December 2004 Number 12 www.mnh.si.edu/arctic

Newsletter

Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History

NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR

By William Fitzhugh

GREETINGS FROM MONTREAL AIRPORT, where I’ve been

stranded for several hours returning from a conference in

Newfoundland honoring Jim Tuck’s retirement. Current

predicament aside, the conference was wonderful, with papers by

Jim’s colleagues – old and new – bringing insights and humor to

topics from Iroquoia to Ferryland, with stops in between. There

were new ideas on Iroquois origins, conundrums like fluted points

made of Ramah chert, and esoteric topics like aviation archaeology.

While in St. John’s Kevin McAleese

and Elaine Anton gave me a tour of

‘The Rooms’, the spectacular but

architecturally challenged new museum

and archive complex that opens in mid2005, built on the historical site of the

fishermen’s rooms, which will house

and display Newfoundland’s art,

history, and archaeology.

New museums are the rage

here in Washington also! The National

Museum of the American Indian had

its grand opening in September. This

spectacular event included a week of

gala receptions and oratory that began

with a procession by some 20,000

Native Americans (Sven Haakanson,

Gordon Pullar, Rosita Worl, and

many others), many in full regalia, and

a three-day Native American festival.

The NMAI’s wonderful building

stayed open all night for three days to

accommodate visitors, and the press

featured Native American stories for

nearly the entire month. To

commemorate the event, the

Anthropology Department opened a

special show, “Hawaiian Treasures”,

and Director Cristián Samper presented Rick West with a

framed original of Ives Goddard’s Native American Language

Map, a product of 150 years of Smithsonian scholarship and

Native American collaboration.

The past few newsletters have reported on the ‘rebirth’

of the Smithsonian under Larry Small’s tenure, a process that has

been both painful and rewarding, as birthing tends to be. It now

seems that my relief at reaching the end of this process was

premature, for this past year revealed a new stage of this Faustian

ordeal: the specter of strategic plans that followed as

administrators sought to illuminate the paths so blithely outlined

by our erstwhile councilors. The first was a strategic plan for each

of the four themes identified as priorities by the Science

Commission: astrophysics, earth and planetary sciences, biology,

and anthropology. I chaired the latter effort, which we completed

last winter. Concurrently, NMNH set in motion its own strategic

planning effort, which was completed this fall. Of course we are all

hoping these efforts produce new funds to go along with the new

focus and new priorities.

But in fact, so far, funds for science continue to decline,

except for fellowships, which we have

managed to re-fund after two years of

zero budgets. Secretary Small has made

significant progress with his top

priority, ‘R&R,’ but seems disinclined

to repair the threadbare science effort,

which suffered two new blows. NSF,

which seemed ready to open its doors

wide to SI proposals last spring,

buckled under pressure from the

university and oceanographic

communities. The impass continues,

making mockery of the OMB’s muchtouted ‘level playing field’!

The second blow was the sudden

closure of the Smithsonian Institution

Press, effective January 2005. SIP has

been in financial trouble for some time,

and two years ago Don Fehr was

brought in to produce black ink. Don

turned the press toward trade books,

contracted Norton to market its books,

and discontinued all but the most

lucrative scholarly publications.

Predictably, SIP still bled – unable to

compete dollar-for-dollar with the

publishing industry. Since then, we

have been assured the Contributions

Series will continue to publish technical monographs under the

“Smithsonian Institution Press” imprint; but whether this will

adequately fulfill our publication needs remains to be seen. One

hopes that the SI will come to its senses and realize that the

Institution cannot fulfill its scholarly purpose without a press any

more than we can fulfill our educational role without exhibits and

collections. In the meantime, the Handbook has survived and the

ASC continues to publish its Contributions to Circumpolar

Anthropology.

Poster for the Looking Both Ways Exhibit. Mikhail

Tikhanov painting of Alutiiq hunters (Scientific

Research Museum of Russ. Academy of Arts, St. Pet.)
ASC Newsletter 2

Here we have indeed made great progress and under Igor

 Krupnik’s direction, have published several new books, including

Watching Ice and Weather Our Way, and From the Playgrounds of

the Gods: the Life and Art of Bikky Sunazawa, and this coming

year will release Leonid Khlobystin’s Archaeology of Taimyr,

Bryan Hood’s Archaeology of Nain, Labrador, and a volume of

essays on Northern Ethnographic Landscapes.

In February I took Cristián Samper to visit the ASC

offices in Anchorage, where he saw our Alaska programs in action.

A museum training workshop organized by ASC and NMAI was

underway and we received a briefing on the Anchorage Museum’s

exciting expansion plans. We also met with representatives of the

University of Alaska (where Cristián gave a seminar on his

conservation biology research) and the National Park Service. An

exciting wintery flight to Seward brought us to the Sealife Center

and an overflight of Aron Crowell’s field research area.

Hospitality provided by Ann Fienup-Riordan and many others

made Cristián’s second visit to Alaska exciting and memorable. His

first had been years ago, in the balmy climes of a Juneau summer.

The Center’s research programs continue to flourish in all

corners of the North. In addition to Aron’s Kenai Fjords project,

ASC staff continued work in Western Alaska, Mongolia, Quebec,

Labrador, and now Scandinavia. Igor continued his research on

knowledge repatriation in the communities of Nome, Savoonga,

and Gambell as well as editorial work on Ethnographic

Landscapes. Stephen Loring had a productive community

archaeology project with the Labrador Innu at Kamistastin,

Labrador, and Bill Fitzhugh continued his fourth-year

investigations of the archaeology of Quebec’s Lower North Shore

in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Bronze Age cultures of northern

Mongolia, where he was joined by Bruno Frohlich and Paula

DePriest. Our Mongolian studies were also augmented by Bill

Honeychurch’s field program in the Gobi, building on his postdoctoral SI fellowship research.

This year also brought Noel Broadbent onto the

Center’s staff with his NSF-sponsored archaeological study of

Saami origins in northern Sweden. This exciting project promises

to revolutionize the history of Swedish Saami, based on new

fieldwork and historical analysis. Noel fills the void we have felt

for years in coverage of Scandinavia and is a most welcome

member of the team.

This year’s special projects included the closure of the

tour of Looking Both Ways, which was open at NMNH from

January through September. With assistance from Marianne

Stenbaek, the Danish Embassy, and the Greenland Home Rule

government, we are planning a series of lectures, exhibits, and

performances as part of a Greenland Culture and Arts Festival

taking place May 20-22, 2005. In February, Bill and Igor organized

and led a symposium at the 2004 AAAS exploring historical and

contemporary issues of climatic change in the north as an activity

of the interagency SEARCH program. Also linked to SEARCH is

Igor Krupnik’s and Kat Rusk’s exhibit, A Friend Acting

Strangely, an exhibition that will open in spring 2005 exploring the

impacts of climate change on land, sea-ice, and people. In March

the Mongolian entourage trekked to Pittsburgh where Michael

Rosenmeier hosted a workshop on Mongolian studies, while this

November Stephen Loring hosted the yearly student-oriented

Arctic Research Seminar at the SI.

Plans for the construction of a new wing at the

Anchorage Museum of History and Art are advancing rapidly,

following a detailed design plan that has now been completed by

the British firm Chipperfield Associates assisted by Aron

Crowell. The addition will provide the ASC with superb facilities

for research, display, and collection storage for Smithsonian

objects through the Alaska Collection Project. This year the ACP

completes its final round of Alaska Native consultation visits,

hosting Athabascan and Tlingit groups who identified interesting

materials and provided new information on the collections. This

sets up the second phase of the project which will involve object

documentation, web development, and conservation, which will

begin in 2005. The ACP project has already made important

contributions in connecting SI collections with Native communities

and has produced important new Native documentation for

NMNH collections.

This year also brought us into closer contact with a

number of individuals, communities, and institutions. Our growing

association with Dartmouth College, with whom we are planning a

special event honoring the 100th anniversary of Vilhjalmur

Stefansson’s first arctic expedition in 1907, and with Sterling

College, which is collaborating with us on our Mongolian project

and student exchanges, has been particularly gratifying, as is our

long-standing relationship with the University of Alaska.

On a more personal note, I received the 2003 Secretary’s

Distinguished Research Lecture Award and entertained multitudes

with “Down to Earth: An Archaeologist’s Search for Circumpolar

Connections.” A great honor! And great fun, I might add, to have

much of the Smithsonian staff as a captive audience for an hour of

your life. Many thanks to Jeffrey Stine (NMAH), Mindy Zeder,

and others who made this possible and so enjoyable! I also note

here the recent arrival of another ‘Fitzhugh’ onto this orb –

Larissa, born in Seattle to Ben and Laada, on October 6, 2004!

ASC Anchorage.............................................................................. 3

Exhibitions...................................................................................... 7

Collections.................................................................................... 15

Outreach....................................................................................... 19

Fieldwork...................................................................................... 21

Conferences.................................................................................. 35

Bergy Bits...................................................................................... 41

Transitions.................................................................................... 44

New Publications.......................................................................... 47

ASC Staff Publications................................................................ 49

ASC Publications......................................................................... 50

Thanks to Our Sponsors............................................................. 51

○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ASC Newsletter 3

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2009: ASC EXHIBITIONS AT

AN EXPANDED ANCHORAGE MUSEUM

By Aron Crowell

Arctic Studies Center exhibitions,

research, and public programs will be

featured in a new wing of the

Anchorage Museum of History and

Art, scheduled to open in late 2009.

Plans call for hundreds of Alaska

Native objects from Smithsonian

collections, selected and documented

over four years through study visits

to Washington with indigenous

Elders and experts, to be displayed in

8000 square feet of galleries, visible

storage areas, and a cultural resource

center.

In March, the Anchorage

Museum announced that full capital

funding ($75 M) had been raised for

construction of the wing, which will also be home to new art

galleries, café, shop, and the Museum’s library and archives.

Conceptual designs were presented to the public in September by

David Chipperfield Architects (London) and exhibition designers

Ralph Applebaum Associates (New York). Detailed plans for the

new ASC facilities and exhibitions will evolve over the next two

years through work with designers, an exhibition advisory panel,

and museum staff in both Anchorage and Washington. Planning

and fund raising efforts continue for object conservation, shipping,

personnel, and other costs of the anticipated programs in

Anchorage.

The new exhibitions and physical expansion are the

outcome of a unique 10-year partnership between the National

Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the Anchorage

Museum. This partnership has enabled the Arctic Studies Center

to establish an active Alaska presence and to develop a wide range

of collaborative projects with Alaska Native communities and

organizations. Work with Alaska Native experts to document

Smithsonian collections at NMNH and the National Museum of

the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington (the Alaska

Collections Project) was the first step toward creating the new

exhibitions and a web site that will be launched in 2005. Funding

for this phase was provided by the Rasmuson Foundation, Conoco

Phillips Alaska, National Park Service, and Museum Loan

Network (MIT).

The broad concept of the new exhibitions is to

emphasize the cultural diversity of Alaska, which is home to

twenty Native languages, and to emphasize first-person voice and

indigenous interpretation. A visitor who enters the main

Smithsonian gallery (shown below in an artist’s provisional

rendering) will encounter Alaska’s Native heritage through a world

of beautifully displayed, handmade objects and the stories they

exemplify. Elders’ discussions about objects, recorded during the

Alaska Collections Project, frequently move from specific

information (how something was made and used) to broader

values, beliefs, and history. Various media options are being

considered for the gallery, including handheld audio/video players.

Entering the adjoining Cultural Resource Center, the

visitor will find opportunities to learn more and to pursue special

interests. Visible storage displays will hold series of objects such

as boots and parkas from different cultural areas, inviting

comparison and study. Media stations will offer access to oral,

historical, and museum information, as well as links to archives and

on-line exhibits. At the Center, Arctic Studies Center staff and

museum docents will facilitate activities ranging from master artist

classes to school visits, individual research, internships,

fellowships, and lecture programs. A rotating loan program and

continuing work with Elders and other visitors will allow

knowledge of the collections to grow and for cooperative exhibit

projects to be developed with Alaska Native museums and cultural

centers.

Rendition of ASC Anchorage Museum gallery

Rendition of Main Entrance

ASC ANCHORAGE

MUSEUM TRAINING WORKSHOP IN ANCHORAGE

By Aron Crowell

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Arctic

Studies Center, Anchorage Museum of History and Art (AMHA),

and Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) joined resources and

staff to host a five-day, hands-on workshop at the Anchorage

Museum on the topic of caring for Alaska Native collections in

small museums (January 12-16, 2004). Sixteen participants, most

representing Alaska Native and Canadian First Nations museums

and cultural centers, took part in seminars on museum policies and

practices, object handling, shipping, registration, condition

reporting, monitoring, management and long-term care. Special

attention was given to Native perspectives on collections and to

adapting museum practices to Native philosophies. NMAI and

ASCA offered travel scholarships to assist in long distance travel

from far-flung places: Anaktuvuk Pass, Cordova, Point Hope,

Burwash Landing, Nome, Sitka, Port Graham, Hoonah, Fairbanks,

South Naknek, and Kenai.

Karen Cooper and Jill Norwood (NMAI Community

Services) took the lead in organizing the workshop as part of

NMAI’s national outreach program, with coordination and

assistance from ASC and ASCA in making contacts across Alaska

and western Canada. The Arctic Studies Center’s Alaska regional

office has worked with many different partners since 1994 to

produce annual museum training opportunities in support of the

region’s growing network of community and tribal museums.

Guest faculty Barbara Lucero Sands (Museums

Studies Program, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe)
ASC Newsletter 4

presented many of the sessions. Special topics were given by

Scott Carrlee (Conservator, Alaska State Museum), Aron

Crowell (ASC), Walter Van Horn (Curator of Collections,

AMHA), Janelle Matz (Assistant Curator of Collections,

AMHA), Kathleen Hertel (Director, Museum Archives,

AMHA), and Saunders McNeill (ASCA). Evaluations by

participants were enthusiastic, mentioning that the information

presented was practical, comprehensive, and useful, and that it

was a great opportunity for networking with peers.

Cristián Samper (Director, National Museum of

Natural History) and William Fitzhugh (Director, ASC) were

guests at the workshop and at an evening reception hosted by the

Anchorage Museum, where Dr. Samper presented a lecture on

Smithsonian research and programs. Both were in Anchorage to

review Arctic Studies Center activities in Alaska and welcomed the

chance to meet representatives from so many cultural programs.

Patricia Wolf, Director of the Anchorage Museum, welcomed the

guests and participants.

Attending the workshop were: Ada Ahgook (Simon

Paneak Memorial Museum), LaRue Barnes (Ilanka Cultural

Center), Sharla Blanche (Alaska Native Heritage Center),

Terrence Booshu (Uivvaq Heritage Project), Angela Demma

(Alaska Native Heritage Center), Mary Jane Johnson (Kluane

First Nation), Robin Lovelace-Smith (Carcorss/Tagish First

Nation), Denise Michels (Kawerak, Inc.), Elmenda Miller

(Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center), Brandon Moonin (Port

Graham Village Council), Mary Beth Moss (Hoonah Heritage

Museum), Lillian Morris (Gates of the Arctic National Park),

Mary Jane Nielsen (Alaska Peninsula Corporation), John

Smelcer (Chugachmiut), Stephanie Stephens (National Park

Service), and Dana Verrengia (Kenai Visitors and Cultural

Center).

Athabascan Elders (l to r) Phillip Arrow, Trimble Gilbert,

Eliza Jones and Judy Woods examine Deg Hit’an mask at

the National Museum of Natural History.

ALASKA COLLECTIONS PROJECT UPDATE

By Dawn Biddison

In May 2004, a group of Athabascan Elders Eliza Jones

(Upper Koyukon), Judy Woods (Lower Koyukon), Trimble

Gilbert (Gwich’in) and Philip Arrow (Deg Hit’an) traveled to

the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and

National Museum of the American Indian to conduct research.

Chelsea Venechuk

They worked with Aron

Crowell (ASC Anchorage)

to record multi-lingual

information about

Athabascan objects from

the Alaskan collections.

This research was

conducted for the Alaska

Collections Project

(ACP)—a statewide

research program conducted

in collaboration with

Alaska Native Elders and

organizations. The ACP is funded by the Rasmuson Foundation,

the National Park Service and Conoco Phillips Alaska. A group of

Tlingit and Haida Elders will participate in the final museum

consultation this spring. In addition to producing an educational

web site and classroom materials for children, the Alaska

Collections Project will result in the long-term loan of objects for

exhibition at the Smithsonian Gallery planned for the Anchorage

Museum of History and Art expansion and at Alaska Native

museums.

Unangam (Aleut) Elders Mary N. Bourdukofsky and

Vlass Shabolin—both originally from St. Paul in the Pribilof

Islands—spent a week in September at the ASC Anchorage sharing

their cultural knowledge as translators of information gathered on

their research trip to the Smithsonian in April 2003. These Elders,

along with Daria Dirks and Maria Turnpaugh, worked with

museum staff in April of 2003 to record information about

Unangam objects at the Smithsonian. Other ACP translators

include Frances Charles (Iñupiaq, from Unalakleet), Vera

Kaneshiro (St. Lawrence Island Yupik, originally from Gambell),

Martha Aiken (Iñupiaq, from Barrow), Beth Leonard (Deg

Hit’an, from Fairbanks) and Kathy “Hishinalí” Sikorski

(Gwich’in, from Fairbanks). Veronica Kaganak (Yup’ik,

originally from Bethel) and Marilyn Koezuna-Irelan (Iñupiaq,

from Nome) are currently translating materials from museum

consultations with Yup’ik and Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq Elders.

At ASC Anchorage, Chelsea Venechuk (originally from

Healy) and Nadia Jackinsky-Horrell (originally from Homer,

with family ties to Ninilchik) also contributed to the Project.

From February to July, Chelsea diligently worked on the arduous

task of transcribing ninety-three hours of museum consultations

with Alaska Native Elders. She has also worked as a transcriber

for Alaska Department of Fish and Game. As a subsistence and

cultural resources technician for the Denali National Park and

Preserve, Chelsea conducted ethnographic fieldwork, administered

subsistence-use regulations and gave public presentations. This

summer Nadia examined archival film footage from the Iñupiaq and

St. Lawrence Island Yupik

regions and added to an

inventory of footage

descriptions. Nadia will return

to work on the project from

February to May of 2005

through an internship funded by

the CIRI Foundation (Cook Inlet

Regional Alaska Native

Corporation) and by the

National Park Service’s Beringian

Nadia Jackinsky-Horrell Heritage Program.
ASC Newsletter 5

ACP RESEARCHER DAWN D. BIDDISON

Dawn Biddison is the Alaska

Collections Project researcher at the

Arctic Studies Center’s (ACS) office

in Anchorage. In addition to

providing project coordination and

administrative support, Dawn works

with translators on multi-lingual

interviews with Alaska Native

collaborators and edits transcriptions.

This interview material along with

historical research and museum

information is the basis for her work

on a comprehensive database of

information on objects to be included in an ASC web site and

exhibit at the expanded Anchorage Museum of History and Art.

Dawn also assists in education and outreach related to the Alaska

Collections Project by supervising interns, writing articles and

presenting at conferences.

Dawn’s interest in anthropology began as an

undergraduate at Columbia University and University College

London where she pursued a cross-cultural emphasis to her study

of psychology. Between jobs ranging from drug abuse research in

Washington State jails to cooking in the Alaska bush and

Antarctica, she traveled extensively in North, Central and South

America. Her time with indigenous peoples, along with time spent

at museums and remote archaeology sites, led her interest back to

anthropology and to dissemination through museum work. Dawn

completed her Masters in Anthropology at the University of

Alaska Fairbanks while working at its UA Museum in collections,

in exhibits and as a guest curator. While conducting fieldwork for

her thesis on contemporary Alaska Native art, she was an intern on

the Alaska Collections Project, which led to a job opportunity

upon graduation. Calling Alaska her home for over a decade, Dawn

looks forward to continued collaborative work that serves Alaska’s

diverse communities and to developing her on-the-job work with

Alaska Native languages into formal university study.

KENAI FJORDS ORAL HISTORY AND

ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT, 2004

By Aron Crowell

The Alaska office of the Arctic Studies Center carried out a third

season of archaeological fieldwork this

summer for the Kenai Fjords Oral History

and Archaeology Project. Almost five

weeks of strangely sunny weather in

Kenai Fjords National Park (normally one

of the rainiest areas of southern Alaska)

made for a comfortable camp in Aialik

Bay and allowed rapid progress with

research into the region’s human and

climatic history. A changing team of 20

students, researchers, and community

volunteers carried out excavations and

paleoenvironmental studies under my

direction, in cooperation with the

National Park Service, Pratt Museum, and

the Cook Inlet villages of Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia.

Dr. David Yesner (University of Alaska Anchorage) joined the

project in the field and laboratory as faunal analyst, and Dr. Owen

Mason (Geoarch Alaska) conducted geomorphological research at

the Bear Cove site, a precontact village (~A.D. 1000–1400) that

was excavated in 2002.

The historic Denton Site, a hunting camp that was

occupied as early as the 1860s and perhaps intermittently into the

early 20th century, was the primary focus of this year’s work. The

Denton Site represents the last period of outer Kenai coast

occupation by Alutiiq families whose descendants now live in the

three cooperating Cook Inlet villages. The old camp is well

remembered in family traditions, creating the opportunity to use

both oral and archaeological data to reconstruct a period when the

Alutiiq population was transitioning from Russian colonial rule to

the new American capitalist trade system. Dramatic changes in

material life are evident in artifacts and features at the site. The

houses are log cabins rather than traditional semi-subterranean

dwellings. Buttons, buckles, and shoes indicate the switch from

fur clothing to garments sold at Alaska Commercial Company

trading posts, and firearms (muskets and Civil War era rifles) have

by this date largely replaced the arrows, harpoons, and seal darts

found at older settlements. Subsistence activities at the site, as

documented by faunal remains and oral history, included winter fur

trapping, black bear hunting, fishing, and the spring/summer

harvest of harbor seals and Steller sea lions.

In climatic terms, the Denton Site was occupied during a

period of rapid warming at the end of the Little Ice Age (or LIA,

~A.D. 1300-1900). Preliminary comparisons to the nearby Early

Contact Village (occupied very briefly during the period ~A.D.

1790-1810) suggest that important changes were occurring in the

marine ecosystem. Residents of the older Early Contact Site

experienced one of the very coldest periods of the LIA, as shown

by tree-ring studies, but one that was apparently very productive

for sea mammals (harbor seal, harbor porpoise, sea lion), seabirds,

and certain fish (e.g., Pacific cod). Clams, cockles and other

shellfish at the Early Contact Site are much larger than any found

in the area today. In relative abundance and size, animal bones and

shell at the late 19th/early 20th century Denton Site appear to

reflect more modern conditions.

Detailed comparison of the well-preserved faunal

remains from both sites is underway and will continue this winter

at the Arctic Studies Center in Anchorage, with funding from the

Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Park Service. A

$25,000 Wenner-Gren Individual

Research Grant (to Aron Crowell,

2005) will allow geochemical analysis

of oxygen and carbon isotopes in fish

otoliths to track late LIA water

temperatures and ocean productivity.

The grant will also fund a regional GIS

analysis of subsistence resources and

settlement patterns, as well as “bone

workshops” in Nanwalek and Port

Graham where faunal remains from the

sites will be discussed with Alutiiq

subsistence hunters.

Aron Crowell, David Yesner, and

Owen Mason presented research

papers on the Kenai Fjords project at Excavations at the Denton Site.

Dawn Biddison
ASC Newsletter 6

several venues, including

the 2004 Arctic

Conference at the

National Museum of

Natural History,

organized this year by the

Arctic Studies Center.

Crowell gave an invited

lecture about the project

at the Quaternary

Research Center

(University of

Washington, Seattle) and

continued a series of

public presentations to

schools, tribal councils,

and general audiences at Nanwalek, Port Graham, Seldovia, and

Homer.

From the beginning, the Kenai Fjords project has

benefited from the support of the National Park Service and its

Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center program, directed by

Dr. Peter Armato. Again this year, the Pratt Museum in Homer

partnered with the project through its high school intern program,

which allowed four Alutiiq students to participate in both the

rigors and fun of an archaeological field camp.

Many thanks to other members of this year’s field team:

Mark Luttrell (field coordinator, Seward), Gale Parsons (Pratt

Museum education director), Nicole Tozzi (University of Alaska,

Fairbanks), Rita Eagle (University of Alaska, Anchorage),

Christy Baez (University of Alaska, Anchorage), Salena Bias

(University of Alaska, Fairbanks), Alicia Wallen (University of

Alaska, Fairbanks), Nadia Jackinsky-Horrell (George

Washington University), David Crowell (Eastman School), Ian

Fry (Eastman School), Cody Strathe (Alaska SeaLife Center),

Tim Johnson (Seward), Connie Hedrick (Seward) and high

school interns Katrina Dupree (Seward), Stacy Hetrick

(Nanwalek), Kristine

Smith (Port Graham),

and Michelle

Meganack (Port

Graham).

Dartmouth

College intern Zachary

Strong spent his

spring term assisting

the project in the

Arctic Studies Center

archaeology lab in

Anchorage, where he

cataloged thousands of

animal bones and

helped to produce an analytical database for the samples.

University of Alaska Anchorage graduate student Rita Eagle is

preparing her master’s thesis on the glass trade bead assemblages

from the Aialik Bay sites. Nicole Tozzi conducted magnetometer

surveys of the Denton and Early Contact Villages sites and is

writing her M.A. thesis on the Denton artifacts for the University

of Alaska, Fairbanks. UAA students directed by Dr. Douglas

Veltre (Department of Anthropology, UAA) are assisting with

metal conservation, computer mapping, and other projects.

 Interns Michelle Meganack and

Kristine Smith catch a rockfish .

Aron Crowell at Aialik Glacier, June 2004.

ASC ALASKA BERGY BITS

CRISTIÁN SAMPER VISITS ALASKA

By Bill Fitzhugh

NMNH Director, Cristián Samper, visited Alaska last January

with Bill Fitzhugh to become acquainted first-hand with the ASC

Alaska office and its programs and partners. Aron Crowell

arranged an exciting three-day program of tours and meetings that

began with a delicious dinner for ASC Advisory Board members at

Anne Fienup-Riordan’s home in the hills above Anchorage and

ended with a visit to Juneau, where Samper once conducted

biological studies years ago, in a very different season of the year.

Aron organized a flight to Seward for our first day’s

experience. Before leaving we participated in a museum studies

workshop that was taking place at the Anchorage Museum, where

members of regional museums were learning exhibit and

conservation techniques. Before long we were flying over the

Kenai Mountains and its spectacular glaciers, swooping down over

Aron’s Kenai field site, and landing on a VERY windy and frigid

Seward airstrip. Here we were hosted by the Seward Marine

Science Center, which has been working closely with Aron’s Kenai

Fiords archaeology and oral history project. That evening, back in

Anchorage, Cristián hosted a dinner where he met some of our

funding and corporate partners.

Our second day was devoted to discussions with Pat

Wolf, Director of the Anchorage Museum, and members of various

committees overseeing architectural and exhibit planning for the

AMHA museum expansion. This provided Cristián with a clear

idea of the huge scale of this project and the importance of SI

collections and staff assistance, and he reaffirmed the

Smithsonian’s commitment, based on our joint MOU, in providing

artifacts and expertise to meet these goals. Lunch-time brought us

to the University of Alaska Anchorage campus where Cristián had

been invited by UUA Chancellor and SI National Board member

Susan Ruddy, to lecture on his conservation biology work in the

tropical forests of Colombia.

For our final day we shifted to Juneau, where Rosita

Worl organized meetings, presentations, and a sumptuous Tlingitstyle feast sponsored by SeaAlaska Heritage Foundation. We

arrived in a mini-blizzard, but by mid-day the sun was out, snow

was melting, and we felt like we were in another land. And we

were! Draped in magical Tlingit gift blankets, it was easy to

imagine the SI playing an ever-larger role in Alaskan research,

cultural affairs, and education. The trick is how to make it happen.

Of course we all are hoping that the memories, the new friends,

and the blankets will help ensure progress. It’s not everyday that

Alaska gets to capture (even if only for three days) a tropical

biologist director of the NMNH.

Thanks to Aron, Anne, Pat, Rosita, and everyone else who helped

make Cristián’s visit so enjoyable and fruitful.

RESEARCH PROPOSALS

Successful research proposals were made by the Alaska Office of

the Arctic Studies Center to the Wenner-Gren Foundation ($25,000

for Little Ice Age Cultural Adaptations to an Unstable Maritime

Environment in the Gulf of Alaska); National Park Service Shared

Beringian Heritage Program ($132,945 for Indigenous

Interpretation and Access to Beringian Collections at the
ASC Newsletter 7

EXHIBITIONS

INUIT ART: A PORTAL INTO THE MAGIC OF THE

CANADIAN ARCTIC

 By Judith Varney Burch and Stephen Loring (assisted by Liu

Zengyue, Canadian Embassy, Peking).

Washington D.C. is a political town, a place where the vestiges of

State and government, and the architecture of power and prestige

dominate the urban landscape: as readily apparent as monuments

and landmark buildings and as subtle as the fleet of diplomatplated limousines and the embassies that are scattered across the

city. The embassy that is closest to the Smithsonian’s ASC, both

physically and conceptually, is the Canadian Embassy on

Pennsylvania Avenue. Gracing the front of the Embassy is Bill

Reid’s magnificent cast bronze sculpture –Spirit of Haida Gwaii–

arguably the finest outdoor sculpture in a city renowned for its

sculpture gardens and statues. Since its inception, the Arctic

Studies Center has enjoyed a close working relationship with the

Canadian Embassy with whom we have co-curated exhibitions,

shared lecture and film programs, and hosted visiting delegations of

Canadian Inuit and First Nations representatives. Canada, more so

than any other circumpolar country, has merged its identity with a

recognition and celebration of its indigenous “First Nations”

communities. One can see the depth to which the official Canadian

persona has embraced a northern identity in the support and the

promotion of Canadian Inuit art at all governmental levels. It is not

uncommon, when gifts of state are needed, for Canadian officials to

present Inuit stone carvings as a uniquely Canadian symbolic gift,

and the inuksuit – those enigmatic human-shaped cairns of stones

that are scattered across the arctic – have become as much a

symbol of Canada as the Maple Leaf.

In 1992 Stephen Loring curated an exhibition of Inuit

stone sculpture from the Smithsonian collections at the Canadian

Embassy. Northern Spirits - Selected Works of Inuit Art was a

showcase for the Joseph Hirshhorn collection of Inuit art, much

of it derived from the early 1960’s from the heady early period of

“modern” Inuit art when the work and the artists were just

beginning to be recognized. The exhibition grew out of the interest

and enthusiasm of Curtis Barlow, the Embassy’s Counsellor of

Cultural Affairs. To augment the exhibition of early Inuit stone

carvings Barlow arranged for Judith Varney Burch of Richmond,

Virginia to display a number of Inuit cloth wall-hangings from

Judith Varney Burch

LOOKING BOTH WAYS

The exhibition Looking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the

Alutiiq People, a collaborative project of the Arctic Studies Center

and Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, finished its three-year tour at the

National Museum of Natural History. Looking Both Ways and its

catalog (edited by Aron L. Crowell, Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon

Pullar, University of Alaska Press, 2001) were reviewed in both

academic and popular publications. In a feature article published

by Current Anthropology (“Looking Several Ways: Anthropology

and Native Heritage in Alaska”, Vol. 45(1):5-30) James Clifford

(University of California, Santa Cruz) explored the Alaskan

context of the project and its implications for contemporary

anthropology. He appreciated its exploration of contemporary

Alaska Native identity through multiple sources and perspectives,

writing that “Perhaps the most striking feature of Looking Both

Ways is its multivocality.” In Nugguam, the Quinault Nation

newsletter published in Taholah, Washington, reviewer Gene

Woodrick wrote, “When will the Quinault people have such a

book about themselves?”

