of sexually well-identified specimens, carefully selected as
to age.
The average angle on the right differs in the Eskimo but very
slightly from that on the left, though individually there are fre-
quent unequalities.
Eestjme
The Eskimo lower jaw differs substantially in many respects from
that in other races, particularly from that of the whites. It is char-
acterized by a high and stout body ; by broad but low rami ; and by
excessive breadth at the angles. The body-ramus angle is moderate.
To which may be added that the chin is generally of but moderate
jjrominence, and that the bone at the angles in males is occasionally
markedly everted.
Mandibular Htpeeostoses
These hypertrophies or hyperostoses are rarely met with also in the
jaws of the Indian and other people. They are symmetric and
characteristic, though often more or less irregular. They generally
extend from the vicinity of the lateral incisors or the canines back-
ward, forming when more developed a marked bulge on each side
opposite the bicuspids, which gives the inner contour of the jaw
when looked at from above a peculiar elephantine appearance.
They may occur in the form of smooth, oblong, somewhat fusiform
swellings, or as a continuous more or less uneven ridge, or may be rep-
resented by from one to four or five more or less rounded or flat-
tened hard " buttons " or tumor-like elevations. In development
they range from slight to very marked.
These hyperostoses have been reported by various observers (Dan-
ielli, S0ren Hansen, Rudolf Virchow, Welcker, Duckworth & Pain,
Oetteking, Hrdlicka, Hawkes). They received due attention by
Fiirst and Hansen in their "Crania Groenlandica " (p. 178). They
have been given the convenient, though both etiologically and mor-
^jhologically inaccurate, name of " mandibular torus " ; I think man-
dibular hyperostoses or simply welts would be better. Fiirst and
Hansen found them, taking all grades of development, in 182, or 85
per cent, of 215 lower jaws of Greenland Eskimo; in 28 jaws, or 13
per cent, they were pronounced, the remainder being slight to me-
dium. A special examination of 62 lower jaws of children and 710
HKDLIl'KA]
THE LOWER JAW
307
lower jaws of adult western Eskimo (with a small number from
Greenland) gives the following record:
Lingual Mandibular Hyperostoses in the Western Eskimo
children
[62 mandibles, completion of milk dentition to eruption of second permanent molar]
None or in^
distinguish-
able
Slight to
moderate
Specimens.
Per cent
47
75. S
1 10
16. 1
8. 1
ADULTS
[Both sexes. 710 mandibles]
Specimens -
Per cent
215
356
114
30.3
50. 1
16. 1
25
3. 5
' None in the younger children. ' All in older children or adolescents.
ADULTS
[Sexes separately. M. 350; F. 360 mandibles]
None or indis-
tinguishable
Slight to moder-
ate
Medium
Pronounced
Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
Specimens.- _ ..
71
ao. 3
144
40.0
193
55. 1
163
45. 3
67
19. 1
47
IS. 1
19
5.4
6
Per cent . - _
1. 7
The significance of these hyperostoses is not yet quite clear.
Danielli, who in 1884 reported them " in the Ostiaks, Lapps, a
Kirghiz, a Peruvian Indian, and four white skulls, offered no ex-
planation. For S0ren Hansen,'* who first suggested the resemblance
of these formations to the torus palatinus, "the significance of this
feature, wliicli also occurs in other Arctic races not directly related
to the Eskimos, is not clear." R. Virchow,'^ who reports " wulstigen
und knolligen Hyperostosen " on both the upper and lower jaws of
a Vancouver Island Indian, restricts himself to a brief mention of tlie
condition with a suggestion as to its causation (see later). Welcker -"
found them in the skulls of a German (Schiller?), Lett, and a
Chinese, but has nothing to say as to tlieir meaning. Duckwortii
" Danielli, J., Arch. p. I'antrop. e I'etni.l., 1S8 1, xiv.
"Meddel. om. Gr0nl., 18S7, No. 17.
"' Beitr. Kranicl. d. Insul. w. Kiiste Am.-r.. 18SD, 398.
'"Arch. Anthrop.. 1902. .\xvii, 70.
308 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. anx. 46
and Pain -^ report the " thickening " in 10 out of 32 Eskimo jaws,
but do not discuss the causation ; and the same applies to Oetteking,--
who reported on a series of Eskimo from Labrador. In 1909
Gorjanovic-Kramberger -^ somewhat indirectly notes the condition,
without a true api^reciation of its meaning.
In 1910 I had the opportunity to report on the mandibular hyper-
ostoses in a rare collection of crania and lower jaws of the central
and Smith Sound Eskimo." Of 25 lower jaws of adults and 5 of
children, 18, or 72 per cent, of the former and 2 of the latter showed
distinct to marked lingual hyperostoses, while in the remaining cases
the feature was either doubtful (absorption of the alveolar process)
or absent. Two of the five children showed the peculiarity in a
well-marked degree. A critical consideration of the condition leads
me to the conclusion that it is not jDathological, and my remarks
were worded {p. 211) as follows: "A marked and general feature
is a pronounced bony reinforcement of the alveolar arch extending
above the mylohyoid line from the canines or first bicusjDids to or
near the last molars. This physiological hy23erostosis presents more
or less irregular surface and is undoubtedly of functional origin, the
result of extraordinary pressure along the line of teeth most con-
cerned in chewing ; yet its occurrence in infant skulls indicates that
at least to some extent the feature is already hereditary in these
Eskimo."
In 1912, Kajava -' reported lingual hyperostotic thickenings on the
lower jaws of 68 adult Lapps, and found the condition in frequent
association with pronounced wear of the teeth. In 1915, finally,
Fiirst and C. C. Hansen, in their great volume on " Crania Groen-
landica," approach this question much more thoroughly. They, as
also Kajava, did not know the writer's report of 1910. They found
the " torus " (p. 181) , '' also in the mandibles of some various Siberian
races in a not insignificant percentage * * * and also not in-
frequently among European races, especially in the Laplanders
(30 to 35 per cent)." They also report the presence of the condi-
tion " in a Chinaman," and saw indications of a good development
of it in 17 per cent of 164 middle ages to prehistoric, and in 12 per
cent of later Scandinavian lower jaws. Their interesting comments
on its possible causation, though at one point seemingly not har-
monizing, are as follows (p. 180) : " The possibility is not precluded
that we have here a formation which, even though it has at first
arisen and been acquired through mechanical causes, has in the end
^ J. Anthr. Inst.. 1900, xsx, 134.
" Abh. und Ber. Zool. und Anthr. Mus., Dresdin, 190S, xii.
-'' Sitzber. preuss. Ak. Wis.^i., Li-Liii.
" .\nthrop. Pap's. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., v, pt. ii.
~ Verb. Ges. Finn. Zahnarzte, 1912, ix.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 61
Western Eskimo and Aleut (Middle) Lower Jaws, Showing Lingual
Hyperostoses. iU.S.N.M.)
HRDLICKA] THE LOWER JAW 309
become a racial character, albeit a variable one." And page 181 :
" There seems to be no doubt whatever that it is a formation connected
with Arctic races or Arctic conditions of life ; and, accordingly, it can
not safely be assumed to be a racial character, however difficult it is
to regard it as a formation only acquired individually."
With both the previously published and the present data, I believe
the subject of these bony formations may now be approached with
some hope of definite conclusions.
These hyperostoses give no indication of being pathological. They
are formed largely, if not entiiely, by compact bone tissues of evi-
dently normal construction. They never show a trace of attending
inflammation or of ulceration or of breaking down. They resemble
occasionally the osteomae of the vault of the skull, and more dis-
tantly the osteomae of the auditory meatus, but in those cases
where the bony swelling is uniform and in many others they show to
be of quite a different category. (PI. 61.)
As a rule these bony protuberances in the Eskimo are not con-
nected with evidence of pyorrhoea, root abscesses, or any other
pathological condition of the teeth, for those conditions are prac-
tically absent in the older Eskimo skulls; therefore they can not be
ascribed to any irritation due to such conditions, and the Eskimo
have no habits that could possibly be imagined asi favoring, through
mechanical irritation, the development of these bony swellings.
AVear of the teeth, which has been thought to stand possibly in a
causative relation to these developments, is common in many races
and even in animals (primates, etc.), without being accompanied
by any such formations. .
The development of such overgrowths is not wholly limited, as
already indicated from the cases reported by Danielli (1884) and
Virchow (1889), to the lower jaw, but somewhat similar growths
may also be observed, though much more rarely, both lingually and
on the outer border of the alveolar process of the upper jaw in the
molar region. When present in the latter position they interfere
with the measurement of the external breadth of the dental arch.
But, if neither pathological themselves nor due to any pathological
or mechanical irritation, then these hyperostoses can only be, it would
seem, of a physiological, ontogenic nature ; and if so, then they must
be brought about through a definite need and for a definite purpose
or function.
These views are supported by their marked symmetry, which is
very apparent even where they are irregular; by the fact that in
general they are not found in the weakest jaws (weak individuals),
or again in the largest and stoutest mandibles (jaws that are strong
enough as it is) ; and by the history of their development.
310 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUKVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46
Our rather extensive present data on children show that these
formations are absent in infancy. They begin to develop in older
childhood, in adolescence, or even during the earlier adult life ; they
stop developing at different stages in different individuals, and they
never lead to any deformity of the body of the mandible.
These overgrowths are further seen to be more common and to more
frequently reach a pronounced development in the males than in the
females.
What is the effect of these hyperostoses? They strengthen the
dental arch. With them the arch is stronger ; without them it would
be weaker. The view is therefore justified that they augment the
effectiveness of the dental arch; which is just what is needed or
would be useful in such people as the Eskimo where the demands on
the jaws exceed in general those in any other people.
All these appear to be facts of incontrovertible nature; but if so
then we are led to practically the same conclusion that I have reached
in the study of the central and Smith Sound Eskimo, which is that
the lingual mandibular hyperostoses are physiological formations,
developed in answer to the needs of the alveolar portions of the
lower jaw. They could be termed synergetic hyperostoses.
The process of the development of these strengthening deposits of
bone is probably still largely individual; yet the tendency toward
such developments appears to be already hereditary in the Eskimo,
as indicated by their beginning here and there in childhood. But
their absence in nearly one-third of the Eskimo mandibles, their
marked differences of occurrence and development in the two sexes,
and their occasional presence in the jaws of various other peoples,
including even the whites, speak against the notion of these hyper-
ostoses being as yet true racial features.
Taking everything into consideration, the writer is more than ever
convinced that the lingual hyperostoses of the normal lower (as well
as the upper) jaw, in the Eskimo as elsewhere, are physiological,
ontogenic developments, whose object and function is the strength-
ening of the lower alveolar process in its lateral portions. Only
when excessively developed, which is very rare, they may, mechani-
cally, perhaps cause discomfoi't and thereby approach a pathological
condition.
Main References
Danielli,-^ 1884: "Saw the condition in lower jaws of 1 Swede,
1 Italian, 1 Terra di Lavoro jaw, 1 Slovene, 1 Hungarian, 1 Kirghis,
1 ancient Peruvian."
Found hyperostoses in 9 out of 14 Ostiak lower jaws.
'" Danielli, Jacopo, Iperostosi in maudibole umano specialmente di Ostlacclii, ed anche
in mascellari superiore. Archivio per I'antropologia e I'etuologia, 1884, xiv, 333-346.
HBDLICKA]
THE LOWKR JAW 311
Material : Young 2, adult 6, old 6.
Hyperostoses in young 1, adult 3, old 5.
Mantegazza. at his request, examined some Ostiak and Eskimo
skulls in Berlin and found the hyperostoses in 2 Ostiak lower jaws
(slitrht) and in 1 Eskimo skull from Greenland (marked).
Found also smaller hyperostoses in the upper jaw ventrully to the
molars (" situate quasi sempre dalla parte interna in cori-ispondenza
dei molari ") :
Skulls: 2 Italians, 1 Hungarian, Y Norwegians, 2 Lapps, 5 Ostiaks.
Plate shows 8 lower jaws, 1 with slight, 7 with marked hyperostoses
(1 symphyseal swellings, 3 tumorlike).
Refrains from interpretation (could not I'each conclusion).
Virchow,-" 1889, page 392 : In upper jaws of three Santa Barbara
skulls: "An den Alveolarriindern der weiblichen Schiidel Nr. 3-6
von S. Barbara besteht eine hcichst eigenthiimliche und seltene, knol-
lige Hyperostosis s. Osteosclerosis alveolaris, wie ich sie in gleicher
Starke friiher nur bei Eskimos gesehen hatte. Ein leichter Ansatz
dazu zeigt sich auch bei dem mannlichen Schadel Nr. 4 von S. Cruz.
Es diirfte dieser Zustand, der mit tiefer Abnutzung der Ziihne
zusammenfalt, durch besonders reizende Nahrung bedingt sein."
Vancouver Island skulls : " dagegen sehen wir dieselbe alveolare
Hyperostose, die wir bei den Leuten von S. Barbara und weiterhin
bei Eskimos kennen gelernt haben."
Virchow,^'* 1892 : " Der Alveolarrand gleichfalls mit hyperosto-
tischen Wiilsten besetzt, jedoch mehr an der inneren Seite, besonders
stark in der Gegend per Priimolares und Canini, weniger stark in der
Gegend der Incisici."
Welcker.-^ 1902 : " Exostosen der Alveolarriinder. Von erheblicher
Beweiskraft konnen Eigenthiimlichkeiten und Abnormitaten des
Knochengewebes under der Knochenoberfliiche werden, wenn diesel-
ben, bei an sich grosser Seltenheit ihres Vorkommens, an einem Ober-
schiidel und Unterkiefer zugleich vorkommen.
" So fand ich am Unterkiefer der Gypsabgiisse des sogenannten
Schillerschiidels sehr merkwiirdige, bis dahin nirgends erwahnte,
erbsenformige Exostosen an den Alveolen der Eck- und Schneide-
ziihne. Ganz iihnliche, wenn auch etwas fliichere Exostosen zeigen
die Alveolen eben derselben Ziihne des Oberschiidels, und es beweist
dieses seltene Vorkommen bei dem Zutreffen aller iibrigen Zeichen
das Zusammengehoren beider Stlicke mit holier Sicherheit.
^Virchow, R., in Beitriige zur Craniologie der Insulaner von der Westkiiste Nord-
amerikas. Zeitsclir. f. Ethnol.. Verhandl., 18S9, xxi, 393, 401.
■' Virchow. R.. Crania Etlinica Americana. Berlin, 1892, Tatel xxiii. A " long-head "
male adult of Koskimo, Vancouver Island.
^ Wclckor. IT., Die Zugehiirigkeit eines Unterkiefers zu einem bestimmten Schiidel,
nebst Untersuchungen iiber sehr auffallige, durch Auftrockuung und Wiederanfeuchtung
bedingto Groben und Formveranderungen des Knochens. Arch. f. Anthropol., 1902,
XXVII, 70.
312 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 48
" In einer etwas anderen Form, in der dieselben einen geschlos-
senen, exostotischen Saum bilden, fand ich Alveolarexostosen bei
einem Lettenschiidel (G. Gandras, 47 J., Halle Nr. 52). Hier sind
die Alveolarriinder der Schneide-und Eckziihne mit flachen, am
Oberkiefer streifenformigen (senkrecht gestellten), am Unterkiefer
mehr rundlichen Exostosen besetzt, so dass der sonst papierdiinne
Zahnflachenrand beider Kiefer in einen, die Zahnhalse begrenzenden
wulst-formigen Saum umgewandelt ist. Der gleiche Charalrter
dieser nicht haufigen Abnormitiit an beiden Kiefern giebt die vollste
Ueberzeungung der Zusammengehorigkeit.
" In schwiicherem Grade zeigt diesen Zustand ein Chinesenscliadel
der Halle'schen Sammlung (Lie Assie)."
Fiirst,^" 1908 : " Wir haben hier auf diese interessante anatomische
Bildung aufmerksam machen wollen, die, wenn nicht konstant, doch
in sehr hohem Prozentsatze und in bestimmter charakteristischer
Form bei den Eskimos auftritt und in verschiedenen Variationen auf
dem Unterkiefer anderer Rassen, speziell nordischer oder arktischer,
vorkommt. — AVir wollen spiiter eine ausfiihrlichere Besehreibung
iiber den Torus mandibularis mitteilen."
Gorjanovic-Kramberger,^^ 1909: "Durch die Ausbiegung der seit-
liehen Kieferflachen wurde ferner die Druckrichtung der M und P
eine gegen die innere Kieferwandung gerichtete. Als direkte Folge
dieses Druckes hat man die starke Ausladung der entsprechenden
lingualen Kieferseiten im Bereiche der P und M anzusehen, die da
eine auffallende Einengung des inneren Unterkieferraumes bewerk-
stelligte."
Hrdlicka (A.), 1910. See text.
Hansen,^- 1914 : " The lower jaws attached to the skulls are power-
fully formed, high, and, above all, very thick, their inner surface
being markedly protruding, rounded, and without any special promi-
nence of linea mylohyoidea. This peculiarity, which is common
enough among the Eslvimo and certain Siberian tribes, but is other-
wise exceedingly rare, must be regarded as a hyperostosis of the
same nature as the so-called torus palatinus. It is a partly pathologi-
cal formation due to a peculiar mode of life rather than a true
morphological mark of race."
Fiirst, C. M., and Hansen, C. C, 1915. See text.
=° Fiirst, Carl M.. Demonstration des Torus mandibularis bei don Aslsimos und anderen
Rassen. Verhandlungen der Anatomischcn Gcsellschaft in Berlin, 1908, Ergiinzbft z.
Anatom. Anz., 1908, xxxii, 295-296.
'^ GorjanoTic-Kramberger. K., Der Unterkiefer der Eskimos (Gronlander) als TrSger
primitiver Merkmale. Sitzungsberichte der kiJniglieli preussischen Akademie der Wissen-
sehaften, 1909, Li.
^ Hansen, Spren, Contributions to the anthropology of the East Greenlanders. Med-
delelser cm Gr0nland, Copenhagen, 1914, xxxix, 169.
HKDi.irKA] SKELETAL PARTS 313
Caineron,^^ 1923 : '' In some instances the bony thickening was
excessive. For example, in mandible XIV H-8 the inward bulging
of the bone was so mai-ked that the transverse distance between the
inner surfaces of the body opposite the first molars was reduced to
21.5 millimeters. This jaw had therefore an extraordinary appear-
ance when viewed fi-om below. (See fig. 5.) The writer would
regard these bulgings as bone buttresses built up by nature to resist
the excessive strain thrown upon tiie alveoli of the molar teeth. He
exhibited the mandibles to Prof. H. E. Friesell, dean of the dental
faculty, University of Pittsburgh, and this authority concurred in
the opinion expressed above." A disagreement with this view is
expressed by S. G. Ritchie, pages 64c-65c, same publication.
SKELETAL PARTS OTHER THAN THE SKULL
The skeletal parts of the western Eskimo, outside of the skull, are
but little known. The only records are those on two skeletons (one
male, one female) from Point Barrow by Hawkes,^^ and those on a
few bones from Port Clarence by Cameron.^" The data on the skele-
tal parts of the northern and eastern Eskimo are only slightlj'
richer, being for the most part fragmentary and scattered.^' Nor
has the time arrived yet for a comprehensive study of such material,
for notwithstanding the relative abundance in crania and the more
resistant individual skeletal parts, the securing of anywhere near
complete skeletons is very difficult. Nevertheless there is now a good
number of the long bones of the western Eskimo in the possession
of the National Museum and the main data on these, all secured
personally by the writer, will be given. They must for the present
remain essentially as so many figures without adequate discussion and
comparisons. Nevertheless a few facts appear so plainly that they
may well be pointed out before concluding this section.
^ Cameron. Jiihn, The Copper Eskimos. Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition,
1913-1918. Ottawa, 19L'3, xii, c. 5o.
^ Amer. .\nthrop., 1916, LViii^ 240-243.
^ Rep. Canad. Arct. Exp., 1913-1918, Pt. C, 1923, 5G-5T.
'"Mainly by Turner (London, 1886): Duckworth (Cambridge, 1904); Hrdlifka (New
York, 1010) ; Cameron (Ottawa, 1913—1918) ; also a series of incidental references and
comparisons.
88253°— 30 21
314
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
Westebn Eskimo: The Long Bones
[ETH. ANN. 40
Males
Females
Seward
Seward
Bones of both sides taken to-
gether
South-
western
and
Seward
Penin-
sula '
Point
Penin-
sula and
north-
South-
we.stern
and
Seward
Penin-
sula
Point
Penin-
sula and
north-
midwes-
Hope
western
midwes-
llope
western
tern
Eskimo
tern
Eskimo
groups 1
m gen-
eral 3
groups
in gen-
eral
Humeri:
(143)
(261)
(67)
(100)
(136)
(26)
(55)
(83)
Length maximum
30.69
31.42
31.07
31.17
28.40
28.75
28.83
28.83
At middle —
Diameter maximum.
2.40
2.46
2.46
2.46
2.10
2.14
2.16
2.15
Diameter minimum,.
1.80
1.81
1.86
1.85
1.54
1.59
1.63
1.62
Index at middle
76.1
73. S
75.8
76.1
7S.S
7H
76. i
76.1
Radii:
(9S)
(20)
(15)
(37)
(109)
(16)
(8)
(24)
Length maximum
22.90
23.63
23.44
23.50
20.50
21.26
s (21. 58)
21.25
Radio-humeral index (ap-
716
75.2
76. i
76.4
7S.2
74
(74. 8)
74
Femora:
(195)
42.50
(44)
43.20
(10)
(60)
43.46
(132)
(26)
(31)
(44.06)
39.36
40.12
40 44
Humero - femoral index
7tS
7S.7
< (70. S)
71.7
72. «
71.7
71.S
At middle-
Diameter antero- pos-
terior
3.08
2 70
3.17
2 72
(3.33)
(2 68)
3.21
2 72
2 69
2 46
2.85
2.65
2.88
Diameter lateral
Index at middle
At upper flattening—
2.56
(.80. i)
SJ,.8
91.5
89.6
88.9
Diameter maximum..
Diameter minimum..
Index at upper flat-
3 35
3 34
(3. 27)
(2 58)
3 32
3.02
3.04
3.06
2.59
2.26
2.37
2.40
75
77
(79)
78./
74.6
78
78.4
Tibiae:
(141)
(3.5)
(41)
(79)
(147)
(18)
(17)
(36)
Length (in position)
33.86
34.52
36.40
35.52
31.32
31.90
32.90
32.50
Tibio-femoral index (ap-
79 7
79.9
'(.ss.e)
8/. 7
79.6
79.6
80.4
At middle-
Diameter antero-pos-
3.12
2.12
3.13
2.12
3.26
2.20
3.19
2.16
2.71
1.89
2.71
1.93
2.80
1.92
2.75
Diameter lateral
1.92
Index at middle
67.9
67.7
67.4
67.8
69.9
71. S
68.8
70
1 Principally Hooper Bay, Nunivak Island, Pastolik, and St. Lawrence Island.
' Mainly Shishmaref, Wales and Golovnin Bay.
' Including Point Hope.
* Number of femora insufficient.
* Number of radii insufficient.
HRDLICKA] SKELETAL PARTS 315
Tlie first fact shown by the preceding figures is the slightly greater
length of all the long bones in the michvestern and northwestern
groups as compared with those of the Bering Sea (midwestern and
southwestern). This means naturally that the people of the Seward
Peninsula and northward average somewhat taller in stature.
The second evident fact is that the people of the Seward Peninsula
and the more northern groups (so far as represented in these collec-
tions) show a slightly greater stature of all the bones than the
groups farther south, showing that they were both a somewhat taller
and somewhat sturdier people.
The next fact of imj^ortance is the remarkable agreement in .some
respects in the relative proportions of the main skeletal parts be-
tween the jieople of the more southern and the more northern groups.
The males are more regular in this respect than the females. The
relative proportions of the humerus and again the tibia at their
middle are identical in the males of the soutliwestern and midwestern
groups and those farther northward ; and the radio-humeral, humero-
femoral, and tibio-femoral indices are all very closely related. Wliy
there should be less agreement in these respects among the females
it is difficult to say ; in all probability the series of specimens are not
sufficiently large.
The next table presents data and some racial comparisons. Here
the western Eskimo are taken as a unit. They are seen to consider-
ably resemble the Yukon Indians, but somewhat less so other Indians
in the radio-humeral and tibio-femoral indices, and they resemble all
the Indians in the relative proportions of the femur at its middle. In
other respects there are somewhat more marked differences, especially
between the western Eskimo and the Indians in general. Some irregu-
larities in the Yukon series may be due to insufficiency of numbers.
When compared with the bones of the whites and the negroes the
Eskimo and Indians separate themselves in many respects as a
distinct groujD, while the white and the negro bones are particularly
distinct through the greater relative thickness of the humerus and
tibia at their middle, and of the femur at its upper flattening; in
other words the Eskimo as well as the Indians are more platybrachic,
platymeric and platycnemic than the whites or the negroes.
The basic relation of the Eskimo to tlie Indian bones is quite evi-
dent ; though the Eskimo, when compared to Indians outside of
Alaska, show a relatively shorter radius and tibia, indicating the
already discussed relative shortness of the forearm and leg.
Long Bones in Eskimo and Stature
One of the most desirable of possibilities in the anthropometry of
any people, but particularly in groups now extinct, is a correct esti-
316
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUEVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANN. 46
Westbkn Eskimo. Long Bones : Compaeative Data
MALES
Western Eskimo
Yukon Indians
Other Indians
United States whites (mis-
cellaneous)
United States negroes
Hu-
Femur
merus:
Index
of shaft
at the
middle
(all
groups)
Radio-
humeral
index
Hu-
raero-
femoral
index
Tibia:
Index of
shaft at
middle
Index of
shaft at
middle
Index
of shaft
at upper
flat-
tening
' (243)
(135)
(255)
(255)
(243)
(220)
75. 1
76
86.2
76.5
72
67.9
(10)
(10)
(14)
(14)
(10)
(14)
70
75.7
87. 1
70. 7
74.5
66
(448)
(370)
(902)
(902)
(378)
(1259)
73.3
77. 7
87.3
74
72. 5
66. 1
(1930)
(1052)
(207)
(836)
(800)
(1400)
83
73.6
97
83
72.5
71. 1
(112)
(74)
2 (14)
(48)
(50)
(63)
84. 1
77.3
(9L 2)
86.8
7L6
73.9
Tibio-
femoral
index
(220)
80.7
(14)
8L5
(324)
84. 4
(1216)
82. 1
(68)
84. 9
FEMALES
Western Eskimo
other Indians
United States whites (mis-
cellaneous)
United States negroes
(213)
(133)
(153)
(153)
(153)
(183)
74. 1
73. 1
90. 2
76.5
7L8
70
(348)
(200)
(327)
(248)
(200)
(910)
70. 1
76.6
91.8
70
72.5
70
(770)
(424)
(100)
(192)
(290)
(600)
79.3
72.7
97
77.7
7L6
7L 9
(52)
(34)
2 (17)
(48)
(52)
(44)
79.2
77. 2
(100)
81. 1
70.2
75.9
(183)
80
(384)
84.3
(520)
8L5
(48)
83.7
I Bones of both sides.
' Numbers insufficient.
mation of tlieir stature. For this purpose the most useful aid has been
found in the long bones, and various essays have been made by Manou-
vrier, Rollet, Topinard, Pearson, and others '^ at preparing tables
or arriving at methods that would enable the student to promptly
and satisfactorily obtain the stature as it was in life from the length
of the long bones. But all these .essays were based on observations
on white people, and it has always been recognized that they could
not with equal confidence be applied to other racial groups. They
would in all lorobability be especially inapplicable to the Eskimo
with his relatively short forearms and legs; yet the possibility of
estimating the stature in many localities of the Eskimo territory,
where no living remain, would be of real value. Fortunately for this
purpose there are now some data on hand which make this possible.
" See section on Estimation of Stature from Parts of the Skeleton, In author's An-
thropometry, Wistar Inst., Philadi'lphia, 1920.
HItDLICKA]
SKELETAL PARTS
317
In 1910, ill my Contributions to the Anthropology of the Central
and Smith Sound Eskimo, I was able to report both the stature and
the length of the long bones in two normally developed adult males
and one adult female from Smith Sound. To this it is now possible to
add larger though less direct data from the group of St. Lawrence
Island. We have the stature of many of the living from this place
and also the mcasui-ements of numerous long bones from the dead
of the same group. The relations of the two are given below, together
with corresponding data from Smith Sound. There is in general
such a striking agreement in the relative proportions that the latter
may, it would seem, be used henceforth for stature estimates also in
other parts of the Eskimo region.
