NO 17 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, 1916 129 
Medicine Society (fig. 123) ; two small drums (fig. 124) ; a “ medi- 
cine ’’ flute (fig. 125) ; a pair of deer-hoof knee-rattles (fig. 125); a 
horn-rattle, a turtle-shell rattle, and a gourd rattle ( 
At the close of June, 1916, Mr. Hewitt was still on field duty ; up 
to this time, he had read, revised, studied, and annotated about 8,000 
lines of text other than material mentioned in the closing paragraphs 
of this statement. He also made a number of photographs of Indians. 
ETHNOLOGICAL WORK AMONG THE SAUK, FOX, AND 
PEORIA INDIANS 
The first part of June, 1916 found Dr. Truman Michelson among 
the Sauk and Fox of Iowa. The main work accomplished was the 
phonetic restoration of a long text, written in the current syllabary, 
on the origin of the White Buffalo Dance, which is intended as a 
future bulletin of the Bureau. He secured several sacred packs for 
the Museum of the American Indian (Heye Foundation), of New 
York, under the agreement that the Bureau should retain the right 
to publish the information pertaining to them. In this way more 
information on these difficult topics was obtained, and more 1s ex- 
pected. Other ethnological data, especially sociological, was also 
acquired. About the middle of August Dr. Michelson proceeded to 
Oklahoma, where, under the joint auspices of the Bureau of Amer- 
ican Ethnology and the Illinois Centennial Commission, he conducted 
researches among the Peoria. Their ethnology properly speaking has 
practically vanished, and although their language and folklore still 
persist, knowledge thereof is confined to a very limited number. The 
phonetics of the Peoria language, contrary to ordinary belief, is 
extremely complicated. As surmised from the notes left by the 
late Dr. Gatschet, Peoria linguistically belongs fundamentally to the 
Ojibwa group of Central Algonquian languages; yet at the same 
time it is clear that there has been another and more recent associa- 
tion with the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo group. A study of Peoria 
folklore and mythology also points to this double association, as 
does the system of consanguinity, which agrees with Sauk, Fox, 
and Kickapoo, as opposed to Ojibwa, Ottawa, Algonkin, and Potawa- 
tom. It should be noted that Peoria folklore and mythology contain 
a number of Plains and Plateau elements which thus far have not 
been recorded among other Central Algonquian tribes. How these 
elements spread eastward is as yet unknown. A number of strictly 
aboriginal tales were collected that have not been recorded elsewhere. 
A large number of European tales have been incorporated, and 
