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Eskimos have been known to the European world since A.D. 1000, when Leif Erikson found them on the coast of Labrador. The Greenlandic Eskimos and their relatives the Aleuts and Eskimos to the west and north were by no means newcomers to North America and Greenland. At the time of their discovery by Leif they had been living in the New World for over 4000 years.In the more than five millennia that have passed since these Mongoloid peoples migrated from Siberia to Alaska, they have worked out a remarkable system of adaptation to a series of diverse environments, ranging from the harsh climate and poorly lighted terrain of the polar regions to the more moderate marine environment of the Aleutian Islands. Their adaptations, physiological and cultural, have enabled them to occupy the entire coast of northern North America, from Alaska to the northeastern coast of Canada, and the entire coast of Greenland. Because of their antiquity, the evolutionary changes in successive groups, and the variations throughout their distribution over a long coastal area, the Eskimos and Aleuts provide a unique opportunity for studying microevolution, population history from the standpoint of genetics, and biological and cultural adaptation. Such studies have been facilitated by the excavation of stratified village sites rich in durable artifacts and in faunal remains and human skeletons, many of them showing direct continuity with living groups. Moreover, studies of the blood groups of living individuals show a basic similarity between Aleuts and Greenlandic Eskimos, as distinguished from American Indians, who are much less Mongoloid. In addition, the linguistic diversity within a single stock provides an invaluable means of tracing the impressive florescence of these energetic and practical peoples. Linguistic CharacterizationThe three distinctive languages spoken by members of this stock differentiate them from American Indians and indicate a connection with Siberian Mongoloids that is confirmed by the serological and morphological evidence.

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The Eskimos of St. Lawrence Island have been typed for genetic variation at 44 discrete genetic loci. Three private polymorphisms, at the 2,3-diphosphoglycerate mutase, peptidase B, and purine nucleoside phosphorylase loci, have been observed, which may be useful in future studies of genetic relationships between Eskimos and other circumpolar populations. Genetic distance analysis reveals a close relationship between the St. Lawrence Island Eskimos and other Eskimo populations and that the Eskimo populations form a distinct cluster from Amerindian populations. The St. Lawrence Island Eskimos appear to be more similar to Asiatic Eskimos than to other groups. Caucasian admixture in this population is estimated to be between 2 and 7%.

An infrared and x-ray diffraction study of osteoporotic and normal, archaeological Eskimo bones. Osteoporotic bone apatite is greater in crystal size and/or perfection and lower in CO3 than normal bone apatite.