OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XXIX 



Pages 480-665 of the Dakota Dictionary, by Rev. S. R. 

 Riggs, edited by Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, were stereotyped, com- 

 pleting- the Dakota-English portion of the work, which will 

 form part of Vol. VII of the last mentioned series. 



Pages 97-5 1 2 of Mr. J. C. Pilling's Bibliography of the Lan- 

 guages of the North American Indians were also placed in 

 type. 



FIELD WORK. 



This includes, first, explorations with reference to material 

 objects produced by the native tribes; and, second, examination 

 of the members of those tribes, both as individuals and as aggre- 

 gations. These divisions are related, but the first chiefly con- 

 cerns archaeology and technology, and the second philology, 

 mythology, and sociology. It is manifest that without the au- 

 thority and assistance of the Government little useful work can 

 be done in the first of these divisions. The object of private 

 explorers in this direction is usually to procure relics or speci- 

 mens for sale or merely to gratify curiosity, with the result that 

 these are often scattered and lost for any comprehensive study, 

 while their receptacles, whether mounds, graves, or ruins, are 

 in many cases destroyed without intelligent examination or 

 record The trained explorers of the Bureau preserve all 

 useful facts touching the localities concerned, and the objects 

 collected, both ancient and modern, are deposited in the Na- 

 tional Museum. Experience has also shown that individual 

 travelers, unguided and without common system, have failed 

 to obtain the best results in the second of the above men- 

 tioned divisions. The precious accounts of early explorers 

 cannot be understood without the interpretation and correc- 

 tions still, though for a limited time, to be gained from among 

 existing tribes. 



MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 

 WORK OF PROF. CYRUS THOMAS. 



The Bureau of Ethnology was first organized on the basis of 

 work developed by the Director while in charge of explorations 

 and surveys in the valley of the Colorado River of the West. 



