APPENDIX 2. 



REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 



Sir : In response to your request I have the honor to submit the fol- 

 lowing report on the field researches, office work, and other opera- 

 tions of the Bureau of American Ethnology during the fiscal year 

 ended June 30, 1920, conducted in accordance with the act of Con- 

 gress approved July 19, 1919. The act referred to contains the 

 following item : 



American ethnology: For continuing ethnological researches among the 

 American Indians and the natives of Hawaii, including the excavation and 

 preservation of archeologic remains, under the direction of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, including necessary employees and the purchase of necessary books 

 and periodicals, $42,000. 



Ethnology is the study of man in groups or races and aims to 

 contribute to our knowledge of racial culture and advance our appre- 

 ciation of racial accomplishment. The researches of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology deal with the aborigines of the United States 

 and the Hawaiian Islanders. 



The material from which we may secure this knowledge is rapidly 

 disappearing or being absorbed into modern life. The culture of the 

 aboriginal inhabitants has in a great measure vanished, but modern 

 survivals still remain, and it is one object of the bureau to record 

 these survivals while this is possible, thus rescuing what remains as 

 a partial record of the culture of the race. This is essential in order 

 that our knowledge of the North American Indian may neither be 

 distorted by prejudice nor exalted by enthusiastic glorification. 



In linguistics the necessity of recording those languages that are 

 in danger of extinction is urgent. Several of these are now spoken 

 only by a few survivors — old men or women — and when they die 

 this knowledge which they possess will disappear forever. Our 

 Indians had a large literature and mythology, which on account of 

 their ignorance of letters they did not record. This is rapidly being 

 lost, and it is our duty to secure the information at once before it 

 loses its aboriginal character. The lexical and grammatical structure 

 of the different Indian languages, their phonetic peculiarities, and 

 their relations to each other also require intensive studies, which 

 have been industriously pursued by the linguists of the bureau. 



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