REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51 



Indeed, its use by white,, toixristw, fislienuen, liuntens, etc., i.s ai)parently iucreaHiiij^ in 

 northern United States and .C'anada. Various other birch-liark artifacts are in use 

 among whites as well as natives. ,Tlie half conventif)nal, half syniboli(r juakok, or 

 maple-sugar box, proves to form a convenient household utensil; birch-bark l)askets 

 of different forms are found useful as well as artistic; and on the whole it would 

 appear that the birch-bark industry is not only increasing in conseciuence of <lemands 

 by whites, but that it serves as a helpful stepping-stone from the jirimitive customs 

 of the Indian toward the free and self-supporting citizenship which is the Indian's 

 ultimate goal. Exigencies connected with the editorial wurk of the oliice compelled 

 Dr. Jenks to divert a part of liis time from the research. At'cordingly, the work was 

 not quite completed at the end of the liscal >ear, when Dr. Jenks was, at the request 

 of the Director of the Philippine Bureau of Nonchristian Tribes, furloughed for a 

 year, with a view to the more effective introduction of the methods (^f the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology in the Philippine researches. 



For several years Mr. J. D. McGuire has been engaged in investigating certain 

 lines of aboriginal technology, and certain of his results have been pu))lislied in the 

 reports of the United States National INIuseum. During the last fiscal year he began, 

 at the instance of the Director, a critical stud}' of the earliest records of aboriginal 

 technology made by the (^oncjuistadores, missionaries, and other pioneers. During 

 the year just closed he continued the work and has made a series of extracts from 

 the records which have proved of great use to the Director and the collaboratora 

 engaged in field researches. The extracts are arranged on cards, and certain install- 

 ments of these have been acquired for the use of the Bureau. 



WORK IN SOCIOLOGY. 



Throughout most of the year the time of the Ethnologist in Charge has been so 

 fully occupied with administrative work, largely relating to publication of the reports, 

 as to somewhat delay his sociologic inquiries; yet fair progress has been made. ( )ne of 

 the S2)ecial incpairies of the year relates t(j what may be calleil, by extension of common 

 terms, aboriginal land tenure, this investigation being rendered timely l)y current 

 progress in the allotment of lands in severalty to former tribesmen, as well as l)y recent 

 occupancy of territory formerly inhabited by native tribes in Alaska, Hawaii, and the 

 Philippines. The researches indicate that primitive peoples have no conception of 

 land tenure in the sense in which the terms are employed by civilized and enlightened 

 peoples. In the first place, there is no recognition of individual title to lands or 

 other natural values, for any such values are regarded as pertaining to the clan, the 

 gens, or the tribe, i. e., i)ossession is communal rather tlian individual. In the second 

 place, the property sense is especially inchoate as a[)plied to lands, which are viewed 

 as natural ranges for men and animals, i. c, for local tribes and local fauna; and 

 there is no recognition of ownership or title inimical to the natural and coordinate 

 rights of other men and beasts. True, tliere is among most tribes a vague sense of 

 prescriptive right to long occupied territory, i. e., to tlie liome of the ancients who 

 play so prominent a role in primitive philosophy, so that commonly a tribe feels it a 

 right and a filial duty to protect the home range against permanent invasion by aliens; 

 yet the vague riglit so recognized scarcely applies to the land per se, but only to the 

 rights of the chase, fisiieries, fruits, and any cultivated products, personal hal)ita- 

 tions, quarries or clay pits, etc., i. e., to what may be called the usufruct of the soil. 

 In other words, the attitude of the savage or barbarian toward property in land is 

 much like that of American citizens during the last century toward property in water, 

 i. e., in the rains, rivers, lakes, seas, artesian water, ordinary ground water, etal., 

 during recent decades the idea of projierty in water has grown up in tlu; less humid 

 districts and is rapidly extending, yet the development of the concept is slow, even 

 in the minds of the most intelligent people. Perhaps a closer parallel may be found 



