94 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



The location of "Ankau," one of the earliest of the Russian 

 colonies in Alaska, has never been exactly known. It was my good 

 fortune to locate it, through Indian information. It is on Ankau 

 Inlet, which runs into Monti Bay, Alaska. 



The origin of the name "Sitka'' was discovered. It means "on the 

 oceanward side of Baranov Island,'' and this is a good description of 

 the location of the town. Shee, from which the first syllable of Sitka 

 is corrupted, is the native Indian name of Baranov Island, -tka is a 

 suffix meaning "on the oceanward side of." The town and its little 

 islands are on the seaward side of the great Baranov Island and look 

 out upon the great Pacific (fig. 92). 



One of the impressive sights in Alaska to one who has heard old 

 Indians tell of the early condition of United States beaches is the 

 driftwood still piled high and unmolested by seekers after firewood 

 (fig. 93). These driftwood beaches have the primitive aspect. Even 

 on the coast of Oregon and Washington, driftwood is now removed at 

 once from the ocean beaches by local settlers who use it as firewood. 



Returning to Washington, D. C, in July, I left early in August 

 for Gallup, N. Mex., for the purpose of checking the northern 

 material with Navajo information. The Navajo language resembles 

 the Tlingit language of Alaska word for word and syllable for syllable 

 as much as peas resemble one another in the same pod. The w r ords 

 and the accounts of the Alaska customs fascinated the old Navajos, 

 and there was little in the information from the far north that they 

 did not see through and add analysis to. Motion pictures taken in 

 Alaska were shown to the Navajo Indians both at Window Rock 

 and at Fort Defiance, Ariz., to the keen delight of the native audiences. 

 The Navajo have a tradition that ages ago some of their people became 

 separated from the rest and went north and are known in the Navajo 

 language by a term which is well translated as the "Again-Navajo." 

 The Alaskan and Canadian Indians who talk like Navajo are identified 

 with these "Again-Navajo." The news has spread through the great 

 Navajo Reservation that the "Again-Navajo" have been located and 

 visited, and interest in the comparison of words and customs is keen 

 among the Indians themselves. Good informants and interpreters 

 were found in southeastern Alaska and especially on the Navajo 

 Reservation, where not only the Alaska material but the grammar 

 of the Navajo language with all its ethnological connotations was 

 completely gone through. I returned from the Navajo Reservation 

 to Washington, D. C, in the middle of November, and by the end 

 of the calendar year more than half of the entire material had been 

 elaborated into the form of a finished report. 



