REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 57 



During the year Dr. John K. Swanton, ethnologist, employed most 

 of his time in completing an extensive report on the Indians of the 

 Southeast, upon which work had been done during several past 

 years, and which covers about 1,500 typewritten pages. This is now 

 ready for final copy and editing. 



The bulletin entitled "Source Material on the Ethnology and His- 

 tory of the Caddo Indians," upon which he was at work last year 

 is now in galley proof. It will cover about 350 printed pages. A 

 brief contribution by Dr. Swanton entitled "The Quipu and Peruvian 

 Civilization" has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming 

 bulletin of anthropological papers and is now in the hands of the 

 printer. 



Early in the year the bulletin prepared by Dr. Swanton entitled 

 "Linguistic Material from the Tribes of Southern Texas and North- 

 eastern Mexico," was completed and distributed. It contains all of 

 the fragments of the Coahuiltecan, Karankawan, and Tamaulipecan 

 tongues known to be in existence, and covers 145 pages. 



Considerable time has also been devoted by Dr. Swanton to answer- 

 ing letters, including particularly extension of advice regarding the 

 placing of markers along the route pursued by Hernando de Soto 

 and work for the United States Board on Geographical Names. 



At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. John P. Harrington, eth- 

 nologist, was engaged in working over Navaho materials and those 

 of the closely related Tlingit language of Alaska. Recent field 

 studies had proved that something like 200 words of Navaho and 

 Tlingit are almost the same despite the 2,000-mile separation of the 

 two languages. Sometimes the same word was found to be applied 

 to two very different organisms; for instance, what is crab apple in 

 the north is cactus in the south (spininess being the trait which these 

 two plants evidently have in common), and jack pine in the north 

 was found to be juniper in the south. 



Tlingit was copiously recorded in southeastern Alaska, and the 

 Ugalenz language, related to the Tlingit and to the Navaho, was 

 discovered and studied. The Ugalenz formerly occupied 350 miles 

 of southeastern Alaska coast, from Prince William Sound in the 

 west to Latuya Bay in the east. 



The origin of the name Sitka, the old Russian capital of Alaska, 

 was discovered. The name means "On the oceanward side of Bara- 

 nov Island." Shee is the name of Baranov Island, and Sitka is 

 situated on its oceanward side. 



Leaving in August for Gallup, N. Mex., Dr. Harrington worked 

 on many parts of the Navaho Reservation, finding a surprising uni- 

 formity in dialect. This unifonnity must have arisen from a jumb- 

 ling together of earlier Navaho dialects when the Navahos were in 



