Due to the delay with the _Bear_, the next few days until July 23 were
spent at and about Nome. They proved more profitable than was expected.
Numbers of interesting specimens were found in the possession of some
of the dealers, and more of those of scientific value were secured
either through gift or by purchase for the National Museum. These
collections consisted of objects of stone--i. e., spear points, knives,
axes, etc.--but above all of utensils, spear points, effigies, etc.,
some of them of remarkable artistry and decoration, were made of walrus
ivory that through age has turned "fossil."
Among the stone objects were several axes made of the greenish, hard
nephrite which came from the "Jade Mountain" on the Kobuk River. The
objects from fossil ivory came principally from the St. Lawrence
Island, the Diomede Islands, Cape Wales, unknown parts of the nearer
Asiatic coast, and here and there from the Seward Peninsula.
A large majority of these objects are now collected by the natives
themselves, who assiduously excavate the old sites, and are sold at
so much per pound as "fossil ivory" to crews of visiting boats or to
merchants at Nome and elsewhere, to be worked up into beads, pendants,
and other objects of semi-jewelry that find ready sale among the whites.
In addition a certain part of these objects is reserved by the natives,
especially those of the Diomede Islands, and worked up by themselves.
The more striking the coloration of the ivory, the more desirable it is
for the beads, etc., and the less chance of the object, regardless of
its archeological or artistic value, to be preserved. The most artistic
pieces, nevertheless, are usually disposed of separately, bringing
higher prices than could be obtained for beads.
In this way hundreds of pounds collectively of ancient implements,
statuettes, etc., are recovered each year from the old sites on
both the Asiatic and the American side of the Bering Sea, and are
cut up, their scientific value being lost. Most of the fossil
ivory, fortunately, consists of objects which, though showing man's
workmanship, are of relatively little scientific value; nevertheless
it was seen repeatedly that specimens of real archeological value and
artistic interest would be destroyed if their color and texture made
them suitable for some of the higher-priced jewelry.
The Eskimo, as repeatedly found later, have not the slightest
hesitation about excavating the old sites, and whatever they can not
use, which as a rule includes animal and human bones, and in fact
everything else except stone tools and ivory, is left in the excavated
soil and lost. The amount of destruction thus accomplished by the
women, children, and even men each year is large and promises to grow
from year to year as long as the supply lasts. This means that unless
scientific exploration of these old sites is hastened there will be
little left before long to study.
The fossil ivory trade has become such that many of the officers and
the crews even of the visiting vessels, including the revenue cutters,
engage in buying the ivory from the natives and cutting it up in their
spare time into beads and other ornaments. A captain of a well-known
boat who with his crew visited in the summer of 1926 a small island on
which there is an extensive frozen refuse heap containing many bones
and tools of the natives who once occupied the place, exclaimed, "Gad,
there's $50,000 of ivory in sight."
The boat crew took away about "2 bushels" of it, or all that could be
removed from the extensive frozen pile. I saw some of this ivory later,
all cut up, but with a number of the pieces still showing old human
handiwork, and some beads made of other parts of the lot were brought
later to my office in Washington.
If American archeology and ethnology are to learn what they need in
these regions it is absolutely essential that they take early steps
for a proper exploration of the old sites, besides which every effort
should be made by the intelligent traders, missionaries, teachers, and
officials to save the more artistic and characteristic pieces of human
workmanship in the old ivory, and bring them with such data as may be
available to the attention of scientific men or institutions. It would
in fact be of much value, and the writer has suggested this to the
Governor of Alaska, to establish a local museum at Nome, where such
objects could be gathered and saved to science.