APPENDIX 2. 



REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 



Sir : In response to your request I have the honor to submit the fol- 

 lowing report on the field researches, office work, and other operations 

 of the Bureau of American Ethnology during the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1920, conducted in accordance with the act of Congress ap- 

 proved July 19, 1919. The act referred to contains the following 

 item: 



American ethnology : For continuing etlanological researches among the Ameri- 

 can Indians and the natives of Hawaii, including the excavation and preservation 

 of archeologic remains, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, in- 

 eluding necessary employees and the purchase of necessary books and periodi- 

 cals, $42,000. 



Ethnology is the stud}^ of man in groups or races and aims to con- 

 tribute to our knowledge of racial culture and advance our appre- 

 ciation of racial accomplishment. The researches of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology deal with the aborigines of the United States 

 and the Hawaiian Islanders. 



The material from which we may secure this knowledge is rapidly 

 disappearing or being absorbed into modern life. The culture of the 

 aboriginal inhabitants has in a great measure vanished, but modern 

 survivals still remain, and it is one object of the bureau to record these 

 survivals while this is possible, thus rescuing Avhat remains as a 

 partial record of the culture of the race. This is essential in order 

 that our knowledge of the North American Indian may neither be 

 distorted by prejudice nor exalted by enthusiastic glorification. 



In linguistics the necessity of recording those languages that are 

 in danger of extinction is urgent. Several of these are now spoken 

 only by a few survivors — old men or women — and when they die 

 this knowledge which they possess will disappear forever. Our 

 Indians had a large literature and mythology which on account of 

 their ignorance of letters they did not record. This is rapidly being 

 lost, and it is our duty to secure the information at once before it 

 loses its aboriginal character. The lexical and grammatical structure 

 of the different Indian languages, their phonetic peculiarities, and 

 their relations to each other, also require intensive studies, which 

 have been industriously pursued by the linguists of the bureau. 



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