62 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



daily life and activities of the Nunivagmiut, who have retained more 

 of their native culture than any other coastal-group Eskimo in Alaska. 



During July 1940 Dr. William N. Fenton, associate anthropologist, 

 was engaged in field work among the Senecas of Allegany Reserva- 

 tion, N. Y. Wliile here he delivered the St, Lawrence University 

 series of lectures at the Allegany School of Natural History. The 

 lectures on the Iroquoian Peoples of the Northeast covered prehis- 

 toric cultures of the area, the adjustment of the Iroquois to their 

 environment, their society and government, and their religious sys- 

 tem. At the Six Nations Reserve on Grand River, Ontario, Canada, 

 August 9 to September 1, the yearly cycle of ceremonies that are 

 currently celebrated at the Onondaga Longhouse were outlined by 

 Simeon Gibson and the principal speeches that constitute the bulk 

 of the annual Midwinter Festival were taken in Onondaga text and 

 translated. This study is an extension of previous investigations 

 of Seneca ceremonies which Dr. Fenton has published, and it adds 

 new material on the nature of village bands and their removals, 

 the function of moieties,, the nature of residence after marriage, and 

 the sororate which was practiced, at least by the Lower Cayugas. 

 Further assistance was rendered by Deputy Chief Hardy Gibson 

 with Hewitt's manuscript on the Requickening Address for installing 

 chiefs in the Iroquois League, which Dr. Fenton is editing for pub- 

 lication. 



Returning from the field September 15 with 300 photographic 

 negatives, largely of masks studied at museums in New York and 

 Ontario together with a series of their manufacture and use in 

 Iroquois fraternities, much time elapsed assembling pictures and 

 notes and arranging them for study. 



A special paper on The Place of the Iroquois in the Prehistory of 

 America was presented before the Anthropological Society of Wash- 

 ington; and Dr. Fenton also served as technical adviser for An 

 Indian League of Nations, which was broadcast October 27 on 

 "Tlie World is Yours" radio program. 



Work on two new research projects aimed at clearing up prob- 

 lems previously outlined was begun during the year. While serving 

 as consultant to the Pennsylvania Historical Commission on arche- 

 ological matters. Dr. Fenton contacted local historians who are col- 

 laborating in special phases of a study of Cornplanter's Senecas on 

 the upper Allegheny River; and it is planned to publish their find- 

 ings together with Quaker Mission Journals from 1798 which describe 

 Indian life and events attending Handsome Lake's revelations. In 

 quest of original sources. Dr. Fenton searched the Records of the 

 Yearly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, and visited the libraries 

 of Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges. In this project he has 

 had the active help of M. E. Deardorff of Warren, Pa., and C. E. 