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE FROM SIBERIA

During the annual Beringian Heritage Conference in Anchorage

(October 2004), a group of representatives from indigenous

organizations in Chukotka met with ASC Alaska Region Director

Aron Crowell at the Anchorage Museum to discuss traditional

clothing and other objects from their region. The group examined

photographs of Smithsonian collections of the National Museum

of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian,

and also looked at pieces in the Anchorage Museum collection.

The discussions were a first step toward bringing traditional

knowledge from Siberian peoples into an expanded Alaska

Collections Project. The visitors included Edvard Zdor (Chukotka

Association of Traditional Marine Mammal Hunters), Gennady

Inenkuyas (Whaling Committee ChaZTO), Valdimir Etylin

(Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North), Oleg

Etylin (Chukotka Union of Reindeer Herders), Vera

Tymneraskova (Chukotka Native Information Center), and

Nikolai Ettyne (Bering Bridge Association). Andrew Crow and

John Tichotsky of the Alaska Chulotka Development project

helped to organize the event. Future consultations are planned

with funding from the National Park Service’s Shared Beringian

Heritage Program.

ALASKAN AAM PANEL

ASC Alaska Region Director Aron Crowell organized a double

panel session for the American Association of Museums 2004

annual meeting in New Orleans entitled “Alaskan Connections:

Cultural Heritage for Local and Global Audiences.” Presenters

included Sven Haakanson, Jr. (Alutiiq Museum), Terry Dickey

(University of Alaska Museum), Patricia Partnow (Partnow

Consulting), Julie Hollowell (Princeton University Art Museum),

and Suzi Jones (Anchorage Museum). The session was

sponsored by the AAM, ICOM, and the AAM Native American

and Museum Collaboration Professional Interest Committee.

Smithsonian Institution), and the National Park Service Ocean

Alaska Science and Learning Center ($45,000 for the Kenai Fjords

Oral History and Archaeology Project).
ASC Newsletter 8

Baker Lake. The pairing of the robust stone sculptures in their

display cases and pedestals with the bright cloth wall-hangings

made for a fabulous emersion into the world of Canadian Inuit

artists that caught many visitors by surprise. The exhibit also

marked the beginning of what has proved to be a long-lasting, close

working relationship between the Arctic Studies Center and Judy

Burch.

At the time of the Embassy exhibit Judy had already

enjoyed a long collaborative relation with the Canadian Embassy

and following upon the ASC exhibit we subsequently established a

cooperative relationship based on our shared interests in the

Canadian Arctic, and in particular with Inuit artists. Judy is very

much a pivotal figure in the Arctic Studies Center family of

colleagues and we have asked her to comment on her life and

interest in Inuit Art and to prepare a brief

account of her recent, and remarkable,

journeys on behalf of Canadian Inuit Art.

Judy writes: My experience with Inuit art

began in Nova Scotia 25 years ago. Maria

von Finckenstein, Inuit Art curator at The

Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, was

head of the Inuit art section of the Bureau

of Indian and Northern Affairs. I noted to

Maria that the art seemed to surge from

Inuit people’s relationships with land. Of

course, she said there is only one way to

understand the power of this connection

for Inuit people ... to go North. Maria

helped me submit a grant and three months

later I was on a six week study and

adventure in the Arctic.

Early experiences had attracted

me to people at society’s edges – a childhood in a small Illinois

farm town, a Sociology major at Duke University, and my first

career in community service at the YWCA. Later, while raising

children, I connected to fine art as a powerful source of cultural

expression and reflection through my years of involvement with

museums, including The Delaware Art Center, Winterthur and The

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

On my first trip North I went hunting with men at the

floe edge. I held long conversations (often through interpreters)

with mothers holding young babies. I discussed beliefs and life

with anyone willing. While in the North I traveled with

photographs of Inuit art that helped to open doors and start

conversations.

I have since seized every opportunity to bring artists

South. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts interviewed and filmed

visiting artists. Artists whom I have invited to exhibit in the

United States, include Kananginak Pootoogook, Pitaloosie

Saila, Germaine Arnaktauyok, and Bill Nasogaluak. On one

occasion, 400 guests at the University of Richmond were

enthralled by throat singers and a drum dancer. Another event

showcased tapestry weavers from Pangnirtung, giving them a

chance to exhibit their work internationally and visit the weaving

department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

One memorable moment occurred during a visit by

Kenojouak Ashevaak and Jimmy Manning to our home. They

 got into a disagreement in Inuktitut in the midst of the dinner

party in their honor. When I asked Jimmy what was troubling him,

he said Kenojouak was sure they were eating polar bear, but

Jimmy was sure it was grizzly! Our plain old pot roast had never

risen to such heights!

At the University of Virginia’s Art Museum, we

introduced Cape Dorset prints, Pangnirtung tapestries and

sculpture by Inuit artists whose works are cherished throughout

the world. We held a symposium at UVA involving Bill

Fitzhugh, Norman Hallendy and Stephen Loring.

Over time, I was asked to curate Inuit art events at the

 Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Through Embassy

exhibitions I grew to know Stephen Loring and Bill Fitzhugh.

Building on our relationship, I was invited to speak at the

Smithsonian on April 1, 1999, during the National Museum of

Natural History/Canadian Embassy celebration of Nunavut.

Through the ASC I also was invited to serve as a guest lecturer on

the Smithsonian Associates Travel tour

of the Eastern Arctic on the ship

LeLevant. We continued this program

the next year on the Russian ice breaker

Akademik Joffe on the western coast of

Greenland and Baffin Island.

I am delighted to have assembled

several special collections of Inuit art

over the past 25 years. Recently, two of

these collections have been traveling

between museums internationally.

One body of Inuit work, a collection

of prints by Jessie Oonark, can be seen at

museums under the title “Power of

Thought.” A large number of Jessie

Oonark’s prints (40) are assembled in a

catalogued exhibition that has traveled in

Canada and throughout the United States,

including venues at Bowdoin College in

Brunswick, Maine, Kresge Art Museum in Michigan, Utah

Museum of Fine Art and the Fowler Museum of Culture and Art

at UCLA.

Another special collection is now catalogued in Spanish,

Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Baker Lake textiles are powerful

statements of Inuit culture and imagination, as creative as any

works of stone or paper. An exhibition of these textiles under the

caption “Culture on Cloth” is traveling currently among museums

around the world. The exhibition opened at the Canadian Embassy

in Washington.

The Baker Lake Wall Hanging collection has been

exhibited at the following venues: The Alhondigo – Guanajauto,

Mexico, Oct. 2002; Obispado Museum – Monterrey, Mexico, Feb.

2003; Museum of Anthropology – Mexico City, May 2003;

Echigo Tsumarii Festival- Niigata Japan, July 2003; Keumsan

Gallery -Seoul, Korea, Oct. 2003; Tokyo Gas and Power- Tokyo,

April 2004; Beijing Capital Library – Beijing, Nov. 2004;

Nationalities Museum – Kunming, China, Nov. 2004.

According to the Canadian Embassy in China, this was

the first exhibition of Canadian aboriginal art in the Chinese

capital. Nearly seven thousand residents attended it though held

after the Chinese national holiday. As of today, Canada’s

Department of Foreign Affairs has expressed interest in sending

the exhibition throughout the Caribbean, Central and South

America.

The special collections described above as well as

individual pieces for purchase can be accessed by our galleries in

Canada or the United States and at www.arcticinuitart.com.

Wall-hanging by Jessie Oonark
ASC Newsletter 9

An abstracted portion of the “official report” of Judy’s Chinese

tour follows:

On October 12, Canada’s Ambassador to the Peoples

Republic of China, Joseph Caron opened the exhibition with

VIPs from Chinese government and key cultural and arts

institutions. Along with national flags, the territorial flag of

Nunavut was displayed in the exhibition hall. A CD of aboriginal

throat singers resounded in the exhibition hall, while a large screen

projected a documentary film on Inuit cultural and daily life. To

reinforce China-Canadian values and our long-standing

commitment for a dynamic, multi-cultural and innovative society

with strong people-to-people ties, BEJING successfully invited a

wide spectrum of local contacts and VIPs (government, business,

academic, and arts & culture) to attend the opening ceremony

including senior officials from the Ministry of Culture, the State

Ethnic Affairs Commission, presidents from universities and

colleges, curators, influential Chinese cultural organizations, and

representatives from the Central Committee of Communist Party

of China. Following the inauguration Judith Varney Burch gave

a lecture at the library.

Ms. Varney Burch delivered two lectures on aboriginal

arts - “Art as the Eye of a Culture” at the library and the Central

University of Nationality. In total over two hundred people

attended these lectures. During her presentation, she introduced

the Canadian Inuit people and their art, and explained how the

aboriginal women made their art and the significance of the

symbols to Inuit people. At the Central University of

Nationalities, where the student body has a high percentage of

Chinese ethnic minorities, the Q and A session was dominated by

enquiries about the current status of Canada’s aboriginal people.

The Canadian curator noted in her replies that the Canadian

government has provided great support to the Inuit people and

other aboriginal peoples but also noted the history of government

policies and programs. She candidly remarked that Canada’s

treatment of its aboriginal peoples is not without controversy, our

message being that others can learn from our mistakes, we are not

perfect.

The roundtable discussion at the Chinese Academy of

Social Sciences (CASS) was lively, as the Chinese scholars

presented at the meeting were all scholars engaged in ethnological

and anthropological studies. They exchanged views regarding

aboriginal peoples and introduced the status of ethnic people in

China. One professor who specialises in shamanism studies

remarked that the beliefs of Canadian Inuit people are similar to

the shamanism religion which is respected among some Chinese

ethnic peoples.

INUVIALUIT EXHIBIT: ACROSS TIME AND TUNDRA

By David Morrison, Director, Archaeology and History, Canadian

Museum of Civilization, and Stephen Loring

Across Time and Tundra: the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic was a

major exhibition curated by David Morrison that was on display

all last year at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The

Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic have a fascinating history and rich

culture. Morrison’s groundbreaking exhibition has unearthed

forgotten photographs, documents, and artifacts that provide a

new and inspiring perspective on the Inuit of the Mackenzie River

Delta. For hundreds of years, the Inuvialuit enjoyed what was

probably the richest and most secure lifestyle of any aboriginal

group in Canada’s North. That changed with the arrival of

Europeans, and especially the American Pacific whaling fleet,

which began operating in western Canadian Arctic waters in 1890.

The whalers brought prosperity through wage labour and

inexpensive trade goods. However, they also brought disaster in

the form of infectious diseases. The Inuvialuit population declined

drastically from about 2,500 people in 1850 to about 150 in 1910.

It was only the “immigration” of hundreds of Alaskan Inuit and

their incorporation into Inuvialuit society that ensured their

survival. For the Inuvialuit, the twentieth century was one of

recurring cycles of boom and bust. After the collapse of the

whaling industry, many turned to intensive fur trapping to support

themselves and their families. But by 1960, trapping no longer

provided a reliable source of income. The next boom period was

the 1970s. The Inuvialuit benefited from the hundreds of jobs

created by the oil and gas industry, only to see these disappear by

the end of the decade. But the Inuvialuit have persevered. In 1984,

they signed a comprehensive land claim with the federal

government and they are currently negotiating a self-government

agreement.

The CMC exhibition team — David Morrison (curator), Jennifer

Elliott (interpretive planner) and Caroline Dromaguet

(coordinator) — worked closely with the Inuvialuit community to

produce Across Time and Tundra, which opened in Ottawa in

November 2003. The exhibition featured almost 200 artifacts —

mostly from the CMC, the Smithsonian, and the McCord

Museum — and about 120 photographs, historical drawings and

contemporary art prints. The exhibition’s dynamic interactive

feature included a dance studio where visitors could practice

traditional Inuvialuit drum dancing alongside Inuvialuit dancers on

video.

Across Time and Tundra, both the exhibit and the

volume of the same name, were years in the planning, and David is

to be congratulated for his determination to overcome Smithsonian

bureaucracy and collection-loan moratoriums to bring his vision of

a celebration of Inuvialuit history and culture to fruition. The

Smithsonian houses perhaps the earliest and largest Inuvialuit

ethnology collection, materials acquired by a Hudson’s Bay

Company clerk, Roderick MacFarlane, who was stationed at Fort

Anderson in the early-1860’s. Artifacts that had been collected by

MacFarlane were prominently featured in the exhibit.

Unfortunately loan fees and escalating conservation costs, a reality

of modern life as Smithsonian resources are curtailed and stretched,

meant that some of the selected items could not be included. The

Inuvialuit exhibit bore the brunt of these new restrictive measures.

As is frequently the case, the ASC staff finds itself

benefiting from information

and insight provided by

curators from borrowing

institutions. Thanks to David

Morrison’s reflections on

Inuvialuit culture and the

history of Inuit-European

relations, the Hudson’s Bay

Company, and the

questionable character of the

French missionary Emile

Petitot, we have learned much

more about our collections.

Quyannini.
ASC Newsletter 10

legacy of their New World whaling enterprise and their far-flung

diaspora remained hidden for almost four centuries.

Barkham’s discoveries were soon explored on the ground

by Canadian archaeologists Walter Kenyon and James Tuck,

who immediately recognized the significance of huge heaps of red

clay roof tiles at whaling stations along the shores of southern

Labrador. Along with tiles, archaeologists

found 16th C. ceramics and glass, iron

harpoons, blubber furnaces, and workshops;

and when archival reports of lost ships were

found, Parks Canada divers directed by

Robert Grenier discovered vessels

including what may be the wreck of the San

Juan, which sank with 1000 barrels of oil in

Red Bay in a violent storm in 1565 just as

she was to depart for Spain. The discoveries

at Red Bay and its cemetery containing the

remains of scores of whalers provide a

detailed view of Basque material culture,

people, and their whaling industry as it was

prosecuted during the last half of the 16th

Century (Tuck and Grenier 1989). Surveys

by Canadian and Basque archaeologists

along the adjacent coasts from Chateau in

Labrador to Middle Bay on the Quebec

Lower North Shore have revealed tiles and

furnaces that marked other Basque stations

(Azkarate et al. 1992; Niellon and McGain

1987; Lalande 1989), but few sites other

than Red Bay have been investigated in

detail.

During the last half of the 16th C.

Basque whaling activities expanded

westward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,

where whale blubber ovens have been found

in the Mingan Islands (Drouin 1988), at the mouth of the Saguenay

River at Tadoussac, and across the Gulf at Iles aux Basques (Auger

et al. 1992). In 2001 while surveying for archaeological sites

between Mingan and Blanc Sablon on the Lower North Shore our

Smithsonian archaeological team found two Basque sites, one at

Petit Mécatina near Harrington Harbor and another at Boulet

Harbor between Mutton Bay and La Tabatiere. Four short seasons

of test excavations at Mécatina in 2001-4 have produced especially

interesting results (Fitzhugh 2001, 2002; Fitzhugh and Sharp 2003,

2004).

While the presence of Basque sites has been known in

other areas of the Gulf and St. Lawrence estuary, Mécatina is

unusual for containing such articles as clay pipes and glass trade

beads - but most unusual are presence of Inuit soapstone blubber

lamp and cooking pot fragments that indicate contact with Inuit

(Eskimo) people – a feature of Basque activity heretofore absent

from archival documents and archaeological evidence. We have also

discovered a rich underwater midden containing roof tiles and

ceramic storage vessels, whale bones, ship timbers, and other

materials. Our research has now shown conclusively that Petit

Mécatina dates to ca. 1680-1730, a century later than the Basque

whaling sites previously known from archaeological and historical

studies in this region. This probably explains the absence of

blubber furnaces or other signs of whaling activities, presumably

because whales had been over-hunted and Basque activities had

shifted to fishing, sealing, and fur-trading (Turgeon n.d.).

“BASQUE 1000” EXHIBITION CONSIDERED

By William W. Fitzhugh

With the Columbus Quincentennial in 1992 and the celebration in

2000 of Viking discoveries in eastern Canada, North Americans are

better informed about the early history of the New World. By

now, ‘Columbus’ and ‘Vikings’ have taken

their place alongside other great New World

discovery and settlement ventures like

Jamestown, Plimouth, St. Augustine, and

New Amsterdam (New York). But just try

asking Smithsonian visitors – who include

many international tourists – “Who are the

Basques and what did they do in America?”

and you see confusion and befuddled stares.

“Basques? Never heard of them.”

Apparently, other than Canadians,

who have been hearing about Basque

whalers in Labrador since the 1980s – less is

known about them today than was known

about Vikings in the 1990s. Surveys then

showed that all Americans knew of the

Minnesota Viking football team and most

had heard of the Vikings as pillagers of

Europe. We asked similar questions about

the native Ainu people of northern Japan

before we exhibited Ainu – Spirit of a

Northern People and found the response

similar to our inquiry about the Basque. The

difference is that the Ainu are not known to

have reached the shores of North America,

whereas the Basques established the first

viable economy in North American products

fifty years before the founding of

Jamestown and Plimouth by sending scores

of whalers and traders yearly to Newfoundland and Labrador

between 1530 and 1620.

How did a small isolated region and its people, speaking

a language unlike any other tongue and lacking armies, a navy, and a

national government become master ship-builders, skilled mariners,

and Europe’s first accomplished whalers? How did they

successfully explore northeastern North America and corner the

European market for whale oil for more than half a century,

competing with large European powers like Spain, France,

Holland, and England? How did they interact with America’s

Native peoples? What happened to cause their retreat from the

New World? And finally, what has become of them since then?

Basque Discoveries in Canada

Knowledge of Basque voyages to the Canadian

Maritimes was almost unknown to historians until Selma

(Huxley) Barkham’s work in the Spanish Basque archives in the

1960s-80s produced evidence of a remarkable enterprise gleaned

from local city financial records and court documents (Bélanger

1971; Barkham 1977, 1978, 1980, 1984; Huxley 1988). Part of the

reason we know so little about the Basques is because their

overseas ventures were eclipsed by the Dutch and English in the

early 1600s, and subsequent political domination by the French

and Spanish left the Basque without a strong voice to promote

their own history. While maintaining their culture and identity as

ethnically distinct farmers, fishermen. and small businessmen, the

Painting of a Basque Whaler by

Richard Schlect, courtesy of the

National Geographic Society
ASC Newsletter 11

Basque Decline and Diaspora

After 1600 Basque whaling declined in the Straits and

Gulf and competition – including piracy – from the Dutch,

English, and French began to restrict their overseas ventures.

Financing and timber stock for Basque ship-building became

scarce, and Basque seamen and harpooners began to seek

employment with the Dutch, who had learned how to navigate the

icy waters of Greenland and Spitsbergen where whales were still

plentiful. By the mid-17th C. most Basques were forced to

abandon the whale fishery and sought work closer to home. But

nevertheless, a few Basque vessels continued to exploit the waters

in the Gulf and around Newfoundland. Our site is the first such

site found to represent this later period of Basque activity and to

document it archaeologically.

Eventually, however,

these voyages ceased as Basque

people could no longer to

compete against the rising tide

of French, English, Dutch, and

American interests. As

economic and social conditions

worsened over the next two

centuries, increasing numbers of

Basques emigrated to the

Americas, working as sheepherders, cooks, artisans, and

small businessmen, forming

Basque communities in Canada,

the United States, and South

America where many remain

exuberantly ‘Basque’ more than

a century later.

The Basque ability to

weather changing fortunes

while continuing to maintain

their ethnic identity, language,

and customs has enabled this small ethnic group to adapt and

persist over hundreds of years, despite social and political

pressure for assimilation. This unique Basque experience – in

addition to their ancient culture and language, whose origin is

unknown and is unrelated to any other modern European language

– distinguishes Basques from Spaniards and French, and from

American societies where many Basque live today. Basque culture

has also placed special emphasis on literature and arts. Their

literature, poetry, dance, theater, and architecture have received

world-wide recognition that is most dramatically symbolized by

the presence of the strikingly beautiful Bilbao Guggenheim

Museum. But Americans who have never been to Basque Country

are most likely to meet Basques as dazzling cooks and

restauranteurs. Tucked into grazing lands along the front range of

the Rockies and found elsewhere in small communities in the

United States and Canada, the Basque diaspora is surprisingly

extensive, a result of hundreds of years of pioneering settlement in

unsettled fringes of the Americas wherever sheep-herding was

possible.

A Possible “Basque 1000” Exhibition

Basques, like Scandinavians, have been apart of the

American landscape and population since the early 1800s, and

even earlier. Unlike Scandinavians, Basque people did not settle in

large numbers in large blocks of territory as Scandinavians did in

the northern Mid-West, and because their numbers were not large,

they have received little recognition for their history and

contributions. Most Basques, like North Americans generally, are

unaware of their history as early American explorers and whalers

and know little of their own early history in northern Spain and

southwestern France. The past 1000 years of Basque historical,

cultural, and artistic development deserves a major museum

exhibition celebrating a people who created a rich and vibrant

medieval society, pioneered commercial whaling and trade,

established the first successful commercial exploitation of northern

North America natural resources, and later spread Basque talents,

culture, and arts throughout the world. The theme of a “Basque

1000” exhibition (tentative title) commemorates the successes of a

small, persistent, and vigorous people to a wide audience and at

the same time would present

new scholarship that would

help reinforce Basque ethnic

heritage and pride and

reconnect the far-flung Basque

diaspora to their original

homelands. A similar motive

lay behind production of the

Smithsonian’s “Viking”

exhibition, which had a major

impact on re-uniting

Scandinavian-Americans with

their history in North America

and Europe.

“Basque 1000” revives a

project that we explored in the

early 1990s when the ASC

joined with Robert McNulty’s

Partners for Liveable Places (a

DC-based non-profit dedicated

to improving the cultural life of

cities) to help organize a

Basque exhibition. In that Quincentennial era, what seemed called

for was an exhibit featuring a different, northern, version of

‘discovery’ unknown to the American public resulting from

archival discoveries and archeological finds that would bring to

public attention the exciting, unfolding history of the northern part

of the continent. With the Viking Vinland voyage celebrations of

A.D. 1000 behind us, the story of 18thc. Basque explorers and

whalers in North America still needs to be told, but it is a tale that

has a larger purpose today than in 1992. “Basque 1000” would

demonstrate the importance of cultural values and the special

contributions that the Basque – like Ainu and Norse and other

ethnic groups – have made to world history; in short, the story of

a people with a special history and ethnicity and the mark they

have made on the world over the past thousand years.

The exhibit might unfold in three parts: (I) History and

Homelands; (II) New World Explorers and Whalers; and (III)

Basque Diaspora. The first section would explore Basque culture

and history, its unique anthropological and linguistic place in

Europe; development of maritime traditions, including shipbuilding, whaling, and maritime trade; and the rapid Basque

response to whaling opportunities in the New World. This section

would draw heavily upon collections and expertise of Basque

institutions and scholars. The second section would highlight

Labrador and ‘Grand Bay’ as seen through historical documents,

archaeological discoveries, and native contacts. This section would

Basque Map Illustration from 1689 (Huxley 1987)
ASC Newsletter 12

draw strongly on Canadian scholarship and

collections. The third section would be

developed from a wide range of materials

and expertise from arts and humanities

documenting the past three centuries of

Basque history, art, poetics, literature,

architecture, and culture with reference to

human stories and profiles from the Basque

diaspora, and contemporary Basque issues

and affairs in their homelands and abroad. As

in other ASC productions, the exhibit would

produce a multi-authored catalog, films, web

sites, symposia, and media events. No firm

dates have been set, but if lending partners

and sponsors are found, the exhibit might

open in 2008-9, traveling thereafter in North

America, the Basque Country, and Europe.

References

Auger, Réginald, William Fitzgerald, and Laurier Turgeon 1992

Ile aux Basques 1991: fouilles archéologiques et

reconnaissances. Report submitted to the Ministry of

Cultural Affairs, Quebec.

Azkarate, A., J. A. Hernádez, and J. NúÁðez 1992

Balleneros vascos del sigle XVI. Estudio arqueologico y

contexto historico (Chateau Bay, Labrador, Canada).

Servicio Central de Publicacion del Gobierno vasco,

Victoria-Gasteiz.

Barkham, Selma

1977 The identification of Labrador ports in Spanish 16th

century documents. The Canadian Cartographer

14(1):1-9.

1978The Basques: filling a gap in our history between

Jacques Cartier and Champlain. Canadian Geographical

Journal 96(1):8-19.

1980 A note on the Strait of Belle-Isle during the period of

Basque contact with Indians and Inuit. Études/Inuit/

Studies 4(1-2): 51-58.

1984 The Basque whaling establishments in Labrador 1536-

1632 – a summary. Arctic 37(4):515-519.

Bélanger, R. 1971. Les Basquies dans l’estuaire du Saint-Laurent

(1535-1635). Montreal: University of Quebec Press.

Drouin, Pierre 1988. Les baleiniers basques à l’Île Nue de

Mingan. Archeological Journal of Canada 12:1-15.

Fitzhugh, William W.

2001 The Gateways Project 2001: Archaeological Survey of

the Quebec Lower North Shore, Gulf of St. Lawrence,

from Mingan to Blanc Sablon. 90 pp. Washington

D.C.:Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution.

2002 The Gateways Project 2002: Surveys and Excavations

from Petit Mecatina to Belles Amours. 174 pp.

Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian

Institution.

Fitzhugh, W. and Sharp, H.

2003 The Gateways Project 2003: Surveys and Excavations

from Hare Harbor to Jacques Cartier Bay. 196 pp.

Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian

Institution.

2004 The Gateways Project 2003: Surveys and Excavations

from Chevery to Jacques Cartier Bay. 196 pp.

Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian

Institution.

Lalande, D. 1989. Archaeological excavations at Bon-Désir:

Basque presence in the St. Lawrence Estuary.

Northeastern Historical Archaeology 18:10-28.

Huxley, Selma (editor) 1987. Los Vascos en el Marco Atlántico

Norte. Siglos XVI y XVII. [The Basques in the North

Atlantic in the 16th and 17th Centuries]. San Sebastián:

Etor. Pp. 167

Niellon, Françoise and A. McGain 1987. La station baleinière

basque do la baie du Milieu: recherche archéologique

1987 sur le site EiBi-10. Report submitted to the Ministry

of Cultural Affairs, Quebec.

Proulx, Jean-Pierre 1993. Basque fisheries and whaling in Labrador

in the 16th century. Ottawa: Parks Canada, Ministry of the

Environment.

Tuck, James, and Robert Grenier 1989. Red Bay, Labrador: World

Whaling Capital (1550-1600). St. John’s, Newfoundland:

Atlantic Archaeology.

Turgeon, Laurier. n.d. Chronological refinement of Basque whaling

stations in the Gulf and Estuary of the St. Lawrence from

the 16th to the 18th centuries. (Manuscript in files of ASC).

SEARCH EXHIBIT ON ARCTIC CLIMATE TO OPEN

By Katherine Rusk

After two years of collaboration with other government agencies and

scientists, the exhibition A Friend Acting Strangely: Arctic Climate

Change opens at NMNH in May 2005. The exhibit focuses on

experiences of Arctic residents in their own voices and represents the

latest scientific information on Arctic climate change and its impacts on

the circumpolar ecosystem. Past climate changes and those expected

for the future are also explored. The exhibit has been developed by Igor

Krupnik with assistance from Katherine Rusk and others at the ASC

and benefits from several years of close collaboration with arctic

residents, and features their stories and experiences. The exhibit balances

different ways of life in the Arctic – hunters and herders, city residents,

and backwoods pioneers – and the different perspectives of scientists

and Arctic residents. The name of the exhibit is taken from an observation

by Zacharias Aqqiaruq, an Inuit elder of Igloolik, that the weather is

uggianaqtuq. As he explains, “You are not feeling yourself one day. You

visit a close friend or relative who immediately senses something is

wrong. The friend would say that you are uggianaqtuq: You are not

yourself; you’re acting unexpectedly.” (Fox 2002:43-44, in The Earth is

Faster Now).

A major feature of the Arctic experience, and therefore of the

exhibit, is the role of sea ice in the ecosystem. How the residents of St.

Basque iron

spearhead

from Red Bay
ASC Newsletter 13

Lawrence Island observe their weather is described together with

their various terms they use for snow and ice. The way they make

weather observations is very different from the methods used by

scientists. The direction of the wind is more important than

temperature or any other measurement. Satellite imagery has offered

a startling look at how quickly the sea ice pack has changed in the last

twenty years. This trend is not likely to end soon. Naturally speaking,

the sea ice is a very large proportion of the available space for sea

mammals. Most people around the Arctic Ocean coast rely heavily

on sea mammals for their food so any changes in the sea ice have a

major impact on these communities. A related issue is that of coastal

erosion. The sea ice constitutes a calming influence on waves much

like a barrier island does along the Eastern seaboard. When this

protection is gone large waves can erode the shoreline. The residents

of Shishmaref have discovered that they will have to move their

entire village to escape this threat. Further inland, people rely primarily

on caribou or reindeer. The Innu of Labrador speak of their experiences

in hunting a more elusive prey, while the Saami of Sweden give voice

to their frustration at having to herd reindeer in an increasingly hostile

environment. It is not obvious why the climate of the Arctic is changing,

nor is it clear if anything can be done about it. What is unambiguous

is that the Arctic is rapidly changing and these changes are having a

dramatic effect on both the residents of the Arctic and the rest of the

planet.

The ASC and NMNH thank NOAA and NSF for their

generous support for the project and greatly appreciate the

assistance of many specialists who provided scientific knowledge

and observations, especially Waleed Abdalati, Zacharias

Aqqiaruq, Noel Broadbent, Fred Bruemmer, Elisabeth

Cassano, Lou Codispoti, Kathy Crane, Oriana Harding,

Brendan Kelly, David

Klein, Gary Kofinas,

Steve Loring, Caleb

Pungowiyi, Dennis

Stanford, Mrs. Mabel

Toolie. Our core team

who developed the

exhibit was Lou

Codispoti, Richard

Efthim, Igor Krupnik,

Kathy Lenard,

Christine Leonard,

Judy Mannes,

Siobhan Starrs,

Barbara Stauffer, and

Tom Thill.

PREVIEW OF GREENLAND FESTIVAL AT NMNH

At a luncheon at the Danish Embassy two years ago, honoring the

visit of the Greenland Prime Minister, Bill Fitzhugh suggested

that the recent success of the Viking exhibition and interest in Nordic

affairs in the Washington area should be extended to closer relations

with Greenland. He proposed organizing a Greenland Cultural Festival

at NMNH to popularize the culture, environment and history. During

the past year the project has been organized by the Greenland

government with assistance from the Danish embassy, Marianne

Stenbaek, Katherine Rusk, and many more, as well as NMNH

and the Smithsonian Associates who offered to host lectures and a

reception. This program is a first of what we hope will be other

northern cultural festivals to promote education, craft and art sales

and Smithsonian related travel tours.

The new family event celebrating the culture of Greenland

will be at the NMNH from May 20-22, 2005. The event will open

with a special evening with a slide lecture by the Honorable Henriette

Rasmussen, Minister of Culture, Education, Research and Church,

Honorable Jørgen Wæver Johansen, Minister of Self-Governance,

Mineral Resources, and Justice, Greenland Home Rule Government;

Liisi Egede Hegelund, arts specialist, the National Greenland Arts

and Crafts Project; and performances of the Aavaat Choir in national

dress and Drum Dancers at an informal reception featuring

Greenlandic foods.

