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Black Chalcedony
Tapered Stem
Blade #12
Overall Length:
3.9"
Thickness: .31"
Point width: 1.04"
Base Length: .75"
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Black Chalcedony
Blade #11
Overall Length:
4.2"
Thickness: .26"
Blade width: .97"
Base Length: .77"
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Map of Alaskan
Peninsula and Aleutian Islands
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The following
information is a transcription from a newspaper article written on July
8, 1943 in "The Aleutian ",
a paper
developed by the military during World War II. I have not included in this
transcription, the personal names of the servicemen involved except for my
father. I do this out of respect for the privacy of these servicemen and their
families.
I also believe it is important for the
readers to remember, this article was written in
1943, at a time when today's
appropriate respect and understanding of the sensitivities of the Native
American was not given in full measure. Any quote in this excerpt that is not
sensitive, is done for factual information and to relate the authenticity of my
claims.
William F. Witt
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Ovate Blade
#60
Length: 4.7"
Width: 1.7"
Thickness: .38"
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DIGGER PROBE ALEUT RELICS
Bulldozers
scraping roadbeds and shovel crews laying pipe mains are everyday turning
up new vestiges of many ancient Aleut villages on Amaknak and Unalaska
islands, happy hunting grounds for the dozens of archaeologists at this
base.
For three thousand years Aleut hunters and
basket weavers, bone carvers and fish driers went about their work at
villages scattered over both islands. Present excavations have already
brought tons of their tools and rubbish, and others are constantly being
uncovered.
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BONE
HUNT BOOM
Leading the Harbor's (Dutch Harbor) probers in
the ways of this area's past inhabitants is Lieut. A. R Cohn Assistant
Security Officer at NOB. A former zoological professor at the University of
Illinois, Lieut. Cahn has published more than 100 articles on zoological
and archaeological subjects.
Center of the digging fervor in the Army is
Battery C of the Arkansawyers. To Pvt. (T.W.), in the outfit before being
transferred to the States, goes the credit for starting the bone hunt
among the dogfaces.
(T.W. 's) find of more than a year ago is
traceable to a session of pot-walloping. While dumping KP slops near a
pipeline excavation, the Antiaircraft man stumbled upon a fine arrowhead.
Bitten with the digging bug, (T.W.) and his buddies of Hut number
8
made the dirt fly, uncovered a large collection
of bone and stone relics and started the Army's boom.
Lieut. Cahn has explored the sites of nine
large villages on Amaknak, three smaller ones on Unalaska, and believes
many more await investigation. He has already sent a dozen large boxes of
relics to the Field Museum in Chicago for cataloging and display.
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STONE AGE STUFF
This authority believes the
findings now being made at the end of the spit to be the oldest here,
estimating that they date from about 1000 B. C. Everything found so far has
been of Aleut origin, he says, there being no traces of previous race.
Some relics have been unearthed
12
feet beneath the surface. Originally left in the baraharas, the half
underground Aleut houses, they have been buried deeper through the years
by the thick showers of ash that followed frequent eruptions in the
surrounding mountains.
All relics show the Aleuts to have been at the
Stone Age level of civilization, without metals.
The most profitable digging spots are the
kitchen middens, or dump heaps, on which the Aleuts threw broken tools,
bones and rubbish.
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SENTIMENTAL
MOTIVE
Typical of the diggers at such a spot is
Donald M Witt, MM2c of the Smithmen at Captain's Bay. Coming upon a midden
site accidentally bared by a dozer, Witt has found bone harpoons, awls and needles, stone knives and arrowheads.
Down in Tulare County near his Porterville, Cal. home, Witt has collected Indian
relics for I5 years.
(R. G.) CMIc at the Sheep Ranch, has a
more sentimental motive for combing through the midden behind Fort Mears. His
best girl, a research worker for the New York Museum of Natural History, taught
him the science of field trips near his Cranston, R.I. home.
Another professional digger is (C.B.),
F1c of the Dallasmen, a member of the Pennsylvania Research Society. (C. B.) has
more than I, 000 Indian artifacts in his collection back in Washington, Pa. Here
he has used forks and other probes to uncover bone spears and hooks, an obsidian
knife and a rare stone carving of a whale.
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16
Skeletons Unearthed
Among the thousand5 of bone picks and
harpoons, stone knives and lamps, very few pieces of ivory have been found;
indicating that the Aleuts had little commerce with the ivory using tribes to
the north.
The most
spectacular find here have been the occasional skulls and full skeletons, I6 of
which were found in one group late in 194 I. All have been well preserved, the
cold counteracting deterioration due to dampness.
