Bureau of American Ethnology 375 



been compelled to distribute his energies among different 

 tribes, often among different stocks; for it has never been 

 deemed wise by statesmen interested in the work to maintain 

 a force sufficiently large to permit the assignment of a col- 

 laborator to each tribe, confederacy, or stock. In consequence 

 the collaborators became specialists in departments of re- 

 search concerning matters common to many or all tribes, 

 some in linguistics, others in arts, still others in institutions 

 and beliefs. It was soon noted that this differentiation in 

 labor on the part of the anthropologists reflected a differen- 

 tiation in activity among the aborigines; and it was found 

 convenient to recognize formally this original differentiation 

 and classify the work of the bureau thereby. Foremost among 

 these, not only as the basis of all the others but in immediate 

 importance, is language, including speech and the germ of 

 writing; second in order of development and importance 

 come the arts, esthetic and industrial; next in order are insti- 

 tutions; and perhaps youngest in origin and most interesting 

 to thoughtful investigators are beliefs. These categories 

 of activities are characteristic of all mankind, and have been 

 called the humanities by Major Powell and some other stu- 

 dents; they correspond with the chief lines of research in the 

 bureau of ethnology. 



At the outset it was the intention to devote energy largely 

 or exclusively to researches among living tribes and tribal 

 remnants in order that rapidly passing facts might be seized, 

 and little attention was given to the more permanent relics 

 of prehistoric art/ In 1881 the Congress was petitioned to 

 so enlarge the scope of the bureau as to include a study of 

 the archaeology of the United States ; and without the know- 

 ledge of the Secretary of the Institution, or the Director of 

 the Bureau, an item making the requisite provision was 

 added to the law. Under this specific official requirement, 



