Cape Romanzof to Northern (Apoon) Pass of the Yukon and Northward
On this coast there is little information since the time of Nelson. There are a number of occupied villages as well as of old sites. The region is bleak and the Eskimo there are reported to live miserably.
The principal Eskimo villages and sites along the lowermost branch of the Yukon have been given previously. (Fig. 11.)
From the northernmost pass of the Yukon to St. Michael Island the coast is poor in Eskimo remains. A site of interest here is the old camping ground, with a few permanent houses, of Pastolik, and there are two small sites farther up the coast. Pastolik to the writer's visit was still occasionally occupied by a few Eskimo families. There are only three houses, but a relatively large and old cemetery speaks of a larger population, probably camping here in tents during the summer seasons of the past. The burial grounds were found to be rather extensive and give indications of containing human bones as well as artifacts below the present surface (buried by the tundra). The main part of the burial grounds may well repay an excavation.
St. Michael Island.—Eskimo remains exist on the northeastern point of the island beyond the present white man's village, and also on the rock (Whale Island) opposite this point. During my visit the ground was so overgrown by high weeds that details were hidden. On this same northeastern point near the extension of the white settlement is a small living Eskimo village, most of the inhabitants of which are now of mixed blood. Across St. Michael Bay are said to be some old traces of Eskimo, and Nelson reported an old site in the southern part of the island. Finally at Cape Stephens, in the western extremity of the island, there is "Stebbins," another living village. Nothing could be learned of any human remains on the opposite Stuart Island.
Norton Sound.—North of St. Michael Island is Norton Sound and Norton Bay. Along the east coast of the Sound there are three villages still occupied, but with old accumulations. It is reported that in this region there are some ruined houses in which mammoth tusks had been used in the construction, but nothing definite could be learned as to the location of these houses and the whole may be but a story. The village of Unalaklik was of importance in the past and its older remains would probably repay excavation. Old sites are reported from the vicinity of Shaktolik and at Cape Denbigh.
The Norton Bay region (fig. 22), now almost depopulated, had in 1840 a whole series of moderate-sized living Eskimo settlements, both on the east and the west shore. These shallows are but little visited, and it is probable that the remains of the villages and some at least of the skeletal material of their burying grounds are well preserved. They call for early attention.
To the west of Norton Bay, on the southern coast of Seward Peninsula, is Golovnin[64] Bay. On the eastern shore of this bay are now, as there were in Russian times, two settlements, but the name of one has been misplaced. On Zagoskin's map it is clearly seen that the village Ching or Chinig corresponds in location to what now is the mission, while what is now called "Cheenik" was in 1840 Ikalik or Ikalikhaig. There will soon be seen another instance of such a misapplication of the original names.
To the west Golovnin Bay is bounded by a large promontory ending in Rocky Point. To the east of this point is a shallow bay, where I found a late Eskimo house and on the elevated shore a little to the left four fairly recent adult burials. Farther down the bay was an Eskimo camp, without signs of anything older; but Zagoskin's map gives a settlement, probably also a camp, at this place, named Knikhtak. From this a rocky point projects eastward into the bay. Behind this point is a shallow cove with elevated ground above the beach, and at the inland end of this bay I found the remains of a small old village. Traces of burials were seen on the elevated ground but skeletal remains were absent.
On the southwestern shore of the promontory that bounds Golovnin Bay on the west the Russians (Zagoskin) recorded two villages, the one near to Rocky Point being Chiukak, that on a point farther northwest being named Chaimiut. Later the name Chiukak became applied to the former Chaimiut, while Chiukak proper was dead and forgotten. On latest maps, such as Chart 9302 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, neither of the old names appears. The name Bluff denotes a small settlement in about the location of the former Chaimiut. Some Eskimo met in Golovnin Bay said that there are skeletal remains near the original Chiukak, but an attempt to reach the place failed through rough water.