Notes on the physique of the Yukon natives are found in the reports of all the explorers of the river, but they are imperfect and of little scientific value; the principal ones are given below.[26] Anthropometric observations on the living people of the middle and lower Yukon, with its tributaries, are nonexistent.[27] As to crania, there are a few measurements on two "Yukon Indian" skulls (No. 7530, and probably No. 7531), and on three crania of the Yukon Eskimo, by Jeffries Wyman (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1868, XI, 452); on one "Ingaleet" and three "Mahlemut" or Norton Sound Eskimo skulls by George A. Otis (List of Specimens, etc., 35); and on four skulls collected by Dall, one from Nulato and the rest presumably from St. Michael, by Hrdlicka (Catal. of Crania, p. 30, Nos. 242925, 242899, 242901, 242936).

The Living Indian

Notes on the living Indians of the Yukon have already been given in the Narrative. They will be briefly summarized in this place. Measurements of the living were impracticable during the journey.

Pure bloods.—The Yukon Indians are a sparse and largely mixed population. The mixture is especially evident in the children and the younger generation. It is mainly that with whites, but in the lower settlements there is also a good deal of older mixture with the Eskimo. There is fortunately as yet no Negro admixture.

General type.—The full bloods are typically Indian, though not of the pronounced plains type. The type is fairly uniform, but there is not seldom, even up the river, as elsewhere in Alaska, a suggestion of something Eskimoid in the physiognomy.

Color.—The color in general is near medium brown, ranging to lighter rather than darker. The hair is the usual full black of the Indian.

Stature and strength.—- The stature and build are generally near medium, rather slightly below than above.

Head form.—The head is generally moderately rounded high meso- to moderately brachycephalic. The face is medium Indian.

Body.—The body proportions seldom impress one with unusual strength, yet some of the men are by no means weaklings. The most fitting term by which to characterize conditions in this respect is again "medium," with an occasional deviation one way or the other.

Photographs.—The accompanying photographs, taken by the writer from Tanana to Anvik, show a few of the physiognomies. Some of the girls and women, as well as boys and men, are quite good looking. (Pls. 13-18.)

From Anvik downward along the river the type of the people becomes plainly more Eskimoid and on the whole more robust. But as one can frequently meet farther up the river individuals who remind one more or less of the Eskimo, so here it is frequent to see faces that look like Indian. Whether due to old mixture or to other reason, the fact is that there is no line of somatological demarcation in the living populations of the river, and the same applies, as will be seen later, to the skulls.

Skeletal Remains of the Yukon

The first Yukon Indian skull measured was that of a half-chief of the Nulato group, collected in the early sixties by William H. Dall. There are now three records of this skull, originally and again now a Smithsonian specimen, one in Wyman ("Observations on Crania," Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1868, XI, 452, No. 7530), one in the Otis "Catalogue" (35, No. 259), and one in Hrdlicka's "Catalogue of Human Crania in the United States National Museum Collections" (p. 30, No. 242925). It is a normal, well-developed male skull, which gives no suggestion of mixture. The true measurements of this "type" specimen, taken by present-day instruments and methods, are as follows:

The skull is seen to be mesocephalic, rather high, and of good brain capacity; the face is of medium Indian proportions; the orbits are unequal, rather low; the nose is of medium height and breadth; the upper dental arch, the basic-facial diameters, and the facial and alveolar angles, are all near medium Indian.

There was another Indian skull in the five Wyman reported, but its identity is uncertain. A later collection by Dall included three Indian female crania from Alaska, but their exact provenience is uncertain; their measurements are given in my catalogue.

On the 1926 trip I succeeded in collecting directly from the burials along the lower middle Yukon 17 adult skulls and skeletons. Such material is both scarce and difficult to obtain, due to the attitude of the Indians. All the specimens in the collection are from the Russian times on the river. A few of the skulls show traces of Eskimoid in their features, but none offer a suspicion of a mixture with the whites. The measurements are given below. They partly agree, partly disagree, with those of the Nulato skull. The vault, the breadth of the nose, the dimensions of the dental arch, are much alike, but the height of the face, nose, and orbits in the Nulato specimen is somewhat lower. These may be tribal but also simply individual differences. We may generalize by stating that the lower middle Yukon Indian was mesocephalic, with a fairly high vault, and moderate capacity. The face was of relatively good height but moderate breadth, resulting in a high upper facial index. Facial and alveolar prognathism and other features approach the prevalent Indian medium.

