39^ The Smithsonian Institution 



most lines of research is now sufficiently voluminous to war- 

 rant thorough study and final issue. 



These paragraphs do no more than touch lightly on salient 

 points in the history, policy, and work of the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology. The field is vast, and the lines of research 

 are many; and it has ever been the aim of Director Powell 

 and his collaborators so to select and pursue lines of work as 

 to aid in creating and diffusing among men definite knowledge 

 concerning the American aborigines as one of the great 

 branches of mankind. Accordingly the small library of re- 

 ports published and the small assemblage of objects collected 

 through the work of the bureau contribute toward the me- 

 morial to Smithson, the founder, and Henry, the organizer, 

 of the parent institution of American science. At the same 

 time the work of the bureau is a tribute to the foresight, 

 liberality, and wisdom of the statesmen who have endowed 

 and sustained the " researches concerning the American 

 Indians." 



