Alaska -- Antiquities; Eskimos; Eskimos -- Anthropometry; Indians of North America -- Alaska; Indians of North America -- Yukon
On the southwestern shore of the promontory that bounds Golovnin Bay on
the west the Russians (Zagoskin) recorded two villages, the one near
to Rocky Point being Chiukak, that on a point farther northwest being
named Chaimiut. Later the name Chiukak became applied to the former
Chaimiut, while Chiukak proper was dead and forgotten. On latest maps,
such as Chart 9302 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, neither of
the old names appears. The name Bluff denotes a small settlement in
about the location of the former Chaimiut. Some Eskimo met in Golovnin
Bay said that there are skeletal remains near the original Chiukak, but
an attempt to reach the place failed through rough water.
FOOTNOTES:
[64] This is the correct orthography. See Russian maps.
SOUTH SHORE OF SEWARD PENINSULA WEST OF BLUFF
A number of dead villages are found along this coast. The first and
largest is located a few miles west of Port Safety, 18 miles east of
Nome. This was a large village extending for a considerable distance
along the elevated beach separating an inland lagoon from the sea. The
depressions of the dwellings, of the usual dipper-with-handle type,
are very plain. Old settlers at Nome remember when the village was
still occupied. Nearer the sea the beach is said to have been lined
with burials, but the storm of 1913 took or covered everything. (See
Narrative, p. 90.)
A small Eskimo settlement existed on a rocky elevation east of Cape
Nome. There are some house sites, but the place gives little promise
of archeological importance. We found evidence that the site must have
been occupied until fairly recently. Among the bowlders were found two
skeletons.
A larger dead village is located near the mouth of a little stream west
of Cape Nome. It is doubtless the Azachagiag of the Zagoskin general
map. It gives no great promise archeologically.
From Nome to Point Spencer there are several old sites, all "dead"; and
there are one or two recently "dead" villages on Sledge (the old Aiak
or Aziak) Island. Of the coast sites, the most important is reported to
be that at Cape Woolley. It is said to have been the stopping point of
the King Islanders and may have been their old mainland village.
A number of old sites and burial grounds have been seen or learned of
in Port Clarence and Salt Lake. They are marked on the map, and those
of the lake have been discussed in the Narrative (p. 117). Those on
Salt Lake (Imuruk Basin) deserve attention.
Between Port Clarence and Cape Prince of Wales only one, and that
evidently not a very large site, was learned of at Cape York.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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