The building is roughly rectangular, having a peaked roof with the ridge parallel to the long axis of the building, and a framed door in the end. There appears to be a lintel or beam in the wall at about head height, the walls are possibly sod. The roof is covered with a flexible material, possibly a tarp, but not overlapping walrus skins as used on yarangas. The peak is rounded, suggesting the tarp is spread over sod or thatch.

On the right front are four seated or kneeling women in traditional Chukchi dress. Behind them stands a large man in dark American-style clothes. He has a mustache and a broad-brimmed hat. In the middle of the picture is a group (5 men, 2 women, a pre-teen or teen-aged boy, and 4 young children) who appear to be Siberian natives or Metis in Russian dress (the men mostly wear military-style caps and cloth coats, the women wear scarves). In the middle of this group, in front of the building and behind the children, is a taller man with a mustache and a Russian-style fur hat. Behind him a tall thin man with a military-style cap is barely visible in the doorway of the building. Further to the left, and in front, are two standing men in distinctive dress, One wears a (fur?) overcoat and military style cap, the other has a rounder, more oriental-appearing face and wears a short, belted cloth coat and a short-brimmed cap. At the left end of the group is a tall man in Chukchi dress with a western-style hat; a small boy peeks from behind him. There may be one more person mostly hidden behind the central group.