20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



fruitful investigations in various localities in China, latterly at 

 Yii-ho Chen, in Honan, where some burials of the Han dynasty have 

 been thoroughly investigated with gratifying results. Even more 

 important is the cooperative agreement with regard to archeological 

 investigation established between the gallery and the Chinese au- 

 thorities, which was confirmed by the unsolicited appointment of 

 Mr. Bishop as Honorary Adviser in Archeology to the Historical De- 

 partment of the Chinese Government. This is the first definite effort 

 of the kind to bring Chinese archeologists and officials together in a 

 beneficial relationship with western archeologists and museums, 

 which it is hoped will provide a basis for more enlightened scholar- 

 ship and gradually supplant the ruthless and unscientific collecting 

 of Chinese antiquities on a commercial scale as hitherto allowed. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



The aim of the Bureau of American Ethnology is to discover and 

 disseminate correct ideas of the Indian as a race, that our people 

 may better understand and appreciate his history, language, soci- 

 ology, music, religion, and various arts and industries. The sources 

 of this information are from year to year becoming fewer and fewer 

 as the customs indigenous to America are lost in the settlement of 

 the former homes of the Indians by the white race. It is therefore 

 imperative that intensive work be carried on by the staff of the 

 bureau to record accurately as much as possible of this material from 

 the Indians themselves before it is too late. 



The greatly increased number of visitors to the national parks and 

 Indian reservations of the Western States, due to the present popu- 

 larity of automobile touring, has led to a desire on the part of the 

 general public for more information on the history and customs of 

 the Indians, and urgent calls from universities and other institutions 

 for advice and assistance in local problems relating to the Indians 

 have been more numerous than ever before. The bureau's most effec- 

 tJA'e means of supplying this information and answering these calls 

 is its unique series of publications on every phase of Indian Hfe and 

 culture. With the greatly increased cost of printing and the very 

 limited funds for the purpose placed at the disposal of the bureau, 

 there has resulted a very unfortunate congestion of manuscripts 

 awaiting publication. It is usually two or three years after a report 

 is handed in by a member of the staff before it can even be sent to 

 the printer, which not only results in difficulty in supplying the 

 requests of the public but is very discouraging to the scientific staff 

 who are carrying on this work. 



A large proportion of the time of the chief of the bureau is de- 

 voted to administrative work, but opportunity was found to carry on 



