Part 20

The location of the western Eskimo villages has received more or less attention by most of the explorers in their region from the Russian time onward; but such efforts are generally limited to the living villages in the area visited by the observers.

Perhaps the earliest Russian map of value in this connection on the Bering Sea region is that which I find in Billings and Gall's Voyage or "Putěshestvie" of 1791, printed in St. Petersburg 1811. The map bears no date, but is evidently quite early. It gives three villages on the western point and north coast of the Seward Peninsula, namely Kiemile (later Nykhta, now Wales), Chegliukh, and Tykiak. (Pl. 29.)

The most notable and valuable of the Russian contributions to this subject is that of Zagoskin. This refers to the period of 1842-1844 and is contained partly in his "Peshechodnaia Opis," etc. (St. Petersburg, 1847), but especially on his maps. There are, I find, two of these maps--the "Merkatorskaia Karta Časti Sieverozapadnago Berega Ameriky" and the "Merkatorskaia Generalnaia Karta Časti Rossijskich Vladěnii v Amerikě." I came across the first in one copy of Zagoskin's invaluable account, which should long ago have been translated into English, and the other in another copy. Part of the second is here reproduced. (Pl. 30.) Both bear the statement that they were made by Zagoskin as the result of his explorations on the Yukon in 1842-1844. The second ("general") map is much the clearer and richer. Both maps, but especially the second, give a good number of villages, especially about Norton Sound and along the southern shore of Seward Peninsula. The orthography differs somewhat on the two charts.

The Tebenkof Atlas of 1849 includes a remarkably good map of the St. Lawrence Island. As on other Russian maps it gives the Punuk Islands, that later are lost by most map makers, and indicates the location of what probably were all the living settlements of that time, except on the Punuk. (Fig. 27.)

Finally, in 1861, Tikhmenief, in his "Istoričeskoie Obozrenie" (history of Russian America) gives a detailed map with many locations of Eskimo villages.

The Aleutian Islands and Kodiak are excellently dealt with by Veniaminof and also Tikhmenief, though little special attention is given to the location of the settlements.

None of the Russian explorers, regrettably, report verbally on the deserted sites or ruins. But their registration and location of many villages that have since become "dead" is of much historical as well as anthropological value.

Of later and particularly American authors who gave attention to the location of the western Eskimo settlements, the foremost is E. W. Nelson. Beginning in 1877 with the St. Michael Island and ending with the cruise of the _Corwin_ in 1881, Nelson made trips down the coast to the Kuskokwim, up the Yukon to Anvik, over the Bering Sea, the St. Lawrence Island and parts of the Chukchee Peninsula, and finally, with the _Corwin_, along the northern coasts to Point Barrow. And these journeys were devoted largely to biological and ethnological observations and collections, the latter including the location of the western Eskimo habitations of that time. His locations are given on the accompanying map (fig. 15) taken from his classic memoir, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," published in 1900 in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. This memoir contains a section of "Ruins" (pp. 263-266), a brief account of the recently dead villages on St. Lawrence Island (p. 269), and an instructive section on Eskimo burials (pp. 310-322). Nelson brought also the first more substantial collection of Eskimo crania.

The next deserving man in these connections is Ivan Petrof. Of Russian-American extraction, Petrof was charged in 1880 with the census enumeration of the natives in Alaska, and he later published[60] a valuable report on his work, together with detailed demographic data and a map on which are given all the living settlements of his time. Nelson's map is partly based on Petrof's data.

Since Nelson and Petrof but little has been done in this field. But the maps of these two observers have been utilized more or less by the map makers of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Geological Survey, and other Government agencies concerned with Alaska. The result is that some of these charts are exceptionally useful to the anthropological explorer in Alaska; nevertheless the data they carry are incomplete and the locations or names are not always exact, a good many of the villages shown are now dead, and old ruins, as usual, have received no attention.

A very valuable supplement to all the maps has in 1902 been published by the United States Geological Survey. It is the Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, by Marcus Baker. This volume, besides brief but serviceable historical data, gives in alphabetical order nearly all the then-known names of localities in Alaska, including those of the Eskimo and Indian settlements; and each name is accompanied by brief but in many instances most helpful information. This highly deserving volume, indispensable to every student of Alaska, has for many years been out of print, but it is understood that a new revised edition is slowly being prepared.

