Europeans, 246
Half-breeds, 684
Natives, 8882
Of places of trust in New Archangel, a very large proportion is held
by Half-breeds. We find them as overseers, police-officers, clerks,
watchmakers, medical students.
Such seem the most remarkable points connected with the Russian
Esquimaux in general. They are few in number, because it is the plan
of the writer not so much to exhibit the whole details of the race to
which they belong, as to put forward prominently such characteristics
as are differential to them and the Esquimaux of Greenland and Labrador.
It is now proper to give a brief notice of the more important tribes,
these being mentioned separately.
1. _The Tshuktshi._--This is the name of the Esquimaux of Asia. It is
generally accompanied by the epithet _sedentary_, so that we speak
of these people as the _sedentary_ or _settled_ Tshuktshi. This
distinguishes them from the so-called _Reindeer Tshuktshi_, a tribe
of the Koriak family. For either one or the other of these tribes the
name of Tshuktshi should be abolished. It is my impression that the
differences between the Esquimo of Asia and America do not represent
more than a few centuries of separation.
2. _The Kuskokwim._--This tribe, which occupies the banks of the
river from which it takes its name, may stand as the representative
for the tribes between Cape Rodney and the Peninsula of Aliaska. Its
numbers are estimated at upwards of 7000. Transitional in character to
the tribes of the coast and interior, its manners coincide with its
geographical position. In the use of certain so-called ornaments, it
agrees with the other Esquimaux tribes; as it agrees with the Esquimaux
and Finn tribes in the use of the sweating-bath. The Kuskoquimers
count distance by the number of _nights_ requisite for the journey.
Of the constellation they have a detailed knowledge, founded upon
observations. The most prominent of their institutions is the _Kahim_;
a building found in every village; erected like an amphitheatre,
capable of containing all the males of the place, and which, over and
above many peculiar domestic purposes connected with its erection,
serves as a council-hall for the males of the population.
3. _The Tshugatsh._--Natives of Prince William's Sound, and closely
allied to the islanders of Cadiack, with whom they agree in language.
Their historical traditions are, that they came from the coast, and
from the north; their mythological ones, that they are descended from
the Dog.
These three divisions are not only indubitably Esquimaux, but have also
been recognised as such.
Those that follow are generally referred to another ethnological group.
In the parts about Cook's Inlet (Bay of Kenay) and Mount St Elias,
a second race is said to make its appearance, and this is generally
separated from the Esquimaux by a broad line of demarcation. It is
called the Kolooch race or family, and is generally placed in contrast
with the Esquimaux. Isolated tribes akin to the Kolooches, and worthy
of special notice, are the following:--
1. _The Ugalyachmusti_ or Ugalentses, consisting of about 38
families.--They change their localities with the season, and are
Kolooch in manners and conformation. Living around Mount St. Elias they
are frontier tribes to the Tshugatshes.
2. _The Kenays_, inhabiting the coast of Cook's Inlet, 460 families
strong.--Historically, they assert that their origin is from the
hills of the interior, from whence they descended coastward. Their
mythological and ultimate origin is from the _raven_, connected with
which they have a complex cosmogony. Descent from the _raven_, or
descent from the _dog_, is considered, for these tribes we are speaking
of, as an instrument in ethnological criticism. Like the Ugalentses,
they are in contact with Tshugatsh Esquimaux.
3. _The Atnahs_, dwelling on the Copper River, 60 families strong,
hunters of rein-deer, and workers in iron as well as copper.--They
coincide with the typical Kolooches in burning their dead, in ascribing
the origin of their race to the _raven_, and in most other particulars.
These three tribes are unequivocally connected closely with each other,
and with the other members of the Kolooch group. The position of the
following is less definite:--
1. _The Kolshani._--These represent the natives of the interior.
They fall into two divisions, whereof the nearer can make itself
intelligible to the Atnas and Kenays. The more distant one is savage,
inhospitable, unintelligible. Cannibalism is one of their real or
accredited characteristics.
2. _The Inchulukhlaites_, dwelling on the Chulitna River.--They are
stated to be akin to the Magimuts, who are allied with,
3. _The Inkalites._--In one village alone they are 700 strong. Their
language is said to be a mixture of the Kenay, Unalashkan, and Atna.
It is hoped that the true character of the ethnological difficulty
involved in the classifications of the tribes enumerated, along with
several others in the same territory, has suggested itself to the mind
of the reader: viz. the position of the undetermined tribes, and the
relations of the Esquimaux and the Kolooch groups to each other. These
problems seem capable of being solved by means of the evidence of
languages. Previous, however, to the enumeration of our data upon this
point, it must be observed, that members of a _third_ ethnographical
division, in all probability, form part of the native population of
Russian America. From the Lake Athabasca, as a centre, to the Atlantic
on one hand, and to the Pacific on the other, languages of this group
are spoken; so that the Athabascan area in its extension from east
to west, is second only to the Esquimaux. Now both the Kolooch and
Esquimaux languages have fundamental affinities with the Athabascan,
and _vice versa_; whilst it is generally the case in Ethnology, that
two languages radically connected with a third, are also radically
connected with each other. With this premise, we may enumerate in
detail, our data in the way of philology. This method will introduce
new names and new localities, since we have often vocabularies where we
have nothing else besides.
1. _Beechey's Esquimaux._--The most northern specimen of the western
Esquimaux. Spoken in Kotzebue's Sound.