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EA[Alaska-Geography

(Henry B. Collins, Jr.)

ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND

       

Description

        St. Lawrence, the largest island in Bering Sea, lies about 150 miles

south of Bering Strait. It is approximately 100 miles long, East to West,

and has an average width of about 20 miles. Its western extremity is only

40 miles from the Siberian coast, which is clearly visible in good weather;

its eastern end is approximately 100 miles from the Alaskan mainland. The

present population consists of 496 Eskimos belonging to the Yuit (Siberian)

group, most of them living at Cambell (Sevuokuk) at the northwest end of

the island and Sevungo Savoonga , 40 miles to the eastward. These are the remnants

of a much larger population which was greatly reduced by a severe epidemic

and famine which struck in the winter of 1878-79, killing hundreds of people

then living in villages on all sides of the island. Since then the entire

eastern end as well as most of the north and south coasts of the island have

been uninhabited. The only white residents are the teachers at the two

government schools, a missionary, and a few men at the weather station at

Gambell.

        High winds, fog and rain are prevalent in summer, a week or more of such

weather usually being followed by several clear, calm, sunny days. Severe

storms and heavy snowfalls occur in winter. The winter temperature averages

[?] 7° Fahrenheit, and the summer 45°. For more than six months in the year

the island is locked in ice which does not finally leave its shores until

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late June or July.

       

Physical Features

        The island is largely ov volcanic origin, though remnants of older

sedimentary rocks of Tertiary age also occur at widely separated localities

near the eastern and western ends. Much of the interior is rugged and

mountainous but there are also extensive stretches of low, marshy ground

covered with innumerable lakes and a network of small streams. Some of

the peaks reach elevations of 1,500 to 2,000 fee t or more and are snow–

capped throughout the year. The mountainous areas are confined for the

most part to the eastern, north-central, and western sides, usually

several miles back from the shore. Only at the southwest and northwest

ends of do high rocky cliffs or steep talus slopes descend abruptly to

the sea; elsewhere the shores are low rolling grasslands, sandy beaches,

or low rocky banks.

        The central part of the north coast projects outward and the interior

at this point is a mountainous area of scant vegetation, known as the

Kukulgit, 20 miles or more in extent and covered with lava flows and

Cinder cones. Mt. Atok, in the Kukulgit, is 2,070 feet high and two other

nearby peaks are several hundred feet higher.

        Savoonga, an Eskimo village of about 150 population in 1948, estab–

lished in 1910 as a reindeer camp and colony from Gambell, is near the

middle of the north shore. Kukulik, a large deserted village, lies about

3 1/2 miles east of Savoonga. Kukulik was one of a number of St. Lawrence

villages which were depopulated in the 1878-79 epidemic. It now appears

as a huge mound of refuse over 800 feet long, 135 feet wide and from 7 to

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

23 feet high, the largest known kitchen midden in the Arctic. Otto W.

Geist, of the University of Alaska, made intensive excavations at Kukulik

from 1931 to 35 (Geist and Rainey, 1936).

        Four miles off the eastern end of St. Lawrence are the three small

Panuk Islands. The northernmost and largest of these is half a mile long

and some 200 yards wide. This small island is important archaeologically

as the type locality of the Punuk culture, the intermediate stage of pre–

historic Alaskan Eskimo culture discovered by Collins in 1927 (Collins,

1928, 1929) and of the Okvik, a much older stage of culture discovered

by Geist in 1931 (Geist in Geist and Rainey, 1936, pp. 327-8, and Rainey,

1941).

        At Cape Kialegak, 5 miles north of Southeast Cape, are two other

abandoned Eskimo sites, the largest of them being a midden 18 feet high.

Excavation proved this to be another site of the Punuk culture (Collins,

1929, 1930).

        The south shore of St. Lawrence, except at the east and west ends, is

flat and relatively straight, and is bordered by a large lagoon which

parallels the b r each for a distance of between 40 and 50 miles. The lagoon

averages between 1/2 and 2 miles in width and is separated from the sea by

a sand and gravel bar varying in width from 100 yards to 1/2 mile. The

lagoon is fed by several south flowing streams which have their origin in

a permanent snowbank which the Eskimos call Aneegulgit, lying along the

south facing cliff of the rugged interior mountainous area known as the

Kukulgit.

        A few miles beyond the west [ ?] nd of the lagoon the shore of the island

takes a southward turn, at Southwest Cape, and becomes high and rugged.