Saturday’s lecture

series:

10 to 11:15 a.m. On

the Trail of the

Vikings

First encounters

between Vikings (Norse)

and Inuit in 1,000 AD;

New research and what

archeaological sites

reveal about the Norse

culture in Greenland.

Claus Andreasen, Curator of the Greenland National Museum.

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. On the Trail of the Inuit

Inuit culture daily life, relationship to nature, and sagas; their

commonalities with other North American Inuit communities.

Aqqaluk Lynge, vice-president of the Inuit Circumpolar

Conference and president of the Greenlandic Authors’ Association.

2 to 3:15 p.m. On the Trail of the Natural World

A photographic journey through Greenland’s natural world. Dr.

Minik Rosing, Professor of Geology, University of Copenhagen.

3:30 to 4:30 p.m. On the Trail of Greenland Today

Lively and informed panel discussion on aspects of contemporary

life; guidelines for travel. Panelists: Ole Marquardt, president of

the University of Greenland; Jørgen Wæver Johansen; and

Henriette Rasumssen. Moderator: Marianne Stenbaek,

professor of Cultural Studies, McGill University, Canada.

Program Moderator is Henriette Rasmussen, Minster for

Culture, Education, Research and Church in the Greenland Home

Rule Government; Co-Moderator is Ole Marquardt, president of

Ilisimatusarfik University.

Sunday’s events are focused on children’s play and will

include a storyteller and children’s games. Throughout the

weekend various artisans will be demonstrating their skills.

Yamal Nenets children playing “reindeer herder”

Photo by David Dector, 1996.

Aavaat Choir

Floeberg taken by GW Rice of the first IPY

expedition in Ellesmere Island in 1882.
ASC Newsletter 14

HISTORIC NMNH EXHIBITS DISMANTLED

By Bill Fitzhugh

For a curator it’s a bitter-sweet experience to see old exhibits

dismantled. Well, perhaps not always. I did not feel too sad about

the 1970s closing of the NMNH North American archaeology halls

that Waldo Wedel had installed back in the 1950s, because they

were so factually out-of-date. But somehow, ethnology halls are

different, even old ones, which have important historical value

beyond their specific cultural messages. In these cases it is often

not the facts or interpretation of objects that are wrong but rather

the offensive social tone and context. The wonderful old objects

were grand to see, and the dioramas were stately even if they

expressed antiquated views of Native America.

So October was a sad time as I watched and sometimes

participated in the destruction (‘de-installation’ to museum

professionals) of our old North American ethnology halls. These

halls were closed a few months

before the September opening

of the National Museum of the

American Indian – not because

NMNH was getting out of the

‘Indian business’ or transferring

its Indian programs to NMAI

as many visitors seemed to

think – but because a huge new

Oceans Hall was to be

constructed that will absorb the

adjacent spaces occupied by

the old Indian and Pacific halls.

In the future, anthropology

halls would be installed on the

museum’s second floor. But

this would take a few years to

plan and carry out. Meanwhile,

we were losing some wonderful

old exhibits, and some not-soold ones also, like Stephen Loring’s recent cases on SI Alaskan

collections, and an Aleut (Unangan) exhibit co-curated with the

Aleut community.

Along with other exhibits featuring North American

artifact cases (Plains, Northeast, Southeast, Subarctic, and others)

installed by John Ewers in the 1950s, we had to dismantle some

of our oldest and most popular dioramas. The Plains Indian teepee

diorama was dismantled several years ago when the IMAX theater

was installed. And this fall, we lost two other extremely popular

exhibits – John Smith Landing at Jamestown, and the Polar Eskimo

life group. The Jamestown diorama depicted a romantic version of

the English colonists’ first meeting with the Virginia Algonquians –

everyone shown very pleased with the event and the future it

promised.

The Polar Eskimo case was another matter, and I had to

swallow hard to accept its demise because this was one of the lifegroups designed by William Henry Holmes for the 1901 Buffalo

Exposition, and it has been open to the public at NMNH for more

than 100 years. (Also I had written a long article about this exhibit:

Fitzhugh 1997). Unlike the Jamestown diorama with its flawed

history and psychology, the Polar Eskimo case was designed to

illustrate an event in the life of an Inuit family that is as real today

as it was when Robert Peary visited the Polar Eskimo in Smith

Sound, near Thule in northwest Greenland, in the years around

1900. The scene showed an Inuit family celebrating a boy’s first

seal, the father saying to his son, “Call that a seal?” because it was

such a small seal, though his expression showed he was obviously

as pleased with the event as everyone else in the family, including

the dogs, whose eyes were riveted on the animal for different

reasons. Although the exhibit had some other problems (artifacts

that did not belong to the Polar Eskimo, etc) it taught much about

family life, rites of passage, and the human condition generally and

was not out-of-date or ethically-challenged as many or our older

ethnographic exhibits.

It so happened that the dismantling of the Polar Eskimo

 exhibit coincided with a request by filmmaker Staffan Julén to

film the exhibit as part of a documentary on the life of Minik, the

young Inuit whom Peary brought to New York in 1897 and who

was raised partly by staff of the American Museum of Natural

History when his father and other adults, also brought to NYC,

died shortly after their arrival (Harper 1989; Gilberg 1994).

Staffan wanted to film

Greenland Inuit Robert Peary

Jr., the grandson of Robert

Peary, as he viewed the

exhibit – the last of the

museum exhibits depicting his

people at the time of Peary’s

expeditions – for the first and

last time.

We arranged to delay

dismantling until October 25,

2004 when Stefán and Robert

could come to Washington

with their producer, Michael

Haslund-Christiensen. The

event was everything we

could have wished for, a

fitting end for the exhibition’s

long and important life.

Robert was proud to be able

to see the exhibit that had

represented his people to huge number of Americans and

international visitors for more than a century. And we were very

pleased to able to document the closing of this chapter in museum

anthropology with Robert’s assistance.

Now, we just have to solve the biggest mystery of the

exhibition: the origin of the Greenland costumes and artifacts,

which were not catalogued before installation. Hopefully that

mystery may soon be solved.

Fitzhugh, William W.

1997 “Ambassadors in Sealskins: Exhibiting Eskimos at

the Smithsonian”. In Exhibiting Dilemmas: Issues of

Representation at the Smithsonian, edited by Amy

Henderson and Adrienne Kaeppler, pp. 206-245.

Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Harper, Kenn

1989 Give me Back My Father’s Body: The Life of

Minik the New York Eskimo. Steerforth Press, VT.

Gilberg, Rolf

1994 Mennesket Minik (1888-1918).

Espergaerde, Copenhagen

“Polar Eskimo: The Northernmost People of the World”
ASC Newsletter 15

ALASKANS PURCHASE ALUTIIQ HAT

The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak and

the Anchorage Museum of History

and Art jointly purchased a rare

19th-century decorated Alutiiq

spruce-root hat at the Bonhams and

Butterfields auction in San Francisco

in December (Anchorage Museum of

History and Art photograph)

By Megan Holland (Anchorage Daily

News Published: January 4, 2005)

The hat hung on a wall in a kitchen for decades, where cigarette

smoke blackened the woven reeds. Then it hid in the darkness of a

basement trunk for nearly 30 years where mold spores collected —

the owner not knowing its cultural or monetary value. Now, nearly

five years after its discovery at a home in Southeast Alaska, a rare

Alutiiq hunting hat estimated to be more than a century and a half

old has been purchased by two Alaska museums — a coup in

saving it from Outside collectors.

“To have something like that still in Alaska, it’s

incredible,” said Steve Henrikson, curator of collections at the

Alaska State Museum in Juneau. The purchase is a first in Alaska

because two museums joined forces to buy the hat — the Alutiiq

Museum in Kodiak and the Anchorage Museum of History and

Art. And it marks a triumph, say museum curators, because it

reclaims an Alaska artifact, so many of which were displaced

around the world by early explorers.

Only several Alutiiq hunting hats are known to exist,

Henrikson said. But others may be out there in Russian museums

or dusty attics in Europe, where he suspects they were originally

taken. The hat went on auction at Bonhams and Butterfields in San

Francisco in early December. While most of the hundreds of other

items at the Native American, Pre-Columbian and Tribal Art sale

sold for a few thousand dollars, the Alutiiq hunting hat commanded

the highest price: $160,250. It is now back in Alaska. It has been

evaluated by a conservator and is destined for Kodiak today — a

return to its probable origins after about 150 years.

Experts guess the age of the hat based on the style of its

Russian beads. Not much is known about its use other than it was

likely worn by a hunter in a kayak and used for ceremonial

purposes, said Sven Haakanson Jr., executive director of the

Alutiiq Museum. The hats became rare by the late 1800s.

“Mainly, people did not have time nor the access to the material to

make them,” Haakanson said. “Their value changed from

displaying wealth to meaning nothing when money came into the

scene.”

The hat spent many years in the kitchen of a cabin

owned by the mother of Natasha Calvin. Then it was stored,

until five years ago, in an old Army footlocker in Calvin’s Sitka

basement. Calvin is the granddaughter of Russian Orthodox priest

Andrew Kashevaroff. Kashevaroff was an avid collector and

became the first curator, from 1919 until 1940, of what is now the

Alaska State Museum. He may have inherited the hat from Alutiiq

relatives before settling in Juneau. Or, museum curators speculate,

he may have picked it up on his missionary travels around Kodiak

Island or Prince William Sound. “I knew it was an old Indian hat.

But that was about the extent of it,” said Bob Ellis, husband to

Natasha Calvin, who died in 2001.

Henrikson discovered the hat at Calvin and Ellis’s home.

The family said they had a few artifacts lying around and offered

to show them to the museum curator. When Ellis carried it up from

the basement to the dining room table, “I just about hit the

ceiling,” Henrikson said. “I was speechless for about five minutes.”

For several years the state museum had it on display in

Juneau, on loan. With the smoke and mold removed, the spruceroot basket hat showed itself to be decorated with shells, beads,

red cloth and sea lion whiskers. The family tried to work out a deal

to sell it to the museum, but the state was never able to come up

with the money, Henrikson said. This summer, Calvin’s daughters,

who inherited the piece, decided to auction it in San Francisco.

That’s when word of the hat began circulating in Alaska,

said Helen Simeonoff, who grew up in Kodiak but now lives in

Anchorage. “I raised Cain over it.” When Haakanson first heard

about it, he figured there was no way his museum could raise the

funds: “We don’t have that kind of money lying around.” But, he

said, “After thinking about it, we felt that if we did not do

something about this, the hat would disappear forever.” He waged

an intense campaign to raise money among Native corporations

and joined with the Anchorage museum to come up with money.

Haakanson also appealed to retired banker Ed Rasmuson, who

gave tens of thousands of dollars of his own money because, he

said, “I hate to see beautiful art leave Alaska.”

The last time such a hat was available was more than a

decade ago. It sold on a San Francisco auction block for $110,000.

Since then, Henrikson said, “the price of Native American art has

just skyrocketed.” He expected this hat to go for a lot more than it

did. The Alaska museums were in competition with another high

bidder, although they don’t know who it was. “When I heard that

we got it, I started crying because I was so upset about losing it,”

Simeonoff said. She hopes the hat will revitalize spruce-root hat

making. “We will be able to study it — the weaving technique, the

shapes, the color, paints used.”

The two museums will share ownership, something

Anchorage museum curator of collections Walter Van Horn said is

extremely rare. He contacted the American Association of

Museums for a recommendation on joint ownership, but the

organization knew of only one such case, involving a modern art

installation piece, not an artifact. The relationship between the

two museums over the hat will be based largely on trust, Van Horn

said.

“What this means is another piece of us is getting put

back together again, after the destruction of our culture,”

Simeonoff said. “We were always here, but most of our clothing,

utensils, masks and everything else are all in museums, not here.”

The hat will go on display in Kodiak early this month.

When it is Anchorage’s turn, Van Horn hopes to create an Alutiiq

exhibit. Until now, the museum has had too few objects from the

Alutiiq peoples, he said. Haakanson, who is also an Alutiiq Native

from Old Harbor on Kodiak, said, “Bringing back a cultural piece

to Kodiak and Alaska means so much, from the material to the

symbolic level. The loss on Kodiak has been very hard on our own

‘spirits,’” he said. “And now to begin bringing symbols back such

as the hat shows how rich our culture once was and what it can be

again.”

COLLECTIONS
ASC Newsletter 16

ORIGINAL BOAS MAP FOR THE JESUP

EXPEDITION DISCOVERED

By Igor Krupnik and Stanley Freed

Since the publication of the “Constructing Cultures Then and

Now” volume (Laurel Kendall and Igor Krupnik, eds.

Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology 4, 2003), an important

piece of Jesup Expedition’s legacy has been accessioned and

researched at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

in New York. The new hit is the original (and authentic!)

ethnographic map of the North Pacific region, hand-written and

hand-colored by Franz Boas, presumably around fall of 1896. The

map is one of the most remarkable recent discoveries of the original

Jesup North Pacific Expedition’s (JNPE) documents retrieved

during the years of the “Jesup-2” program (ASC Newsletter 11).

The story actually began in May 2003, when Stan

Freed, North American curator-emeritus at the AMNH, received

an e-mail letter from Curtis (Kit)

M. Hinsley, History professor at

the Department of Applied

Indigenous Studies, Northern

Arizona University, Flagstaff,

AZ. In his short letter, Hinsley

described his visit to the late

Zoology professor in Ohio,

Ralph Dexter, ‘a few years

before he died.’ During this visit,

Dexter handed to Hinsley a folder

of newspaper clippings,

associated with Frederic Ward

Putnam (1839–1915), once the

Anthropology curator at the

AMNH and the nominal head of

the Jesup Expedition, during its

preparation and first years.

Inside that folder was a handdrawn and water-colored

ethnographic map of the Jesup

Expedition area on a piece of white paper. Upon reviewing the

map, Hinsley identified hand-written remarks on the margins as

being made by Franz Boas; so, it was presumably a map that

Boas prepared for Putnam or for some of his presentations at the

AMNH in the late 1890s. It has been preserved in Putnam’s file

that later entered into Dexter’s possession for almost 100 years. In

his short message, Hinsley offered the map as a donatation to the

AMNH, as “it’s time for it to come home.”

Freed responded immediately urging Hinsley to mail the

map to the AMNH Department of Anthropology. Stan also alerted

Igor Krupnik that Boas’ map had been recovered and offered for

donation to the AMNH. Since the joint ASC-AMNH collection on

the Jesup Expedition’s legacy, “Then and Now,” was already in

print, Stan and Igor agreed to jointly report on the map, after it

was accessioned and researched at AMNH.

In August 2003 (almost at the same time as the cartons

with the newly printed “Then and Now” volumes arrived to the

Smithsonian), Hinsley sent Boas’ map to the AMNH Division of

Anthropology Archives, where it was recieved by Kristen Mable.

Hinsley’s cover letter generally reiterated his brief story of how

Boas’ map got into his possession, much as he presented it in his

earlier communication to Freed. Some of the details in Hinsley’s

letter are worth citing in full:

“Ralph W. Dexter, who was a professor of zoology at

Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and who is now deceased,

was a scholar of Frederic Ward Putnam for many years. Dexter’s

intent was to write a biography of Putnam, but he never completed

the task [although he published a handful of short papers on

Putnam between 1966 and 1976 – IK, SF]. He did, however, amass

a great deal of information about Putnam, including various

documents from Putnam’s granddaughters (...) These are now in

the Dexter papers in Kent State University Archives. I visited

Dexter in the summer about ten years ago, and at that time,

knowing about my interest in Putnam, he handed me a folder of

papers, most of which were newspaper clippings that Putnam had

kept over more than 40 years, having to do with his career...

Mixed in the clippings, though, as I later discovered was the Boas

map.”

As Hinsley argued, “It is clear from his words on the

map that Boas was illustrating, presumably to Putnam and/or

Morris Jesup, those parts of the

Northwest/Siberian geography

that the proposed Jesup

expedition should concentrate

on for the purpose of

collecting.” Hinsley tentatively

dated the map as drawn ‘circa

1898–1902’ and he once again

reiterated that “the handwriting

is unquestionably and entirely

Boas’s” (Hinsley to Kristen

Mable, AMNH Division of

Anthropology Archives, August

12, 2003).

A year later, in

September 2004, Igor made the

first detailed study of the map

at the AMNH (see illustration).

It has been drawn on piece of

watermarked paper, roughly 6

by 8” size. Upon further

examination, it became clear that the paper was, actually, a

standard AMNH letterhead paper of the time (usually in 8 by

10 1⁄2” size), from which the upper section with the logo has been

cut off. The watermark, “Crane’s 1893,” offers the earliest

possible date for the map. The map has no name: It covers the

Pacific shore of Asia, up to the Malacca Peninsula, and the section

of the Americas, up to the northernmost part of South America.

However, only the northern section of the map, with the adjacent

areas of Siberia and North America, is colored with the names of

various ethnic groups added in black ink. The colored area extends

from the southern shores of Siberia along the Sea of Japan and

roughly up to the Washington-Oregon border in North America.

Those boundaries are moved slightly further south than the most

commonly named area of the JNPE, “from the Amur River in Asia

to the Columbia River in North America.” However, both rivers are

clearly marked on the map.

The base map has been penciled with great detail,

including islands and major river systems. It was most certainly

copied from some original map. It also has a different projection

than most of the known JNPE maps.

The map has a short text hand-written in black ink,

under the caption ‘Note’ in the left bottom corner. The text—which

1896 (?) Hand-Colored Culture Distribution Map by Boas.

Courtesy of the Division of Anthropology, AMNH
ASC Newsletter 17

indeed can be clearly identified as Boas’ handwriting, when

compared to several Boas’ letters and memos of the time at the

AMNH Archives, and can be read as follows:

“The colored region is the one that it would be desirable

to have explored. The district marked 1 is the only one from which

the Museum possesses extensive collections” [This shows the area

roughly from Controller Bay in Alaska to the Queen Charlotte

Islands in British Columbia, populated by the Tlingit and Haida –

IK, SF]. Thus, there is no doubt that the map has been indeed

prepared by Boas for the preparation of the North Pacific

Expedition. The questions are then: When, and for whom?

The answer to the first question can be tentatively

sought through the analysis of the tribal names and their areas,

particularly in Siberia, where the map is more detailed. For

example, position of the ‘Eskimo’ named on the Siberian coast is

exactly the same as on the well-known published color map titled

“Map Showing the Locations of the Tribes Inhabiting the Coasts

of the North Pacific.” It was printed as an opening illustration to

the ‘Annual Report of the President (of the American Museum of

Natural History) for the Year 1896’ (New York 1897). The latter

map was obviously produced in late 1896 or early 1897, at the

latest, to appear in the Annual Report for the year 1896. Both

maps, however, showed the wrong position of the ’Eskimo’ on the

Siberian shore, which was later corrected in the final publication of

the map of the JNPE area in 1903.

So, the hand-written map and the published map of 1897

displayed the same misplaced position of the ‘Eskimo’ in Siberia.

There are many other similarities in the ways the areas and

boundaries of several ethnic groups are marked on both maps.

Surprisingly, however, the transliteration of the Siberian ethnic

names often differs on both maps (like ‘Tungoose’ versus

‘Tungus’, ‘Yookageer’ vs. ‘Youkageer,’ ‘Chukchee’ vs. ‘Tchuktchee,’

and others). Overall, we believe, the hand-written map represents

an earlier version of the map that was published in the 1897

Annual Report; it could be then dated by the end of 1896 or even a

few months earlier.

The second issue is to whom did Boas originally address

his map. The nature of this prospective addressee can be

tentatively guessed by the way the map displayed indigenous

groups in Siberia and North America. It marked twelve Native

Siberian groups, including the Ainu, versus just four (!) in North

America, of which one has been labeled ‘Tribes of British

Columbia, Wash. and Ore.’ In contrast, the published map of 1897

illustrated a far more even ratio of nine named ethnic groups in

Siberia versus ten groups in North America. This means that the

earlier (?) hand-written map was used by Boas primarily as an

orientational tool - to educate his counterpart(s) in the names and

areas of indigenous groups in Asia. We believe that the person he

actually targeted was, indeed, Putnam, rather than Jesup, since the

latter would have hardly been interested in the details of Siberian

indigenous naming and areas. Hence, the map may be tentatively

attributed to Boas’ early efforts to persuade Putnam to lobby for

the ‘North Pacific’ (in this case, primarily Siberian) expedition to

be launched by AMNH. A more balanced representation of Native

ethnic groups was later displayed on the published map of 1897,

when the fate of the JNPE was formally approved by Jesup.

Unfortunately, no record of Boas’ map being

commissioned by or handed to Putnam in 1896 has been recovered

(or preserved?) at the AMNH Division of Anthropology Archives

that houses several letters and other papers exchanged between

Boas and Putnam between 1895 and 1897. So, this is just a guess

that awaits additional corroboration. Many other intriguing issues

related to the map remain as well. For example, what was the

source of Boas’ quite extensive knowledge on the names and areas

of indigenous groups in Siberia, prior to the Jesup Expedition?

Whereas for North America Boas could solidly rely upon John W.

Powell’s map of ‘Indian Languages’ of 1891 (and its later revision

of 1894), as well as upon his own extensive field records, hardly

any such source was then available to him for Siberia. We know

that Boas did not read in Russian, and by 1896 he yet had no

documented contacts with the Russian specialists, like Radloff,

Jochelson, or Bogoras, who could have referred him to specific

Russian sources to be used for his map (and for his planning of the

‘North Pacific’ Expedition).

So, the motives and the sources that Boas used for his

original map of the prospective JNPE area remain to be identified.

Jesup-2 ‘foot soldiers’: Just keep marching on!

The authors are grateful to Kristen Mable and Sonia Dingilian,

Registrars at the AMNH Division of Anthropology Archives; Peter

Whiteley and Laurel Kendall, AMNH, North American and Asian

Curators respectively; Barry Landua; and to Barbara Mathé,

Head, AMNH Special Collections, for their assistance. Curtis

Hinsley’s generous gift to the AMNH made Boas’ map available to

the many generations of scholars to come.

PROGRESS ON LABRADOR ARTIFACT RETURNS

By Christie Lecce

In an effort to return the archaeological collections from Labrador,

the ASC has relied heavily on assistance from interns. A network

of student interns with diverse museum studies and archaeological

interests has developed out of the ASC lab. Through a posting on

the main NMNH internship website, inquiries from professors,

and word of mouth, we receive applications from interns with an

interest in gaining hands-on experience with collections. While

assisting with the weighing, cataloging, measuring, bagging, and

describing of artifacts, other skills emerge that lead to new

projects. Over the past year, these have included Kimberly

Conscroe’s artifact illustrations, Christine Brindza’s report on

Basque history in the Americas, and Beth Kovach’s visitor study

of the Looking Both Ways exhibit.

 Independent projects aside, the primary focus of the

internship program is in processing the Labrador collections. With

their help we have made steady progress and will continue to do

so. Since the last newsletter hit the press, over 6,000 artifacts and

1,000 bags of debitage and samples were returned. Three new

interns join the ASC lab in January, bringing new interests and

abilities. In addition to this, several large collections are well under

way. These factors bode well for our return rate in the coming year.

The chart below shows the larger collections returned in 2004.

Site Name Borden Number Number Returned

No Name Island 2 HcCg-02 1046

Koliktalik 1 HdCg-02 1531

September Harbor 1 HdCg-11 974

St. Johns Island 3, L4 HeCf-01 788

St. Johns Island 1 HeCf-02 107

St. Johns Island 3, L1-L3 HeCg-26 19
ASC Newsletter 18

Ramah Chert artifacts from Big Head 6 (IiCw-08)

Thalia Point 2 HfCi-02 65

Shuldham Island 9 IdCq-22 348

Beacon Island 1 IiCv-02 109

Beacon Island 4 IiCv-05 50

Beacon Island 5 IiCv-06 40

Peabody Point 1 IiCw-01 319

Big Head 1 IiCw-03 560

Big Head 5 IiCw-07 18

Big Head 6 IiCw-08 445

Amiktok Island 1 IiCw-11 60

Whale Island 1 IiCw-14 76

Whale Island 3 IiCw-16 22

Whale Island 6 IiCw-19 24

By Stephen Loring

From the perspective of the Arctic Studies Program and the

Department of Anthropology, without a doubt, the very big news

from Collections Management at the National Museum of Natural

History this year has been the acquisition of two extraordinary

collections of tupilaks - those grotesque and fanciful demonic

beings from Greenland - gifts from Mr. Eugene Thalmann of

McAllen, Texas and from the estate of Dr. Maxwell Britton. A

previous donation from Dr. Edgar Folk in 1996 had brought a

single tupilak to the National Collections, but with the Thalmann

and Britton donations that number now swells to 69 making the

Smithsonian holdings - we believe- perhaps the largest in a public

institution west of Greenland.

Once feared and hated, tupilak carvings were made by

shamans, charged with sorcery and sexual powers and secreted

about the homes of perceived enemies to call forth

disaster and disease. So dangerous were they that no

original tupilaks survive although a few 19th-century

copies, carved to show the inquisitive (and ignorant)

Europeans, are in Danish collections.

Three sentences on history of tupilaks. Carved

from sperm whale teeth they have figured significantly in

tourist trade since 1930’s. An emergent Greenland art tradition

coupled with the desire to create items for the burgeoning tourist

trade saw the steady proliferation of tupilak carvings beginning

after WWII. In olden times they were made from human bones

stolen from corpses but with the transition from sorcery to

keepsake, from spiritual to mundane, tupilaks began to appear in

walrus or sperm whale ivory, soapstone, wood, and caribou antler.

The Smithsonian tupilaks all date from this exciting period of

tupilak proliferation dating from 1960-1970.

The Eugene Thalmann Collection: Eugene

Thalmann of McAllen, Texas was a civilian contractor involved

with the construction and maintenance of two DEW-line radar

stations in East Greenland (DIE-2 and DIE-4) in the late-1960’searly-1970’s. While working in and out of Ammassalik Mr.

Thalmann assembled a fine collection of 92 ethnographic objects.

The collection is composed principally of small carved “ivory”

(sperm-whale teeth) pieces, wood and stone objects and a few

beaded and skin pieces. All the objects are made by the East

Greenlanders primarily for the “tourist” trade. Highlights of the

collection include 6 “ivory” figures, 42 tupilaks, a detailed kayak

model, several beaded garments and a doll dressed in traditional

Greenland regalia. In addition there are a few pieces of clothing,

some children’s games and some small animal carvings.

The Maxwell Britton Collection: The Arctic Studies

Center was approached by the executors of the estate of

Maxwell Britton about our interest in acquiring Dr. Britton’s

collection of 26 tupilak figures from East Greenland that Britton

had acquired during his tenure at the Office of Naval Research

(ONR) between 1955 and 1971. Dr. Britton died at home last

March, he was 92. A well known and highly regarded arctic

research scientist and administrator, Dr. Britton was Chief

Scientific Officer of the Naval Arctic research Laboratory in

Barrow, Alaska where, among other things, he helped initiate the

establishment of research camps on the drift ice of the Arctic

Ocean, and where he played a pivotal role in the development of

theory and practice pertaining to arctic tundra ecosystems. His

expertise was of great assistance in the design of the

environmental impact assessment of the Alaska pipeline as well as

studies surrounding the Atomic Energy Commission’s Project

Chariot. John Schindler, a colleague of Britton’s, writes “He

promoted a wide gamut of research, but did not ignore the

demographics of the local people. He felt that their contribution

and knowledge of the local [North Alaskan] environment was of

primary importance in accomplishing the goals of the [Naval

Arctic Research] laboratory.” (For a fuller account of Britton’s

arctic career see Schindler’s memorial essay in Arctic vol.57:436-

438). The ASC would like to acknowledge the extraordinary

generosity of Dr. Britton’s executors - John Duran (National

Park Service) and Jerry Brown (former NSF Polar Program

information officer) - for helping arrange the gift to the

Smithsonian.

Together the Thalmann and Britton collections have

revolutionized our Greenland holdings by dramatically enhancing

the research and exhibition potential of the NMNH

Greenland collections. The Smithsonian’s Greenland

collections consist primarily of 1) Materials collected

by Robert Peary and Peary-related expeditions to

Northwestern Greenland between 1890 and 1910 as

part of the whole “race to the North Pole” business; 2)

Ethnographic materials assembled by Gustav Holm

TUPILAKS COME TO WASHINGTON - OH MY!
ASC Newsletter 19

from East Greenland in 1884-1885, an

exchange with the National Museum of

Denmark; and 3) Miscellaneous

ethnographic and archaeological pieces

from West Greenland (ca. 1900)

acquired opportunistically and nonsystematically. The Thalmann and

Britton collections represent the first

significant acquisition of

“contemporary” Greenland materials at

the Smithsonian. Arguably one of the

most significant cultural and economic

developments in the Arctic has been the

emergence, and the phenomenal success,

of regional Inuit Art traditions. The

NMNH, thanks to the acquisition of the

Hirshshorn collection of Inuit art from

the eastern Canadian Arctic, and the Edgar and Mary Arp Folk

collection of Inupiat craft pieces, carvings, and ivory souvenirs

from the Barrow region, is an important repository for

documenting the development of these tourist art traditions in the

North. The one significant lacuna in recent NMNH collecting has

been Greenland. Because of the Marine Mammal Protection Act

of 1973, which effectively curtailed the international trade in

tupilaks (since many are made from the teeth of protected sperm

whales) collections like Thalmann’s and Britton’s can no longer be

brought into the country.

Tupilak figures are as well

known in Europe and

among northen cognoscenti

as are the Inuit soapstone

carvings of the eastern Arctic but they are relatively unknown in

North America. Acquisition of these collections is an amazing

opportunity. The tupilak carvings represented in these collections

provide a tremendous potential for the subsequent research and

study of this emerging art tradition.

THE LEONARD KEPLER COLLECTION

The Smithsonian Institution was the

recipient of a gracious donation of a small

collection of Native Alaskan memorabilia

from the estate of Mr. Leonard D. Kepler

a former resident of King County,

Washington. Mr. Kepler’s bequest of about

15 ivory carvings, for the most part

intended for the tourist trade, included

jewelry, small animal figures, letter openers

and decorated ivory tusks. In Alaska from

ca. 1934-1964 Mr. Kepler’s collection

appears to be derived for the most part of

post-WWII items. Kepler’s collection

builds upon other recent donations of

Alaskan materials to the National Collection including the

Caroline Van Hoose collection from Kotzebue ca. 1940 (1993),

Dr. Joel Halprin’s donation of a family of Ethel Washington

dolls (made in 1950) also from Kotzebue (1997) and the

impressive Mary Arp Folk collection of Eskimo Art and Artifacts

acquired -and meticulously documented- by Edgar and Mary

Folk at Barrow in the 1960’s-1970’s (1998).

Leonard D. Kepler

DONATION TO THE NATIONAL

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHIVES

The ASC wishes to acknowledge the thoughtful donation of a

small collection of twenty 35mm kodachrome slides taken in the

vicinity of Iqualuit (formerly Frobisher Bay) on Baffin Island,

Canada in September 1956 by Morton Margulies of Potomac,

Maryland. Mr. Margulies, an officer in the U.S. Army Judge

Advocate Generals Corps stationed in Labrador, had a brief

assignment that took him to the joint US-Canadian Air Base in

Frobisher Bay. During his very brief visit Mr. Margulies had the

opportunity to photograph Inuit families in their summer

encampment and visiting the Hudson’s Bay Company store. The

Margulies photographs will be accessioned into the Papers of the

Arctic Studies Center housed at the National Anthropological

Archives where they will be available to future scholars and

researchers.

The Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives

and Smithsonian Institution Archives have become recognized as

an important repository of archival photography pertaining to the

peoples of the circumpolar North. Much of this material

originates from the fieldwork of Smithsonian naturalists and

archaeologists working between 1877 and 1940. It can be said that

these early photographs form the intellectual bedrock of pictorial

materials from the Arctic. However, the profound cultural

transformation that has taken place across the Arctic since WWII

is poorly represented in our collections. The ASC has adopted a

policy of trying to acquire collections of photographs and moving

pictures from the post-war period so that future researchers will

have a corpus of materials as rich and varied as are the materials

left by earlier Smithsonian scientists. Towards that end the

Margulies photographs form a modest but valuable addition to our

holdings with their insight to camp life among the Inuit of

Frobisher Bay prior to their adopting a more settled life in the

village that became Iqualuit.

OUTREACH

KRUPNIK GIVES SENATE TESTIMONY

On 16 November, Igor Krupnik presented expert testimony before

the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

concerning the Native experience of Arctic Climate Change as part of

a hearing convened to discuss global climate change. Opening remarks

were made by Sen. John McCain as chair of the committee

welcoming the witnesses.

Igor was a member of a panel which presented the findings

of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) which was

published the previous week. The other panel members were Robert

Corell, Mark Serreze and Susan Hassol. Dr. Corell, the chairman

of ACIA, gave a brief history of the ACIA effort and of the scientific

interest in climate change. Dr. Serreze (INSTAAR) presented a brief

summary of current changes as seen by scientists. Ms. Hassol, chief

author of the popular version of the report, spoke of the impact the

Arctic climate changes could have on the remaining areas of the planet.

Igor spoke movingly of the impacts already being felt and observed

by Native residents of the North. Several questions by committee

members were directed towards Bob Corell and Mark Serreze to

clarify some of the scientific points they made during testimony.
ASC Newsletter 20

The panel was

followed by a second panel of

experts to discuss the impacts

of climate change on Antarctica

which included Dr. Ghassem

Asrar, Dr. Drew Shindell and

Waleed Abdelati of NASA and

Dr Scott Borg of the Office of

Polar Programs, NSF. The

second panel spoke of the

scientific and modeling

underpinnings of the ACIA

report and fielded intensive

questions from Senators

McCain (Chair) and

Lautenberg. The overall

response to the testimony was brief yet positive by committee

members. Hopefully, this will open further discussions within the

Senate and House on the pressing issues of global climate change

and, more importantly, how we respond to these changes.

A DECADE OF SLAPINS MEMORIAL AWARDS

There is some soul of goodness in things evil / Would men

observingly distil it out. (Shakespeare: Henry V, act iv. sc. i.)

The life and, most particularly the

death, of Andris Slapins bears

out the assertion of Shakespeare

noted above. Mr. Slapins, a noted

Latvian filmmaker, was killed by

sniper fire while filming the

Latvian demonstration against the

Soviet regime in 1991. This was

a tremendous loss to Arctic

residents and researchers as

Slapins was a devoted chronicler

of the Native experiences in a

volatile, rapidly changing world.

We here at the Arctic

Studies Center had the good

fortune to work with him on the

Crossroads of Continents exhibit,

to which he supplied two films.

The first was Chukotka: Coast

of Memories which describes the

lifeways of the peoples on the shores of the Russian side of the

Bering Strait. The second film was Times of Dreams: Siberian

Shamanism which artistically combines then-current film of Evenki

shamans “at work” with a family, one of whose members has returned

from military service in Afghanistan in a very disturbed state, with

archival film shot by A. Litvinov in the Amur river region in the

1920’s. Each of these films, though dated to our eyes, offers a

precious glimpse into the lives of the observed and the observer.

Andris Slapins was determined to establish as close a bond

as possible with the people he was filming, often at the expense of

personal comfort or safety. Noted for setting out to extremely remote

areas often alone or with only one assistant, Slapins had the happy

gift of combining truth with beauty in extreme situations through

focusing solely on what was “afoot”.

Slapins carried out his work across the Arctic but, being

 Latvian, he naturally supported his country’s independence

movement against the Soviets. It was a personally fatal move, but

from his loss support has emerged for furthering his work with Arctic

residents who now film their own cultures for themselves as a record

of their past and future. The goodness that can be distilled out of this

evil was the establishment of the Andris Slapins Memorial Award

Program which has publicized the work of Native cinematographers.

Many of these cinematographers were encouraged by Slapins directly

as part of his effort to highlight Native lives and experiences.

A new film premiered nearly each year at NMNH from

1991 to 2001 in memory of Slapins and his artistic vision. Mark

Soosaar was awarded the first in 1991 for his films Man of Kihnu

Island and Woman of Kihnu concerning the cultural experiences of an

isolated small island off the coast of Estonia. The second award

winner was Siberia through Siberian Eyes a 1992 film directed by

Mark Badger and Asen Balikci. This was prepared from the

videotapes made by the Khanti people of Kazim in western Siberia.

For once the studied became the studiers of their own perspective

and culture. For 1993 Zacharias Kunuk, an Inuit, presented his film

Nunaqpa the story of the 1991 summer caribou hunt in Igloolik,

Baffin Island. Mr. Kunuk has gone on to direct the prize-winning

film (Camera d’Or Cannes 2001) Atanarjuat-The Fast Runner which

was Canada’s first Aboriginal-language movie written, produced,

directed and acted by Inuit. 1994 saw the return of the award to

Siberia with The Gods of Yamal by Dr. Andrei Golovnev. Like

Nunaqpa, this film focused on the

reindeer (the semi-domesticated

cousins of the caribou) as herded

by the Nenets along the Arctic

Coast. The film of 1995 was

Nigel Markham’s work

Hunters and Bombers on the

Innu perception of the NATO

bombing program in the interior

of Labrador. 1996 saw a return

to the Nenets reindeer herders in

Sven Haakanson’s work,

Nenets Reindeer Herders of

Yamal, Western Siberia. The next

film to be awarded a Slapins prize

was Sarah Elder’s work,

Shooting Films with Alaska

Native Communities: a

Retrospective look at the Alaska

Native Heritage Films Center

1972-1998 on how Native

communities can document for themselves how their cultures are

changing and their responses to this change. The last award made

went to Catherine Martin, for her film Spirit Wind. This

documentary recorded the efforts of the Tom’s River Micmaq, led by

Cheif Misel Joe, to build a traditional birch bark canoe, and sail it to

the annual gathering of the Micmaq Nation.

Each of the filmmakers awarded the Slapins prize has gone

on to greater triumphs with their filming or research. It has been a

tremendous honor for the Arctic Studies Center to participate in this

Memorial and collaborate with so many distinguished observers of

the Native experience. Truly some good has been snatched out of an

evil incident, a good that helps prevent more evil from happening

again.

The ASC thanks the Trust for Mutual Understanding for

its generous support of the Slapin’s Award program.

Andris Slapins at Mechigmen Bay, Bering Strait, Siberia 1986

Cover of ACIA report
ASC Newsletter 21

MONGOLIA 2004:

CONFERENCE, TRAINING, AND FIELD STUDIES

By Bill Fitzhugh

This year’s Mongolia expedition defied all odds and was the most

successful field project we have had in Mongolia since the project

began four years ago. ‘Defied’ because it was one of the shortest

seasons – less than 14 days of actual fieldwork – and ‘most

successful’ because we accomplished more during this brief period

that in any previous year. Why? is answered easily: we had the

finest weather, a superb field team, and the most important finds.

That said, there were moments when the project was in

jeopardy. Financing was ‘nip and tuck’ and for months we had no

way to organize the conference we had planned in Ulaanbaatar.

Nevertheless, in the end – with some creative financing and the

assistance of the newly-founded American Center for Mongolian

Studies – we pulled off a triple-header: a productive scholarly

symposium and workshop, popular public lectures, and field

research that generated important new archaeological, cultural, and

environmental data.

Symposium and Workshops

At the close of last year’s season we had begun

discussing ways to share findings and methods with our

Mongolian colleagues. Field training and technical reports only

went so far, especially when they were in English only. We needed

a bilingual conference, technical workshops to exchange

archaeological methods and museum techniques, and publication of

our field results in Mongolian as well as English.

When I discussed the idea with Dr. Charles Krusekopf,

Director of the ACMS, he suggested the Center’s newlyestablished UB office might

coordinate the meetings and

assist with translation and

training. We applied for and

received funds from the Trust

for Mutual Understanding and

the Department of State

Ambassador’s Fund, and

received financial and other

assistance from the

Smithsonian’s Under Secretary

for Science, the Smithsonian

Center for Materials Research

and Education, the SI’s Office of

Exhibit Central, and NMNH

Departments of Botany and

Anthropology. By spring, Peter

Marsh had been appointed

director of the ACMS in UB and

agreed to undertake the task of

local organization together with his assistant, Demchig

Enkbaatar, and enlisted co-sponsorship of the National Museum

of Mongolian History (NMMH) through its director, A. Ochir,

and staff, Bumaa Dashdendev and Bayaara. Meeting facilities

and projection equipment were provided by the Mongolian

National University. The Mongolian Academy of Sciences and its

 Institute of Archaeology also provided assistance of various kinds.

The archaeological conference took place on 2-3 June at

the National University, attended by more than 100 local

archaeologists, ethnologists, and physical anthropologists. Papers

by project scientists and other specialists covered topics related to

Deer Stone Project research in Hovsgol Aimag ranging from Bronze

Age archeology to ethnology, cultural ecology, environment,

linguistics, and studies of 20th century mass graves and Gobi

mummies (see below). The translators did a wonderful job

rendering scientific terminology and treaded lightly through

thickets of scholarly debate and controversy, all of which will be

published in 2005.

Not surprisingly, the workshops reached a much broader

cross-section of the scholarly community. Fifty-five museum

curators from 10 museums and 35 participants from other

academic institutions in UB took part in the collection management

and casting workshops, respectively. David Hunt

(Anthropology), Debbie Bell and Greg McKee (NMNH

Botany), and Rae Beaubien (SCMRE) provided instruction on

basic specimen care, storage methods, and archaeological field

conservation techniques – illustrating best practices while also

showing what NOT to do. Carolyn Thome and Paul Rhymer

offered an equally popular workshop attended by 35

representatives from Mongolian museums and other institutions in

which they demonstrated practical and inexpensive casting and

model-making techniques in a ‘down and dirty’ day that ended

with trophy casts and sticky fingers all around. Bruno Frohlich’s

GPS workshop attracted more than 20 archaeologists and students

whose ‘final exam’ required making a satellite GPS map of UB’s

Sukhbaatar Square without being arrested by the police guarding

the adjacent Parliament building.

In addition to formal academic sessions, the conference

sponsored four public lectures at the National Museum of

Mongolian History. Paula DePriest and Bill Fitzhugh lectured

on archaeological and botanical aspects of the Deer Stone Project

(“Tsaatan Reindeer Herding and

Environment” and “The Deer

Stone Project: Goals and

Results”), matched by

presentations by Dr. A. Ochir,

Director of the NMMH

(“Introduction to Ethnic Groups

of Hovsgol Aimag”), and O.

Sukhbaatar (“Geography and

Culture of the Tsaatan People of

Hovsgol’). Each of these lectures

attracted audiences of 30-50

people from a broad range of

fields, including media,

government, foundation, and

international agency officials, and

many others. These public

lectures brought the Deer Stone

Project to the attention of a very

diverse group of people.

The conference also included several important social

functions, including a reception hosted by the Santis Foundation

through the generosity of its CEO, Ed Nef, and local Santis

director, Dooloojin Orgilmaa, and a private dinner hosted by

American Ambassador Pamela Slutz at her residence. These

events and the interest of the popular media, which covered the

FIELDWORK

David Hunt Giving a Workshop
ASC Newsletter 22

meetings in print, radio, and television, spread information about

our research and educational programs broadly throughout

Mongolia.

The impact of these conferences, workshops, public

lectures, and social events – attested by the large turn-out of

archaeologists, museum professionals, and general public interest –

can hardly be overstated. I

believe this is the first time

professionals from western

countries have presented

instruction in archaeological

field techniques, museum

methods and conservation in

Mongolia. Interest in these areas

was especially strong and

resulted in our staff conducting

special sessions with several

Mongolian museums. All urged

us to continue the workshops in

future years and expressed

interest in learning more about

instructional materials and

training opportunities outside

Mongolia.

The Deer Stone Project conference was equally

successful, if less innovative, in that exchanges of research

information of this type have a long history in Mongolia.

However, this meeting was extremely important in opening

dialogue between Mongolian and American anthropologists

concerning interdisciplinary research in an area of northern

Mongolia that has been given little previous attention. Our

conference produced the first set of research papers to be written

on the archaeology, anthropology, and environmental setting of the

Hovsgol-Darkhat region. This in itself is important, because this

area is a geographic outlier of the Mongolian steppe encircled by

mountainous Russian territory and is occupied by Darkhat

Mongols and Tuvan-speaking Tsaatan reindeer-herders who are

minorities in the ethnically more homogeneous Mongolia. These

ethnic groups and their language, customs, and history are poorlyknown, yet are extremely important because of their connections

with Siberian lands and peoples to the north. Our work is

contributing to the traditional Mongolian view of its ‘northern

hinterland’ by documenting Hovsgol’s distinctive role as an

important and geographically unique transitional steppe-taiga

border zone.

I believe the week of conferences, workshops, and

related events had a strong positive impact on the Mongolian

scholarly community as a whole. There are relatively few

occasions for Mongolian and foreign research and museum

professionals to exchange views, learn from each other, and

provide outreach to the public, because most foreign research

projects do not build conferences and learning opportunities into

their research programs. Our experience suggests that this activity

is very beneficial for all parties, and so we plan to offer similar

programs as a regular feature of our work in the coming years.

Archaeological Results

Since Andrea Neighbors has written a narrative of our

fieldwork, my comments on our archaeological work are limited to

the most salient scientific results. Note should also be made of

Bruno Frohlich’s report on the South Gobi mummy cave and the

kheriksur mapping project reported elsewhere in this newsletter.

This was our third year of research in Hovsgol Aimag,

and as in the past we concentrated on three research problems in

three different locales. The first of these is the continued

investigation of deer stone sites, particularly the large site west of

Erkhel Lake, north of Muren. This site has some of the most

beautifully carved deer stones

in northern Mongolia and is of

interest because of its

association with a specific

geographic feature, ulan tolgoi,

which is surrounded by

hundreds of kheriksur. The

Deer Stone Project has several

goals, including determining (1)

chronological the age of

individual deer stones and their

carvings; (2) the ritual and

chronology of features

associated with deer stones;

(3) the function and meaning

of deer stones as a general

class object; and (4) the

relationship between deer

stones and kheriksur.

Last year’s work identified three rock features associated

with Erkhel’s Deer Stone 4 and recovered pecking stones that were

used to create or refurbish the images on this stone. In 2004 Bruno

continued his GPS mapping of the Erkhel site while I continued

excavations at DS4, discovering two more rock features similar to

the three excavated in 2003 that contained horse hooves, neck

vertebrae, and skulls. Together these features completed a ring of

five horse head burials each located 2-4 meters from the deer stone.

AMS dates of the 2004 skulls produced ages of 2900 B.P.

(uncorrected), confirming the earliest dates obtained on our 2003

horse heads, strongly suggesting that all of these horse head burials

and the carving of the stone itself took place as part of a single

ceremony. In 2004 we also excavated two horse head features at a

deer stone site at the Tsatsat site south of Tsaaganuur.

The second phase of the field program expanded our

2003 excavations at Soyë, where the Baran Gol River emerges from

the Sayan Mountains into the Darkhat valley. This confirmed our

previous findings of two components, a medieval level with thick

sand-tempered reddish pottery associated with bones of domestic

sheep, goats, and bovids, and a lower Neolithic level containing

poorly-fired grit-tempered ware with cord-wrapped stick

impressed decoration and a variety of chipped flint tools, including

small triangular points, triangular endscrapers, microblades, cores,

and other implements. Unfortunately, as in 2003, the only faunal

remains recovered were highly fragmented bones of birds and

mammals, none recognizable to specific species. So far we have not

been successful in locating any prehistoric reindeer remains, which

we have been hoping to recover to test the theory that reindeer

domestication occurred in this region 3-4000 years ago, and whose

historical legacy may be preserved in the modern reindeer herding

practices of the Tsaatan people.

The third phase was a visit to the West Tundra Tsaatan

in the mountains west of Tsaaganuur. This year we met the group

at a location halfway between Soyë and Tsaaganuur and reached

their camp in the tundra after a single day’s ride by horse. We

discovered they have moved from their previous season’s camp on

Working at the Tsatsat Deer Stone Site
ASC Newsletter 23

the Minge Polog River to a new location a few kilometers

downstream. This made it easier to survey the abandoned 2002

camp where I had previously found chert flakes, and as luck would

have it, we recovered several small microblade fragments. This was

an important find because our earlier excavations here had lacked

diagnostic artifacts. Now it was possible to assign a definite

Neolithic age to this site, indicating use of this mountain tundra

region as early as 4-5000 years ago. During our visit, Paula

DePriest, Deborah Bell, and Greg McKee spent a week traveling

with Sanjim and other Tsaatan herders collecting samples and

investigating the botanical features of different seasonal reindeer

pastures.

We also made a brief survey in the Tsaaganuur area,

exploring north of the Shishin Gol (Little Yenesei) River where we

found several prehistoric sites, including deer stones, stone

alignments, and sites with chert and ceramic remains. We plan to

expand investigations here in 2005 since it is here, near the outlet

of Lake Tsaaganuur where the Shishin Gol enters the Sayan

Mountains that one would expect a more continuous record of

archaeological sites.

Although brief, the 2004 season added important

knowledge to our understanding of the culture and environmental

history of the Darkhat region. We have been able to define and date

a local phase of Medieval culture as well as a Neolithic phase that

can be directly compared with Siberian and other Mongolian

assemblages. Most importantly, we have identified horse sacrifices

and their burial features as an integral component in the dedication

of deer stones, and it appears these activities take place as part of

a single ceremonial event. The presence of horse sacrifices and

absence of human remains suggests that deer stones served a

parallel function to kheriksur as a communal memorial dedicated to

a deceased leader. We have also learned much from our surveys of

kheriksur mounds and plan to investigate the relationship of deer

stones sites to kheriksur and their contents, organization, and

ritual. Rather than being a palimpsest of ceremonial behaviors

created by different peoples at different time periods, the data are

beginning to suggest a single, complex but coherent ceremonial

system that can be assigned to a particular time and people – a

classic Mongolian Bronze Age phase that may been linked to the

formation of Scythian and other cultures, possibly even the early

Eskimo cultures of the North Pacific.

In closing I want to thank our many funders and

institutional partners mentioned above, and our project

participants, who this year numbered more than twenty-five! In

Tsaatan reindeer camp in the tundra

addition to those noted above I particularly wish to thank Scott

Weinhold, Sasha Sanjmiatav, Adiyabold Namkhai, Odbaatar,

Oyunaa Bileg, Oyumbileg, Undra Monkhoo, Sukhbaatar,

Manlai, Bazargur Dashzereg, Tugsuu Amgalantugs, and our

jeep and van drivers, Tsogt, Hotbaatar, Nema, and Narm, our

fabulous cook Amra, and the many Tsaatan who made our stay in

the tundra so rewarding and enjoyable – Sanjim, Bayandalai,

Bayaraa, Batsaya, Tsetsegma, and many others.

MUMMIES OF THE HUN AGUI CAVE

By Bruno Frohlich and Naran Barzarsad

The 2004 research in Mongolia focused on a continuation of the

work we did during two field seasons in 2003. The burial mound

survey in the Hovsgol aimag in collaboration with Bill Fitzhugh’s

Deer Stone Project continued for several weeks and included

several objectives such as the recording of mounds in the Soyë and

Lake Erkhel areas, second and repeat recording of mounds already

recorded during the 2003 field season (for quality control), and

excavation of selected mounds in the Soyë area. Also, we did a one

day survey of more than 100 mounds about 4 kilometers

Southwest of the Ushkin Uver deer stones. Tugsuu and Bazargur

from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of

Archaeology assisted in the research. A complete Landsat VII

coverage (satellite imaging) of Mongolia was obtained in October

2004. All surveyed mounds were recorded as symbols, each

representing a variety of mound features such as size, shape, and

classification. We also excavated two robbed/disturbed mounds in

order to obtain biological material from the main chambers and

external mound structures. We succeeded in getting a relatively

good sample of human skeletal remains and also some large

fragments of horse crania, mandibles and cervical vertebrae, all for

dating purposes. This information will be published at a later time

in conjunction with Bill Fitzhugh’s deer stone excavations, thus

building on our understanding of the potential temporal

relationship between burial mounds and the deer stone

monuments.

During the first week of June David Hunt joined us in

Ulaanbaatar. David worked with us on the excavations of mass

burials in Ulaanbaatar in 2003 and we succeeded in getting access

to other human remains at the Museum of the Victims. We

recorded and photographed 22 skulls, all males, between 20 and 45

years old at death. Of the 22 crania, 21 included entry holes in the

occipital bone, and 20 included exit holes in the frontal bone.

Basically all the individuals, representing Buddhist monks, were

victims of execution by firearm. The study of associated objects

clearly dated the killing event to the late 1930s and thus

corresponds to the material we excavated at Hambiin Ovoo in

2003. The work at the Museum of the Victims was completed by

a small team consisting of Naran Bazarsad and Tugsuu from the

institute of Archaeology, Gantulga and Bekhbat Sodnom from

the Museum of the Vicitms and Bruno Frohlich and David Hunt

from the Smithsonian. The data from the Museum of the Victims

will be included in the final report on the Hambiin Ovoo mass

burial, scheduled to be completed within the next few months.

 The focus of this piece is on research which actually

started several weeks earlier. During the winter of 2003/2004 the

Mongolian Academy of Sciences decided to investigate a cave

located in the southern Mongolian Gobi desert a few miles from

the Chinese border. Our museum had been asked by the Mongolian
ASC Newsletter 24

Academy of Sciences to assist them in the exploration of the cave.

Reportedly the cave included some mummified human remains,

and it became the duty of archaeologists and anthropologists in the

Academy’s Institute of Archaeology to visit the cave and decide

how to protect the human remains. Increased traffic in the area

had made the cave and its contents generally known, notably

among groups organizing tourist visits to this part of the Gobi.

The Institute recognized this as a problem and organized a small

expedition, scheduled to take place in the spring of 2004. The

expedition was organized as a joint venture between the Mongolian

Academy of Sciences (represented by Naran Bazarsad) and the

Smithsonian Institution (represented by Bruno Frohlich).

The cave (also known as the Hets Mountain Cave, the

Hun Agui [The Human Cave] and the Hets Agui [the Hard Cave]),

was brought to the attention of government officials in 1974 by

local herdsmen. Its location is about 4 kilometers north of the

Mongolian border with China and about 25 kilometers east of the

108o

 East meridian.

Later in 1980 the General Secretary of the Mongolian

Revolutionary Party, Mr. Adiya, learned about the cave and

requested the Mongolian Academy of Science to initiate a study

of its contents. Consequently in 1982 the cave was visited by

two scientists: archaeologist N. Ser-Odjav and physical

anthropologist D. Tumen. They reported that the cave was

disturbed but it still included 12 bodies representing seven

children between newborn and seven years, four males and

females around 30 years-old, and one 60-year-old male. Ser-Odjav

found ceramics from the Kidan period and also some woman’s

pants and wooden plates. Based on these finds he dated the

remains to be from about 10 AD, thus about 2,000 years old. To

our knowledge the fate of these artifacts is presently unknown.

Some do not agree with N. Ser-Odjav’s dating. Since all

of the cultural objects described by N. Ser-Odjav are missing and

samples collected by us still have to be submitted for analyses, we

have yet to decide on a final dating. Other possibilities include a

legend presently circulating among local herdsmen; this folklore

suggests that a local thief named Dashsamba murdered his entire

family during a killing rampage and later escaped criminal charges

by fleeing across the border to China. Dashsamba was original a

Buddhist Lama but because of lack of success as a Lama he

converted to the business of larceny and became a thief. This

supposedly took place

between 1937 and 1939

thus during the same

period when the Stalinist

regime in Ulaanbaatar

was involved in mass

executions of Mongolian

Buddhist monks. Legend

has it that the remains in

the Hets Mountain Cave

are the victims of his

rampage, dating the

remains to the 20th

century.

The 2004

survey team included

Naran Barzarsad, Natsag

Batbold, Tugsuu

Amgalantugs, B.

Erdene, and Bruno

Frohlich. David Hunt, of the Smithsonian Institution joined us in

Ulaanbaatar on our return from the Gobi and is presently

collaborating with the rest of the team on this and other projects.

After an arduous 900 km journey, mostly on dirt roads

and tracks, we arrived about 1.3 kilometers southeast of the cave

by midmorning on May 26 for our four day survey. After a small

and temporary exploration of the surrounding area we established

camp on a flat plateau 130 meters northeast of the cave.

The first attempt to enter the cave was achieved by

Natsag Batbold and Naran Bazarsad. The presence of human

remains was verified and the general lay-out and its entrance

system were noted. Our first assessment objective was to decide if

the human remains should be left in place or removed and

transported to the Institute of Archaeology in Ulaanbaatar. We

observed recent destruction of the cave’s contents and some

forceful removal of human body parts, including several heads.

These observations led us to the decision to remove the remains as

soon as possible, meaning we could wait until we returned to

Ulaanbaatar to perform a detailed study of the remains.

Accordingly we focused on the following objectives: (1)

Architectural and geological description of cave and cave access;

(2) Description of the human remains in their ‘in-situ’ positions;

(3) Collection of tissue samples for dating and other analytical

purposes; (4) Completion of test excavations; (5) Preparation of

remains for transportation to Ulaanbaatar; And (6) description of

surrounding geological features.

The subterranean cave has an approximately 0.9 x 0.6

meter circular opening leading to a system of two platforms

connected by three tunnels. The cave extends in an approximately

west to east direction and has a maximum length of 16.8 meters.

The maximum width of 5.9 meters is found at the eastern end and

the width adjacent to the entrance is about 3 meters. The maximum

height from the floor to the ceiling is 3.4 meters and is found at the

central and western end of the cave.

In general human remains were found in four areas or

groups. Two of the groups included concentrations of remains

depicting complete bodies, most of them still in their original

position and location. Most of the bodies were well preserved

with the majority of skeletal tissue present and 10% to 80% of the

soft tissue is still intact. The excellent preservation of soft tissue

appeared to be a product of a rapid process of natural

mummification, leaving

all body parts in their

original position and

location. However, it

was evident that the

remains had been

disturbed by visitors to

the cave and in some

cases, body parts had

been removed and

relocated to other

locations within the cave.

Several groups of

human bodies and body

parts were identified.

Some of the remains

could be identified to

their original position

while some of the

disarticulated body parts One of the mummies in its original position
ASC Newsletter 25

were obviously a result of later disturbance.

In one of the major bundles we found a

minimum of seven articulated and partly

articulated bodies stacked on top of each

other. One body was potentially in a sitting

position but with the head and some of the

extremities missing. This body may have

been the one previously reported by N. SerOdjav as a sitting woman embracing an

infant. No infant remains were found during

our visit. The remaining six bodies had been

stacked in a heap suggesting a quick disposal

of the remains without any rituals.

The ligaments connecting the

various body parts were all well preserved

and in some cases muscle, skin, intestinal

tissue, nails, and hair were present. However

of the seven bodies only three included a

head. Careful search for the missing cranial/

skull material did not yield any results, so it

is hypothesized that some of the remains,

especially the heads, were removed during

visits to the cave in the last few decades.

The seven bodies represented four males

ranging from 12 years to 40+ years old, two

females both adults, and one child of unknown sex.

Three articulated bodies were found about five meters

from the adult group of bodies described above. All of them were

infants less than one year old. The preservation was excellent with

soft tissue in the thorasic and abdominal regions well preserved.

The colons and some smaller intestines were all in very good

condition. None of the bodies included a head.

One of the most fascinating observations was that we

could determine the cause of death in all cases where head and/or

neck tissue was present. This is unusual because even in bodies

including mummified soft tissue, it is most often impossible to

establish cause of death. We established that the majority of the

bodies represented individuals who had been killed by hanging,

strangulation or other causes pertinent to application of traumatic

force to the head and neck regions. In two cases, a rope was still

attached tight around the cervical area suggesting strangulation, and

in the case of a 40 year old female, severe trauma to the neck had

dislocated some of the cervical vertebrae and the mandible had been

forced out of its articulation with the temporal bones. Deep

indentation in the posterior neck tissue around the 4th cervical

vertebrae suggests the use of a strong stick or bar made from wood

or a metallic material used to keep the upper body and the neck in

a fixed position while the head was forcefully pulled in a posterior

direction causing the trauma observed in the neck vertebrae as well

as in the temporo-mandibular joints. Also, the good preservation

of the tongue showed a cut in its anterior part caused by a forceful

closure of the mouth, dismembering the distal tip of the tongue.

The cut appears to follow the arching shape of the maxillary and

mandibular dental arches. In two other cases, rope or rope

fragments associated with deep indentations in the neck skin tissue

suggests forceful strangulation of the individuals. Further analysis

will be completed when access to advance x-ray and CT equipment

can be established.

The reconstruction of the cave contents will be difficult

and partly hampered by the limited research which could be

accomplished studying the remains in-situ in the constricted area

of the cave, and by the destruction of the

contents likely caused by recent visitors.

A wealth of data is still available however,

and the analytical phase is being initiated

which will hopefully give us accurate

dating of the material within the next few

months. Also, advanced analytical research

in a controlled laboratory environment

should add a significant body of data to

our reconstruction effort of this very sad

event, which could have taken place either

a few decades ago or possibly even

thousands of years ago.

We returned to Ulaanbaatar following

a western route crossing the 108o

 Eastern

meridian about 50 kilometers north of the

Chinese border into the Omno Gobi aimag

and continued toward a small settlement

named Nomgon. Nomgon included a small

house adjacent to a few older and decaying

mud-brick ruins. A few kilometers before

we reached Nomgon we ran into a small

group of government officials from the

Mongolian Ministry of Ecology.

Obviously a lot of clandestine gold

exploration has taken place in this area and we were told that gold

diggers came in huge SUVs loaded with explosives and blew up

hills and other promising gold containing geological strata. The

officials told us that there could be more than hundred such

clandestine operations active at any time and that most of them

were successful. We continued toward Hanbogd about 70

kilometers northwest of Nomgon and passed through some of the

most fascinating and most beautiful desert landscape ever seen. As

far as the eye could see we observed smooth and rounded black

basalt formations testifying to thousands or possibly millions of

years of wind and water erosion.

From Hanbogd we continued north toward Manlay and

after refueling our vehicle we crossed the line between the Omno

Gobi aimag and the Dund Gobi aimag and arrived early in the

evening in the town of Mandalgovi. We succeeded in finding a

small hotel where we managed to stuff four people into a small

room while Natsag Batbold and our driver G. Sukhbaatar stayed

with the vehicle to ensure the safety of our mummies and

equipment. Before we reached Mandalgovi we stopped at a small

gehr where we convinced the family to cook for us. This resulted

in a great meal cooked in a traditional Mongolian manner and

displaying traditional Mongolian hospitality. One guest was a

Buddhist lama who had spread out all his medicinal paraphernalia,

in an effort to use their powerful effects to protect everybody

from getting sick. On May 30 we started from Mandalgovi and

followed the track toward Ulaanbaatar. About 70 kilometers south

of the capital we encountered our first re-exposure to ‘modern

civilization’; a small collection of gehrs which most likely could be

identified as a Mongolian ‘truck stop’ offering food, soft drinks,

refrigeration, and TVs. And although none of it worked because

the generator was broken, we certainly knew we were getting

closer to home.