Length of Peincip.al Long Bo.nes, and Stature in the Living, on the
St. Lawhence Island
Male
Female
(63)
Mean stature: 103.3
(48)
Mean stature; 151.3
Mean
dimensions
Percental
relation
to stature
(S = 100)
Mean
dimensions
Percental
relation
to stature
(S = IOO)
Humerus- ._ _ .'
(58)
30.41
(23)
23.03
(100)
32. 54
(58)
34. 16
IS. 6
14.1
27. S
20. 9
(49)
27.77
(35)
20. 77
(38)
38. 12
(50)
31. 13
18 S
Radius _
13 7
Femur
26 1
Tibia _ __ _ _
20 5
Long Bones vs. Stature in Eskimo of Smith Sound '
Female
Stature
Humerus:
Mean length (of the two)
Percental relation to stature
Radius:
Mean length
Percental relation to stature
Femur:
Mean length
Percental relation to stature
Tibia:
Mean length
Percental relation to stature
146.7
24 56
IS. 1
19.85
13.5
38. 55
26. 3
30.9
21. 1
' Hrdiitka, A., Contribution to the anthropology of central and Smith Sound Eskimo. Anthrop.
Pap. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., v, pt. 2, 280. New York, 1910.
318 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUR\^Y IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
A STKANGE GEOUP OF ESKIMO NEAK POINT BARROW
In 1917-1919, in the course of the John "Wanamaker Expedition for
the University Museum, Philadelphia, "W. B. Van Valin, with the
help of Charles Brower, the well-known local trader and collector,
excavated near Barrow a group of six tumuli, which proved in the
opinion of Van Valin to be so many old igloos, containing plentiful
cultural as well as skeletal material. The collections eventually
reached the museum, but due to lack of facilities they were in the
main never unpacked.
I heard of this material first from Mr. Brower, with whom I sailed
in 1926 from Barrow southward, and later with Dr. J. Alden Mason
I saw the collection still in the original boxes, at the University
Museum. In April of this year the skeletal remains wei-e transferred
to the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, and after their transfer I
obtained the permission of Dr. Milton J. Greenraan, director of the
Wistar Institute, to examine the material, which was of importance
to him in connection with his own collections from Barrow and south-
ward. A due acknowledgment for the privilege is hereby rendered
to both Doctor Greeninan and Doctor Ma.son.
The study proved one of unexpected and uncommon interest. The
material was found to consist of two separate lots. The first of these
consisted of a considerable number of brown colored, more or less
complete skeletons with skulls, proceeding from the " igloos" ; while
the second lot comprised a scries of whitened isolated skulls, witliout
other skeletal parts and mostly even without the component lower
jaws, gathered on the tundra near Barrow. At first sight, also,
the skulls of the two groups were seen to present important
differences.
The " igloo " crania, while plainly pure Eskimo, proved to be of a
decidedly exceptional nature for this location. The skulls, in brief,
were not of the general western Eskimo type, but reminded at once
strongly of the skulls from Greenland and Labrador. And they were
exceptionally uniform, showing that they belonged to a definite and
distinct Eskimo group.
After writing of this to Doctor Mason, he kindly sent me a copy of
the notes and ob.'^ervations on the discovery of the material by W. B.
Van Valin, who was in charge of the excavation. The detailed notes
will soon be published by Doctor Mason. The main information they
convey is as follows :
The excavations by Van Valin date from 1918-19. They were made
in six large " heaps," approximately 8 miles southwest of Barrow and
about 1,000 yards back from the beach on the tundra. Two of the
heaps were on the northern and four on the southern side of a ravine
HRDLiCKA] A STRANGE GROUP OF ESKIMO 319
or draw formed by a drain flowing from inland to the sea. The
Eskimo at Barrow knew nothing about these remains or tlieir people.
Each of the heaps inclosed what in the excavator's opinion was an
"igloo" made of driftwood and earth; and all contained evidently
undisturbed human skeletons. The total number of bodies of all
ages was counted as 83, and they ranged from infants to old people.
There were many bird and other skins (for covers and cloth-
ing), and numerous utensils. The hair on the bodies was in general
" black as a raven." Most of the bodies lay on " beds " of moss or
" ground willows," or rough-hewn boards. Thei-e was no indication
of any violence or sudden death. The bodies at places were in three
levels, one above the other; but there was but moderate uniformity in
the orientation of the bodies. There were found with the burials no
traces of dogs (though there were some sled runners), and no
metal, glass, j^ipes, labrets, nets, soapstone lamps or dog harness; but
thei-e were bows and arrows, bolas, and ordinary jDottery. The cul-
tural objects, Doctor Mason wrote me, resemble in a smaller measure
those of the older Bering Sea, to a larger extent those of the old
northern or " Thule " culture. There were some jadeite axes, indi-
cating a direct or indirect contact with Kotzebue Sound and the
Kobuk River.
Some of the bearskin coverings were " as bright and silvery " as
the day the bear was killed (Van Valin) ; and the frozen bodies were
evidently in a state of preservation approaching that of natural
mummies.
Notwithstanding indications to the contrary. Van Valin reached
the opinion that these remains were not those of regular burials,
though offering no other definite hypothesis.
Desiring additional information about this highly interesting find,
I wrote to Mr. Brower, who assisted at the excavations, and received
the following answer :
These mounds are from 5 to S miles south of the Barrow village (Utkiavik).
The largest that were fipened were the farthest south, and seemed more like
raised lumps on the land than ruins. No doubt that is the reason no one had
bothered them.
The Eskimo have no traditions of these people. In fact they did not even
suspect the mounds contained human remains until Mr. Van Valin started to
investigate them.
While Van Valin thought they might be houses, I have always thought they
were burial mounds, as there seemed no family to have been together at the
time of death as often has happened. When whole families have died from some
epidemic, then the man and wife are together under their sleeping skins. In
these mounds each party was wrapped separate, either in polar bear or musk
ox skins ; none were wrapped in deer skins. If male, all his hunting imple-
ments were at his side, and if a female her working tools were with her, as
scrapers, dishes of wood, and stone knives. The men had their bows, arrows,
320 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. anx. 46
spears, and often a heavy club, for what purpose unless used iu fighting I
could not make out. At the head of each person was a small receptacle, made
of whalebone, and In it or alongside was a long wing boue that had been used
as a drinking tube. In some cases there seemed to be the remains of food in
the platters, but that was impossible to identify. Most of the bodies were laid
on the ground, a few had the remains of scrub willow under them, while only
in two or three cases had there been driftwood planks under the bodies ; these
were crudely hewn with their old stone adzes.
There seems to have been some sort of driftwood houses over these bodies
at some time, but they detayed and have fallen on the remains, which were in
some cases embedded in the ice. Often before the frame had broken down
earth must have accumulated and covered the bodies. In these cases the flesh
has the consistency of a fine meal. While with those in the ice in some cases
part of the flesh still remained. In both cases when exposed to the air they
rapidly disintegrated, leaving nothing except the bones. By measurements they
must have been a larger race than the present people.
When your letter reached here I at once started making inquiries as to what
mounds were still intact; and I find that as far as known only two of the
larger ones have not been ojiened. The Eskimo have been opening the mounds
ever since they were found, taking from them all the hunting implements
and other material and selling them aboard the ships for curios. It seems a
shame that all this should be lost to science, and if no one takes an interest in
these places in a year or two they will all be gone.
I have again made inquiries as to what the present Eskimo think of these
people, but they tell me they have no tradition regarding them and that they
do not know if tliey were their ancestors or not. In fact, they are ignorant
of where they came from or when they died.
To date I do not know of any whaling implement being found with these
old people, neither is any of the framework of these mounds made from the
bones of whales. In some of the implements ivory has been used. The mounds
farthest from the shore were about 400 yards, those that remain are closer to
the beach. Some of the smaller ones are on the banks of small streams but
never very far from shore. Undoubtedly, however, they were at one time
considerably farther from the sea. but the sea is every year claiming some
of this land, especially where the banks are high along the beach. There the
lieach is narrow and during a gale the waves wash out the land at its base.
This is about all that I can tell you of these people. All credit for finding
these mounds belongs to Van Valin.
Yours truly, Chas. D. Beowes.
The mfiterial. — The collection as received at the TVistar Institute
was notable for its general dark color, enhanced in many of the
specimens by dark to black remains of the tissues. There was no
mineralization and but little bone decay, though the bones were
somewhat brittle.
There is a scarcity of children and adolescents; there are in fact
only two skulls of subjects less than 20 years of age in the collection.
The skulls and bones that remain show no violence.
The remains show a complete freedom from .syphilis or other con-
stitutional disease; the only pathological condition present in some
of the bones being arthritis. This speaks strongly for their preced-
HRDLIOKA]
A STRANGE GROUP OF ESKIMO
321
ing the contact with whites. The surface series, though smaller,
shows three syphilitic skulls. An additional fact of interest is the
absence in both the igloo and the surface series of all marks of
scurvy. Such marks are fairly common farther southward. Finally,
none of the siculls are deformed, either in life or posthumously.
Anthropological Observations and Measurements on the
Collections
Age. — The first observations made on the igloo material were those
as to the individual ages of the bodies. Such observations are neces-
sarily rough, yet within sufficiently broad limits fairly reliable. The
criteria are principally the condition of the teeth and that of the
sutures. The possible error in such estimates is, experience has
shown, as a rule well within 10 years in the older and within 5 years
in the young adults or subadults.
One of the objects of these observations on the " igloo " material
was to get some further light on whether the remains were those
of a group that perished of an epidemic, famine, or some other sud-
den agency, or whether they represented just burials. The age dis-
tribution of the dead would differ considerably in the two cases.
Estimated Ages at Death
lOLOO MATERIAL
Males (27)
Females (25)
Mean, both sexes
20 to 25
Per cent
11
16
13. 5
30 to 40
Per cent
15
24
19
Per cent
41
44
42.5
Per cent
33
16
25
surface series
Males (21) . ... ...
5
36
17
48
36
43
48
Females (14)
Mean, both sexes . . .
29
11. 5
29. 5
The above table shows the data obtained, with those on the surface
material from the same collection and known to be that of ordinary
burials.
The results do not agree with the composition of the living popu-
lation but are apparently near to what might be expected in burials.
Taking the sexes apart, the series from the surface shows a somewhat
more favorable condition for the men, but worse for the women.
Taking the materials, however, regardless of sex, the proportions of
322
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[ETH. ANX. 46
nges in the earlier igloos and in the late surface burials ai'e practically
identical. This points strongly against the idea of the igloo remains
being those of people who either died there of starvation, of an epi-
demic, of being smothered, or of some other sudden affliction, and to
their having been just ordinary burials.
To arrive at something still more definite, if possible, I appealed
on the one hand to the United States Census and on the other to
Doctor Dublin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York,
for data as to the distribution of ages among the dead, using the same
age-categories as in the case of the " igloo " material. The data fur-
nished by Miss E. Foudray through Dr. Wm. H. Davis, Chief Statis-
tician of the Bureau of the Census, are particularly to the point.
They are as follows :
Per Cent Age Distribution of Indian Population in Axa.ska Aged 20 Years
AND Over, According to the Census of 1900
20 to 24
25 to 44
4.1 to .54
55 and over
Males - -- ---_-
17.8
19. 4
IS. 6
54. 2
53.3
53. 7
15. 9
15.9
15.9
12. 1
Females - _
11. 4
11.8
Pee Cent Age Distribution at Death (E.stimated) of Indian Popci-ation of
Alaska in 1900, Who. Had They Ln-ED, Wouxd Have Appe.\red in the Cen-
sus OP 1910 AT Ages 20 Years and Over
20 to 24
25 to 44
45 to 54
55 and over
13.2
11.9
12. 6
43.9
47.0
45.4
21.3
19.5
20. 4
21. 6
Females.. .
21. 6
Both sexes .
21. 6
There is a remarkable agreement of these figures with those
obtained on both the Igloo and the Barrow surface burial material,
except that for the two middle age series the figures are reversed.
This may mean an error in the two respective estimates on the In-
dians, or it may mean that for these two ages the conditions among
the Eskimo concerned were better than they were in 1900 among the
Alaska Indians.
All the above, together with the details on the orderly treatment
of the bodies, and the absence of such conditions as were encountered
in the dead villages on St. Lawrence Island (Hooper, Nelson), in-
clines one to the conclusion that the Igloo remains, however excep-
tional the method for the Eskimo, were just burials.
HRDLICKA]
A STRANGE GKOUP OF ESKIMO
323
Physical Characteristics
The skull. — The most noteworthy feature about the Igloo remains
is the marked distinctiveness of tlie skull. This strikes the observer
at the first sight of the specimens, and the impression is only strength-
ened by detail examination. Tlie skulls are very narrow, long, and
liigh. They differ jjlainly from anj'thing except occasional indi-
vidual specimens, either about Barrow or along the rest of the west
coast of Alaska, with the jjossible excejjtion of a few groups of
Seward Peninsula. They recall stronglj' the crania of Labrador and
.south Greenland. It is the Labrador-Greenland type throughout,
men, women, and even the two children. It is a group outside of the
range of local variation. It is a strange Eskimo group, either de-
veloped here in former times as it developed in Greenland and
Labrador, and possibly the Seward Peninsula, or one tliat had come
here from places where such type had already been realized.
The following data (the individual measurements will appear in a
later number of the Catalogue of Crania) show the differences be-
tween the Igloo and the surface material, the latter both of the Van
Valin and of the author's collections, and the valuable Stefansson
material, now at the American Maseum, from Point Barrow. They
need but little comment. They show clearly on one hand the wholly
Eskimo nature of the Igloo skulls, and on the other their distinct-
ness from those of the later burials, both of Barrow and Point Bar-
row. The vault especially is characteristic — narrow, long, high, more
or less keel-shaped. The face in general is much more alike in the
three groups; nevertheless its absolute height and breadth in the
Igloo series are slightly smaller than in the other two, and there
are minor differences in the orbits and the palate.
Eskimo Crania, Barhow and Vicinity
Old Igloos
Surface burials, Barrow
Surface burials, Point
Barrow
Males
(27)
Females
(25)
Males
(37)
Females
(36)
Males
(49)
Females
(52)
Vault:
Length maximum.
Breadth maxi-
mum
Basion - bregma
height
Cranial index
Height-breadth
index
19.25
13. 30
14.02
69. I
105. 5
86. 2
15. 52
18. 11
12. 72
13. 21
70. 2
104. 6
86. 4
14. 72
IS. 90
13.73
13. 78
72. 6
99.6
84.6
15. 46
17. 77
13. 23
12. 97
74.5
98. 1
82. 9
14. 66
IS. 74
13.84
13.78
73. 9
99.6
84. 7
15. 44
17. 91
13.32
13. 08
74.4
97. 8
Mean height index .
Cranial module
83. 4
14. 75
324 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [ETii. anx. m
Eskimo Crania, Barrow and Vicinity — Continued
Old Igloos
Males
(27)
Females
(25)
Surface burials, Barrow
Males
(37)
Females
(36)
Surface hurials, Point
Barrow
Males
(49)
Females
(52)
Face:
Height: menton-
nasion
Height: upper al-
veolar p o i li t -
nasion
Breadth: Diam-
eter bizygomatic
maximum
Facial index, total.
Facial index, up-
per
Basion-nasion
Basion - subnasal
point
Basion - upper al-
veolar point
Lower jaw: Height at
symphysis
Orbits:
Mean height
Mean breadth
Mean index
Nose:
Height
Breadth
Index
Alveolar arch:
Length
Breadth
Index
12. 4
7.7
14. 2
86. 9
54-5
10. 70
9. 33
10. 45
3. 72
3. 62
3.97
91. 3
5. 45
2.37
43.6
5. 57
6.68
83. 4
11. 21
7.01
13. 08
86. S
53. 8
10. 18
9. 12
10. 13
3.38
3.47
4. 01
91
5.02
2.23
44-4
5.34
6. 29
84. 9
7.89
14.34
7. 18
13. 16
55
10. 61
9. 31
10. 39
3. 95
3.60
4.04
89. 2
5. 52
2. 39
43.4
5. 59
6.45
54. 7
10.01
8. 86
9. 85
3.27
3. 61
3.88
93
5. 19
2.32
44.7
5. 22
6. 13
85. 1
7.86
14. 26
55.1
10.54
9. 23
10. 39
3. 9
3. 61
4.02
89.9
5. 48
2. 31
42. 2
5. 63
6.47
86. 9
7. 22
13. 06
55. 3
9. 94
8.73
9.77
3. 55
3. 90
90. 7
5. 11
2.29
44-9
5. 25
6. 01
87.4
Let us now contrast the Igloo .skulls with tliose of southern Green-
land from the collection of the United States National Museum.^"
The size of the .series is such that they are nicely comparable. And
to the two is added a small recent series (A. H., 1926, and Collins,
1928), from Golovnin Bay and Sledge Island (Seward Peninsula).
™ The measurements of tbi.s series have been published by the writer in the first part
of the Catalogue of Human Crania in the U. S. National Museum (Proc. U. S. N. M..
1924, Lxiii, art. 12. p. 26), but as a few errors crept in, the whole series was remeasured
by the writer.
hkdliCka]
A STKANGE GEOUP OF ESKIMO
325
Main Measurements op the Barrow "Igloo" and of Greenland Eskimo
Crania
Golovnin
Bay and
Sledge
Island
Igloos
Greenland
Females
Golovnin
Bay and
Sledge
Island
Igloos
(13)
(25)
18. 03
18. 11
13. 36
12. 72
13.21
13. 21
74.1
70.2
97.9
104.6
84,2
86.4
14. 87
14. 72
11. 98
11. 21
7.35
7.01
13. 25
13.08
90. 4
S6.8
B6. 4
53.8
3.58
3.47
3.92
4 01
91. 2
91
5. 15
5.02
2. 29
2.23
44.5
44-4
Greenland
Number of specimens __
Vault:
Length
Breadth
Height
Cranial index
Height - breadth
index
Mean height index
Module
Face:
Menton-nasion
height
Alveolar point-
nasion height
Breadth
Facial index, total-
Facial index, up-
per
Orbits:
Mean height
Mean breadth j
Mean index
Nose:
Height
Breadth
Index
(8)
19.20
13.70
14.08
71.3
102. 8
85. 6
15. 66
12. 70
7.90
14. 29
88. 9
55.3
3.65
4. 11
5. 58
2.35
L2. 1
(27)
19.25
13.30
14.02
69. 1
105.5
86. 2
15. 52
12. 39
7.71
14. 16
86. 9
64-5
3.62
3.97
91.3
5. 45
2.37
43. 6
(49)
18.97
13. 61
13. 95
71. 8
102. 5
85. 7
15. 51
12.38
7.61
14.05
87. 1
64. 1
3.64
3.99
91.4
5.24
2.27
43.3
(52)
18.04
12. 98
13. 12
72
101
84. 6
14.72
11.52
7.05
13.03
85. 7
54.1
3.55
3.85
92. 4
4.99
2.20
A comparison of the Igloo and Greenland series shows striking
similarities ; hardly any two geographically separate groups originat-
ing from a single source could reasonably be expected to come nearer.
The Igloo skulls are even narrower in the vault than the Green-
landers, which means so much farther away from the southwestern,
midwestern, and Asiatic Eskimo; and offer a few other differences,
but all these are of small moment, not affecting the essential rela-
tions of the two groups.
A comparison of the Igloo and Greenland series with the material
from Golovnin Bay and Sledge Island shows also numerous similari-
ties but with them some rather material differences. The differences
are especially marked in the females, whose characteristics approach
326 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eTH. ANN. 46
more those of the midwestern Eskimo, which suggests that an im-
portant proportion of them may have been derived from the latter.
However, even the males tend to diifer. Both sexes show absolutely
a somewhat broader skull than that of the northerners ; in both sexes
the skull, as seen from the cranial module, is slightly larger in the
Seward Peninsula series than in either of the other groups; but the
principal differences are seen in the face, which in the Seward
Peninsula group is jjerceptibly larger and especially higher than it
is in either the Igloo or the Greenland seri-es. The orbits also in the
southerners are larger and the nose is slightly higher.
On the whole it may be said that the resemblance of the Igloo
crania to those of Greenland is closer than that to either or both of
the series of Golovnin Bay and Sledge Island. This suggests the
possibility that a similar though not quite the same differentiation in
the skull may have taken place both in the Seward Peninsula and in
the far north; though the possibility of a derivation of any one of
the three groups from any of the others can not be discarded. So
far as the skull is concerned a definite solution of the identity of the
Igloo material would have to be, it would seem, postponed to the
future.
The used data on the Greenland Eskimo skulls agree closely with
those of Fiirst and Hansen (Crania Groenlandica, fol., 1915), and
also with the much fewer and scattered records of Virchow, Davis,
Duckworth, Oetteking, Pittard, etc.,*" on Eskimo skulls from
Labrador.
Stature and strength. — The bones of the skeleton of the Igloo series
show the i^eople to have been of good height and of above medium
Eskimo robustness. The principal measurements are given below,
together with the corresponding ones on the western and the Yukon
Eskimo. The material is not all that could be wished for, either in
numbers or representation, but it will suffice for rough comparisons.
Regrettably nothing for comparison is available as yet from Green-
land or other parts of the far northeast where we meet with long,
narrow, and high skulls.
*» For more exact references see writer's Contribution to the Antliropology of Central
and Smith Sound Eskimo, Anthrop. Papers Am. Mub. Nat. Hist., N. Y., 1910, V, pt. 2 ;
and tlie bibliography at the end of this volume.
hrdlicka]
A STRANGE GROUP OF ESKIMO
327
The Long Bones of the Igloo People and Other Eskimo Bones of the
Two Sides Together
Male
Female
Igloo
Seward
Peninsula
and north-
western
Eskimo
Yukon
Eskimo
Igloo
.Seward
Peninsula
and north-
western
Eskimo
Yukon
Eskimo
Humerus: Length-
(35)
(100)
(16)
(27)
(83)
(16)
maximum
31. 17
31. 17
32. 10
28.41
28.82
28. 31
At middle:
Diameter, major..
2. 47
2. 46
2.33
2.11
2. 15
2.07
Diameter, minor. _
1. 86
1. 85
1.80
1.60
1.62
1.51
Index
75.2
(31)
75. 1
(37)
78. 2
(16)
76. 1
(17)
75. 1
(24)
73.2
Radius: Length, max-
(16)
imum
23. 53
75.5
23. 50
75. 4-
23.44
73
20. 98
73.8
21.35
74
20. 18
Radio-humeral index. .
71.3
Femur: Length, bicon-
(33)
(60)
(22)
(25)
(31)
(27)
d)-lar
43. 86
71. 1
43. 46
71. 7
43. 78
73
40. 31
70.5
40. 44
71.3
41. 11
Humero-femoral index.
69
At middle:
Diameter, ante-
ro-posterior
3.37
3. 21
3.05
2. 88
2. 88
2. 74
Diameter, lateral.
2. 90
2. 72
2. 67
2.51
2.56
2.44
Index
86. 1
84.8
87.6
87.3
88.9
88. 8
At upper flattening:
Diameter, maxi-
mum
3.51
3.32
3.31
3.09
3.06
a 02
Diameter, mini-
mum
2. 71
77. 2
2. 59
78. 1
2.57
77. 4
2.30
74-4
2. 40
78.4
2.27
Index
75. 4
Tibia: Length in posi-
(29)
(79)
(22)
(24)
(36)
(27)
tion
35.60
81.2
35. 52
81. 7
35. 14
80.3
31.94
79. 2
32.50
80.4
32. 01
Tibio-femoral index
79. S
At middle:
Diameter, ante-
ro-posterior
3.26
3. 19
3. 16
2.80
2.75
2.61
Diameter, lateral.
2.20
2. 16
2. 15
1.87
1. 92
1.90
Index
67.5
67.8
68.3
66. 7
70
72. 8
The above table shows some remarkable and interesting condi-
tions.
The first of the most apparent facts is that the type of the Yukon
Eskimo stands well apart from both of the other series in a number
of essentials, showing that it is not very nearly related and that it
may be left out of consideration.
On the other hand the long bones from the Seward Peninsula and
the northwest coast, especially those of the males, show very closely to
328 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IK ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
those of the Igloo group. The male bones of the two series are almost
identical, except that the Igloo bones are somewhat stronger.
Such close resemblances can hardly be fortuitous. They speak
strongly for the basic identity of the old Igloo people with those of at
least parts of the Seward Peninsula and parts of the northwest
coast. If we take the bones from the Seward Peninsula alone (see
p. 314) it is found that these resemblances still hold.
The evidence thus shown constitutes a strong indication that the
old Igloo group may be inherently related to that part of the Eskimo
population of Seward Peninsula which shows the long and nari-ow
skull; but the data offer no light on the questions as to whether the
Igloo group may have been derived from that of the Seward Penin-
sula or vice versa, and on the true relation of either or both of these to
the Eskimo of Baffin Land, Greenland, and Labrador.
To definitely decide the problem of the Igloo group there are needed
data on the long bones of the northeasterners; in the second lAace it
is highly desirable to know how large and how ancient was the group
of the narrow-headed people on the Seward Peninsula and Sledge
Island; and in the third place it is important that the cultural history
of the two groujjs be known as thoroughly as possible. All of which
are tasks for the future.
The possibility of a development of the Igloo cranial type on the
northwest coast itself can not be denied, in view of the facts that
all its characteristics are within tlie ranges of normal individual
variations on that coast, and that similar developments have evi-
dently been realized elsewhere. But in such a case it would be
logical to expect, locally or not far away, some ancestry of the group,
and the group would not probably be limited to a little spot and a
few scores of persons. Had the group developed incidentally from
a physicallj'' exceptional familj', it could not be expected to have
been anywhere nearly as uniform as the group under consideration.
The high degree of uniformity of the Igloo contingent speaks for
a well accomplished differentiation; and as there is no other trace of
this in the conditions near Barrow, and there are no ruins denoting
a long occupation, the evidence is against a local development and
for an immigration of the gr«up. A coming of a small-sized con-
tingent from the Seward Peninsula would be easy; its coming from
Greenland ,or Labrador or Baffin Land would surely be difficult, but
not impossible to the Eskimo, wlio is known to have been a traveler.
Wliatever may be the eventual solution of the Igloo problem, it is
plain that the presence of that group near Barrow, together with the
presence of evidently closely related groups in a part of the Seward
Peninsula and again in the far east of the Eskimo region, offers much
food for thought and investigation. The most plausible pcssibility
hbdliCka] origin and antiquity of the ESKIMO 329
Avould seem to be a relatively late (within the laiesent millennium)
coming of a physically already well differentiated small group, from
either the south or the east, with a relatively short settlement at the
Barrow site, some local multiplication in numbers, and then extinc-
tion partly through disease, partly perhaps through absorption into
a stronger and newer contingent derived from the western people.
ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO
All anthropological research on the Eskimo has naturally one ulti-
mate object, which is the clearing up of the problems of the origin
and antiquity of this highly interesting human strain; and it may
well be asked what further light on these problems has been shed
by the studies here dealt with. To show this with a proper perspec-
tive it will be requisite to briefly review the previous ideas on these
problems.
Oeigin of the Name " Eskimo "
According to Charlevoix (Nouv. France, III, 178), the term
" Eskimo " is a corruption of the Abenaki Indian Esquimantsic or
the Ojibway Ashkimeg, both terms meaning "those who eat raw
flesh." In the words of Captain Hooper,*^ " Neither the origin nor
meaning of the name ' Esquimaux,' or Eskimo, as it is now spelled,
is known. According to Doctor Kink, the name ' Esquimaux ' was
first given to the inhabitants of Southern Labrador as a term of deri-
sion by the inhabitants of Northern Labrador, and means raw-fish
eater. Dall says the appellation ' Eskimo ' is derived from a word
indicating a sorcerer or shaman in the language of the northern
tribes."
For Brinton,''- as for Charlevoix, the term '^ Eskimo " is dei'ivetl
from the Algonkin " Eskimantick," " eaters of raw flesh." Accord-
ing to Chamberlain,*^ Sir John Richardson (Arctic Seai'ching Exp.,
p. 203) attempts to derive it from the French words ceux qui miaux
(miaulent), referring to their clamorous outcries on the approach
of a ship. Petitot (Chambers Encyc, Ed. 1880, IV, p. 165, article
Esquimaux) says that at the present day the Crees, of Lake Atha-
basca, call them Wis-Kimowok (from Wiyas flesh, aski raw, and
mowew to eat), and also Ayiskimiwok (i. e., those who act in secret).
In Labrador the English sometimes call the Eskimo " Huskies " (loc.
cit., p. ix. 7. Chambers Encyc, article Esquimaux. See Hind. Trav.
in Int. of Labr., loc. cit., and Petitot loc. cit., p. ix.) and Suckemos
^ Hooper, C. L., Cruise of the U. S. revenue steamer Corwin, 1S81. Washington,
1884, p. 99.
