50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



Mr. Stirling was delegated to represent the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion at the meeting held at Media, Pa., on May 13, 1937, in honor of 

 the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Daniel Brinton. 



Dr. John II. Swanton, ethnologist, devoted the greater part of his 

 time during the past fiscal year to work as chairman of the United 

 States De Soto Expedition Commission. This involved field expedi- 

 tions from November 11 to December 9, 1936, and from May 16 to 

 June 4, 1937, except for 3 days, December 3 to 5, devoted to a meeting 

 of the Commission at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala. 

 The first field trip extended over parts of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The second was confined to an 

 intensive study of that section of De Soto's route which passed through 

 northern Mississippi. During these expeditions small collections of 

 potsherds were made, which will be of assistance in studying the cul- 

 tures of the i)rehistoric inhabitants of the several areas visited. As 

 chairman of the fact-finding cojumittee of the same Commission, Dr. 

 Swanton jn-epared a report covering about 600 typewritten pages, and 

 this was adopted by the Commission at its Tuscaloosa meeting and 

 embodied in its report to Congress. The entire report has since been 

 submitted, but, as publication has not yet been ordered, it is still pos- 

 sible to add material, and he is engaged in doing so. 



During the year Dr. Swanton also made some additions to his data 

 on the Indians of the Southeast, and he has been collecting from orig- 

 inal sources the most important references to the Quapaw Indians. 



Until the end of the fiscal year Dr. Swanton continued as a member 

 of the executive committee of the Division of Anthropology and 

 Psychology of the National Research Council and as vice-president 

 of section H of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science for the current calendar year. 



Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, renewed his researches among 

 the Algonquian ti'ibes of the James and Hudson Bay region under 

 a grant-in-aid by the American Council of Learned Societies. He 

 spent some time at Moose Factory, and a short time at Fort George, 

 Attawapiskat, and AVeenusk. Owing to the presence of some Albany 

 Cree at Moose Factory and some Indians from Rupert's House as 

 well as on shipboard, he was able to do personal work with them. 

 By correspondence he obtained some additional text-material from 

 Rupert's House; by meeting the manager of the Hudson Bay Co.'s 

 post at the Ghost River and an Indian from Lac la Ronge he ob- 

 tained data from these regions. The results of the previous expedi- 

 tion were checked up as much as feasible. It results that the state- 

 ment made previously that east of Hannah Bay Cree leaves off and 

 Montagnais-Naskapi begins is confirmed. Besides texts and vocabu- 

 laries from the general area, a rather complete schedule of kinship 

 terms for the Great "Wliale River Indians, those of Fort George, the Cree 



