534 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



know that the work is his as well as mine, and that he is giving the 

 best that is in him. 



The ideal place for recording Indian songs is a detached building 

 which is not so isolated as to give an impression of secrecy nor so 

 conveniently located that Indians will linger around the door. The 

 building should be near the agency and trading post, so the Indians 

 can attend to business if they wish to do so. This was important in 

 the old days when they often came 25 miles or more on horseback. 

 Such an ideal "office" is rare, but the superintendents of the reserva- 

 tions have always given me the best facilities at their disposal. I have 

 recorded in an agent's parlor and in his office on a Saturday afternoon, 

 and also at a Protestant mission. I have even recorded in a school 

 laundry, with the tubs pushed back against the wall, and in an 

 agency jail that was not in use at the time. A tar-paper shack was 

 my office for more than a month on the Dakota prairie when the 

 temperature in similar shacks was 116 — there was no shade for miles 

 around. 



I remember with queer affection an office at Fort Yates, N. Dak., that 

 had been part of the kitchen of the old fort. Subsequently it had 

 been used as a coal shed, and it had neither door nor windows when I 

 took over. The agent let a prisoner from the guardhouse help me fix 

 it up and he suggested boring holes in the floor to let the water run 

 through, when the floor was cleaned. He made steps, rehung the 

 door, and nailed window sash over the openings, and I pasted paper 

 over the broken plaster and used packing boxes as tables. For many 

 weeks I used that office, and the Indians felt at home there, which is 

 important. I stayed until the weather was bitter cold and the snow 

 was piled high around the door. A little stove kept the place warm 

 and I nailed a blanket over the door after entering, in order to keep 

 out the bitter wind that blew down the Missouri Eiver. One trial 

 was that the mice did not move with the soldiers and their descendants 

 had populated the building. They frisked around the floor and hid 

 behind the paper on the wall. Once I found one under my typewriter 

 when I came back at noon. 



Among the Sioux who recorded songs in this office was Siva' ka 

 (pi. 1), a particularly fine man, who recorded 29 songs, including 

 songs of the Sun Dance, the warpath, and the buffalo hunt. 



Many hundreds of songs have been recorded in schoolrooms during 

 the summer vacation and in the homes of Indians. Henry Thunder, 

 a Winnebago, refused to sing unless he could record in a grove, where 

 he could see in all directions and be sure that no one would overhear 

 him (pi. 2). I have recorded in a hospital, when a singer was able 

 to sit up long enough to sing, and in the issue room of an agency, with 

 its meat block and boxes, in the warehouse of a bridge company, and 