Other useful publications in these connections are the United States Coast Pilots of Alaska, the various accounts of travelers, explorers, and men in collateral branches of science (geology, biology, etc.), the publications of the Alaska Division of the United States Department of Education, the annual reports of the Governor of Alaska, and the decennial reports on Alaska of the United States Census.

The object of the following notes and data is some measure of usefulness to future anthropological and archeological workers in Alaska. They are surely incomplete and very imperfect, yet they may be of some service.

Archeological and anthropological research in the highly important 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 the 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.[61] 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 dwellings 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 population or its traces; the divisions represent the hunting grounds or grounds claimed by each people, not an occupied territory. The data will be given in south-to-north order.

Nearly all the settlements in these regions are now, and have evidently always been, on the shores of the seas and bays, as close to the water as safety would permit. A few villages and sites occur also, however, on inland lakes and rivers. The favored locations have been an elevated flat near the mouth of a fresh-water stream or the outlet of a lagoon, a sufficiently elevated spit projecting into the sea, or an elevated bar between the sea and an inland lake. The essentials were an elevated flat, a supply of fresh drinking water, and a location favorable for fishing and hunting; if there was some natural protection, so much the better. There were no inland settlements except on the lakes and rivers. In a few cases, as at the Kings and the Little Diomede Islands, very difficult locations were occupied only because outweighed by other advantages.

Caves throughout the occupied region north of the Aleutian chain are absent, and there was therefore no cave habitation.

None of the settlements were very large, though a few were much larger than others. They ranged from one or two family camps or houses to villages of some hundreds of inhabitants. A large majority of the settlements had from but two or three to approximately a dozen families.

There were two main types of dwellings, the semisubterranean sod houses for the winter and the skin tents for summer. In some places the two were near each other; in others the summer dwellings were in another and at times fairly distant locality.

The "zimniki" (in Russian) or winter houses were throughout the region of one general type. They were fair-sized circular semisubterranean houses, made of driftwood and earth, and provided with a semisubterranean entrance vestibule. Their remains are characterized everywhere by a circular pit with a short straight trench depression, the same pot-and-handle type as found along the Yukon. Rarely for the construction of the houses, where driftwood did not suffice, recourse was had to whale ribs and mandibles. The "letniki," or summer houses, were constructed on the surface of wood, sod and skins, or of whale ribs and skins, approaching on one hand the summer huts of various continental tribes and on the other the "yurts" of the north Asiatic peoples. The "kashims," or communal houses, were built, much as on the Yukon, like the family dwellings, but occasionally quadrilateral and much larger. Smaller semisubterranean storage houses of driftwood and sod near the winter dwellings were seemingly general.

Ruins of stone dwellings, without mortar, are said to exist in places on Norton Sound and Bay and on a lagoon near the western end of the Seward Peninsula. The few houses on the Little Diomede are made of loose unhewn stone slabs. The dwellings of the King Islanders are built on the rocky slope of the island on platforms supported by poles, all of driftwood.

There is as a rule an absence of separate refuse heaps near the villages. The refuse apparently has been dumped about and between the houses rather than on separate piles.

Dead villages abound. On consulting the older Russian records, however, it is seen that nearly all were still "living" as late as the early forties of the last century. Yet there are sites that were "dead" already when the Russians came, and the accumulations in other cases denotes a long occupation.

The site of a dead village, in summer, is generally marked by richer and greener vegetation; same as on the Yukon. The site itself is usually pitted or humped in a line forming a more or less elevated ridge, or the pits may be disseminated without apparently much order. And there may be irregular mound-like heaps without external traces of any structure.

In the older sites no trace of wood is visible; in the later rotten posts, crosspieces, parts of the covering of the house or tunnel, or even a whole habitation may be present. In the old sites the wood is hewn with stone axes; in the later it is sawed, and there may be nails.

Older accumulations lie occasionally beneath more recent ones, though no interruption of continuity may be traceable. Of a superposition of villages no trace was observable.

FOOTNOTES:

[60] Tenth Census, VIII; reprinted in Compilation of Narratives of Explorations in Alaska. U. S. Senate Rept. 1023, Washington, 1900, 55-281.

[61] I am especially indebted to the two maps of Zagoskin (one prepared by himself, one from his data); to the 1849 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 Petrof; to the various reports of the _Corwin_ and other voyages in the Bering Sea and the western Arctic; to the Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, by Marcus Baker, and to the U. S. Coast Pilots 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 Mr. 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.