We had accomplished our goal in seven days thus

keeping our project within the original planned time frame. We

logged 1,908 kilometers, of which 98% were driven on unpaved

tracks or roads including 30% on unmarked surfaces. Fortunately

Hun Agui cave opening
ASC Newsletter 26

Mongolian Lama and his medical treatments

we were blessed with a complete absence of transportation

equipment break-downs. We had succeeded in putting together a

small but highly efficient team, found our cave, recorded its

contents and returned everything to our Institute in Ulaanbaatar.

Our success is a reflection of fine team work, outstanding support

from our institutes, and an excellent collaboration between various

government agencies, including the Mongolian Academy of

Sciences and the Mongolian Army.

DEER STONE PROJECT NARRATIVE

By Andrea Neighbors

Andrea, a Washington College

student who has interned for

several years with the ASC,

accompanied us to Mongolia in

June 2004. This is her journal

report.

We arrived Monday night in

Ulaanbaatar at the very busy

Buyant-Ukhaa International

Airport, where we were greeted by

staff members of the National

Museum of Mongolian History.

The week of our arrival involved

many meetings in preparation for the first joint MongolianAmerican conference, inevitably the first of many more to come.

The end of the conference initiated the beginning of a new field

season for the summer of 2004.

Post conference, our remaining days in Ulaanbaatar

involved preparing for the field with many trips to the city’s

‘black market,’ where searching for the best bargains for food,

cooking utensils, horse stirrups, and gifts for the crew became the

daily chores.

8 June 2004

We arrived in Moron, the capital of Hovsgol aimag during

our second week in Mongolia. Our visit here only lasted one night,

staying at the Gobi Hotel on the outskirts of town. While there,

Andrea and her host

we met up with our drivers and cook, and the archaeologists who

drove to the Hovsgol aimag capital from Ulaanbaatar carrying our

heavy gear and equipment. Our time spent in Muren consisted of

buying more supplies at the local market, and paying a visit to

town officials. The next morning we left Muren and headed west,

taking us further into the heart of Hovsgol, with four jeeps and

vans carrying a team of 20.

9 June 2004

Several teams of scientists would take part in this year’s

expedition. A large team of Botanists, with Paula DePriest,

Deborah Bell and Greg McKee from the Smithsonian as well as

Oyunaa Bileg and Undraa Monkhoo from Ulaanbaatar would be

gathering more specimens for the Herbarium in Washington.

Bruno Frohlich and his assistants, Tugsuu Amgalans and

Bazara Dashzeveg would map the khirigsuurs at Soye and

Erkhel. Bill Fitzhugh, Odbaatar, Manlai, Bayaraa, Sasha, and

I would be doing the archaeological excavations at Soyë and Erkhel.

To start the new field season, a brief stop at the Erkhel Deer

Stones gave us some insight in what to expect at the end of the

month, when we would return to start a new excavation at Deer

Stone 4. A close observation of each individual stone gave us some

more information about recent natural impacts on the stones, such

as rain and the growth of lichens on the carvings. Unfortunately,

and to our dismay, another impact on one of the stones was not

from natural causes but from human activity. We noticed what

appeared to be someone’s initials on the mid-section of the tallest

deer stone. This sort of activity triggers concern about the future

safety and preservation of the stones, which are totally unprotected in the open steppe. Our drive northwards brought us into

the Darkhat Valley, west of Lake Hovsgol. Our first campsite

literally started off with a bang, the team hurrying to set up tents

before a strong thunderstorm. Little did we know that this would

be routine for almost every night we would be in the field.

10 June 2004

Our second day on the road toward Ulaan-Uul brought

us to two pingos – raised mounds with ice cores that are found

occasionally in permafrost soil – located not too far from our

previous night’s camp. The first one we observed was rather large

and had partially collapsed due to melting of its ice core. The

second one was almost of the same size, and was also protruding

through the ground.

Our travel through the Darhat Valley eventually reached

the town of Ulaan-Uul, after a beautiful drive up and down hills,

and in and out of valleys. But before we could enter the town we

had to pay a road

tax. Our group of

vans and jeeps had

to pay a much

larger tax than the

horses and

motorcycles that

passed this way

regularly. With that

taken care of, we

arrived at the town

center which was

made up of shops,

a school, some

offices, and a

Tugsu, Bayaraa, Andrea, and Tsogt
ASC Newsletter 27

restaurant. Here we bought snacks and supplies. It was a very

quiet day, and our presence attracted attention from the residents.

Among other things we had to get information about where the

Tsaatan reindeer herders were currently located so we could find

them. After a long wait, we received word that the Tsaatan were at

their spring camp and would be awaiting our arrival in a few days.

Relieved to know that we would be able to visit the Tsaatan before

their migration to their summer camp, we moved on toward our

second campsite and first excavation site – Soyë .

11-12 June 2004

The first day of work at Soyë involved an archaeological

survey of this riverside Neolithic site we had found first in 2002.

Our first two days of digging was productive; working with four

Mongolian archaeologists we were able to find many microblades,

some arrowheads, pottery shards, and samples of charcoal. On the

12th, members of the botany team, Paula DePriest, Deborah Bell,

Oyunaa Bileg, Undraa Monkhoo, and Sukhbaatar left to meet the

Tsaatan, where they would stay for several days while we worked

at Soye. Bill Fitzhugh and I would leave to meet the Tsaatan a day

later, as we planned to stay for only a

few days. On the 13th the archaeology

team traveled from Soye to Chudurrin

Daraa, where some human bones were

said to have been found by a local herder

named Mishig. These bones were not

found around khirigsuurs but from

several stone circles embedded in the

ground that seemed to mark the location

of a burial. Surprisingly, Mishig was

very cooperative in explaining to us

what he had found in his own “excavation”. He accompanied us to the site of

Chuduriin Daraa where we did two small

tests. One area produced several ribs and

finger bones from a child, and the other

had some charcoal and a piece of

pottery.

14-15 June 2004

Before the archaeologists departed to visit the Tsaatan,

we visited Mishig again. Bruno and his team had been in the same

area during the last few days mapping the mounds. Mishig invited

us into his ger for a quick orientation. He told us where he had

been digging and what he had found, and showed us an animal and

a human jaw bone that he had kept. He was getting ready to move

from his spring to his summer camp and would not be in the area

for long. We agreed to meet with him later if he was still in the

area, and moved on to our meeting place to go over the mountains

and visit the Tsaatan.

Later in the afternoon we were greeted by some Tsaatan

men who had ridden out of the hills with extra horses for riding and

baggage. Once we were settled upon our designated ‘beasts’ we

started moving over the hills and through the forests. A few hours

later we had reached the tundra and greeted several families who

were already settling in for the night. The reindeer were wandering

about and the young Tsaatan children watched our arrival with big

eyes and shy smiles. At the end of the day Paula, Deborah, and

the rest of the botany team appeared at their campsite. After a

long and windy day, we enjoyed sitting in the warm tent with

Bayaraa and his wife, Tsetsegma, and their children. One of their

daughters, Bilguun, only 5-6 years old, had undergone hip surgery

a year ago in the United States, and seemed to be doing very well

back home with her family. This coming winter she will travel to

Ulaanbaatar for physical therapy, and there is even talk of her

returning to the States to have her metal pins removed.

On the 15th the botanists continued to gather specimens

in the area, and the archaeology team went out searching for sites.

But before we went our separate ways, Paula and our translator

Adiyabold distributed some toys and hats they had brought for

the children. This was a very exciting morning for the Tsaatan, and

for us as well. With the reindeer moving about, snow still on the

ground, and children playing with brand new toys, the scene was

like a Christmas morning. For most of the day we rode about the

valley visiting possible site locations. Some surface finds of

microblades indicated the presence of Neolithic people like those

at Soye, but we could not find a source site. At any rate, it was a

perfect horseback ride through Tsaatan’s country. At one point I

was amazed to see a long line of reindeer carrying lumber from the

forest to the treeless tundra camps.

20-22 June 2004

Our second site, Erkhel, is

home to several deer stones which

are incredibly engraved with

reindeer and other details, such as a

shaman’s belt and tools. Our first

day of digging started on Monday

the 21st. By now our digging team

was much larger, due to help from

the botanists and sometimes the

drivers. The area we covered

around Deer Stone 4 expanded

upon last summer’s dig. For the

next three days we continued

digging and mapping the site,

successfully finding two horse

heads, charcoal, and calcined

(burned) bone samples. One horse

head was placed upside down, which was rather peculiar considering most are burried right-side-up. As the archaeology team

continued to dig around the deer stone, the botanists catalogued

their findings from the previous weeks, and Bruno and his

assistants mapped khirigsuurs and deer stones. Our only other

visitors were the Bactrian camels who roamed the steppe near

camp during the evenings.

Our last day at Erkhel completed the final stage of

mapping the excavation, drawing profiles, and measuring the

squares. Just as we were finishing up our work and putting our

supplies away in the jeeps a Fulbright Fellowship group doing a

documentary on Mongolia pulled up in several vans. With their

impeccable timing they were able to film Bill explaining the

significance of the deer stones and their importance in Mongolian

archaeology. It was an appropriate ending to the 2004 field

season.

We returned to Muren the following day and caught our

flight back to Ulaanbaatar, where we spent the next few days

cleaning artifacts and cataloging them at the museum. Several

charcoal and bone samples were brought back to Washington for

radiocarbon dating and analysis. Our fieldwork this summer will

add to the dissemination of Mongolia’s scientific and cultural

wealth.

Tsaatan child recieves SI gift
ASC Newsletter 28

THE SEARCH FOR A PAST: THE PREHISTORY OF

THE INDIGENOUS SAAMI IN NORTHERN COASTAL

SWEDEN.

By Noel Broadbent

In spite of numerous archaeological surveys in northern Sweden

during the past two decades, no serious

attempts have been made to relate coastal

archaeology to Saami prehistory. Saami

territory and economy have been largely

defined by reindeer herding and hunting in

interior and mountain regions. Saami

identity has also been characterized by

history and ethnology more than

archaeology. These perspectives have

obscured the diversity of Saami culture in

the past, and perpetuated interpretations

that have limited Saami rights to land and

resources.

This project (2004-2007) is

intended to examine the evidence for

Saami settlement and land use in the

coastal regions of northern Sweden

where seal hunting was of primary

importance. The main study area is

between latitudes 63 and 66 degrees

North, particularly Västerbotten County.

This is a glaciated area with the highest

rates of land uplift in Sweden, as much

as 0.91 cm per year. Shoreline displacement provides an outstanding opportunity to date archaeological features. Prehistoric seal hunting sites are found from over

100 m above sea level (5000 BC) down to early Medieval

Times at the 6 m elevation above present sea level (AD 1300).

Of particular interest to this project are finds and features

from the Late Iron Age, also referred to

as the Younger Metal Age (c. AD 500–

1300). This was a time of intensive seal

hunting on the coasts as evidenced by

hundreds of small huts in seal hunting

areas, on peninsulas and on islands.

These huts bear a striking resemblance

to huts in the Swedish mountains,

referred to as Stalotomtningar, and

usually interpreted as seasonal camps

used by the Saami to hunt reindeer.

Both complexes date to the same time

period, from AD 500 until ca AD 1300.

Most date to the Viking Period, AD 800

–1150, and most were abandoned by

AD 1300, a period of Swedish church

and state expansion and a time of great

change throughout Europe. The 14th

century was also marked by the spread

of the Black Death and the Little Ice

Age.

The Search of a Past is using archaeological data collected

by Noel Broadbent within the framework of the Seal Hunting

Cultures Project, in addition to new place name data, GIS

mapping, archaeozoological data, and new excavations and

survey material. (The field work in 2004 is described under

field work in this newsletter).

Britta Wennstedt Edvinger’s dissertation is examining

the “de-Saamification” of Swedish archaeology and the difficulties of archaeologists working in an indigenous context. A

special study of the Saami in Hälsingland complements the

project in Västerbotten. She has previously studied Saami bear ceremonialism

and documented cultural landscapes in the

South Saami region, as well as published

an article on Saami ritual sites on the

North Bothnian coast.

One of the most significant finds

regarding the search for a Saami presence

in the coastal zone is a deposition of

burned and split bear bones found buried

on a small cairn in a sealer’s hut at the site

of Grundskatan in northern Västerbotten.

These bones are interpreted as ritually

buried and following the customs of Saami

bear ceremonialism. Some 30 bear burials

are known from northern Norway and

Sweden. Radiocarbon dating of the bones

from Grundskatan rendered a calibrated

age of 1080±45 BP. The hearth in the

adjacent hut floor dates to 1110±110 BP,

showing them to be contemporary. The

hearth contained bones of ringed seals.

This contextualization of coastal sealing

during the Late Iron Age is a major

breakthrough and opens the door to entirely new interpretations of Saami prehistory in Sweden. More ritual sites of Saami

character, namely circular sacrificial features, have also been

documented in the coastal zone, and are also found in association with the sealers’ huts.

Place names referring to Saami

settlement and land use are especially

prevalent in the Skellefteå region. The

most common names with the prefix

“Lapp” refer to natural features in the

landscape, especially mountains and hills,

waterways and meadows.

Soil chemistry has been analyzed at

several sites and reveals concentrations of

nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium

reflecting animal carcasses (meat and bone)

and burning. This material is helping to

determine the functions of features in

remote locations.

Professor Noel Broadbent joined

the Arctic Studies Center on March 15 as

a trust employee with funding from the

NSF. This project, which extends from

2004-2007, will result in a number of

articles and two planned volumes, one of

which will be a doctoral dissertation to be defended in Sweden by

Dr. Jan Storå. Dr. Katherine Rusk, Smithsonian Arctic Studies

Center, will coordinate GIS mapping for the project.

Map of Northern Sweden, study area (circle)

Saami Bear Grave Illustration
ASC Newsletter 29

SAAMI PROJECT FIELDWORK 2004

By Noel Broadbent

With support of the National Science Foundation, Noel

Broadbent undertook fieldwork in the Lövånger region and the

Bjuröklubb peninsula of northern coastal Sweden.

Fieldwork took place on August 4 – 24, and project

headquarters were at the historic Church Village (Kyrkbyn) in

Lövånger. This village of small log cabins dates to the 18th century

and is a unique phenomenon in northern Sweden. Villagers from

the surrounding region lived in the cabins during important church

holidays. The excavations and surveys were mostly centered on

the Bjuröklubb peninsula about 15 km away, although some work

was also done at Broänget, a few kilometers north of the village of

Lövånger.

Lövånger parish is rich in archaeological features,

especially those connected with seal hunting, fishing and medieval

activities. Bjuröklubb was given special attention by Olaus

Magnus and is shown on his map, the Carta Marina, from 1530,

and his book from 1555. The rocky promontory, with a crown of

rocks, was an important location for medieval navigation, herring

fishing and sealing (below).

A Bear Grave

The special focus of the project, “A Search for a Past”,

was to seek out and document a former Saami presence on the

coast of northern Sweden. Ritual sites are especially important for

connecting this landscape to Saami land use.

The main goal of the archaeological fieldwork was to

complete investigation of a ritual bear burial at the Grundskatan

site. This bear burial represents a Saami presence on the coast

during the Viking Period. Previous investigations at this site were

focused on analysis of seal hunters’ huts in the region. Numerous

radiocarbon dates demonstrated the huts dated to the Late Iron

Age, particularly the Viking Period, c. AD 500 – 1100. Analysis of

bones from hearths showed the main prey had been ringed seals. A

small cairn in hut 4 contained the bones of an adult bear that had

been killed, eaten and buried under a cairn in 1080 ±45 BP. The

cairn was carefully examined for more bones, and a metal detector

used to recover any metal objects. The stratigraphic relationship

to the hearth in the hut, dating to 1110±110 BP, was also clarified.

Saami Ritual Structures

A second object of particular interest was a circular

stone construction situated on Lappsandberget on Bjuröklubb.

This feature was mapped and examined using a metal detector as

well as soil chemistry in order to determine its function and age. It

is believed to be a Saami ritual site of a type known especially

well in northern Norway, but also found in Swedish Lapland.

Several other sites of this type were investigated in the coastal

zone, in particular the stone construction on the Island of Stora

Fjäderägg. This feature is very similar to the north Norwegian

constructions and also has a seite, or sacred stone, embedded in its

wall. Numerous huts dating to the same time period as at

Grundskatan are found on this island as well.

Seal Hunter’s Huts near Jungfrugraven

A small cluster of huts situated near the Jungfrugraven

feature, a possible medieval chapel wall or Saami circular enclosure

(!), were investigated in order to obtain more bone samples from

hearths. In addition to seal bones some sheep/goat bones were

previously found in one of these huts, one of which dates to as

early as AD 600.

A Saami Hearth

A characteristic round hearth of Saami type on

Bjuröklubb, which had been excavated in the late 1980s, was

radiocarbon dated through the new NSF project. This feature dates

to the 17th Century, and can be associated with the use of the

region by nomadic reindeer herding Saami who had taken advantage

of rich lichen pastures on the coast.

Cultural Deposits at Broänget

Earlier fieldwork at this site rendered a radiocarbon date

of 1025±70 BP. A low circular wall suggests a palisade had once

been constructed here and the elevation above sea level suggests the

Viking Period. A trench was put into this wall to obtain new carbon

samples. This site may have been a trading outpost and predates

the village of Lövånger.

Collaboration

The project is being conducted in collaboration with

Skellefteå, Museum, the Archaeozoology Laboratory at Stockholm

University (Dr Jan Storå), and Arkeologicentrum in Brunflo

(Britta Wennstedt Edvinger). The permit for fieldwork was

issued by the County Antiquarian, Jan Sundström, Västerbotten

County. For more information about the project, refer to the Arctic

Studies homepage.

The field crew consisted of Britta Wennstedt Edvinger,

Kjell Edvinger, Greg Levallee, Rosanna Broadbent and Elaine

Broadbent. Annika Sander and Bertil Bonns (Skelleftea

Museum) joined us for fieldwork as did Margareta Axelson.

The results of this fieldwork, and a presentation on the

new project, were given by Noel Broadbent at the NAK22 (Nordic

Archaeologists’ Conference) in Oulu, Finland, on August 20.

A Saami sacrificial feature on the island of Stora Fjäderägg

Woodcut illustration of Bjuröklubb by Olaus Magnus, 1555
ASC Newsletter 30

ASC FIELDWORK IN LABRADOR

By Stephen Loring

Smithsonian fieldwork in Labrador in 2004 focused on continuing

ethnohistorical and archaeological research pertaining to the Innu

and their ancestors in Ntessinan (the interior of northern QubecLabrador). The ambiguity of the archaeological record, although

rarely acknowledged, is, I suspect, even more pervasive in

Labrador’s “Caribou Country” (as the American explorer and

amateur ethnologist William Brooks Cabot called the barren

lands about the George River and the Height-of-Land). These slim

material traces are scant building blocks upon which to erect an

interpretation of past lifeways replete with stories, myths, strange

animals and supernatural beings. For many who travel there, the

interior barren lands east of the George, are a haunted landscape

littered in bones, memories and ghosts. One of these ghosts, that of

the extirpated barren-ground grizzly bear (Ursus arctos L.), was

the focus of our research.

In 1975 Steven Cox excavated a remarkably wellpreserved skull of a Labrador

Grizzly Bear from an 18thcentury Labrador Eskimo

midden at Okak Bay in

northern Labrador. The Okak

skull provided the first

tangible evidence for the

existence of a remnant

Pleistocene grizzly bear

population in the QuebecLabrador peninsula. Long a

matter of historic speculation,

derived from the accounts of

19th-century explorers and

the records of the Hudson’s

Bay Company, the lack of

physical specimens and the

difficulty of travel in the

Quebec-Labrador interior, had

relegated the Labrador grizzly

to a nebulous, near mythical

status.

 In 1910 William Brooks Cabot made one of his intrepid

journeys into the interior of Labrador. Cabot had long pursued a

passionate study of the language and culture of the Innu, whose

small bands, scattered across the interior of northern Quebec and

Labrador, yet retained a traditional life-style linked to the hunting

of migratory caribou. Cabot was aware of the stories of the large

“yellow” bear among the Innu and the Hudson’s Bay Company

accounts of trade in grizzly bear hides and he beseeched his Innu

companions to provide him with skins and skulls. The Innu

always promised to acquire these for him but they never did.

Given the deep respect the Innu hold for bears in particular it does

not seem surprising that specimens were not forth-coming.

Significantly the Innu did not deny the existence of a large bear in

the barren lands.

In 1910, in a remote valley near Kamestastin, Cabot

stumbled on to a strange offering which he photographed but did

not otherwise disturb. Placed on the crest of a hill was a tall pole,

stripped of bark and braced with rocks, on which a large bear skull

had been carefully secured. This last February Arthur Spiess

(Maine Historical Commission) and I used a blow-up of this

photograph to compare it with the skulls of grizzly bears from the

Canadian barren grounds west of Hudson’s Bay, and Labrador

black bears housed at the Smithsonian. We were able to conclude

that the Cabot photograph is very likely that of a grizzly bear

skull. In preparing these results for publication I have gathered a

significant amount of previously unpublished references (including

accounts by Smithsonian ethnologists Lucien Turner, who was at

Ft. Chimo on Ungava Bay in 1881-1883) and William Duncan

Strong who wintered with an Innu family near Davis Inlet in

1927-1928. What was missing from all the published materials and

archival sources was any Innu historical accounts, oral traditions

or “ethno-biological” knowledge of the Labrador grizzly bear.

Thus, in setting out plans for fieldwork in Labrador this past

summer I hoped to be able to talk with knowledgeable Innu about

any memories or oral history that might pertain to the great brown

bear of the interior. I was greatly aided by Peter Armitage, also

in Labrador during the summer, who was continuing with his own

oral history and place name research on behalf of the Innu Nation.

While older Innu did recognized the association of matashu with a

large brown bear and

sometimes expressed surprise

at the memory of the word,

no one we talked to had much

to say about its history or

habits. We hope to make

additional inquiries with Innu

families at Kawawachikamach

in Quebec where many of the

descendants of the George

River Innu now reside.

Actual archaeological

survey work in Labrador,

conducted on behalf of the

Tshikapisk Foundation, an

Innu experiential education

initiative in Sheshatshit and

Natuashish, was centered in

the barrenlands adjacent

Border Beacon (at the Heightof-Land west of Voisey’s

Bay) and, as opportunity allowed, on Shipiskan Lake and the

lower portion of the Kanairiktok River. Surprisingly, after the

density of sites documented at Kamestastin (approximately 50

km. to the north), the paucity of sites at Border Beacon was

unexpected, limited to a pair of early “Maritime” Archaic sites

and traces of numerous recent (since-1965) Innu camps. However,

at Shipiskan Lake, during a visit to Ponus Nuk’s camp, two

interesting discoveries were made: 1) a very unusual large

“Intermediate Indian” stemmed point of a chocolate-brown chert

was found eroded out on the beach, and 2) a small Late Prehistoric

Period Innu campsite was found in a surface exposure near Mr.

Nuk’s house that contained the eroded remains of a hearth

surrounded by Ramah chert debitage and —surprise!— a small

number of dentate-stamped grit-tempered ceramic sherds. One

doesn’t often associate ceramics with highly mobile bands of

northern caribou hunters yet they have been recovered at several

sites now in Labrador and adjacent interior Quebec.

Labrador fieldwork was made possible by a generous

Smithsonian “small grant” from the Robert Bateman funds and

facilitated, as always, by the graciousness of our Labrador

colleagues and friends who helped arrange logistics and interviews.

Comparison of Grizzly skulls with Cabot photo
ASC Newsletter 31

ST. LAWERENCE GATEWAYS PROJECT

By Bill Fitzhugh

The fourth year of the Smithsonian’s Gateways Project,

dedicated to archaeological surveys, excavations, and cultural

heritage research along Quebec’s Lower North Shore, was

conducted during the first three weeks of

August, 2004. The goals of this year’s

project were similar to those of the 2001-

2003 seasons and concentrated in the core

region investigated since 2002, from Cape

Whittle to Blanc Sablon. Specifically, our

attention in the 2004 season was directed

at a third year of excavations at the Petit

Mécatina Hare Harbor Basque site,

surveys of the mainland coast from

Chevery to Harrington, excavations at

Gros Mécatina 3, and surveys of

Fechteau Island and the western portion

of Bayfield Island near St. Augustine.

Work was conducted under an

archaeological permit granted to Yves

Chrétien, who co-directed the project,

participated in field work, and brought a

professional Québecois perspective as

well as relevant expertise in prehistoric

and historical archaeology.

Research was conducted by a

combined American and Canadian team

including William W. Fitzhugh,

Christie Leece, and Helena Sharp of

the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Arctic

Studies Center, Yves Chrétien of Quebec City, Emiliana

Donadi-Sanchez of Concordia University in Montreal, Polly

Husmann of Notre Dame University, Mary Melnik of

Bowdoin College, photographer Will Richard of Maine, and our

skipper, Perry Colbourne, and his nephew, Andy Colbourne,

of Lushes Bight, Newfoundland. Christine Vatcher of

Harrington Harbor volunteered for two days of survey on the

Chevery beaches. In addition to the assistance of a hard-working

crew this year’s work benefited from three weeks of calm

weather that inexplicably was accompanied by a near total

absence of flies of all description – a very unusual condition that

local people attributed to continuation of a cold, wet, foggy

spring well into the middle of August. Although fog played

havoc with plane schedules, it did not hamper our research, and

in fact brought a welcome regime of light winds and breezes

instead of the strong southwest winds that usually prevail in this

part of the Gulf during August.

Work began at the Hare Harbor Mécatina site with our

decision to extend the Area 1 excavation of the past two years

north toward the cliff, since this was the most logical place for a

work area near the workshop. We immediately discovered that

this area, designated Area 2, had few roof tiles, little iron, and

many fewer artifacts than the workshop floor; essentially it was

an unmodified sand and cobble beach overlain by peat and

humus. Only near the drainage gully separating it from A1, did

we find any midden deposit. We also opened several pits in a

boggy area, designated Area 3, east of A2, where shovel tests

revealed cut wood below 20-30 cm of sterile peat.

This summer brought a number of interesting finds,

including a blue seed bead, another Labrador Inuit soapstone vessel

fragment, and iron finds from A2, and what looked like a plank

‘floor’ at the base of a new test pit in Area 3. Although this pit was

too small to positively identify it as a floor, the planks were cut,

leveled, and aligned SE-NW and were associated with a few tile

fragments and a cobble rock feature. Among the iron finds from A2

was a small beak-shaped iron vessel identical

to the ‘bec de corbeau’ oil lamp found at Red

Bay (J. Tuck pers. comm.; Tuck and Grenier

1992: 50). For the third year in a row we

found another fragment of an Inuit soapstone

vessel that does not belong to either of the

other two vessels and comes from a different

area of the site, strengthening our idea about

the presence of Inuit, or at least Inuit women,

attending the Basque occupation. As in

previous years, no active evidence of whale

hunting or presence of try-works was found.

We did, however, recover small amounts of

baleen, but not enough to indicate commercial

hunting or processing.

Associated with the oil lamp were

finds of strike-a-light flints from a large hearth

feature made of boulders, but further work on

the bog test pits proved difficult due to

swamping from the rain. We also opened up

Area 4 (west of A2) where we had noted a

cluster of large rocks and soon after, Yves

found a Groswater microblade of

Newfoundland chert. Other flakes and

microblades followed, although their

association with the rock feature could not be proven.

While cleaning up in Area 1, we found several more beads,

a lead fishing sinker, a fine European flint strike-a-light, and a

fragment of a Groswater soapstone pot or lamp. This suggests that

the Groswater finds in A4 may be part of a more concentrated

Groswater locus beneath the Basque workshop floor. Christie also

found a fine black and white spiral bead in A2.

Ten days of work at the Mécatina Basque site produced

surprising results, A2 because of its relative lack of Basque materials

and activities, but with some unique finds, like the small iron

“raven’s beak” oil lamp, and A3 because of the intriguing but

challenging finds of waterlogged wood buried beneath thick, watersaturated peat deposits. Our tests here suggest this area may contain

very interesting Basque occupation deposits, including possibly the

remains of huts or living quarters with plank floors. The presence of

a decorated wood pin may be a clue as to future finds to be made if

we discover a method to manage the water. This level, protected area

is a likely residential area. If Inuit people were present on the site, as

is suggested by the soapstone vessel finds, their residence locations

might be in the A3 region as they, unlike the Basque, would be living

ashore and not on board the ship.

During the past year neutron activation analysis of the

glass beads found in previous years produced dates in the 1675-1750

range (Herzog and Moreau 2004), substantially altering our initial

assumption of a 16th century date like most other Basque sites

excavated to date from the Gulf and Straits region. The bead dates

are supported by the presence of tobacco pipes of comparable age.

Detailed analysis of the material culture being undertaken by Anja

Herzog will undoubtedly produce new information on dating and

Gateways Field Crew 2004
ASC Newsletter 32

sources of these materials that will substantially augment

knowledge about this site and its role vis-à-vis other European

agents in the Gulf, possibly about its relationship with native

groups, and its role in the fishing, trade, and fur enterprises.

Of particular interest is that Mécatina is the first site to

be found that documents a late phase of Basque presence in the

Gulf. While 17-18th century Basque activities are known from

historical records, Mécatina offers the first chance to explore this

history archaeologically, and this perspective is beginning to look

quite interesting and productive.

We spent two days surveying the mainland shore north

of Harrington Harbor Island, beginning with a foot survey of the

shore from the west end of the bight. This large grassy field has

numerous historical earthworks that date as early as 1733, when it

was a French fishing and trade site (EcBv-2), and continued to be

used throughout the 19th century (Niellon and Jones 1984).

Christine Vatcher, who was surveying with us for the day, found a

small site that is probably one of the oldest so far known on the

Lower North Shore. Scattered in a blowout around a small outcrop

about 56 feet above sea level was a small group of flakes and

artifacts of quartz, including small, round, steeply beveled end

scrapers, a portion of a triangular endblade (missing its tip and one

corner and resembling the large triangular points from the

Arrowhead Mine site in the Straits (McGhee and Tuck 1975)), and

the base of a square-based lanceolate biface resembling specimens

from the Hound Pond site in Groswater Bay and the cache from

the L’Anse Amour burial mound. Unfortunately, when we returned

to excavate the site we found that virtually the entire collection

was at the surface and no subsurface deposits existed to provide

charcoal or other cultural information. The Vatcher site is a very

small but very interesting archaeological manifestation. If the

typological similarities with the Arrowhead Mine from the Strait

of Belle Isle, with the L’Anse Amour Mound, and with the Hound

Pond site in Hamilton Inlet are

valid, this site is 7-8000 years-old

and is one of the earliest Indian

occupations known from the Lower

North Shore.

On our eastward return

journey we took time for surveys

along the way. Our first visit was to

Providence Island which is a small

glacially-scoured flat island covered

with thin peaty soil. In some areas

the peat has dried out and is

decomposing as we have seen

elsewhere along the coast,

apparently a result of the increasing

frequency of hot, dry summers.

Although we found a few promising

areas, no prehistoric sites were located, and our strongest

impression of this seasonal French-speaking settlement was their

interest in maintaining their heritage and economic traditions.

Evidence could be seen everywhere about the community: wooden

windlasses used to haul small boats; a beautiful Catholic church

dating from 1895 standing like a beacon at the top of the island; a

fine early Canadian National Film Board documentary by Pierre

Perreault; an ethnography by José Maillot, whose photos are

mounted in the small exhibit room behind the altar of the church;

and a seal processing station with cutting board, grindstone,

blubber chute and other elements in the middle of the settlement.

