72 REPORT OP THE SECRETARY 



Indians of Texas and Caliibrnia was found in the State librarj\ At the 

 close of the year he was still at Saint Charles, La., studyinj^- and collect- 

 ing linguistic material of the language of the Atakapa Indians. 



Rev. J. Owen Dorsey visited the Siletz Agency, Oregon, in August, 

 1884, to gain linguistic and other information respecting the tribes in 

 that region. When he returned in November, 1884, he brought back 

 the following vocabularies: Athabascan family: Applegate Creek, Galioe 

 Creek, Chasta Costa, Mikono tunne. Tutu tunne (and Joshua), Yuk- 

 witce. Sixes, Naltunne tunne, Chetcoe, Smith River, Cal., and Uj)per 

 Coquille. YaJconan family: Siuslaw, Umpqua, Alsea, and Yaquina. 

 Unclassified vocabularies : Takelma or Upper Rogue River, Molluk or 

 Lower Coquille, Klikitat, Sasti. Total, nineteen vocabularies, ranging 

 from fifty to three thousand entries, exclusive of phrase and grammatical 

 notes. He also obtained materials for an account of the social orgaui- 

 zation of some of these Indians in villages, which appear to have beeu 

 clans, illustrated by rough maps, showing the localities of such villages. 

 Mr. Dorsey also gained the corresponding Indian names from several 

 tribes of about sixty vegetal products, specimens of which were brought 

 to Washington for identification. 



Dr. W. J. Hoffman proceeded early in August to Victoria, B. C, 

 where a large collection of sketches of Haida totem-posts and carvings 

 were obtained, in connection with the myths which they illustrated. 

 At this locality attention was paid to the burial places and osteologic 

 remains of the nearly extinct Songhish Indians. Meeting with a large 

 party of Haida Indians at Port Townsend, Wash., he exa rained a large 

 number of individuals of both sexes to study and sketch the tattooed 

 designs with which they were profusely decorated. Definitions and 

 explanations of these designs were obtained, together with the details 

 of the process employed in tattooing by the Haidas, as well as the other 

 tribes living on Puget Sound, Cape Flattery, etc. A collection of Es- 

 kimoan pictographs and ivory carvings were also copied at the museum 

 of the Alaska Commercial Company, San Francisco, Cal. 



At Santa Barbara, Cal., Dr. Hoflman discovered several interesting 

 painted records, and examined a number which have not yet been re- 

 corded. These records are usually found in mountainous country, and 

 near passes. Similar records were also visited 30 miles northeast of 

 Los Angeles, Cal., and at Tule Indian Agency, in the deep valleys on 

 the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, near Porterville. By far the 

 greatest amount of pictograi^hic material was collected in Owen's Val. 

 ley, Cal., where a number of series of petroglyphs are scattered over an 

 arid, sandy desert, the extremes being about 20 miles apart. Although 

 many of the characters appear to resemble some of the figures drawn 

 by the Moki of Arizona, the greater number have not as yet been noted 

 from any other portions of the United States. 



During the months of May and June Mr. W. H. Holmes visited 

 Mexico, and secured much valuable information upon the relative ages 



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