Skeletal Parts

There are seven adult skeletons of males and seven of females. For present purposes it will suffice to take the males alone and to restrict consideration to the long bones. The essential data on these are given on page 160, where they are contrasted with those of North American Indians in general, and with those of the western Eskimo.

The bones show both relations to as well as differences from the bones of Indians in general and fair distinctness from those of the Eskimo.

Contrasted with the long bones of miscellaneous North American tribes taken together, the Yukon Indian bones show absolutely slightly shorter humerus (or arm), somewhat shorter radius (or forearm), a slightly shorter femur (or upper part of the leg), and a plainly shorter tibia. These Indians had therefore relatively somewhat shorter forearm and especially the leg below the knees than their continental cousins. These facts are plainly evident from the radio-humeral and tibio-femoral indices of the two groups. In this relative shortness of the distal parts of the limbs the Yukon Indian approaches the Eskimo, standing near midway between the Indian in general and the Eskimo. There might be a ready temptation to attribute this to a mixture with the Eskimo; but an examination of the records will show that the same condition, so far at least as the upper limb is concerned (lower?), is already present in the old Bonasila skeleton, which gives no suggestion of an Eskimo mixture. It is more likely, therefore, that these are generalized characteristics of functional origin such as a considerable use of the small canoes. This view seems to be supported by the relative strength of the bones. In the Yukon Indian the humerus is stouter, the femur of the same strength, and the tibia very perceptibly weaker than they are in Indians in general. In the Eskimo, with even greater dependence on the canoe, both the humerus and the femur are notably stouter, while the tibia is weaker, than are similar bones in the Indians in general.

The humero-femoral index in the Yukon Indians is unusually high, indicating a relative shortness of the femur. This character is not present in the Eskimo, nor in the continental Indian. It is probably also of old functional origin, though, this for the present must remain a mere suggestion.

All of this shows clearly the interest and value of other skeletal parts than the skull, and particularly of the long bones, for anthropological studies.

Skeletal Remains from the Bank at Bonasila

The skeletal material from the bank at Bonasila consists now of portions of three adult skulls, one male and two females, and of 13 bones of the male skeleton. All the specimens are more or less stained by manganese and iron and all are distinctly heavier than normal, showing some grade of fossilization. They closely resemble in all these respects the numerous animal bones from the bank and in all differ from the later surface burials of the place.

THE CRANIA

The male skull, No. 332513, is represented by the frontal bone united with a larger part of the face, a separated left temporal, and the right half of the lower jaw. A large Inca bone, recovered from the beach a year later, may also belong to the same specimen. The missing parts are probably still somewhere in the sands of the beach where there is going on a very instructive scattering and redeposition on a 4 to 6 feet lower level of the contents of the old bank.

The skull is that of a male of somewhat over 50 years of age, judging from the moderate to marked wear of the remaining teeth. It is a normal undeformed specimen, and the same applies to the bones of the skeleton.

Notes and measurements.—The frontal shows a medium development, no slope. The supraorbital ridges are rather weakly developed for a male, leaving the upper borders of the orbits rather sharp.

The skull as a whole was evidently mesocephalic, and neither low nor very high. The thickness of the frontal is about medium for an Indian.

The face is of medium proportions and strength, with rather large orbits, good interorbital breadth, medium malars, medium broad nose, and but moderate alveolar prognathism. The nasal bridge is not high, nasal bones fairly broad, spine moderate, lower borders well defined though not sharp. The sub-malar (canine) fossae are shallow.

The condyloid process of the lower jaw is high, mandibular notch deep. The whole jaw is strong but not thick or massive. It is Indianlike, not Eskimoid, in all its features. The teeth are of good medium size.

Skull No. 333383.—Of this skull I brought the right parietal with about one-third of the frontal; Mr. Krieger, a year later, the remainder of the frontal. Other parts are missing.

The specimen was evidently, a good-size female skull, normal, undeformed, probably mesocephalic in form, and moderately high. The thickness of the bones is not above moderate.

Skull No. 333950.—Of the third skull, recovered from the sands of the beach at low water in 1927 by Mr. Lawrence, there are only the two parietals. The specimen is that of a young adult female. The bones, rather submedium in thickness, indicate a skull of slightly smaller size and slightly shorter than the preceding but of much the same general type.

