THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
TO THE
SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
1910–1911
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1918
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
Smithsonian Institution,
Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington, D. C., August 17, 1911.
Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith the Thirty-second Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, comprising an account
of the operations of the bureau during the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1911.
Permit me to express my appreciation of your aid in the work under
my charge.
Very respectfully, yours,
F. W. Hodge,
Ethnologist-in-Charge.
Dr. Charles D. Walcott,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
CONTENTS
REPORT OF THE ETHNOLOGIST-IN-CHARGE
Page
Systematic researches 9
Special researches 24
Publications 29
Illustrations 30
Library 31
Property 32
Recommendations 32
ACCOMPANYING PAPER
Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths; collected by
Jeremiah Curtin and J. N. B. Hewitt; edited by
J. N. B. Hewitt 37
Index 815
THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
F. W. Hodge, Ethnologist-in-Charge
The operations of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the fiscal year
ended June 30, 1911, conducted in accordance with the provisions of the
act of Congress approved June 25, 1910, authorizing the continuation of
ethnological researches among the American Indians and the natives of
Hawaii, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, were
carried forward in accordance with the plan of operation approved by
the Secretary June 15, 1910.
SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES
The systematic ethnological researches of the bureau were continued
during the year with the regular scientific staff, consisting of nine
ethnologists, as follows: Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist-in-charge; Mr.
James Mooney, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, Mr. J.
N. B. Hewitt, Dr. John R. Swanton, Dr. Truman Michelson, Dr. Paul
Radin, and Mr. Francis La Flesche. In addition, the services of several
specialists in their respective fields were enlisted for special work,
as follows:
Dr. Franz Boas, honorary philologist, with several assistants, for
research in connection with the preparation and publication of the
Handbook of American Indian Languages.
Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mr. Francis La Flesche, for the final
revision of the proofs of their monograph on the Omaha Indians for
publication in the Twenty-seventh Annual Report.
Miss Frances Densmore, for researches in Indian music.
Mr. J. P. Dunn, for studies of the tribes of the Middle West.
Mr. John P. Harrington, for researches among the Mohave Indians of the
Colorado Valley.
Rev. Dr. George P. Donehoo, for investigations in the history,
geography, and ethnology of the tribes of Pennsylvania for
incorporation in the Handbook of American Indians.
Mr. William R. Gerard, for studies of the etymology of Algonquian place
and tribal names and of terms that have been incorporated in the
English language, for use in the same work.
Prof. H. M. Ballou, for bibliographic research in connection with the
compilation of the List of Works Relating to Hawaii.
Mr. James R. Murie, for researches pertaining to the ethnology of the
Pawnee Indians.
The systematic ethnological researches by members of the regular staff
of the bureau may be summarized as follows:
Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist-in-charge, in addition to conducting the
administrative work of the bureau, devoted attention, with the
assistance of Mrs. Frances S. Nichols, to the final revision of the
remaining proofs of part 2 of the Handbook of American Indians
(Bulletin 30), which was published in January, 1911. This work met with
so great popular demand that the edition of the two parts became
exhausted immediately after publication, causing the bureau much
embarrassment owing to the thousands of requests that it has not been
possible to supply. To meet this need in part, the Senate, on May 12,
adopted a concurrent resolution authorizing the reprinting of the
entire handbook, and at the close of the fiscal year the resolution was
under consideration by the Committee on Printing of the House of
Representatives. The Superintendent of Documents has likewise been in
receipt of many orders for the work, necessitating the reprinting of
part 1 some months after its appearance, and about the close of the
fiscal year another reprint of this part was contemplated. Much
material for incorporation in a revised edition for future publication
was prepared during the year, but lack of funds necessary for the
employment of special assistants prevented the prosecution of this work
as fully as was desired.
The bureau has been interested in and has conducted archeological
explorations in the pueblo region of New Mexico and Arizona for many
years. Since the establishment of the School of American Archæology in
1907, following the revival of interest in American archeology, by the
Archæological Institute of America, that body likewise commenced
systematic work in the archeology of that great region. In order to
avoid duplication of effort, arrangements were made between the bureau
and the school for conducting archeological investigations in
cooperation, the expense of the field work to be borne equally, a
moiety of the collections of the artifacts and all the skeletal remains
to become the property of the National Museum, and the bureau to have
the privilege of the publication of all scientific results.
Active work under this joint arrangement was commenced in the Rito de
los Frijoles, northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in July, 1910, work
having already been initiated there during the previous summer by the
school independently, under the directorship of Dr. Edgar L. Hewett. In
August, 1910, Mr. Hodge visited New Mexico for the purpose of
participating in the work on the part of the bureau, and remained in
the field for a month.
The great prehistoric site in the Rito de los Frijoles is characterized
by an immense circular many-celled pueblo ruin, most of the stone walls
of which are still standing to a height of several feet, and a series
of cavate dwellings hewn in the soft tufa throughout several hundred
yards of the northern wall of the canyon. Accompanying the great
community ruin and also the cavate dwellings are underground kivas, or
ceremonial chambers. In front of the cavate lodges were originally
structures of masonry built against the cliff and forming front rooms,
but practically the only remains of these are the foundation walls and
the rafter holes in the cliff face. The débris covering these
structures has been largely cleared away and the foundations exposed,
and the walls of about two-thirds of the great pueblo structure in the
valley have been bared by excavation. At the western extremity of the
canyon, far up in the northern wall, is a natural cavern, known as
Ceremonial Cave, in which are a large kiva, remarkably well preserved,
and other interesting remains of aboriginal occupancy. This great
archeological site in the Rito de los Frijoles is important to the
elucidation of the problem of the early distribution of the Pueblos of
the Rio Grande Valley, and there is reason to believe that when the
researches are completed much light will be shed thereon. There is a
paucity of artifacts in the habitations uncovered, aside from stone
implements, of which large numbers have been found.
