52 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



tinal collections of ethnologic material and to complete his studies of the ritual and 

 initiatory ceremonies of the Grand Medicine Society, a meeting of which body had 

 been called for this special purpose. He returned to Washington in June, 1892. 



Mr. James Mooney, during the held months of the fiscal year, continued the col- 

 h?ctiou for an exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition, of objects to illustrate 

 the daily life, arts, dress, and ceremonies of the Kiowa in the southeastern part of the 

 Indian Territory. That tribe was selected as continuing in its primitive condition 

 more perfectly than any other which could be examined with profit. He succeeded 

 in making a tribal collection which is practically complete, including almost every 

 article in use among the Kiowas for domestic uses, and for war, ceremony, amuse- 

 ment, or dress. A number of illustrating photogrnphs were also obtained. On his 

 return in August this collection was labeled and arranged in cases ready for trans- 

 portation to Chicago on the opening of the Exposition, and by means of the photo- 

 grajjhs and costumes obtained several groups of life-size figures were prepared to 

 show characteristic scenes in Indian life. 



In November he again set forth to obtain additional information upon the ghost 

 dance, especially among the principal tribes not before visited. After a short stay 

 in Nebraska with the Omahas and W' innebagoes, neither of whom, as it was found, 

 had taken any prominent x>art in the dance, he went to the Sioux at Pine Ridge 

 Agency, S. Dak., the chief seat of the late outbreak, where he collected a largo 

 number of songs of the dance and much miscellaneous information on the sub- 

 ject. From there he went to the Piiites in Nevada, among whom the Messiah and 

 originator of the ghost dance resides. Here he obtained the statement of the doc- 

 trine from the lii)s of the Messiah himself, took his portrait, the only one ever taken, 

 and obtained a number of dance songs in the Piute language. He then returned to 

 the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in the Indian Territory, among whom he had l)egun 

 the study of the dance, and obtained from them the original hotter which the Mes- 

 siah had given them, containing the authentic statement of his doctrine and the 

 manner in which they were to observe the ceremonial. He returned to Washington 

 in February. 



In May he again started out to gather additional ethnologic material, especially 

 with regard to the Kiowas, and to obtain further collections for the World's Co- 

 umbian Exposition. Going first to the Sioux, he proceeded next to the Shoshones 

 and Northern Arai)ahoes, in Wyoming, and then turned south to the Kiowas, in the 

 Indian Territory, where he was still at work at the close of the fiscal year. 



Mr. H. W. Heushaw, on May 14, 1892, proceeded to New Mexico and California 

 for the ])nrposo of pursuing certain linguistic investigations and to make collections 

 for the World's Columbian Exposition. This duty was continued until the close of 

 the fiscal year. 



Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, from January 14 to February 21, 1892, made a trip to Le- 

 compte, Rapides Parish, La., for the purpose of gaining information from the sur- 

 vivors of the Biloxi tribe. He found only one person, an aged woman, who spoke 

 the language in its purity, and two others, a man and his wife (the latter the 

 daughter of the old woman), whose dialect contains numerous modifications of the 

 ancient language. From these three persons he obtained several myths and other 

 texts in the Biloxi language, material for a Biloxi-English dictionary, local names, 

 personal names, names of clans, kinship terms, lists of flora and fauna, with their 

 Biloxi names, and grammatical notes. Ho filled many of the schedules of a coi»y of 

 the second edition of " Powell's Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages" 

 (English-Biloxi in this instance). He brought to Washington a few botanical speci- 

 mens, for which he had gained the Biloxi names, in order to obtain their scientific 

 names from the botanists of the Smithsonian Institution. He photographed three 

 Biloxi men and two women, all that could bo found. There were about seven other 

 Biloxi residing in the pine forest 6 or 7 miles from Lecompte, but they would not 

 be interviewed. The Biloxi language contains many words which resemble their 