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins. St. Lawrence Island

From here around to West Cape the shore is precipitous, usually with no

beach at all. The interior of the southwest part of the island is occu–

pied by the Poovoot range of mountains, the highest peak of which, Poovuk–

put, reaches an elevation of 1,670 feet (for description of the physiography

of this and other parts of St. Lawrence Island, as well as notes on the

geology, climate, fauna, and flora, see O.W. Geist and Roland Snodgrass

in Geist and Rainey, 1936, pp.1-9, 331-34). A few Eskimo s families live

at Powooiliak (Puguviliak), 1 1/2 miles east of Southwest Cape, the only

settlement on the entire south shore.

        The west end of St. Lawrence, north of West Cape, is rolling grass

land. Cape Mountain, with Northwest Cape (Cape Chibukak, or properly

Sevuokuk) at its northwestern extremity, is a detached plateau which

rises gradually from the tundra plain on the east and south and reaches

the sea on the north side as a steep talus cliff 665 feet high. On the

west a low spit of sand and gravel 1/2 mile wide extends from the foot of

the plateau for a distance of 3/4 of a mile. At the far end of the spit

is the Eskimo village of Gambell (Sevuokuk), the largest settlement on

the island, with a population of around 400. The gravel spit has been

built up by the action of shore currents, waves, and ice, and the stages

of its formation may be traced in the series of parallel ridges, or old

beach lines, extending westward from the plateau.

        Situated on the gravel plain are four old village sites, and on the

lower slope of the plateau was found a fifth, buried site, unknown to the

present Eskimos. These sites have had a unique role in Eskimo archaeology,

yielding the first clear knowledge of the Old Bering Sea culture and of a

long series of changes which had marked the development of Eskimo culture

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

from that remote period to the present time (Collins, 1931-32-34-37; see

also article "Old Sterling Sea and Punuk Cultures," herein).

       

Plants

        There are no trees on St. Lawrence. Driftwood, mostly from the Yukon,

is abundant and provides the Eskimos with needed materials for building

and for making boat frames, paddles, dishes, and other implements and

utensils. Vegetation in the higher parts of the island is restricted

largely to lichens and mosses, while in the lower rolling plains there

is an abundant growth of dwarf willows, mosses, grasses, and flowering

plants. In Tertiary time the island supported a markedly different as–

semblage of plants, to judge from fossil remains found in coal-bearing

sediments on the north coast (Knopf, 1910; Chaney, 1930). Plant remains

from this deposit include sequoia, poplar, sycamore, and alder. The former

occurrence here of trees which are now found only in a more southerly

range, especially the sequoia or giant redwood, since its seeds are not

viable in salt water, may be regarded as conclusive.evidence of the long

postulated Tertiary land connection between America and Asia.

       

Fauna

        The indigenous mammalian fauna of St. Lawrence Island includes a

few species; the arctic fox, Alopex lagopus ; ground squirrel, Citellus

lyratus; meadow mouse, Microtus innuitus innuitus; red-backed mouse,

Clethrionomys albiventer ; shrew, Sorex jacksoni ; and lemming, Dicrostonyx

exsul. Polar bears frequently reach the island in the winter over the ice,

and since 1910 there have been reindeer which the Government introduced

for the use of the Eskimos. The waters surrounding the island abound in

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

sea mammals — hair seals, walrus, and whales — the principal food source

of the Eskimos. God, tom cod, and sculpin are also abundant. These and

occasionally salmon from some of the larger streams are the only fish

utilized by the Eskimos.

        St. Lawrence is particularly rich in bird life. Only ravens, hawks,

and the snowy owl remain throughout the year, but during the summer months

there are countless numbers of migratory birds, many of which breed on the

inland marshes or the rocky cliffs along the shore. Friedmann and Murie,

describing the avifauna of St. Lawrence mostly on the basis of skins

collected by O. W. Geist, H. B. Collins, and Paul Silook, and of bones from

the middens excavated by Collins, list about 120 species as occurring on

the island, the families represented being loons; albatrosses; shearwaters,

fulmars; petrels; cormorants; ducks, geese, and swans; hawks, eagles,

gyrfalcons; cranes; plovers, dotterels, and turnstones; curlews, sandpipers,

godwits, and ruffs; phalaropes; jaegers; gulls, kittiwakes, and terns;

murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins; cuckoos; owls; barn swallows; ravens;

wagtails, pipits; redpolls, longspurs and snow buntings (Friedmann, 1932-34;

Murie, 1936).