At the close of the work in the Rito de los Frijoles the joint
expedition proceeded to the valley of the Jemez River, near the Hot
Springs, where a week was spent in excavating the cemetery of the old
Jemez village of Giusiwa. About 30 burials were disinterred here, and a
few accompaniments of pottery vessels and other artifacts were
recovered; but in the main the deposits had been completely destroyed
by aboriginal disturbance, caused in part by covering the burials with
heavy stones and partly by displacing the skeletons previously buried
when subsequent interments were made. Giusiwa was inhabited in
prehistoric times and also well within the historical period, as is
attested by its massive, roofless church, built about the beginning of
the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, no indication of Spanish
influence was found in the ancient cemetery, and it is assumed that
burial therein ceased with the coming of the missionaries and the
establishment of the campo santo adjacent to the church. All
collections gathered at Giusiwa have been deposited in the National
Museum.
Other immense ruins on the summits of the mesas bounding the valley on
the west were examined with the view of their future excavation. The
exact position of the Jemez tribe among the Pueblo peoples is a
problem, and both archeological and ethnological studies thereof are
essential to its determination.
On completing this reconnaissance excavation was conducted in a
cemetery at the great stone pueblo of Puye, on a mesa 8 miles west of
the Tewa village of Santa Clara. About 50 burials were exhumed and sent
to the National Museum, but artifacts were not found in abundance here,
and as a rule they are not excellent in quality. In the joint work in
the Rito de los Frijoles the expedition was fortunate in having the
cooperation of Prof. Junius Henderson and Prof. W. W. Robbins, of the
University of Colorado at Boulder, who, respectively, while the
excavations were in progress, conducted studies in the ethnozoology and
the ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians, and also on the influence of
climate and geology on the life of the early inhabitants of the Rito de
los Frijoles. At the same time Mr. J. P. Harrington continued his
researches in Tewa geographic nomenclature and cooperated with
Professors Henderson and Robbins in supplying the native terms for
plants and animals used by these Indians as food and medicine in
ceremonies and for other purposes. The expedition was also fortunate in
having the services of Mr. Sylvanus G. Morley in connection with the
excavations in the Rito, of Mr. K. M. Chapman in the study of the
decoration of the pottery and of the pictographs of the entire upper
Rio Grande region, of Mr. Jesse L. Nusbaum in the photographic work,
and of Mr. J. P. Adams in the surveying. Valued aid was also rendered
by Messrs. Neil M. Judd, Donald Beauregard, and Nathan Goldsmith.
The scientific results of the joint research are rapidly nearing
completion and will be submitted to the bureau for publication at an
early date.
Throughout almost the entire year Mr. James Mooney, ethnologist, was
occupied in the office in compiling the material for his study of
Indian population covering the whole territory north of Mexico from the
first white occupancy to the present time. By request of the Nebraska
State Historical Society he was detailed in January, 1911, to attend
the joint session of that body and the Mississippi Valley Historical
Association, at Lincoln, Nebraska, where he delivered three principal
addresses bearing particularly on the method and results of the
researches of the bureau with the view of their application in local
historical and ethnological investigations.
On June 4 Mr. Mooney started for the reservation of the East Cherokee
in North Carolina to continue former studies of the sacred formulas and
general ethnology of that tribe, and was engaged in this work at the
close of the month.
At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, ethnologist,
was in northern Arizona examining the great cave pueblos and other
ruins within the Navaho National Monument. He found that since his
visit in 1909 considerable excavation had been done by others in the
rooms of Betatakin, and that the walls of Kitsiel, the other large
cliff-ruin, were greatly in need of repair. Guided by resident Navaho,
he visited several hitherto undescribed cliff-dwellings and gathered a
fairly good collection of objects illustrating prehistoric culture of
this part of northern Arizona, which have been deposited in the
National Museum. In order to facilitate the archeological work and to
make the region accessible to students and visitors it was necessary to
break a wagon road from Marsh Pass through the middle of the Navaho
National Monument to the neighborhood of Betatakin, and by this means
the valley was traversed with wagons for the first time.
On the return journey to Flagstaff, Doctor Fewkes visited the ruins in
Nitsi, or West Canyon, and examined Inscription House, a prehistoric
cliff-dwelling of considerable size, hitherto undescribed, the walls of
which are built of loaf-shaped adobes strengthened with sticks. On
account of the size and great interest of these ruins, it is
recommended that the area covered thereby be included in the Navaho
National Monument and the ruins permanently preserved, and that either
Betatakin or Kitsiel be excavated, repaired, and made a “type ruin” of
this culture area. Along the road to Flagstaff from West Canyon, Doctor
Fewkes observed several ruins and learned of many others ascribed to
the ancient Hopi. He visited the Hopi pueblo of Moenkopi, near Tuba,
and obtained considerable new ethnological material from an old priest
of that village regarding legends of the clans that formerly lived in
northern Arizona. He learned also of a cliff, or rock, covered with
pictographs of Hopi origin, at Willow Spring, not far from Tuba, the
figures of which shed light on Hopi clan migration legends.
