Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-05
SMITHSONIAN AIDE
MAROONS SELF FOR
ARCTIC EXCAVATION
w. B. Ford to Spend Winter
at Point Barrow to Dig
in Mound.
WORK is IMPOSSIBLE
UNTIL 1892 SUMNER
Scientist Seeks Solution Of Source
of First Americans and Meet
ing Of Cultures.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Voluntarily marooned, Smith
sonian Institution archeologist will
spend the next nine months at the
farthest North point under the Ameri-
can flag in order to resume digging
with the first tEaw of the Arctic Spring.
Worthington B. Ford, associated with
the Division of Anthropology, was sent
to Point Barrow Alaska, this Summer
to excavate a large mound 10 miles east
Of that little settlement on the Arctic
coast. The possible contents of this
mound have fascinated Psychologists for
many years. 1t is about 80 feet deep,
the accumulation Of waste from many
generations of human beings. Some
where inside is probably evidence that
will clear up problems of the migrations
of peoples and the joining Of Eastern
and Western cultures.
Ordinarily two Coast Guard boats
make Point Barrow in a Summer, about
a month apart. The last usually re-
turns early in September, after which
the ice closes in and there Is no pos
sibility of leaving the northernmost
post until another Summer. This year
the ice was especially bad. The Smith
sonian archeologist, aboard the Coast
he would no sooner reach the settle
ment than it would be necessary to re-
turn, with only one or two days Of dig
ging at the most.
Authorized to Remain.
So the young archeologist, on his first
expedition, left the Northland, which
was proceeding slowly with the North
ern ice drift, at Icy Cape, Alaska, and
proceeded to Point Barrow by dog sled.
The Northland arrived week later,
and notice was given that it must leave
q To No Of fiNNrr
back into Boring Sea. So Ford re-
manned, after receiving authorization
by radio from the Smithsonian authori-
ties
The surface already has begun to
freeze, so that little excavation will be
possible this year. 1t will be necessary
to wait until late next May, when the
thaw begins, before resuming the
mound excavation. Then the archeolo-
gist will have nearly four months of
uninterrupted digging, during which he
hopes to clear up the mystery of the
mound. Point Barrow is a meeting
place for scientists nearly every Sum-
mer, but up to the present none have
been able to work more than a month.
Only the surface layer of this mound
has been uncovered. Here the remains
are those of Eskimo differing little
from those who now inhabit the Arctic
coast and of comparatively recent date.
Ford hopes to penetrate to the underly-
Ing strata until, at the bottom, he finds
the refuse and possibly some skeletons
of the earliest inhabitants of this part
C1 the world.
1t is all a part Of the Smithsonian
project to find out where and when the
first Americans came from and how
they got here. Some Of the prehistoric
migrants from Siberia, it Is believed, /
may have skirted along the Arctic
Coast, becoming the ancestors of the
present Eskimo, as those who turned
southwark became the ancestors of the
Indians. The site at Point Barrow al
ways has been a favorable location for
a settlement.
Another problem to be solved is that
OF the intermingling of the two Gull
lures now known among the Eskimo
One is the recently discovered Ivory
culture" found at its best on ST. Law
renee Island and in Boring Sea, and
which apparently was spread eastward,
and the other the so-called Thule Gull
tGre OF the Eastern Eskimo, which
seems to have worked westward across
Northern Canada and Alaska. The
FONT Barrow mound may have been a
fad1al point for both at some time in
its long history
Accompanied by Chambers.
Ford was accompanied to the Arctic
by another Smithsonian collaboration,
M. B. Chambers, who remained at st.
Lawrence Island to continue the exca-
Vatlons OF ancient village sites started
TWO years ago. This island Is believed
to have been one of the stepping stones
of early immigrants to North America
and the Point Barrow people may origi-
nally have come from there.
With the long Winter night soon to
fall over Point Barrow with its handful
of white and Eskimo residents. Ford
expects to turn his voluntary exile to
profit by studying the religious and So
cial customs of the natives. Much of
this has been described in the past. but
never with such long period of first
hand observation. He will not be en-
tirely shut off from the outside world,
since radio station has been set up in
the village.
The history of Alaska-of extreme
Importance to anthropology because this
land is believed to have been the cradle
Of the aboriginal New World peoples
has been like a jig-Saw puzzle, Smith
sonian scientists explain. Bits of evil
dence painfully gathered at different
.spots are being pieced together in an
effort to reconstruct the story, and the
present Summer has seen the greatest
advances yet made with the discovery
of the passes south across the Alaskan
Peninsula by DR.. Ales Hrdlicka.
Ford, it is expected, will return with
all his archaeological collections. on the
last boat out of the settlement early