The coast of which Nome is now the human center, up to Cape Wales,
together with the nearer islands, was occupied by the Maiglemiut
(Zagoskin), or Mahlemut (Dall et al.) subdivision of the Eskimo. They
were a strong group, and great traders. During the Russian times the
Aziags, from what is now the Sledge Island, with probably others from
the coast, visited yearly for trading purposes as far as St. Michael
and the Yukon, while the Wales people were known to trade up to fairly
recently as far as Kotzebue, both at the same time having trading
connections with Asia.
Of these natives, with the exception of those at Wales, there remains
but little. On Sledge Island there are only two dead villages, and on
the coast from Port Clarence to far east of Nome there is not a single
existing native settlement. A few remnants of the people live in Nome,
but they have lost all individuality.
Dead sites are known to exist from west to east, at Cape Wooley; at
the mouth of the Sonora or Quartz Creek; at the mouth of the Penny
River--some natives are said to still go to fish there in summer; at
the mouth of a small river 3 miles east of Nome; both west (a larger
village) and east (a small site) of Cape Nome; and 18 miles east of
Nome (the "Nook" village).
Most of these sites have been peopled within the memory of the oldest
inhabitants.
Thanks to the kind aid of the Reverend Doctor Baldwin, I was able to
visit several of the sites east of Nome, more particularly the Nook
village, and it was still possible to find two skeletons and a skull on
these sites.
The Nook site must have been one of considerable importance. It
was an especially large village, or rather two near-by villages,
in one of which I counted upward of 30 depressions, remnants of
the semisubterranean houses with vestibules, such as are elsewhere
described from the Yukon.
Here a clear illustration was had of what changes on sites of this
nature may be wrought in a short time by the elements.
Fifteen years ago, I was assured, there were still many burials and
skeletal remains scattered along the coast near the Nook village.
Then in 1913 came a great southwestern storm, which at Nome ripped up
the cemetery and carried away some coffins with bodies, scattering
them over the plains in the vicinity. Since that storm not a vestige
remains of any of the burials or bones near the large Nook village.
On prolonged examination I found nothing but sands overgrown with the
usual coast vegetation. Everything had been carried away or buried and
the pits of the houses were evidently themselves largely filled in.
The burials on this coast west of Golovnin Bay were evidently all of
a simpler nature than those on Norton Sound and the Yukon. There is
plenty of driftwood, but for some reason this was not hewn into boards
with which to make burial boxes. The dead were merely laid upon and
covered with the driftwood, though this was done, as later seen on
Golovnin Bay, rather ingeniously. One of the two skeletons found near
Cape Nome, an adult male, lay simply among the rocks on the lower part
of the slope of the hill.
Old sites, though often small, may be confidently looked for along all
these coasts in the shelter of every promontory, at the mouth of each
stream, and on the spits which separate the ocean from inland lagoons
(as in the case of the Nook village).