•1= Brinton, D. C, Mytlis of the New World. 1868, p. 23. New Yorli.
■"Chamberlain, A. F., The Eslcimo race and language. Proc. Canadian Inst., 3d ser.,
vol. Ti, pp. 2GT-2CS. Toronto, 1889.
88253°— 30 22
330 ANTHKOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
(Richai'dson, Arctic Searching Expedition, p. 202) and Dall (Proc.
Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., 1869, p. 266) says that in Alaska the Tinneh
Indians call them " Uskeeme " (sorcerers).
The Eskimo call themselves " Innuit," said to be the ijlui'al of
in-nu, the man, hence " the people " ; the same being as a rule the
meaning of the name by which the various tribes of the Indian call
themselves.
On the Asiatic coast the Eskimo is known as the " Yuit," " On-
kilon," " Chouklouks," or " Namollo "; while in the east appears the
name " Karalit."
None of this has thrown any light on the origin of the Eskimo.
Opinions Bt Former and Living Students
Origin in Asia. — Many opinions on the origin of the Eskimo have
been expressed by diti'erent authors. Among the earliest of these
were those of missionaries, such as Crantz (1779), and of the early
explorers, such as Steller, v. Wrangell, Liitke and others. They were
based on the general aspect of the Eskimo, particularly that of his
physiognomy; and seeing that in many features he resembled most
the mongoloid peoples of Asia they attached him to these, which
meant the conclusion that he was of Asiatic derivation. Quite soon,
however, there began to appear also the opinions of students of man.
The first of these was that of Blumenbach, as expressed in his In-
augural Thesis of 1781. In this thesis, more particularly its second
edition, he classifies the Eskimo expressly as a part of the Caucasian
or white race. But after obtaining an Eskimo skull and an Eskimo
body he changes his oi^inion and in 1795-1806 he comes out with a
definite classification of the Eskimo as a member of the Mongolians;
and a similar conclusion, with its implied or expressed consequence
of a migration from Asia to America, has been reached since, mainly
on somatological but also in part on linguistic and cultural bases,
by a large number of authors, including Lawrence, Morton, Picker-
ing, Latham, Flower, Peschel, Topinard, Brinton, Virchow (1877),
Quatrefages and Hamy (1882), Thalbitzer, Bogoras and numerous
others. With all of this, the conception of the Asiatic origin of the
Eskimo has not passed the status of a strong probability, lacking a
final conclusive demonstration.
A chronological list of the more noteworthy individual statements
is given at the end of this section.
OHgin in America. — Since the earlier parts of the nineteenth
century the opinion began to be expressed that the Eskimo is not of
Asiatic but of American origin. Already in 1847 Prichard tells us
that there are those who " consider them as belonging to the Amer-
ican family," and he plainly favors this conception.
HRDLILKA] ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 331
Between 1873 and 1890 the American origin of the Eskimo is re-
peatedly asserted by Rink, who for 16 winters and 22 summers lived
with the eastern Eskimo, first as a scientific explorer and later as
I'oyal inspector or governor of the southern Danish settlements in
Greenland (preface by R. Brown to Rink's Tales and Traditions,
1875). In this opinion, briefly, the Eskimo were derived from the
inland Indian tribes of Alaska ; without referring to the origin of the
Indian.
Rink's authoritative opinion was followed or paralleled by Daniel
Wilson (1876), Grote, Krause, Ray, Keane, Brown, and others. In
1887 Chamberlain expresses the somewhat startling additional theory
that it was not the Eskimo who was derived from the Mongolians
but the Mongolians from the Eskimo or their American ancestors.
And in 1901-1910 Boas comes to the conclusion that the Eskimo
probably originated from the inland tribes (Indian?) in the Hudson
Bay region.
An interesting case in these connections is that of Rudolf Virchow.
In 1877 (see details at the end of this section) he expresses the belief
in the Eskimo coming from Asia; in 1878 he seems to be uncertain;
and in 1885 he comes out in support of tlie opinion that tlie original
home of the Eskimo may have been in the western part of the Hudson
Bay region. Among later students of the problem, Steensby ** and
Birket-Smith ^^ incline on cultural grounds to this hypothesis.
Wissler, not explicit as to the Eskimo in 1917 (The American In-
dian), in 1918 (Archaeology of the Polar Eskimo) finds, after
Steensby, the most acceptable theory of the Eskimo origin to be that
" they expanded from a parent group in the Arctic Archipelago " ;
but in 1922, in the second edition of his The American Indian, he
repeats word for word his opinion of 1917, which appears to favor
an Asiatic derivation.
Origin m Europe — Identity with Upper Palaeolithic nmn. — About
the sixties of last century growing discoveries in France of imple-
ments, etc., of later palaeolithic man brought about a realization that
not a few of these implements and other objects, particularly tho.se
of the Magdalenian period, resembled like implements and objects
of the Eskimo; from which, together with the considerations of tb»
similarities of fauna (reindeer, musk-ox, etc.), and of climate, there
was but a step to a more or less definite identification of the Magda-
lenians and Solutreans with the Eskimo. In 1870 Pruner-Bey *"
claims a similarity between Solutrean and Eskimo skulls. In 1883
" Contr. Ethn. and Anthropogcog. Polar Eskimos, Med. om Gronl., xxxiv, Copenhagen,
1910; also, Origin of the Eskimo culture, ibid., 1016, 204-218.
^ Internat. Congr. Americanists, New York, 1928.
*> In Ferry, H. de, Le Maconnais prehistorique, etc., 1 vol, Macon, 1870, with a section
by Pruner-Bey.
332 ANTHBOPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46
these views received the influential support of De Mortillet (see
details). In 1889 the theory receives strong support from the char-
acteristics of the Chancelade (Magdalenian) skeleton which Testut
declares are in many respects almost identical with those of the
Eskimo. And within the next few years the notion is upheld by
Hamy and Herve. It remains sympathetic as late as 1913 to Marcel-
lin Boule, and finds most recent champions in Morin and Sollas.
However, there were also many who opposed the effort at a direct
connection of the ujDper palaeolithic man of Europe and the Eskimo.
Among these were Geikie, Flower, Rae, Daniel Wilson, Robert
Brown, Dechelette, Laloy. At present the theory is supported
mainly by Morin and Sollas, opposed by Steensby, Burkitt, Keith,
MacCurdy, and others; while most students of the Eskimo ignore
the question.
Other hypotheses. — Besides the preceding ideas which attribute
the origin of the Eskimo to Asia, or America, or old Euroi>e, there
were also others that failed to receive a wider support ; and there
were authors and students who remained undecided or were too
cautious to definitely formulate their l)eliefs. Some of the former
as well as the latter deserve brief mention.
Gallatin, in 1836, mainly on linguistic grounds, recognizes the
fundamental relation of the Eskimo and the Indian and seems in-
clined to the American origin of the former, but makes no clear state-
ment to that effect. For Meigs (1857), who probably followed an
earlier opinion, the Eskimo came " from the islands of the Polar
Sea." C. C. Abbott (1876) saw Eskimo in the early inhabitants of
the Delaware Valley. To Grote (1875, 1877), the Eskimo were " the
existing representatives of the man of the American glacial epoch ";
thej' were modified Pliocene men. Nordenskiold (1885) follows
closely Meigs and Grote; the Eskimo may be " the true autochthones
of the Polar regions," having inhabited them from before the glacial
age, during more genial climate. Keane (1886) believed the Eskimo
developed from the Aleuts. For De Quatrefages (1887), man origi-
nated in the Tertiary in northern Asia, spread from there, and some
of his contingents may have reached America and been the ancestors
of the Eskimo ; the western tribes of the latter being a mixture of the
Eskimo with Asiatic brachycephals. Nansen (1893) avoids a dis-
cussion of the origin of the Eskimo; and the same caution is ob-
servable more or less in most modern writers.
The following chart of the more noteworthy opinions regarding
the origin of the Eskimo will sliow at a glance the diversity of the
views and their lack of conclusiveness.
HBDLIl KA]
ORIGIX AXD ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO
333
Theokies as to the Origin of the Eskimo
Asiatic:
Steller 1743
Cranz 1779
Blumenbach... 1795
Lawrence 1822
Von Wrangell. 1839
Morton 1839
McDonald 1841
Latham 1850
Pickering 1854
Wilson 1863
Rae 1865,
1877-78, 1886
Markham 1865,
1875
Wliymper 1869
Pescliel 1876
Kuhl 1876
Petitot 1876
Topinard 1877
Virchow 1877
Ball 1877
Palmer 1879
Henry 1879
Dawson 1880
Quatrefages___ 1882,
1887
Elliot 1886
Flower 1886
Brown 1888
Ratzel 1897
Hrdlicka- 1910,1924
Asiatic — Con.
Thalbitzer 1914
F first and Han-
sen 1915
Wissler 1917
Mathiassen 1921
Bogoras._ 1924, 1927
American:
Prichard 1847
Rink 1873, 1888
Holmes 1873
Wilson 1876
Grote 1877
Krause 1883
Ray 1885
Virchow 1885
Keane___ 1886, 1887
Brown 1888
Murdoch 1888
Chamberlain.- 1889
Quatrefages 1889
Boas 1907, 1910
Wissler 1917
European or con-
nected with Eu-
rope:
Lartet and
Christy 1864
Dawkins 1866
Herve 1870
Abbott 1876
De Mortillet_ . 1883
European — Con.
Testut 1889
Boule 1913
SoUas... 1924, 1927
Opposed to Europe:
Brown .
Burkitt.
Dechelette.
Flower.
Geikie.
Keith.
Laloy.
MacCurdy.
Rae.
Steensby.
Wilson.
Hrdlicka (1910).
Miscellaneous and
indefinite:
Gallatin 1836
Richardson 1852
Meigs 1857
Grote 1875
Abbott 1876
Nordenskiold.. 1885
Keane 1886
Quatrefages 1887
Nansen 1893
Tarenetzky 1900
Nadaillac 1902
Jenness 1928
ASIATICS
Steller. 1743 : " Several references -n-liich indicate that Steller re-
garded the E.skimo as related to the northeastern Asiatics.
Cranz, 1779 : ^'^ Points out the resemblances of the Eskimo (and
their product) to the Kalmuks, Yakuts, Timgus, and Kamchadales,
and derives them from northeastern Asia (forced by other peoples
through Tartary to the farthest northeast of Asia and then to
America) .
Blumenbach, 1781 : *' Tlie first of the five varieties of mankind
" and the largest, which is also the primeval one, embraces the whole
" Steller, G. W., Journal, 1743. Transl. and repr. in Bering's Voyages, Am. Geog.
Soc. Research, ser. I, 2 vols., vol. ii, p. 9 et seq. New York, 1922.
'- Cranz, David, ni.ftorie von Gronland, Frankf. and Leipz.. 1779. .300-.301.
'"Blumenbach, J. F., De generis humaui varietate uativa. 2d ed., Goettingen, 1781;
in The anthropological treatises of J. F. Blumenbach, Anthr. Soc. Lond., 1865, p. 99,
ftn. 4.
334 ANTHROPOLOGICAL STJBVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
of Europe, includinc: the Lapps, * * * and lastlj', in America,
the Greenlanders and the Esquimaux, for I see in these people a
wonderful difference from the other inhabitants of America; and,
unless I am altogether deceived, I think they must be derived from
the Finns."
But in his '' Beitriige zur Naturgeschichte," 2d ed., Gottingen,
1806, Blumenbach classes both the Lapps and the Eskimo with the
Mongolians (Anthr. Treatises of Blumenbach, Lond., 1865, p. 304) :
" The remaining Asiatics, except the Malays, with the Lapps in
Europe, and the Esquimaux in the north of America, from Bering
Strait to Labrador and Greenland. They are for the most part of
a wheaten yellow, with scanty, straight, black hair, and have flat
faces with laterally projecting cheek bones, and narrowly slit
eyelids."
Von Wrangell, 1839 : ^o " * * * jin-e sclavische Abhiingigkeit
von den Rennthier-Tschuktschen beweist, dass die letztern spatere
Einwanderer und Eroberer des Landes sind, welches sie jetzt inne
haben."
Lawrence, 1822 : " " The Mongolian variety * * * includes the
numerous more or less rude, and in great part nomadic tribes, which
occupy central and northern Asia; * * * and the tribes of Eski-
iiiaux extending over the northern parts of America, from Bering
Strait to the extremity of Greenland. * * *.
" The Eskimaux are formed on the Mongolian model, although
they inhabit countries so different from the abodes of the original
tribes of central Asia."
Latham, 1850 : ^- " Our only choice lies between the doctrine that
makes the American nations to have originated from one or more
separate pairs of progenitors, and the doctrine that either Bering
Strait or the line of islands between Kamskatka and the Peninsula
of Alaska, was the highway between the two worlds — from Asia to
America, or vice verea. * * * Against America, and in favor of
Asia being the birthplace of the human race — its unity being as-
sumed — I know many valid reasons. * * * Physically, the
Eskimo is a Mongol and Asiatic. Philologically, he is American."
1851 : ■" " Just as the Eskimo graduate in the American Indian, so
do they pass into the populations of northeastern Asia — language
being the instrument which the present writer has more especially
™A'on Wrangell, in Baer and Helmersen's " Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Russischen
Reiches," pp. 58-59. St. Petersburg, 1839.
^ Lawrence, W., Lectures on physiology, zoology, and the natural history of man,
pp. 511-513. London. 1822.
^- Latham, Robert Gordon, The Natural history of the Tarieties of man, pp. 289-291.
London, 1850.
'^ Latiam, Robert Gordon, Man and his migrations, p. 124. London, 1851.
HRDLifKA] ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 335
employed in their affiliation. From the Peninsula of Alaska to the
Aleutian cliain of islands, and from the Aleutian chain to Kamskatka
is the probable course of the migration from Asia to America — traced
backwards, i. e., from the goal to the starting point, from the circum-
ference to the center."
Pickering, 18.54 : ^* " The Arctic Regions seem exclusively possessed
by the Mongolian race."
Wilson, 18G3:" "The same mode of comparison which confirms
the ethnical affinities between the Esquimaux and their insular or
Asiatic congeners, reveals, in some respects, analogies rather than
contrast between the dolichocephalic Indian crania and those of the
hyperborean race."
Markliam, 1856 : ^^ " The interesting question now arises — whence
came these Greenland Esquimaux, these Innuit, or men, as they call
themselves, and as I think (hey ought to be called by us? They are
not descendants of the Skroellings of the opposite American coast,
as has alread_y been seen. It is clear that they can not have come
from the eastward, over the ocean which intervenes between Lapland
and Greenland, for no Esquimaux traces have ever been found on
Spitzbergen. Iceland, or Jan Mayen. We look at them and see at
once that they have no kinship with the red race of America ; but a
glance suffices to convince us of their relationship with the northern
tribes of Siberia. It is in Asia, then, that we must seek their origin."
TTIiymper, 18G9: ^' " That the coast natives of northern Alaska are
but Americanized Tehuktchis from Asia, I myself have no doubt."
Peschel, 1876 : "^ " The identity of their language with that of the
Namollo, their skill on the sea, their domestication of the dog, their
use of the sledge, the Mongolian type of their faces, their capability
for higher civilization, are sufficient reasons for answering the ques-
tion, whether a migration took place from Asia to America or con-
versely from America to Asia, in favor of the former alternative;
yet such a migration from Asia by way of Bering Strait must have
occurred at a much later period than the first colonization of the
New World from the Old one * * *
" It is not likely that the Eskimo spread from America to Asia,
because of all Americans they have preserved the greatest resem-
blance in racial characters to the Mongolian nations of the Old
" Pickering. Charles, The races of man, p. 7. London, 1854.
"^ Wilson, Daniel, riiysical ethnology. Smithsonian Report for 1SG2, p. 262. Wash-
ington, 1S63.
™Marl5ham, C. R.. On the origin and migrations of the Greenland Esquimaux. .1.
Roy. Geog. Soc, xxxv, p. 90. London, 1865.
f^' Whymper, Frederick, Travels in Alaska and on the Yukon, p. 214. New York, 1869.
" Peschel, Oscar, The races of man, pp. 396-97. New York, 1876.
336 ANTHROPOLOGICAL STJEVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 4G
World, and in historical times their migrations have always taken
place in an easterly direction."
Kuhl, 1876 : °^ " Bilden so die Eskimo in der Sprache das Binde-
glied zwischen America unci Asien, so ist dies noch viel mehr der
Fall in Bezug aiif ihren Typus : dieser stimmt bei den Polarvolkern
diesseits und jenseits der Beringsstrasse 'zum Verwechseln ' iiberein,
wie denn auch ein bestandiger Verkehr hiniiber und heriiber
stattfindet. Hierin liegt der unwiderstehliche Beweis, class diese
Polarvdlker wenigstens von einer Herkunft sind und class eine
Einwanderung von einem Continente in das andere hier stattge-
funden hat. Haben wir nun die Wahl, entweder die Eskimo aus
Asien nach America, oder die Tschuktschen, die dort auf der
Asiatischen Seite wohnen, aus America einwandern zu lassen — wof in-
sich auch Stimmen erhoben haben — so werden wir keinen Augenblick
zweifelhaft sein: eine spiitere Riickwanderung eines einzelnen
Stammes in das Land der Viiter wai-e immerhin denkbar; aber wer
liber die Tschuktschen hinweg die Sache in's Grosse sieht, kann fiir
die Urzeit nur eine Einwandervmg von Asien nach America, nicht
umgekehrt, annehmen, und hierf iir finden wir ausser den allgemeinen
Griinden, welche uns der Verlauf Tmserer Untersuchungen nahe
gebracht, noch zwei besondere Beweise bei den Eskimo : einmal
konnen wir die Spur ihrer Wanderungen historisch verfolgen, und
diese waren nach Osten gerichtet, sodass sie Gronland, mit dem
heute ihr Name so eng verbunden ist. zuletzt erreichten (S. 209) ;
sodann haben die Eskimo allein unter den Americanischen Stiimmen
das Mongolische Gepriige ganz luiversehrt bewahrt — dies bliebe
unerklJirlich, wenn sie Americanische Autochthonen wiiren * * *
Einen deutlichen Hinweis auf die Urheimath Asien enthalten auch
die Wanderungen der Stiimme durch das Americanische Continent,
soweit wir dieselben verfolgen kiinnen."
Dall, 1877 : ^'o " I see, therefore, no reason for disputing the hypoth-
esis that America was peopled from Asia originally, and that there
were successive waves of emigration.
"The northern route was clearly by way of Bering Strait;
* * * Linguistically, no ultimate distinction can be drawn be-
tween the American Innuit and the American Indian. * * * j
shall assume, what is also assumed by Mr. Markham, that the orig-
inal progenitors of the Innuit were in a very primitive, low, and
barbarous condition. * * *
" I assume, then, that the larger part of North America may have
been peopled by way of Bering Strait. * * * j believe that this
^9 Kubl, Dr. Joseph, Die Anfiingo ties Menschengeschlechts und scin einheitlicher
Urspi-unj, pp. 315-16. Leipzig, 187G.
°° Dall, W. n.. Tribos of the extreme northwest. V. S. Geog. and Geol. Survey, i,
pp. 93-10.5. Washington, 1877.
HRDLICKA] ORIGIIf AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 337
emigration was vastly more ancient than Mr. Markham supposes, and
that it took place before the present characteristics of races and
tribes of North American savages were developed. '■' * *
"My own impression agrees with that of Doctor Kink that the
Innuit were once inhabitants of the interior of America; that they
were forced to the west and north by the pressure of tribes of In-
dians from the south ; that they spread into the Aleutian region and
northwest coast generally, and possibly simultaneously to the north;
that their journeying was originally tentative, and that they finally
settled in those regions which afforded them subsistence, perhaps
after passing through the greater portion of Arctic America, leaving
their traces as they went in many places unfit for permanent settle-
ment ; that after the more inviting regions were occupied, the pres-
sure from Indians and still unsatisfied tribes of their own stock, in-
duced still further emigration, and finally peopled Greenland and the
shores of northeastern Siberia ; but that these latter movements were,
on the whole, much more modern, and more local than the original
exodus, and took place after the race characteristics and language
were tolerably well matured. * * *
" I conclude that at present the Asiatic Innuit range fi-om Koliu-
chin Bay to the eastward and south to Anadyr Gulf. * * *
" To the reflux of the great wave of emigration, which no doubt
took place at a very early period, we may owe the numerous deserted
huts reported by all explorers on the north coasts of Asia, as far east
as the mouth of the Indigirka. At one time, I thought the migration
to Asia had taken place within a few centuries, but subsequent study
and reflection has convinced me that this could not have been the
case. No doubt successive parties crossed at different times, and some
of these may have been comparatively modern."
Rae, 1878 : "^ "All the Eskimos with whom I have communicated
on the subject, state that they originally came very long ago from the
west, or setting sun, and that in doing so they crossed a sea separating
the two great lands.
" That these people (the Eskimos) have been driven from their
own country in the northern parts of Asia by some unknown pressure
of circumstances, and obliged to extend themselves along the whole
northern coast line of America and Greenland, appears to be likely,
and that the route followed after ci'ossing Bering Strait was of neces-
sity along the coast'eastward, being hemmed in by hostile Indians on
the south, and driven forward bj^ pressure from the west * * *_
" Such were my opinions 12 years ago, and their correctness has
been rather confirmed than otherwise, by all that we have since
learned, * * * "
" Rae, John, Eskimo Migrations. Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, tii,
pp. 130-131. London, 1878.
338 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 40
1887 : *"- " Professor Flower said that his investigation into the
physical characteristics of the Eskimos led him to agree entirely
with Doctor Rae's conclusions derived from other sources. He looked
upon the Eskimos as a branch of the North Asiatic Mongols (of
which the Japanese may be taken as a familiar example), who in
their wandering across the American continent in the eastward direc-
tion, isolated almost as perfectly as an island population would be,
hemmed in on one side by the eternal polar ice, and on the other by
hostile tribes of American Indians, with whom they rarely, if ever,
mingled, have gradually developed special modifications of the Mon-
golian type, which increase in intensity from west to east, and are
seen in their greatest perfection in the inhabitants of Green-
land. * * *
" Doctor Rae also thinks that the Eskimos came from across Bering
Strait from Asia. Their traditions and many other things point in
that direction, and they are in no way related to the ancient cave
men of Europe."
Dawson, 1880 : "' Eskimo : " On the eastern side of the continent
these poor people have always been separated bj' a marked line from
their Indian neighbors on the south, and have been regarded by them
with the most bitter hostility. On the west, however, they pass into
the Eastern Siberians, on the one hand, and into the West-coast In-
dians, on the other, both by language and physical characters. They
and the northern tribes at least of West-coast Indians, belong in all
probability to a wave of population spreading from Bering Strait."
Quatrefages et Hamy, 1882 : °* " Les Esquimaux ou Eskimos, qui se
nomment eux-memes Innuits, constituent dans la serie mongolique
im groupe exceptionnel, qui differe a maints egards de ceux qui
viennent de passer sous nos yeux, mais dont I'origine asiatique n'est
plus aujourd'hui contestee et dont les affinites occidentales frapjjent
de plus en plus les observateurs speciaux."
Brown, 1888 : *^ " It is only when we come to the region beginning
at Cape Shelagskii and extending to tke East Cape of Siberia that
we find any traces of them. This tract is now held by the coast
Tchukchi, but it was not always their home, for they expelled from
this dreary stretch the Onkilon or Eskimo race who took refuge in
or near less attractive quai'tei's between the East Cape and Anadvrskii
Bay."
"" Rae, John, Remarks on the Natives of British North America. Jour. Anthrop. Inst.
Great Britain and Ireland, m, p. 200. London, 1887.
"' Dawson, J. W., Fossil men and their modern rcpresentatires, pp. 48-49. Montreal,
1880.
■" Quatrefages, A. de, et Hamy, E. T., Crania ethnica. Les cranes des races humaines,
p. 437. Paris, 1882.
"^ Brown, Robert, The origin of the Eskimo. The Archaeological Review, i. No. 4, pp.
238-289. London, 1888.
HRDi.iOKA] ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 339
Ratzel, 1897 : "'' " If we ask whence they came, Asia seems most
obvious, since between the American and Asiatic coasts of Bering
Straits, intercourse has always been ventured upon even in the rudest
skin-boats. * * *
'• Ethnographic indications also point predominantly to the
west. * * *
" But we liave an equal right to suppose a migration from America
into Asia."
Thalbitzer, 1914:" "I still believe (like Eink), that the common
Eskimo mother-group has at one time lived to the west at the Bering
Strait, coming originally from the coasts of Siberia."'
Fiirst and Hansen. 1915:''^ "We are to some extent acquainted
with the diffusion of the Eskimos over the earth, and know that they
could not liave come directly from Europe and that Greenland was
populated from the west, one may naturally conclude, as has often
been concluded before, that their descent is from the west, in other
words from Asia, though the time at which such an immigration took
place and the racial type which they then possessed must remain
still more hypothetical than immigration itself."
Mathiassen, 1927 : "" " We must therefore imagine that the Tliule
culture, with all its peculiar whaling culture, has originated some-
where in the western regions, in an Arctic area, where whales were
plentiful and wood abundant, and we are involuntarily led toward the
coasts of Alaska and East Siberia north of Bering Strait, the regions
to which we have time after time had to turn in order to find pai-allels
to types from the Central Eskimo finds. Tliere all the conditions
have been present for the originating of such a culture, and from
there it has spread eastward right to Greenland, seeking everywhere
to adapt itself to the local geographical conditions. And it can
hardly have been a culture wave alone; it must have been a migra-
tion. The similarities between east and west are in many directions
so detailed that it is difficult to explain them without assuming an
actual migration of people from the one place to the other."
Jochelson, 1928 : "° " In discussing tlie question of former Eskimo
occupation of the Siberian Arctic coast a very remote period of time
is not meant, so that in this sense the assumed recent Eskimo migra-
tions from Asia into America and vice versa do not interfere with the
general theory of the Asiatic origin of the American population."
"•" Ratzel, Friodrlch. The history of mankind, ii, pp. 107-108. London, 1897.
»■ Thalbitzor, W., The Ammassalik Eskimo. Meddolelscr cm Gr0nland, vol. xxxix, pt.
1, p. 717. Copenhagen, 1914.
'' Fur.st, Carl M., and Fr. C. C. Hansen, Crania Grocniandica, p. 228. Copenhagen,
1915.
"» Mathiassen, Therkel, Archaeology of the central Eskimos. Report of the Fifth
Thule Expedition 1921-1924, p. 184. Copenhagen. 1927.
""Jochelson, W., Peoples of Asiatic Russia. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., p. 60. New York,
1928.
340 ANTHROPOLOGICAL STXRVEY IN ALASKA Ibth. ann. 4g
AMERICAN
Pricliard, 1S47 : ''^ "A question has been raised, to -what department
of mankind the Esquimaux belong. Some think them a race allied
to the northern Asiatics, and even go so far as to connect them with
the Mongolians. Others, with greater probabilitj', consider them as
belonging to the American family. All the American writers eminent
for their researches in the giottology of the New World, among whom
I shall mention Mr. du Ponceau and Mr. Gallatin, are unanimous in
the opinion that the Esquimaux belong to the same great department
of nations as the Hunting Tribes of North America."
Kink, 1890 : '= " * * * kann es wohl keinem Zweifel unterworf en
sein, dass die Eskimos den sogenannten Nordwest-Indianern an der
Kiiste Alaskas und welter siklwiirts am niichsten stehen. Es diirfte
deshalb der Untersuchung werth sein, ob sie nicht audi wirklich als
das iiusserste nordliche Glied dieser Volkerstamme zu betrachten
waren. Man hat angenommcn, dass diese letzteren, dem Laufe der
Fliisse folgend, vom Binnenlande zur Kiiste gekommen sind. Sie
lernten dann, theilweise und um so mehr wohl, je weiter nach Norden
sich ihren Lebensunterhalt aus dem Meere zu verschaffen. Die
Eskimos endigten damit, sich ausschliesslich der Jagd auf dem Meere
zu widmen, und erlangten dadurch ihre merkwiirdige Fiihigkeit, alien
Hindernissen des arktischen Klimas Trotz bieten zu konnen.
Betrachten wir demnach, wie man vermeintlich noch jetzt die Spuren
der Veriinderungen beobachten kann, denen sie nach und nach unter-
worfen woi'den sind, indem sie sich, unserer Vermuthung zufolge,
nach Norden und Osten verbreiteten."
Eink, 1873 : '^ "As far as can now be judged, the Eskimo appear to
have been the last wave of an aboriginal American race, which has
spread over the continent from more genial regions, following prin-
cipally the rivers and watercourses, and continually yielding to the
pressure of the tribes behind them, until at last they have peopled
the seacoast. * *■ *
" The author explains some of the most common traditions from
Greenland as simply mythical narrations of events occurring in the
far northwest corner of America, thereby pointing to the great
probability of that district having been the original home of the
nation, in which they first assumed the peculiarities of their present
culture."
