FOOTNOTES:
[264] Rae, Dr. John, Remarks on the natives of British North America. J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, XVI, pp. 200-201. London, 1887.
[265] Laloy, L'Anthr., IX, p. 586. 1898.
[266] Déchelette, J., Manuel d'Archéologie préhistorique, etc., pp. 312. Paris, 1908.
[267] Burkitt, M. C., Prehistory, p. 307. London, 1921.
[268] MacCurdy, G. G., Human Origins, V. I, pp. 406-407. New York and London, 1924.
[269] Keith, Arthur, The Antiquity of Man, p. 86. London, 1925.
MISCELLANEOUS AND INDEFINITE
Gallatin, 1836:[270] "Whatever may have been the origin of the Eskimo, it would seem probable that the small tribe of the present sedentary Tchuktchi on the eastern extremity of Asia is a colony of western American Eskimo. The language does not extend in Asia beyond that tribe. That of their immediate neighbors, the "Reindeer," or "Wandering Tchuktchi," is totally different and belongs to the Kouriak family.
"There does not seem to be any solid foundation for the opinion of those who would ascribe to the Eskimaux an origin different from that of the other Indians of North America. The color and features are essentially the same; and the differences which may exist, particularly that in stature, may be easily accounted for by the rigor of the climate and partly, perhaps, by the nature of their food. The entire similarity of the structure and grammatical forms of their language with those of various Indian tribes, however different in their vocabularies, which will hereafter be adverted to, affords an almost conclusive proof of their belonging to the same family of mankind."
Richardson, 1852:[271] "The origin of the Eskimos has been much discussed as being the pivot on which the inquiry into the original peopling of America has been made to turn. The question has been fairly and ably stated by Doctor Latham in his recent work On the Varieties of Man, to which I must refer the reader; and I shall merely remark that the Eskimos differ more in physical aspect from their nearest neighbors than the red races do from one another. The lineaments have a decided resemblance to the Tartar or Chinese countenance. On the other hand, their language is admitted by philologists to be similar to the other North American tongues in its grammatical structure; so that, as Doctor Latham has forcibly stated, the dissociation of the Eskimos from their neighboring nations on account of their physical dissimilarity is met by an argument for their mutual affinity, deduced from philological coincidences."
Meigs, 1857:[272] "A connected series of facts and arguments which seem to indicate that the Eskimo are an exceedingly ancient people, whose dawn was probably ushered in by a temperate climate, but whose dissolution now approaches, amidst eternal ice and snow; that the early migrations of these people have been from the north southwards, from the islands of the Polar Sea to the continent and not from the mainland to the islands; and that the present geographical area of the Eskimo may be regarded as a primary center of human distribution for the entire polar zone."
Abbott, 1876:[273] "It is fair to presume that the first human beings that dwelt along the shores of the Delaware were really the same people as the present inhabitants of Arctic America."
Grote, 1875:[274] Basing himself on certain biological reasonings, the author concludes "that the Eskimos are the existing representatives of the man of the American glacial epoch, just as the White Mountain butterfly (Oeneis semidea) is the living representative of a colony of the genus planted on the retiring of the ice from the valley of the White Mountains."
In a later communication[275] the author expresses the opinion that the peopling of America "was effected during the Tertiary; that the ice modified races of Pliocene man, existing in the north of Asia and America, forced them southward, and then drew them back to the locality where they had undergone their original modification. * * *
"During the process, then, which resulted in the race modification of the Eskimos, their original numbers must have been decreased by the slowly but ever increasing cold of the northern regions, until experience and physical adaptation combined brought them to a state of comparative stability as a race."
Baron Nordenskiöld[276] thought that the Eskimo might probably be the true "autochthones" of the polar regions, i. e., that they had inhabited the same previous to the glacial age, at a period when a climate prevailed here equal to that of northern Italy at present, as proved by the fossils found at Spitzbergen and Greenland. As it might be assumed that man had existed even during the Tertiary period, there was a great deal in favor of the assumption that he had lived in those parts which were most favorable to his existence. The question was one of the highest importance, as, if it could be proved that the Eskimo descended from a race which inhabited the polar regions in the very earliest times, we should be obliged to assume that there was a northern (polar) as well as an Asiatic cradle of the human race, which would open up new fields of research, both to the philologist and the ethnologist, and probably remnants of the culture and language of the original race might be traced in the present polar inhabitants of both Europe and Asia.