       

Discovery and Early History

        St. Lawrence Island was discovered and named by Bering on his first

expedition [ ?] on August 10, 1728 (August 11, new style). It was

thus the first recorded discovery of land by the Russians in what is now

the Territory of Alaska. It seems unlikely, however, that Bering was the

first European to have seen St. Lawrence. The Cossack, Simeon Deshnev,

must have passed close by it in 1648 when he followed the coast from Bering

Strait down to the Anadyr, and in later years, but still before the time of

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Bering, a number of expeditions had been sent out from the Kolyma and the

Anadyr to collect tribute from the Shukchis. That some knowledge of St.

Lawrence Island had been gained by Bering's predecessors would appear from

the following statement by the historian Gerhard Frederick Müller in a

passage describing manuscripts he discovered in the Archives of Yakutsk

in 1736:

        "Another map which I got at Jakutzk...furnished us with

some more Accounts. It represents a two-fold Noss; the farthermost

towards the North East, which, from the nation of the Tschutschi, is

commonly called Tschukotskoi Noss ... The other, which lies South

from this, though it is far enough from the River Anadia, is called...

Anadirskoi Noss [ ?] ... In a large Gulph between Tschukotskoy

and Anadirskoi Noss lies an Island, which is said to be inhabited by

the Tschuktschi , and another over against Anadirskoi Noss, the one

farther from the Continent than the other; which are described in

the following Manner; 'To the first Island is half a Day's Voyage;

upon it lives a People whom the Tschuktschi call Achjuchaljat ; these

speak their own Language, wear Cloaths of Duckskins, and live by

catching of Sea-Horse and Whales; and, as the Island is without

Forests, they boil their Provisions with Train Oil. The second is two

Day's Voyage Distance from the first; the Inhabitants are called,

in the Tschuktschi Language Peekeli . They have Teeth set in through

their Cheeks; they live in fortified Places, and are also cloathed

with Duckskins.' I am of Opinion, that the Situation here given to

this Island is a Mistake, and that it must be looked for over-against

Tschukotskoi Noss . (Müller, 1761, p.xxii.)

        Müller is undoubtedly correct in supposing that the second island lay

to the north of the first, for the reference is evidently to Diomede Island,

whose inhabitants, unlike those of St. Lawrence, wear labrets of walrus ivory

and whose villages of stone houses, built into the steep hillside, might

well be described as "fortified places." Peekeli" (Peekit) is the Chukchi

name for the Eskimos at East Cape on the Siberian shore just opposite

Diomede Island. As to the first island, a journey of two days from the second,

this could only have been St. Lawrence, for the word "Achjuchaljat," the name

given the inhabitants, is clearly synonymous with "Eiwhue'lit," the term

by which the Chukchi still refer to the St. Lawrence Eskimos.

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

        In 1778 Capt. James Cook had a distant view of St. Lawrence Island

from the eastward and named it Anderson's Island after Dr. William Anderson,

surgeon on the Discovery . Later in the same year, approaching more closely,

Cook named the eastern part of the island Clerk's Island, after Captain

Clark of the Discovery , not suspecting its connection with the St. Lawrence

Island, discovered by Bering, or the supposed Anderson's Island. On this

occasion Cook also observed the small islands now known as Punuk, off the

eastern end of St. Lawrence.

        St. Lawrence was next visited in 1791 by Commodore Joseph Billings,

in command of an exploring and surveying expedition sent out by the Empress

of Russia. Billings himself published no account of the expedition, and that

by Martin Sauer, Billing's secretary, contains nothing of particular interest

concerning the island.

        The first circumstantial account of St. Lawrence Island and its people

is that given by Kotzebue, who sailed around the western end of the island

in July 1816 and the eastern end in August 1817. On July 27, 1816, Kotzebue

landed on the southwestern end of the island and spent some time visiting

with the Eskimos in their tents. He was received with great friendliness

and in his report gave an interesting and valuable description of the people

there, as well as at Sevuokuk (Tschibocko), the present village of Gembell,

and at Cape Kialegak (Kealegach) on the opposite end of the island where he

stopped on July 10, 1817.

        Lieutenant Shishmareff, who accompanied Kotzebue, surveyed parts of the

shore line of St. Lawrence in 1816 and 1817. In 1821 he returned to Alaska

in command of the ship Good Intent and completed the survey of the Stl Law–

rence coast.

