30 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



year. The handbook is in the nature of a summary of knowledge 

 gained thus far concerning the American Indians. The demand for 

 the part of the work published has been so great that the bureau 

 has found it impossible to supply even a third of the copies requested 

 by correspondents. The quota under control of the Superintendent 

 of Documents also was soon exhausted, necessitating the rejorinting 

 of an edition of 500 copies (the limit allowed by law) to fill the 

 orders received. As the main body of part 2 was in type at the close 

 of the fiscal year, it is expected that this part will be issued in the 

 course of a few months. In editing the handbook during the year 

 the staff of the bureau was generously aided by upward of thirty 

 si^ecialists throughout the country, who rendered all possible assist- 

 ance in their particular fields. A work of somewhat similar purpose 

 is a Handbook of American Indian Languages, the manuscript of 

 which was practically completed at the close of the fiscal year. 



For the first time the study of native Indian music was seriously 

 taken up by the bureau in connection with certain investigations re- 

 lating to the grand medicine ceremony of the Chippewa on the White 

 Earth Reservation, Minn. The phonograph was employed in 

 recording the songs. Records of songs were also secured from mem- 

 bers of various Indian delegations visiting the capital. 



This study and recording of the Indian tribes is not onl}^ of national 

 importance but urgent. The native American race, one of the four 

 races of men, is fast disappearing, and the processes of obliteration 

 are sure. If authoritative investigations are not made now, they never 

 can be made w^ith any like degree of accuracy or of thoroughness. It 

 is a work the nation owes to science, to the Indian race, and to itself. 

 It is a work W'Orthy of a great nation, and one which can be carried 

 on systematically only by a nation. Through the researches of the 

 bureau the world is not only securing, while possible, a permanent 

 record of one of the great races of men now dying, but is gaining a 

 knowledge of the Indian for practical purposes of administration and 

 in the interest of humanity. 



INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 



The promotion of literary and scientific intercourse between this 

 country and other parts of the Avorld has been vigorously carried for- 

 ward during the past year through the system of international ex- 

 changes. The details of the regular work of the service are given in 

 full in the report on the exchange service and only the more important 

 matters are referred to here. 



The growth of this service has been made possible through the 

 action of Congress and of our Government in negotiating treaties 

 with other nations to place the exchange of government, scientific, 

 and literary publications upon a definite, legal, international footing. 



