CHARACTERIZATION OF ACCOMPANYING PAPERS 
Supsects "TREATED 
The two memoirs appended to illustrate the results of the 
work of the Bureau are of somewhat special character. The 
first relates to the Eskimo about Bering strait, who were visited 
and studied by Mr Nelson with the primary purpose of collect- 
ing their typical productions for the National Museum; accord- 
ingly, the primary motive of the memoir is description and 
illustration of the handiwork of the Eskimo; but while engaged 
in making the collection the author availed himself of oppor- 
tunities for observation of tribal habits, as well as of the vil- 
lages and their surroundings, and the data so obtained are 
incorporated in the description, which is thereby made to pre- 
sent a general picture of the Eskimo on both sides of Bering 
strait in their various aspects. The second memoir, on Indian 
Land Cessions, treats of the aborigines in their relations to 
white men, rather than to primitive conditions; yet the facts 
set forth in the maps and schedules are requisite to full under- 
standing of the characteristics and movements of the native 
tribes. 
In geographic distribution, the first memoir relates to much 
of the coastwise portion of Alaska, and to the corresponding 
area occupied by similar peoples in Siberia, while the area cov- 
ered in the second paper is practically conterminous with that 
of the United States, exclusive of Alaska. 
At the date of Mr Nelson’s visit the Alaskan Eskimo were 
comparatively little affected by contact with American whalers, 
missionaries, and traders, and revealed comparatively little 
evidence of acculturation through earlier contact with the 
Russians; accordingly, the portion of this interesting people 
gathered about Bering strait and described in the accompany- 
ing memoir may be regarded as fairly representative, and 
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