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

       

Later Explorations

        In 1848 the first whaling ship passed through Bering Strait, to be

followed the next year by a large fleet of vessels. Though the whalers

frequently stopped at St. Lawrence, the next recorded visit to the island

was in 1880. In that year Capt. C. L. Hooper, in command of the U.S. Revenue

Steamer Corwin, stopped At. St. Lawrence to investigate reports of starva–

tion of large numbers of Eskimos during the winter of 1878-79. Capt.

Hooper has given a vivid description of the distressing conditions he found

(Hooper, 1881). Village after village was found deserted, with the dead

lying unburied in and around the houses. Hooper estimated the number of

dead at over 400, half of them at Gambell, at the northwest end of the

island. However, the entire eastern end of the island had been depopulated,

and as Hooper had not stopped at the large villages there nor at the southwest

end where the mortality had also been heavy, the number of deaths undoubtedly

greatly exceeded his estimate, the total reaching probably around 1,000.

Hooper himself, and others who have followed him, assert that liquor was

directly responsible for the famine. It is claimed that the Eskimos had

bought whiskey and rum from the whalers and traders, had gone on a prolonged

spree and failed to lay in a supply of walrus meat when the game was avail–

able. A period of bad weather followed, and being unable to obtain walrus

and seal, on which they depended primarily for food, they had succumbed to

hunger during the following winter. While liquor may have been a contri–

buting factor in some cases, its importance has undoubtedly been exagerated,

for it is inconceivable that the general mortality which occurred, affecting

every village on the island, could be attributed to such a cause. Liquor

was nothing new to these people; they had been getting it for years from

the whalers and traders. Nor is it true that the food animals are available

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

only during a few weeks of the year as Hooper intimated. On the whole

it seems likely that the deaths were caused primarily by an epidemic

which struck the island while the Eskimos at some places were already

in a weakened condition from lack of food. The present Eskimos deny

that liquor and resultant starvation was responsible, pointing out that

meat had been found in the caches at some of the villages where all of

the people had died.

        In 1881 the Corwin again touched at St. Lawrence, and the naturalists

E. W. Nelson and John Muir, who were accompanying Capt. Hooper went ashore

at several places. It was on this trip that Nelson obtained the large

collection of ethnological material from the Island which is partially

described by him in the 18th Annual Report of the Bureau of American

Ethnology.

        In 1894 a school was established at Sevuokuk, the large village at

the northwestern end of the island. The first teachers, Mr. and Mrs. V. C.

Gambell, were drowned in 1898 while returning after a year's leave of

absence. Thereafter the village was [ ?] called Gambell in their honor.

Mr. Gambell left an interesting account of their experiences called "The

Schoolhouse Farthest West." One of the later teachers, W. F. Doty, also

published a short account of the St. Lawrence Eskimos which contains

considerable information of ethnological value (Doty, 1900).

        The first anthropological work on St. Lawrence was conducted by

Dr. Riley D. Moore, who spent the summer of 1912 at Gambell making an–

thropometrical studies of the Eskimos and collecting ethnological and

skeletal material for the Smithsonian Institution. Moore's paper (1923)

presents valuable data on the social life of the people. The fullest

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

account of the life and customs of these Eskimos is that given by Otto

W. Geist, who lived for many months on the island between 1926 and 1935.

(Geist and Rainey, 1936, pp. 10-81.) In addition, Geist's excavations

in the upper sections of the great kitchen midden, Kukulik, (Geist and

Rainey, pp. 85-134, Plates 6-40) yielded an enormous quantity of recent

material, which together with E.W. Nelson's collections of 1881 (Nelson,

1899) provides a comprehensive picture of the material culture of the

St. Lawrence Eskimos.

        The physical type of the St. Lawrence islanders has been described

by Hrdlicčka, on the basis of measurements on the living made by Moore and

Collins, and of extensive collections of skeletal material by Moore, Collins,

and Geist (Hrdlicčka, 1936, 1942).

        St. Lawrence Island is probably richer in archaeological remains than

any other Alaskan locality. With an abundance of seal, walrus, whale, and

other food animals available, the island has always supported a large

Eskimo population from the time, well over 1,000 years ago, when the first

migrants came to its shores from nearby Siberia. Numerous abandoned village

sites, many of them kitchen-middens of great size, are found along the

coasts on the north, east, and west sides of the island. Excavations in

these middens have revealed successive stages of cultures which are an

important part of the framework of Eskimo archaeology. (See articles "Old

Bering Sea and Punuk Cultures".)

