Part 17

+-------+------+------+------+------ Cata- |Orbits:| Brea-| Or-| Nose:| Brea- logue |Height,| dth,| bital|Height| dth, No. | right,|right,|index,| | max- | left| left| mean| | imum | | | | | --------+-------+------+------+------+------ 332506 | { 3.55| 3.8|_94.1_| 5.5| 2.2 | { 3.6| 3.8|} | | | | | | | 332520 | { 3.3| 3.7|_90.5_| | 2.4 | { 3.4| 3.7|} | 4.75| | | | | | 332508 | { 3.7| 4|_92.5_| 5.2| 2.5 | { | |} | | | | | | | 332519 | { 3.4| 3.7|_93.9_| 4.7| 2.3 | { 3.5| 3.65|} | | | | | | | 332510 | { 3.3| 3.55|_91.6_| 4.7| 2.3 | { 3.2| 3.55|} | | | | | | | 332504 | { 3.7| 3.95|_91.9_| 5.4| 2.15 | { 3.65| 4.05|} | | | | | | | 332525 | { | |_85.5_| 5.15| 2.2 | { 3.25| 3.8|} | | | | | | | 332505 | { 3.8| 3.95|_94.0_| 4.9| 2.35 | { 3.6| 3.85|} | | | | | | | 332522 | { 3.7| 3.95|_92.4_| 5.45| 2.3 | { 3.6| 3.95|} | | | | | | | 332751 | { 3.1| 3.8|} _84_| 5| 2.4 | { 3.2| 3.7|} | | +=======+======+======+======+====== Right | (9)| (9)| (_9_)| | Left | (9)| (9)| (_9_)| (10)| (10) | | | | | Totals | 31.55| 34.4|} | 50.75| 23.1 {r. {l. | 31| 34.05|} | | | | | | | Averages| _3.51_|_3.82_|_91.7_|_5.07_|_2.31_ {r. {l. | _3.44_|_3.78_| _91_| | | | | | | Minimum | 3.1| 3.55|} | 4.7| 2.15 {r. {l. | 3.2| 3.55|} | | | | | | | Maximum | 3.8| 4|} | 5.5| 2.5 {r. {l. | 3.65| 4.05|} | | --------+-------+------+------+------+------

+------+-------+--------+------ Cata- | Nasal|Palate:|External| Pal- logue | index| exter-|breadth,| atal No. | | nal| maximum| index | | length| (b)| (b × | | (a)| |100/a) --------+------+-------+--------+------ 332506 | _40_| 5.2| 6.1|_85.2_ | | | | | | | | 332508 |_50.5_| 5.4| 6| _90_ | | | | | | | | 332508 |_48.1_| 5.2| 5.8|_89.7_ | | | | | | | | 332519 |_48.9_| 5.4| 5.5|_98.2_ | | | | | | | | 332510 |_48.9_| 5.3| 6.4|_82.8_ | | | | | | | | 332504 |_39.8_| 5.7| 6.7|_85.1_ | | | | | | | | 332525 |_42.7_| --| --| -- | | | | | | | | 332505 | _48_| 5.3| 5.8|_91.4_ | | | | | | | | 332522 |_42.2_| 5| 6.6|_75.8_ | | | | | | | | 332751 | _48_| 5.3| 6.5|_81.5_ | | | | +======+=======+========+====== Right | | | | Left |(_10_)| (9)| (9)| (_9_) | | | | Totals | | 47.8| 55.4| -- {r. {l. | | | | | | | | Averages|_45.5_| _5.31_| _6.16_|_86.3_ {r. {l. | | | | | | | | Minimum |_39.8_| 5| 5.5|_75.8_ {r. {l. | | | | | | | | Maximum |_50.5_| 5.7| 6.7|_98.2_ {r. {l. | | | | --------+------+-------+--------+------

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Premature occlusion of sagittal and subdevelopment of vault; probably a moron, facial and skeletal parts all normal.

[29] Medium.

[30] Slight.

[31] Moderate.

[32] Cons.

[33] Unknown; all lost.

[34] Slight.

[35] Cons.

[36] Medium.

[37] Moderate.

[38] U. medium; l. moderate

SKELETAL PARTS

There are seven adult skeletons of males and seven of females. For present purposes it will suffice to take the males alone and to restrict consideration to the long bones. The essential data on these are given on page 160, where they are contrasted with those of North American Indians in general, and with those of the western Eskimo.

