Northwest History. Alaska 7. Archaeology, United States

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1937
• Subjects: foxes; Alaska; Dr. Ales Hrdlicks; Seattle; Coast Guard cutter Northland; scientific expedition; Aleutian Islands; anthropological expedition; Atka; Adak; Aleut chief; Christian era; Eskimos; Indians; Aztecs; Mayans; Asiatic coast; Kamchatka; Commander Islands; Unimak Island; ceremonies; secret rites; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Arctic; Pacific; aleut; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/89032

Foxes Too Friendly On Tiny Alaska Isles, Says Hrdlicka. Foxes Too Friendly on Tiny Alaska I4es, Says Hrdlicka Wild foxes that trotted along with his party irir Alaska like friendly dogs, and birds that showed no fear of man were experiences of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, noted anthropologist, who will leave Seattle Friday on the Coast Guard cutter Northland on his ninth scientific expedition to Alaska. On the outposts of the Aleutian Islands, seldom or never visited by man, the wild creatures have complete trust in the human species. No member of the anthropological expedition is permitted to have a firearm and it became necessary to discourage the friendly advances of foxes by tossing pebbles at them. 2,700 Miles to Westward On the islands of Atka and Adak, far out in the Aleutian chain, which stretches 2,700 miles to the westward of Seattle, Dr. Hrdlicka hopes to spend his most productive summer. Reports came from an Aleut chief that on those islands, unkown to white men, are the sites of the most extensive of the ancient villages. Dr. Hrdlicka hopes to induce the chief ot accompany the party. Until he visits the islands he has no means of verifying the repots. While the ancient relics of North America's first men are less than 2,000 years old. Dr. Hrdlicka believes that the migration of tribes and groups began several thousand years before the begining of the Christian era. These ancient people were the ancestors of the Eskimos, Indians, Aztecs and Mayans. The reason they tarried on the Aleutian Islands can be explained by the abundance of fish and game there. Came by Skin Boats. "The distance from the Asiatic coast is not too great for travel in the skin boats of the ancient tribesmen," Dr. Hrdlicka said. "It is onlv 130 miles from Kamchatka to the Commander Islands, and only 160 miles to the Aleutian Islands—distances which could be negotiated by skillful boatmen. I believe that these native boats, and not the imagined land bridge or Arctic ice, were the means used in crossing from the Asiatic contient. "We found on Unimak Island deposits of refuse twenty-one feet deep. Others were sixteen to eighteen feet deep. The depth of the deposits attest the fact that the villages were used for a long time. It was the custom of the ancient people to build houses of whale bone and drift wood, ppartly undergournd to protect them from cold and wind. "When death visited a house, if the person were not a child or an old person, it was abandoned because it was believed the place afterwards became the abode of evil spirits. "When a housle was vacated for this reason, the bodies were left in the house, which finally caved in and buried its occupants. "We have found traces of communal houses or 'kashins,' which were three or four times as large as ordinary dwellings. In the kashin, the men would congregate for their ceremonies, secret rites and feasts. "We have proof there was never any large mass migration. The migrants were mostly small tribes and parts of tribes that dribbled over from Asia for thousands of year."