BURIAL GROUNDS

Due to the impossibility of digging sufficiently deep into the frozen ground the western Eskimo buried their dead near or on the surface or among rocks. Occasionally they utilized also, it seems, old dwellings for this purpose, and in more recent times at least the surface burials, wherever there was driftwood, would be protected by heavy rough-hewn planks put together in the form of boxes or by driftwood. They bear close fundamental resemblance to those of the Yukon. On the Nunivak Island occur graves made of rough stone slabs piled up without much order. (Pl. 31, _a_, _b_.)

Throughout the region the burials were located near the village, but the distance varied according to local conditions and habits. In some of the Eskimo villages of the lower Yukon, as at Old Hamilton, some burials were close to the houses of the living. In the Bering and Arctic regions the burial grounds, though sometimes of necessity not far from the houses, as at the Little Diomede, in other places, as at Point Hope and Barrow, were at a distance extending to beyond a mile and a half from the village.

As a rule the wood of burials older than about 80 years was found fully decayed with the bones secondarily buried. Of earlier burials there is generally no trace on the surface, but on excavation skeletal remains are found at various depths below the surface. These characteristic self-burials, or rather tundra burials, may prove of much importance to anthropology in the future. As outlined before (see Narrative, pp. 77, 79) the process is a decay of the wood; the sagging down of the bones, covered more or less by the decayed material; an encroachment of moss or other vegetation on the little mound thus produced; and gradual accumulation through wind or water carried materials of more covering over the bones, until the mound disappears and the remains, generally still in good condition, are buried as if intentionally inhumed.

The Eskimo everywhere were found to be exceedingly sensible about the older, and even recent, skeletal remains, and assisted readily in their collection, as well as in excavation, offering thus the best possible conditions for anthropological and archeological work in these regions.

The notes, charts, and a detailed list of the sites and villages follow. In numerous cases it was found impossible to say whether a site was completely "dead" or still occasionally partly occupied, so that distinctive markings had to be abandoned.

PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, KODIAK ISLAND, ALASKA PENINSULA

Very largely still a terra incognita for anthropology and archeology. Partly occupied by Indians (Prince William Sound, Kodiak Island?), partly by mix-blood Aleut (parts of Peninsula, and of Kodiak), partly by Eskimo. There is but little skeletal or archeological material from the whole extensive territory.

KODIAK ISLAND AND NEIGHBORHOOD

[FIG. 17]

1. _Litnik_ (probably the Russian "Lietnik," the name for a summer village).--Indian village on Afognak Bay, Afognak Island. This name is found on a map made by the Fish Commission in 1889. Apparently it is the Afognak of other maps (G. D. A.).[62]

2. _Afognak._--On the southwestern part of Afognak Island. Village or row of scattered dwellings on shore of Afognak Bay, in southwestern part of Afognak Island. Population in 1890, 409. (G. D. A.) According to Walker, "an important, occupied native village which has probably been occupied for a long time. No doubt there are other native villages in this immediate vicinity."

3. _Spruce Island._--Ouzinkie, or Uzinki; an occupied native village and cannery. (E. P. W.).[63]

4. _Eagle Harbour or Ugak Bay._--Possibly the native village "Orlova" of the Russians. (G. D. A.)

5. _Kiliuda._--Native village, on the north shore of Kiliuda Bay, Kodiak. Has been generally written Killuda. (G. D. A.)

6. _Nunamiut._--Native village, on the shore of Three Saints Harbor, Kodiak. (G. D. A.) Better known locally as Three Saints Bay. There was formerly an old native and Russian settlement at this point and vicinity, and fishing operations are frequently now conducted here. (E. P. W.)

7. _Kaguyak._--Village, at Kaguyak Bay, on the southwestern shore of Kodiak. It may be identical with the Kaniag-miut of the Russian-American Co., in 1849. (G. D. A.) An old native village at present occupied by only one or two families. Possibly an old site. (E. P. W.)

8. _Aiaktalik._--Village on one of the goose islands, near Kodiak. Population in 1890, 106. (G. D. A.) An occupied native village consisting of about a dozen houses, but which has probably been occupied for a long time. (E. P. W.)