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---

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bogoras, Waldemar. "The Eskimo of Siberia," Mem.Amer.Mus.Nat.Hist .

vol .12, pp.417-56, 1910.

2. Chaney, Ralph W. "A sequoia forest of Tertiary age on St. Lawrence

Island," Science , vol .72, pp.653-54, Dec.26, 1930.

3. Collins, Henry B., Jr. "The ancient Eskimo culture of Northwestern

Alaska," Explorations and field-work Smithsonian Inst. 1928,

pp.141-50, 1929.

4. ----. "Prehistoric art of the Alaskan Eskimo," Smithsonian Misc.

Coll ., vol . 81, no.14, Nov.14, pp.1-52, 1929.

5. ----. "Prehistoric Eskimo culture in Alaska," Explorations and

field-work. Smithsonian Inst. 1929, pp.147-56, 1930.

6. ----. "Ancient culture of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," Explorations

and field-work Smithsonian Inst. 1930, pp. 135-44, 1931.

7. ----. "Archaeological investigations in northern Alaska," Explora–

tions and field-work Smithsonian Inst. 1931, pp. 103-112, 1932-a.

8. ----. "Prehistoric Eskimo culture on St. Lawrence Island," Geogr.

Rev ., vol .22, no.1, pp.107-19, January, 1932b.

9. ----. "Archaeology of the Bering Sea region," Smithsonian Rep . 1933,

pp.453-68, 1935.

10. ----. "Archaeology of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," Smithsonian Misc.

Coll. vol .96, no.1, pp.xi, 1-431, 1937.

11. Doty, W.F. "The Eskimo on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," 9th Ann.

Rep. on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska, by

Sheldon Jackson, pp.186-223, 1900.

12. Friedmann, Herbert. "The birds of St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea,"

Proc. U.S. Nat.Mus ., vol .80, art.12, pp.1-31, 1932.

13. ----. "Bird bones from Eskimo ruins on St. Lawrence Island, Bering

Sea," Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci., vol.24, no.2, pp.83-96, Feb.15,

1932.

14. Gambell, V.C. "The schoolhouse farthest west," Woman's Board of Home

Missions of the Presbyterian Church, 156 Fifth Ave., New York

Reprinted from Youth's Companion, no date.

15. Geist, Otto Wm., and Rainey, Froelich G. "Archaeological excavations

at Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," Vol .2, Misc.Publ.,

Univ. Alaska, U.S. Dept. Interior, May 19, 1936 (issued in

April 1937). pp.1-391, 1936.

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EA-Alaska-Geography. Collins: St. Lawrence Island

16. Hooper C. L. "Report on the cruise of the U.S. Revenue-Steamer Corwin

in the Arctic Ocean," Washington, 1881.

17. Hrdlicčka, Alesš. "Anthropological survey in Alaska," 46th Ann.Rep.

Bur.Amer. Ethnol, pp.21-374, 1930.

18. ----. "Catalog of human crania in the U.S. National Museeum," Eskimo

in general," Proc. U.S. National Museum, vol.91, pp.169-429,

1942.

19. Knopf, Adolph. "The probable Tertiary land connection between Asia

and North America," Univ.Celif. Publ., Bull. Dept.Geol .,

vol.5, no.28, May 1910.

20. Kotzebue, Otto von. "A voyage of discovery into the South Sea and

Beering Straits," London, 3 vol. 1821.

21. Moore, Riley D. "Social life of Eskimo of St. Lawrence Island,

Amer. Anthrop ., n.s. vol. 25, no.3, 1923.

22. Müller, G.F. "Voyages from Asia to America" ... by S. (G.F.) Müller.

Translated by Thomas Jefferys. London, 1761.

23. Murie, Olaus J. "The Birds of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," In

Geist and Rainey , 1936, pp.361-76.

24. Nelson, E.W. "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," 18th Ann.Rep.Bur.Amer .

Ethnol ., pt. 1, 1899.

25. Rainey, Froelich G. "Eskimo chronology," Proc.Nat.Acad.Sci ., vol.22,

no.6, pp.357-62, June, 1936.

26. ----. "Eskimo prehistory: The Okvik site on the Funuk Islands."

Anthrop.Papers Amer.Mus.Natl .Hist. vol.37, pt.4, pp.459-569,

1941.

27. Snodgrass, Roland. "Notes on geography and geology of St. Lawrence

Island, Alaska," In Geist and Raney , 1936, pp.331-334.

       

Henry B. Collins, Jr.