THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Dr. Clark Wissler. Dr. Kroeber made this the most important 

 part of an investigation of the Arapaho, the funds for which 

 were provided through the hberahty of Mrs. Morris K. Jesup. 

 During the present year, the inquiry is being continued by Dr. 

 Wissler, among the Dakota. Through the work of these collect- 

 ors and the special attention paid by other investigators to the 

 same problem, the Museum possesses an unrivalled collection, il- 

 lustrating diverse forms of primitive art. Besides the collections 

 from the Arapaho and the Dakota, such collections from Mexico, 

 California, the North Pacific coast, the interior of British Colum- 

 bia, and from the Amur River are on exhibition. 



Two other important investigations have been taken up by 

 the Museum — one, a study of the Shoshone tribes, which has 

 been intrusted to Mr. H. St. Clair, 2nd; and the other, the study 

 of the Algonquin tribes, which is in the hands of Mr. William 

 Jones. These two investigations are being carried on jointly by 

 the -Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology. The stu- 

 dent who tries to understand the customs of a people must study 

 their language, if his work is to be thorough. It is therefore of 

 great advantage when linguistic and ethnological work can be 

 done together. The Bureau of Ethnology is making linguistic 

 researches, and therefore co-operation between the Bureau and 

 the Museum is highly advantageous to science. The ethno- 

 logical work of Messrs. Jones and St. Clair is done for the Mu- 

 seum, while their linguistic researches, largely based on records 

 of tribal traditions, belong to the Bureau of Ethnology. During 

 the present year, Mr. Jones is continuing his studies of the Sauk 

 and Fox, while Mr. St. Clair is spending the greater part of the 

 summer among the Comanche. He is also going to make a brief 

 tour of all the Shoshonian tribes with a view of laying out the 

 work for the coming years. Mr. Jones's work is intended to 

 cover, in course of time, other Algonquin tribes. 



Investigations are being carried on also among the Salish 

 tribes of Washington and British Columbia. Some of these tribes 

 had been studied before, in connection with the work of the 

 Jesup North Pacific expedition, because knowledge of their cul- 

 ture is required for a clear understanding of the culture of the 



65 



