The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-10-14
DEFENDS STATEMENT
OF BLOND ESk|MQS
American Museum Says Stef-
ansson's Statements Are
To be Accepted.

NEW YORK, Oct. 14.-In reputation
of certain criticisms made in Europe
and rumors in America concerning the
discovery of blonde Eskimo in the
Arctic regions by Vilhajalmar Stef
ansson, the following statement was
issued by DR.. Frederick A. Lucas, di-
rector of the American Museum OF
Natural History
The Stefansson-Anderson expedition
to Arctic America was organized in
1908 and sent out under the auspices
of the American Museum of Natural
History. The expedition was in charge
of Vilhjalmar Stefansson and Dr.. r..
NJ. Anderson, both graduates of the
University of Iowa. Mr.. Stefansson
devoted his attention to the anthro-
biological work of the expedition, while
DR.. Anderson was occupied with the
geological work for the museum.
Between May IS, 1909, when he first
came in contact with the Eskimo of
Cape Bexley, and May Is. 1911. when
he left the Prince Albert Sound people
to return to his base near Cape Perry.
Mr.. Stefansson saw about thousand
persons, roughly speaking. He took
cephalic measurements of zoo of these
Hair Boards.
1t appeared both to Mr. Stefansson
and to the Alaskan and Mackenzie
River Eskimos who accompanied him
that the people visited differed con-
siderably from any Eskimos they had
seen before. Perhaps the most strik-
ing feature was that boards were not
only more common and more abund-
ant than among the men of the west
ern Eskimo, but also of colors varying
from black to a very light brown,
tending to red.
The blond tendencies are most
prominent in southwestern victoria
Land, but they are met with at least
as far east as a hundred miles east
Coronation Gulf. Although no scien-
titic census was taken to determine
the exact degree of blondness of every
individual seen, Mr.. Stefansson feels
safe in saying that more than half the
individuals seen have eyebrows and
hair lighter than black and ranging
all the way to a very light brown.
The tendency to blondness seems
less strong in the women than in the
men. A few individuals had curly
hair and perhaps a dozen had eyes
noticeably lighter than the ordinary
Eskimo brown, ranging to blue or blue
gray.
Came from Greenland.
These and other facts of a similar
character were observed by Mr.. Stef-
ansson and will in due course of time
be published by the museum. 1t is
too early to settle definitely on any
theory explaining the facts. OF the
various explanations that have SO far
been suggested it seems to Mr.. Stef-
ansson that the one open to the few
est serious objections is that of the
admixture of a large amount of Euro
pean blood at some fairly remote per.
iod. In this connection, the disap-
pearance in the fifteenth or sixteenth
centuries of the Morse colony from
Greenland suggests itself as a possible
source of the Europeanlike character.
Many things initiate against the sup
position that they can be derived from
any of the Franklin expeditions of the
middle of the last century. One OF
these is that the only Eskimo of this
district seen at close quarters by
Franklin himself is described by him
in terms which fit very well the blond
type found today. The purely biologic