The record-union., 1897-08-16
PRIMITIVE MAN.
SEARCH FOR HIS FOOTPRINTS
IN THE NORTHWEST.
The American Museum of Natural
History Exploring in Far
OFF Lands.


In the Klondike gold strike another
argument presents itself for dispatch in
the important chronological work which
is being prosecuted through the north
western part of this continent. The
appearance in that territory OF hordes
of miners and prospectors will hasten
the changes already in progress among
its interesting native population. AS
the westward movement of the gold
hunters in the 40 day shook the tribal
formation Of the Pawnee, Blackfeet and
other Indians Of the plains and wrought
permanent havoc to their customs, SO
any considerable migration northward.
it is assured, will lay a heavy hand on
the ancient life of the people which re-
ceive it, and wipe out many Of the un-
certain relics of their antiquity.
All that region is known to be In a
state of transition. Its wild inhabi-
tants are rapidly divesting themselves
of their original habits. They are pass
ing out of the age of stone into the age
of iron; they are abandoning their SIM
ew-backed bows, their edged tools of
obsidian and their rude bone and slate
implements for the guns and domestic
utensils Of the white man. They have
becomes guides to aid him over the por-
tages northward from Juneau, river
crews TO man the stern-wheelerS of the
upper Yukon, domestic servants in the
miners camps at Dawson City, and
prospectors on the banks Of the little
stream that within the fortnight has
become a familiar word in the mouth
of every adventurer. Civilization has
touched them with it's effacing fingers,
but before the old way has been relin-
quished, ii is expected to yield up to
science the evidence to settle beyond
cavil one of the leading problems be-
fore it.
That problem is part of the primal
problem of the distribution and dis
persion of the human race. A definite
attempt was being made by American
ethnologists to determine the hypOthe-
ses that this country was peopled, at
least in sections from the contiguous
countries in Asia In this effort per-
haps the foremost place is taken by the
Museum of Natural History, which has
now an expedition in British Column
bia, and which has parallel expedi-
tionS investigating the remnants of an
cient civilization IN other parts of
the Western World.
1t is believed that one of the results
will be to show that not only are the
Indians Of the Northwest of a different
stock than the Indians of the plains,
the Mississippi Valley and the East, but
that they are a later arrival upon
American soil and derive their origin
more surely from the tribes of the
Kamchatka Peninsula and the peoples
that roam the frozen steppes in the wa
ters of the Arctic seas.
To get at the facts, explorations will
be pushed on both shores of the Beh-
ring Sea. Preliminary returns have
been received from the expedition un-
der DR.. Franz Boas that left here In
May for the interior of British Column
bia 1t is working up toward the
Alaskan Territory, but will scarcely
enter that field before next year. When
il does another expedition will be un-
der way for Chinese and Russian ter
ritory, and for a number of years a
comparative study win be made Of the
customs and traditions and physical
peculiarities of the natives on the
shores of the two continents. until as
is expected, an important chapter in
the history of race movements will
have been written.
Every step taken in the kindred pur-
suits of archaeology and ethnology has
indicated a greater dignity and diver
sity in the native life of this continent
than was foreshadowed when it first
became the object Of serious attention.
The loose generalization by which all
s1F ifS y. i
men Of one family has yielded to the
stores of more accurate knowledge that
have been gathered about the squat Es-
Bmo of Labrador and the taller In
mutt of Alaska's littoral regions; about
the mound builder of the Ohio Valley
and the cliff dweller of the Colorado
deserts; about the empire of the Az
tee in the volcanic hearth of Mexico
and the pacific sway of the Incas from
their island palaces of Peru; about the
fierce and stalwart Sioux hunter of the
Dakotas and the mild and stocky franz
ed TIingit fishermen of the British
American coast.
The remnants of a higher life sub
sisting here side by side with the rudest
customs have raised the perpetual ques-
ton whether the scientist Is confronted
DN d COlquCIIll savage WHO U1e5 over
turned a dynasty or a debased and ig
norant descendant who has survived
the culture Of his ancestor while he has
forgotten its traditions. The soil of
America fulfiIls the interesting figure
of De Quincey. Like the old world, ii
has approved itself the palimsest of
vanished civilizations. where the hand
of one race has half obliterated the
writing of another that it might trace
its own signature. To decipher the
earlier and the later inscriptions is the
task of the ethnologists. The faint
light of tradition and the reasonable
conjecture of science indicate that in
the Northwestern Territory, with its
bold reach toward the Orient, may be
found at least a partial key.
Over the interior Of British Columbia
and in Alaska DR.. Boas viii find what
is practically a virgin field. So little is
known Of it that it has been asserted
and denied with equal emphasis that
the mastodon still roams there amid