Pointing to the large number of valuable
relics missed by overenthusiastic pick-and-shovel archaeologists, Lieut. Cahn's
advice to the diggers is "less elbow grease and more care"
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This is an actual,
verbatim copy of the entire article with the omission of the proper names of the
servicemen referred to with initials only and the explanation of "Harbor's" as
Dutch Harbor.
William F. Witt
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Basalt Lanceolate #50
3 Additional
Pictures
Length: 4.9"
Width: 1.0"
Thickness: .29"
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Side-Notched
Projectile #51
Length: 2.0"
Width: .8"
Thickness: .24"
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Dutch Harbor
Stemmed Dart #52
A medium to large
sized point with a medium,
contracting, square to
rounded " beaver tail" stem. Shoulders are weak
Length: 2.58"
Width: 1.12"
Thickness: .25"
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Dutch Harbor
Stemmed Dart #28
A medium to large
sized point with a medium,
contracting, square to
rounded " beaver tail" stem. Shoulders are weak
Length: 2.8"
Width: 1.2"
Thickness: .18"
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Dutch Harbor Dart #53
Length: 2.306"
Width: .851"
Thickness: .248"
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Projectile
#54
Length: 1.63"
Width: .48"
Thickness: .17"
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Tanged Square Butt
Knife #56
Length: 2.559"
Width: 1.310"
Thickness: .249"
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Dipped in water
brings out the rich Brown Andesite #58
Rare
Trihedral Projectile
Length: 3.877"
Width: .762"
Thickness: .374"
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Length: 3.527" #68
Width: .711"
Thickness: .225"
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Oval Blade #59
Length: 3.73"
Width: 1.16"
Thickness: .31"
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Length: 3.738" #57
Width: .971"
Thickness: .294"
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Length: 3.630"
#55
Width: .917"
Thickness: .270"
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Length: 3.527" #69
Width: .711"
Thickness: .225"
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Glassy Basalt
Projectile #61
Length: 1.451"
Width: .644"
Thickness: .141"
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Aleut Side Notched
Square Tanged Crooked Knife #63
"Classic Aleut Knife"
Length: 2.95"
Width: 1.0"
Thickness: .25"
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This Aleutian Bi-point Blade
Double Point Knife
#64
Length: 6.498"
Width: 1.642"
Thickness: .385"
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Stemmed Dart #67
Length: 3.540"
Width: .836"
Thickness: .265"
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Fully Grooved Bola #10
Overall Length: 1.5"
Thickness: .46"
Width:
1.1"
Lithic Comp.: Basalt
Lamellar Scraper #16
Overall
Length: 3.314"
Thickness: .417"
Width: .416"
Lithic Comp.:
Dark Green Gray Chert
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Overall
Length: 5.718" #26
Thickness: .619"
Blade
width: 1.721"
Lithic Comp.: Fine Grained Basalt
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Length: 1.677"
#74
Width: .898"
Thickness: .233"
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Length: 1.665"
#73
Width: .824"
Thickness: .182"
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Length: 3.495"
#75
Width: .985"
Thickness: .299"
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Length: 2.98"
#78
Width: .77"
Thickness: .23"
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Stemmed Lance
Length: 2.923" #71
Width: .974"
Thickness: .279"
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Length: 3.280"
#72
Width: .881"
Thickness: .336"
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Square Tanged Curved
Knife
#77
Length: 2.35"
Width: .78"
Thickness: .20"
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Side Scraper or Tanged Side Knife #3
Overall Length: 1.64"
Thickness: .26"
Point width: .81"
Lithic Comp.:
Fine Grained Basalt
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Chert Blade #79
Length: 3.47"
Width: 2.08"
Thickness: .57"
Material: Elongate
Lens Chert
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Basalt Scraper #81
Length: 2.9"
Width: 2.1"
Thickness: .47"
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Ground and Polished "BASALT" Blade
#1
A very rare and unusual piece !
Overall
Length: 2.886"
Thickness: .218"
Point width: 1.081
Base Length: .638"
Base width: .917
Lithic Comp.: Basalt
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Stemmed Projectile #85
Overall Length: 1.98"
Thickness: .26"
Blade width: .84"
Lithic Comp.: Basalt |
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Blade #4
Overall Length: 4.3"
Thickness: .34"
Blade width: 1.3"
Lithic Comp.: Basalt |
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Stemmed Blade #13
Material: Basalt
Overall
Length: 3.7
Thickness: .3"
Blade
width: 1.2"
Base Length: Snapped Tapered Based
Lithic Comp.: Basalt |
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