Progress of Research in Zoology through the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory

Traces the course of zoological, and related anthropological, physiological and health research by various explorers and scientists at Barrow, beginning with the First International Polar Year, 1881-83. The aid of Eskimo knowledge is cited. Bird and human migration through the Brooks Range and on the arctic slope, marine life, and facets of Eskimo adaptation have been studied. The contribution of the NARL to the background for the rapid social and economic development in arctic Alaska is stressed

Simon Paneak

A well-known and distinguished Eskimo, Simon Paneak, who has been foremost a guide and instructor of scholars in interior arctic Alaska, died in September 1975. Simon Paneak extended a hospitality and guidance to scientists that enabled them to become acquainted with conditions and life in the arctic mountains of Alaska, where without his aid and that of his family and many Eskimo friends, especially in the Nunamiut village of Anaktuvuk Pass, existence along would have been most difficult for the visitors. Simon was born in 1900 in the Killik Valley of the central Brooks Range. ... In his childhood, practical use of the ancient implements was still familiar, and Simon could reconstruct the ways of life in the ancient families and small villages with delightful vividness. His stories have been important sources of accounts of the social anthropology of the inland Eskimos. His understandings of ancient ways enabled him to guide archaeologists to sites productive of artefacts revealing the prehistory of men in the Arctic over some 5,000 years. Simon's influence in anthropology, biology, and geology has affected scores of scientists. Their personal recollections of his aid and instruction in the ways of arctic life bear witness to his contribution to science. The agreeable memories of his genial society testify to the fact that pursuit of scientific information offers a social enterprise in which strangers with a formal education can communicate most agreeably with native residents who are not educated by conventions foreign to their locality, but who are wise in knowledge and appreciation of their own country. Simon collaborated with the writer of this tribute in publishing three articles on the avifauna of arctic Alaska, and was acknowledged as an important source of information in over a dozen other works in the same and related fields

The Naming of Birds by Nunamiut Eskimo

Contains a list of some 115 names of birds in English and Nunamiut, the meaning of the Nunamiut name and status of the species (nesting, migrant, accidental, etc.). This is preceeded by a description of the Anaktuvuk Pass region (68 N, 152 W) of the Brooks Range, Northern Alaska, where the birds were observed and the home of the Nunamiut, a small inland group with strong oral traditions. Some anthropological data on these people, note of earlier studies, etc., are included. This study was made with Simeon Paneak, a native Nunamiut having an exceptional command of English, with whom the author had been associated in field work for five years

Ivar Skarland (1899-1965)

Many people who mourn the loss of Ivar Skarland who died 1 January 1965, are grateful for his friendship and influence during the development of science and society in Alaska. Ivar Skarland was born in 1899 and grew up in Norway. After graduating from the School of Forestry at Steinkjer, Norway, he worked in the forests of Canada and reached Alaska in 1928. As an undergraduate at the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines (now the University of Alaska) he took part in the Biological Survey investigations into the food habits of large northern herbivores. While at the school, he met Otto Geist who induced him to join in excavations at Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, which led to important archaeological discoveries and a lifelong friendship and association. After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Alaska he studied anthropology at Harvard, spending summers in the field in Alaska. He obtained his M.A. in 1942, and that year became associate professor at the University of Alaska. He was soon, however, diverted to Army service in the Aleutian Islands. In 1945 he returned to the University where he remained, except while studying at Harvard for his Ph.D. which he received in 1949. Before the War, Skarland was a powerful supporter of the able and venturesome expeditionary workers who developed the important sites of ancient cultures on Lawrence Island and at Point Hope. After the War these field studies in archaeology continued to progress during his collaboration with Otto Geist and J. L. Giddings and in the company of a sequence of distinguished visitors; important archaeological explorations along the Kobuk River, in the Brooks Range, and on the Arctic coast resulted. Skarland encouraged and supported scientists in their explorations, and although his name did not appear often on publications, he exerted a guiding influence through his firm friendship and wide acquaintance with the land and people of Alaska. As host to the scientists who were developing knowledge of Alaska he was at the focus of a score of investigations that have brought to light localities that are now famous in archaeology and biology, for example: Cape Denbigh, Anaktuvuk Pass, Onion Portage, and Kachemak Bay. He prompted the search in the Susitna Valley and along the Denali Highway that has shown traces of an unexpected ancient population south of the Alaska Range. Ivar Skarland was a charter associate and fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America. Many of its projects in the western arctic resulted from his stimulation and were sustained by his wise counsel. Because of his personal qualities and ability to interest men in scholarly exploration it is not surprising that Skarland was an inspiring teacher. Students liked and trusted him and a considerable number from his small classes published important anthropological papers as undergraduates. Those who became professional anthropologists continued to appreciate Ivar Skarland's encouragement and sincere and constructive criticism. His knowledge and understanding of people made his advice important in matters of public welfare and particularly in political and social considerations of Indian and Eskimo residents as their lands became settled and their ways changed. Looking upon his active life in Alaska we find that Ivar Skarland steadily exerted a powerful influence among scientists, students and his fellow citizens. Not only was he the firmest of friends but his friendship stimulated scholarship, and the progress of the various races as citizens in a northern society

