50 Alaskan Science Conference 



Froelich Rainey, Helge Larsen, Louis Giddings, and a very 

 few others began to present not only masses of personally gath- 

 ered field data but also organization and analysis of scattered 

 material from earlier observers, and finally basic interpretation. 

 As of 1950, the record is spotty. Only one full modern lin- 

 guistic study has been undertaken, by Prof. L. L. Hammerich 

 on Nunivak Island, but not yet published. Thorough and ex- 

 tensive archaeology has been done at Pt. Hope, on St. Lawrence 

 Island, in caves on Seward Peninsula, at Cape Denbigh and in 

 a more limited way at Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet. Archaeo- 

 logical reconnaissance has been done more widely, especially 

 along rivers and where gold-dredging has revealed ancient arti- 

 facts. Although archaeology has been started elsewhere, there 

 still are great areas, along the Kuskokwim River and between 

 the Kuskokwim and Yukon deltas for example, that are rich in 

 sites but entirely uninvestigated. In any case, although archae- 

 ology gives important culture history, it does not tell much 

 about the present situation of the Eskimos. 



The most massive ethnography to date is E. W. Nelson's 

 description of his journeys, collections, and observations in the 

 years around 1880. He covered the lower Yukon and the coast 

 northward around Norton Sound toward but not so far as Ber- 

 ing Strait. By piecing together missionaries' accounts, some 

 good but never comprehensive modern ethnographic papers, 

 government reports, and miscellaneous notes, one can get the 

 principal elements of the culture of the larger Eskimo groups 1) 

 from Barrow to Kotzebue and the Kobuk Valley, 2) Cape Prince 

 of Wales and the Bering Strait islands. 3) the Yukon Delta, and 

 4) Nunivak Island. For other localities, we have only bits and 

 pieces. Even in most of the larger works, material culture and 

 graphic arts are stressed to the virtual exclusion of social organi- 

 zation. Religion and folklore have received some attention but 

 not the more individual psychological aspects of culture, es- 

 pecially outside mythology and belief. The explanation for 

 anthropologists' almost complete disregard of social structure 

 and their concentration on technology may be due to their own 

 needs. They needed and appreciated Eskimo technics in order 