Returning to Flagstaff, Doctor Fewkes reoutfitted in order to conduct
investigations of the ruins near Black Falls of the Little Colorado
River, especially the one called Wukoki, reputed to have been the last
habitation of the Snake clans of the Hopi in their stubborn migration
before they finally settled near the East Mesa. A little more than a
month was spent at these ruins, during which time extensive excavations
were made in numerous subterranean rooms, or pit-dwellings, a new type
of habitations found at the bases of many of the large ruined pueblos
on the Little Colorado. Incidentally several other pueblo ruins,
hitherto unknown, with accompanying reservoirs and shrines, were
observed. The excavations at Wukoki yielded about 1,800 specimens,
consisting of painted pottery, beautiful shell ornaments, stone
implements, basketry, wooden objects, cane “cloud blowers,” prayer
sticks, a prayer-stick box, an idol, and other objects. The results of
the excavations at Wukoki will be incorporated in a forthcoming
bulletin on Antiquities of the Little Colorado Basin.
On the completion of his work at the Black Falls ruins, Doctor Fewkes
returned to Washington in September and devoted the next three months
to the preparation of a monograph on Casa Grande, Arizona.
At the close of January, 1911, Doctor Fewkes again took the field,
visiting Cuba for the purpose of gathering information on the
prehistoric inhabitants of that island and their reputed
contemporaneity with fossil sloths, sharks, and crocodiles. A fortnight
was devoted to the study of collections of prehistoric objects in
Habana, especially the material in the University Museum from caves in
Puerto Principe Province, described by Doctors Montoné and Carlos de la
Torre. With this preparation he proceeded to the Isle of Pines and
commenced work near Nueva Gerona. In this island there are several
caves from which human bones have been reported locally, but the Cueva
de los Indios, situated in the hills about a mile from the city named,
promised the greatest reward. A week’s excavation in this cave yielded
four fragments of Indian skulls, not beyond repair; one undeformed,
well-preserved human cranium; and many fragments of pelves, humeri, and
femora. The excavations in the middle of the cave indicated that the
soil there had previously been dug over; these yielded little of value,
the best-preserved remains occurring near the entrance, on each side.
The skulls were arranged in a row within a pocket sheltered by an
overhanging side of the cave, and were buried about 2 feet in the guano
and soil; beneath these crania were human long-bones, crossed. Several
fragments of a single skull, or of several skulls, were embedded in a
hard stalagmitic formation over the deposit of long-bones. No Indian
implements or pottery accompanied the bones, and no fossils were found
in association with them. So far as recorded this is the first instance
of the finding of skeletal remains of cave man in the Isle of Pines.
Their general appearance and mode of burial were the same as in the
case of those discovered by Doctors Montoné and Carlos de la Torre.
Doctor Fewkes also examined, in the Isle of Pines, about 30 structures
known as cacimbas, their Indian name. These are vase-shaped,
subterranean receptacles, averaging 6 feet in depth and 4 feet in
maximum diameter, generally constricted to about 2 feet at the neck,
and with the opening level with the surface of the ground. Although
these cacimbas are generally ascribed to the Indians, they are thought
by some to be of Spanish origin, and are connected by others with
buccaneers, pirates, and slavers. They are built of masonry or cut in
the solid rock; the sides are often plastered and the bottoms commonly
covered with a layer of tar. On the ground near the openings there is
generally a level, circular space, with raised periphery. The whole
appearance supports the theory that these structures were used in the
manufacture of turpentine or tar, the circular area being the oven and
the cacimba the receptacle for the product.
Doctor Fewkes found that the Pineros, or natives of the island, employ
many aboriginal terms for animals, plants, and places, and in some
instances two Indian words are used for the same object. An
acknowledged descendant of a Cuban Indian explained this linguistic
duality by saying that the Indians of the eastern end of the Isle of
Pines spoke a dialect different from those of the western end, and that
when those from Camaguey, who were Tainan and of eastern Cuban origin,
came to the Isle of Pines at the instance of the Spanish authorities
they brought with them a nomenclature different from that then in use
on that island.
Several old Spanish structures of masonry, the dates of which are
unknown, were also examined in the neighborhood of Santa Fe, Isle of
Pines. The roof of a cave at Punta de Este, the southeastern angle of
the island, bears aboriginal pictographs of the sun and other objects,
suggesting that it is comparable with the cave in Haiti, in which,
according to Indian legend, the sun and the moon originated, and from
which the races of man emerged.
Doctor Fewkes has now collected sufficient material in Cuba to indicate
that its western end, including the Isle of Pines, was once inhabited
by a cave-dwelling people, low in culture and without agriculture. His
observations support the belief that this people were in that condition
when Columbus visited the Isle of Pines and that they were survivors of
the Guanahatibibes, a cave-dwelling population formerly occupying the
whole of Cuba and represented in Porto Rico and other islands of the
West Indies.
Doctor Fewkes also visited several of the coral keys southwest of the
Isle of Pines, but, finding no aboriginal traces, he crossed the
channel to Cayman Grande, about 250 miles from Nueva Gerona. The Cayman
group consists of coral islands built on a submarine continuation of
the mountains of Santiago Province, Cuba. A cave with Indian bones and
pottery, probably of Carib origin, was found near Boddentown on the
eastern end of the island, and a few stone implements were obtained
from natives, but as these specimens may have been brought from
adjacent shores they afford little evidence of a former aboriginal
population of Cayman Grande. The elevation of the Cayman Islands,
computed from the annual accretion, would indicate that Cayman Grande
was a shallow reef when Columbus visited Cuba, and could not have been
inhabited at that time. The discoverer passed very near it on his
second voyage, when his course lay from the Isle of Pines to Jamaica,
but he reported neither name nor people.