" Prichard, James Cowles, Researches into the physical history of mankind, vol. v,
p. 374. London, 1847.
"Rinlt, H., Die Verbreltung der iSskimo-Stiimme. Congrfts International des Am^ri-
canistes, 1SS8, 221-22. Berlin, 1S90.
" Rink, n.. On the descent of the Eskimo. M^m. Soc. Roy. d. Antiquaires du Nord ;
Journ. anthiop. Inst., ii, 1873, pp. 104, 100, 108.
iikdliCka] origin AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 341
Captain Piin also expressed his belief that " the Eskimo were pure
American aborigines, and not of Asiatic descent."
Kink, 1875 : '* " If we suppose the physical conditions and the
climate of the Eskimo regions not to have altered in any remarkable
way since they were first inhabited, their inhabitants of course must
originally have come from more southern latitudes, * * * ^^ j^p_
pears evident on many grounds that such a southern tribe has not been
a coast people migrating along the seashore, and turning into Eskimo
on passing beyond a certain latitude, but that they have more prob-
ably emerged from some interior count rj*, following the river banks
toward the shores of the polar sea, having reached which they be-
came a coast people, and, moreover, a polar-coast jDeople. The Eskimo
most evidently rej^resenting the jjolar-coast people of North America,
the first question which arises seems to be whether their development
can be conjectured with any probability to have taken place in that
part of the world. Other geographical conditions appear greatly to
favor such a supposition * * *. The rivers taking their course to
the sea between Alaska and the Coppermine Kiver, seem well adapted
to lead such a migrating people onward to the polar sea. * * *
'" The probable identity of the ' inlanders ' with the Indians has al-
ready been remarked on. When the new coast people began to spread
along the Arctic shores, some bands of them may very probably have
crossed Bering Strait and settled on the opposite shore, which is
perhaps identical with the fabulous country of Akilinek. On the
other hand, there is very little ^Jrobability that a people can have
moved from interior Asia to settle on its polar seashore, at the same
time turning Eskimo, and afterwards almost wholly emigrated to
America.
" On comparing the Eskimo with the neighboring nations, their
physical complexion certainly seems to point at an Asiatic origin ;
but, as far as we know, the latest investigations have also shown a
transitional link to exist between the Eskimo and the other American
nations, which would sufficiently indicate the possibility of a common
origin from the same continent."
Rink, 1875 : '° " The author, who has traveled and resided in Green-
land for 20 years, and has studied the native traditions, of which
he has preserved a collection, considers the Eskimo as deserving
particular attention in regard to the question how America has been
originally peopled. He desires to draw the attention of ethnologists
to the necessity of explaining, by means of the mysterious early
" Rink, H.. Tales and traditions of the Eskimo, pp. 70, 71, 72, 73. Edinburgh and
London. 1875.
" Rink, n., On the descent of the Eskimo. In a Selection of Papers on Arctic Geog-
raphy and Ethnology, Koy. Geog. Soc, pp 230, 232. London, 1875.
342 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL STJEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46
history of the Eskimo, the apparently abrupt step by which these
people have been changed from probably inland or riverside in-
habitants into a decidedly littoral people, depending entirely on the
products of the Arctic Sea; and he arrives at the conclusion that,
although the question must still remain doubtful, and dependent
chiefly on further investigations into the traditions of the natives
occupying adjacent countries, yet, as far as can now be judged, the
Eskimo appear to have been the last wave of an aboriginal American
race, which has spread over the continent from more genial regions,
following principally the rivers and watercourses, and continually
yielding to the pressure of the tribes behind them, until at last they
have peopled the seacoast. * * *
"When we consider the existing intercourse between the inhabi-
tants on both sides of Bering Strait, we find many circumstances to
justify the conclusion that those traditions of the Greenland Eskimo
refer to the origin of the Eskimo sledge dog from the training of
the Arctic wolf, to the first journeys upon tlie frozen sea, and to
intercourse between the aboriginal Eskimo and the Asiatic coast."
Eink, 1886:"" " Gronland kann ja nur von Westen her seine esld-
moische Bevolkerung empfangen haben. Dasselbe lasst sich mit
Wahrscheinlichkeit auch von den niichsten Nachbarliindern jenseits
der Davisstrasse annehmen, und wenn wir diese Vermutung weiter
erstrecken, gelangen wir zum Alaskaterritorium als der wahrschein-
lichen Heimat der jetzt so weit zertreuten arktischen Volkes.
Zunachst findet diese Annahme eine Bestiitigung darin, dass die
Eskimos hier nicht auf die Kiiste beschrankt, sondern auch liings der
Fliisse ins Binnenland verbreitet sind, nur dass der ungeheure Fisch-
reichtum dieser Fliisse es moglich gemacht haben kann, dass hier
urspriinglich eine noch viel grossere Bevolkerung, als jetzt, sich
sammelte, welche durch Auswanderung das notwendige Kontingent
zur Entstehung der auf die Meereskiiste beschriinkten Stiimme
geliefert haben kann."
Wilson, 1876 : " " Some analogies confirm the ]^x-obability of a por-
tion of the North American stock having entered the continent from
Asia by Bering Strait or the Aleutian Islands; and more probably
by the latter than the former. * * *
" In this direction, then, a North American germ of population
may have entered the continent from Asia, diffused itself over the
Northwest, and ultimately reached the valleys of the Mississippi, and
penetrated to southern latitudes by a route to the east of the Rocky
Mountains. Many centuries may have intervened between the first
™ Rink, H., Die Ostgronlander in ilirem Vprhiiltnissc? zu den tbrigen EslsimostSmmeB.
Deutscli Geographische Blatter, IX, p. 229. Bremen, 188C.
•' Wilson, Daniel, Prehistoric man, pp. 343-352. London, 1S7G.
HKDLICKA] ORIGIN^ AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 343
immigration and its coming in contact with races of the southern
continent ; and philological and other evidence indicates that if such
a northwestern immigration be really demonstrable, it is one of very
ancient date. But so far as I have been able to study the evidence,
much of that hitherto adduced appears to point the other
way. * * *
" With Asiatic Esquimaux thus distributed along the coast adjacent
to the dividing sea ; and the islands of the whole Aleutian group in
the occupation of the same remarkable stock common to both hemi-
spheres: The only clearly recognizable indications are those of a
current of migration setting toward the continent of Asia, the full
influence of which may prove to have been more comprehensive than
has hitherto been imagined possible. * * * "'
Grote. 1877:"^ Regards the Eskimo as the original inhabitants of
North America and believes they extended down to 50° in the eastern
and 60° in the western part of the continent.
Krause, 1883 :*" " Ueberblickt man nun die gegenwartige Verbrei-
tung der Eskimos in Asien. so wird man der Ansicht von Dall und
Nordenskiold beistimmen, dass die asiatischen Eskimo aus Amerika
eingewandert sind und nicht. wio Steller. Wrungell. und andere ver-
mutheten, zuriickgebliebene Reste einer ehemals zahlreicheren, nach
Amerika hiniibergezogenen Bevolkerung. Immerhin wiirde durch
die Annahme eines amerilcanischen Ursprunges der jetzigen Eskimo-
be viilkerung die Moglichkeit friiherer Wanderungen in entgegenge-
setzter Richtung nicht ausgeschlossen sein, nur giebt die gegenwar-
tige Verbreitung keinen Anhalt fiir eine solche, und historische Be-
weise fahlen."
Raj^, 1885 : *^ " Of their origin and descent we could get no trace,
there being no record of events kept among them. * * *
" That they have followed the receding line of ice, which at one
time capped the northern part of this continent, along the easiest
lines of travel is shown in the general distribution of a similar peo-
ple, speaking a similar tongue, from Greenland to Bering Strait ; in
so doing they followed the easiest natural lines of travel along the
watercourses and the seashore, and the distribution of the race to-
day marks the routes traveled. The seashore led them along the
Labrador and Greenland coasts; Hudson Bay and its tributary
waters carried its quota towards Boothia Land: helped by Back's
"Grote, A. R., Buff. Daily Courier, Jan. 7, 1877 (q. by. R. Virchow, Z. Ethnol., Verh.,
IX, 1877, p. 69).
*° Krausf, Aurcl, Die Bevollterungsverhaltnisse der Tschuktschenhalbinsel. Verb. Berl.
GPS. Anthrop., etc., in Z. Ethn., XV. pp. 226-27. 1883.
«' Ray, r. 11., Ethnographic Sketch of the Natives. Report of the International Polar
Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska, pt. 2, p. 37. Washington, 1885.
344 ANTHROPOLOGICAL STJEVBY IN" ALASKA [eth ann. 46
Great Fish River, the Mackenzie carried them to the northwestern
coast, and down the Yukon they came to people the shores of Norton
Sound and along the coast to Cape Prince of Wales. They occupied
some of the coast to the south of the mouth of the Yukon, and a few
drifted across Bering Strait on the ice, and their natural traits are
still in marked contrast with their neighbors, the Chuckchee. They
use dogs instead of deer, the natives of North America having never
domesticated the reindeer, take their living from the sea, and speak a
different tongue. Had the migration come from Asia it does not
stand to reason that they would have abandoned tlie deer upon
crossing the straits."
Keane, 1886 : ^- " Dr. H. Eink, in the current number of the
Deutsche Geographische Blatter (Bermen, 1886) * * * n^akes
it .sufficiently evident that their primeval home must be placed in
the extreme northwest, on the Alaskan shores of the Bering Sea
* * * the Aleutian Islanders, who are treated by Doctor Rinlv as a
branch of the Eskimo family, but whose language diverges pro-
foundly from, or rather shows no perceptible affinity at all to, the
Eskimo. The old question respecting tlie ethnical affinities of the
Aleutians is thus again raised, but not further discussed by our
author. To say that they must be regarded as ' ein abnormer
Seitenzweig,' merely avoids the difficulty, while jDcrhaps obscuring
or misstating the true relations altogether. For these islanders
should possibly be regarded, not ' as abnormal offshoot,' but as the
original stock from which the Eskimos themselves have diverged.
* * * Doctor Rink himself advances some solid reasons for bring-
ing the Eskimo, not from Asia at all, or at least not in the first
instance, but from the interior of the North American continent. He
holds, in fact, with some other ethnologists, that they were originally
inlanders, who, under pressure from the American Indians, gradu-
ally advanced along the course of the Yukon, Mackenzie, and other
great rivers, to their present homes on the Bering Sea, and Frozen
Ocean."
No individual or decided standpoint on the question is taken in
the author's Man, Past and Present, 1920 edition.
Brown, 1881 : ^^ " The Eskimo are therefore an essentially American
people, with a meridional range greater than that of any other
race. * * *
" It is also clear that this migration has always been from west to
east, as also has been that of the Indian tribes; * * *
" Did these hyperboreans come from Asia or are they evolutions,
differentiations, as it were, of some of the other American races?
«= Keane, A. H., The Eskimo. Nature, xxxv, pp. 309, 310. London, New York, 1886-87.
'2 Brown, Robert, Tbe Origin of the Eskimo. The Archaeological Review, i. No. 4, pp.
240-250. London, 1888.
HRDLIfKA] OlilGIN' AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 345
That all of the American 2:)eople.s came originally from Asia, is, I
think, an hypothesis for which a great deal might be said. Unless
tliey originated there or were autochthonic, an idea which may at
once be dismissed ; they could scarcely have come from anywhere else,
* * * but the central question is whether tlie Eskimo are of a
later date than the Indians or are really Indians compelled to live
under less favorable conditions than the rest of their kinsfolk. The
latter will, I think, be found to be the most reasonable view to
adopt. * * *
" Doctor Eink seems not far from the truth when he indicates
the rivers of Central Arctic America as the region from whence the
Eskimo spread northward. * *
" It is not at all improbable that the original progenitors of the
race may have been a few isolated families, members of some small
Indian tribe, or the decaying remnants of a larger one. Little by
little they were expelled from their hunting and fishing grounds on
the original river bank until, finding no place amid the stronger
tribes, they settled in a region where they were left to them-
selves. * * *
" It may, however, be taken as proved that the Eskimo are in no
respect and never were a European people; that they are not and
never were an Asiatic one, except to the small extent already de-
scribed; that the handful of peojjle settled on the Siberian shore
migrated from America, and that it is very probable the Eskimo
came from the interior of Arctic America, Alaska more likely than
from any other part of the world."
Virchow, 1877 : ^* " Ich mochte namentlich darauf aufmerksam
machen, dass diejenigen, welche den nachsten Ankniipfungspunkt
fiir die Urbevolkerung Amerika's bei den Eskimo's suchen, welche
ferner die Sprache und die Formen der Eskimo's nach Asien hinein
verfolgen, leicht ein petitio principii machen diirften, insofern als
es wohl sein konnte, dass sie ein spiiteres Phiinomen fiir ein friiheres
halten. Warum soUte nicht die Einwanderung der Eskimo's von
Asien erst erfolgt sein, nachdem liingst andere Theile des Continents
ihre Bewohner erhalten hatten? "
1878 : ^'' " Nun ist es sehr bemerkenswerth, dass gegeniiber dieser
physiognomischen Aehnlichkeit der Eskimos und der Mongolen eine
absolute Difl'erenze Zwischen ihncn in Bezug auf die Schiidelkapsel
existirt" (examined six living Greenland Eskimos).
^ Virchow, R., AntUropolosrie Amerika's. Verh. Berl. Ges. Anthr., etc.. .Jahrg. 1877
(with Z. Ethnol.. 1877, ixi, pp. 154-0o.
^' Eskimos. Verh. Berl. Ges. Anthr., etc., 1878, pp. 185-189 (with Z. Ethnol.,
1878, X), p. 18(i.
88253°— 30 23
346 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SUKVEY IN ALASKA [eth.ann.46
1885 ■.^'^ " Verbimlen wir dieses mit dem Umstande, dass die Sagen
der Ungava-Eskimos stets nach Norden iiber die Hudson-Strasse
verlegt werden, dass man im Baffin-Lande stets iiber die Fury- und
Hecla-Strasse fort nach Siiden als dem Schauplatz alter Sagen
hinweist, und dass die westlichen Eskimos ebenso den Osten als das
Land ihrer sagenhaften Helden und Stamme betraehten, so gewinnt
die Vermuthung an Wahrseheinlichkeit, dass im Westen des Hudson-
Bay-Gebietes die Heimath der weitverbreiteten Stamme zu suchen
ist."
Chamberlain, 1889 : *' " In a paper read before the Institute last
year (Proc. Can. Inst., 3d. sen. Vol. V., Fasc. i., October, 1887, p. 70),
I advanced the view that instead of the Eskimo being derived from
the Mongolians of northeastern Asia, the latter are on the contrary
descended from the E.skimo, or their ancestors, who have from time
immemorial inhabited the continent of America."
Boas, 1901 : *** "AH these data seem to me to prove conclusively that
the culture of the Alaskan Eskimo is very greatly influenced by that
of the Indians of the North Pacific coast and by the Athapascan
tribes of the interior. This is in accord with the observation that
their physical type is not so pronounced as the eastern Eskimo type.
1 believe, therefore, that H. Rink's opinion of an Alaskan origin of
the Eskimo is not very probable. If pure type and culture may be
considered as significant, I should say that the Eskimo west and
north of Hudson Bay have retained their ancient characteristics more
than any others. If their original home was in Alaska, we must add
the hypothesis that their dispersion began before contact with the
Indians. If their home was east of the Mackenzie, the gradual dis-
persion and ensuing contact with other tribes would account for all
the observed phenomena. * * * Qn the whole, the relations of
North Pacific and North Asiatic cultures are such that it seems
plausible to my mind that the Alaskan Eskimo are, comparatively
speaking, recent intruders, and that they at one time interrupted an
earlier cultural connection between the two continents."
To which he adds in the second part of this work,*** speaking of the
Eskimo taboos: "It may perhaps be venturesome to claim that the
marked development of these customs suggests a time when the Es-
kimo tribes were inland people who went down to the sea and gradu-
ally adopted maritime pursuits, which, however, were kept entirely
apart from their inland life, although in a way this seems an attrac-
tive hypothesis.
™Virchow, R., Eskimos. Verb. Berl. Ges. Anthr., etc., 188.". p. ifi.'i (with Z. Ethnol.,
1883, XVII).
" rhamberlain, A. F., The Eskimo R.aoo and LaDguage. Proc. Can. Inst., vi, p. 2S1.
Toronto. 1889.
^ Boas, F., Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xv, pp.
369-370. 1907.
""Ibid., XV, pt. 2, pp. 569-570. 1907.
HRDLicKA] ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 347
Boas, 1910 : "" " There is little doubt that the Eskimos, whose life
as sea huntei-s has left a deep impression upon all of their doings,
must probably be classed with the same group of peoples. The
much-discussed theory of the Asiatic origin of the Eskimos must be
entirely abandoned. The investigations of the Je.sup North Pacific
Exijedition, which it was my privilege to conduct, seem to show that
the Eskimos must be considered as, comparatively speaking, new
arrivals in Alaska, which they reached coming from the east."
Clark Wissler, 1917.^' Page 363: "The New World received a
detachment of early Mongoloid peoples at a time when the main
body had barely developed stone polishing."
Pages 361-362 : " Our review of New World .somatic characters
revealed the essential unity of the Indian population. It is also •
clear that there are affinities with the Mongoloid peoples of Asia.
Hence, we are justified in assuming a common ancestral group for
the whole Mongoloid-Ked stream of humanity. We have already
outlined the reasons for assuming the pristine home of this group to
be in Asia."
Page 335 : " For example, the Eskimos, whose first appearance in
the New World must have been in Alaska, spread only along the
Arctic coast belt to its ultimate limits."
1918^-. Page 161 : " The most acceptable theory of Eskimo origin
is that they expanded from a parent group in the Arctic Achipelago."
1922.''= Pages 368, 396, 398: Identical in every word again with
that of 1917.
EUROPEAN
Dawkins, 1866 : ^* " The sum of the evidence proves that man, in a
hunter state, lived in the south of Gaul on reindeer, musk sheep,
horses, oxen, and the like, at a time when the climate was similar to
that which those animals now inhabit. To what race did he belong?
In solving this the zoological evidence is of great importance. The
reindeer and musk sheep now inhabit the northern part of the
American Continent and are the pi'incipal land animals that supply
the Esquimaux with food. The latter of these has departed from
the Asiatic Continent, leaving remains behind to prove that it shared
the higher northern latitudes of Asia with the reindeer, and this
™ Boas, FraDz, Ethnological Problems in Canada. Jour. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. Great
Britain and Ireland, XL, p. 534. London, 1910.
^ Wisslor, Clark, The American Indian. New York, 1917.
^- Archaeology of the Polar Eskimo. Anthrop. Papers, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.,
XXII, pt. 3, p. IGl. New York, 1918.
»= The American Indian. New York, 1022.
^Dawkins, Boyd, In a Review of Lartet and Christy's " Cavernes du Pt^rigord " (1864),
in the Saturday Review, xxii, p. 713, 1866. [This review is not signed but is attributed
to B. D.]
348 ANTHROPOLOGICAL STJKVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46
latter has retreated farther and farther north during the historical
period. May not the race that lived on these two animals in southern
Gaul have shared also in their northern retreat, and may it not be
living in company with them still? The truth of such a hypoth-
esis as this is found by an appeal to the weapons, implements, and
habits of life of the Esquimaux. The fowling spear, the harpoon,
the scrapers, the marrow spoons are the same in the ice huts of Mel-
ville Sound as in the ancient dwellings of southern Gaul. In both
there is the same absence of pottery; in both bones are crushed in the
same way for the sake of the mari-ow, and accumulate in vast quanti-
ties. Tlie very fact of human remains being found among the relics
of the feast is exislained by an appeal to what Captain Parry ob-
served in the island of Igloolik. Among the vast quantities of bones
of walruses and seals, and skulls of dogs and bears found in the Esqui-
maux camp, were numbers of liunum skulls lying about among the
rest, which the natives tumbled into the collecting bags of the officers
without the least remorse. A similar carelessness for the dead was
also observed by Sir J. Ross and Captain Lyon. This presence, then,
of human remains in the south of Gaul is another link binding the
ancient people then living there to the Esquimaux. Their small size
also is additional evidence.
'' The only inference that can be drawn from these premises is
that the people in question were decidedly Esquimaux, related to
them precisely in the same way as the reindeer and musk sheep of
those days were to those now living in the high North American
latitudes. The sole point of difference is the possession of the dog
by the latter people, but in the vast lapse of time between the date
of their sojourn in Europe and the present day the dog might very
well have been adopted from some other superior race, or even re-
duced under the rule of man from some wild progenitor. By this
discovery a new j^eople is added to those which formerly dwelt in
Europe. The severity of the climate in southern Gaul is proved by
the northern animals above mentioned. As it became warmer musk
sheep, reindeer, and Esquimaux would retreat farther and farther
north until they found a resting place on the American shore of the
great Arctic Sea. Possibly in the case of the Esquimaux the inuni-
gration of other and better-armed tribes might be a means of acceler-
ating this movement."
Hamy, 1870:^" "II nous parait, comme a MM. de Quatref ages, Car-
ter-Blake, Le Hon, etc., que les earacteres anatomiques des races de
Furfooz et de Cro-Magnon doivent leur faire prendre place dans le
groupe hyperboreen."
°= Hamy, E. T,, Tr^cis <Je paK'ontologie humaine. p. 355. Taris, 1870.
HKDi.irKA] OKIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 349
Dawkins, 1874 ^" : In 1866. Boyd Dawkins, on the basis of the re-
semblances between the implements of the Eskimo and those of the
later prehistoric man of Europe, advances the idea that the Eskimo
were close kin to the palaeolithic man of Europe, before the scientific
forum. In his Cave Hunting he says: ''Palaeolithic man appeared
in Europe with the arctic mammalia, lived in Europe along with
them, and disappeared with them. And since his implements are of
the same kind as those of the Eskimos, it may reasonably be con-
cluded that he is represented at the present time by the Eskimos, for
it is most improljable that the convergence of the ethnological and
zoological evidence should be an accident."
1880 : "' '• The probable identity of the cave men with the Eskimos
is considerably strengthened by a consideration of some of the ani-
mrals found in the caves. * * *
"All these points of connection between the cave men and the
Eskimos can, in my opinion, be explained only on the hypothesis
that they belong to the same race * * *."
The cave man : " From the evidence brought forward in this chap-
ter, there is reason to believe that he is represented at the present
time by the Eskimos."'
Mortillet, 1889:"' " Les Groenlandais, au point de vue paleoeth-
nologique, presentent un tres grand interet. lis paraissent se relier
tres intimement aux hommes qui habitaient TEurope moyenne pend-
ant I'epoque de la Madeleine. lis seraient les descendants directs des
Magdaleniens. lis auraient successivement emigre vers le pole, avea
I'animal caracteristique de cette epoque, le renne. Habitues aux
froids les plus rigoureux de I'epoque magdalenienne, ils se sont re-
tires dans les regions froides du Nord. * * *
" Comme on le voit, il y a la plus grande ressemblance, tant sous
le rapport physique et moral que sous le rapport artistique et indus-
triel entre les hommes de la Madeleine et les Groenlandais. Cette
ressemblance est telle que nous pouvons en conclure que les seconds
sont les descendants des premiers."
Testut, 1889 : "° " Parmi les races actuelles, celle qui me parait
presenter la plus grande analogic avec I'homme de Chancelade est
celle des Esquimaux qui vivent encore a I'etat sauvage dans leg glaces
de I'Amerique septentrionale. lis ont, en effet, le meme crane que
notre troglodyte quaternaire ; leur face est constituee suivant le meme
type ; ils ont, a pen de chose pres, la meme taille, le meme indice Pala-
is Dawkins, Boyd, Cave Hunting, p. 359. London, 1874.
" Dawkins, Boyd, Early Man in Britain, pp. 240, 241, 24.5. London, ISSO.
" Mortillet, G. de, Les Groenlandais descendants des Magdaleniens. Bulletins de la
Soci^te d'Anthropologle, VI, pp. 86S-870. Paris, 1883.
"■' Testut, L., Reeherches anthropologique.s sur le .squelette quaternaire de Chancelade
(Dordogne). Bull. .Snc. d'anthrop., viii, pp. 243-244. Lyon, Paris. 1889.
350 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY LST ALASKA [ETH. ANN. M
tin, le meme indice nasal, le meme indice orbitaire, le meme degre de
torsion de lliumerus, etc. * * *
" La decoiiverte de Chancelade. en mettant en himiere une analogic
fraj^pante entie le squelette de notre troglodyte perigourdin et celui
des Esquimaux actuels, apporte a cette opinion aussi seduisante que
naturelle, Tappui de Tanthropologie anatomique qui, dans I'espece,
a une importance capitale. Elle lui est de tous points favorable et
eleve a la hauteur d'une verite probable, je n'ose dire d'une verite
demontree, ce qui n'etait encore qu'une simple hypothese."
Herve, 1893 : ' " * * * * par leurs usages et par leurs moeurs,
aussi bien que par leur materiel industriel et artistique, les Hyper-
boreens actuels (Tchouktches et Eskimaux) sont extremement
voisins des Troglodytes magdaleniens de I'Europe occidentale ; a
ce point que Hamy a pu dire " qu'ils contiuuent de nos jours, dan Ifes
regions circumpolaires, Fage du renne de France, de Belgique, de
Suisse, avec ses caracteristiques zoologiques, ethnographiques, etc'
(op. cit., 366). 'Nous avons vu, d'autre jjart, que les plus purs
d'entre eux ne different pas anatomiquement des Magdaleniens.
C'est done au rameau hyperboreen que nous sommes amenes a ratta-
cher, au jDoint de vue ethnique, les demieres joopulations de I'Europe
quaternaire.' "
Boule, 1913 : - " On sait d'ailleurs, depuis les travaux de Testut sur
THomme de Chancelade, que les relations des Esquimaux sont avec
d'autres HommeS fossiles de nos pays, mais d'un age geologique plus
recent."
Sollas, 1924 : ^ The Magdalenians are represented " in part, by the
Eskimo on the frozen margin of the North American Continent and
as well, perhaps, by the Red Indians. * * *" Due to pressure
of stronger peoples, the ancestors of the Eskimo were present to the
north ; '• but as there was no room for expansion in that direction, it
was diverted toward the only egress possible, and an outflow took
place into America over Bering Strait or the Aleutian Islands. The
primitive Eskimo, already accustomed to a boreal life, extended
along the coast."
1927 : "* " The assemblage of characters presented on the one hand
by the Chancelade skull, and on the other by the Eskimo, are in very
remarkable agreement, and that the onus of discovering a similar
assemblage, but possessed by some other race, rests with those who
refuse to accept what seems to me a very obvious conclusion. * * *
^ Hervfi, Georges, La Race des Troglodytes Magdaleniens. Rev. mens, de I'Ecole
d'anthrop., ni, p. 188. Paris, 1893.
'' Boule, Marcellin, L'lloiume fo-ssilo de la Chapelle-aux-Saints, pp. 228. Paris, lOl.'j.
^ Sollas. W. J., Ancient hunters and their modern representaUres, pp. 500, 592. New
York, 1924.
< Sollas, W. J., The Chancelade skull. J. Roy, Anthrop. Inst., lvii, pp. 119, 121. London.
1927.
i£nDH(-KA] ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 351
" Our only reason for any feelintj of surprise is, not that Chan-
celade man should prove a close relation of the Eskimo, but that
so far he is the only fossil example of his kind of which we have any
certain knowledge."
OPPOSED TO EUEOPEAN
Rae, 1887 : ^ " The typical Eskimo is one of the most specialized
of the human race, as far as cranial and facial characters are con-
cerned, and such scanty remains as have yet been discovered of the
prehistoric inhabitants of Europe present no structural affinities witli
him."
Laloy, 1898 : " " Cette theorie est absolument contredite par les
faits." (That is, the theory of the identity of the Eskimo with the
European upper palaeolithic man.)
Dechelette, 1908 : ' " C'est en vain qu'on a note certains traits d'anal-
ogie de I'art et de I'industrie * * * telles analogies s'expliquent
aisement par la parite des conditions de la vie materielle."
Burkitt, 1921 : ^ "Again the Magdalenians have been correlated with
the Eskimos, who inhabit to-day the icebound coastal lands to the
north of the New World, and also the similar lands, on the other side
of the straits, in the northeast corner of Asia. But the vast differ-
ence in place and in time would make any exact correlation very
doubtful."
MacCurdy, 1924 : ^ "If a Magdalenian type exists, it is probably
best represented by the skeleton from Raymonden at Chancelade
(Dordogne). One must not lose sight of the fact that the osteologic
record of fossil man is even yet so fragmentary that there is grave
danger of mistaking individual characters for those on which vari-
eties or species should be based."