Naming of Birds as Part of the Intellectual Culture of Indians at Old Crow, Yukon Territory

Lists common, scientific and local native names for 103 species of birds found in this area. Recognition and naming of birds was done with great accuracy and completeness by the Kutchin Indian informant, suggesting the ability to be the result of an anciently perfected system of intellectual culture. Comparison with North Alaskan Eskimo bird names disclosed only two of 91 species with the same name, indicating the paucity of intellectual culture exchanges in contrast to the more liberal material cultural exchanges of these neighboring peoples

Subdural haematoma in infancy

A 1950's medical research paper on Subdural Haematoma during a child's infancy

Migration of Willow Ptarmigan in Arctic Alaska

Studies the movements of Lagopus lagopus through the narrow valley of Anaktuvuk Pass in the Brooks Range, recorded since 1948. Migration from the breeding grounds in the Colville and other river valleys in the Arctic Slope begins in late Sept; movement northward from as far south as the Koyukuk River occurs in mid Jan-early Feb and again in early Apr. In winter adult males predominate in the northern range, juvenile males in the Pass, and females in the southern range.Migration du lagopède des saules dans l'Alaska arctique. À l'automne, le lagopède des saules (Lagopus lagopus) migre vers le sud par la passe d'Anaktuvuk, dans la chaîne de Brooks, Alaska; à la fin de l'hiver, il revient vers le nord jusqu'à ses principaux terrains de nichée situés sur le versant arctique. Dans une population morphologiquement homogène, on a distingué, mois par mois, en trois localités différentes, quatre catégories d'individus – mâles adultes, mâles juvéniles, femelles adultes et femelles juvéniles. En hiver, les mâles adultes l'emportent en novembre dans le nord de l'aire de migration : une grande proportion des mâles juvéniles hivernent à Anaktuvuk : les femelles l'emportent dans le sud de l'aire d'hivernage. Chacune de ces catégories d'âge et de sexe se déplace selon son propre programme et la composition des bandes évolue en conséquence

Geographic Variation in Body Size and Weight of Willow Ptarmigan

Reports results of multiple range test comparisons of wing, tail and net body weight measurements of 2600 specimens collected in Alaska and adjacent Yukon Territory. Populations from different geographic areas showed statistically significant differences but uniformity within recognizable subspecies. Lagopus lagopus alascensis has the largest range in Alaska and occurs at least to Old Crow in the Yukon. L.l.albus occurs from central Yukon Territory eastward and south to northern British Columbia and west into Alaska in the upper Tanana valley and south of the Alaska Range to the Susitna River. L.l. alexandrae occupies the Alaska and Kenai Peninsulas and a narrow margin of the Gulf of Alaska coast south into British Columbia. L.l. murei is distributed on Kodiak Island, the Shumagins and the Aleutians from Unimak westward. The present distribution of these subspecies may be explained in part by their distribution at the time of the Wisconsin glaciation and their subsequent dispersal.Variations géographiques de la taille et du poids du Lagopède des saules. De multiples comparaisons de mesures des ailes, de la queue et du poids net de 2,600 spécimens de lagopède des saules (Lagopus lagopus) recueillis en Alaska et dans la partie adjacente du territoire du Yukon, ont démontré des différences statistiquement significatives entre les populations des différentes aires géographiques, mains ont aussi indiqué une surprenante uniformité parmi les populations désignées comme sous-espèces reconnaissables.Les précédentes distributions d'habitat, basées sur la couleur du plumage et la taille du bec, distinguaient L. l. alascensis de L. l. albus à la frontière Alaska-Yukon. Sur la base des nouvelles mesures, on croit que la population du L. l. alascensis plus gros s'étend vers l'Est dans le territoire du Yukon au moins jusqu'à Old Crow, tandis que le L. l. albus plus petit s'étend vers l'Ouest à travers l'Alaska, dans la haute vallée de la Tanana et au Sud de la chaîne alaskienne jusqu'à la Sustina. On suppose que la distribution présente des diverses sous-espèces du Logopède des saules en Alaska peut s'expliquer par leur distribution à l'époque de la glaciation wisconsienne et par leur dispersion subséquente