OCR Text |
Show IQOO] ESKIMO AND PACIFIC geographical dispersion of the race, ^ ven dialectic differences of speech are not to be compared with those which exist within most of the Indian linguistic families. An Eskimo from Labrador will within a very few weeks be able to communicate frefely with a representative from Alaska, and the divergence is largely a matter of pronunciation and minor differences pf vocabulary. 1 Doubtless ' this cultural independence is very largely the result of the Eskimo's comparative isolation and freedom from contact with Indians. ' The only region where an intermixture of any moment takes place is in Alaska, and it is precisely there that the variations in custom and physical type appear most marked. The Aleutian branch of the Eskimo borders on the Tlingit Indian stock) and the mutual effect in physical type and in* institutions is at once evident. A similar contact occurs in the case of the Eskimo of eastern Alaska and of the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Athapascan tribes of the adjacent interior; and the same interchange of culture may be traced without difficulty. Passing south from the Aleutian chain along the Pacific coast, the Eskimo characteristics grow rapidly fewer and soon disappear entirely. \ For purposes of description it is most convenient to group together all the coast tribes of Indians from Alaska to Vancouver Island. This does not mean that marked diversities are not present in the 1 Brinton, American Race, 64. |