The most noteworthy and important result of these studies on the living
western Eskimo is the evidence, coming to light again and again, of
their fundamental somatic relations to the Indian. These relations are
too numerous and weighty to be accidental. Nor can they be ascribed to
mixture with the Indian in such far-away groups as the St. Lawrence
Islanders, who so long as known have never had any direct or even
indirect contact with Indians. These relations in dimensions and
relative proportions of the body, and in physiological characteristics
such as the slow normal pulse, are supplemented by many phases of
behavior, and often by a more or less Indianlike physiognomy. They
inevitably lead to the conclusion that the Eskimo and the Indian are in
the root members of the same family. They are two digits of the same
hand, separate and diverging, yet at base joined to and derived from
the same source. And this source, according to many indications, is the
paleo-asiatic, "mongoloid," stem of northern Asia. The western Eskimo
shows to be nearer this source than his more northern and northeastern
relatives, indicating either that he is a later comer, or, which is
more probable, that he has changed less in the south than in the north.
It may be possible to say something more on this subject after the
skeletal remains have been considered.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 45