The bones show both relations to as well as differences from the bones of Indians in general and fair distinctness from those of the Eskimo.

Contrasted with the long bones of miscellaneous North American tribes taken together, the Yukon Indian bones show absolutely slightly shorter humerus (or arm), somewhat shorter radius (or forearm), a slightly shorter femur (or upper part of the leg), and a plainly shorter tibia. These Indians had therefore relatively somewhat shorter forearm and especially the leg below the knees than their continental cousins. These facts are plainly evident from the radio-humeral and tibio-femoral indices of the two groups. In this relative shortness of the distal parts of the limbs the Yukon Indian approaches the Eskimo, standing near midway between the Indian in general and the Eskimo. There might be a ready temptation to attribute this to a mixture with the Eskimo; but an examination of the records will show that the same condition, so far at least as the upper limb is concerned (lower?), is already present in the old Bonasila skeleton, which gives no suggestion of an Eskimo mixture. It is more likely, therefore, that these are generalized characteristics of functional origin such as a considerable use of the small canoes. This view seems to be supported by the relative strength of the bones. In the Yukon Indian the humerus is stouter, the femur of the same strength, and the tibia very perceptibly weaker than they are in Indians in general. In the Eskimo, with even greater dependence on the canoe, both the humerus and the femur are notably stouter, while the tibia is weaker, than are similar bones in the Indians in general.

The humero-femoral index in the Yukon Indians is unusually high, indicating a relative shortness of the femur. This character is not present in the Eskimo, nor in the continental Indian. It is probably also of old functional origin, though, this for the present must remain a mere suggestion.

All of this shows clearly the interest and value of other skeletal parts than the skull, and particularly of the long bones, for anthropological studies.

SKELETAL REMAINS FROM THE BANK AT BONASILA

The skeletal material from the bank at Bonasila consists now of portions of three adult skulls, one male and two females, and of 13 bones of the male skeleton. All the specimens are more or less stained by manganese and iron and all are distinctly heavier than normal, showing some grade of fossilization. They closely resemble in all these respects the numerous animal bones from the bank and in all differ from the later surface burials of the place.

THE CRANIA

The male skull, No. 332513, is represented by the frontal bone united with a larger part of the face, a separated left temporal, and the right half of the lower jaw. A large Inca bone, recovered from the beach a year later, may also belong to the same specimen. The missing parts are probably still somewhere in the sands of the beach where there is going on a very instructive scattering and redeposition on a 4 to 6 feet lower level of the contents of the old bank.

The skull is that of a male of somewhat over 50 years of age, judging from the moderate to marked wear of the remaining teeth. It is a normal undeformed specimen, and the same applies to the bones of the skeleton.

_Notes and measurements._--The frontal shows a medium development, no slope. The supraorbital ridges are rather weakly developed for a male, leaving the upper borders of the orbits rather sharp.

Cm.

Diameter frontal minimum 9.75 Diameter frontal maximum 11.8 Diameter nasion-bregma 11.5

The skull as a whole was evidently mesocephalic, and neither low nor very high. The thickness of the frontal is about medium for an Indian.

The face is of medium proportions and strength, with rather large orbits, good interorbital breadth, medium malars, medium broad nose, and but moderate alveolar prognathism. The nasal bridge is not high, nasal bones fairly broad, spine moderate, lower borders well defined though not sharp. The sub-malar (canine) fossae are shallow.

_Measurements_

Alveolar point-nasion height cm 7.8 Facial breadth about medium for an Indian. Nose: Height cm 5.5 Breadth, near cm 2.75 Index _50_ Left orbit: Height cm 3.75 Breadth cm 4 Index _93.7_ Minimum interorbital distance cm 2.6 Upper dental arch: Length, approximately cm 5.6 Breadth, approximately cm 7 Index, approximately _80_ Lower jaw: Height at symphysis approximately cm 4.1 Thickness at M₂ (with the tooth held midway between branches of compass) cm 1.5 Height of asc. ramus cm 6.9 Breadth minimum of asc. ramus cm 3.7

The condyloid process of the lower jaw is high, mandibular notch deep. The whole jaw is strong but not thick or massive. It is Indianlike, not Eskimoid, in all its features. The teeth are of good medium size.

_Skull No. 333383._--Of this skull I brought the right parietal with about one-third of the frontal; Mr. Krieger, a year later, the remainder of the frontal. Other parts are missing.

The specimen was evidently, a good-size female skull, normal, undeformed, probably mesocephalic in form, and moderately high. The thickness of the bones is not above moderate.

