THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO — COLLINS 445 



show clear evidence of white admixture, and to a lesser extent this is 

 also true of nearby Wales. Here, and elsewhere on Seward Peninsula, 

 the greatest dilution of Eskimo blood has occurred since 1900, begin- 

 ning with the influx of miners and other whites during the Gold 

 Rush. In view of these conditions it is obvious that extreme caution 

 must be observed if anthropometric data on the living are to serve as 

 a basis for discussion of racial affinities and origins. Skeletal material 

 that antedates the period of white contact is far more reliable for 

 such a purpose. In this case the principal requirement is that the 

 total evidence, metrical and morphological, be presented, and not 

 merely a few selected measurements. 



The most extensive body of anthropometric data on the Eskimos 

 of North Alaska and Coronation Gulf is that obtained by Villi jalmur 

 Stefansson who between the years of 1906 and 1912 measured 526 

 adult Eskimos from Kotzebue Sound eastward to Coronation Gulf. 

 Particularly valuable are Stefansson 's measurements of 127 Nunatag- 

 miut, the inland Eskimos of the Colville River region, who are now 

 virtually extinct. Seltzer, who made a careful study of Stefansson's 

 data, showed that the Nunatagmiut and Mackenzie Eskimos differed 

 sharply from all other Eskimos. The Nunatagmiut, with their broad 

 short heads, short trunks, and long legs, were more Indian than 

 Eskimo in physical type. According to Seltzer these Eskimos must 

 have absorbed considerable Indian blood in comparatively recent 

 times, which would not be surprising in view of their interior location 

 in proximity to the Alaskan Athapaskans. The Mackenzie Eskimos, 

 on the other hand, represented the opposite extreme, with very long 

 and narrow heads, long trunks and short legs — features wliich marked 

 them as the most Eskimoid of all the groups. From this Seltzer 

 concludes that the Mackenzie Eskimos are the direct descendants 

 of the old Point Barrow (Birnirk) jDopulation, a deduction which 

 seems soundly based. 



After demonstrating the interrelationships of the various Eskimo 

 groups measured by Stefansson, Seltzer attempts to show that one 

 segment of the Eskimo population, including the Caribou Eskimo 

 on Hudson Bay, the Labrador and East Greenland Eskimo, were 

 descended from the Cree Indians; another major grouping, including 

 the Copper Eskimos of Coronation Gulf and the Kotzebue Sound, 

 Seward Peninsula, and St. Lawrence Island Eskimos were the descend- 

 ants of the Chipewyan Indians of the Lake Athabaska region. 



Seltzer's first grouping is of particular interest because there un- 

 doubtedly does exist a prominent Indian strain among the Canadian 

 Eskimos. Numerous observers have recognized this, and without 

 recourse to measurements ; the facial features of many of the Canadian 

 Eskimos are distinctly "Indian" rather than Eskimo. Steensby, for 

 example, was aware of this when he pointed out that among the Polar 



