FIRST of all, William Howard Taft, President of the United States, gave
his sanction to this Expedition, and Hon. Robert Grosvenor Valentine,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, gave his permission to assemble eminent
chiefs from the prominent Indian Reservations of the United States, and
complemented his courtesy by helpful interest and cooperation. The
Superintendents of the various Indian Reservations gave spontaneous and
willing service; Major S. G. Reynolds, Superintendent of the Crow
Reservation by sympathetic and efficient interest made possible the
achievement of the Last Great Indian Council; Hon. Frederick Webb Hodge,
in charge of the Bureau of American Ethnology confirmed the data secured.
The Hand Book of American Indians made possible the larger scope of the
suggestions on Indian dress. The great chiefs who participated in the
Council in noble and faithful fashion lived out the history and tradition
of their tribes. Heartfelt appreciation is merited and given to all.
Since the publication of the first edition of “The Vanishing Race”,
further grateful acknowledgment is accorded. While conducting a
nation-wide Expedition of Citizenship to the North American Indian,
embracing 189 tribes and extending over 26,000 miles, the author was
adopted into the Wolf clan of the Mohawk nation,—Iroquois Confederacy.
They said, “You have traveled so far, traveled so fast, and brought so
much light and life to the Indian that we call you ‘Ka-ra-Kon-tie, Flying
Sun’.”