614 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



present and are thus valuable as records. The exhibit enables one to 

 form an impression of the characteristics of the principal races of 

 the earth, their village and family life and their arts and industries, 

 with a minimum of effort. 



The text of this article is composed of the labels which accompany 

 the exhibits, and these labels strive to convey the necessary facts in 

 clear and simple language. 



TRIBES OF THE ARCTIC. 



The tribes which are now found in the northern regions of both 

 hemispheres have much in common in appearance and in the arts 

 developed in this Frigid Zone. Since the food here is almost exclu- 

 sively animal, hunting is as much developed as is agriculture among 

 more southern tribes. In travel and transportation by land and 

 water we find the snowshoe, dog sled, and the skin boat a shade 

 more advanced than are these features in other more favored lands. 

 In general we find the Eskimo and other Arctic tribes in perfect 

 harmony with their surroundings, which is, no doubt, due to their 

 long stay in the cold regions. 



The Eskimo have really suffered more from contact with the 

 white man than from the rigors of the Arctic winters. An isolated 

 life of a tribe, while it tends to produce a uniform or recognizable 

 type, is in reality a serious handicap when communication with 

 other peoples opens up. 



It is recorded by all visitors to the Arctic tribes of the Alaskan 

 coast that some of their most noticeable qualities are good humor 

 and cheerfulness. 



Even in the Arctic the natural conditions of life are unequal. The 

 western Eskimo are much more favorably situated as to food and 

 climate than the central and Smith Sound tribes, or even those of 

 Greenland. This is reflected in the variety and amount of the 

 things which make up their material belongings, which may be 

 noticed in comparing the groups. 



DWELLING GROUPS OF THE WESTERN ESKIMO. 



Western Alaska. 



The western Eskimo live on the Alaskan coast from the Aleutian 

 Islands to Point Barrow. They subsist by fishing and hunting, in 

 which they are very skillful. Their houses are dome shaped, made 

 of earth piled over a cobwork of timbers erected in an excavation 

 in the ground. The entrance is through a tunnel in the winter and 

 a passageway in the summer. Around the interior of the house 

 is a bench on which the people sleep. The cooking is done in a 

 pottery vessel suspended over the lamp. Meat is preserved in a log 



