Alaska -- Antiquities; Eskimos; Eskimos -- Anthropometry; Indians of North America -- Alaska; Indians of North America -- Yukon
At night. This was a day of harvest. Reached Point Hope about 3 p. m.,
but had to go around again to the other side, due to the swell and surf
on the north. I went to shore in the first boat, about 4 p. m. Doctor
Goodman, with whom we are very friendly, was with me and promised to
go over and help me get some men with whom I want to excavate the
burial hole of his predecessor. But when on the shore stays behind
and remains. So we go on with my man from the ship to the whalebone
graveyard. Near there see two Eskimo men with some dogs. They smile;
so I tell them what I want; in two minutes have engaged them; in about
three more we begin to dig, and in about five minutes after strike
first bones.
My good friend the boatswain, Mr. Berg, comes to help, and as I now
have four to work I take a bag and go on collecting a little more
over the plains beyond where we are. Get a good bag. Find another
good-natured Eskimo, Frank, coming from fishing, engage him to help
carrying and eventually to take place of one of my first workers, who
is an old man. Then we see Doctor Goodman, far away, coming to the
mission. Borrow two more shovels from his stock and a few coal bags.
Meanwhile bone and skull pile is fairly exposed from one side and top
gravel partly removed, so I give up intended trip to old village site
and, as we were given only to 9.30 p. m., go to work on the pile.
A great deal here. More than anticipated, though all is a jumble, with
the long and other bones of the skeleton on the top. The work is to get
down in the moist gravel, disengage one bone and skull after another
as rapidly as possible, give it a rapid look-over, and either save, if
fairly well preserved or showing some special feature, or discard. If
saved, the specimen is handed to one of the Eskimo, who cleans it of
gravel, lays it out to dry a little, and then places it gently in a bag.
Many of the bones and skulls were found so damaged that they had to be
left. But much was also good. The strenuous work, however, had to go
on without interruption and at the fullest possible speed, if the main
part of what was there was to be saved. So no supper, no stop for even
a minute, until after 8 p. m. Sixteen bags full, and some of the sacks
quite spacious. At last had to give up--no more time, no sacks, and
lower down everything frozen as hard as flint. The main part, however,
secured--183 good skulls, several hundred lower jaws, and a lot of
long and other bones. This, together with the rest of the material from
this place, ought to give us data of much value.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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