ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 63 
Early in March, 1922, Dr. T. T. Waterman, ethnologist, 
proceeded to Alaska, under temporary appointment in the 
bureau, with instructions from the chief to scrutinize certain 
native towns in southeastern Alaska. His purpose was to 
ascertain how many totemic monuments exist there, and to 
get information concerning the carvings. The place of 
special interest was a former settlement of Alaskan Haida, 
known as Kasaan. It was possible during the three months 
that Doctor Waterman spent in Alaska to make a rapid 
survey not only of Kasaan but of the towns known as Village 
Island, Tongass, Cape Fox, Klinkwan, Howkan, Sukwan, 
Klawak, and Tuxekan. Some extremely interesting monu- 
ments, including many tall and imposing totem poles, were 
examined and photographed. Charts or sketch maps were 
brought back from the field, which show the number of 
monuments still standing in each town and their state of 
preservation. The observer was fairly successful in obtain- 
ing from the Indians an account of the meaning of the 
carvings on the poles, which have never been adequately 
described. In many cases the carvings refer to mythical 
tales, which are often of a very interesting type. 
In addition to the work on the totemic monuments, the 
observer recorded a relatively complete list of the native 
place names in the southeastern part of Alaska. Many 
hundreds of these names were entered on the map of the 
region, and translations and explanations were obtained 
from the Indians. The work was fairly complete for the 
area covered. 
Under further instructions from the chief, Doctor Water- 
man examined the coast line of the part of Alaska which he 
visited, with a view to discovering sites where archeological 
excavations might possibly be conducted. The results of 
_ this work were largely negative. As a matter of fact only 
one site was found where there seemed to be archeological 
remains. This hasty survey seemed to indicate that archeo- 
logical remains in this part of Alaska are extremely scanty. 
Returning to the bureau on June 15, Doctor Waterman 
began the preparation of a report on the Alaskan monuments. 
