[136] Incorporated in this are writer's own observations.
Remarks
The most noteworthy and important result of these studies on the living western Eskimo is the evidence, coming to light again and again, of their fundamental somatic relations to the Indian. These relations are too numerous and weighty to be accidental. Nor can they be ascribed to mixture with the Indian in such far-away groups as the St. Lawrence Islanders, who so long as known have never had any direct or even indirect contact with Indians. These relations in dimensions and relative proportions of the body, and in physiological characteristics such as the slow normal pulse, are supplemented by many phases of behavior, and often by a more or less Indianlike physiognomy. They inevitably lead to the conclusion that the Eskimo and the Indian are in the root members of the same family. They are two digits of the same hand, separate and diverging, yet at base joined to and derived from the same source. And this source, according to many indications, is the paleo-asiatic, "mongoloid," stem of northern Asia. The western Eskimo shows to be nearer this source than his more northern and northeastern relatives, indicating either that he is a later comer, or, which is more probable, that he has changed less in the south than in the north. It may be possible to say something more on this subject after the skeletal remains have been considered.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 45
Young Woman, Northern Bering Sea Region
(Photo by Lomen Bros.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 46