Keane, 1886:[277] "The Aleutian Islanders, who are treated by Doctor Rink as a branch of the Eskimo family, but whose language diverges profoundly from, or rather shows no perceptible affinity at all to, the Eskimo. The old question respecting the ethnical affinities of the Aleutians is thus again raised, but not further discussed by our author. To say that they must be regarded as 'ein abnormer Seitenzweig,' merely avoids the difficulty, while perhaps obscuring or misstating the true relations altogether. For these islanders should possibly be regarded, not as 'an abnormal offshoot,' but as the original stock from which the Eskimo themselves have diverged."
Quatrefages, 1887:[278] From migrations of Tertiary man: Men originated in Tertiary in northern Asia; spread from here to Europe and over Asia; "D'autres aussi gagnèrent peut-être l'Amérique et ont pu être les ancêtres directs des Esquimaux,... Sans même supposer l'existence passée de la continuité des deux continents, les hommes tertiaires ont bien pu faire ce que font les riverains actuels du détroit de Behring, qui vont chaque jour d'Asie en Amérique et reciproquement."...
"Evidemment la race esquimale est américaine. Au Groënland, au Labrador, dont personne ne lui a disputé les solitudes glacées, elle a conservé sa pureté. Elle est encore restée pure quand elle a rencontré les Peaux-Rouges proprement dits, parce que ceux-ci lui ont fait une guerre d'extermination qui ne respectait ni les femmes ni les enfants. Mais, dans le nord-ouest américain, elle s'est trouvée en rapport avec des populations d'un caractère plus doux et des croisements ont eu lieu. Or, parmi ces populations, il s'en trouve de brachycéphales. Tels sont en particulier certaines tribus, confondues à tort sous un même nom avec les vrais Koluches.... Ces tribus sont de race jaune et leur crâne ressemble si bien à celui des Toungouses que M. Hamy les a rattachées directement à cette famille mongole. Les Esquimaux se sont croisés avec elles; et ainsi ont pris naissance ces tribus, dont l'origine métisse est attestée par le mélange ou la fusion des caractères linguistiques aussi bien qu'anatomiques."
Nansen, 1893:[279] "So much alone can we declare with any assurance, that the Eskimos dwelt in comparatively recent times on the coasts around Bering Strait and Bering Sea—probably on the American side—and have thence, stage by stage, spread eastward over Arctic America to Greenland. * * *
"The likeness between all the different tribes of Eskimos, as well as their secluded position with respect to other peoples, and the perfection of their implements, might be taken to indicate that they are of a very old race, in which everything has stiffened into definite forms, which can now be but slowly altered. Other indications, however, seem to conflict with such a hypothesis, and render it more probable that the race was originally a small one, which did not until a comparatively late period develop to the point at which we now find it, and spread over the countries which it at present inhabits."
Tarenetzky, 1900:[280] "Die Frage ist bis jetzt noch nicht entschieden und wird wahrscheinlich auch niemals definitiv entschieden werden ob die gegenwärtig die Nordostgrenze Asiens und die Nordwestgrenze Amerikas bewohnenden Polarvölker ursprünglich aus Asien nach Amerika oder in umgekehrter Richtung zu ihren Wohnsitzen wanderten."
De Nadaillac[281] believed that the Eskimo (with some other aboriginal Americans), now savage and demoralized, have issued from races more civilized and that they could raise themselves to the old social level were it not for their struggle with inexorable climate, famines, and lately also alcoholism.
Jenness, 1928:[282] "We still believe that the Eskimos are fundamentally a single people; that they had their origin in a homeland not yet determined; but we have learned that they reached their present condition through a series of complex changes and migrations, the outlines of which we have hardly begun to decipher."