18 BURKAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



of Part 2 of the Handl:)Ook of American Indians, and attended 

 to such official correspondence as was referred to him. 



Mr. James Mooney, ethnologist, dm'ing the entire year 

 was occupied chiefly in an investigation of the subject of 

 the Indian population north of Mexico at the period of first 

 distm'bance and occupancy of the country by the whites. 

 A preliminary study was condensed for introduction into 

 Part 2 of the Handbook of the Indians. The final work is 

 expected to appear as a bulletin of the Bm'eau. The inves- 

 tigation is being carried out in detail for each well-defined 

 geographic section, and for each tribe or tribal group sepa- 

 rately, from the earliest period to the present, with careful 

 sifting of authorities and consideration of Indian habits of 

 living. No such detailed and extended study of the subject 

 has ever before been attempted, and the result must prove 

 of interest and importance. The usual share of attention 

 was given also throughout the year to the preparation and 

 proof-reading of various articles for. the Handbook of the 

 Indians and to routine correspondence. On request of the 

 Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Mr. Mooney, 

 together with Doctor Swanton, attended the meeting of 

 that body at St. Louis, June 17-19, as representatives of 

 the Bureau, and presented papers on the ethnology of the 

 central region. 



During the year Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, was 

 engaged as follows: The months of October, November, and 

 December, 1908, were spent in Oklahoma, Texas, and 

 Louisiana. In Oklahoma the Natchez linguistic material 

 collected by Gallatin, Pike, Brinton, and Gatschet was gone 

 over with one of the four surviving speakers of the Natchez 

 language, and about fifty pages of text were recorded. In 

 Texas the Alibamu Indians were visited in an endeavor, 

 partially successful, to determine the relationship of the 

 Pascagoula tribe, formerly resident near them. In Louisiana 

 the linguistic material collected by Gatschet and Duralde 

 was gone over with some of the surviving Attacapa, Chiti- 

 macha, and Tunica. On the way to Washington Doctor 

 Swanton visited Columbia, South Carolina, to examine the 

 early archives of that State. The most important result of 



