Anthropological Survey in Alaska

by Aleš Hrdlička

Old Sites in the Region of the Western Eskimo

The shores of the Alaska rivers, the littoral parts of Alaska, the more northern Bering Sea islands, and those portions of the Asiatic coast that were once or are still occupied by the Eskimo, are strewn with "dead" villages and old sites. Many of these dead villages or sites are historic, having been abandoned, or very nearly so, since the coming of the whites; some are older, in instances doubtless considerably older. Collectively they offer a large, almost wholly virginal and highly important field to American archeology. They may contain much of the secrets of Eskimo origin and of his cultural, as well perhaps as physical, evolution. But these secrets are not to be given up easily. They are held within a perpetually frozen ground, which on one hand preserves everything, but on the other will not yield its contents except to assiduous and prolonged labor.

Ruined or "dead" villages began to be encountered by the earliest Russian and other explorers. Beechey (1826) tells us that between approximately the latitude of Nelson Island and Point Barrow (60° 34´ to 71° 24´ N.) they noticed 19 (Eskimo) villages, some of which were very small and consisted only of a few huts, and others appeared to have been deserted a long time.[51]

Hooper, in 1884, reports Eskimo ruins on the Asiatic side:

"Near the extremity of the cape [Wankarem] we found the ruins of houses similar to those now in use by the Innuits, half underground, with frames of the bones of whales. Probably they were former dwellings of Innuits, who for some reason crossed the straits and attempted to establish themselves on the Siberian side. These houses have been found by different travelers at many places along this coast, and various causes assigned for the abandonment of the attempt to settle here by the Innuits. * * *

"At Cape Wankarem and at other places on the Siberian coast we found the ruins of houses similar to those now in use by the Innuits. These houses, which have been found by different travelers at many places along that coast, are not at all like those used by the Tchuktchis, which, on account of the migratory habits of the reindeer tribes, are so constructed that they can be taken down and put up again at will."[52]

Ray and Murdoch both speak of old sites. The very spot they selected for their observatory at Barrow was one of these. Ray says of it:

"A point about 12 feet above the sea level, lying between the sea and a small lagoon three-fourths of a mile northeast from Uglaamie, was finally selected. The soil was firm and as dry as any unoccupied place in that vicinity, and as it was marked by mounds of an ancient village would be free from inundation."[53]

And farther on:

"That the ancestors of those people have made it their home for ages is conclusively shown by the ruins of ancient villages and winter huts along the seashore and in the interior. On the point where the station was established were mounds marking the site of three huts dating back to the time when they had no iron and men 'talked like dogs'; also at Perigniak a group of mounds mark the site of an ancient village. It stands in the midst of a marsh; a sinking of the land causing it to be flooded and consequently abandoned, as it is their custom to select the high and dry points of land along the seashore for their permanent villages. The fact of our finding a pair of wooden goggles 26 feet below the surface of the earth, in the shaft sunk for earth temperatures, points conclusively to the great lapse of time since these shores were first peopled by the race of man."[54]

The village of Sidaru, southwest of Cape Belcher, which in Ray's time had a population of about 50, has since gone "dead."

The most direct attention to this subject has been given by Nelson. In his excellent large memoir on "The Eskimo about Bering Strait"[55] he states as follows:

"Ruins of ancient Eskimo villages are common on the lower Yukon and thence along the coast line to Point Barrow. On the Siberian shore they were seen from East Cape along the Arctic coast to Cape Wankarem....

"On the shore of the bay on the southern side of St. Michael Island I dug into an old village site where saucer-shape pits indicated the places formerly occupied by houses. The village had been burned, as was evident from the numerous fragments of charred timbers mixed with the soil. In the few cubic feet of earth turned up at this place were found a slate fish knife, an ivory spearhead, a doll, and a toy dish, the latter two cut from bark. The men I had with me from the village at St. Michael became so alarmed by their superstitious feelings that I was obliged to give up the idea of getting further aid from them in this place. I learned afterward that this village had been built by people from Pastolik, at the mouth of the Yukon, who went there to fish and to hunt seals before the Russians came to the country.

"On the highest point of Whale Island, which is a steep islet just offshore near the present village of St. Michael, were the ruins of a kashim and of several houses. The St. Michael people told me that this place was destroyed, long before the Russians came, by a war party from below the Yukon mouth. The sea has encroached upon the islet until a portion of the land formerly occupied by the village has been washed away. The permanently frozen soil at this place stopped us at the depth of about 2 feet. Here, and at another ancient Unalit village site which was examined superficially, we found specimens of bone and ivory carvings which were very ancient, as many of them crumbled to pieces on being exposed.

"Along the lower Yukon are many indications of villages destroyed by war parties. According to the old men these parties came from Askinuk and Kushunuk, near the Kuskokwim, as there was almost constant warfare between the people of these two sections before the advent of the Russians.

"Both the fur traders and the Eskimo claim that there are a large number of house sites on the left bank of the Yukon,[56] a few miles below Ikogmut. This is the village that the Yukon Eskimo say had 35 kashims, and there are many tales relating to the period when it was occupied. At the time of my Yukon trips this site was heavily covered with snow, and I could not see it; but it would undoubtedly well repay thorough excavation during the summer months. One of the traditions is that this village was built by people from Bristol Bay, joined by others from Nunivak Island and Kushunuk. One informant said that a portion of this village was occupied up to 1848, when the last inhabitant died of smallpox, but whether or not this is true I was unable to learn.

"Another informant told me that near the entrance of Goodnews Bay, near the mouth of the Kuskokwim, there is a circular pit about 75 feet in diameter, marking the former site of a very large kashim. A few miles south of Shaktolik, near the head of Norton Sound, I learned of the existence of a large village site. Both the Eskimo and the fur traders who told me of this said that the houses had been those of Shaktolik people, and that some of them must have been connected by underground passageways, judging from the ditch-like depressions from one to the other along the surface of the ground. The Shaktolik men who told me this said that there were many other old village sites about there and that they were once inhabited by a race of very small people who have all disappeared.

"From the Malemut of Kotzebue Sound and adjacent region I learned that there are many old village sites in that district. Many of these places were destroyed by war parties of Tinné from the interior, according to the traditions of the present inhabitants.

"On Elephant Point, at the head of the Kotzebue Sound, I saw the site of an old village, with about 15 pits marking the locations of the houses. The pits sloped toward the center and showed by their outlines that the houses had been small and roughly circular, with a short passageway leading into them, the entire structure having been partly underground.

"The Eskimo of East Cape, Siberia, said that there were many old village sites along the coast in that vicinity. These houses had stone foundations, many of which are still in place. There is a large ruined village of this kind near the one still occupied on the cape.

"On the extreme point of Cape Wankarem, and at its greatest elevation, just above the present camp of the Reindeer Chukchi, a series of three sites of old Eskimo villages were found."

To this, on pages [269] et seq., Nelson adds an account of the villages that "died" on St. Lawrence Island during the winter of 1879-80. Capt. C. L. Hooper, in the "Cruise of the Corwin in 1881, Notes and Observations" (published in Washington, 1884, p. 100) gives the date as 1878-79, and adds further details about these villages.