ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN ALASKA 



By ALES HRDLICKA 

 Curator, Division of Physical Anthropology, U. S. National Museum 



My work in 1931 extended to the Nushagak, Molchatna, and Wood 

 rivers, Bristol Bay, the Kvichak River, parts of the Iliamna Lake 

 region, and portions of Kodiak Island. It consisted, as in previous 

 years, of anthropometric observations on the living, and of the col- 

 lection of the older skeletal as well as archeological material, involv- 

 ing considerable excavation. The results were gratifying, definitely 

 clearing up a number of problems, and adding over 100 boxes of 

 specimens to our collections. 



The success of the work in these difficult and isolated regions was 

 largely due to the generous aid extended to me by the Alaska Pack- 

 ers Association, San Francisco, through its Vice-President, B. R. Hart, 

 and its Superintendents, particularly Gordon Jones in Larsen Bay ; 

 by the Pacific American Fisheries, through its Vice-President, A. W. 

 Shiels, and its Superintendents, especially F. Daly, A. D. Daly, and 

 A. S. Foster; by the officials and employees of the United States 

 Bureau of Fisheries, particularly Dr. W. H. Rich and F. Lucas ; and 

 by many individual friends. Especial thanks among the latter are 

 due to Mrs. Laura Jones, of Larsen Bay, who not only donated a 

 series of rare specimens but aided me in every possible way and even 

 assisted, with Doctor Rich, Mr. Hart, and other friends, in the actual 

 excavations. Much valuable aid and hospitality was also received, and 

 is hereby gratefully acknowledged, from P. A. Berglund, Superinten- 

 dent of the Northwestern Cannery at Naknek : from Chris Nielson, at 

 Koggiung ; from Hans Sieverson of the Iliamna Lake; and from the 

 captain and other officers of the steamships Chirikof, Chilcat, Ad- 

 miralty, Crane, and Lakiua. 



The work began in the latter part of May at the head of Bristol 

 Bay, but as the ground was still much frozen, I proceeded to Dilling- 

 ham, on the Nushagak River, where I hired a small trapper's boat 

 and with this and the aid of Butch Smith, its owner, covered in three 

 weeks over 600 miles of the Nushagak River and its tributaries. The 

 region was found to be but very sparsely peopled now, the total num- 

 ber of natives reaching barely over 200, most of them mixed bloods. 

 But there we found a good number of old sites, at least one of which 

 was of greater extent than any seen on the more northern rivers. 



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