Late that night we leave slowly for the Diomede Islands, the nearer
of which is only about 18 miles distant. The two islands lie, as is
well known, just about in the middle of the Bering Strait. One is
known as the larger or Russian, the other as the smaller or American
Diomede. The boundary line between Russia and the United States passes
between the two. Both islands have been occupied since far back by the
Eskimo. To-day there is one small village on the American and two small
settlements on the Russian island.
July 26. Up at 5.40, breakfast 6, and off in one of our staunch motor
boats, with Jenness, for the Little Diomede. Countless birds flying in
streams about the island.
The island is just a big rock, with barren flat top and steep sides,
covered where inclination permits with great numbers of larger and
smaller granite bowlders. There is neither tree nor brush here. The
village, if it deserves that name, with a school, occupies an easier
slope, facing the larger island across a strait seemingly about a
mile broad. There are but a few dwellings, due to local necessities
and conditions built above ground and outside of stone. One that was
entered showed a dark fore-room, a storage attic, and a cozy somewhat
lighted living and sleeping back room, entered through a low and narrow
entrance. The houses seem to be built on old débris of habitations, and
there are refuse heaps, one of which was eventually worked in by Doctor
Jenness, though without much profit.
The bowlder-covered slope above the village was the burial ground of
the natives. (Pl. 5, _b_.) Unfortunately most of the skeletal remains
have been collected by a former teacher and then left and lost. With
Doctor Jenness and the present teacher, himself an Eskimo, we climb
from bowlder to bowlder and collect what remains. The work is both
risky to the limbs and difficult in other respects. The large bowlders
are piled up many deep; and there being little or no soil, there are
all sorts of holes and crevices between and underneath the stones. Deep
in these crevices, completely out of sight or reach, nest innumerable
birds (the little auk), and their chatter is heard everywhere. But into
these impenetrable crevices also have fallen many of the bones and
skulls of the bodies that have been "buried" among the bowlders, and
also doubtless many of the smaller articles laid by the bodies.
The burials here were made in any suitable space among the rocks. The
body was laid in this space, without any coffin and evidently not much
clothing. About it and on the rocks above were placed various articles.
We found clay lamps, remnants of various wooden objects, the bone end
pieces of lances, and finally one or two pieces of driftwood to mark
the place. Here the bodies decayed and what was left had either tumbled
or was washed by rain into the crevices. It was suggested, however,
that much may have been taken by dogs and foxes. Some of the skulls
and here and there one of the larger bones remained, to eventually be
covered by moss and eroded. With the help of Doctor Jenness and the
teacher I was able to find five male and seven female crania in fair
condition, which will be of much value in the study of this interesting
contingent of the Eskimo.
No evidence in the graveyard among the rocks of any great antiquity,
nothing more than perhaps a few scores of years. But traces of older
burials would surely be completely lost among the rocks, though they
may lie in the deep crevices and holes where they can not be reached.
Upon return am treated to a cup of good hot coffee--never can get
a real hot cup of coffee on the boat--and excellent bread, made by
the Eskimo wife of the teacher; and see his family of fine chubby
children. Can not help but kiss his girl of about 10--she is so fresh
and innocent and pretty. Obtain also from the wife of the teacher a
good old hafted "jade" ax, though she hesitates much to part with
it--it used to belong to her grandmother; and from the teacher
himself a number of interesting articles in old ivory. Leave Doctor
Jenness. Have learned to like him much, both for his careful work and
personally, in our short association; and at 11 a. m. return to the
boat.
Cold, but calm and sunny. Sit on boxes at the very end of the good old
_Bear_. See Asia, the two Diomedes, and Seward Peninsula, all in easy
reach, all like so many features of a big lake. Pass around Greater
Diomede.
There never could have been any large settlement on the Diomede
Islands--they are not fit for it. The Great Diomede has just two
mediocre sites, which are occupied now each by about half a dozen
dwellings. A small old settlement, a few stone houses, has also once
existed, I am told, on the elevated top of the larger island opposite
the Little Diomede. On the latter only the one visited--everywhere else
the steep slopes or walls come right down into the water, and there
is even no landing possible (or only a precarious one at best) except
where we landed. The old natives of the Little Diomede are said to have
believed that another village had once existed farther out from the
present site and that it has become submerged. The evidence cited (told
by the native teacher) is not conclusive, and no indication of such
a settlement could be seen from the beach. But in front and possibly
beneath the native houses, in the old refuse, there may be remnants of
older dwellings.
Just passed from Monday to Tuesday, and then back to Monday, all in a
few hours--the day boundary. We are now just north of the Bering Strait
and see all beautifully, in moderate bluish haze.
A grand panorama of utmost anthropological interest. A big lake, scene
of one of the main migrational episodes of mankind. Sea just wrinkling
some, day calm, mostly sunny, mildly pleasant, with an undertone of
cold.
How trivial feel here the contentions about the possibilities of
Asiatic migrations into America. There can be no such problem with
those who have seen what we now are witnessing. Here is a great open
pond which on such days as this could be traversed by anyone having as
much as a decent canoe. As a matter of fact it has always been and is
still thus traversed. (Pl. 6, _a_.) The Chukchee carried on a large
trade with America, so much so that we find the Russians complaining
of their interfering with their trade. (Pl. 6, _b_, _c_.) The Diomede
people stand in connection on one hand with the northeastern Asiatics
and on the other hand with the whites as far as Nome, where most of
them go every summer to sell their ivory and its products and bring
back all sorts of provisions. And in the same way the King Islanders
come every summer to Nome, on the east end of which, as the Diomedes on
the west, they have their summer habitations. (Pl. 7, _a_, _b_.) Only
a year or two ago, the natives tell, an Eskimo woman of St. Lawrence
Island set out alone in a canoe with her child to visit a cousin on the
Asiatic coast, 50 miles distant, and returned safe and sound after the
visit was over.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 5
_a_, Cape Prince of Wales from the southeast. (A.H., 1926)
_b_, Village and cemetery slope, Little Diomede. (A.H., 1926)]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 6
_a_, Asiatics departing for Siberia from the Little Diomede Island.
(Photo by D. Jenness, 1926)
_b_, "Chukchis" loading their boat with goods on Little Diomede Island,
before departure for Siberia. (Photo by D. Jenness, 1926)
_c_, "Chukchis" loading their boat with goods on Little Diomede Island,
before departure for Siberia. (Photo by D. Jenness, 1926)]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 7
_a_, Eskimos from East Cape arriving at Nome, Alaska
_b_, East Cape of Asia (to the southward). (Photo by Joe Bernard)]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 8