Abstract: In the earliest contacts with the widely spread speakers of Eskimoan languages, European observers noted an obvious contrast in the wearing of lip ornaments or labrets, with the practice spread over what is now the coast of Alaska but absent in most of Canada and in Greenland as well as on the northeast coast of Asia. In addition, archaeological studies have provided indications of differences in the history of lab ret use between those American areas to the north and to the south of the Bering Strait, and although some scattered and ancient uses are in evidence for north Asia, the northeastern Asian coast has apparently been labret-free for the past three to four millennia. Some archaeologists have attempted to use the prehistoric presence or absence of labrets as markers of people specifically of western American or of Asian heritage. Examination suggests that these attempts have been only partially successful-some reasonably compelling, others less so, in part because of conclusions drawn on the basis of insufficient evidence.