490 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



certainly an inland continental trait, requiring the mutual cooperation 

 of the huntei's. Lacking equipment other than their short-range 

 weapons, they undoubtedly had to rely upon stealth and various means 

 of trapping, in order to despatch their prey at close range. Whole 

 families generally accompanied the hunt. This was not merely a trek 

 into the game country, since these nomads lived off the land and de- 

 pended for their subsistence upon the presence of the herds. Accord- 

 ing to Smith and Mertie, the Pleistocene fauna of Arctic Alaska 

 included the mammoth, bison, horse, and musk ox. 



Taking the cultures in order from the oldest thus far known on the 

 north slope of Alaska, we have : 



1. The hunters — Folsom men or Paleo-Indians, represented by the 

 Folsom-point find in the Utukok River area. This area is situated 

 on the unglaciated, low-lying north slope which leads eastward into 

 the Mackenzie Valley, the first through route opened over 25,000 to 

 30,000 years ago. That these same Folsom people or Paleo-Indians 

 hunted the now extinct mammals in the High Plains of the American 

 Continent is borne out by the paleontological evidence. 



In order to account for the presence of geologically dated Early 

 Man in the High Plains of America 10,000 or more years ago, we 

 must give priority to the north slope-Mackenzie route of migration 

 over the Yukon drainage route. The Yukon route was opened at an 

 estimated minimum of perhaps 20,000 to 15,000 years later. 



From the premise of animal ecology, we may presume that the north 

 slope was covered with a plant growth favorable to certain grazing 

 mammals. Such a plant covering would extend around the low 

 border of the Arctic Ocean and up the Mackenzie Valley along the 

 low level region, much like the extension of the grassland today. 

 Mammals migrating from Asia and finding suitable fodder in quan- 

 tity to supply their needs, probably widened their range to cor- 

 respond with the extension of plant life. Following the mammals, 

 came man. Suitable climatic conditions were undoubtedly the fore- 

 runner of this chainlike reaction. If Early Man had made any settle- 

 ments along the shores of the Arctic Ocean during the time when 

 the glaciers locked up much of the sea water, it is unlikely that we 

 should ever find these sites. The waters, freed by the glacial reces- 

 sion, would have covered the ancient shore line. Notwithstanding 

 this, there is a strong possibility that Early Man could have hunted 

 sea mammals in the Arctic. Giddings' recent finds at the exceptional 

 Cape Denbigh site has revealed probable stone harpoon blades in the 

 deepest and oldest horizon. 



2. The polyhedral-core and lamellar-flake people of Alaska, come 

 next in order and, judging by their site locales and equipment, were 

 also hunters of the grass-eating herbivores. The culture of these 