Keith, 1925 : " " In the Chancelade man we are dealing with a mem-
ber of a racial stock of a true European kind."
MISCELIoANEOtTS AND INDEFINITE
Gallatin, 1836 : ^^ " Whatever may have been the origin of the Es-
kimo, it would seem probable that the small tribe of the present
" Rae, Dr. John, Remarlcs on the natives of British North America. J. Roy. Anthrop.
Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, xvi, pp. 200-201. London, 1887.
"Laloy, L'Antlir., ix, p. 586. 1898.
' IX'chelette, J.. Manuel crArcheoloKic prthistorique, etc., pp. 312. Paris, 1908.
» Burkitt, il. C, Prehistory, p. 307. London, 1921.
' MacCurdy, G. G.. Human Origins, v. i, pp. 406-407. New York and London, 1924.
i» Keith, Arthur, The Antiquity of Man, p. 86. Loudon, 1925.
" Gallatin, Albert, A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America. Archaeologia
Americana, II, pp. 13, 14. Cambridge, 1836.
352 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SLTEVEY IN ALASKA [etii. an.n. 46
sedentary Tchuktchi on the eastern extremity of Asia is a colony of
western American Eskimo. The language does not extend in Asia
beyond that tribe. That of their immediate neighbors, the " Rein-
deer," or "Wandering Tchuktchi," is totally different and belongs
to the Kouriak family.
" There does not seem to be any solid foundation for the opinion
of those who would ascribe to the Eskimaux an origin different from
that of the other Indians of North America. The color and features
are essentially the same; and the differences which may exist, par-
ticularly that in stature, may be easily accounted for by the rigor
of the climate and partly, perhaps, by the nature of their food. The
entire similarity of the structure and grammatical forms of their
language with those of various Indian tribes, however different in
their vocabularies, which will hereafter be adverted to, affords an
almost conclusive proof of their belonging to the same family of
mankind."
Richardson, 1852:'= "The origin of the Eskimos has been much
discussed as being the pivot on which the inquiry into the original
peopling of America has been made to turn. The question has been
fairly and ably stated by Doctor Latham in his recent work On
the Varieties of Man, to which I must refer the reader ; and I shall
merely remark that the Eskimos differ more in physical aspect from
their nearest neighbors than the red races do from one another. The
lineaments have a decided resemblance to the Tartar or Chinese coun-
tenance. On the other hand, their language is admitted by phi-
lologists to be similar to the other North American tongues in its
grammatical structure ; so that, as Doctor Latham has forcibly stated,
the dissociation of the Eskimos from their neighboring nations on
account of their physical dissimilarity is met by an argument for
their mutual affinity, deduced from philological coincidences."
Meigs, 1857 : ^^ "A connected series of facts and arguments which
seem to indicate that the Eskimo are an exceedingly ancient people,
whose dawn was probably ushered in b}^ a temperate climate, but
whose dissolution now approaches, amidst eternal ice and snow ; that
the early migrations of these people have been from the north south-
wards, from the islands of the Polar Sea to the continent and not
from the mainland to the islands ; and that the present geographical
area of the Eskimo may be regarded as a primary center of liuman
distribution for the entire polar zone."
" Richardson, Sir John, Orijnn of the Esltimos. The Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal, LII, p. 323. Edinburfih, 1S52.
" Meigs, J. Aitkcn, The cranial characteristics of the races of men. In Indigenous
Races of the Earth, by Nott, J. C, and Gliddon, George R., Philadelphia, p. 2G6. London,
1857.
HRDLItKA] ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 353
Abbott, 1876 : ^* " It is fair to presume that the first liuman beings
that dwelt along tlie shores of the Delaware were really the same
people as the jjresent inhabitants of Arctic America."
Grote, 1875 : ^° Basing himself on certain biological reasonings, the
author concludes " that the Eskimos are the existing rejiresentatives
of the man of the American glacial epoch, just as the White Mountain
butterfly {Oeneis semidea) is the living representative of a colony of
the genus planted on the retiring of tlie ice from the valley of the
White Mountains."
In a later communication ^^ the author expresses the opinion that
the peopling of America " was effected during the Tertiary ; that
the ice modified races of Pliocene man, existing in the north of Asia
and America, forced them southward, and then drew them back to
the locality where they had undergone their original modifica-
tion. * * *
'■ During the process, then, which resulted in the race modification
of the Eskimos, their original numbers must have been decreased
by the slowly but ever increasing cold of the northern regions, until
experience and physical adaptation combined brought them to a
state of comparative stability as a race."
Baron Nordenskiold ^^ thought that the Eskimo might probably
be the true " autochthones " of the polar regions, i. e., that they had
inhabited the same jjrevious to the glacial age, at a period when a
climate prevailed here equal to that of northern Itaiy at present, as
proved by the fossils found at Spitzbergen and Greenland. As it
might be assumed that man had existed even during the Tertiary
period, there was a great deal in favor of the assumption that he had
lived in those jDarts which were most favorable to his existence. The
question was one of the highest importance, as, if it could be proved
that the Eskimo descended from a race which inhabited the polar
regions in the very earliest times, we should be obliged to assume
that there was a northern (polar) as well as an Asiatic cradle of the
human race, which would open up new fields of research, both to the
philologist and the ethnologist, and probably remnants of the culture
and language of the original race might be traced in the present polar
inhabitants of both Europe and Asia.
"Abbott, C. C, Traces of American Autochthon. Ain. Nat., p. 329. June, 1876.
15 Grote, A. R., Effect of the Glacial Epoch Upon the Distribution of Insects in North.
America. Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., Detroit meeting, 1875, B. Natural History, p. 225.
'« Grote. A. R., On the Peopling of America. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sc, ill, p. 181-185,
1877.
" Eskimo. Lecture before the Georgr. Soc. of Stockholm, Dee. 19, 1884 ; abstract in
Proc. Roy. Georgr. Soc, vn. No. 6, p. 370-371. London, 1885.
354 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SITEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46
Keane, 1886: " " The Aleutian Islanders, who are treated by Doc-
tor Eink as a branch of the Eskimo family, but whose language
diverges profoundly from, or rather shows no perceptible affinity
at all to, the Eskimo. The old question respecting the ethnical
affinities of the Aleutians is thus again raised, but not further dis-
cussed by our author. To say that they must be regarded as ' ein
abnormer Seitenzweig,' merel}' avoids the difficulty, while perhaps
obscuring or misstating the true relations altogether. For these
islanders should possibly be regarded, not as ' an abnormal offshoot,'
but as the original stock from which the Eskimo themselves have
diverged."
Quatref ages, 1887 : ^° From migi-ations of Tertiary man : Men origi-
nated in Tertiary in nortliern Asia : spread from here to Europe and
over Asia ; " D'autres aussi gagnerent peut-etre I'Amerique et ont
pu etre les ancetres directs des Esquimaux, . . . Sans meme
supposer I'existence passee de la continuite des deux continents, les
hommes tertiaires ont bien pu faire ce que font les riverains actuels
du detroit de Behring, qui vont chaque jour d'Asie en Amerique et
reciproquement." . . .
" Evidemment la race esquimale est americaine. Au Groenland,
au Labrador, dont personne ne lui a dispute les solitudes glacees,
elle a conserve sa purete. Elle est encore restee pure quand elle a
rencontre, les Peaux-Eouges proprement dits, parce que ceux-ci lui
ont fait une guerre d'extermination qui ne respectait ni les femmes
ni les enfants. Mais, dans le nord-ouest americain, elle s'est trouvee
en rapport avec des populations d'un caractere plus doux et des
croisements ont eu lieu. Or, pai-mi ces populations, il s'en trouve
de brachycephales. Tels sont en particulier certaines tribus, con-
fondues a tort sous un meme nom avec les vrais Koluches . . .
Ces tribus sont de race jaune et leur crane ressemble si bien a celui
des Toungouses que M. Hamy les a rattachees directement a cette
famille mongole. Les Esquimaux se sont croises avec elles; et ainsi
ont pris naissance ces tribus, dont I'origine metisse est attestee par
le melange ou la fusion des caracteres linguistiques aussi bien qu'
anatomiques."
N'ansen, 1893 : -" " So much alone can we declare with any assur-
ance, that the Eskimos dwelt in comparatively recent times on the
coasts around Bering Strait and Bering Sea — probably on the
" Keane, A. H., The Eskimo : a commentary. Nature, xxxv. p. 309. London, New
York, 1886-18S7.
1° Quatrefages. A de, Histoire Ck-nf rale des Races Humalne.s, introduction I'Etude des
Races Humaines. pp. 136, 435. Paris, 1887.
=»Nansen, Fridtjof, Eskimo Life, pp. 6, 8. London, 1893. (Translated by WUliam
Archer.)
URDi.i.'KA] OEIGIX AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 355
American side — arid have thence, stage by stage, spread eastward
over Arctic America to GreenLind. * * *
" The likeness between all the different tribes of Eskimos, as well
as their secluded position with respect to other peoples, and the
perfection of their implements, might be taken to indicate that they
are of a very old race, in which everything has stiffened into definite
forms, which can now be but slowly altered. Other indications,
however, seem to conflict with such a hypothesis, and render it more
probable that the race was originally a small one. which did not
until a comparatively late period develop to the point at which we
now find it, and spread over the countries which it at present
inhabits."
Tarenetzky, 1900:-^ "'Die Frage ist bis jetzt noch nicht entschieden
und wird wahrscheinlich auch niemals definitiv entschieden wei'den
ob die gegenwiirtig die Nordostgrenze Asiens und die Nordwest-
grenze Amerikas bewohnenden Polaivolker urspriinglich aus Asien
nach Amerika oder in umgekehrter Richtung zu ihren Wohnsitzen
wanderten."
De Nadaillac -- believed that the Eskimo (with some other aborigi-
nal Americans), now savage and demoralized, have issued from races
more civilized and that they could raise themselves to the old social
level were it not for their struggle with inexorable climate, famines,
and lately also alcoholism.
Jenness, 1928 : -^ " We still believe that the Eskimos are funda-
mentally a single people; that they liad their origin in a homeland
not yet determined ; but we have learned that they reached their pres-
ent condition through a series of complex changes and migrations,
ihe outlines of which we have hardly begun to decipher."
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS INDICATED BY PRESENT DATA
The maze of thoughts on the origin of the Eskimo shows one fact
conclusively, which is that the necessary evidence on the subject has
hitherto been insufficient. From whatever side the problem has
been approached, whether linguistically, culturally, from the study
of myths, or even somatologically, the materials were, it is plain,
more or less inadequate and there was not enough for satisfactory
comparisons. The best contributions to Eskimo studies, from the
oldest to the most recent, all accentuate the need for further research
and more ample collections.
=' Tarenitzky, A., Beitrage zur Skelet-und Schadelkundo der Aleuten, Konaegen, Kenai
und Koljuschen. Mem. Acad, imp d. sc, ix. No. -1. p. 7. St. rptcrshurg. 1900.
- Nadaillac, M. dt, L<.-s Eskimo. L'Anthropologic, xiii, p. 104. 1902.
^ Jenness, D., Ethnological Problems of Arctic America. Amer. Geogr. See. Special
Publ. No. 7. New York, 1928.
356 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA Ieth. ann. 40
Another point is that heterogeneous and wide apart as many of the
opinions may seem, yet when the subject is looked upon with a
larger perspective they may often perhaps be harmonized. Thus a
belief in an American origin of the Eskimo need not exclude that in
the Asiatic derivation of his parental stock. Even in tiie case of the
supposed European derivation the Eskimo are understood to have
reached America through Asia; there is not one suggestion of any
importance advocating the coming of the Eskimo over northwestern
Europe and Iceland. Only the Meigs-Grote-Nordenskiold theory of
an ancient polar race and its descent southward appears now as
beyond the bounds of what would be at least partly justifiable.
What is the contribution to the subject of the studies reported in
this treatise, with its relatively great amount of somatological mate-
rial? The answer is not easy.
Even the truly great and precious material at hand is not sufficient.
There are important parts of the Arctic, such as the Hudson Bay
region, Baffin Land, and the central region; several parts of the west
coast, such as the inland waters of the Seward Peninsula and the
Eskimo portions of the Selawik, Kobuk, Xoatak, and Yukon Rivers ;
and above all the Eskimo pnvt of nortlieastern Siberia, from which
there are insufficient or no collections. There is, moreover, especially
in this country, a great want of skeletal material from the non-Es-
kimo Siberian tribes, and also from the old European peoj^les that are
of most importance for comi^arisons. It must be plain, therefore,
that even at present no final deductions are possible. All that can
be claimed for the evidence here brought forth is that it clears, or
tends to settle, certain secondary problems, and that it jDresents in-
dications of value for the rest of the question.
The secondary problems that .may herewith be regarded as settled
are as follows :
1. UnHy or pTmralify of the race. — The materials at hand give no
substantiation to the possibility of the Eskimo belonging to more than
one basic strain of people. They range in color from tan or light
reddish-yellow to medium brown ; in stature from decidedly short
to above the general human medium ; in head from brachycephalio
and low to extremely dolichocephalic, high and keel shaped; in eyes
from horizontal to decidedly mongoloid; in orbits from microseme
to hypermegaseme ; in nose from fully mesorrhinic to extremely
leptorrhinic ; in physiognomy from pure "Indian" to extreme
" Eskimo.'' Yet all through there runs, both in the living and in
the skeletal remains, so much of a basic identity that no separation
into any distinct original '" races " is possible. At most it is permis-
sible to speak of a few j)revalent types.
- 2. Relation. — The general basic prototype of the Eskimo, accord-
ing to all evidence, is so closely akin to that of the Indian that the two
hhdliCka] origin AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 357
can not be fully separated. They appear only as the thumb and the
digits of the same hand, some large old mother stock from which
both gi-adually differentiated. This appears to be an unavoidable
conclusion from the present anthropological knowledge of the two
peoples.
Tlie next unavoidable deduction is that the mother stock of both
the Eskimo and the Indian can only be identiKed with the great
yellow-brown stem of man, the home of which was in Asia, but the
roots of wliieh, as has been discussed elsewhere, were probably in
ancient (later paleolithic) Europe.-' The latter fact may explain the
cultural as well as somatological resemblances between the Eskimo,
as well as the Indian (for the Indian, physically at least, has much
in common with the upper Aurignacians). and the upper glacial
Euroijean populations. But such an explanation can not in the
light of present knowledge legitimately be extended to the assump-
tion that either the Indian complex or the Eskimo originated as
such in Europe ; they could be at most but parts oi the eventual more
or less further differentiated Asiatic progeny of the upper paleolithic
Europeans.
3. Mixture. — It has been assumed by Boas and others that the
eastern Eskimo have become admixed with the eastern Indian and
the western with the Alaskan Indian, that the physical and especially
craniological differences between the eastern and western Eskimo were
due to such a mixture, and that both extremes deviated from the type
of the pure Eskimo, who was to be found somewhere in the central
Arctic. Tlie evidence of the present studies does not sustain such an
assumption.
As shown before "° and is seen more clearly from the present data,
the western Eskimo type is also present or approached in various
localities in tlie far north (part of Smith Sound, Southampton
Island, part of the Hudson Bay coast, with i^robable spots in the
central Arctic proper). There is no indication of any central region
where the western Eskimo type would be much " purer " than
elsewhere.
Individual skulls and skeletons in the west, jjarticidarly in certain
spots (especially on Seward Peninsula), show the same characteris-
tics as the most diverging skulls or skeletons in the farthest
northeast.
And both in the west and in the east the most pronounced Eskimo
characteristics exceed similar features in the Indian, indicating in-
dependent development. Such cliaracteristics involve the stature
^ Hrdlifka, A., The Peopling of Asia. Troc. Am. Pliilos. Soc, Lx, 535 et seq. 1921 ; and
Tlie Peopling of tlio Eortb. Ibid., Lxv, l.'iO, et seq. 1926.
'^ Contrib. Autbrop. Central and Smith Sound Eskimo. Anthrop. Papers Am. Mus. Nat. i
Hist., 1910.
358 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [ETH. ANN. 46
(taller in the west, shorter in the east than that of the Indian) ; the
size of the head (everywhere averaging higher in the Eskimo) ;
dolichocephaly, height of the head, its keel shape (all more pro-
nounced in the eastern and now and then a western Eskimo than in
anj^ Indian group) ; the face, nose, orbits, and lower jaw; with the
relative proportions and other characteristics of the skeleton. All
these point to functional and other developments within the Eskimo
groups and none suggest a large Indian admixture.
It is well known that more or less blood mixture takes place among
all neighboring peoples where contact is possible, even if otherwise
there be much enmity. Such enmity, often in an extreme formi, ex-
isted everywhere it seems between the Eskimo and the Indian, as a
result of the encroaching of the former on the latter ; there are many
statements to that effect. Within historic times also there are no
records of any adojDtions or intermarriages between the two peoples.
Nevertheless where contact took place, as on the rivers and in the
southwest as well as the southeast of the Eskimo territory, some blood
mixture, it would seem, must have developed. The Indian neighbor
.show it. and it would be strange if it remained one-sided. But of a
mixture extensive enough to have materially modified the type of
the Eskimo in whole large regions, such as the entire Bering Sea and
most of the far northeast, there is no evidence and little not only
probability but even possibility. Nothing approaching such an ex-
tensive mixture is shown by the near-by Indians; and it would be
most exceptional in people of this nature if a much greater propor-
tion of the mixture was into the Eskimo.
Finally, a mixture of diverse human types, unless very old, may be
expected to leave numerous physical signs of heterogeneity and
disturbance, none of which is shown by either the western or eastern
Eskimo. Such groups as that of the St. Lawrence Island, or that
of (Greenland, are among the most homogeneous human groups
known. The range of variation of their characters is as a rule a
strictly normal range, giving a uniform curve of distribution, which
is not consistent with the notion of any relatively recent material
mixture.
4. The indications. — The indications of the data and observations
presented in this volume may be outlined as follows :
The Eskimo throughout their territory are but one and the same
broad strain of people. This strain is fundamentally related to that
(or those) of the American Indian. It is also uncontestably related
to the yellow-brown strains of Asia.
In many respects, such as pigmentation, build of the body, physiog-
nomy, large brain, fullness of forehead, fullness of the fronto-spheno-
temporal region, largeness of face and lower jaw, height of the nose,
hedliCka] origin AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 359
*
size and characteristics of the teeth.-" smallness of hands and feet,
etc., the Eskimos are remarkably alike over their whole territory.
They differ in details, such as stature, form of the head, and breadth
of the nose. But the distribution of these differences is of much
interest and probably significance. Higher statures, broader heads,
and broader noses are found especially in the west, the latter two
particularly in the Bering Sea region; low group statures, narrow
heads and narrow noses reach, with few exceptions, their extremes
in the northeast. Between the two extremes, however, there is no
interruption, but a gradation, with here and there an irregularity.
These conditions sjDeak not of mixture but rather of adaptation and
differentiation.
They strongly suggest a moderate stream of people, rooted in Asia,
of fairly broad and but moderately high head, of a good medium
stature, with a mesorrhinic nose (and hence probably originally not
far northern), and with many other characteristics in common, reach-
ing America from northeasternmost Asia after the related Indians,
spreading along the seacoasts as far as it could, not of choice, or choice
alone, but mainly because of the blocking by the Indian of the roads
toward the south and through the interior ; and gradually modifying
physically in adaptation to the new conditions and necessities; to
climate, newer modes of life, the demands of the kayak, and above
all to the results of the increased demands on the masticatory organs.
The narrowness, increased length and increased height of the
Eskimo skull, without change in its size or other characteristics, may
readily be understood as compensatory adaptations, the develop-
ment of which was initiated and furthered by the develoi^ment and
mechanical effects of the muscles of mastication.
A similar conclusion has been reached in my former study on the
central and Smith Sound Eskimo (1910). It has been approached
or reached independently by other .students of the Eskimo, notably
Fiirst and Hansen (1915) in their great work on the East Green-
landers. It is a conclusion of much biological importance for it
involves not merely the development but also the eventual inheritance
of new characters.
Former authors, it was seen, have advanced the theories of an
American origin of the Eskimo. This could only mean that he
developed from the American Indian. And such a development
would imply physical and hereditary changes at least as great as
those indicated in the preceding paragraphs, and in less time. A
differentiation commenced well back in Asia, geographically and
chronologically, and advancing, to its present limits, in America
would seem the more probable.
"" See Amer. J. Phys. Anthrop., vi, Nos. 2 and 4. 1923.
360
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA
[KTH. ANN. 46
An origin of the Eskimo in Europe, during the last glacial inva-
sion, would not only pusli into the hazy far past the same ciianges as
here dealt with, but it would at the same time fail to explain the
physical differences within the Eskimo group, and deny any sub-
stantial changes in him during the long time of his migration
toward the American northern coasts.
Absolute proofs of the origin of the Eskimo, as of that of the
various strains of the Indians, are hardly to be expected. Sucli ori-
gins are so gradual and insidious that they would escape detection
even if watched for while occurring; they are noticed only after suf-
FiGiiRE 20. — Probable luuvemeilts of ycople from nurtlieastei'n Asia tu Alaska and in
Alaslta. (A. Hrdlifka)
ficient differences have developed and become established, which takes
generations. The solving of racial origins must depend on sound
scientific induction.
Such induction may not yet be fully possible in the case of the
Eskimo. The evidence is not yet complete. But with the present
and other most recent data there is enough on hand for substantial
indications. The evidence shows that barring some irregularities,
due possibly to later intrusions or refluxes, the farther east in the
Eskimo territory the observer proceeds tlie more highly differentiated
and divergent the Eskimo becomes, and there is a greater gap
HRDLlfKA] SUMMARY 361
between him and his Indian neighbors, as well as other races.
Proceeding from the east westward, conditions are reversed. In
general the farther west we proceed the less exceptional on the
wliole the Eskimo becomes and the more he approximates the Indian,
particularly the Indian of Alaska and the northwest coast. As this
can not, in the light of present evidence, be attributed alone to mix-
ture, it is plain that if it were possible to proceed a few steps farther
in this direction the differences between the Eskimo and the Indian
would fade out so that a distinction between the two would become
difficult if not impossible.
The facts point, therefore, to an original identity of the source
from which were derived the Indian, more particularly his latest
branches, and the Eskimo, and to the identification of this source with
the palaeo-Asiatic yellow-brown people of lower northern Asia. The
differentiation of the Eskimo from this source must have proceeded
over a fairly long time, and probably started already it would seem
on the northern coasts of Asia, where conditions were present capable
of beginning to shape him into an Eskimo ; to be carried on since in
the Bering Sea area and especially in the Seward Peninsula and
farther northward and eastward. In a larger sense the cradle of
the Eskimo, therefore, while starting jDrobably in northeast Asia,-
covered in reality a much vaster region, extending from northern
Asia and the Bering Sea to the far American Arctic.
SUMMARY
What is the substance of the results of all these new obseiwa-
tions and studies on the western Eskimo, who is the main subject of
this report? In large lines this may be outlined as follows:
1. The western Eskimo occupied, uninterrupted by other people
(save in a few spots by the Aleuts), the great stretch of the Alaskan
coast from Prince William Sound and parts of the Unalaska Penin-
sula to Point Barrow, all the islands in the Bering Sea except the
Aleutians and Pribilovs, and the northern and western coasts of
the Chukchi Peninsula in Asia.
They extended some distance inland along the Kuskokwim and
Yukon Rivers; along the interior lakes and rivers of the Seward
Peninsula; along a part of the Selawik River, most (perhaps) of the
Kobuk River, and apparentlj^ along the whole Noatak River, com-
municating over the land with the lower Colville Basin. But no
traces of original Eskimo settlements have ever been found in the
true Alaska inland or along those parts of the Alaska rivers that
constitute the Indian territory.
2. The present population is sparse, with many unpeopled inter-
vals, and not highly fecund, but, except when epidemics strike, it
88253°— 30 24
362 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. anx. 46
110 more diminishes; children and young people are now much in
evidence, hygienic and economic conditions have improved, and the
]ieople in general are well advanced in civilization. Their condition
and morale are rather superior, in places very perceptibly so, to
those of the majority of the Alaska Indians.
3. Except where there has been more contact with whites, a
large percentage of these Eskimo are still full bloods. They are a
sturdy, cheerful, and liberal yet shrewd lot. They intermarry and
mix not inconsiderably among themselves (between villages). Some
of the white traders have married Eskimo women and raised prom-
ising families. Where larger numbers of whites were or are in prox-
imity clandestine mixture is apparent. The better educated show
often decidedly good mental, mechanical, business, and artistic abil-
ities. In the isolated localities, such as St. Lawi-ence Island, the
people have apparently escaped the jieriod of demoralization that so
often attends the passing from the old to new conditions.
Tuberculosis and venereal diseases are present but not prevalent;
rachitis seems absent. The people show much endurance, but lon-
gevity as yet is not much in evidence. Alcoholism is almost non-
existent except on occasions when drink is provided by whites.
. 4. The region of the western Eskimo shows a former larger popu-
lation of the same people. This is attested by many " dead " villages
and old sites. And this i^opulation evidently goes back some cen-
turies at least, for some of the remains are extensive and both their
depth and their contents give the impression of prolonged duration ;
though seemingly all thus far seen could be comprised within the
Christian era.
5. No habitations or remains belonging to a distinct people (In-
dians) have thus far come to light anywhere within the territory
of the western Eskimo; and no trace has as yet been found of
anything human that could be attributed to greater antiquity than
that of the Eskimo. But the older beaches and banks where such
remains might have existed have either been covered with storm -
driven sands and are now perpetually frozen, or they have been
"cut" away and lost; and there seems no hope for finding such re-
mains in the interior away from the sea or streams, for such parts
were never under recent geological conditions favorable for human
habitation.
6. The now known remains consist of the ruins of dwellings and
of accumulated refuse, the two together forming occasionally marked
elevated heaps or ridges. Some of these ridges are over 18 feet deep.
They contain many archeological specimens of stone, ivory, wood, and
bone. The ivory in the older layers is more or less " fossilized." The
upper layers of such remains usually contain some articles of white
HEDLICK4] SUMMARY 363
man's manufacture (copper, iron, beads) ; lower layers are wholly
aboriginal. Indian artifacts occur in Eskimo sites only in the
proximity of the Indian on tlie rivers.
7. The prevalent or later culture shown by the remains is fairly
rich, of good to relatively rather high grade, and of considerable uni-
formity. There are numerous indications of extensive trade in
vai'ious articles, particularly those of tlie Kobuk '' jade.''
8. On the Asiatic coast, in the northern parts of tlie Bering Sea,
on the Seward Peninsula, in tlie Kotzebue region and at Point Hope,
the deefjer portions of the remains give examples of the higher
and riclier " fossil ivory culture." This is distinguished by many
objects of liigh-class worlcmanship, and by curvilinear to scroll de-
signs. The art appears to have distinct affinities witli, on one hand,
deeper Asia, and on the other with the northwest coast of America
and even farther soutli. It is not clearly separated from either tlie
contemporaneous or tlie later Eskimo art, j'et it is of a higher grade
and delicacy and much distinctiveness. It is not yet known wliere
this art begins geographically, what preceded it, whence it was
derived, just how far it reached along tlie coasts, or even what was
its main center. It seems best for the present to reserve to it the
name of the " fossil ivory art " (rather than Jenness's too limiting
" Bering Sea culture ") , and to defer all conclusions concerning it to
the future.
9. It seems justifiable, however, to point to the significance of what
is already known. This " fossil ivory art " especially, but also the
general culture of the western Eskimo, are highly developed and
differentiated cultures, denoting considerable cultural background,
extended duration, and conditions generally favorable to industrial
and artistic developments. It has, it is already ascertained, cer-
tain affinities in Asia. If this art and the attending culture were
advancing toward America, as seems most probable, then the ques-
tion of cultural influences and introductions from Asia to America
will have to be reopened.
10. Due to the perpetually frozen ground and the consequent
necessity of sui'face burials, the area of the western Eskimo was,
until recently, relatively rich in skeletal remains lying on the sur-
face. It is no more so now, due to storms, beasts, missionaries,
teachers, and scientific collectors. But while only a scattering re-
mains of the surface material, there is much and that of special
importance lying in the ground, mostly self-buried or assimilated by
the tundra. This material, which now and then is accompanied by
interesting archeological specimens, calls for prompt attention; it
will help greatly in clearing local and other problems.
364 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA Ietii. ANN. 46
Occasionally burials vrei'e made or dead bodies were left in old
houses. These remains, too, may prove of special value.
