Appendix II. 

 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 



Sir: I have the honor to ask attention to the following report of opera- 

 tions in the Bureau of American Ethnology during the fiscal year ending 

 June;^0, 1901. 



These operations were conducted in accordance with the act of Congress 

 making provision "for continuing researches relating to the American 

 Indians under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution," approved 

 June 6, 1900, and with the formal plan submitted on June 9, 1900, and 

 approved by the Secretary on June 19, 1900. 



The field operations of the regular corps extended into Arizona, Lower 

 California (Mexico), British Columbia, California, Maine, New Mexico, 

 New York, North Carolina, Ontario, Sonora (Mexico), Virginia, and Wis- 

 consin; while special work has been carried forward l)y agents or tempo- 

 rary collaborators in several additional States, Territories, and provinces. 

 The office work has comprised the collection and prei^aration of material 

 from most of the States and Territories, as well as from various other 

 l)arts of the American hemisphere. 



The researches have been carried forward in accordance with an ethnic 

 system based chiefly on the work of the Bureau, though partly on the 

 observations and determinations of other scientific investigators in this 

 and other countries. 



The ethnic system develoj^ed and adopted in the Bureau is based pri- 

 marily on the human activities — i. e., on what men do and think — rather 

 than on mere physical features. Proceeding on this basis, the habits and 

 customs of the aborigines receive first attention; and the tribesmen are 

 classed l)y their languages and dialects, by their forms of social organiza- 

 tion, by their systems of belief and opinion, by their arts and industries; 

 so that the classification affords a means of measuring the susceptibility of 

 the various tribes to cinlization, to education, and to arrangement on res- 

 ervations in harmonious groups. The classification is thus essentially 

 jiractical. 



The practical tribal classification rests on a definition of the activities 

 discovered among the aborigines and other peoples largely during the past 

 quarter century. The primary activities thus discovered are esthetic; and 

 intimately connected with these are the industrial activities involved in 

 maintenance and welfare. Ecjually imjiortant are the social activities 

 shaping the collective existence of families, clans, tribes, and confedera- 

 cies; and the relations are regulated by linguistic activities, which are 

 highly important and indeed fundamental. Coordinate with these activi- 



SM 1901 5 ■ 65 