Walking around the island, talking with its friendly residents who

now maintain a much-reduced summer fishery, one sensed the

community’s deep traditions and the passing of a way of life that

might be maintained if some new resource – perhaps tourism –

could be activated.

 We continue to find evidence of later historical

settlements in the survey region, this time primarily from Kanty

and Goluchon Islands, east of Providence Island, between

Mécatina and Mutton Bay. In both cases the remains are from

sealing or fishing stations dating to the 18-20th centuries, attesting

to use of this and other Lower North Shore (LNS) regions by

shore-based settlers in the post-Basque period. The presence of

many different European agents – including French, Basque,

English, Jersey, Norman, and Acadian – makes this section of coast

very interesting for historical and archaeological study and

contributes to the interest expressed by current residents in their

diverse national and ethnic heritage.

 Last summer on the northwest arm of Grand Isle (Gros

Mécatina), we found a chert biface fragment at one of the sites

here, GM-3, L2, that seemed to be a Maritime Archaic longhouse.

However, after mapping the structures and beginning to excavate

around a square hearth in S1, where the 2003 biface had been

found, we began to find Groswater artifacts made out of the usual

tan, brown, and mottled Newfoundland chert, and small amounts

of black and pink chert of probable local LNS origin. As we

excavated deeper into the cobble beach, Groswater tools continued

to appear down to a depth of 90 cm, clustered beneath and slightly

south of the hearth, the deeper specimens apparently having

trickled down between the rocks. Although the hearth and finds

came from S1, it was not clear whether the S1 structure belonged

to the Groswater occupation or was Maritime Archaic, as we

previously assumed, or some other culture.

For the fourth consecutive year, we have found new

Groswater Paleoeskimo sites. This

year’s evidence expands the

distribution from Seal Net Point

near Cape Whittle to Hare Harbor

at Petit Mécatina and Gros

Mécatina 3 on Gros Mécatina,

both having outer coast maritime

settings where seal hunting would

have been a likely pursuit. While

these new sites are not large, they

follow the pattern of small familybased exploitation groups whose

tool complex and lithic resources

are identical with that known for

this culture in Newfoundland and

Labrador, suggesting close cultural

ties. What is somewhat surprising

Ornamental Wooden Pin

Providence Island Church
ASC Newsletter 33

is the large number of Groswater sites

that must be present, at least in the

eastern LNS, given the number of sites

found to date. Groswater sites are not

obvious or easy to find, so one must

presume that the sites now known

represent only a small percentage of

existing sites and that the Groswater

occupation of the LNS, while

geographically marginal in terms of the

overall culture area, enjoyed a

substantial period of occupancy –

probably in the hundreds of years –

and had a reasonably large population. It is significant that its

tenure here at the farthest limit of the Eskimo cultural range

corresponds with the coldest period in the post-glacial era,

when one expects that the distribution of seals, walrus, and

pack ice was more extensive than at any time in the historical

era, and that these conditions are part of the reason for

Groswater migration into a region that – as in Labrador – was

already occupied by Indian groups. It is also interesting that we

continue to find no trace of Dorset culture.

The weather turned foggy again and we decided to

spend some time surveying around Fechteau Island. We

anchored in a cove on the southeast side of the island and

circumnavigated the island by speedboat, finding nothing of

interest. The island was memorable, however, for a boating

incident: while anchoring, our speedboat towline got sucked into

the Pits’ propeller, instantaneously winding tight and shutting

down the engine. Mary Melnik, a veritable seal, dove into the

frigid water to clear the line but found it jammed too tight to be

cut out without using a face mask. So we proceeded at slow

speed to St. Augustine, where we borrowed a mask and Mary

succeeded in cutting through the fused mass of nylon with a

pruning saw, earning the admiration of the team and townsfolk.

Our survey continued to the high sandbanks at the

west end of Bayfield Island, east of Rudder Island. Here we

found a large Archaic Indian site that may be the same as J.Y.

Pintal’s “Site 15” in the Quebec site inventory, judging from

the presence of an old shovel test in this location. Our test pits

along one hundred meters of terrace front revealed charcoal,

ocher stains, cobble hearth features, as well as artifacts and

flakes, sometimes in high concentration. Among the artifacts

were stemmed/notched bifaces and a large endscraper – all

appearing to date typologically ca. 1000-3500 BP. In addition to

an abundance of Ramah chert we found

high-quality blue-grey and pink chert,

and an absence of quartz. The site

probably contains the remains of

dwelling structures and other features.

Whether Bayfield 1 is a single

occupation or a series of short term

camps dating to different periods can

be investigated in the future, and the

site will probably yield information on

domestic dwellings and other

settlement pattern data. The site is the

largest and most important early

Indian site found to date on the LNS

outer coast.

Bayfield Island 1 in particular seems likely

to produce important information on the

past 3500 years of Indian settlement on the

Lower North Shore. The fact that Ramah

chert is present in considerable quantities

confirms that long-distance trade and

contacts as far as northern Labrador was

taking place, whether overland, through the

interior, or via the coast. It is interesting

that the other chert materials from this site

do not appear to be from Newfoundland,

suggesting either local sources or contacts to

the west.

Our last day of research was spent in Jacques Cartier Bay.

In 2003 we surveyed the L’Anse aux Portage settlement area near the

west entrance of the bay. This year we decided to anchor in the

narrow channel northeast of Canso Island. In a small boulder beach

above the southeast side of this island we found a cluster of the usual

boulder cache pits. More interesting, however, were three small stone

structures built on flat-topped outcrop in the middle of the cache pit

area. Although the three were in varying states of derangement, all

had the unmistakable pattern of an Inuit stone fox trap: a narrow

chamber made with two rows of parallel rocks closed at one end and

open at the other end, which has slots chamber with a slot for a

falling slab rock or plank door. The tops of the traps were missing, as

were the door slabs. The most unusual feature was the narrow width

of the chamber – too small for a full-grown fox, but wide enough for a

young fox, mink, weasel. Other than the Inuit soapstone vessel

fragments found at Petit Mécatina, these traps are the westernmost

evidence for an Inuit presence west of Blanc Sablon. Europeans

probably never utilized traps of this type, given their access to steel

traps. The presence of stone traps at a site used for food caching is

further evidence for their use in capturing small fur-bearers, and their

dismantled upper portions suggests they had been used successfully.

 In addition to finds of Inuit soapstone at Petit Mécatina,

the discovery of Inuit-style stone traps on Canso Island adds new

evidence of Inuit activities on the LNS west of the Strait of Belle Isle.

While not as definitive as Inuit tent rings or winter houses with rear

benches or entrance tunnels – architectural features that may not exist

in Inuit sites south of Labrador – stone traps are probably as

diagnostic a type of evidence as may be found on the LNS. The

Canso traps seem too small for full-grown foxes, but could have been

used for young foxes, mink, or weasel, and their presence suggests

that someone with Inuit heritage was trapping fur at a cache site

using traditional Inuit technology. Further surveys in the Canso Bay

region should be carried out to see if other

evidence of Inuit occupation is present.

These traps seem especially significant in

light of the stories we gathered last year from

people at the L’Anse aux Portage settlement

on the west side of Jacques Cartier Bay,

concerning an old Inuit woman who used to

live in this area. According to this oral

history, a soapstone lamp from her cairn

grave near the settlement was sold to a

collector, probably William F. Stiles,

working for the Heye Foundation (Museum

of the American Indian) in New York.

Possibly the Canso traps were her

handiwork as well.

Archaic Indian artifacts from Bayfield-1

Groswater artifacts from Gros Mécatina-3
ASC Newsletter 34

References

McGhee, Robert, and Tuck, James A., Jr. 1975

Archaic Sequence from the Strait of Belle Isle,

Labrador. National Museum of Man. Mercury Series,

Archaeological Survey of Canada. Paper 34.

Niellon, Francoise and Jones, G. 1984

Reconnaissance sur les sites historiques de la Basse

Côte- Nord, été 1983. Rapport d’activités. 3 vol.

Unpublished report submitted to the Ministère de la Culture et des

Communications du Québec.

Tuck, James A., Jr., and Grenier, Robert. 1992

Red Bay, Labrador: World Whaling Capitol, 1550-1600.

St. John’s. Atlantic Archaeology.

Herzog, A. and Moreau, J-F. 2004

Tiny but Mighty? European Glass Trade Beads, Neutron

Activation Analysis, and the Historical Implications of

Dating Seasonal Basque Whaling Stations in the New

World. poster presented at the 34th International

Symposium on Archaeometry, held at Zaragoza, Spain,

May 3rd - 7th, 2004.

THE NARWHAL TOOTH EXPEDITION AND

RESEARCH INVESTIGATION, REPORT FOR 2004

By Martin T. Nweeia, D.M.D.

Research conducted this year reinforced the need to approach the

discovery of narwhal tusk function with interdisciplinary studies.

Preparations for field research in 2004 included experiments in

acoustics, electroencephalography, and histology. Interviews with

Inuit elders and hunters on expedition continued to provide a wealth

of observations that both directed and balanced the scientific work.

Other aspects of the overall investigation included on site research

at the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen to document skeletal

samples, an interview with naturalist Jens Rosing, and discussions

with whale acoustician Bertel Mohl. Collection of anatomic and

histologic data within the Unites States included laser surface scans

of skeletal samples from Smithsonian collections at Optimal in

Michigan, additional CT scans at Woods Hole Oceanographic

Institution, and preparation for a series of papers on narwhal

histology developed with collaborators at the Paffenbarger Research

Center.

The third field season was completed on August 24th,

2004 after three weeks at Qakkiat Point, near Arctic Bay, Baffin

Island. I was invited as a collaborator with Rune Dietz, Senior

Scientist from the Environmental Research Institute of Denmark,

Jack Orr, from The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans

and Mehdi Bakhtiari, Lead Engineer for the Critter Cam, Remote

Imaging Center, National Geographic Society. This work allowed

access to living narwhal in a catch and release program designed for

satellite tagging. Eight whales were caught and released, and I was

able to conduct research on five of these. Three experiments were

prepared prior to the field season. They included deploying a

wireless sensor on the tusk to be linked with a logging unit attached

to the Critter Cam, acoustic testing with hydrophones during brief

captivity, and electroencephalography. The EEG monitoring was

made possible by the generous offering of equipment use by the

Grass-Telefactor Division of Astro-Med, Inc., but was not possible

as weather conditions would have endangered the equipment. Three

tusk sensors were deployed

and only one recovered

successfully. Three sound

recordings were made, one

between two males and the

other two recordings were

made of one female each. The

results of the sensor retrieved

and the three sound recordings

will be analyzed before

January 2005.

Several preliminary

observations were

noteworthy. The first was an

abrupt blast of energy and

general numbing sensation

that was felt on my right leg

when positioned directly in

front of the 4th captive

female. When asked, none of

the team members could recall

experiencing any such sensation or knowing anyone who had when

working with narwhal. Initial speculation suggests this sensation

may be due to a non linear interaction of high frequency waves to

generate a type of sound pressure. Joseph Pompei has done

extensive work in this area which will be explored as it may relate

to sound propagation of the narwhal. There is only speculation on

how narwhal catch their prey and although a “stun effect” has been

hypothesized, no one has reported any confirming results. During

the recordings, hydrophones were placed approximately two

meters from the sound producing center of the melon. The two

males, each having tusks approximately two meters in length, were

recorded within 5 cm of one tusk and 10 cm from the second tusk.

Because of constant movement from waves, particularly with the

female whales, it was difficult to keep a fixed hydrophone

position. Dissected pulp tissue from five harvested specimens

collected on expedition were prepared for histological analysis. 

These samples will provide insight in to the development of the

tooth and any reparative function of this tissue. Dr. Peter

Hauschka, one of our collaborators at Harvard and Children’s

Hospital, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is working on the

analysis of an interior bone segment within the pulp that was

discovered last field season. We believe that this may be

instrumental either in development, reparative function, similar to

a tusklet in elephants, or as a dentinal pearl (dentinal tissue

sometimes found within the pulp of other mammals). Including

the samples from 2003, we have 10 samples beginning from fetal

development to late adulthood, including pulp tissue from a broken

tusk specimen. Beluga teeth and jaw specimens were also

collected on expedition from Inuit harvests in Resolute. These will

assist with comparative studies.

Two additional interviews were conducted with Inuit

elders camped near our site at

Qakkiat Point. Many of our

notations from last season

were confirmed and new

observations were noted. 

Among them was one elder

describing the swimming

behavior of a frightened

narwhal. He told me that

 Mehdi Bakhtiari deploying tusk

sensor

Tusk sensor developed by Mat

Liebowitz, Media Lab, MIT
ASC Newsletter 35

after first swimming faster to escape they can then corkscrew with

their whole body spinning. We have also documented considerable

information that supports the explanation of broken tusks as a

result of a narwhal panicking and inadvertently hitting bottom in

an effort to escape predators and not broken as a direct result from

aggressive behavior as has been frequently reported. 

During the spring, we gathered data and recorded

photographic records of the narwhal skeletal collection at the

Zoological Museum of Copenhagen. As this sample represents the

largest and most extensive overall collection, we have added

considerable records to the library of information currently housed

by this Research Investigation. Preliminary morphometric records

indicate that narwhal tooth morphology may share descriptive

features similar to other mammals. These may provide insight in

to genetic variations within the species and provide a means of

describing migration patterns of these narwhal populations. We

also documented the broken and plugged tusks which garnered

some attention because of their appearance as if a piece from the

tip of one narwhal tusk was deliberately lodged in to the broken

opening of another. Resolving this anecdotal story can only be

achieved by interviewing the Inuit hunter who collected it, and not

from any scientific analysis. We interviewed Danish naturalist

Jens Rosing at his home since he has collected more rare forms

and expressions of the tusk not available in museums. He has also

collected information from Greenlandic elders and hunters on

anatomic variations of adult narwhal that we will utilize in

comparisons with our information gathered from Canadian Inuit

elders and hunters.

Three skeletal samples from the Marine Mammal

Collection at the Smithsonian were analyzed by a T-Scan, laser

surface scanning technology from Steinbichler Optotechnik.

Their United States division, Optimal CAE, Inc., donated their

services to the Investigation this spring. The samples were

scanned for exhibit purposes and for three dimensional studies as

they enable detailed mathematical analysis of the tusk surface

morphology. Preliminary analysis of the tusk spiral reveals a

classic logarithmic spiral.

Scientific articles and ongoing presentations will be

written and released this coming year. The first article has been

submitted to the International Journal of Dental Research with

collaborators at NIST describing positioned resolved chemical,

structural, and mechanical properties of the tusk tissue. The

American Dental Association News featured this work and the

filming by National Geographic Television. New Scientist

Magazine will publish a

profile piece for an

upcoming issue in 2005 and

the Harvard Dental Bulletin

is preparing a cover feature

on the work. Two additional

lectures have been planned

one at The Long Beach

Aquarium of the Pacific,

February 1st, 2005 and the

other at the Harvard Club in

Boston, April 28th, 2005.

Martin T. Nweeia, D.M.D. works at the Department of Restorative

Dentistry and Biomaterials Sciences, Harvard School of Dental

Medicine and is Research Associate, Marine Mammal Program,

Department of Zoology

Martin T. Nweeia

REVERSING LANGUAGE AND KNOWLEDGE SHIFT

IN THE NORTH: A FESTSCHRIFT FOR MICHAEL

KRAUSS

By Igor Krupnik

The publication of

the ASC volume

Honoring Our

Elders: A History of

Eastern Arctic

Archaeology (CCA

vol.2, 2002), has reenergized the efforts

to support the roots

of our scientific

tradition and to

preserve ‘oral

history’ of northern/

Arctic anthropology. Many of us believe that our professional

community would benefit greatly from better documentation and

broader knowledge on our own ‘tribal history’ (and a ‘tribe’ we

are!). Naturally, this has to be done by paying greater tribute to

our academic ‘elders’ in the field and by the various forms of

personal conferences, anniversary meetings, and festschrift

publications. As many of our elders retire, often struggle with

health, and cease showing up at the usual popular gatherings, such

tribute venues have to be organized sooner rather than later. Having

both the ‘celebrated’ and their younger colleagues, including

students, as speakers and panelists in the same session offers

tremendous inspiration and intellectual delight. Our community

does have a great corporate tradition, and - as the students hear the

words and see the faces of our most respected ‘elders’ - it becomes

the best investment into the continuity of our professional tribe.

With this in mind, in the fall of 2003, Prof. LouisJacques Dorais at the Université Laval, Québec, Canada, and Igor

Krupnik (ASC) joined their efforts to organize a small

international symposium celebrating Michael Krauss and his 45-

year dedicated professional and public service on behalf of Alaska

Native languages and northern education. Krauss, the founder and

former director of the Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC) at

the University of Alaska Fairbanks, turned 70 in August 2004. He

has lived in Alaska since 1960, made an outstanding contribution to

Alaskan and northern Native linguistics, and he is still very active

in the field. By bringing together scholars, writers, and educators

from several professional generations and various northern nations,

the organizers paid tribute to both the long-lasting impact and the

international scope of Michael Krauss’ acclaimed career in the

North.

The venue titled Reversing Language and Knowledge

Shift in the North? was framed as a four-day international

symposium, with some 20 invited speakers. The main purpose of

the symposium was to bring together northern specialists to share

their experience in research and community programs focused

upon indigenous languages, traditional knowledge systems, and

educational practices. The name of the symposium, followed the

title (with a question mark!) of the seminal book by Joshua A.

Fishman (Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical

Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages, 1991). As

CONFERENCES

Michael Krauss, Richard Dauenhauer,

Yvon Csonka
ASC Newsletter 36

such, it defined the symposium’s unique focus on both the

theoretical paradigms in describing the knowledge/language

transitions in northern communities and on practical steps in

coping with such transition through research, educational policy,

and heritage initiatives.

Since the 1960s, many northern nations have tried to

revitalize indigenous minority languages using various educational

programs, governmental policies, and public initiatives. Despite

these efforts, several critical issues remain unresolved. What is the

role of northern scholars, governmental and indigenous institutions

in the effort to document northern knowledge and language

systems and how did it change from the 1960s to today? Are we

doing enough to preserve indigenous knowledge systems and

languages via current programs in documentation, education, and

outreach? Are we able to ‘reverse’ or at least, stabilize the ongoing

knowledge/language shift in northern communities and, if so, what

are the conditions for any such program to succeed as well as the

indicators that it may fail? These and other similar questions were

addressed in practically every paper presented at the symposium.

The urgency of those issues stems from the

unprecedented speed of transformation of many northern

communities that are now affected by cultural and environmental

change. In many places such change is reflected in a rapid shift (or,

rather, decline) of fluency in indigenous languages and in the status

of traditional knowledge, particularly among the children and

young adults. As such, both indigenous languages and knowledge

systems need to be supported by various and often quite costly

programs, as they remain the pillars of cultural identity to many

communities and indigenous

nations in the North.

Questioning the possibility of

reversal, and what can be done

about it will contribute in a

major way to future

theoretical and applied

research in circumpolar studies

on indigenous knowledge,

language and identity.

The special value of

the Québec symposium, the

first of its kind, is that it

succeeded in bringing together

several specialists in

linguistics, anthropology,

education, and public policies

from many northern countries.

Speakers from Canada

(including from Nunavut, Northern Québec, and Labrador), U.S.

(including Alaska), Greenland, and Russia reviewed their respective

fields under a common intellectual paradigm of ‘reversing language

and knowledge shift.’ As many symposium participants

demonstrated in their papers, preservation of Native languages and

knowledge should be a common and well-coordinated task, as both

phenomena follow the same trajectory and are affected by many

similar agents of change. Speakers included primarily academic

scholars, linguists and anthropologists, but also many Aboriginal

and non-Aboriginal practical specialists in Native languages and

education, such as Mick Mallon, formerly in charge of teaching

Inuktitut as a second language in Iqaluit; Carl Christian Olsen

(Puju), Director of the Oqaasileriffik/Language Secretariat of the

Greenland Home Rule Government in Nuuk; Nora Marks

Dauenhauer, a renowned Tlingit writer and educator from

Juneau, Alaska; Christopher Koonooka, Yupik language and

heritage teacher from Gambell, Alaska, Catharyn Andersen,

Director of the Torngasok Cultural Institute in Nain, Labrador, and

others.

The symposium was organized by the Centre

Interuniversitaire d’Études et de Recherches Autochtones (CIÉRA)

at the Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada. A friendly and

hospitable site, Québec City is in a perfect position to welcome

scholars from Europe, Greenland, USA, and Russia, as well as

from northern and southern Canada, including its northernmost

regions of Nunavut, Nunavik, and Labrador.

The funding for the symposium was granted by the

Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada/Social

Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (CRSH/

SSHRC); Centre Interuniversitaire d’Études et de Recherches

Autochtones (CIÉRA), DIALOG. Le réseau québécois d’échange

sur les questions autochtones; Government of Nunavut

(Department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth); Association

Inuksiutiit Katimajiit Inc. The ASC was also able to channel

substantial financial support to the meeting, thanks to a special

travel grant given by the NSF Office of Polar Programs.

Over 20 papers dealing with the issues ranging from

regional differences in the Canadian Inuktitut spelling system for

heritage publications to the knowledge of Saami reindeer herders in

Russia were delivered during three days of sessions. The

symposium proceeded in four thematic panels: Languages and

Dictionaries (Chair: Nikolai Vakhtin, Russia); Knowledge

Documentation (Chair:

François Trudel, Canada);

Histories, Knowledge and

Identities (Chair: Murielle

Nagy, Canada); Thwarting

Language and Knowledge

Shift? (Chair : Igor

Krupnik, USA); and a final

session, Synthesis and

Conclusions (Chair: LouisJacques Dorais, Canada).

The critical advantage here

was the ability to hear

perspectives from many

northern regions that are

very different in their

practical policies and

theoretical approaches to

minority languages and

heritage. Also, the presence of many senior scholars ensured that

there was an extensive first-hand personal coverage coming from

decades of experience in language and knowledge documentation

and preservation work in the North, from the 1960s to the present

day.

The proceedings of the symposium will be published in

2005 as a special issue of the journal Etudes/Inuit/Studies, under

the joint editorship of Igor Krupnik and Louis-Jacques Dorais.

This journal is widely regarded as the leading venue for

publications in northern, primarily in Eskimo/Inuit languages and

cultural research. This will ensure that the outcomes of the Québec

session will be disseminated broadly to the interested scholars,

governmental agencies, indigenous organizations, and northern

communities.

François Trudel, Chris Koonooka, Michael Krauss, Nora

Dauenhauer, and Richard Dauenhauer
ASC Newsletter 37

THE ARCUS ARCTIC FORUM - 2004

By Katherine Rusk

The 2004 Arctic Forum of ARCUS (the Arctic Research Consortium

of the United States) was held 13-14 May 2004 at the Washington

Terrace Hotel in Washington D.C.. The co-chairs for the Forum

were Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School

and Dr. Mark Serreze of the Cooperative Institute for Research in

Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado

Boulder.

The theme was “Recent Decrease of the Arctic Sea Ice: Its

Causes, Consequences, and Historical Perspective.” The meeting

included invited and contributed presentations by a diverse

representation of arctic researchers which addressed issues of the

physical environment; marine ecosystem responses; coastal

transformation; impacts on humans; historical and paleoclimate

perspectives on arctic warming. PDFs of the presentations can be

found at http://www.arcus.org/annual_meetings/2004/index.html.

Although the scientific community has targeted the

assessment of how thinning sea ice has major impacts on the health

and well-being of the Arctic Ocean eco-system Warren Matumeak

of Barrow Alaska offered a timely reminder that the changes

occurring in the region do not happen in a vacuum: they profoundly

affect the resident communities and their ways of life. Various

models of the sea ice pack were presented, including a truly alarming

computer visualisation based on satellite data by Joey Comiso

(Goddard Space Flight Center NASA) which showed the ice

disappearing entirely. Impacts on the geo-physical field past and

present were discussed well as the impacts of sea ice change on the

biological communities. A special presentation by Charles

Wohlforth, author of “The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the

Northern Front of Climate Change” highlighted the banquest on the

first evening. The second day focused on the human impacts of sea

ice change and the wider issue of global climate change. The Student

Award Paper: “Shrub Increase in Northern Alaska Documented

Using Repeat Aerial Photography” was presented by Kenneth

Tape (Geophysical Institute University of Alaska Fairbanks). A

lively panel discussion of how collaboration between scientific

communities and native communities can be enhanced ended the

proceedings.

A SC HOSTS THE 12TH ARCTIC WORKSHOP

By Stephen Loring

The 12th Annual Arctic Conference, an informal gathering of

scholars and students sharing a common interest in the history of

human experience in the arctic and subarctic, was hosted by the

Arctic Studies Center Nov. 4th-6th at the Natural History

Museum. Founded by Dr. Herb Maschner and his colleagues,

and revolving around issues of human prehistory, the conference

commonly draws scholars working in the related dimensions of

anthropology and Quaternary science. Held at the University of

Wisconsin between 1993 and 1997, subsequent venues have

included the Universities of Arkansas, Indianapolis, Kansas, Idaho

State and Washington. The meetings provide an opportunity to

share research results and to network with colleagues in a smaller

and more intimate venue than typical of the larger (SAA, AAA)

meeting format. In welcoming the Arctic Conference to

Washington the Arctic Studies Center was able to host tours of the

Smithsonian’s research and collections storage facilities (with a tipof-the-hat and thanks to the NMAI CRC staff, especially Patricia

Nietfeld and MSC Collections Management staff including Deb

Hull-Walski, David Rosenthal, Jim Krakker and Felecia

Pickering) and invite students and colleagues to take the

opportunity to explore collections-based research at the

Smithsonian. Some 65 colleagues, researchers and students —with

research interests stretching from the Aleutians to Labrador,

Greenland and the Shetland Islands - gathered over the post -

election weekend to commiserate and share research results. As

part of the Arctic Conference Susan Crockford organized an

Arctic Pinniped Workshop that focused on arctic phocid seal and

walrus biology, ecology, behavior, genetics, anatomy, and

taxonomy that was relevant to the identification or interpretation

of prehistoric faunal assemblages. Thanks to NMNH Marine

Mammal biologist Charles Potter who made seal skeletons in the

National Collection available for comparison study.

JIM TUCK’S RETIERMENT : FROM THE ARCTIC

TO THE AVALON - A CELEBRATION OF AN

EXTRAORDINARY CAREER

By Stephen Loring

On the occasion of Jim Tuck’s retirement from the Department of

Archaeology at Memorial University a conference organized to

acknowledge and celebrate his extraordinary career was held in St.

John’s, Newfoundland, 14 -15 October. There are few individuals

in our over-specialized 21st century who have had such a profound

impact on the archaeology and history of their study area, or

explored such a broad historical palette, as Jim whose groundbreaking (literally and figuratively!) excavations in Newfoundland

and Labrador have rewritten the history of the “Far Northeast”.

Space does not permit a full accounting of Jim’s accolades, nor

would he wish to be so singled out, yet it is safe to say that there

is no one in the province who has not been impacted by the

revelations of his trowel! Stephen Loring and Bill Fitzhugh

were among the colleagues, students, and government

representatives who made presentations acknowledging Jim’s

accomplishments.

Bill Taylor Jr. measuring bones excavated at Southampton Is.

Dorset site
ASC Newsletter 38

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ADVANCE

ON THE IPY AGENDA FOR 2007–2008

By Igor Krupnik

Many of our readers are certainly familiar with the next major

initiative in polar research, International Polar Year 2007–2008, or

IPY 2007–2008 (see ASC Newsletter 11). According to its

organizers, the IPY 2007–2008 is envisioned as an intense

international campaign of coordinated observations and analysis

across the polar regions. It should be bipolar in focus,

multidisciplinary in scope, and truly international in participation.

The emerging vision for the IPY 2007–2008 aspires for

researchers from many nations to work together to gain new

insights into planetary processes and to increase our understanding

of both the Arctic and the Antarctica, and their role in the global

system (see: A Framework for the International Polar Year 2007–

2008. Produced by the ICSU IPY 2007–2008. www.ipy.org). The

IPY 2007–2008 is being organized jointly by the International

Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological

Organization (WMO). It has been already endorsed by dozens of

other science agencies, governmental bodies, and international

institutions.

There were many critical developments in the planning

for the IPY 2007–2008 during this past year. By April 2004, the

first draft science documents outlining prospective IPY research

have been released by the ICSU IPY Planning Group (ICSU PG)

and the U.S. National Committee for the IPY. Despite some general

wording and several references to the need to incorporate a ‘human

factor’ (or ‘human dimensions’) to the IPY program, both drafts

were very heavily tilted towards geophysical studies. There were

no direct research themes or specific topics associated with the

issues relevant to many polar social scientists and local residents.

The few individual social scientists then sitting on various IPY

committees remained mostly isolated and out-voted. As a result,

social and human issues were not clearly articulated and did not

make it to the top of the early IPY documents. It was left to the

polar social science community to mobilize its resources, so that

its approach, ideas, focus, and language become included in the

new interdisciplinary vision of the IPY 2007–2008.

Building Social Agenda for the IPY 2007–2008

Two major developments in this field took place during

2004; both helped shift the situation toward a more active mission

of social sciences and humanities in the IPY 2007–2008. The first

factor was a truly leading role played by our main professional

body, the International Arctic Social Science Association (IASSA),

founded in 1990. The second factor was the position of many

international bodies and agencies (like Arctic Council, IASC,

International Arctic Science Committee, and others), with regard to

the inadequacy of social and human topics in the early IPY

documents. That eventually pushed for a more visible role of social

scientists and polar communities in the planning for the new IPY,

particularly for plans associated with its public, educational,

training, and outreach efforts. The combination of those two

factors proved to be both critical and highly effective.

In May 2004, a special panel on the prospects for sociocultural research under IPY 2007 was organized by Igor Krupnik

at IASSA 5th International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences. The

panel reviewed the status of national programs and efforts, and the

role of social scientists on IPY planning committees in Canada, the

U.S., Finland, Norway, Greenland, and other countries. The panel

attracted several dozen participants from many countries. It

reiterated a strong interest within the polar social science

community in participation in the IPY. It re-asserted our historical

roots to many earlier IPY efforts preserved in unique museum

collections, documentary records of the past IPY field stations,

classical ethnological publications, and other resources (see ASC

Newsletter 11). Last but not least, the panel revealed a great

interest in many polar communities for access to the records

collected during the first IPY expeditions and to turn those old

records into today’s assets in education and cultural revitalization.

IASSA General Assembly also adopted two general

resolutions initiated by Gérard Duhaime, then the only social

scientist sitting on the main international IPY committee. The

resolutions strongly endorsed the idea of the IPY 2007–2008;

both, however, argued for a much larger presence of social

scientists, polar residents, and indigenous communities in its

planning and preparation. The resolutions asked for special social

and human topics relevant to both researchers and polar

communities being featured prominently on the IPY agenda as its

‘science goals’ and ‘research frontiers.’ The Assembly also

established a special international IASSA-IPY liaison group of

some twenty social scientists from ten nations (Canada, Denmark,

Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, UK, and

USA) to facilitate interactions between the various IPY planning

bodies and the social science community. The group’s headquarters

were established in Fairbanks; Krupnik was elected as a head of

this international task group.

During the summer 2004, this new group spearheaded

IASSA’ role in revising a preliminary ICSU document, the Initial

Outline Science Plan for the IPY 2007-2008, and in drafting a far

more articulated social and cultural agenda for the IPY mission.

