Evening star., 1927-10-09
alaskan INDIANS
FORGETTING LORE
Traditions and Customs May
Become Lost in Short Time,
Ethnologist Warns. Z,

If tho languages, beliefs, traditions
and customs of the Alaskan Indians
are not to go the way of those of so
many other native American tribes
and he forever lost to human history.
ethnoloSistS Will have to work double
time in the next few years. This Is
the warning brought back from an exg
pedition to the Yukon by Herbert W.
Krieger. ethnologist of the National
Museum under tha Smithsonian Instis
tuition.
Mr.. Krieger found that the younger
Indians have become thoroughly
Americanized. For them the pot
latches-once ceremonial events of
great importance for the propitiation
OF those spirits who could insure good
hunting or good fishing-are merely
opportunities for good time. They
nave forgotten their own magic and
their tribal folk lore. Only the old
people remember these things, and il
they are to be preserved these old PEG.
must be- interviewed before they die.
Mr.. krieSer's expedition was carried
out with aid from the Joseph Henry
fund of the National Academy of
Sciences. It's main purpose was 70
follow UP certain archaeological and
chronological leads uncovered by DR..
under the Smithsonian last year. DIR,
Hrdlicka traced old Indian and Eskimo
sites which might throw light on an.
cient man in Alaska and so help the
solution of the vexed problem of mans
origin in America.
Evidences Hard to Find.
AS a result of Mr.. Krieger's excava-
tions at Bonasi!a and his investiga.
tions at Anvik, Hologochak, Shageiuk
Slough and elsewhere along the
Yukon he believes that any archeo-
logical evidences of ancient man IN
the interior of Alaska are going to be
very hard to find, though there is
much of later date to be uncovered.
Mr.. Krieger's most interesting dis
covery was made far from the mouth
of the Yukon; it comprised examples
of the carving of q coast tribe I'M
known before last year. when both DIR.
Hrdlicka and the Canadian archeolo-
gist, DR.. Jenness, found specimens OF
these carvings, indicating the exist.
ence of the tribe on st. Lawrence and
Nelson Islands. They are done in old
ivory and are examples Of an art un.
like anything else known from Alaska.
The modern natives dig them up from
old graves and recarve the old ivory
for commercial purposes, thus destroy.
ing many important specimens.
Evidence that a uniform stone cul.
ture prevailed at one time from the
Yukon down to southeastern Alaska
was uncovered by Mr.. krieger. He
found certain stone implements, chief
ly type of ak, common to the entire
area. e.
Fusion Points of Culture.
The places visited by Mr.. Krieger
on the lower Yukon represent the
fusion points between the Eskimo and
Indian cultures. Although the interior
is now entirely Indian territory, Mr..
krieger found pottery, masks and
other objects which typify EskimO'
culture. The Indians there have many
traditions of battles with the Eskimo5.
On his way back from Alaska Mr..
Krieger continued earlier explorations
for the Bureau of American Ethnology
along the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
Last year he succeeded in tracing a
single prehistoric culture characterized
by semi-subterranean circular houses
and cremation burials from British
Columbia through Washington to
Oregon. This year he followed traces
of the same culture down the Snake
River into Idaho. hoping that it would
lead him into Utah and the northern
outposts of early Pueblo culture, thus
connecting the prehistoric peoples of
the West from Canada to Arizona.
But he lost the trail in the Snake
River Canyon of central Idaho, the
traditional home of the Bannock and
other ShoShonean tribes.