The skeletal parts of male No. 332513.—Humeri: The long bones all give the impression of straightness, length, and of a certain gracility of form combined with strength, but without massiveness. The right humerus presents a small but distinct supracondylar process, a rarity among Indians. The fossae are not perforated. Measurements:

The shaft approaches type IV (quadrilateral). There is but small curvature.

Right ulna: Lacks the olecranon; shaft prismatic, with anterior and posterior surfaces fluted; but a moderate curvature backward upper third.

The bones, especially the right, are remarkable for their graceful form and approach to straightness. The linea aspera is high but not massive or rough.

Right tibia: Length (?), extremities wanting. A moderate physiological curvature forward, middle third.

The bone is distinctly platycnaemic, as the femora are platymeric and the humeri platybrachic, a harmony of characters which is often met with in the continental Indian.

ADDITIONAL PARTS

These include four ribs, the atlas and two lumbar vertebrÆ. The first rib approaches the semicircular in type and is rather large, indicating a spacious chest. Otherwise there is nothing special.

A comparison of the long bones of this interesting skeleton with those of the later Indians from the same and near-by localities as well as with those of the western Eskimo (see table, p. 160) shows a number of striking conditions. The length of the bones of the skeleton is far above the mean of both those of Indians and the Eskimo, indicating a stature of at least 10 centimeters (4 inches) higher. In none of their characteristics are the bones near to those of the Eskimo, making it doubly certain that the subject was not of that affiliation. Compared with those of the later Indians of the same territory, the bones show in one line remarkable differences, in another remarkable likenesses. The differences concern all the relative proportions of the shafts—the bones of the old skeleton give without exception indices that are markedly lower; they are distinctly more platybrachic, platymeric, and platycnaemic. But the more basic humero-femoral and radio-humeral indices are practically the same; showing fundamental identity. The humero-femoral index is especially important in this case. It is exceptionally high in the Yukon Indians, due to a relatively long humerus, and the same condition is seen in the old skeleton. It seems safe, therefore, to conclude that the owner of the old skeleton was not only an Indian but an Indian of the same physical stock from which were derived the later Indians of the Yukon; but he was evidently of an earlier and different tribe or of a purer derivation than those who followed. To more fully establish and then trace this type, both as to its derivation and extension, will be tasks of future importance.

The Yukon Eskimo

THE LIVING

As with the Indians farther up the river, the necessities of the writer's journey did not permit more than visual observations, but in 1927 Henry B. Collins, jr., succeeded in measuring six adult males at Marshall.

In general, the people of the Yukon delta and from this to Paimute are true Eskimo. By this is meant that in the majority of individuals they can readily be told as a type apart from the Indian and belonging plainly to that of the extensive family of the Eskimo. But when the differences are to be defined the task is not easy; some of the distinguishing marks, though well appreciated, are somewhat intangible.

The physical differences are essentially those of the physiognomy. The head is neither narrow nor scaphoid, or even very high. The Indian face is more prominent and more sculptured; that of the Eskimo appears fuller, especially in the lower part, and flatter. Part of this is due to the bony structure, part to the differing amounts of fat. An eversion of the angles of the lower jaw, which is relatively frequent and sometimes excessive in the Eskimo male while almost absent in the Indian, may give the Eskimo face almost a square appearance. Take with this the seemingly somewhat low Eskimo forehead, the not very widely open and somewhat on the whole more slanting eye, and the characteristic Eskimo nose with its rather narrow and not prominent nasal bridge, the ridiculous monk-like cut of the hair (in the older males), the often rather full lips with, in the males, a tuft of sparse mustache above each corner of the mouth; add to all this a mostly smiling or ready-to-smile "full-moon" expression, and it would be impossible to take the subject for anything else than an Eskimo. The Indian's face is more set, less fat, in the males at least, less broad below, with seemingly a higher forehead, sensibly made-up hair, not seldom a bit more mustache, and a nose that generally is both broader and more prominent.

But the differences are less marked in the women and still less so in the children, especially where similarly combed and clothed. And there are, particularly on the Yukon, not a few of both Indian and Eskimo who even an expert is at a loss where to class. They may be due to old mixtures; no new ones are taking place; but it seems that there may be present another important factor, that of a far-back related parentage.

In the color of the skin and eyes, in the color and nature of the hair, there is no marked difference between the two peoples of the Yukon. In stature the Eskimos are slightly higher.

