THE ANCIENT ESKIMO CULTURE OF NORTHWESTERN 



ALASKA 



r.v HKNRY B. COLLINS, JR., 



Assisfaiil Curator. Division of ElhiioIo(/y, U. S. Xaiioiial Musntin 



The archeology of northwestern Alaska has until very recently been 

 wholl}' unknown. There was, in fact, no general knowledge of the 

 existence of any sites of importance in the region. In 1926 Dr. Ales 

 Hrdlicka, of the Smithsonian Institution, made an anthropological 

 survey of the Alaska coast from Norton Sound to Point F)arrow\ and 

 Mr. D. Jenness, of the National Museum of Canada, carried on sys- 

 tematic excavations at Cape Prince of Wales and on the Little Diomede 

 Island. The immediate result of these investigati(Mis was to show that 

 there had existed in early times about Bering Strait an Eskimo culture, 

 distinctive in type, and superior in some respects to that found in the 

 same regions to-day. In 1927, with Mr. T. Dale Stewart, I examined 

 the Alaska coast from the Aleutian Islands northward to Norton 

 Sound, but found no trace of this ancient culture. In 1928 I conducted 

 a second expedition, accompanied by Mr. Harry E. Manca of Seattle, 

 for the purpose of excavating on St. Lawrence and Punuk Islands. 

 The work was made possible through the generosity of ^Irs. Mary 

 Vaux Walcott, and additional support was received from the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology and the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. 



We left Seattle ^Tay 17 on the U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Norfhlaiicl, 

 but the condition of the ice around St. Lawrence and Punuk delayed 

 our landing until June 2t,. W'^hile waiting, however, we made collections 

 of skeletal material at Golofnin Bay and on Sledge Island in Norton 

 Sound. 



The three small Punuk Islands lie four miles off the eastern end 

 of St. Lawrence. The largest island, on which the old village is located, 

 is somewhat less than half a mile long. Like the entire eastern half of 

 St. Lawrence, Punuk Island has long been deserted. The nearest 

 Eskimo are those living at the village of Sevunga. on the northern 

 side of St. Lawrence, about 100 miles to the westward. Natives from 

 Sevunga and from Gambell. on the northwestern end of the island, 

 were employed as excavators. 



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