Northwest History. Alaska 7. Archaeology, United States

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1937
• Subjects: Seattle; America's prehistoric immigrants; Asia; North Pacific; Dr. Ales Hrdlicka; anthropologist; western America's Alaska; ancient tribes; Aleutian island; Kamchatka; Komandorski Islands; boatmen; Smithsonian Institution; Atka; Adak; migration; Christian era; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Alaska; Pacific; Aleutian Island; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/89033

Skin Boats Called 'Bridge' Used By Early Immigrants. Skin Boats Called 'Bridge' Used By Early Immigrants SEATTLE, Wash., May 20 (/P)— America's prehistoric immigrants from Asia braved the North Pacific in skin boats, Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, anthropologist, said here yesterday, discounting theories western America's first people came over a land Dr. Hrdlicka will sail Friday on his ninth expedition to Alaska to trace pathways of ancient tribes who came to America by way of the Aleutian islands." "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 only 130 miles from Kamchatka to the Komandorski Islands ond only 160 miles to the top of the Aleutians, distances which could be negotiated by skillful boatmen." The summer's expedition will take the Smithsonian Institution explorer far out along the fog-shrouded treacherous Aleutian chain to the islands of Atka and Adak. "We have found on Unimak Island deposits of refuse and kitchen midden 21 feet deep. Others have been 16 to 18 feet deep," Dr. Hrdlicka said. "The depth of the deposits attests the fact that the villages were used a long time. We have proof, too, there was never any large mass migration." A possible reason for the early settlers remaining for a time on the islands may have been the abundance of fish and game, he said, adding that the migration may have begun several thousand years before the beginning of the Christian era.