754 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



changed since the advent of the Russians and the establishment of the 

 fur trade, and at present they are located principally on a few of the 

 largest islands only. 



On the Asiatic side this family is represented by the Yuit, who are 

 distinct from the Chukche, or Tuski of authors, who are of Asiatic 

 origin, and of a distinct linguistic group. The Yuit &quot;are also a coast 

 people, and, according to Mr. Ball, are comparatively recent arrivals 

 from the American side. Between the Siberian and the Alaskan 

 coasts are the Diomede Islands, a convenient stopping place for voy 

 agers between the two continental points above mentioned. At these 

 islands Simeon Deshneff, in 1648, found natives wearing labrets who 

 were at war with the Tuski. Similar reports were made by Shestakoff, 

 in 1730. Peter Popoff, who visited the Asiatic mainland about 1711 

 for the purpose of collecting tribute from the Chukche, describes the 

 habitations and remarks that &quot;he found among the Tuski ten of the 

 islanders wearing labrets, who had been taken prisoners of war.&quot; 1 



Mr. Dall 2 observes that the Tuski do not wear labrets, - hich 

 distinguishing feature, compared with the Chukche, was noticed by 

 Deshneff, as well as all subsequent voyagers. Both sexes tattoo, not 

 only over the face but all over the body. The women in probably all 

 instances bear tattooed vertical lines on the chin, a practice which is 

 not followed by the men. An illustration of tattooing upon the chin 

 of a Port Clarence woman is given elsewhere. 



Concerning the representatives of the Eskimo upon the Asiatic side 

 of Bering Strait, the following remarks are reproduced from the memo 

 randa concerning &quot; the Arctic Eskimos in Alaska and Siberia,&quot; by 

 John W. Kelly, 3 interpreter, who says of the Siberian Eskimos:&quot; 



There are settlements of Eskimos at Cape Tchaplin (Indian Point), Plover Bay, 

 and East Cape. How long they have been there and how much of the country they 

 have occupied can only be conjectured. Those occupying St. Lawrence Island, Cape 

 Tchaplin, and part of the shores of Plover Bay, on the mainland of Asia, opposite 

 St. Lawrence Island, speak a dialect nearer like that of Point Barrow or the Mac 

 kenzie River than the dialects of the Diomedes or Kotzebue Sound. That the 

 Eskimos of Asia have been there a great many years is a certainty. The Deermen 

 people, whose principal support is domesticated reindeer, have gradually crowded 

 out the Eskimo or Fishmen, and have almost absorbed them by assimilation. They 

 wear no labrets, and in dress and tattooing are the same as the Deermen. That 

 they have lived in underground houses is abundantly proved by the ruins at Cape 

 Tchaplin of old huts which have been framed with the whole jaws of whales. Now 

 they live in huts above ground, covered with walrus hides. They are built in the 

 same manner as those of the Deermen, who use a covering of reindeer robes. From 

 the Deermen they have also learned to cremate their dead, instead of scattering the 

 bodies over the plain, according to the custom of the American Eskimos. Like the 

 American Eskimos, they deposit the personal property of the deceased at his grave. 

 If he was a great hunter, they also erect a monument of reindeer antlers over his 



1 Quoted from W. H. Dall, &quot;Alaska and its Resources. Boston. 1870, p. 376. 



- Idem, p. 380. 



3 Published in the Bureau of Education Circular of Information No. 2, 1890, p. 8, 9. 