This was a truly collaborative international process—much like the

new IPY is aimed to be. The draft was forwarded many a time

between Igor’s desk in Washington and the other national IPY

Committee members: Michael Bravo (UK), Sverker Sörlin

(Sweden), Ludger Müller-Wille (Canada), Peter Schweitzer

(US) IASSA Past President, Grete Hovelsrud-Broda (Norway),

Birger Poppel (Greenland), and others. Based upon IASSA’

official recommendation, which was strongly supported by thethen ICSU IPY Planning Group and other agencies, a new, sixth

key research theme and a supporting ‘interdisciplinary

observational strategy’ were added to the overall IPY 2007–2008

science program:

Research Theme #6: To investigate the cultural, historical, and

social processes that shape the sustainability of circumpolar

human societies, and to identify their unique contributions to

global cultural diversity and citizenship.

Observational Strategy # 6: To investigate crucial facets of the

human dimension of the polar regions which will lead to the

creation of datasets on the changing conditions of circumpolar

human societies.

To their utmost credit, the IPY planners, both internationally and

nationally, quickly realized that, unlike all previous IPY ventures,

there should be an institutionalized and ever-growing social and

human footprint to the IPY 2007–2008. This is the major

innovation of the new IPY that may enlist these days strong

societal and legislative backing; it may also ensure its funding in

today’s tough budget climate. To achieve this, many more social

scientists have been appointed to several IPY planning bodies and

invited to various IPY meetings and workshops, at both
ASC Newsletter 39

international and national

levels. Under the U.S.

preparation for the IPY 2007–

2008, NSF and the National

Academies organized several

special workshops on

education and outreach

activities for the IPY, interagency cooperation,

implementation strategies for

the U.S. IPY program, and

others during the summer of

2004. Igor, Bill Fitzhugh,

Glenn Sheehan, Anne

Jensen, and Richard Glenn

from Barrow, and Rick

Caulfield from Fairbanks

participated in some of these

discussions, as also did many

teachers, educators, media and museum specialists from across the

country. With this, the IPY 2007–2008 agenda really started to

embrace a much broader public profile and to look beyond the

‘classical’ polar science menu of icebreakers, ice-core drilling,

satellite observations, Antarctic sub-glacial lakes, and oceanbottom explorations

As a result, the emerging vision for the new IPY program

was greatly reshaped in the fall of 2004. The most current

document that summarizes this new approach to IPY 2007–2008

(Framework 2004), has numerous references to “social sciences,”

“humanities,” “human dimensions,” “polar residents,” “local

communities,” “indigenous knowledge,” “local participation,” and

many other key terms that have been missing in early drafts. The

multi-disciplinary focus of the IPY is underlined repeatedly, “with

the active inclusion of the social sciences” emphasized as one of its

main objectives. The same is also true for many of the recent

documents produced by the U.S. IPY National Committee. To us,

as social scientists this speaks volumes about the changes in the

way the broader polar science community sees itself today. It also

illustrates a new image of the IPY 2007–2008 that envisions our

full participation as committed and articulated members of the

polar science team.

Because of these and other actions, for the first time in

the history of the IPY ventures, IPY 2007–2008 has a designated

research field for social sciences, humanities, and indigenous

studies. Two social scientists, Grete Hovelsrud-Broda, a member

of the Norwegian IPY national committee, and Igor Krupnik, who

is on the US IPY national committee, have been nominated to the

new ICSU-WMO Joint Committee to oversee the socio-cultural

agenda for the IPY in years 2005 to 2009. More of our colleagues

will serve on new committees to supervise educational and public

activities for IPY 2007–2009, data-management and sharing

policies, to be established shortly. Social scientists and

representatives of indigenous organizations are now sitting on

almost a dozen national IPY committees (in Canada, Denmark,

Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK,

USA), and on many international bodies engaged in the preparation

of the IPY 2007.

The social science community is quickly mobilizing itself

through proposal writing, team building, and extensive

communication. Several dozen social science and humanities

proposals have been already

submitted to the main IPY

office in Cambridge, UK by

January 2005. Many more

are to follow by the final

submission time due in

summer 2005. Those

activities may be followed

on a special IPY web page

built by IASSA under its

main website at

www.uaf.edu/anthro/iassa

(created by Anne Sudkamp)

and also on individual

national committees’ sites,

such as www.ipy-api.ca for

Canada, www.us-ipy.org for

the US, and others.

Prospective Social and Humanities Topics under the IPY 2007–

2008

The current science outline for the IPY 2007–2008 identifies the

following crucial ‘societal questions’ that will be central to the new

IPY objective of “enhancing the understanding of humanenvironmental interactions in the polar systems” (Framework

2004:16):

1. How can the “wellness” of polar environments be studied in

terms of changing socio- political conditions and the health of

ecosystems?

2. What has been the effectiveness of governance regimes in

polar regions, and how can these respond to the divergent and

rapidly evolving cultural and socio-economic systems?

3. What research methodologies are best suited to an

interdisciplinary understanding of the fundamental links

between ecosystems, economies and cultural diversity? How

can polar residents become more instrumental in shaping

these activities; and how can social sciences, humanities, and

fine arts communicate this understanding to diverse

audiences? 

4. What are the key human health and medical issues in polar

regions? How, for example, are diseases carried into polar

communities and how is community health affected by

environmental change?

5. How can historical studies and records of the polar regions

enhance understanding of contemporary social and cultural

problems? 

6. What do the polar societies contribute to global cultural

diversity and the political status of indigenous people

worldwide?

Of course, the list of research questions outlined in this first

science-planning document is neither exhaustive nor complete. It is

certain to be substantially expanded as the national IPY

committees set up their specific research priorities, and many

individual and collaborative projects take shape in the coming

years. What is critical here is that the new IPY social agenda is

defined around the principles of social inclusion and ethical

complexity. It focuses on the wide sphere of human activities

ranging from local governance, coordinated social and

environmental sustainability (‘wellness’), cultural and linguistic

The new IPY has to address the issues of participation, and representation

of polar communities – such as this village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence
ASC Newsletter 40

diversity, health and living conditions, and national policy-making.

One of the issues of the highest priority to the IPY

2007–2008 science program, in general, is the study of change in

the polar regions and its impact on the local and planetary

systems. This involves regarding polar communities as being both

the subject and the agent of change. Social scientists have for a long

time advocated that polar societies have been active factors of

change in their own cultural, socio-economic, and physical

environments for millennia. This is yet to become a shared vision,

as many global climate modellers and policy makers are primarily

preoccupied with the processes and factors originating in more

southern latitudes. For these and other reasons, many still consider

the impact of polar communities—dispersed and relatively small in

numbers—as ‘insignificant’ in global context. We hope that social

research under the IPY 2007–2008 will help put an end to such

stereotypes.

The forthcoming IPY 2007–2008 offers an unprecedented

opportunity to examine the records from the human environment,

past and present, to identify emerging paradigms of development

and sustainability in both the Arctic and Antarctic. One of the key

challenges for the social sciences and humanities is to conceptualize

interdependent human-environmental relations in the polar regions

and to introduce vision and models that would be compelling to other

researchers, polar residents, and the general public.

Last but not least, research in the social sciences and the

humanities has changed significantly during the last few decades as

social and political conditions have undergone remarkable changes.

The predominant paradigm now is one of close collaboration with

local communities and of inclusion of polar residents as partners in

research—from initial project design to data collection, to

interpretation and dissemination of the results. Therefore, many

studies, particularly in vulnerability, resilience, adaptability and

sustainable development of polar communities must be a product of

network collaboration between researchers and local experts and

institutions. The same rule has to apply to data-management,

education and outreach, and dissemination processes. They all have

to become two-way routes linking academic researchers and scientific

institutions to local stakeholders and their representative agencies.

This is the new vision for the IPY 2007–2008 that has

emerged after our first year of vigorous involvement in the IPYplanning process. Many more stages lie ahead. We have to generate

electrifying proposals based upon exceptional scholarship to

become a part of the IPY research and legacy. Promises and offers

are to be eventually paid by texts and deeds. After securing our

special niche under the IPY framework, we have to expand greatly

our outreach to local communities and to other science fields. Time

is running quickly though we still have almost two years to save

the line for design and discussion, until our first teams move on

ice, arrive to the tundra camps, enter local community halls and

family residences. The count down for the IPY 2007–2008 starts

in spring 2007; the hardest groundwork, however, has to be done

now.

A more extended version of this paper titled Social Sciences and

Humanities in the International Polar Year 2007–2008: An

Integrating Mission has been submitted to the journal ARCTIC as a

joint contribution by Igor Krupnik, Michael Bravo, Yvon

Csonka, Grete Hovelsrud-Broda, Ludger Müller-Wille, Birger

Poppel, Peter Schweitzer, and Sverker Sörlin.

REPATRIATION SEMINAR AT THE SCHOOL OF

AMERICAN RESEARCH

Stephen Loring and Dorothy Lippert (Repatriation Office)

were invited participants at a seminar, “Politics, Practice and

Theory: Repatriation as a Force of Change in Contemporary

Anthropology” held at the School of American Research in

Santa Fe, New Mexico, August 3-6, 2004. Arguable the

“Repatriation Movement” is the most significant development

in American Anthropology over the last decade. The objective

of the seminar was to broaden an assessment of the

repatriation movement by turning to the effect this movement

has had on the practice of anthropology writ large, both within

the academy, the museum and society as a whole. Organized

by Thomas Killion (formerly of the NMNH Repatriation

Office and now at Wayne State University) and attended by a

small group of archaeologists and museum professionals, the

seminar sought to address how Repatriation has emerged in

terms of theories of culture and ways of thinking about, and

knowing, the past.

 Standing: Tamara Bray, Stephen Loring, Larry Zimmerman,

David Hurst Thomas, Keith Kintigh, Seated: Joe Watkins, Dorothy

Lippert, Thomas Killion

RSGS LECTURE TOUR – OR : DEER STONES IN

SCOTLAND?

By Bill Fitzhugh

Two years ago Norman Hallendy was invited by the Royal

Scottish Geographical Society to participate in the RSGS winter

lecture series and had such a good time chasing down standing

stones that he recommended its president, David Munro invite me

for a re-run, perhaps thinking I’d find some Coffin Island

pinnacles. The tour came to pass for a week in March, with David

running me through the regional gauntlet from Aberdeen, to

Dundee, Glascow, and Edinburgh, with lectures on Vikings and

circumpolar anthropology. The RSGS is a venerable Society with a

long history of exploration and publication as well as a valuable

archive and is housed at the University of Glascow. Upon arriving,

former RSGS Director, Alistair Cruickshank and his wife
ASC Newsletter 41

ELISABETH HIGHTOWER NUPTIALS

Since leaving the ASC in

2003, Elisabeth Ward has

kept characteristically busy.

In addition to beginning her

graduate studies at UC

Berkley and editorial work

on the book From the

Playground of the Gods. The

Life and Art of Bikky

Sunazawa, she and Dave

Hightower were married! In

a recent update she dropped

the news that they are

expecting a baby in August.

Congratulations Elisabeth

and Dave!

Elisabeth with Dave Hightower

disgusied as a Mongolian

THE SI WELCOMES THE PRESIDENT OF MONGOLIA

 By Paula DePriest

On July 14, 2004, the President Bagabandi of Mongolia, visited

the Smithsonian Institution to witness signing of a Memorandum

welcomed me at their home in Dollar, near Edinburgh, and gave me

a great tour of West Scotland and the mounds, museums, and

standing stones of Kilmartin (shades of Mongolia, without deer

carvings!), and an evening of jazz and the local Dollar music

society. While in Aberdeen I met Tim Ingold and his vigorous

arctic studies team and visited the Aberdeen Museum, which

includes some venerable arctic collections, including one of the

famous ‘fin-men’ kayaks recovered near Aberdeen. In Dundee

Alfie and Joy Ingram were great hosts, as was David Munro,

who had just returned from leading an RSGS cruise to Antartica

that barely missed becoming a ‘Shackleton’ adventure. Final stop

was Edinburgh, where I verified that our Viking show Lewis

Chessmen were safely home at the fantastically re-furbished Royal

Scottish Museum, and looked over some of their Canadian

collections. Note for arctic museum buffs: check out the great

Scottish museums, collections and archives! Scotland has many

little-known arctic treasures!

BERGY BITS

ARCTIC STUDIES ON THE WEB

The Arctic Studies Center has recently been aided by a very

talented web designer, ASC intern Elaine Reiter. Elaine came to

us from Northern Virginia Community College, where she just

graduated Summa Cum Laude. Over the course of a few short

months she created a beautiful website for Noel Broadbent’s

Saami research, and updated the Arctic Studies website, which

should be up and running in no time. Elaine also helped polish up

the website describing Bill Fitzhugh’s Quebec field project: St.

Lawrence Gateways Project: 2001-2004 Voyages, drafted initally

by Bill, Will Richard, and Ron Lavier. Be sure to check it out at:

www.mnh.si.edu/arctic and at: http://www.geocities.com/

noeldbroadbent/index.html

of Understanding by the Under Secretary for Science David L.

Evans and the Mongolian Ambassador Bold. The signing

ceremony included the Mongolian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Erdenechuluun, the US Ambassador to Mongolia Pamela Slutz,

the Head of the Mongolian Buddhists Choijamts, the Directors of

the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Cristián

Samper and Freerer/Sackler Gallery Julian Raby, and other

Smithsonian and Mongolian guests.

The Memorandum between the Smithsonian Institution

 and three Mongolian Institution, the Mongolian Academy of

Science, the Museum of Mongolian National History, and the

Museum of Mongolian Natural History, will strengthen ties

between Smithsonian and Mongolian scientists, scholars,

institutions, and museums through collaborative research, scholarly

exchanges, collections developments, and new exhibits.

This Memorandum grew of a multi-faceted research

program, “The Deer Stone Project,” that was initiated in 2000 by

the National Museum of Natural History. The project, including

Smithsonian scientists William Fitzhugh, Paula DePriest, Dan

Rogers, Bruno Frohlich, Fellow William Honeychurch, and

their Mongolian counterparts, has studied the cultural and

biological diversity of Mongolia from the Neolithic to Medieval

periods.

In addition, the National Zoological Park has been

involved in the conservation of Mongolian animals. Dr. Peter

Leimgruber has studied the migration of Mongolian gazelles, and

Dr. Steve Monfort is the coordinator for the Przewalski’s Horse,

“takhi”, survival plan. Our Front Royal Center is home to 17 of

these wild horses.

Under Secretary Evans presented two gifts to the

President of Mongolia in honor of this occasion and: a framed print

of Przewalski’s Horses from the Zoo’s Smithsonian Endangered

Species Collection and the mineral Smithsonite, zinc carbonite,

named after the founder of the Smithsonian Institution James

Smithson. The President presented an original Mongolian

landscape painting to the Smithsonian.

The President of Mongolia was visiting Washington to

meet with the President of the United States.

THAT’S DR. RUSK TO YOU!

By Andrea Neighbors

Earlier this spring, Katherine Rusk received her Doctorate in

Philosophy from the University of York, after completing her thesis

titled, Shall We Abide Here? Site Selection Criteria of the Eastern

Settlement of Norse Greenland. A Case Study of Qorlortup Valley.

As a student from the University of York’s Department of

Archaeology in York, England, Dr. Rusk spent almost ten years

conducting fieldwork in comparing Greenland and Iceland for her

research. Her thesis was an examination of the settlement pattern

ASC PUBLICATIONS

Book sales have always been a pivotal part of the Artic Studies

Center’s research and funding, but distribution problems plagued

our sales and prevented us from reaching a wider audience. Thanks

to Petra Meindel-Andrews, who volunteered her astounding

organizational skills and book sales savvy, we are now out of the

quagmire that was ASC publication accounts, and into a new era of

brisk book sales and efficient record keeping. The ASC owes her

major kudos for her work! Petra has continued on to Catholic

University’s Masters Program in Library Science.
ASC Newsletter 42

SI DISTINGUISHED LECTURE AWARD

Bill Fitzhugh was the recipient of Secretary Small’s

Distinguished Lecture Award for 2004. The award was established

three years ago to honor Smithsonian scholars for their research and

public education accomplishments. Fitzhugh’s talk was titled

“Down to Earth: An Archaeologist’s Search for Circumpolar

Connections” and was given on 20 October, 2003. The talk drew

on ideas, projects, and materials Bill has been developing since the

early years of his career when he took an undergraduate course at

Dartmouth College on circumpolar peoples taught by Professor

Elmer Harp. Later, after a Navy stint in the arctic, graduate

studies acquainted him with Franz Boas’, Gutorm Gjessing’s,

and Leroi-Gourhan’s work on cultural connections, he began to

explore arctic regions systematically with an eye toward building a

framework for testing theories about why so many arctic cultures

are similar, and why some are not.

Migration and adaptation to similar environments

account for many similarities. Cultures that have moved recently

into new regions account for similarities in language, implement

styles, and clothing design. The migration of the Thule whaling

culture from the Bering Sea region into Canada, Greenland, and

Labrador created continuities in arctic North America throughout

the past 1000 years, and a similar expansion of Arctic Small Tool

tradition peoples from Eastern Siberia to Alaska, Northern Canada,

and Greenland created an earlier dispersal of similar cultures

between 5000-1000 years ago.

Similarly, the spread of reindeer-herding, both by

migration and diffusion, transformed the diverse hunting and fishing

peoples of northern Eurasia between 3000-1000 years ago and

explains many similarities in economy, herding technologies,

settlement patterns found throughout northern Eurasia. A

combination of physical and cultural barriers at Bering Strait made

it difficult for reindeer-herding to expand into Alaska, whose

Eskimo peoples had developed a powerful economy, and large

populations found little use for the changed life-style that reindeerherding required. The Bering Sea’s rich marine resources supported

large populations who over the past several thousand years

adopted many ideas from Siberian peoples, including certain forms

of shamanism, pottery, sinew-backed bows, and perhaps animalstyle art. Strangely, relatively few developments occurring in

Alaska and the North Pacific region seem to have spread back into

Asia, perhaps because northern Eurasian cultures during the past

several thousand years came under greater influence from complex

NORM HALLENDY PRESENTS..... “THE WOLF IN MY

BAG”

Research Associate Norman Hallendy recently gave two

illustrated lectures dealing with the landscape and human

occupation of the Canadian Arctic at the Museum of America and

the Sea in Mystic Connecticut. These lectures were followed by a

remarkable performance to a number of school children in Mystic

entitled - “The Wolf that Lives at the Bottom of My Bag”. The

performance included an old fashion slide show illustrating what

the Arctic looks like, the wildlife it supports, the Inuit, and in

particular the children who lived in the traditional manner and

those who live in contemporary times. The highlight of this

presentation is when he engages all the children to accompany him

in the singing of an Aya-ya where upon he begins to pluck from

his pack sack all manner of wondrous things including a traditional

caribou hunting parka, an enormous polar bear skull and to

everyone’s delight a beautifully mounted Arctic Wolf. “The Wolf

that Lives at the Bottom of My Bag” has delighted hundreds of

school children as far away as the Orkney Islands.

More recently, the National Film Board of Canada and

the Canadian Television Broadcasting Corporation have provided

the funds to establish an independent film company in Nova

Scotia to produce a documentary largely based on Hallendy’s

years of travel and study with the Inuit of southwest Baffin

Island. The working title of the documentary is Silent Messengers

based on the subtitle Norman’s highly successful book Inuksuit.

Natar Ungalaq, the star of the remarkable feature film Atanarjuat,

The Fast Runner, plays a role in the film which documents not

only traditional values but the problems and prospects facing the

Inuit today. The documentary attempts to reveal the perceptions

of the Arctic landscape and its people from two very different

perspectives: The perceptions of a young Inuk (Natar Ungalaq) an

accomplished sculptor, actor and traveler who was born and

continues to live in the Arctic; and the intimate relationship

Norman Hallendy has had for 40 years with the people of

southwest Baffin.

The two film makers William D. MacGillivray and

Terry Greenlaw have produced a number of acclaimed

documentaries.

around Eric the Red’s farm Bratthlid to see why they chose this

area during the initial settlement period. After extensive field

survey and subsequent GIS analysis she found the most likely

explanation for the location of their farms in the landscape was the

exposure of that particular location to sunlight during winter, not as

others had suggested, due to the proximity of pasture for sheep.

Dr. Rusk is currently starting a new GIS project in

support of Noel Broadbent’s work on the Saami of Northern

Sweden in Västerbotten. They will be looking at terrain

analysis of traditional landscapes of the Saami, and more

specifically, exploring natural features and cultural deposits of

both the Saami and the Norse. Particular attention will focus on

ritual bear burials.

 Dr. Rusk gives many thanks to her supervisors Julian

Richards and Peter Halls for long tutorials and many cups of

tea! Congratulations!

“ANOTHER GHOST OF COURAGEOUS ADVENTURE”

Stephen Loring was the featured guest lecturer at both the

Vermont Archaeological Society’s (April 2004) and the Maine

Archaeological Society’s (Halloween 2004) Annual Meetings. His

talk, Another Ghost of Courageous Adventure: Archaeological

Reflections on the Spirit World of Ancient Hunters in the Far

Northeast, discussed recent research on the culture and ideology

of some of New England’s earliest Paleoindian and Archaic Period

civilizations to the south.

Someday, Bill plans to gather his thoughts into a book.

Until then summaries like the article he published (“Yaman to

Greenland: Global Connections in Circumpolar Archaeology”) in

Archaeology: The Widening Debate (Oxford University Press,

2002) will have to do.

Thanks to everyone who made this event so enjoyable –

in particular to Mindy Zeder and the award committee of the

Congress of Scholars, and to Assistant Secretary David Evans for

providing a funds for a special lunch and reception.
ASC Newsletter 43

AN UP-SCALE VIKING VOYAGE !

By Elisabeth Ward

During August of 2004, the weather in the North Atlantic was so

fantastic it must have rivaled that experienced by the Vikings

during the height of their westward expansion. So it was a very

apt summer for the Radisson’s Seven Seas Navigator to retrace the

Norse route from Iceland to

Greenland to North

America.

Thanks to the

recommendation of Bill

Fitzhugh and Stephen

Loring, I served as the

study leader for a

Smithsonian Associates

group of 15 on a ship of

almost 400. Graham

Cambell, a highly

experienced ship-board

lecturer and Royal

Archaeologist was also

lecturing.

The trip began

with two days in Iceland,

my maternal family’s

home. It was my pleasure

to welcome the group with

a lecture on the Viking

settlement of Iceland and

subsequent Commonwealth history. After that, we hit the usual

highlights including a Reykjavik city tour and a visit to the

waterfall of Gullfoss and the geothermal Geysir waterspout. We

also enjoyed a small charter flight to the Westmann Islands, and a

tour at the Culture House of the exhibition on the Icelandic Sagas

by the exhibition curator, Gisli Sigurdsson. The National

History Site of Thingvellir, where the Icelandic Parliament met

beginning in 930 A.D. was equally memorable.

 We were soon on our way to Greenland, with time only

for a formal dinner with the captain and a lecture on early Icelandic

literature before we reached the eastern coast the next afternoon.

We had planned to cruise Prince Christian Sound, but the fog was

too intense, so we instead had to stay out in the open ocean. This

was perhaps the down side of such warm weather – it produced an

unusual amount of fog and “bergy bits”. Still, the view from my

balcony over the foggy, glassy Greenland Sea is one I will never

forget.

We made two stops in Greenland over the next two days,

 one at Narsarsuaq (Eriks Fjord) where the site of Brattahlid, Erik

 the Red’s homestead, is located. In celebration of the millennium,

a full-scale recreation of the church likely erected by Erik the Red’s

wife Thjodhild has been made, as well as a reconstruction of a

Norse style long-hall, based on what is believed to be the oldest

ruin at Brattahlid, which might make it the home of Erik the Red or

his sons. The other stop was at Qaqortoq, from whence we took a

shuttle boat to the Norse stone churcg ruins at Hvalsey. I had

attempted to prepare the group for the shore excursion to Hvalsey,

but truly nothing can prepare you for the magnificence of that site.

It was definitely the highlight of the trip for me.

Leaving Greenland, we crossed Davis Strait, and at the

last minute I decided to use the time to lecture on the native

peoples of North America whom the Norse may have encountered.

Though not my area of specialization, it was the lecture for which

I received the most audience feedback, an encouraging sign that

there is deep interest in this often overlooked aspect of the Viking

story. Upon reaching the Labrador coast, we sailed up Hamilton

Inlet overnight, and put in at Goose Bay. From there, we took

buses to Northwest River, where we received a very warm

welcome. Many of us also

made our way to the newly

opened Interpretive

Center, which focuses on

the First Nation Peoples of

 the area.

The biggest

disappointment came the

next day, when the captain

piped through the ship

moments before we were

scheduled to dock at St.

Anthony that the water

there was too rough to

stop. This of course

meant we could not tour

the Unesco World Heritage

Site of L’Anse aux

Meadows, the only

confirmed Viking

settlement in North

America and obviously the

pinnacle of our efforts to

follow in the footsteps (or wake) of the Vikings. The reason given

was that the water was too rough.

In Sydney, we had a pleasant tour of the massive

recreated Louisburg fort, and as we returned to the ship we learned

a new destination had been added for the following day: Halifax,

Nova Scotia. Our city tour of Halifax and bus ride out to Peggy’s

Cove, again in fantastic weather, highlighted the extreme difference

in climate and vegetation between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

From the vantage point of a sea voyage, the idea that Leif or

Karlsefni considered themselves in a land of grapes and self-sown

wheat once they reached the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence made

perfect sense. Just about anywhere on Nova Scotia could be the

idyllic “Hop” of the Vinland Sagas. Then it was back to presentday reality as we sailed toward Boston. We finally ended our

“Viking Passage” journey in New York City, and as we slowly

sailed up the Hudson, we passed the majestic Statue of Liberty;

viewing her from the deck of a large cruising vessel, as she was

meant to be experienced, brought the full power of her presence

into focus. It still was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

A warm Summer ’04 made the inner fjords of southern Greenland

particularly lush, demonstrating why Erik the Red called it Greenland. This

reconstruction of the church erected by Erik’s wife Thjodhild and the

reconstructed longhouse to the left were completed in 2000.

inhabitants. Far from being a marginal backwater to cultural

developments in more temperate climes, it is argued that the

ancient inhabitants of New England and the Maritimes, along with

their neighbors to the north, participated in an elaborate and

vibrant web of social and economic relations predicated on shared

spiritual beliefs about the relationship between human beings,

animals and the spirit world. Central to this discussion was the

exciting new revelation of a paleoindian fluted projectile point

found in Vermont that was made of Ramah chert from northern

Labrador.
ASC Newsletter 44

REMEMBERING ALLEN MCCARTNEY

By Douglas W. Veltre

Northern studies lost one of its most esteemed practitioners

on June 15, 2004, with the death of Allen P. McCartney, who had

suffered from Parkinson’s disease for the last several years. He

was 63 years old.

Al’s interest in the Arctic began as an undergraduate student

at the University of Arkansas, when he studied the wartime

internment of Aleuts in southeastern Alaska. His first field work

came in 1962, when he took part as a student worker on an

archaeological project in the Nikolski village area in the eastern

Aleutian Islands under the direction of William Laughlin, then of

the University of Wisconsin. He received his M.A. and Ph.D.

degrees from Wisconsin in 1967 and 1971. Al’s work inthe Aleut

region continued over the next forty years and included archaeological surveys throughout the Aleutian Islands as well as major

excavations on the Alaska Peninsula, Unalaska Island, and St. Paul

Island. Al also pursued archaeological research in the Canadian

Arctic. In addition to studying the Thule culture, he developed an

extensive guide to the analysis of whale bone remains. More

recently, he was involved in research on prehistoric whaling

cultures in north Alaska.

REMEMBERING RACHEL CRAIG

Rachel Craig passed away on

October 16 2003 as a result of

a stroke. She was 72. Rachel is

well known throughout Alaska

for her work on recording and

preserving Native culture. In

the Seventies she was

instrumental in starting the

Elders Conference and since

then Rachel has done numerous

interviews and conferences on

Inupiat history and became an

expert on Inupiat history

herself. Rachel represented the

first program sponsored by the

Smithsonian to assist northern

native people develop local

culture centers and museums, a ten-day museum training

workshop held in May 1979. She gathered genealogies of the

Kotzebue area, and helped start the alcohol rehabilitation camp

near Kotzebue and the Heritage Program of Maniilaq, the Native

corporation of Kotzebue. Her programs taught people how to

work with Elders and how to research and maintain Native culture.

At the age of 52 she decided to get a degree in history and

education and graduated with an M.A. from the University of

Fairbanks in Alaska in the top of her class. The most difficult task

and one which was very dear to her heart was the translation of 52

hymns into Inupiaq requested by her church. Just a few days after

finishing the project she suffered a stroke and did not recover. Her

task was done.

MY EARLY YEARS IN ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

AN INTERVIEW WITH ALLEN P. MCCARTNEY,

JANUARY 14, 2003

Excerpts taken from a tape interview with Dr. Allen

McCartney, recorded by Igor Krupnik on January 14, 2003

in Fayetteville. Edited by Igor Krupnik and Helena Sharp

When I first got to Madison in the summer of 1962, I was picked

up at the airport by Kirsten Taylor, who was sort of Bill

Laughlin’s secretary, and was helping him out. She was married

to Ken Taylor, a Scottish man, who was one of Laughlin’s

students, and worked up in Greenland at the time. He and Dick

Nelson worked with canvas kayaks, made after Greenland

Kayaks. They took me out on one of the lakes in Madison back in

1962, to teach me how to use one and, not knowing what I was

doing, I managed to turn over the kayak, lost my glasses on the

bottom of the lake and darn near killed myself. Dick Nelson had to

save me. That was a memorable beginning at Madison.

So in the summer of 1962 I took off and joined an

expedition to the Aleutians with Laughlin, Reeder, a zoologist,

and Robert Black, a geologist. Christy Turner, Laughlin’s senior

student at that time, was in charge of the field crew on Umnak

Island and in Nikolski village, and he also dug the big Chaluka

midden site. At the end of that summer we also began excavating

the Anangula site, across the bay and had a chance to go out there

and get some C-14 samples with Christy Turner. That was the

TRANSITIONS

Al served as Professor of Anthropology at the University of

Arkansas from 1970 until his retirement in 2003. Over his career,

he produced numerous publications and conference papers. He

wrote extensively about maritime adaptations, whale hunting

peoples, prehistoric use of iron, cultural ecology, and AleutRussian contact. Al served as editor of the journal “Arctic

Anthropology” for 13 years; a soon to be released issue of that

journal honors his contributions to northern scholarship. He

received the Alaska Anthropological Association’s Professional

Achievement Award in 2003.

 Al was a dedicated, generous, and highly respected scholar

who added greatly to

our knowledge of the

archaeology and

history of the North

American Arctic. His

work has influenced

several generations

of students and has

been an inspiration

to his colleagues. To

those who have

learned from his

efforts, as well as to

those of us who

knew him well, he

will be sorely

missed.

Rachel Craig

Allen McCartney
ASC Newsletter 45

beginning of my forty years of northern work.

Northern Anthropology in Madison in 1962

The Department at Madison had a strong Northern component at the time, consisting of Catharine McClellan, who was a

cultural anthropologist, Chester Chard, who was an archaeologist

interested in all sub-arctic material, and Bill Laughlin who was a

physical anthropologist, with a long-term Aleutian project already

under way. It was well known in the 1960’s that this was the place

to go to school for Northern research training, and they had about

two dozen students there over the 1960’s, like Bill Workman,

Don Clark, John Cook, Vic Kotani, Jacque Cinq-Mars,

Charles Martijm, and others. The more advanced Ph.D. students

were Christy Turner, Chuck Merbs, and a few others. I felt like I

had stumbled upon a really wonderful group of people to study

with, and I found that the students at the school were educational

sources as much as the faculty were. Sometimes the faculty were

kind of hard to come by; but we had a big lab were all the students

gathered together and exchanged information. Those students

working up North on the Aleut-Koniag prehistory project were

very close to one another. The cultural people, the physical

anthropologist, and the archaeologist, we were all members of this

project together which made it worthwhile for me.

