PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 201 



CATAI.OG1LJE OF CASTS TAKEIV BY CliARM MBILILS, ESQ., ©F TME HEADS 

 OF SDJITY-FOHJR IZSIBBAK PRISONERS OF VARnOHS WES'I'ER:V TCSDEES, 

 AJSE) EIEILO AT FORT MARflOX, SAINT AUGCSTUNE, FliA., IN CHARCiE OF 

 CAPT. R. H. PRATT, U. S. A. 



The atteutioii of anthropologists in later years has been directed very 

 closely to the shape of the head, of the lineaments, and of the external 

 form generally of mankind during life, instead of being confined to that 

 of the cranium and the skeleton, and every opportunity of securing 

 accurate casts, in plaster, of the native races of a country is eagerly 

 embraced. The face masks made by the brothers Schlagintweit, of 

 Asiatic tribes, are well-known standard objects in the principal eth- 

 nological collections of tbe world and constitute the largest single 

 series yet brought together. 



It has always been difficult to obtain face casts of the North Ameri- 

 can Indians. They manifest a deeply rooted aversion to the process 

 required, and, indeed, a superstitious fear generally of being imitated 

 in any manner, even by the pencil or camera. The face masks from 

 nature now in existence have, for the most part, been taken from the 

 dead, with tbe consequent lack ot vital expression, and the opportunity 

 of obtaining life-like similitudes of 64 Indian prisoners of war, of at 

 least six different tribes, was promptly embraced by the Smithsonian 

 Institution. No difiBculty was experienced in securing these casts, as 

 the Indians had every confidence in the statements of Captain Pratt, 

 who had them in command, that there would be nothing detrimental to 

 either soul or body in the process, and, indeed, he himself was first sub- 

 jected to it to reassure them. In fact, understanding that the casts 

 were destined for the city of the Great Father at Washington, there to 

 be preserved forever, one invalid whose treatment was deferred until the 

 last could scarcely be satisfied even with the assurance that he should 

 not be neglected. — S. F. Bated. 



Letter from Captain Pratt. 



Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla., 



February 9, 1878. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. : 

 Dear Sir: In reply to yours of the 23d of January, I am authorized to 

 forward the categorical list and offenses of the prisoners, compiled 

 from the official reports of the officers having tbe matter of looking up 

 offenders in charge at Indian agencies. I have added to that list the 

 date and place of arrest or capture, and the date of death of those who 

 have died. To give the other information asked, I add in general some 

 account of our later dealings with these people. This you can abridge 

 or rearrange to your purpose. 



Down to less than thirty years ago these tribes roamed without hiu- 

 derauce from the Platte Eiver to the Gulf of Mexico, ranging through 



