SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93O 12J 



some Eskimo-Indian mixture has taken place in these reaches. The 

 Kuskokwim Indian helow McGrath has practically vanished. The 

 strong probability is that he was never over this part of the river in 

 any larger groups or numbers and that the Kuskokwim was not an 

 old home of the Indian. From Napaimute down to the bight there 

 is no trace of anything Indian excepting a few individuals (one a 

 Cherokee, another a Cree) who came here accidentally and merged 

 with the Eskimo. 



The Eskimo. — The Eskimo of the Kuskokwim and the neighboring 

 regions are of a remarkably homogeneous and interesting type. This 

 type is characterized by short to medium stature, meso- to subbrachy- 

 cephalic head, mostly a rather short and broad face, large malars, small 

 prominence of the not very narrow nose, mongoloid eyes, full, dusky 

 red cheeks in the children and young, black straight to broadly wavy 

 hair, light brown (tan to submedium brown) skin, full chest, and 

 often relatively short limbs. 



From Akiachok and especially Napaimute up the river, this type 

 shows a somewhat higher stature and greater robustness. It is poor- 

 est in the tundra region and in the coast villages towards Nelson Island. 

 Those differences correspond directly to differences in environment 

 and food — the worse these are, the lower in general is the physique 

 and also the energy of the people. 



In the upper half of the Eskimo territory on the Kuskokwim, there 

 are numerous traces of Russian admixture. This is generally easy to 

 recognize by a greater stature and robustness, by the physiognomy, by 

 lighter eye color, by nearly white color of the skin of the body (the 

 face may be much as in fullbloods), and by greater and more white- 

 man-like beard. In some of the native fullbloods of the lower river 

 and the tundra the face is quite hairy, but the beard is not so thick 

 and soft as in whites. A few mixedbloods were seen on the upper river 

 that looked like Mexicans, indicating some Mediterranean admixture. 

 In but one case was there an indication of negro blood ; the Eskimo as 

 a whole have been more fortunate in this respect than some of our 

 Indians. 



Skeletal remains. — The skeletal remains along the Kuskokwim 

 occur in two forms. The old burials, from the pre-Russian to about 

 the mid-Russian times, were all above or on the ground, in boxes or 

 : ' houses of the dead " made of roughhewn thick slabs, joined in dove- 

 tailed manner without nails. The bodies in these boxes lay invariably 

 in the contracted position, on their side, and with the head in generally 

 the same direction in one burial place, though this was not always the 

 same as that in other burial grounds. The boxes were constructed 