We also went to the field together in teams, like up the

Alaska Highway back in 1963 to do work in the Aleutian Islands.

Bill Workman, Mazakuzu Yoshizaki, Dick Nelson, and I drove in

a University car up to Anchorage. We were each given $50 for our

food and board. We stayed in parks over night and it took us 7

days to drive to Anchorage. First time I was ever on the Alaska

Highway. Quite a good experience. Dick, Bill, and I were all about

20, and Yoshizaki was probably 35 at the time, he had a gallon of

soy sauce with him; he put it everything he ate. There are some

great pictures of that whole trip

Down at the Field Museum (of Natural History) in Chicago I

discovered a large Aleutian collection assembled by Alvin Chan.

Alvin Chan had split the collection during World War II between

the Field Museum in Chicago and the American Museum of

Natural History in New York, so those were the two big pieces of

the collection that I looked at for my thesis. Jim VanStone was

then the curator in charge of that material in the Field Museum,

and I met him that same year, about 1966 maybe, and he agreed to

let me look at the collection. I used to take the bus and the train

from Madison down to Chicago for about a week at a time to

study the collection, off and on for a year, going back home on the

weekends to Madison, and in the process produced my 540 page

Masters thesis, An Analysis of the Bone Industry from Amaknak

Island, Alaska.

“POTLATCH” FOR FREDERICA DE LAGUNA (1906-

2004)

By Bill Fitzhugh

Frederica de Laguna, a living legend in northern Anthropology

for decades, passed away around 7pm on October 6, 2004. Known

to everyone as ‘Freddy’, she was just three days past her 98th

birthday.

Freddy had a long and close association with the

Smithsonian, beginning with her close relationship with Henry

Collins, dating back into the 1930s. Henry was always envious

Frederica de Laguna

that Freddy was one of the

few Americans who had been

able to do fieldwork in

Greenland, as an assistant to

Therkel Mathiassen. Later

she wrote her charming

autobiographical Passage to

Greenland. Later she served as

mentor and colleague for

Richard Jordan, whom she

inspired greatly and lured into

Alaskan archaeology.

On 12 December

some of us made the pilgrimage

to Bryn Mawr to help

celebrate Freddy’s life at a

memorial service organized by

Rick Davis. The small Bryn Mawr faculty club was busting with

anthropologists from the Philadelphia region, and some from far

afield, like Sergei Kan from Dartmouth and Marjorie Balzer, a

former Bryn Mawr graduate, from Georgetown. In the reception

line I met Ward Goodenough, whom I hadn’t seen for twenty-five

years. The whole room was a museum of anthropological heros,

spanning generations.

He and the few others of his generation who were

present, together with the recollections of family and friends,

snippets of video showing Freddy dancing with the Tlingit during

her last visit with them in 1997, gave the proceeding a magical

sense of cultural transformation. In this case it was not an

assemblage of potlatch blankets, artworks, and formal elocutions

of her beloved Tlingit. Rather it was a memorial potlatch of people

from a different time and place and culture that functioned in the

same way, as we shared stories and thoughts and lives intertwined

with this one person. We all imagined her very close to us,

especially so because she had remained so completely ‘Freddy’ to

the very end. I think she was there at the back of the room, along

with her old knapsack and camera (which Rick had put on

display), taking notes which she would have edited, printed, and

handed to us on our way out the door!

In her last years Frederica’s focus was on Northern

Books, the independent press she created in 2002. The purpose of

the press is to promote anthropological research in the circumpolar

regions and adjacent areas and to assist in the preservation of the

northern cultural heritage by publishing manuscripts, aiding

authors and encouraging reprints of valuable research. MarieFrançoise Guédon mfguedon@fredericadelaguna.com the executrix

for her estate will be leading the effort to continue Freddy’s work

in support of northern anthropological research.

Freddy’s obituary by Marie-Francoise Guedon can be

found on the AAA site at www.aaanet.org/lagunaedited.htm. For

more information on publishing and purchasing books from

Northern Books, visit www.FredericadeLaguna.com.

TONY WILLIAMSON (1935-2004)

By Tony’s brother, Jed Williamson

Tony Williamson’s career spans over forty years in the arctic and

sub-arctic and twenty years in international development projects.
ASC Newsletter 46

He received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, where he

studied with Vilhjalmur Stefansson. As an undergraduate he

sailed on the Blue Dolphin Greenland Expedition under Capt.

David C. Nutt, surveying Labrador and the southwest coast of

Greenland. He went on to McGill University where he received an

M.A. degree, specializing in northern geography.

From 1957 to 1967, Tony focused on research related to

aboriginal use of renewable resources throughout the North

American Arctic. His first studies assessed the impact of the

resettlement of the northernmost communities of the Labrador

Inuit. In the early 1960s, with Don Foote, he conducted human

geographical studies in northwest Alaska as part of a bioenvironmental study related to the U.S. Atomic Energy

Commission’s Project Chariot plan

to detonate an underground nuclear

device near Point Hope. This study

was the first comprehensive, large

scale environmental assessment in

the North American Arctic. In 1963

he extended similar studies on Inuit

resource use to Victoria Island and in

the central Canadian Arctic, efforts

that became a model for

comprehensive land claims research

in northern Canada in the 1970s and

80s. Other research in the 1960s

included an assessment of fisheries

along the Labrador and James Bay

coasts, and a socio-economic study

of Cree communities in northern

Quebec.

Tony joined the Extension Service of Memorial

University of Newfoundland in 1967, residing on the Labrador

coast, where he facilitated community building and was a catalyst

for the creation of the Coastal Labrador Regional Development

Association (CLRDA). Here he became involved with the use of

film and video as a catalyst for social and community

development, which became known as the Fogo Process.

Williamson applied the Fogo Process internationally. For example,

in 1969, he joined a team under Donald Snowden, Director of the

Extension Service at Memorial University and Colin Low, of the

National Film Board of Canada, on a White House Office of

Economic Opportunity Project examining poverty and nutrition in

the poorest regions of the U.S. Williamson used the Fogo Process

to connect poor black tenant farmers in Mississippi with white

Food Stamp and Welfare Administrators in a dialogue which was

facilitated by video as the mediator.

From 1979 to 1996, Tony was a senior administrator at

Memorial University of Newfoundland in a number of capacities.

As Associate Director of the Extension Service, he was responsible

for the development and delivery of all outreach programs in

Labrador. The use of telecommunications for distance education

was introduced to Labrador in this period. Under Williamson, the

Extension Service in Labrador also pioneered in informal

community-based education for which the Extension Service was

regarded as a model throughout Canada.

As the founding Director of Memorial University’s

Labrador Institute of Northern Studies, located at Goose BayHappy Valley, Williamson raised $4 million in the period from

1979 to 1985. These funds supported a broad mandate of

participatory research projects. They included Metis land use and

occupancy studies, the value of country foods in the northern

Labrador aboriginal communities, the establishment of a pilot

program in the training of aboriginal people in renewable resource

technology and management, and a research project assessing dust

and pneumoconiosis in the iron ore town of Labrador City.

Tony’s last ten years at Memorial University were

devoted to promoting international partnerships and building

institutional capacities with partner universities in developing

countries to meet their respective development needs. In 1984,

upon the passing of Donald Snowden, the President of Memorial

University asked Williamson to assess Snowden’s ongoing

development projects in India. This led to the continuation of

Snowden’s projects, under the umbrella of the Don Snowden

Centre for Development Support

Communications, which Williamson

founded and directed. He also served

as the International Projects Officer

for Memorial University. Through

the Snowden Centre, Williamson

extended the Fogo Process

internationally through projects

directed at community outreach,

community-building and community

access to university programs,

notably in India, Nepal, Thailand,

and Pakistan.

Tony also served on a

number of voluntary Boards. While

on the Board of Directors of the

Association of Canadian

Universities for Northern Studies

(ACUNS) between 1979 and 1985, he chaired the Committee on

Relations with Northern Peoples, which developed Ethical

Guidelines for the Conduct of Research in the North, subsequently

ratified by all member universities. As a member of the first

Advisory Council on Wilderness and Ecological Reserves

(Government of Newfoundland and Labrador), he contributed to

the identification of and planning for the establishment of the first

ecological reserves and the Bay du Nord Wilderness area in

Newfoundland and Labrador.

He served as Chair of the Federal Task Force on Citizen

Communications in Canada in 1972, which led to federal

government policy in funding aboriginal communication

associations and systems. In addition to the promotion of the Fogo

Process worldwide, Williamson contributed to conferences on

development communications: with FAO in Rome and Bangkok,

WHO in Geneva, UNESCO in Paris, and Inter-Agency

Roundtables sponsored by IDRC in Ottawa, Toronto and

Montreal. He was an advisor, participant and organizer for the Dag

Hammarskjöld Foundation Project on ‘Methods and Media in

Community Participation’, which brought together grass roots

organizers from Asia, Africa and South America for a two week

workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, and a two week workshop in

Goose Bay, Labrador, where Labrador Inuit and Innu joined the

workshop as representatives from ‘the Third World of the North’.

Williamson retired from Memorial University in 1996 to

return to northern Labrador to take part as a consultant for the

Labrador Inuit Association. His work with the LIA was to ensure

the full incorporation of aboriginal environmental knowledge in the

Environmental Assessment of the proposed nickel, copper, cobalt

mine near Voisey’s Bay. In this context, he coordinated an Inuit

Elmer and Elaine Harp, and Tony Williamson in St. John’s
ASC Newsletter 47

JAMES V. WRIGHT

With the passing of James V. Wright

on May 2, 2004 the Canadian

archaeological community suffered the

loss of an outstanding colleague, a

uniquely Canadian personality, a

gentleman and scholar. Arguably he

was among the last of the “old

school”, when the entire archaeological

community of Canada could -and did!-

fit into one station wagon to drive to

the States to attend the SAA meetings.

A big man for a big land, his massive

three volume opus of Canadian archaeology may very well be the

last time a detailed synthesis of the entire country’s archaeology is

attempted. His infectious wisdom and enthusiasm will be sorely

missed as the world becomes more fractious and (over?)

specialized. Truly, he cast a long shadow!

J.V. Wright

Environmental Knowledge Research Project and the presentation

of briefs by Inuit Elders to the Environmental Review Panel at its

public hearings. His consulting in recent years with LIA also

involved assisting in the Land Selection Process of LIA’s Land

Claims Agreement in Principle and in developing a forest

management plan in the community of Postville.

At the time of his passing, he was writing his Memoirs

on his northern and international experiences. Just before his

death, he learned of the terrible tragedies in the Indian Ocean

communities following the Tsunami. He and his wife Sharon had

been working together on international development projects in

Southeast Asia. It is for this reason that donations in Tony’s name

may be made to the Asian Earthquake Relief Fund, care of the

Canadian Red Cross.

GRAHAM ROWLEY

 (1912-2003)

(Adapted from the Ottawa

Citizen)

Graham Rowley had more

initials after his name (M.B.E.,

C.M., L.L.D.), spoke better

inuktituk and had more stories up

his sleeve than any other arctic

archaeologist. The last of the

dog-team scientists, he was both

the father of Dorset archaeology

(by dint of his discoveries at

Abverdjar) and the father of

Dorset archaeologists (his

daughter Susan Rowley). An intrepid arctic traveler and student

of Inuit culture, he first visited the Arctic in 1936 as a member of

the British Canadian Arctic Expedition. It was during that trip that

he contracted a life-long affliction of the “polar bug”, resulting in a

life devoted to northern pursuits (he first worked for the

Department of Defense and later for the Department of Indian

Affairs and Northern Development). There is a prominent island in

Foxe Basin that bears his name, and one hopes a bit of his spirit

Graham Rowley at the Arctic

Elders Conference, 1992

might reside there still, entranced by the northern lights and

reveling when in the company of Inuit hunters and their prey.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

REVIEW: DES MYTHES Á LA PRÉHISTOIRE:

PEUPLES DU GRAND NORD I; VER L’“ESQUIMAU,”

DU MAMMOUTH Á LA BALEINE: PUEPLES DU

GRAND NORD II.

Patrick Plumet. Paris: Editions Errance. (2004)

By William Fitzhugh

This year Patrick Plumet published two volumes (and is working

on a third) synthesizing the history – primarily archaeological – of

the circumpolar region. These works report Plumet’s rapidly

expanding horizons since completing his research in northern

Quebec a decade ago and in essence constitute a career synthesis.

The first volume begins with views of northern regions

and peoples reported from Greco-Roman, medieval, and Viking

times, with considerable discussion of early maps, early arctic

explorations, and early views of ‘Eskimos’ and other arctic

peoples. There follows discussion of arctic geography and climate

and quaternary history. He reviews both issues (adaptation,

technology, glacial history) and archaeological evidence for early

human adaptation and occupation of northern regions from the

Middle Pleistocene to ca. 10,000 years ago, presenting key sites

and assemblages, and ending v. I with human migration into Alaska.

The nature of the presentation is that of a compendium with minisite reports, illustrations, and charts and graphs and short essays

and sidebars. Notes and glossary, index, and bibliographies are

available but not very well proofed.

The second volume picks up the Late Pleistocene story

in Europe again, emphasizing cultural adaptations to Ice Age

conditions (Kostienki) and broad discussions of human language,

clothing, habitations, art, religion, and society – all with a very

broad brush, essay style – with many useful illustrations. There

follows a section dealing with the Late Pleistocene and Mesolithic

colonization of the Eurasian high arctic in Scandinavia, the transUrals, and Eastern Siberia with feature discussions of key sites.

Then picking up the trail of the Paleoindians (he prefers

“Paleoamerican”), Plumet moves to northeastern North America,

concentrating on the development of maritime adaptations, with

extensive discussions of the Maritime Archaic. He then moves

back to Asiatic Neolithic maritime culture developments around

the North Pacific rim, in Japan, the Okhotsk, and the Aleutians.

The story ends there, after summary discussions of key questions

(Mongoloid origins, technological and ethnic origins, and others),

leaving us anticipating v. 3, which presumably will concentrate on

the latter cultures of arctic Eurasia and the North American Arctic.

Writing books about circumpolar culture and its origins is not easy,

 and many compromises have to be made along the way. This year

two other books appeared with circumpolar focus (John

Hoffecker’s Prehistory of the North: Human Settlement of the

Higher Latitudes; and Robert McGhee’s North: Landscape of the

Imagination). Plumet’s compendium, like Hoffecker’s, deals

primarily with early environments and prehistory, but is much

more detailed and heavily illustrated. No doubt Plumet had Leroi-
ASC Newsletter 48

REVIEW: NORTHERN ETHNOGRAPHIC

LANDSCAPES: PERSPECTIVES FROM

CIRCUMPOLAR NATIONS.

Igor Krupnik, Rachel Mason and Tonia Horton, editors.

Published by the Arctic Studies Center, NMNH, Smithsonian

Institution, in collaboration with the National Park Service.

Washington, D.C. 2004.

By Noel Broadbent

This 414 page volume is a collection of nineteen articles grouped

into four parts: State Policies: Perspectives From Four Arctic

Nations (Susan Buggey, Rachel Mason, Tonia Woods

Horton, Ingegerd Holand, Pavil M Shul’gin); Protecting the

“Invisible”: Stories From The Arctic Zone (Andrew Wiget &

Olga Balalaeva, Galina P. Kharyuchi, Donald G. Callaway,

Igor Krupnik, Herbert Anungazuk, Susan W. Fair,

Elisabeth I. Ward & Arthur Bjorgvin Bollason, Anita

Maurstad); Regional Approaches, and Comparative

Perspectives to Documentation and Protection (Thomas D.

Andrews, Tonia Woods Horton, Natalia V. Fedorova, Torvald

Falch & Marianne Scandfer).

The authors emanate from most of the circumpolar

nations. Two papers deal with Canada, seven with the US

(Alaska), four with Russia, four with the Nordic region (three on

Saami landscapes) and the final comparative article, on Australia

(Claire Smith and Heather Burke). An Epilogue: Nations

Perspectives and Nations: What Does it all Mean ? (Ellen Lee),

completes the collection.

Igor Krupnik, Rachel Mason and Susan Buggey

provide an introduction explaining the background of the book

project including relevant legislation in the United States and

Canada, Unesco conventions, and international literature on

cultural landscapes such as the One World Archaeology Series.

Originally conceived of as a student project and then a

workshop, the project evolved into an edited volume with

international contributors. In this regard the book is very similar

to international conference volumes, albeit more focused and of

higher quality. The circumpolar theme provides coherence in

terms of similar ecologies and management issues, and depth

through the critical mass of circumpolar literature. The book is

of value to those who work in these regions and to those who

can learn from this experience.

Buggey’s 1999 definition of “ethnographic

(indigenous) landscapes” as places valued by aboriginal groups,

and the concept of the unity of the natural and spiritual

environments, is endorsed by the editors. The idea of the

northern wilderness, so favored by conservationists, is

challenged by this approach. The recognition of indigenous

landscapes thus constitutes a milestone in the discourse and has

set the stage for new management policies throughout the

circumpolar world. Aboriginal worldview is a theme taken up by

numerous authors. The invisible world of stories and myths is

perhaps the most elusive of these scapes, and is a core element of the

ethnographic approach to landscape analysis. The authors also refer

to landscapes, seascapes, taskscapes, viewscapes and relict

landscapes.

I found the idea of shifting from the traditional focus on

sites to cultural landscapes as dominant units of heritage

management, as noted in the article by Claire Smith and Heather

Burke, to be especially productive. This is in essence the recognition

that only interdisciplinary studies can adequately describe land uses

and values. The archaeologists, anthropologists, folklorists, linguists,

geographers, paleobotanists, zoologists etc. must work together with

local and aboriginal people. Only then can we describe and

understand the complex ways that humans live and interact in space

and time.

 Northern Ethnographic

Landscapes is an excellent

presentation of how these

northern societies relate to

their physical and spiritual

surroundings. This is about

the nature of the realities of

people living in the North,

people who have been subject

to the values, interpretations

and management policies of

majority cultures in both

capitalist and socialist

societies. Landscapes are

about power relations. Native

empowerment is one of the

great forces in the Arctic

today. As stated in the

forward by William Fitzhugh, “...few scholars would question the

importance of landscape as an integrating concept in understanding

cultural traditions.” This theme is enhanced today by the increasing

collaboration between scientists and indigenous partners. Land

management by government authorities (i.e. national doctrines)

brings this issue to the forefront regarding research, stakeholder

interests and policy development. In summary, this well designed

and thought out book is extremely timely and an important

contribution to northern and international scholarship.

Gourhan’s synthetic Archéologie du Pacific-Nord in mind as he

prepared this work. Like the latter, it is written in French and

will not be easily accessible to many arctic researchers; but

those who dig in will find it full of interesting data,

interpretations, and especially interesting questions. It is a

pioneering work of enormous scope and will assist others who

may be tempted to write a similar book in the future by not

having to cover so much territory and time!

FROM THE PLAYGROUND OF THE GODS. THE

LIFE AND ART OF BIKKY SUNAZAWA.

By Chisato O. Dubreuil. Foreward by William W. Fitzhugh. Arctic

Studies Center, Distributed by the University of Hawaii Press, 2004

Bikky Sunazawa, was the Ainu artist who pioneered the “breakout” of Ainu art from its traditional encumbrances, and from its

commercial shackles as tourist art, into the international world of fine

arts. Bikky, a nickname meaning “frog” in Ainu, rose to prominence

in the 1970-80s as a charismatic young artist interested in advancing

the political and cultural aspirations of the Ainu people. Initially

through direct political action and later through his art, Bikky

translated the historical legacy of Ainu culture into a powerful

message of modern Ainu identity unlike any previous Ainu artist.

Chisato Dubreuil’s current work is the most comprehensive
ASC Newsletter 49

SIKUGMENGLLU ESLAMENGLLU

ESGHAPALLEGHPUT. WATCHING ICE AND

WEATHER OUR WAY.

By Conrad Oozeva, Chester Noongwook, Christina Alowa, and

Igor Krupnik. Edited by Igor Krupnik, Henry Huntington, George

Noongwook, and Christopher Koonooka. Arctic Studies Center,

Washington D.C. 2004. Distributed by the Arctic Research

Consortium of the United States (ARCUS). Books @arcus.org

This book is the product of a joint four-year effort by subsistence

hunters from two Yupik communities on St. Lawrence Island,

Alaska and Northern Scholars researching Arctic climate change. Its

title, Watching Ice and Weather Our Way, reflects the project

team’s belief that northern communities and polar scholars can

both benefit tremendously from one another. This book illustrates

the richness and the value of traditional knowledge presented by

the most experienced elders in two Yupik communities. We are

honored to make it available by putting words of elders to paper.

The volume has four sections totaling 208 pages. Part One

presents the Yupik sea ice “dictionary” an illustrated list of almost

100 Yupik terms for sea ice formations prepared by Conrad

Oozeva. Part Two consists of records of observations made by

Oozeva and by Chester Noongwook, two respected Yupik

Elders, during 2000-01. Part Three introduces Yupik Elders’

conferences, Personal Narratives, and interviews. Finally, Part

Four presents a selection of historical records on sea ice and

weather conditions off St. Lawrence Island with comments by

today’s elders. The book is addressed to the residents of Sivuqaq

(St. Lawrence Island), other Alaska and circumpolar indigenous

people, northern researchers and readers elsewhere who are eager

to understand more about how arctic people watch their

environment and how they use this knowledge in their daily life.

treatment of the artist who

became the pivot-point in the

development of modern Ainu

fine art.

A complex character who

richly deserves the “larger than

life” epithet, Bikky was

sensitive, dramatic, extremely

innovative in several areas of

art, loyal to his friends but

hard on family relationships.

Beginning with the spectacular

composite designs derived

from traditional Ainu textile

arts passed down from his

mother, each of his works

proved equally innovative and

inspirational, each successive style breaking new ground and

revealing new and more profound insights into “what it means to

be Ainu.” Bikky translated his native beliefs, sensibilities, and

ethnic traditions into artistic expressions that embody a strong

Ainu vision. Today Ainu culture is beginning to be recognized for

its historical tenacity, the beauty of its art and literature, and for

the important message its religion and philosophy; spiritual

balance between humans and nature. Bikky Sunazawa is

recognized as one of the most creative and important

contemporary native artists within today’s circumpolar peoples.

An English Language book devoted to Bikky’s life and art that we

are pleased to be able to publish through the generous support of

the Motoko Ikeda-Spiegel Memorial Foundation.

ASC STAFF PUBLICATIONS

Dawn Biddison

2004 Review of Under the Palace Portal: Native

American Artists in Santa Fe, by Karl A. Hoering, and Who Owns

Native Culture? by Michael F. Brown. Journal of American Ethnic

History (forthcoming).

2004 “Representing Indigenous Cultures: Alaska Native

Contemporary Art Exhibits in Anchorage.” Etudes/Inuit/Studies

28(1):37-56.

Noel D. Broadbent

2004 “Global Climate Change, Settlement and Sedentism:

North Swedish Prehistory from 7000 BC to the Present”. In:

IRISEN-II. Integrated Regional Assessments in the European

North: Basic Issues, Methodologies and Regional Climate

Modelling. (Manfred A. Lange & Dörte Poszig, eds.). Zentrum für

Umweltforschung 2. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität. Münster.

Pp. 95-105.

2004. “The Ethics of Collaborative Research in Sweden.

Finding Common Ground with Local and Indigenous people.” In:

Swedish Archaeologists on Ethics. (Håkan Karlsson, ed.). Bricoleur

Press. Pp. 87-98.

 Igor Krupnik

2004 Northern Ethnographic Landscapes: Perspectives

from Circumpolar Nations. Igor Krupnik, Rachel Mason, and Tonia

Horton, eds. Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology, vol. 6.

Washington, DC: Arctic Studies Center.

2004 Watching Ice and Weather Our Way. Sikumengllu

Eslamengllu Esghapalleghput. Conrad Oozeva, Chester

Noongwook, George Noongwook, Christina Alowa, and Igor

Krupnik. Edited by Igor Krupnik, Henry Huntington, George

Noongwook, and Christopher Koonooka. 2004. Arctic Studies
ASC Newsletter 50

William Fitzhugh

2003 The Gateways Project 2003: Surveys and

Excavations from Hare Harbor to Jacques Cartier Bay. 196 pp.

Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution.

(with Helena Sharp)

2004 The Hovsgol Deer Stone Project 2003 Field Report

169pp. Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian

Institution, National Museum of Mongolian History

2004 Forward. From the Playground of the Gods: The

Life and Art of Bikky Sunazawa by Chisato O. Dubreuil. Arctic

Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution. Distributed by University

of Hawaii Press. pp. xi-xvii

2004 St. Lawrence Gateways Project 2001, 2002, 2003

Voyages CD. Arctic studies Center, Smithsonian Institutionand.

(with Will Richard)

Aron L. Crowell

2004 “Terms of Engagement: The Collaborative

Representation of Alutiiq Identity.” Études/Inuit/Studies 28(1):9-

35.

2004 “One Century at a Time: The Alutiiq People of

Kodiak Island.” In The Harriman Alaska Expedition Retraced: A

Century of Change, 1899-2001, edited by Thomas Litwin, pp. 131-

139. Rutgers University Press.

2004 “Connecting with the Past – The Kenai Fjords Oral

History and Archaeology Project. Scientific Studies in Kenai Fjords

National Park, Alaska” Park Science 3(1):32-38.

2004 Crowell, Aron L., Gordon L. Pullar, Amy F.

Steffian, and Sven Haakanson, Jr. “Response to Lee and Graburn’s

review of Looking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq

People”, American Anthropologist 106(2):431-33.

Center, Occasional Contributions. 208 pp.

2004 “The Whole Story of Our Land. Ethnographic

Landscape in Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska.” In Northern

Ethnographic Landscapes: Perspectives from Circumpolar

Nations. Igor Krupnik et al., eds. Pp. 203-227. Contributions to

Circumpolar Anthropology 6.

2004 Introduction. With Rachel Mason and Susan

Buggey. In Northern Ethnographic Landscapes: Perspectives from

Circumpolar Nations. Igor Krupnik et al., eds. Pp.1-13.

Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology 6.

2004 “Knowledge Repatriation: Anthropologists Share

Cultural Resources with Beringia Native Communities”. In:

Beringia. Northern Expanses/Severnye Prostory. 2004, no.1-2,

pp.66-68.

2004 “Matching Traditional and Scientific Observations

to Detect Environmental Change: A Discussion on Arctic Terrestrial

Ecosystems”. Henry Huntington, Terry Callaghan, Shari Fox, and

Igor Krupnik. AMBIO. A Journal of the Human Environment.

2004, Special Report, no.13, pp.18-23

Ordering information for any of the following

ASC publications can be found on our website at:

ASC website at www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/

Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. Edited by William W. Fitzhugh

and Chisato O. Dubreuil. 1999.

The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic

Environmental Change. Edited by Igor Krupnik and Dyanna

Jolly. ARCUS, 2002.

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Edited by William W. Fitzhugh

and Elizabeth Ward. 2000. Available from SI Press (www.

sipress.si.edu)

Gateways: Exploring the Legacy of the Jesup North Pacific

Expedition, 1897-1902. Edited by Igor Krupnik and William W.

Fitzhugh. Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology 1, 2001.

Honoring Our Elders: The History of Eastern Arctic Archaeology.

Edited by William W. Fitzhugh, Stephen Loring, and Daniel Odess.

Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology 2, 2001.

Akuzilleput Igaqullghet: Our Words Put to Paper. Edited by Igor

Krupnik, Willis Walunga, and Vera Metcalf. Contributions to

Circumpolar Anthropology 3, 2002.

Constructing Cultures Then and Now: Celebrating Franz Boas

and the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Edited by Laurel Kendall

and Igor Krupnik. Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology 4,

2003.

Northern Ethnographic Landscapes: Perspectives from

Circumpolar Nations. Igor Krupnik, Rachel Mason and Tonia

Horton, editors. Contributions to Circumpolar Archaeology 6,

2004.

Sikugmengllu EslamenglluEsghapalleghput. Watching Ice

and Weather Our Way. Conrad Oozeva, Chester Noongwook,

Christina Alowa, and Igor Krupnik. Arctic Studies Center,

Washington D.C. 2004. Distributed by the Arctic Research

Consortium of the United States (ARCUS).

CONTACT INFORMATION

Artic Studies Center

Natural History Building, MRC 112

Smithsonian Institution

P.O. Box 37012

10th and Constitution N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

(202) 633-1887

(202) 357-2684 (fax)

ASC Anchorage

Arctic Studies Center at the Rasmuson Center

121 West 7th Ave.

Anchorage, A.K. 99501

(907) 343-6162

(907) 343-6130 (fax)

ASC PUBLICATIONS
ASC Newsletter 51

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

Afognak Native Corporation

Alaska Humanities Forum

Alaska State Museum Grant-in-Aid Program

Alutiiq Heritage Foundation

Anchorage Museum of History and Art

Anina Glaize

Arco Foundation

Bateman Fund

Bristol Bay Native Corporation

Inlingua/Santis Corp.

International Grenfell Association

James VanStone Estate

Kodiak Area Native Association

Koniag Inc.

Marshall Cloyd

Middlecott Foundation

National Bank of Alaska

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Endowment for the Humanities

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Admin.

National Museum of Natural History

National Park Service

National Science Foundation

Newfoundland Rural Econ. Devel. and Schools

Oceans Alaska Science and Learning Center

Phillips Alaska Inc.

Rasmuson Foundation

Raymond and Margaret Mason

R.S. Peabody Museum

Trust For Mutual Understanding

U.S. Department of State

○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

THANKS TO OUR ASC INTERNS/VOLUNTEERS

Christine Brindza - Basque Research and Labrador Returns

Andy Colbourne - Quebec Field Work

Kim Conscroe - Artifact Illustrations

Natania Crane - Nelson Diaries

Emiliana Donadi-Sanchez - Quebec Field Work, Labrador

Returns

Aaron Gidding - Labrador Returns

Lisa Holly - Labrador Returns

Polly Husmann - Quebec Field Work

Winnie Kessler - Labrador Returns

Beth Kovach - Exhibit Study and Labrador Returns

Petra Meindel-Andrews - ASC Publications

Mary Melnik - Quebec Field Work

Andrea Neighbors - Mongolia Field Work

Sydney Olson - Nelson Diaries

Lucy Price - Nelson Diaries

Elaine Reiter - ASC Website This newsletter has been produced by William

Fitzhugh, Editor; and Helena Sharp, Designer and

Manager

ASC STAFF

William Fitzhugh, Director and Curator: fitzhugh@si.edu

Aron Crowell, Alaska Director and Anthropologist:

acrowell@alaska.net

Stephen Loring, Museum Anthropologist: lorings@si.edu

Igor Krupnik, Ethnologist: krupniki@si.edu

Noel Broadbent, Archaeologist: broadben@si.edu

Katherine Rusk, Researcher: ruskk@si.edu

Helena Sharp, Research Assistant: sharph@si.edu

Christina Leece, Research Assistant: leecec@si.edu

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Ernest Burch Jr., Harrisburg, PA.

Anne Fineup-Riordan, Anchorage, AK.

Joan Gero, American University

Norman Hallendy, Carp, ONT.

Martin Nweeia, Harvard University

Douglas Siegal-Causey, Harvard University

Christopher Nagle, Indian Head MD.