Cm. Diameter frontal minimum 9.7 Diameter frontal maximum 12.5 Diameter nasion-bregma 11.1

_Skull No. 333950._--Of the third skull, recovered from the sands of the beach at low water in 1927 by Mr. Lawrence, there are only the two parietals. The specimen is that of a young adult female. The bones, rather submedium in thickness, indicate a skull of slightly smaller size and slightly shorter than the preceding but of much the same general type.

_The skeletal parts of male No. 332513._--Humeri: The long bones all give the impression of straightness, length, and of a certain gracility of form combined with strength, but without massiveness. The right humerus presents a small but distinct supracondylar process, a rarity among Indians. The fossae are not perforated. Measurements:

Length, maximum: Right cm 35.8 Left cm 35.3 Major diameter at middle: Right cm 2.5 Left cm 2.4 Minor diameter at middle: Right cm 1.65 Left cm 1.6 Index at middle: Right _66_ Left _66.7_ Type of shaft at middle, prismatic: Right cm 1 Left cm 1 Right radius: Length, maximum, near cm 27 Radio-humeral index, approximately _75.5_

The shaft approaches type IV (quadrilateral). There is but small curvature.

Right ulna: Lacks the olecranon; shaft prismatic, with anterior and posterior surfaces fluted; but a moderate curvature backward upper third.

Femora: Length, bicondylar, right cm 48.2 Humero-femoral index _74.3_ Diameter antero-posterior maximum at middle-- Right cm 3.05 Left cm 3.2 Diameter lateral maximum at middle-- Right cm 2.5 Left cm 2.65 Index at middle-- Right _82_ Left _82.8_ Diameter maximum at upper flattening-- Right cm 3.5 Left cm 3.7 Diameter minimum at upper flattening-- Right cm 2.1 Left cm 2.25 Index at upper flattening-- Right _60_ Left _60.8_ Type shaft at middle-- Right 1 Left, near 1

The bones, especially the right, are remarkable for their graceful form and approach to straightness. The linea aspera is high but not massive or rough.

Right tibia: Length (?), extremities wanting. A moderate physiological curvature forward, middle third.

Diameter antero-posterior at middle, right cm 3.25 Diameter lateral at middle cm 1.95 Index at middle _60_

The bone is distinctly platycnaemic, as the femora are platymeric and the humeri platybrachic, a harmony of characters which is often met with in the continental Indian.

ADDITIONAL PARTS

These include four ribs, the atlas and two lumbar vertebræ. The first rib approaches the semicircular in type and is rather large, indicating a spacious chest. Otherwise there is nothing special.

A comparison of the long bones of this interesting skeleton with those of the later Indians from the same and near-by localities as well as with those of the western Eskimo (see table, p. 160) shows a number of striking conditions. The length of the bones of the skeleton is far above the mean of both those of Indians and the Eskimo, indicating a stature of at least 10 centimeters (4 inches) higher. In none of their characteristics are the bones near to those of the Eskimo, making it doubly certain that the subject was not of that affiliation. Compared with those of the later Indians of the same territory, the bones show in one line remarkable differences, in another remarkable likenesses. The differences concern all the relative proportions of the shafts--the bones of the old skeleton give without exception indices that are markedly lower; they are distinctly more platybrachic, platymeric, and platycnaemic. But the more basic humero-femoral and radio-humeral indices are practically the same; showing fundamental identity. The humero-femoral index is especially important in this case. It is exceptionally high in the Yukon Indians, due to a relatively long humerus, and the same condition is seen in the old skeleton. It seems safe, therefore, to conclude that the owner of the old skeleton was not only an Indian but an Indian of the same physical stock from which were derived the later Indians of the Yukon; but he was evidently of an earlier and different tribe or of a purer derivation than those who followed. To more fully establish and then trace this type, both as to its derivation and extension, will be tasks of future importance.

