A translucent waterproof outer garment, a kamleika , is preserved in the Alaska Museum of the North. It consists of sewn-together pieces of walrus intestines and decorated with cormorant feathers. Special clothing designs using animal skins and parts evolved to overcome severe living conditions in the Arctic. Clothing, boots and mitts consisted of inner and outer layers, shed as weather permits, and having many drawstrings to permit ventilation of perspiration in different locations.
Salmon drying racks located on the Chena River at Fairbanks, are still used as they were 10,000 years ago. Inland peoples hunted caribou, moose and migratory fowl, snared fur- bearers and gathered greens, roots and berries. Coastal peoples hunted whales, sea lions, bearded seals and sea otters, fished for cod, halibut and salmon and gathered intertidal shellfish. Drying preserved summer food for winter use.
The land bridge permitted herds of Asian mastadon, helmeted musk-ox and steppe bison, beaver, the giant ground sloth, sabre-tooth cat and wolf to move east. They passed North American camel and horse herds migrating west. About 11,000 years ago mastadon, the sabre-tooth cat, rhinocerous, lion and the northern camel became extinct, probably due to changing environmental conditions. Survivors were caribou, bison, moose, sheep and beaver. Between 45,000-16,500 years ago, humans crossed Beringia following wandering herds – their source of food and clothing, shelter, tools and transportation. They navigated the coastline (now underwater) in large skin-covered floating vessels killing whale, walrus, seal and fish. In less than a few thousand years people had migrated as far as Tierra de Fuego.
During the Pleistocene Era, some time before 35,000 years ago, one of many ice ages caused the ocean levels to drop as deluge-rain formed heavy ice packs. The last ice age (22,000 –7,000 years ago ) was caused the same way. During these cycles of ice ages, land bridges emerged throughout the world, including the one linking Asia to North America, called Beringia. At its widest it was 1600 km from north to south, normally ice-free and grew grasses, sedges, sagebrush, shrubs and willows suitable as animal feed.
The geological story of Beringia links nomadic migrations of both people and animals. It provides physical evidence of their dependence on each other and on particular climate-determined food sources. Skeletons and skins were the basic technological ingredients for people’s clothing, transportation and shelter. The materials for skeletons mainly came from scrounging (stones and driftwood), hunting and fishing (large bones and tusks) and cutting (trees and willows). The materials for skins, similarly accessed, were characterised as thick (stones, sod and snow) or as thin (sinews, mammal intestines, animal hides and furs).
Beringia at its widest during the Pleistocene era
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