| Summary: | Eskimos Declared First Immigrants To North America. Eskimos Declared First Immigrants To North America WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (/P)—A Smithsonian Institution scientist said today there was no doubt the Eskimos of Alaska and Canada came from northern Eurasia and perhaps were the first North American immigrants. Dr. Henry B. Collins, assistant curator of ethnology, said the expedition which he headed last summer to St. Lawrence Island on the rim of the Arctic Circle unearthed new proof that the Eskimos not only migrated from Siberia to as far east- as Greenland, but then reversed and migrated westward again to Alaska. The result was a mixture of cultures of the various tribes that puzzled archeologists and ethnologosts for almost 100 years. Dr. Collins' most recent study, just published by the institution, was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters of Denmark last year as the outstanding contribution to knowledge of the origins and migrations of the Eskimo. He said today that two great culture waves undoubtedly came out of Asia, one that of a coast-dwelling people, who obtained their living from the sea, and the other that of an inland people who were forest hunters. Remains of both cultures, considerably mixed and changed can still be found among the Alaskan Eskimos.
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