Doctor Fewkes returned to Washington in April and spent the remainder
of the year in completing his report on Casa Grande.
Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, devoted the first quarter of the year
chiefly to collecting material from libraries and archives, as the
basis of his study of the Creek Indians. From the latter part of
September until early in December he was engaged in field research
among the Creek, Natchez, Tonkawa, and Alibamu Indians in Oklahoma and
Texas, and also remained a short time with the remnant of the Tunica
and Chitimacha in Louisiana, and made a few side trips in search of
tribes which have been lost to sight within recent years. On his return
to Washington, Doctor Swanton transcribed the linguistic and ethnologic
material collected during his field excursion, read the proofs of
Bulletins 44, 46, and 47, added to the literary material regarding the
Creek Indians, collected additional data for a tribal map of the
Indians of the United States, and initiated a study of the Natchez
language with the special object of comparing it with the other
dialects of the Muskhogean family. Doctor Swanton also spent some time
in studying the Chitimacha and Tunica languages.
From July, 1910, until the middle of April, 1911, Mrs. M. C. Stevenson,
ethnologist, was engaged in the completion of a paper on Dress and
Adornment of the Pueblo Indians, in the elaboration of her report on
Zuñi Plants and Their Uses, and in transcribing her field notes
pertaining to Zuñi religious concepts and the mythology and ethnology
of the Taos Indians.
Mrs. Stevenson left Washington on April 12 and proceeded directly to
the country of the Tewa Indians, in the valley of the Rio Grande in New
Mexico, for the purpose of continuing her investigation of those
people. Until the close of the fiscal year her energies were devoted to
the pueblo of San Ildefonso and incidentally to Santa Clara,
information particularly in regard to the Tewa calendar system,
ceremonies, and material culture being gained. Mrs. Stevenson finds
that the worship of the San Ildefonso Indians includes the same
celestial bodies as are held sacred by the Zuñi and other Pueblos. From
the foundation laid during her previous researches among the Tewa, Mrs.
Stevenson reports that she has experienced little difficulty in
obtaining an insight into the esoteric life of these people, and is
daily adding to her store of knowledge respecting their religion and
sociology. A complete record of obstetrical practices of the Tewa has
been made, and it is found that they are as elaborate as related
practices of the Taos people. The San Ildefonso inhabitants do not seem
to have changed their early customs regarding land tenure, and they
adhere tenaciously to their marriage customs and birth rites,
notwithstanding the long period during which missionaries have been
among them. It is expected that, of her many lines of study among the
Tewa tribes, the subject of their material culture will produce the
first results for publication.
After completing some special articles on ethnologic topics for the
closing pages of Part 2 of the Handbook of American Indians, Mr. J. N.
B. Hewitt, ethnologist, pursued the study of the history of the tribes
formerly dwelling in the Susquehanna and upper Ohio valleys. Progress
in these researches was interrupted by the necessity of assigning him
to the editorial revision and annotation of a collection of about 120
legends, traditions, and myths of the Seneca Indians, recorded in 1884
and 1885 by the late Jeremiah Curtin. At the close of the year this
work was far advanced, only about 150 pages of a total of 1,400 pages
remaining to be treated. As opportunity afforded, Mr. Hewitt also
resumed the preparation of his sketch of the grammar of the Iroquois
for incorporation in the Handbook of American Indian Languages.
As in previous years, Mr. Hewitt prepared and collected data for
replies to numerous correspondents requesting special information,
particularly in regard to the Iroquois and Algonquian tribes. Mr.
Hewitt also had charge of the important collection of 1,716 manuscripts
of the bureau, cataloguing new accessions and keeping a record of those
withdrawn in the progress of the bureau’s researches. During the year,
378 manuscripts were thus made use of by the members of the bureau and
its collaborators. Exclusive of the numerous manuscripts prepared by
the staff of the bureau and by those in collaboration with it, referred
to in this report, 12 items were added during the year. These pertain
to the Pawnee, Chippewa, Zuñi, and Tewa tribes, and relate to music,
sociology, economics, and linguistics.
The beginning of the fiscal year found Dr. Truman Michelson,
ethnologist, conducting ethnological and linguistic investigations
among the Piegan Indians of Montana, whence he proceeded to the
Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho, thence to the Menominee of
Wisconsin, and finally to the Micmac of Restigouche, Canada—all
Algonquian tribes, the need of a more definite linguistic
classification of which has long been felt. Doctor Michelson returned
to Washington at the close of November and immediately commenced the
elaboration of his field notes, one of the results of which is a
manuscript bearing the title “A Linguistic Classification of the
Algonquian Tribes,” submitted for publication in the Twenty-eighth
Annual Report. Also in connection with his Algonquian work Doctor
Michelson devoted attention to the further revision of the material
pertaining to the Fox grammar, by the late Dr. William Jones, the
outline of which is incorporated in the Handbook of American Indian
Languages. During the winter Doctor Michelson took advantage of the
presence in Washington of a deputation of Chippewa Indians from White
Earth, Minnesota, by enlisting their services in gaining an insight
into the social organization of that tribe and also in adding to the
bureau’s accumulation of Chippewa linguistic data. Toward the close of
June, 1911, Doctor Michelson proceeded to the Sauk and Fox Reservation
in Iowa for the purpose of continuing his study of that Algonquian
group.