11. Observations on both the living and the skeletal remains in
the western Eskimo area, supplemented by those on the northern
and northeastern Eskimo, are now ample enough to justify certain
generalizations. These are:
a. Barring the Aleuts, who are Indian, the Eskimo throughout
belong somatologically to but one family, and this family appears
as a remarkably pure racial unit, somewhat admixed in the south
with the Aleut, on the western rivers with the Indian, and in the
east and a few sjDots elsewhere with recent white people.
6. Within this family there is observable a considerable cranial
change, with moderate differences in nasal breadth, stature, and
color, but the general characteristics of the jjliysiognomy, and of the
body and the skeleton, remain remarkably similar.
c. The changes in the skull affect mainly the vault, which, in di-
mensions, ranges through all the intermediary grades from moder-
ately broad, short, and moderately high to pronouncedly narrow,
long, and high, and in form from moderately convex over the top to
markedly keel shaped.
The distribution of skull form is somewhat irregular, but in gen-
eral the broader and shorter heads predominate in the Asiatic and
the southwestern and midwestern American portions of the Eskimo
region, while the longest and narrowest heads are those of parts of
the Seward Peninsula, and especially those from an isolated old
settlement near Barrow with those of Greenland (exclusive of the
Smith Sound), Baffin Land, and, judging from other data, also east-
ern Labrador. More or less transitional forms are found between
the two extremes, without there being anywhere a clear line of
demarcation.
The breadth of the nose, too, averages highest in the Asiatic, Ber-
ing Sea, and the more southern Eskimo of the Alaska coast, the least
along the northern Ai'ctic coast and in the northeast. The statui'e
is highest along the western Alaska rivers and parts of the coast,
least in Greenland and Labrador.
The skin, while differing within but moderate limits, is ajjparently
lightest along parts (at least) of the northern Arctic.
12. The whole distribution of the physical characteristics among
the Eskimo strongly suggests gradual changes — within the family
itself; and as the long, narrow, high skull with keeled dome, occur-
ring in a few limited localities in the west but principally in southern
Greenland and neighboring territories, appears to be the farthest
limit of the differentiation which finds no parallel in the neighboring
or other peoisles, while the form found in northeastern Asia, the
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INDIAN TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI
Bt EDWIN THOMPSON DENIG
EDITED WITH NOTES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Bt J. N. B. HEWITT
375
PKEFACE
This manuscript Is entitled "A Report to the Hon. Isaac I.
Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, on the Indian Tribes
of the Upper Missouri, by Edwin Thompson Denig." It has been
edited and arranged with an introduction, notes, a biographical
sketch of the author, and a brief bibliograjahy of the tribes mentioned
in the rejjort.
The report consists of 451 pages of foolscap size; closely written
in a clear and fine script with 15 pages of excellent pen sketches
and one small drawing, to which illustrations the editor has added
two photographs of Edwin Tliompson Denig and his Assiniboin
wife, Hai-kees-kak-wee-lah, Deer Little Woman, and a view of Old
Fort Union taken from " The jNIanoe-Denigs," a family chronicle,
New York. 1924.
The manuscript is undated, but from internal evidence it seems
safe to assign it to about the year 1854.
The editor has not attempted to verify the statements of the author
as embodied in the report; he has, however, where feasible, re-
arranged some portions of its contents by bringing together under
a single rubric remarks upon a common topic which appeared in
various parts of the report as replies to closely related but widely
placed questions; and he has attempted to do tliis without changing
tlie ]3hraseology or the terminology of Mr. Denig, except in very rare
instances, and then only to clarify a statement. For example, the
substitution of the native term for the ordinary English expression,
the Great Spirit, and divining in the place of " medicine '" in medi-
cine man, jjractically displacing medicine man, by the word dh'iner.
In his letter of transmittal " To his Excellency, Isaac I. Stevens,
Governor of Washington Territory," ]\Ir. Denig writes : " Being
stimulated with the desire to meet your wishes and forward the
views of government, I have in the following pages endeavored to
answer the ' Inquiries ' published by act of Congress, regarding the
' History. Present Condition, and Future Prospects of the Indian
Tribes ' with which I am acquainted. * * * Independent of my
own personal observation and knowledge acquired by a constant
residence of 21 years among the prairie tribes, in every situation, I
have on all occasions had the advice of intelligent Indians as to the
least important of these inquiries, so as to avoid, if possible, the
introduction of error. * * *
S8253'— 30 25 377
378 PEEFACE
"It is presumed the following pages exhibit a minutiae of infor-
mation on those subjects not to be obtained either by transient visi-
tors or a residence of a few years in the country, without being, as is
the case with myself, intimately acquainted with their camp regula-
tions, understanding their language, and in many instances entering
into their feelings and actions.
" The whole has been well digested, the different subjects pursued
in company with the Indians for an entire year, until satisfactory
answers have been obtained, and their motives of speech or action
well understood before placing the same as a guide and instruction to
others.
" The answers refer to the Sioux, Arikara, Mandan, Gros Ventres,
Cree, Crow, Assiniboin. and Blackfeet Nations, who are designated as
prairie, roving, or wild tribes — further than whom our knowledge
does not extend.
" I am aware of your capacity to judge the merits of the work and
will consider myself highly honored if I have had the good fortune
to meet your approbation; moreover I shall rejoice if I have con-
tributed in any degree toward opening a course of policy on the part
of the Government that may result in the amelioration of the sad
condition of the savages. Should the facts herein recorded ever be
published or embodied in other work it is hoped the errors of
language may be corrected, but in no instance is it desired that the
meaning should miscarry."
Elsewhere in this letter Mr. Denig writes : " Some of their cus-
toms and opinions now presented, although very plain and common
to us who are in their daily observance, may not have been rendered
in comprehensible language to those who are strangers to these
things, and the number of queries, the diversity of subjects, etc.,
have necessarily curtailed each answer to as few words as possible."
The report was made in response to a circular of "Inquiries, Re-
specting the History, Present Condition, and Future Prospects of
the Indian Tribes of the United States," by Henry R. Schoolcraft,
Office of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. printed in Philadelphia,
Pa., in 1851. This circular is a reprint of the circular issued in July,
1847, in accordance with the provisions of section 5, chapter 66, of
the Laws of the Twenty-ninth Congi-ess, second session, and ap-
proved March 3, 1847, which read, '■^ And he if fv/rther enacted, That
in aid of the means now possessed by the Department of Indian
Affairs through its existing organization, there be, and hereby is,
appropriated the sum of five thousand dollars to enable the said
department, under the direction of the Secretary of War, to collect
and digest such statistics and material as may illustrate the history,
the present condition, and future prospects of the Indian tribes of the
United States."
PREFACE 379
The original circular recites that it was addressed to four classes
of individuals, namely, " I. Persons holdino; positions under the
department, who are believed to have it in their power to impart
much practical information respecting the tribes who are, respec-
tively, under their charge. II. Persons who have retired from
similar situations, travelers in the Indian Territory, or partners and
factoi-s on the American frontiers. III. Men of learning or re-
search who have perused the best writers on the subject and who
may feel willing to communicate the results of their reading or re-
flections. IV. Teachers and missionaries to the aborigines."
The circular closes with an expression of the " anxiety which is felt
to give to the materials collected the character of entire authenticity,
and to be apprised of any erroneous views in the actual manners and
customs, character, and condition of our Indian tribes which may
have been promulgated. The Government, it is believed, owes it
to itself to originate a body of facts on this subject of an entirely
authentic character, from which the race at large may be correctly
judged by all classes of citizens, and its policy respecting the tribes
under its guardianship, and its treatment of them, properly under-
stood and appreciated."
The 348 inquiries in the circular embrace the history (and arche-
ology), the tribal organization, the religion, the manners and customs,
the intellectual capacity and character, the present condition, the
future prospects, and the language, of the Indian tribes of the United
States.
But the report of Mr. Denig consists of brief and greatly condensed
replies to as many of the questions propounded in the circular in
question as concerned the native tribes of the upper Missouri River,
to wit, the Ai-ikara, the Mandan, the Sioux, the Gros Ventres, the
Cree, the Crows, the Assiniboin, and the Blackfeet, tribes with whom
he was thoroughly acquainted, although the Assiniboin seem to have
been the chief subjects of his observations. It should be noted that
the answers to some of the questions, if adequately treated, would
have required nearly as much space as was devoted to the entire
report.
Wliile the facts embodied in the replies of Mr. Denig are, when
unqualified, affirmed of all the eight tribes mentioned in his letter
of transmittal, he is nevertheless careful, when needful, to restrict
many of his answers to the specific tribes to which their subject
matter particularly related. But, of course, all the tribes mentioned
belonged measurably to a single cultural area at that time.
That Mr. Denig made use of the circular issued by Mr. Schoolcraft
is clearly evident from the fact that on the left-hand margin of the
manuscript he usually wrote the number of the question to which
he was giving an answer.
380 PEEFACE
In the manuscript there appear two quite distinct handwritings,
and so it is possible that this particuhir manuscript is a copy of an
original which was retained by the author.
Dr. F. V. Haj'den made extensive use of this report in prei:)ara-
tion of his " Contributions to the Ethnography and Philology of
the Indian Tribes of the Missouri Valley," Philadelphia, C. Sherman
& Son, 1862. But he did not give Mr. Denig proper credit for using
verbatim numbers of pages of the manuscript without any indication
that he was copying a manuscrijjt work from another writer whose
position and long experience among them made him an authority on
the tribes in question. This piece of plagiarism was not concealed
by the bald statement of Doctor Hayclen that he Avas " especially
indebted to Mr. Alexander Culbertson, the well-known agent of the
American Fur Co., who has spent 30 j^ears of his life among the
wild tribes of the Northwest and speaks several of their languages
with great ease. To Mr. Andrew Dawson, superintendent of Fort
Benton; Mr. Charles E. Galpin, of Fort Pierre; and E. T. Denig,
of Fort Union. I am under great obligations for assistance freely
granted at all times."
Mr. Edwin Thompson Denig, the author of this manuscript re-
port, was the son of Dr. George Denig and was born March 10, 1812,
in McConnellstown, Huntingdon County, Pa., and died in 1862 or
1863 in JIanitoba, probalily in the town of Pilot Mound, in the vicin-
ity of which his daughters live, or did live in 1910. His legally mar-
ried wife was the daughter of an Assiniboin chief, by whom he had
two daughters, Sara, who was born August 10, 1844, and Ida, who
was born August 22, 1854, and one son. Alexander, who was born May
17, 1852, and who was killed by lightning in 1904.
To his early associates Mr. Denig was a myth, more or less, having
gone West as a young man and having died there. He lost caste
with his family because of his marriage with the Assiniboin woman.
Mr. Denig entered the fur trade in 1833 and became very influ-
ential among the tribes of the upper ilissouri River. He was for
a time a Government scout; then a bookkeeper for the American
Fur Co. Earlier he had gone to St. Louis and became connected
with the Choteaus and the American Fur Co. Before he was 30
years of age he was living among the Indians as the representative
of these two companies in that vast and almost unknown region
between the headwaters of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers
inhabited by tribes of the Sioux.
Mr. Denig became a bookkeeper for the American Fur Co. at
Fort Union, situated near the mouth of the Yellowstone River, of
the offices of which for a time, about 1843, he was superintendent.
Because of his thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the Indians
PREFACE 381
of his ado^jted tribe, their language, customs, and tribal relations,
he was consulted by most of the noted Indian investigators of that
period — Schoolcraft, Hayden, and others.
Being a Government scout, Mr. Denig was able to conciliate the
Indians during the expedition of Audubon in 1843, making it pos-
sible for the great Frenchman to collect his wonderful specimens.
A very colorful description of Fort Union was written by Mr. Denig
July 30, 1843. This description is found in Volume II, page 180,
of " Audubon and His Journals." In it Mr. Denig writes : " Fort
Union, the principal and handsomest trading post on the Missouri
River, is situated on the north side, about 6V2 niiles above the mouth
of the Yellowstone River; the country around it is beautiful and
well chosen for an establishment of the kind." Then after describ-
ing in detail the structure and furnishings of the fort, he says:
" The princijjal building in the establishment, and that of the gentle-
man in charge, or bourgeois, is now occupied by Mr. Culbertson, one
of the partners of the company," and farther on, " Next to this
is the office, which is devoted exclusively to the business of the com-
pany. * * * This de^jartment is now under my supervision
[viz, E. T. Denig]."
During this period Audubon sojourned with him for some time
and spoke of him not only as an agreeable companion but also as a
friend who gave him valuable information and enthusiastic assist-
ance. One of his frequent companions at Fort Union was the Belgian
priest, Father De Smet. Their corresjiondence was continued after
De Smet had returned to Belgium. (See Life, Letters and Travels
of Father De Smet, Chittenden and Richardson, 4 vols., New York,
1905.)
Several plausible but nevertheless quite unsatisfactory etymologic
interpretations of the name, Assiniboin, have been made by a num-
ber of writers. Among these interpretations are " Stone Roasters,"
" Stone Warriors," " Stone Eaters," etc. Tliese are unfortunately
historically improbable. It appears that difficulty arises from a mis-
conception of the real meaning of the limited or qualified noun it
contains, namely, hoin. This element appears in literature, dialecti-
cally varied, as pour, poitar, poll, poual, Iwdn, pwan, pwdt, etc.
Evidenth', it was the name of a grou^) of people, well known to the
Cree and the Chippewa tribes, whom they held in contempt and so
applied this noun, b&in, liixm, pwdt, etc., to them. The signification
of its root bivd(n) or pwd{t) is " to be powerless, incapable, weak."
So that Ptvdtak or Bwdnug (animate plurals) is a term of contempt
or derision, meaning " The Weaklings, The Incapable Ones." This
name was in large measure restricted to the nomadic group of Siouan
tribes in contradistinction from the sedentary or eastern group of
382 PREFACE
Siouan peoples who were called Nadowesiwiig, a term appearing in
literature in many variant spellings. The name Dakota in its re-
stricted use is the appellation of the group of tribes to which the
name Bwdnug, etc., was applied. This fact indicates that the Assini-
hoin, or Assinibwdnug , were recognized as a kind of Dakota or Na-
kota peoples. Nakota is their own name for themselves. The rup-
ture of the Dakota tribal hegemony thrust some of these peoples
northward to the rocky regions about Lake Winnipeg and the
Saskachewan and Assiniboin rivers. So it was these who were
called Eock or Stone Dakota (i. e., Bwdnug). It would thus appear
that the rupture occurred after there were recognized the two groups
of Siouan tribes in the past, namely, the nomadic or western, the
Dakota, and the sedentary or eastern, the Nadawedmug of literature.
Traditionally, the Assiniboin people are an offshoot of the Wazi-
kute gens of the Yanktonai (Ihafikto°wa°na) Dakota.
Dr. F. V. Hayden in his " Contributions to the Ethnography and
Philology of the Indian Tribes of the Missouri Valley " says that
Mr. Denig was " an intelligent trader, who resided for many years at
the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers as superintend-
ent of Fort Union, the trading post for the Assiniboins." Of the
vocabulary of the Assiniboin language, recorded by Mr. Denig, Doc-
tor Hayden wrote that it is " the most important " one theretofore
collected. From the citation from Mr. Denig's description of Fort
Union in a preceding paragraph it appears that Doctor Hayden is in
error in making Mr. Denig superintendent of the fort rather thiin of
the office of the American Fur Co. at that point.
In one of his letters Reverend Father Terwecoren wrote that Mr.
Denig, of the St. Louis Fur Co., is " a man of tried probity and
veracity."
From references in Audubon, Kurtz, De Smet, Hayden, and School-
craft, and as well from a perusal of this manuscript, it is evident
that Mr. Denig was an exceptional man, and for more than 20 years
was a prominent figure in the fur trade of the upper Missouri River.
In this summary rejDort to Governor Stevens Mr. Denig has suc-
cinctly embodied in large measure the culture, the activities, the
customs, and the beliefs of the native tribes who occupied the upper
Missouri River 75 years ago, more than 75 per cent of which has been
lost beyond recovery by contact with the white man. For more
than 40 years the native life with which Mr. Denig was in contact has
been largely a thing of the past, so that it is futile to attempt to
recover it from the remnants of the tribes who formerly traded with
Mr. Denig at Fort Union.
In addition to preparing this report to Governor Stevens Mr.
Denig also recorded a Blackfoot Algonquian vocabulary of about 70
words, a Gros Ventres Siouan vocabulary, and an Assiniboin Siouan
PREFACE 383
vocabulary of more than 400 words, which was published by School-
craft in his fourth volume.
From a letter written February 27, 1923, by Dr. Rudolph Denig,
of 56 East Fifty-eighth Street, New York, N. Y., the following in-
teresting biogra^jhical matter relating to the ancestry of Mr. Denig
is taken :
The Denigs, or " Deneges," trace their descent from one Herald
Ericksen, a chieftain, or " smaa kongen," of the Danish island of
ilanoe in the North Sea, from whose descendant Red Vilmar, about
14G0, they derive an unbroken lineage. They were seafarers, com-
manding their own vessels, and engaged in trade in the North and
Baltic Seas.
About 1.570 Thorvald Christiansen changed the tradition of the
family by becoming a tiller of the soil, having obtained possession
of a large farm near Ribe in northern Slesvig, which to this day
bears its ancient name of Volling gaard. Christian Thomsen, 1636-
1704, was the first of the family to take up a learned profession ; he
studied theology, and being ordained a minister in the Lutheran
Church, he was also the first biograi^her of the family, in that he left
a kind of genealogy inscribed on the flyleaves of his Bible.
His grandson, Frederick Svensen, took part as corporal in a
Danish auxiliary corps at the age of 17 in Marlborough's operations
in the Netherlands in the war of the Spanish Succession. Following
the disbanding of his corps he took up his residence in Cologne, and
after a few years he found a permanent home, about 1720, in Biebrich-
Mosbach, opposite Mayence.
The two branches of the familj' at present are the descendants of
Philip George and Johan Peter, both sons of Frederick. Johan
Peter emigrated to Amei'ica in 1745, leaving among his descendants
Edwin Thompson Denig, the subject of this treatise; Commodore
Robert Gracie Denig, United States Navy, his son; Major Robert
Livingston Denig, United States Marine Corps, a distinguished
soldier of the World War, and Dr. Blanche Denig, a well-known
woman physician of Boston.
The descendants of Philip George include Dr. Rudolph C. Denig,
professor of clinical ophthalmology in Columbia University, New
York, N. Y.
Ethnologically, it may be of more than passing interest to know
that the name Denig was originally Denek(e), then Deneg, which
was taken as a family name by Frederick Svensen at the time he left
Denmark in 1709. Until then the family had followed the old Scan-
dinavian custom of the son taking his father's first name with the
suffix sen or son as his family name.
384 PREFACE
The Denigs came to their present name in the following manner:
After the Kalmar War, 1611-1613, conditions in Denmark became
critical, and the Danes were hard pressed for all the necessaries of
life, esjDecially foodstuffs. They were therefore forced to import
grain from neighboring countries. So it happened that Ludvig
Thorvaldsen, born in 1590, was sent l)y his father. Thorvald Chris-
tiansen, to Valen in Westphalia, a district still renowned for its
agriculture, to buy corn.
Ludvig went there every fall for thi'ee or four successive yeai-s.
Eventually the Westphalians nicknamed him Deneke; " Den " mean-
ing Dane, and the suffix " eke," like " ike," " ing." and " ig," a diminu-
tive, derivative, or patronymic. Naturally this surname was not
used at home, but it became useful when occasional trips took mem-
bers of the family outside of Denmark.
The use of such a nom de guerre has always been popular with
Scandinavian and kindred races like the Friesians. As the supply
of available names did not meet the demand, frequent similarity
of names made it difficult to avoid losing one's identity.
When Frederick Svensen Deneg had settled in Biebrich-Mosbaeli
the name Deneg had to undergo another change. While in the north
the syllable " eg " is pronounced like " ek," the Chatto-Franconian
dialect around IMayence pronounces it like " esh." Automatically,
for eu^Dhonic reasons the name was dialectically changed to Denig.
In former times such capricious changes in names were frequently
made. In perusing old chronicles many names are found written
in three or four different ways within one century. An instance to
the point is the Frankish name of King Meroveg, who was also
called Merovig, and his descendants were called Meroveger, Mero-
viger. and Merovinger, according to dialects spoken in the different
regions of the former Frankish empire. This parallels the change
of Deneg to Denig.
Upon his arrival, September 5, 1851, at Fort Union, 3 miles
above the mouth of the Yellowstone River on the Missouri. ]\Ir.
Frederick Ktirz, the Swiss artist, of Berne, Switzerland, who had
heard some ugly rumors about Mr. Denig, wrote in his Journal
(yet in manuscript) : " Bellange delivered the letter he brought to
a small, hard-featured man, wearing a straw hat, the brim of which
was turned up in the back. He was my new bourgeois^ Mr. Denig.
He impressed me as a rather prosy fellow. . . . He ordered sup-
per delayed on our account that we might have a better and more
plentiful meal. A bell svnnmoned me to the first table with Mr.
Denig and the clerks. My eyes almost ran over with tears. There
was chocolate, milk, butter, omelet, fresh meat, hot bread — what
a magnificent spread. I changed my opinion at once concerning
PREFACE 385
this new chief; a hard, nifjcardly person could not have reconciled
himself to such a hospitable reception in behalf of a subordinate
■who was a total stranger to him" (pp. 205-206). Kurz remained
•with Denig three years.
Again, Kurz wrote : " In his relations with me he is most kind
and agreeable. Every evening he sits with me either in my room
or in front of the gate and relates experiences of his earlier life.
As he has held his position in this locality for 19 years already,
his life has been full of adventure with Indians — particularly since
the advent of the whisky flask. He wishes me to paint, also, a
portrait of himself and his dog, Natah (Bear), a commission I am
very glad to execute " (p. 211).
Again, in speaking of the duties of Mr. Denig, Kurz wrote:
" It goes without saying that a howr/eois who occupies the position
of responsible warden, chief tradesman, and person in highest au-
thority at a trading-post far removed, where he has fifty men under
his direction, may regard himself of more importance than a man
who directs five men " (p. 213) .
Again Kurz wrote: "As a matter of course, Denig keeps the
subordinate workmen strictly under his thumb — what is more, he
has to, if he is to prevent their overreaching him. He feels, how-
ever, that one man alone is not sufficient to enforce good order
among these undei-lings, for evei-y one of them is armed and, though
not courageous in general, are, nevertheless, touchy and revengeful.
So, for purposes of order and protection he has attached to himself
the clerks who stand more nearly on the same level with him in
birth and education and afford, besides, the only support, moral as
well as physical, upon which he can reckon" (p. 21C).
Again Kurz wrote: "He talks to me continually about Indian
legends and usages. As he writes the best of these stories for Pere
De Smet, by whom they are published, there is no need of my pre-
serving more than some bits of memoranda" (p. 238). This ex-
plains why the writings on these matters of Father De Smet have a
close family resemblance with those of Mr. Denig.
Again Kurz wrote : " Mr. Denig has been reading to me again
from his manuscript, which is extremely interesting. He is very
well educated and he has made a thorough study of Indian life — a
distinct advantage to him in trade. He is so fond of the life in
this part of the country that he is averse to any thought of going
back to his Pennsylvania home in the United States. For the
reason, as he says, that he may avoid political carryings-on that
disgust him" (p." 242).
Another entry in the Kurz Journal reads: "September the 24th.
Began a poitrait of Mr. Denig — life-size, knee-length. This work
386 PREFACE
is to be finished before Mr. Culbertson's return from Fort Laramie"
(p. 254).
The following citation is from the Kurz Journal at page 577:
'' February the 26th, Mr. Denig is a Swedenborgian and at the same
time he is a Freemason. He mentioned to me that it would be of
great advantage on my travels if I were a Freemason."
It seems appropriate to insert here briefly what another intimate
friend of Mr. Denig, the Reverend Father De Smet, thought of the
knowledge and attainments of our author. Father De Smet in
speaking of the source of his information in a particular instance
wrote : " I have it from two most reliable sources — that is to say,
from a man of tried probity and veracity, Mr. Denig of the Saint
Louis Fur Company . . ."^
On page 1215 of this same work Father De Smet in a personal
letter to Mr. Denig, dated September 30, 1852, wrote : " I do not know
how to express my gratitude for your very interesting series of
narratives concerning the aborigines of the Far West. . . . Noth-
ing could be more gratifying to me than the beautiful and graphic
details which you have given me of the religion, manners, customs,
and transactions of an unfortunate race of human beings."
It is hoped that these excerpts from the writings of Frederick Kurz
and Father De Smet, both intimately associated with Mr. Denig, will
supply some data concerning our author not otherwise accessible.
The Swiss artist, Friedrich Kurz, who painted many pictures of
the region around Fort Union, lived with Denig for some time, and
in 1851 painted his portrait.
The Indians called Mr. Denig " The Long Knife," which simply
meant that they knew him as "an American."
In the manuscript Mr. Denig employs the word " band " to denote
" a gens of a tribe," the word " clans " to denote " societies " or
" corporations," and the " orders of doctors " he calls " shamans or
theurgists." To understand Mr. Denig these meanings must be kept
in mind.
The Editor.
• Chittenden, H. M.. and Rich.Tidson, A. T. Life, letters, and travels of Father Pierre-
Jean De Smet, S. J., 1801-1873. Vol. IV, p. 1111. New York, 1905.
I
CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittal 393
The Asbiniboin
History 395
Origin 395
Name and geographical position 396
Ancient and modern habitat 397
Vestiges of early tradition 398
Names and events in history 399
Present rulers and condition 401
Intertribal rank and relations 403
Magnitude and resources of territory a cause of the multiplication of
tribes 405
Geography 406
Figure of the globe 406
Local features of the habitat 406
Surface of the country 407
Facilities for grazing 408
Effect of firing the prairies 408
Wastelands 409
Effects of volcanic action 409
Saline productions 409
Coal and mineral products ' 410
Climate 410
Wild animals 410
Ancient bones and traditions of the monster era 411
Animals used as armorial marks 412
The horse — Era of importation 412
Pictographs — Charts on bark 412
Antiquities 413
Pipes . 413
Vessels and implements 414
Astronomy and geology 414
Earth and its motions 414
The sun 415
The sky 415
Future life — Indian paradise 418
Arithmetic 418
Numeration 418
Coin 420
Keeping accounts 420
Elements of figures 421
Medicine 422
General practice 422
Depletion by bleeding 426
Stoppage of blood and healing art 427
Amputation 427
Theory of diseases and their remedy 428
Parturition 429
387
388 CONTENTS
Page
Government 430
Tribal organization and government 430
Chiefs 431
The Sndoo-kah, "Circumcised" 434
Soldiers 436
Councils 446
Scope of civil jurisdiction 448
Chiefship 448
Power of the war chief 449
Power of the priests in councils 450
Matrons in councils 451
General councils 451
Private right to take life 452
Game laws, or rights of the chase 455
Indian trade 457
Education 466
Warfare 470
Property 474
Territorial rights 476
Primogeniture 478
Crime 479
Prayers 483
Prayer of warrior 483
Prayer to ghosts 484
The moon 484
Parental affection 485
Religion J 486
Immortality 498
Mythology: Legends, tales 500
Manners and customs 503
Constitution of the Assiniboin family; kinship 503
Camp life 505
Courtship and marriage 510
Music 612
Longevity 513
Hospitality 513
Midwifery, childbirth, naming 516
Assiniboin personal names 518
Children 519
Suicide 522
Personal behavior 523
Scalping 524
Oaths 524
Smoking 524
Fame 525
Stoicism 525
Taciturnity 526
Public speaking 526
Travel 526
Senses 527
Juggling and sorcery 528
Strength and endurance 529
Spirituous liquors 629
CONTENTS 389
Page
Hunting 530
Throwing buffalo in a park 532
Approaching buffalo 534
Deer hunting 536
Elk hunting 537
Grizzly bears 537
Beaver 538
Wolves and foxes 538
Instruction in hunting 542
Fishing 544
War 544
Costume of a warrior 553
Weapons 555
Dancing and amusements 556
Scalp dance 557
Brave's dance 558
Fox dance 561
Duck dance 562
Bulls' dance 562
Soldiers' dance 562
White crane dance 563
Crow dance 564
Dance of the mice comrades 564
Whip dance 564
God-seeking dance 564
Women's dance 564
Games 565
Racing 566
Gambling 567
Death and its consequences 570
Orphans and the aged 576
Lodges 577
Canoes 579
Mental and ethical advancement 579
Medicine; drugs 581
Food 581
Garments; dresses 584
Ornaments 590
Paints and dyes 591
Tattooing 592
Badges of office 592
Beard 593
Intellectual capacity and character 593
Picture writing 603
Myth telling 607
Fables 609
Songs; music 617
Present condition and future prospects 620
Intermarriage with whites 625
Population 625
Language 625
Bibliography 627
Index 629
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
Page
62. Fort Union as it ai)]3eared in 1833 394
63. Edwin Thompson Denig and Mrs. Denig 394
64. Drawings by an Assiniboin Indian 414
65. Culinary utensils 414
66. Characteristic implements of the Assiniboin 414
67. a, Comb root; b, Cat-tail 414
68. The calumet and its accompaniments 446
69. A buffalo park or "surround" 532
70. An Assiniboin running a buffalo 532
71. Scalp dance 558
72. Coo-soo', or game of the bowl 558
73. The Chun-kan-dee' game 578
74. A lodge frame and a completed lodge 578
75. The interior of a lodge and its surroundings 578
76. An Assiniboin stabbing a Blackfoot 578
77. Map of region above Fort Union 606
78. Diagram of a battle field 606
79. Diagram of a battle field 606
80. Musical instruments 606
TEXT FIGURES
30. Lancet 426
31. Diagram of a council lodge 437
32. Cradle board 519
33. Tool for fleshing the hide 540
34. Tool for scraping hides or shaving the skin 541
35. Picture writing 603
391
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
To His Excellency Isaac I. Stevens,
Governw of Washington Tet^tory.
