Bureau of American Ethnology 369 



including the " Geographical and Geological Survey of the 

 Rocky Mountain Region ; " by an act of Congress approved 

 in March of that year the work was reorganized, and the 

 four bureaus were united in the United States Geological 

 Survey, while provision was made for continuing the an- 

 thropological researches under the direction of the Smithso- 

 nian Institution ; and Professor Spencer F. Baird, then 

 Secretary of the Institution, confided the direction of the 

 work to Major Powell. This was the beginning of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology. 



Appropriations for continuing the researches concerning 

 the American Indians at the cost of the federal government 

 and under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution have 

 since been made annually by Congressional action. The 

 new bureau at once began and has since continued the publi- 

 cation of annual reports, and also carried on the "Contribu- 

 tions to North American Ethnology " until the series was 

 brought to an end by the printing law of 1895 ; in addition a 

 series of bulletins and certain special publications have been 

 issued. 



On April i, 1880, Major Powell was made Director of the 

 United States Geological Survey, but continued in charge of 

 the bureau of ethnology, and devoted a part of his energies 

 to researches concerning the Indians. In 1893 his health was 

 precarious, and on July i of that year the writer was ap- 

 pointed Ethnologist in Charge. A year later Major Powell 

 resigned the control of the Geological Survey, but retained 

 that of the bureau, and has since devoted himself wholly to 

 the completion of the researches begun on the headwaters 

 of Rio Colorado in 1867. 



In the original exploration, in the official survey of the 

 Rocky Mountain region, and later in the present bureau, 

 Powell pursued a liberal policy, with great enthusiasm, under 



