REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 51 



a map showing the distribution and interrelations of the Cree and 

 Montagnais-Naskapi dialects. In addition to the linguistic work 

 which was the primary purpose of the trip, many new ethnological 

 data were obtained, together with certain observations in physical 

 anthropology. The remainder of the year was spent in Washing- 

 ton in the preparation of manuscripts and in routine work. 



At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. John P. Harrington, eth- 

 nologist, finished a comparative study of the Tano-Kiowan family 

 of languages, a compact body of dialects which have inherited the 

 same phonetics, grammatical peculiarities, and vocabulary, although 

 the Tanoan branch is typically Pueblo in culture while the Kiowa 

 branch is equally typical of the Western Plains culture. No lin- 

 guistic study shows better how habitat has produced two cultures by 

 migration from a linguistic nucleus which had perhaps originally a 

 third culture — possibly like that of the Flatheads of the northern 

 Rockies, from which region the linguistic progenitors of both Ta- 

 noans and Kiowans apparently came. The Tano-Kiowan situation, 

 however, is clearer than the surprisingly similar Athapascan situa- 

 tion, since there is historic information on the northern origin of 

 the Kiowa, whereas the migration of any body of southern Athapas- 

 cans from the north still remains theoretical. It is established that 

 both the Tanoans and the southern Athapascans of the southwest- 

 ern United States are of comparatively recent northern origin, at 

 least as far as their language-transmitting ancestors are concerned. 



Returning to the study of the Devils Tower, which has a bearing 

 on the Tano-Kiowan provenience problem, Dr. Harrington was 

 assisted materially by Newell F. Joyner, custodian of the Devils 

 Tower National Monument, Devils Tower, Wyo., who supplied a mass 

 of material, including maps and other data. If the Kiowans came 

 from the somewhat far north, it is certain that their linguistic 

 relatives, the Tanoans, did also. 



Working by similar methods, Dr. Harrington also made a study 

 of the Athapascan peoples. Here we have a northern linguistic 

 nucleus still extant, not of the past but of the present, and a family 

 of languages more intimately associated with the problem of the 

 original entry of man from Siberia into America, since if we exclude 

 the somewhat aloof-standing Eskimo, all the territory of America 

 nearest Asia is occupied by the Athapascan and related Tlingit 

 tongues. 



Following up Goddard's discovery that the Kiowa-Apache-Lipan- 

 Jicarilla form a separate language group, having shifted over- 

 aspirated tx to M, that is, the x having assimilated the t to its 

 articulatory position, Thomas' recent work on the Prairie Apaches 

 was found of interest. A considerable list of the Prairie Apaches are 



114728—39 5 