YUKON INDIANS: MAIN LONG BONES

SEX: MALES[39]

+----------------+-------------+-------- | Yukon Indians | | +--------+-------+ | Paired bones | Older| From|Miscellaneous| Western |skeleton|Russian| North| Eskimos | at| times| American| |Bonasila| | Indians| -----------------------------+--------+-------+-------------+-------- Humerus: | (2)| (10)| [40](378)|[41](76) | | | | Mean length | 35.55| 31.17| 31.8| 30.88 | | | | At middle-- | | | | | | | | Diameter, major | 2.45| 2.38| 2.22| 2.42 | | | | Diameter, minor | 1.68| 1.67| 1.63| 1.82 | | | | Index | _66.4_| _70_| _73.1_| _75.2_ | | | | Radius: | (1)| (10)| (378)| (76) | | | | Mean length | n. 27| 23.61| 24.7| 22.85 | | | | Radio-humeral index | n.| _75.7_| _77.7_| _74_ | _75.5_| | | | | | | Femur: | (2)| (14)| [40](902)| (84) | | | | Mean length (bycondylar) | 48.2| 41.92| 42.7| 42.70 | | | | Humero-femoral index | _74.3_| _74.5_| n. _72.5_|n. _-72_ | | | | At middle-- | | | | | | | | Diameter, | 3.12| 2.96| 2.95| 3.03 antero-posterior, maximum| | | | | | | | Diameter, lateral | 2.57| 2.58| 2.58| 2.71 | | | | Index | _82.4_| _87.1_| _87.3_| _89.5_ | | | | At upper flattening-- | | | | | | | | Diameter, maximum | 3.60| 3.25| 3.27| 3.37 | | | | Diameter, minimum | 2.18| 2.30| 2.42| 2.48 | | | | Index | _60.4_| _70.7_| _74_| _73.5_ | | | | Tibia: | (1)| (14)| (324)| (84) | | | | Mean length | | 34.19| 36.9| 33.61 | | | | Tibio-femoral index | | 81.5| 84.4| 78.7 | | | | At middle-- | | | | | | | | Diameter, | 3.25| 3.04| 3.28| 3.10 antero-posterior, maximum| | | | | | | | Diameter, lateral | 1.95| 2.| 2.16| 2.12 | | | | Index | _60_| _66_| _65.8_| _68.5_ -----------------------------+--------+-------+-------------+--------

FOOTNOTES:

[39] See also data in writer's "Physical Anthropology of the Lenape," etc., Bull. 62, Bur. Amer. Ethn., Washington, 1916; and his "Anthropology of Florida," Fla. Hist. Soc. Pub. No. 1, Deland, Fla., 1922.

[40] These numbers apply to length only; under the other items the numbers are in some cases smaller, in some larger. The differences are due to defects in some of the old bones.

[41] See also data on p. 165.

THE YUKON ESKIMO

THE LIVING

As with the Indians farther up the river, the necessities of the writer's journey did not permit more than visual observations, but in 1927 Henry B. Collins, jr., succeeded in measuring six adult males at Marshall.

In general, the people of the Yukon delta and from this to Paimute are true Eskimo. By this is meant that in the majority of individuals they can readily be told as a type apart from the Indian and belonging plainly to that of the extensive family of the Eskimo. But when the differences are to be defined the task is not easy; some of the distinguishing marks, though well appreciated, are somewhat intangible.

The physical differences are essentially those of the physiognomy. The head is neither narrow nor scaphoid, or even very high. The Indian face is more prominent and more sculptured; that of the Eskimo appears fuller, especially in the lower part, and flatter. Part of this is due to the bony structure, part to the differing amounts of fat. An eversion of the angles of the lower jaw, which is relatively frequent and sometimes excessive in the Eskimo male while almost absent in the Indian, may give the Eskimo face almost a square appearance. Take with this the seemingly somewhat low Eskimo forehead, the not very widely open and somewhat on the whole more slanting eye, and the characteristic Eskimo nose with its rather narrow and not prominent nasal bridge, the ridiculous monk-like cut of the hair (in the older males), the often rather full lips with, in the males, a tuft of sparse mustache above each corner of the mouth; add to all this a mostly smiling or ready-to-smile "full-moon" expression, and it would be impossible to take the subject for anything else than an Eskimo. The Indian's face is more set, less fat, in the males at least, less broad below, with seemingly a higher forehead, sensibly made-up hair, not seldom a bit more mustache, and a nose that generally is both broader and more prominent.

But the differences are less marked in the women and still less so in the children, especially where similarly combed and clothed. And there are, particularly on the Yukon, not a few of both Indian and Eskimo who even an expert is at a loss where to class. They may be due to old mixtures; no new ones are taking place; but it seems that there may be present another important factor, that of a far-back related parentage.

In the color of the skin and eyes, in the color and nature of the hair, there is no marked difference between the two peoples of the Yukon. In stature the Eskimos are slightly higher.

MEASUREMENTS ON LIVING YUKON ESKIMO