254 anthropological survey in alaska [nh.ihn.4g 



Present Data on the Skull and other Skeletal Remains of the 



Western Eskimo 



the skull 



Until recently collections of skeletal remains of the western Eskimo 

 were confined largely to skulls. The material in our own institutions 

 comprised a small collection of Mahlemut (St. Michael Island) and 

 "Chukch.ee " (Asiatic Eskimo) crania made in the early sixties by 

 W. H. Dall; a larger series of crania gathered in 1881 on St. Michael 

 and St. Lawrence Islands by E. W. Nelson ; 28 skulls with 3 skeletons 

 brought in 1898 by E. A. Mcllheny from Point Barrow; a valu- 

 able lot of skulls from Indian Point, Siberia, with a few from St. 

 Lawrence Island, collected by W. Bogoras ; and some scattered speci- 

 mens by other explorers. To this were added in 1912 an important 

 collection of skulls, with a few skeletons, made by Riley D. Moore, at 

 that time my aide, on St. Lawrence Island ; an important lot of crania 

 gathered a few years later by V. Stefansson at Point Barrow ; and a 

 third large and highly interesting lot, this time of both skulls and 

 skeletons, collected near Barrow for the University Museum at Phila- 

 delphia in 1917-1919 by W. B. Van Valin. But none of the later ma- 

 terial was described execepting the Mcllheny collection which, in 1916. 

 was reported upon by E. W. Hawkes." 



During the survey which is the subject of this report a special 

 effort was made to collect all the older skeletal material along the 

 Bering Sea and Arctic coasts that could be reached, and the result 

 was the bringing back of some 450 crania, nearly 50 with skeletons, 

 and many separate parts of the skeleton; nearly all of the specimens 

 proceeding from localities thus far not represented in the collections. 

 To which were added in 1927 nearly 200 skulls with a good number 

 of skeletons gathered by H. B. Collins, jr., assistant curator in the De- 

 partment of Anthropology, United States National Museum, and my 

 aide, T. D. Stewart, on Nunivak Island and along the west coast of 

 Alaska from Bristol Bay to near the Yukon delta. 99 " 



We thus have now a relatively vast amount of skeletal material on 

 the western Eskimo; it is essentially a virginal material; it is well 

 identified as to locality; and the specimens are mostly in very good 

 condition. 



Aside from Hawkes's thesis, nothing of note had been published 

 on these collections until 1924, when the first number of my Cata- 

 logue of Human Crania in the United States National Museum Col- 

 lections appeared, which includes the principal measurements on 



"' Skeletal Measurements and Observations of the Point Barrow Eskimo, Amor. Anthrop., 

 n s. xviii, pp. 203-244, Lancaster. 1916. 

 wa In 1028 Mr. Collins brought another important accession to these collections. 