The months of July and August and half of September, 1910, were spent
by Dr. Paul Radin, ethnologist, among the Winnebago Indians of Nebraska
and Wisconsin, his efforts being devoted to a continuation of his
studies of the culture of those people, with special reference to their
ceremonial and social organization and their general social customs.
Part of the time was devoted to a study of the Winnebago material
culture, but little progress was made in this direction, as few objects
of aboriginal origin are now possessed by these people, consequently
the study must be completed by examination of their objects preserved
in museums and private collections. A beginning in this direction was
made by Doctor Radin during the latter half of September and in October
at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. During the
remainder of the fiscal year Doctor Radin was engaged in arranging the
ethnological material gathered by him during the several years he has
devoted to the Winnebago tribe, and in the preparation of a monograph
on the Medicine ceremony of the Winnebago and a memoir on the ethnology
of the Winnebago tribe in general. In June, 1911, he again took the
field in Wisconsin for the purpose of obtaining the data necessary to
complete the tribal monograph. Both these manuscripts, it is expected,
will be finished by the close of the present calendar year.
By arrangement with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs the bureau was
fortunate in enlisting the services of Mr. Francis La Flesche, who has
been frequently mentioned in the annual reports of the bureau in
connection with his studies, jointly with Miss Alice C. Fletcher, of
the ethnology of the Omaha tribe of the Siouan family. Having been
assigned the task of making a comparative study of the Osage tribe of
the same family, Mr. La Flesche proceeded to their reservation in
Oklahoma in September. The older Osage men, like the older Indians
generally, are very conservative, and time and tact were necessary to
obtain such standing in the tribe as would enable him to establish
friendly relations with those to whom it was necessary to look for
trustworthy information. Although the Osage language is similar to that
of the Omaha, Mr. La Flesche’s native tongue, there are many words and
phrases that sound alike but are used in different senses by the two
tribes. Having practically mastered the language, Mr. La Flesche was
prepared to devote several months to what is known as the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga
Ieʹta, the general term applied to a complex series of ceremonies which
partake of the nature of degrees, but are not, strictly speaking,
successive steps, although each one is linked to the other in a general
sequence. While at the present stage of the investigation it would be
premature to make a definite statement as to the full meaning and
interrelation of these Osage ceremonies, there appear to be seven
divisions of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta, the names, functions, and
sequence of which have been learned, but whether the sequence thus far
noted is always maintained remains to be determined. From Saucy Calf,
one of the three surviving Osage regarded as past masters in these
ceremonies, phonographic records of the first of the ceremonies, the
Waxoʹbe-awathoⁿ, have been made in its entirety, consisting of 80 songs
with words and music and 7 prayers. All these have been transcribed and
in part translated into English, comprising a manuscript exceeding 300
pages. In order to discuss with the Osage the meaning of these rituals,
Mr. La Flesche found it necessary to commit them to memory, as reading
from the manuscript disconcerted the old seer. At Saucy Calf’s
invitation Mr. La Flesche witnessed in the autumn, at Grayhorse, a
performance of the ceremony of the Waxoʹbe-awathoⁿ, the recitation of
the rituals of which requires one day, part of a night, and more than
half of the following day. It is Mr. La Flesche’s purpose to record, if
possible, the rituals of the remaining six divisions of the
Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta. He has already obtained a paraphrase of the
seventh ceremony (the Nikʼinoⁿkʼoⁿ), and hopes soon to procure a
phonographic record of all the rituals pertaining thereto.
In connection with his ethnological work Mr. La Flesche has been so
fortunate as to obtain for the National Museum four of the waxoʹbe, or
sacred packs, each of which formed a part of the paraphernalia of the
Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta, as well as a waxoʹbe-toⁿʹga, the great waxoʹbe
which contains the instruments for tattooing. Only those Osage are
tattooed who have performed certain acts prescribed in the rites of the
Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta. The rites of the tattooing ceremony are yet to be
recorded and elucidated. While the waxoʹbe is the most sacred of the
articles that form the paraphernalia of the Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta rites,
it is not complete in itself; other things are indispensable to their
performance, and it is hoped that these may be procured at some future
time.
While not recorded as one of the ceremonial divisions of the
Noⁿʹhoⁿzhiⁿga Ieʹta, there is a ceremony so closely connected with it
that it might well be regarded as a part thereof; that is the
Washaʹbeathiⁿ watsi, or the dance of the standards. The introductory
part of this ceremony is called Akixage, or weeping over one another in
mutual sympathy by the members of the two great divisions of the tribe.
There is no regular time for the performance of the Washaʹbeathiⁿ
ceremony. It is given only when a member of the tribe loses by death
some specially loved and favored relative and seeks a ceremonial
expression of sympathy from the entire tribe. It is the intention to
procure the songs and rituals of this ceremony, and specimens of the
standards employed in its performance.
Altogether Mr. La Flesche has made excellent progress in his study of
the Osage people, and the results are already shedding light on the
organization and the origin and function of the ceremonies of this
important tribe.
