There are seven adult skeletons of males and seven of females. For
present purposes it will suffice to take the males alone and to
restrict consideration to the long bones. The essential data on these
are given on page 160, where they are contrasted with those of North
American Indians in general, and with those of the western Eskimo.
The bones show both relations to as well as differences from the bones
of Indians in general and fair distinctness from those of the Eskimo.
Contrasted with the long bones of miscellaneous North American tribes
taken together, the Yukon Indian bones show absolutely slightly
shorter humerus (or arm), somewhat shorter radius (or forearm), a
slightly shorter femur (or upper part of the leg), and a plainly
shorter tibia. These Indians had therefore relatively somewhat shorter
forearm and especially the leg below the knees than their continental
cousins. These facts are plainly evident from the radio-humeral and
tibio-femoral indices of the two groups. In this relative shortness of
the distal parts of the limbs the Yukon Indian approaches the Eskimo,
standing near midway between the Indian in general and the Eskimo.
There might be a ready temptation to attribute this to a mixture with
the Eskimo; but an examination of the records will show that the same
condition, so far at least as the upper limb is concerned (lower?), is
already present in the old Bonasila skeleton, which gives no suggestion
of an Eskimo mixture. It is more likely, therefore, that these are
generalized characteristics of functional origin such as a considerable
use of the small canoes. This view seems to be supported by the
relative strength of the bones. In the Yukon Indian the humerus is
stouter, the femur of the same strength, and the tibia very perceptibly
weaker than they are in Indians in general. In the Eskimo, with even
greater dependence on the canoe, both the humerus and the femur are
notably stouter, while the tibia is weaker, than are similar bones in
the Indians in general.
The humero-femoral index in the Yukon Indians is unusually high,
indicating a relative shortness of the femur. This character is not
present in the Eskimo, nor in the continental Indian. It is probably
also of old functional origin, though, this for the present must remain
a mere suggestion.
All of this shows clearly the interest and value of other skeletal
parts than the skull, and particularly of the long bones, for
anthropological studies.