MEASUREMENTS ON LIVING YUKON ESKIMO

The exact provenience of the six men measured at Marshall is uncertain, but they seemingly were all from the lower Yukon and all were apparently full-blood Eskimo. But the measurements are rather peculiar. They are given, for comparison, with those of the western Eskimo in general (p. 165). They approach nearest to those of the Togiak Eskimo, well down below the Kuskokwim. They show a higher stature than all of their relations farther south, except the Togiaks, and they have a rounder head. They are, in fact, moderate brachycephals, a very unexpected form in this strain of people. The Togiaks also are brachycephalic. The vault is relatively somewhat higher than it is in the other groups, though the height is not excessive. The nose is slightly lower as well as narrower than it is in all the other contingents. The face is close to those of St. Lawrence Island. The ear is perceptibly smaller and especially narrower than elsewhere, but perhaps the age factor enters into the case. The hand is much like that of Togiak and St. Lawrence, the index being identical.

The brachycephaly of the group for the present is hard to explain. It can not be ascribed to a mixture with the river Indians, for these, as has been seen from the skulls, were meso- rather than brachycephalic. There is need here for further inquiry.

SKELETAL REMAINS OF YUKON ESKIMO

As with the Indian, such remains are still rare. Some measurements of three "Smithsonian Mahlemute" skulls from the Yukon, collected by William H. Dall, are given by Jeffries Wyman, and probably the same specimens appear in the Otis Catalogue, the measurements in which are regrettably not very reliable. These specimens can not now be located, and the scarce data are of but little value. The three skulls examined by Wyman were all mesocephalic.

It is now possible to report on 40 adult skulls from the lower Yukon and the delta. An abstract of the measurements is given in the next table. The data indicate a considerable local variation. All the skulls, or very nearly all, are mesocephalic; but they differ considerably in height and in all the facial features. The Pilot Station group, from the apex of the delta, and hence the midst of the Eskimo territory on the Yukon, is especially peculiar. Both the vault and the face, in the series as a whole, range from low to high, and much the same is true of the height of the nose and that of the orbits, while the palate is exceptionally broad, giving a low index, all of which would seem to indicate instability or conditions in change, together probably with admixtures from farther up the river. We need more material, particularly from the stretch of the river between the apex of the delta and Paimute.

SKELETAL PARTS OF THE YUKON ESKIMO

The next table gives the measurements of the long bones in both sexes in the Yukon Indian (for comparison), in the Yukon Eskimo, and in the western Eskimo, the latter coming mainly from the coast south of the Yukon and from the Nunivak and St. Lawrence Islands. The Yukon Eskimo material, collected from intact burials by the writer, is unfortunately limited to the northern mouth of the river. The skeletons from St. Lawrence Island were collected on the Smithsonian expedition to the place in 1912 by Riley D. Moore, 1927 expedition by H. B. Collins, jr., and T. D. Stewart, all of the National Museum.

The Yukon Eskimo show perceptibly longer bones than do either the Indians or the southeastern and midwestern Eskimo, indicating a somewhat taller stature.

The humerus in the males is less broad than either in the Indians or the midwestern and southwestern Eskimo and has as a consequence high shaft index; but in the females the index in the Yukon and western Eskimo series is identical. The radius is relatively even shorter in the Yukon that it is in the other Eskimo, giving low radio-humeral index.

The femur is notably less platymeric in the male and slightly less so in the female Yukon Eskimo than it is in both the Indians and the rest of the southwestern and midwestern Eskimo, giving a higher index at the upper flattening. The meaning of these facts is not obvious and they may undergo some modification with more material.

As to strength, measured by the mean diameter of the shafts, the Yukon Eskimo in comparison to the southwestern and midwestern show a slightly weaker humerus, and in the males a slightly weaker femur at middle, but in the males again, a slightly stronger tibia. If, however, the mean diameters of the bones are taken in relation to the length of the bones, then in both sexes and in all the parts the southwestern and midwestern Eskimo are slightly stronger. This would seem to indicate more exertion, with harder life, among the coastal and insular than among the river Eskimo. As a matter of fact Kotlik and the near-by Pastolik, from which our skeletons came, were favorably situated at the northern mouth of the river.

The Yukon Eskimo females, as compared with the males, have a somewhat weaker and especially somewhat flatter humerus, with a consequently lower shaft index; they have relatively even a shorter radius, giving a lower radio-humeral index; their humerus itself is relatively short, giving a lower humero-femoral index; their femur is relatively somewhat flatter at the upper flattening, giving a lower index of platymery; while their tibia is relatively less strong antero-posteriorly, resulting in an index that is more than four points higher than that of the males.