SPECIAL RESEARCHES
The special researches of the bureau in the field of linguistics were
conducted by Dr. Franz Boas, honorary philologist, one of the immediate
and tangible results of which was the publication of Part 1 of the
Handbook of American Indian Languages. It seems desirable to restate at
the present time the development of the plan and the object of this
work.
Through the efforts of the late Major Powell and his collaborators a
great number of vocabularies and a few grammars of American Indian
languages had been accumulated, but no attempt had been made to give a
succinct description of the morphology of all the languages of the
continent. In order to do this, a series of publications was necessary.
The subject matter had to be represented by a number of grammatical
sketches, such as are now being assembled in the Handbook of American
Indian Languages. To substantiate the inductions contained in this
grammar, collections of texts are indispensable to the student, and
finally a series of extended vocabularies are required. The plan, as
developed between 1890 and 1900, contemplated the assembling in the
bulletin series of the bureau of a series of texts which were to form
the basis of the handbook. Of this series, Doctor Boas’s Chinook,
Kathlamet, and Tsimshian Texts, and Swanton’s Haida and Tlingit Texts,
subsequently published, form a part, but at the time Swanton’s Texts
appeared it was believed by Secretary Langley that material of this
kind was too technical in character to warrant publication in a
governmental series. It was, therefore, decided to discontinue the text
series in the bulletins of the bureau and to divert them to the
Publications of the American Ethnological Society and the Columbia
University Contributions to Anthropology. Other series were commenced
by the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania. The
method of publication pursued at the present time, though different
from that first planned, is acceptable, since all the material is
accessible to students, and the bureau is saved the expense of
publication.
Doctor Boas has been enabled to base all the sketches in the first
volume of his handbook on accompanying text series, as follows:
(1) Athapascan. Texts published by the University of California.
(2) Tlingit. Texts published by the Bureau of American Ethnology,
but too late to be used systematically.
(3) Haida. Texts published by the Bureau of American Ethnology.
(4) Tsimshian. Texts published by the Bureau of American Ethnology
and the American Ethnological Society.
(5) Kwakiutl. Texts published by the Jesup Expedition and in the
Columbia University series.
(6) Chinook. Texts published by the Bureau of American Ethnology.
(7) Maidu. Texts published by the American Ethnological Society,
but too late to be used.
(8) Algonquian. Texts published by the American Ethnological
Society.
(9) Sioux. Texts in Contributions to North American Ethnology.
(10) Eskimo. Texts in “Meddelelser om Grønland,” but not used
systematically.
Although Doctor Boas has urged the desirability of undertaking the
publication of the series of vocabularies, no definite steps have yet
been taken toward the realization of this plan, owing largely to lack
of funds for the employment of assistants in preparing the materials.
It is hoped, however, that such a series of vocabularies, based on the
published grammars and on the series of texts above referred to, may be
prepared for publication in the near future. Much of the preliminary
work has been done. There are, for example, extended manuscript
dictionaries of the Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, Chinook, and Sioux, but
none of them is yet ready for the printer.
The work on Part 2 of the Handbook of American Indian Languages is
progressing satisfactorily. The sketch of the Takelma is in page form
(pp. 1–296), but Doctor Boas has undertaken the correlation of this
sketch with the Takelma Texts, which meanwhile have been published by
the University of Pennsylvania, and a considerable amount of work
remains to be done to finish this revision. The Coos grammar is in
galleys. The Coos Texts are at the present writing being printed by the
American Ethnological Society, and here also references are being
inserted. Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg has continued his collection of
material for the handbook with commendable energy and intelligence. The
field work has been financially aided by Columbia University, partly
through a gift made by Mrs. Henry Villard and partly through funds
provided by Mr. Homer E. Sargent. It has also been possible to utilize
for the work on the Alsea the collections made at a former time by
Prof. Livingston Farrand on an expedition supported by the late Mr.
Henry Villard. On his last expedition Doctor Frachtenberg was able to
determine that the Siuslaw is an independent stock, although
morphologically affiliated with the Alsea, Coos, and Siuslaw group. He
also collected extensive material on the Alsea and Molala.
The most important result, which is appearing more and more clearly
from the investigations carried out under the direction of Doctor Boas,
lies in the fact that it will be possible to classify American
languages on a basis wider than that of linguistic stocks. In 1893
Doctor Boas called attention to the fact that a number of languages in
northern British Columbia seem to have certain morphological traits in
common, by which they are sharply differentiated from all the
neighboring languages, although the evidence for a common origin of the
stocks is unsatisfactory. Doctor Boas and his assistants have followed
this observation, and it can now be shown that throughout the continent
languages may be classed in wider morphological groups. It is
interesting to note that phonetic groups may be distinguished in a
similar manner, but these do not coincide with the morphological
groups. These observations are in accord with the results of modern
inquiries in Africa and Asia, where the influence of Hamitic phonetics
on languages of the Sudan and the influence of Sumerian on early
Babylonian have been traced in a similar manner. Analogous conditions
seem to prevail also in South Africa, where the phonetics of the
Bushman languages have influenced the neighboring Bantu languages. In
this way a number of entirely new and fundamental problems in
linguistic ethnography have been formulated, the solution of which is
of the greatest importance for a clear understanding of the early
history of the American Continent.
The Handbook of American Indian Languages as planned at the present
time deals exclusively with an analytical study of the morphology of
each linguistic family, without any attempt at a detailed discussion of
phonetic processes, their influence upon the development of the
language, and the relation of dialects. Doctor Boas recommends that the
present Handbook of American Indian Languages be followed by a series
of handbooks each devoted to a single linguistic stock, in which the
development of each language, so far as it can be traced by comparative
studies, should be treated.
