About 3,000 Innuits inhabit the northwest coast of America, from the Colville River, on the east, to Bering Strait, including the islands therein, on the west. Many of these came under my observation while cruising in the Arctic Ocean in command of the Corwin.
In appearance they are tall and muscular, many being 6 feet in height, and some were seen that would exceed that even. Their peculiar dress gives them a squat appearance, and their stature seems less than it is in reality. The women are much shorter than the men, but both sexes are strong and active, though not equal in these respects to the Tchuktchis and other reindeer tribes of Siberia.
The face of the Innuit is broad below the eyes, the forehead is narrow and receding, the chin and lower jaw broad and heavy. The nose is usually broad and flattened, but not always; occasionally one is seen whose features are well formed and handsome. In the young children this is the almost invariable rule; many of them are really beautiful. The eyes are small and black, and appear to be slightly oblique, and for this reason, perhaps more than any other, they have been classed with the Mongolidae. They have large mouths, thick, loosely hanging lips, and fine, strong teeth. These, however, from eating raw food, are usually very much worn. The labrets worn in the lips are hideous-looking things, made of bone, glass, stone, ivory, or in fact anything within the reach of the native which can be worked into the requisite shape.
They have rather light skin, very different from the Indians of the plains; and in this also they differ from the Tchuktchis, being much lighter, and when cleansed from the dirt which usually covers them, and freed from the sunburn and tan due to long exposure, they become quite fair. They have small, well-formed hands and feet, much smaller in proportion than white men. This was particularly noticeable when buying boots and mittens from them for our use; only the largest sizes made by them could be used at all. They are generally without beard, but as the men grow old, they sometimes have a thin, straggling mustache and beard, but it is never full and regular. The hair is coarse and black.
1885, Ray:[87]
Pages 37-38: The following table will show that physically the Inyu of North American coast does not conform to the typical idea of the Eskimo. They are robust, healthy people, fairer than the North American Indian, with brown eyes and straight black hair. The men are beardless until they attain the age of from 20 to 25 years, and even then it is very light and scattering, and is always clipped close in the winter; at this season they also cut off their eyebrows and tonsure their crown like a priest, with bangs over their forehead. Their hands and feet are extremely small and symmetrical; they are graceful in their movements when unincumbered by heavy clothing.
Page 46: Physically both sexes are very strong and possess great powers of endurance.
1888, Murdoch:[88]
In stature these people are of a medium height, robust, and muscular, inclining rather to spareness than corpulence, though the fullness of the face and the thick fur clothing often gives the impression of the latter. There is, however, considerable individual variation among them in this respect. The women are as a rule shorter than the men, occasionally almost dwarfish, though some women are taller than many of the men. The tallest man observed measured 5 feet 9½ inches and the shortest 4 feet 11 inches. The tallest woman was 5 feet 3 inches in height and the shortest 4 feet ½ inch. The heaviest man weighed 204 pounds and the lightest 126 pounds. One woman weighed 192 pounds and the shortest woman was also the lightest, weighing only 100 pounds. The hands and feet are small and well shaped, though the former soon become distorted and roughened by work. We did not observe the peculiar breadth of hands noticed by Doctor Simpson, nor is the shortness of the thumb which he mentions sufficient to attract attention. Their feet are so small that only one of our party, who is much below the ordinary size, was able to wear the boots made by the natives for themselves. Small and delicate hands and feet appear to be a universal characteristic of the Eskimo race and have been mentioned by most observers from Greenland to Alaska.
The face is broad, flat, and round, with high cheek bones and rather low forehead, broad across the brow and narrowing above, while the head is somewhat pointed toward the crown. The peculiar shape of the head is somewhat masked by the way of wearing the hair and is best seen in the skull. The nose is short, with little or no bridge—few Eskimo were able to wear our spring eyeglasses—and broad, especially across the alæ nasæ, with a peculiar, rounded, somewhat bulbous tip, and large nostrils. The eyes are horizontal, with rather full lids and are but slightly sunken below the level of the face.