I 



KEPOBT OF THE SECRETARY 63 



short time on the Clieyenne. It is now possible to fornnilate some 

 of the phonetic shifts that have transformed Cheyenne from normal 

 Algonquian. It is also clear that some of the conmionest words in 

 normal Algonquian are lacking. He then took up work again among 

 the Kickapoo and obtained an even larger body of myths and tales. 

 Some new facts on their social organization were likewise obtained. 



Mr. John P. Harrington, ethnologist, worked during the 3'ear se- 

 curing tlie language and much of the ethnology of the San Juan 

 tribe of California through an aged and ill informant, Mi's. Ascen- 

 sion Solorsano, at Monterey, Calif. Having learned the language 

 which has scarcely been spoken since 1850, through the circumstance 

 that both her mother and father, who were fullblooded Indians, 

 talked it together all their lives, the mother dying at 84 years of age 

 and the father at 82, she retained a knowledge of an extinct language 

 and a dead culture, and lived long enough to enable Mr. Harrington 

 to record practically all that she knew, thus filling in a great blank in 

 California ethnology. So sick that she was scarcel}' able to sit up 

 even at the beginning of the work, Mr. Harrington continued this 

 work at her bedside until well into January, 1930, and no Indian 

 ever showed greater fortitude than this poor soul who served the 

 bureau up to almost her last day. The material recorded consisted 

 of every branch of linguistic and ethnological information and con- 

 tains many new anil important features. 



Mrs. Solorsano during all the latter part of her life was recog- 

 nized as a doctora. Her little home at Gilroy, Calif., was a free 

 hospital for down-and-outs of every nationality and creed, and here 

 the sick and ailing were treated witii Indian and Spanish herb medi- 

 cines and were seen through to the last with motherly care and no 

 thought of recompense. IMr. Harrington obtained full accounts of 

 how she treated all the various diseases, and of the herbs and other 

 metiiods employed. Specimens of the herbs were obtained and 

 identified by the division of plants of the National jNIuseum. 



Songs were obtained on the phonograph, and accounts of cere- 

 monies, and description of all the foods of the Indians and how 

 they were cooked were obtained. Accounts of the witcheries of the 

 medicine men take us back to earliest times, and are mingled with the 

 early history of the tribe at the San Juan Mission. Many stories 

 and anecdotes about early Indians were recorded and throw much 

 light on the thought and the language of the times. Names of 

 plants and animals and places were studied and identified. Dr. C. 

 Hart Merriam generously helping in this and other sections of the 

 work. In spite of her age and infirmities Dona Ascension's mind 

 remained remarkably clear and her memory was exceptional. No 

 greater piece of good fortune has ever attended cthnohjgical re- 

 search of a tribe that was culturally of the greatest importance, 



