56 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
HANDBOOK OF SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS 
The editing of the Handbook of South American Indians, begun 
some years ago, was continued during the year by Dr. Julian H. 
Steward after September 1, 1943, under his appointment as Director 
of the Institute of Social Anthropology. Funds for the preparation 
of the manuscript are transferred to the Smithsonian Institution from 
the State Department appropriation for “Cooperation with the Ameri- 
can Republics,” and the Bureau will pay the cost of publication in its 
Bulletin series. 
Volume 1, “The Marginal Tribes,” and volume 2, “The Andean Civil- 
izations,” were completed during the year and sent to the printer. The 
manuscripts of volumes 3 and 4 were nearly completed. 
The Handbook is a truly cooperative project, as one-half of the 
100 contributors are scientists of the other American republics. 
SPECAL RESEARCHES 
Miss Frances Densmore, a collaborator of the Bureau, continued 
her work on the study of Indian music by writing a manuscript enti- 
tled “Omaha Music,” with transcriptions of 64 songs. This manu- 
script was based upon research in Nebraska in 1941 and included re- 
recordings of several songs that were recorded for Miss Alice C. 
Fletcher by the same singers. The date of the previous recordings 
was said to have been 1887 to 1890 and the songs are included in Miss 
Fletcher’s “Study of Omaha Indian Music,” published by the Peabody 
Museum of Harvard University, and in “The Omaha Tribe,” by Miss 
Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, in the Twenty-seventh Annual Re- 
port of the Bureau. Many songs in Miss Fletcher’s work were recog- 
nized by men who had not the tribal right to sing them. The present 
manuscript includes old songs of Omaha military and social societies, 
songs connected with the First World War, and songs of legends and 
the hand game. 
Miss Densmore compiled and presented to the Bureau a chronology 
of her study and presentation of Indian music from 1893 to June 1944. 
This chronology was based on diaries, scrapbooks, and Reports of the 
Bureau. During a portion of the year she was engaged in completing 
the handbook of the Smithsonian-Densmore collection of sound record- 
ings of American Indian music for the National Archives. 
EDITORIAL WORK AND PUBLICATIONS 
The editorial work of the Bureau continued during the year under 
the immediate direction of the editor, M. Helen Palmer. There were 
issued one Annual Report and six Bulletins, as follows: 
