REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 53 



claimed in recent publications by Dr. Radin and Dr. Kroeber. In 

 no instance did he find that these authors had proved their case. 



Mr. Hewitt continued the preparation for publication of the second 

 part of Iroquoian Cosmology, Part I having already appeared in the 

 Twenty-first Annual Report of the bureau. He spent considerable 

 time in reading the manuscript dictionary and grammatical sketch of 

 the Chippewa language prepared by Father Chrysostom Verwyst, in 

 order to ascertain its value for publication and to enable him to assist 

 the author in a revision of the work ; and prepared much data for use 

 in reply to requests by correspondents, often requiring considerable 

 time and most exacting work. 



In June, 1920, Mr. Hewitt visited the Oneida Indians, residing in 

 the vicinity of Seymour and Oneida, Wis. 



The purpose of this visit was to ascertain what information, if any, 

 these Indians retained concerning the principles and structure of the 

 League of the Five (later. Six) Nations, or even concerning their own 

 social organization, or the mythic and religious beliefs of their an- 

 cestors, which has not already been recorded by him, from other 

 sources. He found that these Indians had forgotten the great prin- 

 ciples and the essential details of the organic structure of the league, 

 of which the Oneida before their disruption by the events of the war 

 of the American Revolution were so important a member, due to the 

 adoption of lands in severalty about 1887, and the administration of 

 their public affairs under the laws of the State of Wisconsin. 



He discovered that these Oneida spoke a dialect markedly different 

 from that of the Oneida with whom he was already acquainted and 

 succeeded in recording a text relating to hunting wild pigeons (now 

 practically extinct) at the time of " roosting." 



From the Wisconsin Oneida Mr. Hewitt w^ent directly to the Tona- 

 wanda Reservation to consult with Seneca chiefs, after which he pro- 

 ceeded to the Grand River grant of the Six Nations, near Brantford, 

 Ontario, Canada, and there obtained an interesting text in the Onon- 

 daga language, with a free English translation. This t^xt embodies 

 an old Tutelo tradition of the manner in which the assistant to the 

 chief was established, and is reminiscent of the early raids of the 

 warriors of the Five Nations into the southern home of the ancient 

 Tutelo. 



Information relating to the internal structure of the tribal organi- 

 zation of the several tribes was carefully revised, especially the place 

 of the several clans with regard to the symbolic council fire, and there- 

 fore their membership in either the male or the female side of the 

 tribal organization. Certain sentences placed after every Federal 

 title throughout the Eulogy of the Founders — originally 49 in num- 

 ber — can not be understood without this definite knowledge of in- 

 ternal tribal organization, as there is constant danger of confusing 



