The St. Lawrence and Diomede Islands
ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND
Ranking in archeological and anthropological importance with Wales and in some respects perhaps even exceeding the latter, is the large island of St. Lawrence, with the almost forgotten little Punuk group at its eastern extremity.
Figure 26.—Russian map of St. Lawrence Island, 1849. (Tebenkof)
The main island was discovered by Bering on St. Lawrence Day, August 10, 1728, and it was found peopled by the Eskimo. In 1849 an excellent map of it was published by Tebenkof in Novo-Archangelsk, and on this map (fig. 26) are indicated about a dozen smaller or larger Eskimo settlements, some of which, however, are not named and may already have been "dead."
About 1878 there were still six settlements with somewhat less than 1,500 Eskimo inhabitants on the island. That winter (1878-79) not less than 1,000 of the population died of famine (Hooper), three of the villages becoming completely depopulated and a fourth nearly so. The Punuk Island village may have become extinct about the same time.
To-day there are on the St. Lawrence Island but two living settlements, the main one, now known as Gambell, at the old site of Chibukak on the northwestern cape, and the other, Savonga, about 40 miles east of it, near Cape North.
A number of the old sites on this island, and also that on one of the Punuks, indicate a long occupation, antedating by far the advent of the Russians. The accumulations rise in some places to imposing heaps or ridges. Their frozen contents yield quantities of fossil ivory, all of which shows the work of man, and among them occur specimens with fine curvilinear designs and of high scientific as well as artistic value.
Through Nelson in 1881 and R. D. Moore in 1912 the Smithsonian Institution has acquired a large quantity of human skeletal material from the main island, and there is now (1928) an expedition of the Institution under Collins on the Punuk as well as the St. Lawrence exploring some of the principal ruins.
THE DIOMEDE ISLANDS AND THE ASIATIC COAST
[Figs. 27 and 28]
The smaller or American Diomede, though a very inhospitable place, supports, and that evidently since long, a small Eskimo village of stone houses, below and about which there is a considerable accumulation of refuse. Doctor Jenness dug here for a short time in 1926.
The larger or Russian Diomede has two villages, each of which is larger than the one on the smaller island. There are also said to be some remains in a broad depression on the eastern side of the island, while skeletal remains are reported by the natives to exist among the rocks on the top. This island is in need of thorough attention. Its people are reputed to be skilled ivory workers. They come yearly to Nome, where they were visited and seen at their work by the writer. They bring each year some fossil ivory, said to come mainly from the Asiatic coast, and among this are occasionally articles of much interest.
Ruins of Eskimo villages are also present along the coasts of the Chukchee Peninsula, both those facing the Bering Sea and those along the Arctic. Very little is definitely known or can be found from the American Eskimo about these ruins, and some of them may not be Eskimo. Nelson in his book (p. 265) reports briefly on a few about Cape Wankarem. Interesting objects of the fossil ivory culture are said to occur in these old sites as far west as the Kolyma, but nothing is certain except that there are ruins, that a good number of them are probably Eskimo, and that fossil ivory, both worked (walrus) and unworked (mammoth), comes from these coasts. A noteworthy report is that of a large native cemetery on the Bering Sea side, with hundreds of burials in rough stone-slab graves. Information of this was given me by Joe Bernard, well known in connection with Bering Sea explorations, who had seen the site in person.
Figure 27.—Eskimo villages and sites, St. Lawrence Island, the Diomedes, and the eastern Asiatic coast
211. Gambell (or Chibukuk).—Old Eskimo settlement on the northwest cape of St. Lawrence Island. United States National Museum expedition, 1912, by Riley D. Moore; anthropometric data; important collections.
212. Small sites, north bay, St. Lawrence Island, indicated on 1849 Russian map (q. v.).
213. Savonga.—A small modern Eskimo village. A. H., 1926; some collections.
214. Ruins of an old site 4 miles northeast of Savonga. Important archeologically.
215. Kukuliak.—Dead village.
216. Former summer site. Given on the 1849 Russian map.
Figure 28.—The Bering Strait Islands
217. Important old site with large accumulations on one of the two Punuk Islands. Explored 1928 by Collins; collections.
218. Kialegak.—Dead village. Important archeologically. Partly explored by Collins, 1928; collections.
219. Chitnak.—One of the dead villages of 1879. (Nelson, Hooper.)
220. Puguviliak.—One of the dead villages of 1879. (Nelson, Hooper.)
221. Old site; no details available.
222. Living small village on the smaller (American) Diomede Island. Some old accumulations. A. H., 1926, collections; some excavations same year by D. Jenness.
223. Nunarbuk.—Village still occupied, on greater (Russian) Diomede, located on an elevated slope around the southern cape of the island. Skeletal and other remains reported on top of mesa.
224. Village, still occupied, on an elevated saddle near middle of west coast of island.
225. Eskimo village, East Cape of Asia. Other villages indicated along the coast of Chukchee Peninsula. Others on north coast. (See Nelson, The Eskimo of Bering Strait, p. 265.)