REPORT or THE SECRETARY 57 



In June Dr. Collins left Washington for Martha's Vineyard, Mass., 

 to conduct a 6 weeks' archeological survej^ of the island. 



Returning to a study of the social organization and ceremonial life 

 of the Seneca Nation commenced before the war, Dr. William N. Fen- 

 ton, ethnologist, established field quarters on the Allegany Reserva- 

 tion between July 1 and September 18, when he returned to Washing- 

 ton. Observations made 10 years ago were repeated at meetings of 

 two orders of the Medicine Society, and observing the Green Corn 

 Festival for the fifth time afforded information on social and cultural 

 change. At the behest of one of the chiefs, Dr. Fenton recorded from 

 Fannie Stevens, matron of the Heron clan, several hundred personal 

 names belonging to the eight Seneca clans. Recordings made in 1945 

 for a forthcoming album of Seneca music were played repeatedly to 

 the singers and interpreters to assure accuracy of texts. With a 

 possible documentary film in mind, 700 feet of 16-mm. Kodachrome 

 moving pictures were taken of various activities in the Coldspring 

 community. An additional week of field work from October 7 to 12 

 permitted verifying some of the personal names in genealogies taken 

 in 1933. 



Cultural affinities between the northern Iroquoians and their 

 southern cousins, the Clierokee of the Great Smoky Mountains, have 

 occupied the attention of Bureau ethnologists since Mooney's time. 

 At the invitation of Lester M. Hargrett, of Washington, the bibli- 

 ographer of Indian Laws, Dr. Fenton motored to Cherokee, N. C, in 

 early December. We owe a brief and intensive introduction to 

 Cherokee ethnolog}^ to Will West Long, who was 17 when James 

 Mooney came to Cherokee and whose name is associated with the work 

 of every field ethnologist who ventured into Big Cove settlement from 

 1887 until March 14, 1947, when Will passed away. 



Dr. Fenton obtained information for contrasting the Boogah Dance 

 of the Cherokee with masked performances of the Iroquois False-face 

 Society, and some additional details were collected on the Eagle Dance, 

 a variant of the calumet ritual, which reached the Iroquois during the 

 eighteenth century by one documented line of diffusion from the 

 Catawba and Cherokee of the Southeast. When recordings of Cherokee 

 and Seneca Eagle Dance songs are compared, it will develop that 

 they are derived from a common source. Photographs were made of 

 the Cherokee mask-making process, and some portraits of Mr. Long in 

 characteristic Eagle Dance postures. A report of these findings has 

 been prepared for publication. 



Two collections of Americana seen on this trip deserve mention. The 

 MacGregor Collection in the Library of the University of Virginia 

 contains some notable early items on American Indians. Dr. T. H. 

 Spence, Librarian of the Historical Foundation of the Presbyterian 