9. _Akhiok._--Native village on the northern shore of Alitak Bay, Kodiak. Native name from Petrof, 1880. Apparently identical with Oohaiack of Lisianski in 1805. (G. D. A.) An occupied native village consisting of about a couple of dozen houses. This or possibly other villages in the vicinity have undoubtedly been occupied for a long time. It is possible that there was a native settlement at Lazy Bay near this point, for Lazy Bay was formerly a native headquarters for sea otter hunting. (E. P. W.)

10. _Karluk._--Village at mouth of Karluk River, Kodiak. Native name from the Russians. (G. D. A.)

11. _Uyak._--Bay indenting the northwestern coast of Kodiak; also a village. Native name from the Russians. Lisianski, 1805, spells it Oohiack and the village Ooiatsk. Petrof, 1880, writes it Ooiak. Has also been written Uiak. (G. D. A.)

12. _Larsen Bay._--A cannery has been located at this point for a number of years, and there is an old native trail from Larsen Bay to Karluk River, so presumably natives have frequented this section and no doubt have at some time had settlements there. Definite information regarding this is not available. (E. P. W.)

13. _Uganik._--Native village at head of Uganik Bay. Shown by Lisianski, 1805, who spells it Oohanick. (G. D. A.) An occupied native village and one which has apparently been in use for a considerable period. (E. P. W.)

FOOTNOTES:

[62] G. D. A.: Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, by Marcus Baker, U. S. Geol. Surv., Washington, 1902.

[63] E. P. W.: Dr. E. P. Walker.

ALASKA PENINSULA

[FIGS. 18, 19]

Native settlements or old villages at one or more points in Kamishak Bay, Ursus Cove, or Iliamna Bay are reported, but there is nothing definite on the subject. (E. P. W.)

14. _Iliamna._--An occupied native village, and undoubtedly there are various village sites on Iliamna Lake regarding which information could be obtained from parties in Iliamna. (E. P. W.)

15. _Ashivak._--Native village (population 46 in 1880), near Cape Douglas, Cook Inlet. Native name reported by Petrof in 1880. (G. D. A.)

16. _Kayayak._--Village, on Svikshak Bay, Shelikof Strait, about 25 miles southwest of Cape Douglas. Tebenkof, 1849, has Kaiaiak settlement, which has on many charts appeared as Kayayak. (G. D. A.)

17. _Kukak._--Native village on Kukak Bay. Lütke, 1835, has Koukak Bay and village. (G. D. A.)

18. _Katmai._--Village, on Katmai Bay, Shelikof Strait, northwest of Kodiak. This is one of the most important of the native villages. Population in 1880, 218; in 1890, 132. (G. D. A.) A native village which was occupied up to the time of the Katmai eruption but was abandoned at that time. (E. P. W.)

19. _Cold Bay._--Small village.

20. _Kanatak._--A native village consisting of about half a dozen houses until in 1922, when oil activity in the vicinity caused a small white settlement to locate at this point. This, however, has since been almost entirely abandoned by whites. (E. P. W.)

21. _Kuiukuk._--Small village.

22. _Chignik._--Fishing station on Chignik Bay, Alaska Peninsula. Population in 1890, 193. (G. D. A.) There are three canneries in this immediate vicinity, a number of natives, and undoubtedly some native villages and probably old village sites. (E. P. W.)

23. _Kaluiak._--Native village, on the southern shore of Chignik Bay, Alaska Peninsula. So given by Petrof in 1880 and the Fish Commission in 1888. (G. D. A.)

24. _Mitrofania._--An old native village which has recently been abandoned or practically abandoned; was apparently a rather important village at one time. (E. P. W.)

25. _Perryville._--A recently established native village consisting of natives from various points along the Alaska Peninsula who were moved there primarily by the Bureau of Education since the Katmai eruption. (E. P. W.)

26. _Kujulik._--Walker has been informed that there is an old village site of that name either in this bay or on Kumlik.

27. Old village mentioned on this island; uncertain.

28. _Wosnesenski._--An old village site on this island reported. (E. P. W.)

29. _Pavlof._--Rev. D. Hotvoitzky, of Belkofski, informed Walker that there is a very old abandoned village site at the head of this bay.

30. _Belkofski._--Bay, cape, and village on south coast of Alaska Peninsula. Named, by the Russians as early as 1835 and probably earlier. (G. D. A.) The most important occupied native village on the Alaska Peninsula. Quite an old village and a former headquarters for sea-otter hunting. (E. P. W.)