Alaska -- Antiquities; Eskimos; Eskimos -- Anthropometry; Indians of North America -- Alaska; Indians of North America -- Yukon
The third type is the short, stumpy one, probably that of the old
Eskimo before the admixture with southern tribes, now found on the
Arctic coast. * * *
The Eskimos have coarse, black hair, some with a tinge of brown.
Many of the coast people of both sexes are bald from scrofulous
eruptions. Males have the crown of the head closely cropped, so
that reindeer may not see the waving locks when the hunter creeps
behind bunch grass. They have black eyes and high cheek bones. The
bones of the face are better protected from the severity of the
climate by a thicker covering of flesh than southern races.
Among the coast people the nose is broad and flat, with very little
or no ridge between the eyes. The adult males have short mustaches,
and some of the elder ones--more noticeable in the interior--have
rough, scraggy beards. Generally their beard is very scant, and
most of them devote otherwise idle hours to pulling out the hairs.
1900, Nelson:[91]
The Eskimo from Bering Strait to the lower Yukon are fairly
well-built people, averaging among the men about 5 feet 2 or 3
inches in height. The Yukon Eskimo and those living southward
from that river to the Kuskokwim are, as a rule, shorter and more
squarely built. The Kuskokwim people are darker of complexion than
those to the northward, and have rounder features. The men commonly
have a considerable growth of hair on their faces, becoming at
times a thin beard 2 or 3 inches in length, with a well-developed
mustache. No such development of beard was seen elsewhere in the
territory visited.
The people in the coast region between the mouths of the Kuskokwim
and the Yukon have peculiarly high cheek bones and sharp chins,
which unite to give their faces a curiously pointed, triangular
appearance. At the village of Kaialigamut I was impressed by the
strong development of the superciliary ridge. From a point almost
directly over the pupil of the eye and extending thence inward to
the median line of the forehead is a strong bony ridge causing the
brow to stand out sharply. From the outer edge of this the skull
appears as though beveled away to the ears, giving the temporal
area a considerable enlargement beyond that usually shown. This
curious development of the skull is rendered still more striking by
the fact that the bridge of the nose is low, as usual among these
people, so that the shelf-like projection of the brow stands out in
strong relief. It is most strongly marked among the men and appears
to be characteristic at this place. Elsewhere in this district it
was noted only rarely here and there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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