The location of the western Eskimo villages has received more or less
attention by most of the explorers in their region from the Russian
time onward; but such efforts are generally limited to the living
villages in the area visited by the observers.
Perhaps the earliest Russian map of value in this connection on the
Bering Sea region is that which I find in Billings and Gall's Voyage or
"Putěshestvie" of 1791, printed in St. Petersburg 1811. The map bears
no date, but is evidently quite early. It gives three villages on the
western point and north coast of the Seward Peninsula, namely Kiemile
(later Nykhta, now Wales), Chegliukh, and Tykiak. (Pl. 29.)
The most notable and valuable of the Russian contributions to this
subject is that of Zagoskin. This refers to the period of 1842-1844 and
is contained partly in his "Peshechodnaia Opis," etc. (St. Petersburg,
1847), but especially on his maps. There are, I find, two of these
maps--the "Merkatorskaia Karta Časti Sieverozapadnago Berega Ameriky"
and the "Merkatorskaia Generalnaia Karta Časti Rossijskich Vladěnii v
Amerikě." I came across the first in one copy of Zagoskin's invaluable
account, which should long ago have been translated into English, and
the other in another copy. Part of the second is here reproduced.
(Pl. 30.) Both bear the statement that they were made by Zagoskin
as the result of his explorations on the Yukon in 1842-1844. The
second ("general") map is much the clearer and richer. Both maps, but
especially the second, give a good number of villages, especially about
Norton Sound and along the southern shore of Seward Peninsula. The
orthography differs somewhat on the two charts.
The Tebenkof Atlas of 1849 includes a remarkably good map of the St.
Lawrence Island. As on other Russian maps it gives the Punuk Islands,
that later are lost by most map makers, and indicates the location of
what probably were all the living settlements of that time, except on
the Punuk. (Fig. 27.)
Finally, in 1861, Tikhmenief, in his "Istoričeskoie Obozrenie" (history
of Russian America) gives a detailed map with many locations of Eskimo
villages.
The Aleutian Islands and Kodiak are excellently dealt with by
Veniaminof and also Tikhmenief, though little special attention is
given to the location of the settlements.
None of the Russian explorers, regrettably, report verbally on the
deserted sites or ruins. But their registration and location of many
villages that have since become "dead" is of much historical as well as
anthropological value.
[Illustration: FIGURE 13.--World map]
Of later and particularly American authors who gave attention to the
location of the western Eskimo settlements, the foremost is E. W.
Nelson. Beginning in 1877 with the St. Michael Island and ending with
the cruise of the _Corwin_ in 1881, Nelson made trips down the coast
to the Kuskokwim, up the Yukon to Anvik, over the Bering Sea, the St.
Lawrence Island and parts of the Chukchee Peninsula, and finally,
with the _Corwin_, along the northern coasts to Point Barrow. And
these journeys were devoted largely to biological and ethnological
observations and collections, the latter including the location of the
western Eskimo habitations of that time. His locations are given on the
accompanying map (fig. 15) taken from his classic memoir, "The Eskimo
about Bering Strait," published in 1900 in the Eighteenth Annual Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology. This memoir contains a section of
"Ruins" (pp. 263-266), a brief account of the recently dead villages
on St. Lawrence Island (p. 269), and an instructive section on Eskimo
burials (pp. 310-322). Nelson brought also the first more substantial
collection of Eskimo crania.
The next deserving man in these connections is Ivan Petrof. Of
Russian-American extraction, Petrof was charged in 1880 with the
census enumeration of the natives in Alaska, and he later published[60]
a valuable report on his work, together with detailed demographic data
and a map on which are given all the living settlements of his time.
Nelson's map is partly based on Petrof's data.
Since Nelson and Petrof but little has been done in this field. But
the maps of these two observers have been utilized more or less by
the map makers of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, the
Geological Survey, and other Government agencies concerned with Alaska.
The result is that some of these charts are exceptionally useful to the
anthropological explorer in Alaska; nevertheless the data they carry
are incomplete and the locations or names are not always exact, a good
many of the villages shown are now dead, and old ruins, as usual, have
received no attention.
[Illustration: FIGURE 14.--Dall's map of the distribution of the tribes
of Alaska and adjoining territory, 1875]
A very valuable supplement to all the maps has in 1902 been published
by the United States Geological Survey. It is the Geographic Dictionary
of Alaska, by Marcus Baker. This volume, besides brief but serviceable
historical data, gives in alphabetical order nearly all the then-known
names of localities in Alaska, including those of the Eskimo and
Indian settlements; and each name is accompanied by brief but in many
instances most helpful information. This highly deserving volume,
indispensable to every student of Alaska, has for many years been out
of print, but it is understood that a new revised edition is slowly
being prepared.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 29