ALASKAN ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES. 



INLAND NATIVES. 



Under tliis subdivision I include the natives living in the interior of Northwest Alaska, on or 

 near the bauks of the three large streams whose waters empty into Kotzebue Souud through 

 Hotham Inlet, namely : the Noitoc, Kowak, and Selawik rivers. The language of these three 

 tribes differs so little that it may be looked upon as a common tongue, and their general habits 

 and customs are so similar that they may be considered as one race. 



Mode of life. — During the first part of the winter, when the sun is in the south and the long 

 Arctic night is on the earth, all these tribes live in small isolated communities, usually consisting 

 of from one to three families, in subterranean houses erected near the banks of the larger streams. 

 With the return of the sun and daylight they desert these houses, and as soon as the ground is iu 

 good condition, that is to say, when the snow has fallen iu sufficient quantity and the surface is 

 frozen to the requisite degree of hardness to furnish good traveling, they take up their nomadic 

 mode of life and do not settle permanently into villages until the fishing season sets iu late in the 

 followiug spring. In response to repeated inquiries as to whether there were any permanent winter 

 settlements in the interior, I was informed that none existed. The flesh of the reindeer furnishes 

 the natives with their chief means of subsistence during the winter, and iu hunting they are 

 compelled to follow them hundreds of miles, from place to place, over the vast tundra plains in 

 their restless search for food. Under such circumstances the establishment of permanent winter 

 settlements is impossible. 



During these winter migrations the young men of a family or commune first push forward on 

 snow-shoes to locate a herd of reindeer, and are followed by the old men, women, and children, 

 who bring up the impedimenta of domestic economy on sleds drawn by dogs. The work of the 

 women ou these occasions is especially arduous; and for all the struggle for existence is prosecuted 

 in the face of diflSculties which would seem to our minds absolutely appalling. Arrived at a suita- 

 ble place for encampment, which must not be too far removed from the feeding reindeer, nor yet 

 so near as to risk stampeding their quarry, all hands set at once to work to build a snow house or 

 igloo. This work is soon finished, and the sleds are unloaded and placed on the top of the house 

 out of reach of the famished dogs, who would speedily gnaw the deer-skin lashings on the sleds to 

 pieces if left within their reach. Meanwhile the boys have stored away the contents of the sleds 

 within the house, and a fire being lighted by igniting moss saturated in oil contained in a stone 

 lamp the women proceed to cook what there is to be eaten. 



Every morning, when the weather permits, the hunters of the party leave the igloo and prose- 

 cute the search for game, and at night, when they return, the women divest them of their wet 

 clotliing, furnish them with dry garments, and cook whatever has been brought in by the provider. 

 A small portion is usually set aside out of the amount provided for future use, but all these people 

 are strangely and often fatally improvident. It seldom happens that there is more than two or 

 three days' extra sup{)ly of provisions on hand, and as it frequently happens that stormy or 

 intensely cold weather keeps the hunters close prisoners within doors for a week at a time, starva- 



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