The study of aboriginal American music was conducted among the Chippewa
Indians by Miss Frances Densmore, who extended her field of work
previously begun among that people and elaborated the system of
analyzing their songs. After spending several weeks on the Lac du
Flambeau Reservation in Wisconsin she accompanied the Chippewa from
that reservation to the Menominee Reservation in the same State, where
the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa ceremonially presented two drums to the
Menominee. This ceremony was closely observed, photographs being taken
and the speeches of presentation translated, and the songs of the
ceremony were recorded by Miss Densmore on a phonograph after the
return of the drum party to Lac du Flambeau. Many of the songs are of
Sioux origin, as the ceremony was adopted from that people;
consequently the songs were analyzed separately from those of Chippewa
origin. Numerous old war songs were recorded at Lac du Flambeau, also
songs said to have been composed during dreams, and others used as
accompaniments to games and dances. The analytical tables published
during the year in Bulletin 45, Chippewa Music, have been combined by
Miss Densmore with those of songs collected during the year 1910–11,
making a total of 340 Chippewa songs under analysis. These are analyzed
in 12 tables, showing the structure, tone material, melodic
progression, and rhythm of the songs, the rhythm of the drum, the
relation between the metric unit of the voice and drum, and other
points bearing on the development and form of primitive musical
expression. This material is now almost ready for publication. The
Sioux songs of the Drum-presentation ceremony, similarly analyzed,
constitute the beginning of an analytical study of the Sioux music,
which will be continued and extended during the fiscal year 1911–12.
Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mr. La Flesche conducted the final proof
revision of their monograph on the Omaha tribe, to accompany the
Twenty-seventh Annual Report, which was in press at the close of the
fiscal year. This memoir will comprise 658 printed pages and will form
the most complete monograph of a single tribe that has yet appeared.
Mr. J. P. Dunn, whose studies of the Algonquian tribes of the Middle
West have been mentioned in previous reports, deemed it advisable,
before continuing his investigation of the languages of the tribes
comprising the former Illinois confederacy, to await the completion of
the copying of the anonymous manuscript Miami-French Dictionary,
attributed to Père Joseph Ignatius Le Boulanger, in the John Carter
Brown Library at Providence, Rhode Island. Through the courteous
permission of Mr. George Parker Winship, librarian, the bureau has been
enabled to commence the copying of this manuscript, the difficult task
being assigned to Miss Margaret Bingham Stillwell, under Mr. Winship’s
immediate direction. At the close of the fiscal year 20½ pages of the
original (comprising 95 pages of transcript), of the total of 155 pages
of the dictionary proper, were finished and submitted to the bureau. It
is hoped that on the completion of the copying the bureau will have a
basis for the study of the Miami and related languages that would not
be possible among the greatly modified remnant of the Indians still
speaking them.
Prof. Howard M. Ballou, of Honolulu, has continued the preparation of
the List of Works Relating to Hawaii, undertaken in collaboration with
the late Dr. Cyrus Thomas, and during the year submitted the titles of
many early publications, including those of obscure books printed in
the Hawaiian language.
Mr. John P. Harrington, of the School of American Archæology, proceeded
in March to the Colorado Valley in Arizona and California for the
purpose of continuing his studies, commenced a few years before, among
the Mohave Indians, and incidentally to make collections for the United
States National Museum. Mr. Harrington was still among these Indians at
the close of July, and the results of his studies, which cover every
phase of the life of this interesting people, are to be placed at the
disposal of the bureau for publication.
PUBLICATIONS
The general editorial work of the bureau continued in immediate charge
of Mr. J. G. Gurley, editor. The editing of Part 2 of Bulletin 30,
Handbook of American Indians, was conducted by Mr. Hodge, while the
editorial supervision of Bulletin 40, Handbook of American Indian
Languages, was in charge of Doctor Boas. At the close of the fiscal
year the Twenty-seventh Annual Report was nearly ready for the bindery;
more than one-third of Bulletin 40, Part 2, was in type (mostly in
pages); and Bulletin 47, a Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages,
by Dorsey and Swanton, was in page form. Some progress had been made in
the revision of the galley proof of Bulletin 46, Byington’s Choctaw
Dictionary, a work requiring the expenditure of considerable time and
labor. Much of Mr. Gurley’s time during the year was given to the work
of editing and proof reading the Twenty-seventh Annual Report and its
accompanying paper, the monograph on the Omaha tribe, by Miss Fletcher
and Mr. La Flesche, above referred to. The following publications were
issued during the year:
Bulletin 30. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (F. W. Hodge,
editor), Part 2.
Bulletin 37. Antiquities of Central and Southeastern Missouri (Gerard
Fowke).
Bulletin 40. Handbook of American Indian Languages (Franz Boas,
editor), Part 1.
Bulletin 43. Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent
Coast of the Gulf of Mexico (J. R. Swanton).
Bulletin 44. Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America and their
Geographical Distribution (Cyrus Thomas and J. R. Swanton).
Bulletin 45. Chippewa Music (Frances Densmore).
Bulletin 50. Preliminary Report on a Visit to the Navaho National
Monument, Arizona (J. Walter Fewkes).
Bulletin 51. Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace
(J. Walter Fewkes).
