HSDLtCEA] ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 181 



Archeological and anthropological research in the highly impor- 

 tant western Eskimo region is bound to develop in a not far distant 

 future; for this is the region through which in all probability 

 America was peopled. It is this region that promises to solve Die 

 problem of the antiquity of the Eskimo and may throw much light 

 upon the origin of these people, and one that, as shown above, has 

 begun to reveal highly interesting old cultural conditions. And it 

 is a region in which destruction of the remains by nature, but most 

 so recently by the natives themselves, proceeds at an alarming pace. 



The information on which these notes and the accompanying 

 charts are based has been obtained largely from the Russian and 

 other maps, from local traders, teachers, missionaries, and natives, 

 and from a few explorers. 30 Only in a minority of cases was it 

 possible to visit the places in person ; to have visited all would have 

 been a task of pleasure, but would have required a staunch boat of 

 my own and at least three full seasons. 



Many of the sites to be given are now "dead" and there may be 

 several old sites in the vicinity of a living village. Others combine 

 ruins with present habitations. Still others are partly or even wholly 

 abandoned a part of the year when the inhabitants go camping or 

 hunting, and are partly or wholly occupied during the rest of the 

 year. Finally, there are some new settlements, with modern dwell- 

 ings and ways, and their number will increase, the Eskimo taking 

 kindly to civilization and individual property. 



The data to be given here are limited to the Eskimo territory 

 in southwestern and western Alaska, leaving out those in Siberia 

 where much is uncertain. Due to the uncertainties of the Prince 

 William Sound region they will begin with Kodiak Island. There 

 are also on hand, principally due to Dr. E. P. Walker, numerous 

 locations of old sites and villages in the Indian parts of southern 

 and southeastern Alaska, but these will best be reserved for another 

 occasion. 



The Eskimo area will be roughly seen from the accompanying map 

 published on the basis of the enumeration by the Fourteenth United 

 States Census of 1920. A very great part of the territory allotted 

 to the Eskimo, as well as that of the Indian, is barren of any popu- 



50 I am especially Indebted to the two maps of Zagoskin (one prepared by himself, one 

 from his data) ; to the 1840 Russian map of the St. Lawrence Island; to the various maps 

 of the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; to the maps and 

 data of W. H. Dall, E. W. Nelson, and Ivan Tetrof ; to the various reports of the Coniln 

 and other voyages in the Bering Sea and the western Arctic; to the Geographic Dictionary 

 of Alaska, by Marcus Baker, and to the f. S. Coast I'llots of Alaska; to the data of the 

 Alaska Division, U. S. Department of Education ; to Dr. E. P. Walker, of the Biological 

 Survey; to Father La Fortune, the Reverend Baldwin, and to Sir. Carl J. Lomen at Nome; 

 to Mr. Sylvester Chance, superintendent in 1926 of the schools of the Kotzebue district ; 

 to Messrs. James Allen at Wainwright and Charles Brower at Barrow: and to numerous 

 other friends who aided me in this direction. 



