ARCHEOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ALASKA — SOLECKI 489 



the sinew, thread; the antlers, such items as sinkers and tool handles; 

 the hoofs, small boxes. The hair, mixed with tobacco, was smoked 

 as a powerful stimulant. The bones, crushed and boiled, yielded oil. 

 The marrow provided grease and hair oil. From the contents of the 

 stomach a soup was made, and the flesh was eaten raw, roasted, or 

 boiled (ibid., pp. 842-843). Skarland (n. d., p. 152) estimates that 

 an inland Arctic slope family of six persons "need a minimum of 70 

 caribou a year to supply the necessities." Supplementing the main 

 diet were the less numerous and smaller game. These included bears, 

 mountain sheep, ducks, geese, ptarmigans, and other Arctic birds and 

 fish. In some parts, moose, marmots, and ground squirrels were avail- 

 able. Naturally nothing was cultivated for food owing to the harsh 

 climatic conditions and because the natives were almost constantly 

 moving. However, they found some products of the soil edible, thus 

 supplementing a diet of meat. These products were principally roots, 

 buds, and berries, eaten raw or prepared in different ways. Most of 

 the roots were strung and boiled before eating, although they were also 

 sometimes eaten raw. Berries were eaten before a meal and consti- 

 tuted a course. Stoney (1899, p. 844) said that the natives once lived 

 on them exclusively for 5 days, but only through necessity. One 

 dietary habit, which may seem strange to us, was the eating of white 

 clay. It was taken only when these inland Eskimos were short of food. 

 Stoney stated that the clay when mixed with oil, berries, and leaves, 

 was tasteless and easy to swallow. 



The houses of these historic people were built warmly and snugly 

 enough to withstand the rigors of winter, yet they were easy to erect. 

 They were made of plaited willows in a dome shape, held upright by 

 a few posts (pi. G, «, 5,). A layer of snow was packed over a covering 

 of turf and moss. Another basically similar type of temporary lodg- 

 ing was covered with skins and then insulated with a packing of snow. 

 When moving, the framework and skins were taken down from the 

 inside, leaving a hollow shell of solidified snow. No mention was made 

 of the snow-block type of house or igloo. 



Physically, these inland people differed from the coastal Eskimos 

 in several distinguishable respects, most notably in their greater height 

 (Solecki, 1950a, pp. 140-141). There are material traits in their 

 culture, such as the dome-shaped skin hut, which may indicate bor- 

 rowing and also probably admixture with the Athapascan Indians on 

 the other side of the Brooks Range. 



SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION 



All three cultures discussed, plus the Folsom-point people, had one 

 economic trait in common. They were all hunters of herbivores — 

 grass-eating and foraging mammals. Land-mammal hunting was 