ILLUSTRATIONS
The preparation of the illustrations for the publications of the bureau
and the making of photographic portraits of the members of visiting
deputations of Indians were in charge of Mr. De Lancey Gill,
illustrator. Of the 246 negatives made, 120 comprise portraits of
visiting Indians. In addition, 372 photographic films, exposed by
members of the bureau in connection with their field work, were
developed and printed. Photographic prints for publication and exchange
were made to the number of 1,469, and 22 drawings for use as
illustrations were prepared. Mr. Gill was assisted, as in the past, by
Mr. Henry Walther.
LIBRARY
The library of the bureau has continued in the immediate charge of Miss
Ella Leary, librarian. During the year that part of the southeastern
gallery of the lower main hall of the Smithsonian Building which was
vacated by the National Museum was assigned to the use of the bureau
library, and three additional stacks were built, providing shelf room
for about 2,500 volumes. Nearly that number of books which had been
stored, and consequently made inaccessible, were placed on the new
shelves. The policy carried out from year to year of increasing the
library by exchange with other institutions has been continued, and
special effort made to complete the collection of serial publications.
Especially to be noted is the completion of the sets of publications of
the Maine Historical Society and the Archives of Pennsylvania, both
rich in material pertaining to the Indians. As in the past, it has been
necessary for the bureau to make use of the Library of Congress from
time to time, about 200 volumes having been borrowed during the year.
Twelve hundred books and approximately 650 pamphlets were received, in
addition to the current numbers of more than 600 periodicals. Of the
books and pamphlets received, 148 were acquired by purchase, the
remainder by gift or exchange. Six hundred and eighty-nine volumes were
bound by the Government Printing Office, payment therefor being made
from the allotment “for printing and binding * * * annual reports and
bulletins of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and for miscellaneous
printing and binding,” authorized by the sundry civil act. This
provision has enabled the bureau, during the last two years, to bind
many volumes in almost daily use which were threatened with
destruction. The catalogue of the bureau now records 17,250 volumes;
there are also about 12,200 pamphlets, and several thousand unbound
periodicals. The library is constantly referred to by students not
connected with the bureau, as well as by various officials of the
Government service.
PROPERTY
As noted in previous reports, the principal property of the bureau
consists of its library, manuscripts, and photographic negatives. In
addition, it possesses a number of cameras, phonographic machines, and
ordinary apparatus and equipment for field work, stationery and office
supplies, a moderate amount of office furniture, typewriters, etc., and
the undistributed stock of its publications. The sum of $304.62 was
expended for office furniture (including bookstacks at a cost of $205)
during the fiscal year.
RECOMMENDATIONS
For the purpose of extending the systematic researches of the bureau
and of affording additional facilities for its administration, the
following recommendations are made:
A question having arisen in the Committee on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives as to the purpose for which an increase of
$2,000 in the bureau’s appropriation in 1909 was intended, the work of
excavating and repairing antiquities existing in national parks and
monuments has been curtailed. The importance of elucidating the
archeological problems connected with these ancient remains and of
repairing the more important of them for visitors and for future
students is so apparent that the need of continuing this work is
generally recognized; consequently an estimate of $4,000 “for the
exploration and preservation of antiquities” has been submitted for the
next fiscal year.
Ethnological research in Alaska is urgently needed by reason of the
great changes taking place among the Indians and the Eskimo since the
influx of white people a few years ago. Unless this investigation is
undertaken at once the aboriginal inhabitants will have become so
modified by contact with whites that knowledge of much of their
primitive life will be lost. It is recommended that the sum of $4,500
be appropriated for this work.
The more speedy extension of ethnological researches among the remnants
of the Algonquian tribes formerly occupying the Middle West is desired.
In a number of cases these tribes are represented by only a few
survivors who retain any knowledge of the traits, language, and customs
of their people; hence it will be impossible to gather much of this
information unless the work is extended more rapidly, as the funds now
at the bureau’s disposal for this purpose are inadequate. The
additional sum of $1,000 is recommended for this purpose.
As previously stated, the demand for the Handbook of American Indians
has been so great that many schools and libraries have necessarily been
denied. The need of a revised edition is urgent, but the revision can
not be satisfactorily undertaken and the latest information
incorporated without the employment of special ethnologic
assistants—those who have devoted special study to particular
tribes—and editorial and clerical aid. It is recommended that the sum
of $3,800 be appropriated for this purpose.
The bureau is constantly in receipt of requests from schools,
historical societies, compilers of textbooks, etc., for photographic
prints of Indian subjects, since it is generally known that the bureau
possesses many thousands of negatives accumulated in the course of its
investigations. As no funds are now available for this purpose, it is
recommended that a reasonable sum, say $1,000, be appropriated for the
purpose of furnishing prints for educational purposes. In most cases
applicants would doubtless be willing to pay the cost, but at present
the bureau has no authority for selling photographs.
The manuscripts accumulated by the bureau form a priceless collection;
indeed many of them, if lost, could not be replaced, since they
represent the results of studies of Indians who have become extinct or
have lost their tribal identity. It is therefore urgently recommended
that the sum of $1,350 be appropriated for fireproofing a room and for
providing metal cases for the permanent preservation of the
manuscripts.
F. W. Hodge,
Ethnologist-in-Charge.
ACCOMPANYING PAPER
SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS
Part 1
Collected by JEREMIAH CURTIN and J. N. B. HEWITT;
edited by J. N. B. HEWITT
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 43