Sir : Being stimulated with a desire to meet your wishes and for-
ward tlie views of Government, I have in the following pages en-
deavored to answer the Inquiries published by act of Congress re-
garding the history, present condition, and future prospects of the
Indian triljes with which I am acquainted.
Had I been called upon to illustrate the facts herein recorded by
reference to their different individual histories and actions, a
more voluminous and perhaps interesting work might have been
presented the general reader, but in conformity to the instructions
laid down in the document referred to, have only replied to the vari-
ous queries, limiting the answers to plain statements of facts.
Independent of my own personal observation and knowledge
acquired by a constant residence of 21 years among the prairie tribes
in every situation, I have on all occasions had the advice of intelli-
gent Indians as to the least important of these queries, so as to avoid,
if possible, the introduction of error. Should there be new ideas
presented, and the organization, customs, or present condition of the
Indians made public in the following manuscript differ either ma-
terially or immaterially from any other now extant I would beg
leave to say I would much rather have the same i-ejected than to see
it published in a mutilated form or made to coincide with any his-
tories of the same people from others who have not had like oppor-
tunities of acquiring information.
Some of their customs and opinions now presented, although very
plain and common to us who are in their daily observance, may not
have been rendered in comprehensible language to those who are
stranger to these things, and the number of queries, the diversity of
subjects, etc., have necessarily curtailed each answer to as few words
as possible. In the event, therefore, of not being understood or
of apparent discrepancies presenting, it would be but justice done the
author and patron to have the same explained, which would be cheer-
fully done.
It is presumed the following pages exhibit a minutiae of informa-
jtion on those subjects not to be obtained either by transient visitors
or a residence of a few years in the country, without being, as is the
S8253°— 30 26 393
394 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
case with myself, intimately acquainted with their camp regulations,
understanding their language, and in many instances entering into
their feelings and actions. The whole has been well digested, the
different subjects pursued in company with the Indians for an entire
year, until satisfactory answers have been obtained, and their motives
of speech or action well understood before placing the same as a
guide and instruction to others. The answers refer to the Sioux,
Arikara, Mandan, Gros Ventres, Cree, Crow, Assiniboin, and Black-
feet Nations, who are designated as prairie roving or wild tribes,
further than whom our knowledge does not extend.
I am aware of your capacity to judge the merits of the work, and
will consider myself highly honored if I have had the good fortune to
meet your apiDrobation. Moreover, I shall rejoice if I have contrib-
uted in any degree toward opening a course of policy on the part of
Government that may result in the amelioration of the sad condition
of the savages. Should the facts herein recorded ever be published
or embodied in other works, it is hoped the errors of language may be
corrected, but in no instance is it desired that the meaning should
miscarry.
Should any references be required by the department for whom
this is written I beg leave to name as my friends and personal ac-
quaintances in addition to your Excellency, Col. D. D. Mitchell, Ken-
neth Mackruger, Esq., Kev. P. I. De Smet, Messrs. P. Chouteau, Jr.,
& Co., and Alex. Culbertson, Esq., all of St. Louis, and Dr. John
Evans, United States geologist, any of whom will satisfy inquiries on
this head.
Permit me, my dear friend, to remain with great respect and high
consideration, truly your most obedient servant,
Edwin T. Denig.
^
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INDIAN TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI
By Edwin T. Denig
THE ASSINIBOIN ^
History
Origin. — But little traditionary can be stated by these Indians as
authentic of their origin which would be entitled to record in history,
though many singular and fabulous tales are told concerning it. As
a portion of people, however, once inhabiting another district and
being incorjjorated witii another nation, their history presents a con-
nected and credible chain of circumstances. The Assiniboin were
once a part of the great Sioux or Dacotah Nation, residing on the
tributary streams of the Mississippi ; say, the head of the Des Moines,
St. Peters, and other rivers. This is evident, as their language with
but little variation is the same, and also but a few years back there
lived a very old chief, known to all of us as Le Gros Francois, though
his Indian name was Wah-he' Muzza or the " Iron Arrow-point,"
who recollected perfectly the time of their separation from the Sioux,
which, according to his data, must have been about the year 1760.-
He stated that when Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri in 1805
his band of about 60 lodges (called Les Gens des Roches) had after a
severe war made peace with the Sioux, who at that time resided on
the Missouri, and that he saw the expedition referred to near White
Earth River, these being the first body of whites ever seen by them,
although they were accustomed to be dealt with by the fur traders
of the Mississippi. After their first separation from the Sioux they
moved northward, making a peace with the Cree and Chippewa,
took possession of an uninhabited country on or near the Saskatche-
wan and Assiniboin Rivers, in which district some 2.50 or 300 lodges
.'5till reside. ' Some time after the expedition of Lewis and Clark, or
at least after the year 1777, the rest of the Assiniboin, at that time
about 1,200 lodges, migrated toward the Missouri, and as soon as
they found superior advantages regarding game and trade, made
^ Consult Preface for etymolojjic analysis of this word and for Us objective moaning.
- This traditional date given by Denig is evidently much too late, for as early as the
middle of the seventeenth century they were known to the Jesuit missionaries of Canada.
395
396 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. ann. 46
the latter country their home. One principal incident in tlieir his-
tory which they have every reason to remember and by which many
of the foregoing data are ascertained is a visitation of the smallpox
in 1780 (see Mackenzie's travels), when they occupied the British
territory. Even yet there are two or three Indians living who are
marked by the disease of that period and which greatly thinned their
population, though owing to their being separated through an im-
mense district, some bands entirely escajsed. Upon the whole it does
not appear to have been as destructive as the same disease on the
Missouri in 1838, which I will have occasion to mention in its proper
place in these pages and which reduced them from 1,200 lodges to
about 400 lodges.
Name and Geographical Position.— The name of the Assiniboin
among themselves is Da-co-tah, same as the Sioux, which means " our
people." By the Sioux they are called Ho'-hai or "Fish-eaters,"
perhaps from the fact that they lived principally on fish while on
the British grounds, as most of those Indians do. By the Cree
and Chippewa they are called As-see-nee-poi-tuc or Stone Indians;
hence the English name of Assiniboin arises. As has been stated,
at the earliest date known they roved about the head of St. Peters,
Des Moines, Lac du Diable, and Lac qui Parle ; and they were then
joined with the Sioux Indians, who inhabited and claimed all > the
lands between the Mississippi and the Missouri as low down as Big
Sioux River and as high up as the head of Rivier a Jacques, thence
northward toward Lac du Diable, other bands of Sioux (Teton)
residing west of the Missouri. The number of Assiniboin when they
separated must have been at least 1,500 lodges, averaging six souls
to a lodge [or about 9,000 persons]. Their migration has been
referred to and the extent of land they occupied in the British terri-
tory on the Saskatchewan, etc., was very large, but at present their
habitat is entirely different, and it may be as well to state it here.
The northern Assiniboin, 250 or 300 lodges, rove the country from
the west banks of the Saskatchewan, Assiniboin, and Red Rivers
in a westward direction to the Woody Mountains north and west
among small spurs of the Rocky Mountains east of the Missouri, and
among chains of small lakes through this immense region. Occa-
sionally making peace with some of the northern bands of Blackfeet
enables them to come a little farther west and deal with tliose Indians,
but, these " peaces " being of short duration, they are for the most
part limited to the prairies east and north of the Blackfeet range.
The rest of the Assiniboin, say 500 to 520 lodges [who may be called
the Southern Assiniboin], occupy the following district, viz, com-
mencing at the mouth of the White Earth River on the east, extend-
ing up that river to its head, thence northwest along the Couteau
DENIQ] THE ASSINIBOIX 397
de Prairie, or Divide, as far as the Cyprus IMountains on the North
Fork of the Milk River, thence down Milk River to its junction with
the Missouri River, thence down the Missouri River to the mouth
of AVhite Earth River, or the starting point. Formerly they in-
habited a portion of country on the south side of the Missouri River
along the Yellowstone River, but of late years, having met with
great losses by Blackfeet, Sioux, and Crow war parties, they have
been obliged to abandon this region and now they never go there.
As before remarked, the Assiniboin still numbered 1,000 to 1,200
lodges, trading on the Missouri until the year 1838, when the small-
pox reduced their numbers to less than 400 lodges. Also, being
surrounded by large and hostile tribes, war has had its share in
their destruction, though now they are increasing slowly.
Ancient and Modern Habitat.— Before proceeding further it
would be well to state and bear in mind that of all the Indians now
residing on the Missouri River the Assiniboin appear to have made
the least progress toward acquiring civilized ideas or Icnowledge of
any kind. Superstitious, lazy, and indisposed to thought, they make
no attempt to improve themselves in any waj'. ' Neither are they
anxious that othei's should teach them; consequently they are far
behind the other tribes even as regards their own savage manner of
life. This will receive further explanation. They do not think the
Great Spirit created them on or for a particular portion of country,
but that he made the whole prairie for the sole use of the Indian,
and the Indian to suit the prairie, giving among other reasons the
fact that the buffalo is so well adapted to their wants as to meat
and clothing, even for their lodges and bowstrings. To the Indian is
allotted legs to run, eyes to see far, bravery, instinct, watchfulness,
and other capacities not developed in the same degree in the whites.
The Indian, therefore, occupies any section of prairie where game is
plentiful and he can protect himself from enemies. With regard to
any other kind of right than that of possession and ability to de-
fend, . besides the general right granted by the Great Spirit, they
have not the most distant idea. The Assiniboin conquered nothing
to come into possession of their habitat, they had their difficulties
with surrounding tribes and still have, as others have, and continue
as they commenced, fighting and hunting alternately. Their first
interview with Europeans (now spoken of) was when the traders
of the Mississippi pushed their traffic as far as their camps, and
from whom they obtained firearms, woolen clothing, utensils, etc.
Afterwards these supplies were had from the Hudson Bay Co. and,
latterly, from the Americans on the Missouri River. There is every
reason to believe that the introduction of ardent spirits among therri
was coeval, if not antecedent, to that of any other article of trade.
398 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. anx. 4C
Before the trade was opened with them by the whites they say they
used knives made of the hump rib of the buffalo, hatchets made of
flint stone, mallets of the same, cooking utensils of clay and wood,
bones for awls, and sinew for thread, all of which articles can yet be
found among them. They made with these rude tools their bows and
arrows, pointing the latter with stone, and, as game was abundant,
hunted them on foot or threw them into pens built for the purpose,
which method they continue to use to this day. In this way they
had no difficulty in supporting themselves, and so contend that they
have gained notiiing by intimacy with the whites but diseases which
kill them off in numbers and wants which they are unable at all
times to gratify. They have never sold lands by treaty, and the only
treaty (with the exception of that at Laramie, 1851) was made by
them through an Indian agent of the United States named Wilson,
at the Mandan village in 1825. But this was merely an amicable
alliance for the protection of American traders and an inducement
held out to the Indians to leave off trading at the Hudson Bay Co.'s
posts and establish themselves on the Missouri, without, however,
any remuneration on the part of the United States.
Vestiges of Early Tradition. — They have no creditable tradition
of the Mosaic account of the creation or deluge, neither of their
ancestors having lived in other lands nor knowledge of foreign
quadrupeds nor any idea of whites or other races occupying the
country before the Indians. It is easy to perceive in converse with
them that whites have from time to time endeavored to explain the
Mosaic account of the creation and deluge, together with other
scriptural records, but instead of comprehending the same they have
mixed with their own superstitions and childish notions in so many
various and nonsensical forms that none is worthy of record.
They have no name for America, neither do they know of its
extent, for the most part believing that the lands occupied by them-
selves and the surrounding tribes compose the greatest part of the
world, and certainly contain the greatest reputed number of people.
It vexes and grieves them to be told of large tracts of land elsewhere,
and they do not or will not believe the whites to be as human as
they are.
There is nothing in this subject any Assiniboin could either com-
prehend or answer, except that there is a mound about 50 miles
above the mouth of the Yellowstone on the west side and near the
Missouri consisting of an immense pile of elk horns, covering an
area of about an acre of ground, and in height about 30 feet. We
have frequently inquired of these and the surrounding nations as
to its origin, but it was raised previous to the knowledge or even
tradition of any tribe now living in these parts. From the state of
decay the horns are in it must be very ancient.
DENIG] THE ASSINIBOIN 399
Names axd Events in History. — There is no great event in the
history of the Assiniboin that gives them cause to rejoice. True,
they have occasionally gained a battle, but at other times have lost
greatly by wars. Upon the whole they have had the worst of it ; at
least they, being a smaller nation than the Blackfeet and Sioux (their
enemies) have felt the loss more severely. The principal calamity
that first overtook them, and by which they suffered greatly, was the
smallpox in 1780. (See Mackenzie's travels and other authors.)
On this occasion they lost about 300 lodges of their people, and it is
to this day mentioned by them as their greatest first misfortune. In
the spring of 1838 this disease was again communicated to them, be-
ing brought up the Missouri by a steamboat, and although every
precaution had been used, the boat cleansed, and no appearance of
disease for a long time aboard, yet it in some way broke out among
the Indians, beginning with the Sioux tribes and ending with the
Blackfeet. Being an eyewitness to this, we can with certainty give
an account of its ravages. When the disease first appeared in Fort
Union we did everything in our power to prevent the Indians from
coming to it. trading with them a considerable distance out in the
prairie and representing to them the danger of going near the infec-
tion. All efforts of the kind, however, proved unavailing, for they
would not listen, and 250 lodges contracted the disease at one time,
who in the course of the summer and fall were reduced to 65 men,
young and old, or about 30 lodges in all. Other bands coming from
time to time caught the infection and remained at the fort, where
the dead were daily thrown into the river by cartloads. The disease
was very virulent, most of the Indians dying through delirium and
hemorrhage from the mouth and ears before any spots appeared.
Some killed themselves.
On one occasion an Indian near the fort after losing his favorite
child deliberately killed his wife, his two remaining children, his
horses and dogs, and then blew his own brains out. In all this the
Indians behaved extremely well toward the whites, although aware
they brought the disease among them, yet nothing in the way of
revenge took place, either at the time or afterwards. Being obliged
to be all the time with them, helping as much as possible to save a
few, they had plenty of opportunities should they have wished to
do damage. Every kind of treatment appeared to be of no avail,
and they continued dying until near the ensuing spring, when the
disease, having spent itself, ceased. The result was that out of
1,000 lodges and upward of the Assiniboin then in existence but
400 lodges or less remained, and even these but thinly peopled.
Relationship by blood or adoption was nearly annihilated, all prop-
erty lost or sacrificed, and a few very young and very old left to
400 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. ann. 46
mourn the loss. Most of the principal men having died, it took years
to recover from the shock. Young men had to grow up, new leaders
to be developed, remnants of bands to be gathered together, property
to be had — in fact, under all these adverse circumstances, so slow
has been the increase that during the interim of 17 years but 100
lodges have accumulated. In times like this no leader can be ef-
fective. All counsel was rejected; their chiefs and divining men
shared the fate of the others. With the Mandan the disease was even
more destructive. Before it they numbered 600 warriors and in-
habited two large villages where the Arikara are now stationed,
and when the disease ceased about 30 men remained, from wliich
remnant have since sprung about 25 lodges. All this time an Assini-
boin chief named The Gauche, or by the Indians " He wlio holds
the knife," was the princijjal man in the band which bore his name,
consisting of 250 lodges.
These died in greater proportion than the others and after the
disease had disappeared the old chief found himself at the head of
about 60 fighting men. The Gauche was a very old man ancf had
had the smallpox in the north; he was also famed in their annals
as a leader and divining man. He had been very successful in his
expeditions against the Blackfeet, and by the use of poisons admin-
istered occasionally to his people, while predicting their death, he
had inspired in all the fear of a sorcerer. His life contains a history
which our limits do not admit of describing, although well known,
singular, interesting, and authentic. On this occasion he under-
stood that the Mandan were rendered totally helpless by the effects
of the smallpox, and conceived the idea of taking their village and in
a measure retrieving his losses by the horses and other property of
these Indians. Gathering together the remnant of his band, about 50
men, he proceeded thither. The writer saw him pass with the pipe
of peace to lull suspicion, in order to enter their village in a friendly
way, and then at a given signal each one with knife in hand to rush
upon and destroy the unsuspecting friends. The whole was well
planned, managed, and kept secret, and it would have succeeded but
for an occurrence of which tlie Assiniboin was not then aware. The
Arikara, a tolerably numerous people, having left the Missouri, had
been for years residing on the Platte River, and having previously
had the smallpox did not contract the disease to any extent. About
the same time The Gauche was on his way to the Mandan, they re-
turned suddenly from the Platte and took possession of their village
a short distance from the Mandan. Now the Arikara numbered
about 500 men, all deadly enemies to the Assiniboin, so that when the
latter presented their pipe of peace the ceremonies were interrupted
by an attack of the Arikara. The Assiniboin were routed, and
about 20 of them killed.
DENiG] THE ASSINIBOIN 401
The old chief, as usual, escaped, though his day of power was over.
Shortly afterwards he predicted the day and hour of his own death
at the fort- — days beforehand, without any appearance of disease
or approaching dissolution, and the writer with other gentlemen at
the fort saw the same fulfilled to the letter. The conclusion was that
he took poison, which he was long supposed to have received from
the whites in the north and kept a dose for the fullness of time.
This man had more renown than any other leader spoken of, al-
though several have done gallant actions. His success may be attrib-
uted to great cunning and the large force he always headed, together
with the power his fetishes gave him over his fellows, who blindly
followed his instructions and fought desperately under his prophecies,
though his life shows the anomaly of a great leader being entirely
destitute of every particle of personal intrepidity. Many other
events have happened which form data in their history; indeed it is
composed of reference to certain remarkable occurrences, such as the
year of the smallpox, year of the deep snow, year of massacre of 30
lodges of Blackfeet, year of great rise of waters, and other natural
phenomena.
Present Rulers and Condition. — Their present ruling chief is
Man-to-was-ko, or the Crazy Bear, made chief by Colonel Mitchell,
Commissioner of the United States, at the Laramie treaty in 1851.
The choice could not have been better. The Crazy Bear has always
been a respectable and brave man, greatly elevated above all the rest
in intelligence but not ranking with some in military exploits, having
never been a great warrior, though on some small occasions he has
shown an utter contempt of death before his enemies. He is a mild,
politic man, looking after his peoples interest, and viewing with a
jealous eye anything inconsistent with them. Even when a very
young man his opinions were always honored with a hearing in
council, and he now bears his honors with great credit to himself
and service to his people, endeavoring to carry out to the letter the
stipulations of the treaty to which he is a party.
Among the princii^al soldiers and war captains may be mentioned
To-ka'-ke-a-na, or the " First Who Flies." This man is a son of the
old chief, Wah-he Muzza, or " Iron Arrowpoint," mentioned before.
The whole of that old man's numerous family have been, and those
living still are, desperate men, proud and overbearing with their
people, though good to the whites. From the eldest, named " The
Sight," who visited Washington City by General Jackson's orders, to
the one now mentioned, five in number have been killed by their own
people in personal cjuarrels.
The one now s^Doken of has frequently led parties to battle and
showed such a recklessness of danger that his name stands high as a
402 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. ann. 46
warrior; has also killed two of his own people who wei'e concerned
in the murder of his brothers; was at the Laramie treaty and since
behaves himself with great moderation; is one of the Crazy Bear's
principal soldiers and supports; and should the Bear die would
undoubtedly take his place as chief of the tribe.
Wa-ke-un-to, or the Blue Thunder, is another warrior and
partisan in a band of 200 lodges, is not over 25 years of age, but has
raised himself to distinction by going to war alone on the Sioux and
bringing home scalps and horses; he has also headed several war
excursions with great success and is generally liked by his own
people.
Wo'-a-see'-chah, or Bad Animal, known to traders by the name of
Le Serpent, is a war leader and chief of Les Gens des Canots Band,
the same 200 lodges of which Blue Thunder is one of the warriors
and camp soldiers. I believe he has never killed many enemies but
has murdered in quarrels two of his own people, is considered a sensi-
ble man, very friendly to the whites, judicious in his government of
his band, and also is a person whom it is not desirable to aggravate
too much. Me-nah (The Knife), A-wah-min-ne-o-min-ne (The
Whirlwind), Ish-ta-o-ghe-nah (Gray Eyes), He-boom-an-doo (La
Poudriere), and others are soldiers and warriors whose histories are
known to us and would present the usual features of savage life
and warfare.
The Assiniboin speak but one dialect, being radically the same as
the Sioux; no other is incorporated in it, though some few can in
addition speak Cree and others of the northern bands of Blackfeet,
but no more than one interpreter is required in transacting any busi-
ness with each or all of them. A person who can speak the Sioux
language well could interpret for the Assiniboin, or vice versa.
There are manj' elderly persons capable of stating their traditions
and willing to impart any information they are in possession of
regarding their history ; but what is heard from them in this respect
is so mingled with fable and superstition as seldom to admit of its
serving as a basis for truth or knowledge or for a correct repre-
sentation of their past condition. They do not exhibit any chain of
connected facts; and though these oral tales have been preserved
entire, transmitted in their original form through successive gen-
erations, and may possibly have been the belief of their ancestors, yet
at the present day are regarded more as a source of amusement than
a medium of instruction or means of perpetuating their history. Too
much error has been the result of depending for knowledge on these
traditions by people who only understand them in their literal sense
or have been badly interpreted. All facts among the nations with
whom we profess an intimate acquaintance and minute knowledge
DEXIG] THE ASSINIBOIX 403
farther than a century back are involved in obscurity, mingled with
fable, or embodied in their superstitions.
The time when the tribe reached its present location was from 1804
to 1825, when the most of them might be considered as established
on the waters of the Missouri, the boundaries of which have been
pointed out, though in 1839. 60 lodges of Assiniboin came over from
the British northern possessions and joined those of the Missouri,
since which time thej' have resided together.
IxTERTKiBAL Raxk axd RELATIONS. — As to the qucstioH, what rank
and relationship does the tribe bear to other tribes, we are not aware
of any political scale of superiority or inferiority existing among any
of the tribes along the Missouri ; neitlier do their traditions point out
or assign any such particular position to each other. Being well
acquainted with the manners and customs of tlie Sioux, the Arikara,
the Mandan, the Gros Ventres, the Crow, the Assiniboin, the Cree, and
the Blackfeet tribes we can safely say that no such distinction exists
that would receive the sanction of all parties. There is, however,
this: Each nation has vanity enough to think itself superior to its
neighbors, but all think the same, and the more ignorant they are the
more obstinately they adliere to their own opinions. All tribes are
pretty much independent of one another in their thoughts and
actions, and, indeed witli the exception of tlie Gros Ventres, the
Mandan and the Arikara, who are stationary and live in a manner
together, neighboring tribes usually are completely in the dark re-
garding one another's government, not even knowing the names of
the principal cliiefs and warriors unless told them or recognizing
them when pointed out. In all the above-mentioned tribes there is
no such thing as pretensions to original rank. Rank is the growth of
the present, as often acquired as lost. The greatest chief any of these
tribes ever produced would become a mere toy, a butt, a ridicule, in a
few days after he lost his eyes or sense of sight.
Neither has affinity of blood in this sense anything to do with rank
as to succession. If the son for want of bravei-y or other qualifica-
tions can not equal or follow the steps of his father chief, he is noth-
ing more tiian an ordinary Indian. There are consequently no dis-
cordant pretensions to oi-iginal ranlc, though it may be a matter of
dispute which of two or three cliiefs ranks at present the highest,
and in this case it would be immediately decided in council by the
principal men. In fact the rank or standing of each Indian, be he
chief or warrior, is so well known, and his character so well judged
by the vox populi that he talces his place spontaneously. A higher
step than his acts and past conduct confer, imprudently taken, would
have the effect of injuring him in their eyes as a leader. Every chief,
warrior, or brave carves his own way to fame, and if recognized as
404 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOUKI [ETH. ANX. 46
one by the general voice becomes popular and is supported ; if not, he
mixes with hundreds of others who are in the same situation, waiting
an opportunity to rise. There is no relative rank among tribes bear-
ing the name of uncle, grandfather, etc. The names of the different
bands among themselves or the surrounding tribes have no such sig-
nification. There are, of course, affinities of blood and relationship
among the Indians as well as among whites. People have their
fathers, uncles, grandfathers, brothers-in-law, etc., but this personal
or family relationship has nothing to do with the clanship, nor has
it any bearing on other tribes. As to the relations above alluded to
we will have occasion to refer to them under the head of tribal
organization and government. Among eastern or southern tribes
such distinctions may exist, but we can vouch they have no name nor
interest in all the tribes mentioned in the beginning of this answer.
To pi'event misunderstanding, it should be observed that when we
speak of a tribe we mean the whole group who speak that language.
Different tribes are different gi'oups. Portions of these groups or
tribes are called gentes, and portions or societies of these gentes are
designated as subgentes, and the next or most minute subdivision of
gentes would be into families.
" Peaces " are made between wild tribes by the ceremony of smok-
ing and exchanging presents of horses and other property ; sometimes
women. The advantages and disadvantages are well calculated on
both sides before overtures for peace are made. It is a question of
loss and gain and often takes years to accomplish. The Crows, a rich
nation, five years ago, through the writer as the medium made peace
with the Assiniboin after half a century of bloody warfare. "Why?
The Crows being a rich nation and the Assiniboin poor, how could
the former gain? The points the Crows gained were these: First,
liberty to hunt in the Assiniboin country unmolested and secure from
the Blackfeet; second, two enemies less to contend with and from
whom they need not guard their numerous herds of horses; third,
the privilege of passing through the Assiniboin country to the Gros
Ventres village in quest of corn. Now for the other party. The Crows
having large herds of horses and the Assiniboin but few, the former
give them a good many every year to preserve the jseace. The Crows
winter with the Assiniboin, run buffalo with their own horses, and
give the latter plenty of meat and skins without the trouble of killing
it. The Crows are superior warriors and the others have enough to
contend with the Blackfeet. Again, one enemy less, and jointly the
numerical force is so augmented as to make them formidable to all
surrounding tribes, while separately they would prey upon each
other. It is in this case evident the peace must last, there being suffi-
cient inducements on both sides to keep it, although upon the whole
DBNio] THE ASSINIBOIN 405
any of their "peaces" are liable to sudden and violent intei'ruptions
and are not to be depended upon.
Magnitude and Eesources of Territory a Cause of the Muitipu-
CATiON OF Tribes. — There can be no doubt that magnitude and re-
sources of territory are the principal causes of an increase of popula-
tion. All roving tribes live by hunting, and scarcity of animals
produces distress, famine, disease, and danger by forcing them to
hunt in countries occupied by their enemies, when game is not found
in their own. Such a state of things happened in this district in
1841, when during a total disappearance of buffalo and other game
some of the Assiniboin and Cree were under the necessitj' of eating
their own children, of leaving others to perish, and many men and
women died from fatigue and exhaustion. Although the above posi-
tion is evident, yet we do not see how it could multipW tribes, much
less dialects. A large territory with much game might induce i^or-
tions of other tribes not having these advantages to migrate, make
peace with the residing nation, and perhaps increase in a greater
ratio than they otherwise would have done, but the language would
remain the same, neither would it produce a separate tribe, but only
a portion of the tribe who migrated.
The Gros Ventres of the Prairie were once Arapaho and lived on
the Arkansas. They have for a century past resided with the Black-
feet, yet have preserved their own language. True, by these means
they learn to speak each other's language, but thejr do not commingle
and make a separate dialect of the two. The Assiniboin from the
Sioux, the Cree from the Chippewa, the Crows from the Gros Ventres
are three other cases of separation, and in each the language is so
well ijreserved that they understand without any difficulty the people
whence they emanated. The causes of these sepai'ations, whether
feuds, family discords, or in quest of better hunting grounds, does
not now appear. Most probably it was dissatisfaction of some sort.
