FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 



By J. W. Powell, Director 



INTEOUUCTION 



Researches relating- to tlie American Indians were continued 

 throughout the fiscal year ending- June 30, 1894, in conformit}^ 

 with act of Congress. 



As set forth in previous reports, ethnic relations, or the rela- 

 tions existing among races, peoples, and trilies, are measureably 

 unlike those recognized by naturalists in the classification of 

 orders, genera, and species of animals and plants. In biology 

 the primary unit recognized by investigators is an individual 

 organism, and the secondare' unit is a norm or type (perhaps 

 represented by an individual organism of average character- 

 istics) standing for the species, genus, or order; hence biology 

 is the science of organic things, considered as individuals and 

 types of individuals. From one point of yiew, mankiiad, like 

 other living things, may be reg'arded as an assemblage of indi- 

 vidual organisms conforming to certain types, and from this 

 standpoint the races of men may be regarded as species of the 

 genus Homo, or as varieties of the species Homo sapiens; but 

 from a more elevated point of view inankind may be seen to 

 display distinctive characteristics of great importance by which 

 the class is clearly set ofiP from tliat including the plants and 

 the beasts. Viewed from this higher standpoint, the races and 

 2)eoples and tribes of the earth are assemblages of interrelated 



XVII 

 15 ETH II 



