On this coast there is little information since the time of Nelson.
There are a number of occupied villages as well as of old sites. The
region is bleak and the Eskimo there are reported to live miserably.
The principal Eskimo villages and sites along the lowermost branch of
the Yukon have been given previously. (Fig. 11.)
From the northernmost pass of the Yukon to St. Michael Island the
coast is poor in Eskimo remains. A site of interest here is the old
camping ground, with a few permanent houses, of Pastolik, and there
are two small sites farther up the coast. Pastolik to the writer's
visit was still occasionally occupied by a few Eskimo families. There
are only three houses, but a relatively large and old cemetery speaks
of a larger population, probably camping here in tents during the
summer seasons of the past. The burial grounds were found to be rather
extensive and give indications of containing human bones as well as
artifacts below the present surface (buried by the tundra). The main
part of the burial grounds may well repay an excavation.
ST. MICHAEL ISLAND.--Eskimo remains exist on the northeastern point
of the island beyond the present white man's village, and also on the
rock (Whale Island) opposite this point. During my visit the ground
was so overgrown by high weeds that details were hidden. On this same
northeastern point near the extension of the white settlement is a
small living Eskimo village, most of the inhabitants of which are now
of mixed blood. Across St. Michael Bay are said to be some old traces
of Eskimo, and Nelson reported an old site in the southern part of
the island. Finally at Cape Stephens, in the western extremity of the
island, there is "Stebbins," another living village. Nothing could be
learned of any human remains on the opposite Stuart Island.
NORTON SOUND.--North of St. Michael Island is Norton Sound and Norton
Bay. Along the east coast of the Sound there are three villages still
occupied, but with old accumulations. It is reported that in this
region there are some ruined houses in which mammoth tusks had been
used in the construction, but nothing definite could be learned as
to the location of these houses and the whole may be but a story.
The village of Unalaklik was of importance in the past and its older
remains would probably repay excavation. Old sites are reported from
the vicinity of Shaktolik and at Cape Denbigh.
The Norton Bay region (fig. 22), now almost depopulated, had in 1840 a
whole series of moderate-sized living Eskimo settlements, both on the
east and the west shore. These shallows are but little visited, and it
is probable that the remains of the villages and some at least of the
skeletal material of their burying grounds are well preserved. They
call for early attention.
To the west of Norton Bay, on the southern coast of Seward Peninsula,
is Golovnin[64] Bay. On the eastern shore of this bay are now, as there
were in Russian times, two settlements, but the name of one has been
misplaced. On Zagoskin's map it is clearly seen that the village Ching
or Chinig corresponds in location to what now is the mission, while
what is now called "Cheenik" was in 1840 Ikalik or Ikalikhaig. There
will soon be seen another instance of such a misapplication of the
original names.
To the west Golovnin Bay is bounded by a large promontory ending in
Rocky Point. To the east of this point is a shallow bay, where I found
a late Eskimo house and on the elevated shore a little to the left four
fairly recent adult burials. Farther down the bay was an Eskimo camp,
without signs of anything older; but Zagoskin's map gives a settlement,
probably also a camp, at this place, named Knikhtak. From this a rocky
point projects eastward into the bay. Behind this point is a shallow
cove with elevated ground above the beach, and at the inland end of
this bay I found the remains of a small old village. Traces of burials
were seen on the elevated ground but skeletal remains were absent.
On the southwestern shore of the promontory that bounds Golovnin Bay on
the west the Russians (Zagoskin) recorded two villages, the one near
to Rocky Point being Chiukak, that on a point farther northwest being
named Chaimiut. Later the name Chiukak became applied to the former
Chaimiut, while Chiukak proper was dead and forgotten. On latest maps,
such as Chart 9302 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, neither of
the old names appears. The name Bluff denotes a small settlement in
about the location of the former Chaimiut. Some Eskimo met in Golovnin
Bay said that there are skeletal remains near the original Chiukak, but
an attempt to reach the place failed through rough water.