[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 18
_a_, Indian children, Mission School at Anvik, Lower Middle Yukon
_b_, Indian children, Mission School at Anvik, Lower Middle Yukon
_c_, Two women of Anvik, on the Yukon, somewhat Eskimoid]
_Pure bloods._--The Yukon Indians are a sparse and largely mixed
population. The mixture is especially evident in the children and the
younger generation. It is mainly that with whites, but in the lower
settlements there is also a good deal of older mixture with the Eskimo.
There is fortunately as yet no Negro admixture.
_General type._--The full bloods are typically Indian, though not of
the pronounced plains type. The type is fairly uniform, but there is
not seldom, even up the river, as elsewhere in Alaska, a suggestion of
something Eskimoid in the physiognomy.
_Color._--The color in general is near medium brown, ranging to lighter
rather than darker. The hair is the usual full black of the Indian.
_Stature and strength._--- The stature and build are generally near
medium, rather slightly below than above.
_Head form._--The head is generally moderately rounded high meso- to
moderately brachycephalic. The face is medium Indian.
_Body._--The body proportions seldom impress one with unusual strength,
yet some of the men are by no means weaklings. The most fitting term
by which to characterize conditions in this respect is again "medium,"
with an occasional deviation one way or the other.
_Photographs._--The accompanying photographs, taken by the writer from
Tanana to Anvik, show a few of the physiognomies. Some of the girls and
women, as well as boys and men, are quite good looking. (Pls. 13-18.)
From Anvik downward along the river the type of the people becomes
plainly more Eskimoid and on the whole more robust. But as one can
frequently meet farther up the river individuals who remind one more or
less of the Eskimo, so here it is frequent to see faces that look like
Indian. Whether due to old mixture or to other reason, the fact is that
there is no line of somatological demarcation in the living populations
of the river, and the same applies, as will be seen later, to the
skulls.