Notwithstanding indications to the contrary, Van Valin reached the opinion that these remains were not those of regular burials, though offering no other definite hypothesis.
Desiring additional information about this highly interesting find, I wrote to Mr. Brower, who assisted at the excavations, and received the following answer:
These mounds are from 5 to 8 miles south of the Barrow village (Utkiavik). The largest that were opened were the farthest south, and seemed more like raised lumps on the land than ruins. No doubt that is the reason no one had bothered them.
The Eskimo have no traditions of these people. In fact they did not even suspect the mounds contained human remains until Mr. Van Valin started to investigate them.
While Van Valin thought they might be houses, I have always thought they were burial mounds, as there seemed no family to have been together at the time of death as often has happened. When whole families have died from some epidemic, then the man and wife are together under their sleeping skins. In these mounds each party was wrapped separate, either in polar bear or musk ox skins; none were wrapped in deer skins. If male, all his hunting implements were at his side, and if a female her working tools were with her, as scrapers, dishes of wood, and stone knives. The men had their bows, arrows, spears, and often a heavy club, for what purpose unless used in fighting I could not make out. At the head of each person was a small receptacle, made of whalebone, and in it or alongside was a long wing bone that had been used as a drinking tube. In some cases there seemed to be the remains of food in the platters, but that was impossible to identify. Most of the bodies were laid on the ground, a few had the remains of scrub willow under them, while only in two or three cases had there been driftwood planks under the bodies; these were crudely hewn with their old stone adzes.
There seems to have been some sort of driftwood houses over these bodies at some time, but they decayed and have fallen on the remains, which were in some cases embedded in the ice. Often before the frame had broken down earth must have accumulated and covered the bodies. In these cases the flesh has the consistency of a fine meal. While with those in the ice in some cases part of the flesh still remained. In both cases when exposed to the air they rapidly disintegrated, leaving nothing except the bones. By measurements they must have been a larger race than the present people.
When your letter reached here I at once started making inquiries as to what mounds were still intact; and I find that as far as known only two of the larger ones have not been opened. The Eskimo have been opening the mounds ever since they were found, taking from them all the hunting implements and other material and selling them aboard the ships for curios. It seems a shame that all this should be lost to science, and if no one takes an interest in these places in a year or two they will all be gone.
I have again made inquiries as to what the present Eskimo think of these people, but they tell me they have no tradition regarding them and that they do not know if they were their ancestors or not. In fact, they are ignorant of where they came from or when they died.
To date I do not know of any whaling implement being found with these old people, neither is any of the framework of these mounds made from the bones of whales. In some of the implements ivory has been used. The mounds farthest from the shore were about 400 yards, those that remain are closer to the beach. Some of the smaller ones are on the banks of small streams but never very far from shore. Undoubtedly, however, they were at one time considerably farther from the sea, but the sea is every year claiming some of this land, especially where the banks are high along the beach. There the beach is narrow and during a gale the waves wash out the land at its base. This is about all that I can tell you of these people. All credit for finding these mounds belongs to Van Valin.
Yours truly,