Alaska -- Antiquities; Eskimos; Eskimos -- Anthropometry; Indians of North America -- Alaska; Indians of North America -- Yukon
A simple supper at the trader's, prepared by his Eskimo wife, and good
company: Doctor Smith, of the Geological Survey, with two of his men;
Jim Allen, the storekeeper, a big, good-hearted fellow; La Voy, the
big, active movie man, who knows all the gossip and enjoys telling
it with embellishment; and two men of the trader. Menu: Soup, boiled
reindeer meat, underdone biscuits, coffee.
After supper go to a meeting at the school, where our missionary,
Doctor Goodman, is to talk to the natives. Large schoolroom crowded.
I talk through an interpreter--a serious disadvantage--on cleanliness.
Fine study for me on the many present, though like elsewhere on such
occasions they are mainly women and children. Good many Indianlike
faces, though cheekbones more prominent and more flatness between them.
But hair, low foreheads, eyes (except in children where they are more
superficial, less sunken, and with more epicanthus than in Indians),
lips, and other characteristics the same as in Indians. Some of the
faces are strong, many among the younger pleasant, some of the young
women handsome. A moderate number of mix bloods, even among the adults.
Color of skin in full bloods medium to submedium brown, exactly as in
full-blood Indians along the Yukon, but cheeks more dusky red.
The behavior of these people is in all important points radically
that of the Indian, but they are more approachable and open and
matter-of-fact people. More easily civilized. Good mechanics. Less
superstitious, more easily converted to white man's religion. And good
singers. Their singing at the meeting in the schoolhouse would have
shamed a good many whites in this respect.
Except for epidemics, I am told, these natives would more than hold
their own in numbers. They are fecund, if conditions are right.
Sterility is rare. They marry fairly young.
August 3. Still standing, though we had to pull out farther south and
away from the shore. The water was pretty rough and I had to go to bed
again, but weather moderated.
We are in touch with the world through the ship's radio, but get more
trash--same all through the radio service in Alaska--than serious news.
Spend time in reading, talking; some play solitaire games; captain and
Allen play cribbage. Deck too small for any outside games, even if it
were not so cold.
Ice floes floating about us, now scarce, now thicker; water splashing
against them and wearing them out into pillared halls, mushrooms, and
other strange forms. Due to their snow covering, the water upon them,
so far as it results from melting, is sweet, and in it swim many small
fishes. It snowed a bit again to-day.
August 4. No change, except that the sea is somewhat calmer, and for a
while we have once more seen the sun, but it was hazy and just mildly
warm, while the same wind, from the sea, even though now subdued, has
an icy undertone. It snowed a little this morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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