64 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



along the lines already successfully followed — by researches and pub- 

 lication of the results of less ambitious plans. It can not be expected 

 that the quantity of field work with this handicap can be as great 

 as it was when the field was almost untilled, but the chief is striving 

 to keep the quality up to the past. For years to come as the culture 

 of our aborigines fades into the past there will be plenty of work to 

 do in gathering survivals and publishing reports to meet increased 

 demand for authoritative literature on our aborigines. As the work 

 of the bureau calls for increased popularization, in the judgment 

 of the chief, the bureau should enlarge the number of popular 

 articles which it publishes from time to time without decreasing 

 strictly technical discoveries. The pages of our reports are full of 

 the records of discoveries which are little known and at present 

 interest only a few persons because of that fact. This should be 

 obviated by putting into published form, suitable for the layman 

 or for students in schools and colleges, the vast stores of knowledge 

 which have been made by the staff of the bureau and its collabo- 

 rators. The great success of the Handbook of American Indians 

 clearly indicates the desire of the people for popular information on 

 our aborigines and the bureau with an enlarged appropriation would 

 be able to continue work of this nature. 



In compliance with, the act of Congress above mentioned the Bu- 

 reau of American Ethnology has continued its field and office re- 

 searches on the American Indians including the ethnology of the 

 Hawaiian Islands, and the inhabitants of Porto Rico and the Virgin 

 Islands. Later in this report is a list of the annual publications. 

 The high cost of printing has somewhat reduced the quantity but the 

 quality has been maintained. 



The rapid modification in aboriginal culture perceptible year by 

 year in Indian manners, customs, and languages has led the chief 

 of the bureau to encourage archeological and historical study of the 

 Indians. Extensive researches have been carried on in Colorado, 

 in the Harpeth Valley, Tenn., in the Ozarks, Mo., and on the 

 Atlantic seaboard. In addition to archeological research consider- 

 able work has been done on documentary history, especially of the 

 Creeks, Choctaws, and other Muskhogean tribes. 



Although the bureau has hitherto published many memoirs on the 

 Indians of the northwest coast, there still remains much ethnologi- 

 cal work awaiting investigation in this territory. A very promising 

 beginning was made in the study of the totem poles of this region 

 by Dr. T. T. Waterman, a temporary assistant on the staff of the 

 bureau who made a special trip to Alaska for that purpose. He not 

 only collected considerable new material on totem poles but also on 

 legends connected with them. 