From all appearances we may reasonably expect to see ere long a
portion of the Sioux occupying the large disputed territory south
of the Missouri and along the Yellowstone, as game is becoming
scarce in their cUstrict since white emigration through it and Indians
are thronging there from St. Peters and elsewhere.
The Sioux regard the Mississippi as once their home, and it is very
certain that nation came from thence, also the Cree and Assiniboin,
and perhai^s others. It does not appear that the track of migration
pursued any direct course. From certain facts, similitude of lan-
guage and customs, it would seem some nations traveled from south
to north or north\Aest, such as the Gros Ventres of the Piairie who
were once Arapaho. The Arikara speak the same as the Pawnee
and must have migrated westward. The Blackf eet moved from north
406 TKIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. ann. 46
to southwest, and the Crows, Cree, and Assiniboin west and north. It
is reasonable to l^elieve they spread out over these immense plains
from all points and at different times as circumstances favored or
forced them. The habits of the prairie Indian differ essentially
from the Indian of the forest, and those of stationary and cultivating
habits from both. It is impossible for us now to state with any
degree of certainty the time of their first location on these plains,
or to point out any one general course of emigration pursued by
them.
Geography
Figure or the Globe. — It can not be expected that these Indians
who are in a complete savage and unenlightened state should have
any knowledge of the configuration of the globe or of its natural
divisions. They know what a small lake or small island is and have
names for the same as they are to be met with through their country.
They think the earth to be a great plain bounded by the Rocky
Mountains on one side and the sea on the other, but have no idea
of its extent nor of any other lands except those they are acquainted
with. Although told frequently, they can not realize extent of lands
in any great measure, and without troubling themselves to think or
inquire are content with believing there are few lands better or
larger than their own. It is not in their nature to acknowledge in-
feriority, which would follow were they convinced of the extent of
the territory and power of the whites. Of the sea they have a vague
idea from information offered them by the traders, and would not
believe there is such a body of water had not the same received a
sort of sanction through the Cree and Chippewa, some of whom,
having seen Lake Superior, represent it as the ocean.
Local Features of the Habitat. — The chief rivers running
through the Assiniboin country are, first, the Missouri, whicii is so
well known as to need no descrij^tion here. The next is Milk River,
on the northwest boundary, a very long and narrow stream ; heads in
some of the spurs of the Rocky Mountains east of the Missouri and
lakes on the plains, runs a southwest course, and empties into the
Missouri about 100 miles above the Yellowstone. Its bed is about
200 yards wide at the mouth, though the waters seldom occupy more
than one-third of that s^jace, except during the spring thaw, when,
for a week or two, it fills the whole bed ; is f ordable on horseback all
the year except at the time above alluded to and when swollen by
continuous rains.
Riviere aux Tremble, or Quaking Aspen River, empties into the
Missouri about 50 miles below Milk River, is about half the length
and breadth of the others, and heads in the range of hills constituting
the divide, called " Les Montaignes des Bois." It is f ordable at all
DENia]
THE ASSINIBOIN 407
times except during spring freshets and wlien swollen by rain.
Neither of these streams is navigable by any craft larger than a
wooden canoe except at the high stages of water above referred to,
and then navigation would be difficult and dangerous owing to float-
ing ice and driftwood. There are no rapids or falls in either of
them.
Several creeks fall into the Missouri below the point on the east
side called Big Muddy, Little Muddy, Knife River, etc., all of which
contain but little water and are of no consequence.
Wliite Earth River, the last, is about 100 miles in length and at
the mouth a little more than 100 yards wide, contains but little
water, always fordable, and not navigable by anything, empties into
the Missouri near the commencement of the Great Bend. None of
these rivers being navigable except the Missouri, goods are only
landed at the following points along that river, viz : Fort Pierre
(Sioux), mouth of the Teton River; Fort Clarke (Ankara) at their
village; Fort Berthold (Gros Ventres village) ; Fort Union (Assini-
boin), mouth of Yellowstone. Steamboats have gone up the Mis-
souri as high as the mouth of Milk River, but heretofore goods for
Fort Benton (Blackfeet), near the mouth of Maria River, have been
transported by keel boats from Fort Union.
We know of no large navigable lakes in this district, though along
the northern boundary there are many small ones, or rather large
ponds of water, without any river running through them or visible
outlet, being fed by snows, rain, and .springs, and diminished by
evaporation and saturation. Lakes of this kind are to be met with
in many places on the plains and differ in size from 100 yards to 2
or 3 miles or even more in circumference, are not wooded, and con-
tain tolerably good water. Small springs are also common, most of
them having a mineral taste, though none are large enough to afford
water power.
SuEFACE OF THE CouNTRT. — The wliolc couutry occupied by the
Assiniboin is one great plain, hills and timber only occurring where
rivers run, in the valleys of which good land for cultivation is found,
but the general feature appears to be sterile as regards arable land,
producing, however, grasses of different kinds, some of which are
very nutritious, and particularly adapted to raising horses, cattle,
and sheep. The prairies may be said to be interminable and destitute
of the least particle of timber except along the banks of the few
streams before mentioned, and even these but thinly wooded. Water,
however, can always be found in the small lakes and rivers spoken
of. The Assiniboin do not cultivate the soil in any way, though the
Gros Ventres and Arikara raise corn and pumpkins to some extent on
the Missouri bottoms. By experiments made at or near Fort Union,
408 TEIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [BTH. ANN. 46
we find that oats, potatoes, corn, and all garden vegetables grow
well if the season be favorable. The soil, being light and sandy,
requires frequent rains to produce good crops, which happens about
one year in three; the others fail from drought and destruction by
grasshoppers, bugs, and other insects. The natural productions of
the country are few and such as no one but an Indian could relish.
A wild turnip called by them teep-see-na, and by the French pomme
blanche, when boiled is eatable, is found in quantity everywhere on
the plains, will sustain life alone for a great length of time either
cooked or in its raw state, can be dried and preserved for years, or
pidverized and made into passable bread.
Wild rhubarb is found and eaten either raw or cooked. It has
ratlier a pleasant sweetish taste. Artichokes grow in quantites near
marshes. Chokecherries, bullberries, service berries, buds of the
wild rose, red jDlums, and sour grapes are the principal fruits and
are greatly sought after by the Indians, preserved, dried, cooked, and
eaten in various ways, and considered by tliem great luxuries. Wild
hops are in abundance which possess all the properties of the culti-
vated hojD. These are all of any note the country produces.
Facilities for Grazixg. — These Indians raise no stock of any
kind, though judging from that raised at Fort Union it is one of the
best grazing countries in the world. The supply of grasses of spon-
taneous growth is inexhaustible and very nutritious. The only diffi-
culty is the severe cold winter and depth of snow, though if animals
were provided for and housed during the severe cold we know that
a hardier and better stock can be raised than in the States. As yet,
liowever, no market being open for surplus stock and but few raised
for the use of the fort, our attention has not been much directed to
that business, but have no hesitation in advancing the opinion that
horses, horned cattle, and sheep would thrive and increase well with
proper care. We are not able to say whether water could at all
times be had by digging on the high prairie and in the absence of
sjirings or creeks, never having tried the experiment, though the
country abounds in small lakes, cool springs, and creeks where good
localities for grazing jDurposes could always be chosen. In the
winter animals appear to want very little water and generally eat
snow in its place.
Effects of Firing the Prairies. — ^We presume thei-e must be
some mistake that any of the tribes residing on tlie plains set them
on fire to facilitate the purposes of hunting. It has the contrary
effect, driving the game out of their own country into that of their
neighbors. Buffalo may pass through a burnt country covered with
snow, but can not remain, and travel until they meet with suitable
grazing. Consequently tlie greatest precautions are used by both
Indians and whites to prevent their taking fire in the fall, when the
OENIO] THE ASSINIBOIN 409
grass is dry (the only time it will burn), and the most severe pen-
alties short of death are imposed on any person, either white or red,
who even by accident sets the prairie on fire. A good thrashing with
bows and sometimes tomahawking is in store for the poor traveler
who has been so forgetful as not to put out his camp fires and they
extend to the i^lains. These fires are made mostly by returning war
parties, either with the view of driving the buffalo out of their
enemy's country or as signals to their own people of success in their
exiDedition, though sometimes they originate in accident or petty
malice of individuals. With regard to its injuring the soil it has no
such effects ; on the contrary, the next crop of grass is more beautiful
than the other, as the undergrowth and briars are by that means
destroyed. The same, unfortunately, is not the case with the timber.
There are no forests on the plains to burn, though where the fire
passes through the bottoms of the Missouri it consumes and kills
great quantities of timber, which dries and decays and is only re-
placed in time by younger saplings. Fruit bushes are also destroyed,
though they recover its effects in three or four years.
Waste Lands. — In this section there are no deserts or barren land
of any extent ; though there are some marshes, pools, and swamps
which, however, are not so close together or extensive as to form
any formidable obstruction to roads. Even if they could not be
drained or otherwise disposed of, they could be left on either side
of the way. Neither do these appear to affect the health of any of
the Indians more than being the cause of producing hosts of mos-
quitoes, which are very annoying to man and beast.
Effects of Volcanic Action. — We are not aware of any remark-
able appearances of this kind,^ neither are there to be found exten-
sive sand plains or other tracts entirely destitute of herbage. The
cactus is found everywhere, but not in such quantity as to destroy
herbage or be a hindrance to animals traveling. A mile or two
may occasionally be found where herbage is comparatively scarce.
Still, even in these places there is sufficient for animals for a short
lime.
Saline Productions. — ^We do not feel ourselves competent to state
the properties of the mineral springs so common throughout all
this country. Some of them no doubt contain Glauber salt, as they
operate as a violent cathartic; others have the taste qf copper, sul-
phur, etc. What the country would produce in the way of gypsum,
saltpeter, etc., we can not say, never having witnessed any geological
or mineral researches and being personally completely uninformed
regarding this branch of science.
' There are portions of pumice stone and other things occasionally picked up that hava
undergone volcanic action ; also burning tiills, but no eruptions.
88253°-
410 TKIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [bth. ann. 46
Coal and Mineral Products. — Dr. J. Evans, who lately traveled
through this counti-y, can enlighten yon on this subject. As for us,
we must plead unadulterated ignorance.
Climate
The climate is pure and dry and perhaps the healthiest in the
world. In the months of May and June, when east winds prevail,
much rain falls, but during the rest of summer and fall the season
is generally dry and moderately warm, except a short time in July
and August, when intensely hot. There are occasionally severe thun-
derstorms accompanied by rain or hail ; not more, however, than three
or four in a summer, and these in a few hours swell the smallest
streams so as to overflow their banks, but with the ceasing of the rain
they fall as suddenly as they rise, and do no damage, as there are
neither crops nor fences to injure. Tornadoes we have never seen
here, although they do happen on the Missouri far below this place.
Severe gales are occasionally met with, lasting but a few minutes.
With regard to temjierature and other natural phenomena I refer
you to the accompanying tables.
Wild Animals
The most numerous and useful animal in this country is unques-
tionably the buffalo, both as regards the sustenance of all the Indians
and gain of the traders. Any important decrease of this animal
would have the effect of leaving the Indians without traders, no re-
turns of smaller skins being sufficient to pay the enormous expense
of bringing supplies so far and employing such a number of people.
Buffalo are very numerous, and we do not, after 20 years' experience,
find that they decrease in this quarter, although upward of 150,000
are killed annually throughout the extent of our trade, without taking
into consideration those swamped, drowned, calves frozen to death,
destroyed by wolves, or in embryo, etc. It j'et would appear that
their increase is still greater than their destruction, as during last
winter (1852-53) there were more found in this quarter, and indeed
in the whole extent of our trade, than liad been seen for many years
before.
The buffalo is the Indian's whole dependence. It serves him for
all his purposes — meat, clothing and lodging, powder homs, bow-
strings, thread and hair to make saddles. In the winter season the
hides are dressed, made into robes and traded to whites, by which
means they are able to buy all their necessaries and even some lux-
uries. Robes are worth about $3 each, and although the number
sent to market is great, yet the high price paid for them to Indians
and the danger of transportation is such that fortunes are more
denig]
THE ASSINIBOIN 411
easily and often lost than made at the business. Beaver were for-
merly numerous and valuable, therefore much hunted by whites and
Indians, but of late years the price of that fur being greatly reduced,
and the danger of hunting considerable, does not induce either whites
or Indians to hunt them. This animal has been trapped and killed
to such an extent as to threaten their entire extinction, though for
the last 10 or 12 years, since beaver trapping by large bodies of men
has been abandoned, they have greatly increased, and are now to be
found tolerably plentiful in all the small streams and in the Missouri
and Yellowstone. These Indians do not and never did trap them
much; though the Crow and the Cree still make good beaver hunts,
they do not rely much on this either as a source of profit or food.
Elk, deer, bighorn, and antelope are numerous and afford a means
of living and profit to the Indians although they are not hunted to
any extent except in a great scarcity of buffalo. From this circum-
stance they do not diminish and are found now in much the same
numbers as 20 years back.
Wolves are very plentiful and of three kinds, the large white wolf,
the large grayback wolf, and the small prairie wolf, all a good deal
hunted and many killed, though they continue to increase. They fol-
low the buffalo in large bands, waiting an opportunity to pounce upon
one that has been wounded or mired. They also destroy a great many
small calves in the month of May when they are brought forth. The
skins of the larger kind are worth 70 cents to $1 each; the smaller
about 50 cents each.
Red and gray foxes, hares, badgers, skunks, wild cats, otters, er-
mines, and muskrats are found and killed when opportunity offers.
Of all these the red fox appears to be the only one that has diminished
in numbers. We are not aware that any animals have disappeared
altogether, nor of any perceptible decrease of any except the beaver
and red fox. The Indians kill onh^ as many buffalo as are wanted
for meat and hides. Taking onlj- as manj^ hides as their women can
dress, they do not destroy them wantonly to any extent ; consequently
the destruction is limited, and that not being equivalent to the in-
crease, but little diminution, if any, is perceptible, and the trade as
long as this is the case can not have the effect of exterminating them.
It is different as regards the beaver and fox. Their skins require no
labor except drying, and being slower to increase must of course be
the first to disappear if hunted. Grizzly bears are tolerably numer-
ous on the Missouri and Yellowstone and are not hunted often, al-
though killed occasionally. The animal being ferocious is not much
sought after by the Indians.
Ancient Bones and TRAornoNS of the Monster Era. — The In-
dians know from bones found that such animals existed and were of
412 TEIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. ANN. 40
immense size, but their traditions never make mention of the living
animal. To these bones, etc., they assign the general name of Wan-
wan-kah, which is a creature of their own imagination, half spirit,
half animal. Any whirlwind or great tempest would be attributed
to the movements of the Wan-wan-kah, also any other natural phe-
nomenon. Many stories are told of its actions, but all are fabulous,
although they profess to believe in the existence of its powers, some
even stating they have seen it crossing the Missouri in the form of a
large fish covering half the breadth of that river."
Animals Used as Armorial Marks. — These armorial marks or
symbols, such as the eagle, owl, bear, serpent, etc., do not represent
any tribal organization but kinship occasionally. Neither do they
refer to any traditions of any early date, but are insignia adopted
by themselves as their medicine or charm. Most Indians have a
charm of this kind, either in consequence of some dream or of an idea
that the figure has some effect in carrying out his views regarding
war, the chase, or the health of his family. These are assumed for
his own purposes, whether real or imaginary, to operate on his
own actions or to influence those of other Indians. To these tangi-
ble objects, after Wakofida, who is a spirit, they address their
prayers and invocations. Neither do these symbols affect them re-
garding the killing of the same animals on all occasions, though after
he has killed it he will smoke and propitiate [the spirit of] the
dead carcass, and even offer the head small sacrifices of tobacco
and provisions.
The Horse
Era of the Importation of the Horse. — ^When the horse was first
introduced among them does not appear by any of the traditions of
these ignorant people. The name of the horse in Assiniboin is
shunga (dog) tunga (large), i. e., large dog. Among the Sioux it
is named shunka (dog) wakan (divining), i. e., divining dog, which
would only prove that the dog was anterior to the horse, inas-
much as they were obliged to make a name for the strange animal
resembling some known object with which it could be afterwards
compared.
PiCTOGRAPHS
Charts on Bark. — Their drawings of maps and sections of coun-
try are in execution miserable to us but explanatory among them-
selves. Most Indians can carve on a tree, or paint, who they are,
where going, whence come, how many men, horses, and guns the
party is composed of, whether they have killed enemies, or lost
friends, and, if so, how many, etc., and all Indians passing by, either
* See page 017 at the end of their oral tales.
DENiG] THE ASSINIBOIN 413
friends or foes, will have no difficulty in reading the same, though
such representations would be quite unintelligible to whites unless
instructed. (PI. 64.) Some Indians have good ideas of propor-
tion and can immediately arrive at the meaning of a picture, point-
ing out the objects in the background, though others can not distin-
guish the figure of a man from that of a horse, and as to their exe-
cutions of any drawing they are rude in the extreme. Where the
natural talent exists, however, there is no doubt they could be
instructed.
Antiquities
From the Sioux to the Blackfeet. inclusive, there is not in all
that country any mounds, teocalli, or appearances of former works
of defense bearing the character of forts or any other antique struc-
ture. Not a vestige or felic of anything that would form data, or be
an inducement to believe their grounds have ever been occupied by
any other than roving tribes of wild Indians; nor in the shape of
tools, ornaments, or missiles that would lead to any such inference.
We have not been moi-e fortunate in searching their traditions in the
hope of finding some clue relative to these things. They do not be-
lieve that any persons ever occupied their country except their own
people (Indians), and we can not say we have ever seen or heard
anything to justify any other conclusion regarding the extent of
territory mentioned.
The elk-horn mound, mentioned elsewhere, is evidently of re-
mote date and the work of Indians, but proves nothing sought by
these researches. It might be stated that although no antique vessels
of clay are found, yet the Arikara now, and as long as the wliites
have known them, have luanufactured tolerably good and well-
shaped clay vessels for cooking, wrought by hand without the aid of
any machinery, and baked in the fire. They are not glazed, are of a
graycolor, and willanswer for jjots, pans, etc., equally as well as those
made by the whites, standing well the action of fire and being as
strong as ordinary potter's ware. They also have the art of melting
beads of different colors and casting them in molds of clay for ear
and other ornaments of various shapes, some of which are very
ingeniously done. We have seen some in shape and size as drawn
in Plate 65, the groundwork blue, the figure white, the whole about
one-eighth inch thick, and presenting a uniform glazed surface.
Pipes
No antique pipes are found, but many and various are now made
by all Indians.
414 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOTJEI [eth. ann. 46
Vessels and Implements
The Arikara and Gros Ventres, who raise corn, have other vessels
as alluded to, but not the roving tribes, except the utensils furnished
by whites. None of these things denote anything more than a people
in the rudest state of nature, whose only boiling pot was once a
hollow stone, or the paunch of a buffalo in which meat can be boiled
and still is on occasions, by filling the paunch with water and casting
therein red-hot stones until the water attains a boiling point, after
which the stones are taken out, and one added occasionally to con-
tinue the heat, or the paunch suspended above a blaze at such a dis-
tance that the fire, though heating, does not touch it. Their spoons
are yet made of the horns of the bighorn and buffalo, wrought into
a good shape, some of which will hold half a gallon with ease.
These are dippers. Others for eating are made smaller of horn and
wood, yet large enough to suit their capacious mouths. (PI. 65.)
In all this and in everything they do, but one idea presents itself —
that of crude, untutored children of nature, who have never been
anything else.
The only ancient stone implements we have ever seen are the
hatchet, stone war club, arrow point, buffalo shoulder-blade ax, hump-
rib knife, and elk-horn bow, the shapes of which we have endeavored
to draw in Plate 66, and all of which, except the knife, can yet
occasionally be seen among them.
There is a total absence of anything antique, any shell, metal,
wampum, or other thing formerly possessed by inhabitants supposed
to have occupied this country. Neither are there any hieroglyphics
or traditions to denote anything of the kind.
Astronomy and Geologt
Earth and Its Motions. — ^Their knowledge on this subject is very
limited. They believe the earth to be a great plain containing per-
haps double the extent of country with which they are acquainted,
and that it is void of motion. They do not believe the stars are
inhabited by other people, but admit they may be abiding places of
ghosts or spirits of the departed. They are not fond of talking
about these things, neither do their opinions agi'ee, each man's story
differing materially from the other and aU showing extreme igno-
rance and superstition.
They believe that Wakofida created all things and this one idea
appears original and universal, further than which, however, they
are at a loss.
If they can not be made to comprehend the extent of the earth and
its laws of motion, etc., there is much less likelihood that they can
3
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNLIAL REPORT PLATE 65
;-])-(f/c irr, E(<, ('n..<'Hi<--,i
.^^u'.'r c<"a C id I lot.
Clin Crf.i )li(rrc.',^
CULINARY UTENSILS
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 66
CHARACTERISTIC IMPLEMENTS OF THE ASSINIBOINE
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 67
Gr>nih Root . Rccc-lu. ^rolr, E -p.' </, -c i, .
a. Comb root.
CaXsTad Hii.t -J<aii -]coo RacMu ,1^ Quenoui/Ze
b, Cat-tail.
DENiG] THE ASSINIBOIlSr 415
have any reasonable idea of the field of space or other creations
therein further than superstitious notions according to the fancy of
the individual.
The Sun. — They take the sun to be a large body of fire, making its
daily journey across the plains for the purpose of giving light and
heat to all, and admit it may be the residence of Wakonda;
consequently it is worshiped, venerated, smoked, and invocated on
all solemn occasions. We have often endeavored to exfjlain the diur-
nal revolution of the earth, representing the sun as stationary, but
always failed. They must first be brought to understand the attrac-
tions of cohesion and gravitation, for, as a sensible Indian stated on
one of these occasions, '* If at midnight we are all on the under side,
what is to hinder the Missouri from spilling out, and us from falling
off the earth? Flies, spiders, bii'ds. etc., have small claws by which
they adhere to the ceiling and other places, though man and water
have no such support."
The Sky. — Those who take the trouble to explain state the sky to
be a material mass of a blue color, the composition of which they do
not pretend to say, and think it has an oval or convex form, as
apparent to the eye, resting for its basis on the extreme boundaries
of the great plain, the earth. Hence their drawing, which is almost
the only form in which they could represent it. Stars are small suns
set therein, though they think they may be large bodies appearing
small by seeing through space. Space is the intervening distance
between earthly and heavenly bodies.
The Indians can not rationally account for an eclipse, supposing
it to be a cloud, hand, or some other thing shadowing the moon,
caused by Wakonda to intimate some great pending calamity.
Many are the prophecies on these occasions of war, pestilence, or
famine, and their predictions are often verified. Predicting an
eclipse does not appear to excite their wonder as much as would be
supposed. The writer predicted the eclipse of the moon on Decem-
ber 25, 1852, months before, but received no further credit than that
of having knowledge enough from books to find out it was to take
place.
Their year is composed of four man-ko'-cha or seasons, viz. wai-too
(spring), min-do-ka'-too (summer), pe-ti-e-too (autumn), wah-nee-
e-too (winter). These are only seasons and do not each contain a
certain number of days, but times — a growing time, a hot time, a
leaf-falling time, and a snow time. These four seasons make a year
which again becomes man-ko'-cha or the same as a season. This
is difiicult to explain. They count by the moon itself and its different
phases, not computing so many days to make a moon, nor so many
moons to a year.
416 TEIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOtJEI [eth. ANN. 46
They give each moon its name, beginning, say, with the March
moon whenever it appears either in February or March, when it
would be wee-che'-ish-ta-aza. sore eye moon; next would follow
Ta-pa'-ghe-na-ho-to, frog moon; next pe-tai-chin-cha'-ton, buffalo
calf moon; next wee-mush-tu. hot moon; next wah-pa'-ze-ze, yellow-
Jeaf moon; next wah-pa-ich-pa'-ah. leaf-falling moon; next yo-ka'-
wah-how-wee, first snow moon ; next we-cho-kun, middle moon ; next
om-hos-ka-sun-ka-koo, lengthening days moon's brother; and next
om-has-ka, lengthening of days moon. Their year has no beginning
nor end. They count and name the moons as they come, and these
names are also varied. Any annual remarkably known fact respect-
ing the season can be applied to the name of the same moon. Thus
the sore-eyed moon can be called the snow-melting moon, and the
falling-leaf moon be termed the moon when the buffaloes become fat.
These moons suffer no divisions of time except their phases, viz,
new moon, increasing moon (first quarter), round moon (full moon),
eaten moon (second quarter), half moon, dead moon (invisible).
Among themselves they have no division of time equal to a week,
although they are aware that we count by weeks, or divining days
(Sundays), and will often ask how many divining days (or Sun-
days) there are to a given period.
An Indian in counting any period less than a year will say 3
moons and a full (31/. moons), 4 moons and an eaten one
(4% moons), 6 moons and an increasing one (614 moons), etc.
These serve all his purposes and when wishing to be more minute
and exact he must notch each day on a stick. For a year or four
seasons thej' say a winter. A man may say " I am 40 winters old
and one summer." Yet sometimes the same man will say, " I am
40 seasons old." This is still right. He will also say that he is 80
seasons old, or 160 seasons old. All of these are cori'ect and under-
stood immediately, as in the one case you mentally take the half, and
in the other the quarter. This is often done among themselves, but
with whites they genei'ally name the winter only to designate the
year, yet man-ko-cha (season) is the right name for a year and
would be received as such by all the Assiniboin. The day is divided
into the following parts: hi-ak-kane (daj'light), umpa (morning),
wee-he-num-pa (sunrise), wee-wa-kan-too (forenoon), wi-cho-kun
(midday), we-coo-cha-nu (afternoon), we-coh-pa-ya (sunset), hhtie-
too (twilight), eoch-puz-za (dark), and haw-ha-pip-cho-kun (mid-
night). Anj' intermediate sjDace of time would be indicated by point-
ing the finger to the place the sun is supposed to have been at that
time. They know nothing of the division of hours and minutes,
yet some of the squaws living a long time in the fort can tell the
hour and minute by the clock.
DKNiG] THE ASSINIBOIN 417
The}' know that the minute hand makes the revolution of the dial
plate before it strikes and know the figures from 1 to 12; also that
each figure is five minutes apart, and will say it wants so many fives
to strike 9, or it has struck 10 and is 5 fives past. This they pick up
nearly of their own accord, which proves that some are susceptible
of intelligence and education. They know nothing of the solstices
nor have any period such as a cycle or century, neither do they believe
the world will come to an end or that their priests or any others have
the power to destroy or rebuild it.
They know and name the Xorth Star the same as we do — wa-se-a-
ure-chah-pe (north star) — and also know the Ui'sa Major, sometimes
calling it the " seven stars " and " the wagon." The}' are aware that
it makes its revolution around the polar star, pointing toward it, and
this is the secret of their traveling by night when there is no moon.
They call no other stars by name. The Milky Way is said to be
moch-pe-achan-ka-hoo (the backbone of the sky). It is known by
them to be composed of clusters of small stars, but they suppose it to
bear the same relative position to the arch of the heavens, and to be
as necessary to its support as the backbone of any animal to its body.
Meteors are falling stars which become extinguished as they fall.
They attract but little attention as their effects are never perceived.
Aurora borealis is believed to be clouds of fire or something the
same as electricity. Being very common and brilliant it creates
neither wonder nor inquiry.
The moon is not believed to influence men or vegetables nor to
have any other properties than to give light by night.^ They sup-
pose it to be made of some body wasting away during a given period.
Some say it is eaten up by a number of small animals (moles) and
Wakoiida makes a new one on the destruction of the old. They
know very well that all this is error and that the whites have
a better philosophy, but will not take the trouble or can not compre-
hend our views of the motions of heavenly bodies. Having nothing
else better explained to them, they adhere to their own ide'xs, which
are of the simplest and most primitive kind, and do not appear to
wish them superseded by others which they can not miderstand.
The same remark would apply to all their astronomical and geo-
graphical opinions. They have a correct knowledge of the cardinal
points, and honor the east as the first from the fact that the sun rises
there. The pipe is first presented to the east, then to the south, sup-
posed to be the power of the spirits of their departed friends, then
west, then north, and lastly to the earth as the great grandfather
of all. The amount of facts or real information they can give are
mentioned and as for further explanations, as observed before, they
= It is considered a fetish as a light at night and sacrificed to on this account.
418 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. ANN. 46
do not delight to talk about these matters but appear to think them
sacred or forbidden fields through which their thoughts ought not
to roam. The subject affords no scope for reseairh unless a writer
is disposed to collect 
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