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ANTHROPOLOGICAL SLTRVEY IX ALASKA 



[ETH. ANN. 46 



ages in the earlier igloos and in the late surface burials are practically 

 identical. This points strongly against the idea of the igloo remains 

 being those of people who either died there of starvation, of an epi- 

 demic, of being smothered, or of some other sudden affliction, and to 

 their having been just ordinary burials. 



To arrive at something still more definite, if possible, I appealed 

 on the one hand to the United States Census and on the other to 

 Doctor Dublin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, 

 for data as to the distribution of ages among the dead, using the same 

 age-categories as in the case of the " igloo " material. The data fur- 

 nished by Miss E. Foudray through Dr. Wm. H. Davis, Chief Statis- 

 tician of the Bureau of the Census, are particularly to the point. 

 They are as follows: 



Per Cent Age Distribution of Indian*Population in Alaska Aged 20 Years 

 and Over. According to the Census of 1900 



Per Cent Age Distribution at Death (Estimated) of Indian Population of 

 Alaska in 1900, Who, Had They Lived, Would Have Appeared in the Cen- 

 sus of 1910 at Ages 20 Years and Over 



There is a remarkable agreement of these figures with those 

 obtained on both the Igloo and the Barrow surface burial material, 

 except that for the two middle age series the figures are reversed. 

 This may mean an error in the two respective estimates on the In- 

 dians, or it may mean that for these two ages the conditions among 

 the Eskimo concerned were better than they were in 1900 among the 

 Alaska Indians. 



All the above, together with the details on the orderly treatment 

 of the bodies, and the absence of such conditions as were encountered 

 in the dead villages on St. Lawrence Island (Hooper, Nelson), in- 

 clines one to the conclusion that the Igloo remains, however excep- 

 tional the method for the Eskimo, were just burials. 



