SECRETARY'S REPORT 43 



During the year he continued analysis and organization of his Sem- 

 inole field notes and conducted research on printed, manuscript, and 

 photographic materials relating to the Seminole in library and 

 archival repositories in Washington and in the library of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. He continued the work 

 of revising for publication a manuscript on Seminole medicine and 

 magic, and prepared for fieldwork in Florida during the next fiscal 

 year. He nearly completed during the year a long paper on the sup- 

 posed ethnological resemblances between the southeastern United 

 States and the West Indies. His short Seminole autobiography, col- 

 lected in 1950 and 1952, appeared in the journal Tequesta, this being the 

 first such document published for any tribe of the southeastern United 

 States. At the end of January and the beginning of February, 

 Dr. Sturtevant spent a week in south Florida, where he delivered 

 a public lecture on "The Indians of -South Florida" before the His- 

 torical Association of South Florida and read a paper on "Accom- 

 plishments and Opportunities in Florida Indian Ethnology" at the 

 annual meetings of the Florida Anthropological Society. This trip 

 enabled Dr. Sturtevant to revisit several Seminole settlements, secur- 

 ing some new ethnological data. 



Another project involved library research on the history and use 

 of some root foods of the southeastern United States and the West 

 Indies — chiefly the cycad Zamia and manioc. A monograph on the 

 subject is in preparation, and future fieldwork concentrating on the 

 same topic is planned for Cuba and perhaps elsewhere. New evidence 

 has been discovered here relating to supposed prehistoric contacts 

 between the two regions and to continuity in each area between 

 aboriginal and European practices with regard to root foods, and on 

 changes and borrowings during the historic period. 



Dr. Sturtevant's Seneca work concentrated on the use and manu- 

 facture of wooden masks, and especially on the esthetic attitudes of 

 the modern Seneca toward these masks. Trips were made to examine 

 museum collections and consult specialists in Philadelphia, New York, 

 New Haven, Albany, and Rochester. Dr. Sturtevant spent May and 

 June doing fieldwork on the Cattaraugus Seneca reservation in west- 

 ern New York State, with briefer trips to the nearby Allegany Seneca 

 reservation. No intensive ethnological work has been done on the 

 Cattaraugus reservation for some 40 years, in marked contrast to 

 the situation with other Seneca communities. The fieldwork enabled 

 the documentation of differences between the Cattaraugus Seneca 

 and other Seneca already described in the literature, especially in the 

 ceremonial cycle of the non-Christian groups. Considerable informa- 

 tion was collected on present-day usages and beliefs connected with 

 the masks. Texts of myths, religious speeches, prayers, and songs 



