ETHNOLOGY OF ARCTIC AMERICA 173 



between the Chukchis, Koryaks, and neighboring tribes of north- 

 eastern Asia and the Indians of British Columbia and southwestern 

 Alaska have led certain authorities to believe that the former have 

 drifted back from America to Asia — that they are really American 

 tribes that have returned to the mother continent. Now a return 

 migration of this kind, compared with the original migrations into 

 America, must have been relatively recent, and its remains should 

 be less deeply concealed. So the archeologist has a twofold chance 

 of making significant discoveries along the Yukon River or around 

 Bering Sea, in addition to what he may unearth of the less ancient 

 remains. 



I may add here one other Arctic problem that can hardly be 

 settled without the aid of archeology, namely, the relationship of 

 the Aleut to the Eskimos proper. Dr. Waldemar Jochelson has 

 recently published a valuable account of his excavations on the 

 Aleutian Islands,^ but his work will never be complete until the old 

 ruins on the mainland to the north and northeast have been similarly 

 excavated and the specimens from the two regions carefully com- 

 pared. 



Need for Archeological Work in Labrador 



I may mention also, perhaps, the need for archeological work 

 along the Labrador coast. For in Labrador there are three interest- 

 ing problems still unsettled. First, how ancient has been the Eskimo 

 occupation of the coast? Second, are there any Norse remains left 

 by Leif or his successors between 990 A.D. and the fourteenth century? 

 And, third, were the Eskimo visits to Newfoundland and their battles 

 with the Indians on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence part 

 of a general movement southward that was arrested by the coming 

 of Europeans, or were they rather the rear-guard actions in a retreat 

 to the north under the pressure of advancing Algonquian tribes? 



Ethnological Problems 



The reader must not imagine, on account of the emphasis here 

 laid on the archeological problems awaiting solution in the Arctic, 

 that the day for strictly ethnological work has ended. It is true that 

 the various expeditions of the last twenty years have greatly lightened 

 the darkness that enveloped the long stretch of coast line between 

 the Mackenzie River delta and Hudson Bay, but even yet we have 

 only a limited knowledge of the Eskimos living along Back River 

 and in the vicinity of the magnetic pole. . No one has adequately 

 described the ancient mode of life, the old customs and traditions, 



I Archaeological Investigations in the Aleutian Islands, Carnegie Instn. Publ. No. 367, Washington, 

 1925. 



