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[SITUATION AND SURROUNDINGS.]
The people whose arts and industries are represented by the collection to be described are the Eskimo of the northwestern extremity of the continent of North America, who make permanent homes at the two villages of Nuwŭk and Utkiavwĭñ. Small contributions to the collection were obtained from natives of Wainwright Inlet and from people of the Inland River (Nunatañmiun) who visited the northern villages.
Nuwŭk, “the Point,” is situated on a slightly elevated knoll at the extremity of Point Barrow, in lat. 71° 23´ N., long. 156° 17´ W., and Utkiavwĭñ, “the Cliffs,” at the beginning of the high land at Cape Smyth, 11 miles southwest from Nuwŭk. The name Utkiavwĭñ was explained as meaning “the high place, whence one can look out,” and was said to be equivalent to ĭkpĭk, a cliff. This name appears on the various maps of this region under several corrupted forms, due to carelessness or inability to catch the finer distinctions of sound. It first appears on Capt. Maguire’s map[2] as “Ot-ki-a-wing,” a form of the word very near the Eskimo pronunciation. On Dr. Simpson’s map[3] it is changed to “Ot-ke-a-vik,” which on the admiralty chart is misprinted “Otkiovik.” Petroff on his map[4] calls it “Ootiwakh,” while he gives an imaginary village “Ootkaiowik, Arctic Ocean,” of 55 inhabitants, in his census of the Arctic Division (op. cit., p. 4), which does not appear upon his map.
Our party, I regret to say, is responsible for the name “Ooglaamie” or “Uglaamie,” which has appeared on many maps since our return. Strictly speaking this name should be used only as the official name of the United States signal station. It arose from a misunderstanding of the name as heard the day after we arrived, and was even adopted by the natives in talking with us. It was not until the second year that we learned the correct form of the word, which has been carefully verified.
The inhabitants of these two villages are so widely separated from their neighbors—the nearest permanent villages are at Point Belcher and Wainwright Inlet, 75 miles southwest, and Demarcation Point, 350 miles east[5]—and so closely connected with each other by intermarriage and common interests, that they may be considered as a single people. In their hunting and trading expeditions they habitually range from the neighborhood of Refuge Inlet along the coast to Barter Island, going inland to the upper waters of the large rivers which flow northward into the Arctic Ocean east of Point Barrow. Small parties occasionally travel as far as Wainwright Inlet and more rarely to Point Hope, and some times as far as the Mackenzie River. The extent of their wanderings will be treated of more fully in connection with their relations to the other natives of the Northwest. They appear to be unacquainted with the interior except for about 100 miles south of Point Barrow.
The coast from Refuge Inlet runs nearly straight in a generally northeast direction to Point Barrow, and consists of steep banks of clay, gravel, and pebbles, in appearance closely resembling glacial drift, bordered by a narrow, steep beach of pebbles and gravel, and broken at intervals by steep gulleys which are the channels of temporary streams running only during the period of melting snow, and by long, narrow, and shallow lagoons, to whose edges the cliffs slope gradually down, sometimes ending in low, steep banks. The mouths of these lagoons are generally rather wide, and closed by a bar of gravel thrown up by the waves during the season of open water. In the spring, the snow and ice on the land melt months before the sea opens and flood the ice on the lagoons, which also melts gradually around the edges until there is a sufficient head of water in the lagoon to break through the bar at the lowest point. This stream soon cuts itself a channel, usually about 20 or 30 yards wide, through which the lagoon is rapidly drained, soon cutting out an open space of greater or less extent in the sea ice. Before the sea opens the lagoon is drained down to its level, and the tide ebbs and flows through the channel, which is usually from knee-deep to waist-deep, so that the lagoon becomes more or less brackish. When the sea gets sufficiently open for waves to break upon the beach, they in a short time bring in enough gravel to close the outlet. The cliffs gradually decrease in height till they reach Cape Smyth, where they are about 25 feet high, and terminate in low knolls sloping down to the banks of the broad lagoon Isûtkwɐ, which is made by the confluence of two narrow, sinuous gulleys, and is only 10 feet deep in the deepest part.