NATIONAL, ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL, MEMOIRS VOL. VIII 



his later studies the Indians, unmodified by contact with the 

 whites, were his subject. 



Secretary Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, who had 

 early given Powell encouragement and assistance in the direc- 

 tion of ethnology, was greatly impressed with the exploration 

 of the Colorado, regarding the report upon which he later 

 wrote : "The whole work will do honor to the appreciation by 

 the Government of scientific information of this kind, as well 

 as of the ability and perseverance of Professor Powell and his 

 assistants." It was evidently on the basis of this good opinion 

 that, after Powell had turned from geology to ethnology in the 

 early '/o's, much material collected by the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion was placed in his hands : this included 670 Indian vocabu- 

 laries which had previously been submitted to Trumbull, and 

 it was upon this extended basis that Powell prepared his first 

 "Introduction to the study of Indian languages" (1877), an 

 enlarged edition of which was published three years later. 



BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



A natural consequence of all this was that, when the Bureau 

 of Ethnology was organized by act of Congress in 1879, Pow- 

 ell was made its Director, a post which he held with great dis- 

 tinction for twenty-three years. He entered upon these duties 

 with the expectation of devoting the rest of his life to them, 

 for at that time he had given up all thought of continuing his 

 geological studies ; yet only two years later he was at the head 

 of the Geological Survey, as has already been told. It is as- 

 tonishing that he could, for a period of twelve years, so ably 

 direct both these important organizations ; it is natural enough 

 that, after having resigned his place as Director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey in 1894, he should continue until the end of his 

 life in charge of his other and less onerous duties. If the 

 Bureau of Ethnology did not reach the ideal development that 

 he had contemplated and hoped, it nevertheless gained a highly 

 respected scientific position. It was administered at no great 

 cost; the appropriations ran from $20,000 at the outset to 

 $50,000 in the last year of Powell's administration ; the appro- 

 priation bill sometimes contained the thrifty item that "not 



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