100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
extravagant and diametrically opposite opinions were rife 
regarding the character of our aborigines. In the early days 
of contact of the European and Indian races erroneous 
romantic ideas were largely prevalent, but with the appli- 
cation of the science of anthropology new values of Indian 
character developed. The Indian in some quarters was 
regarded solely as an object of research; the humanitarian 
side was lost sight of, and the fact that he is a man belonging 
to one of the most important races in the ultimate amalga- 
mation of the different peoples was overlooked. The aim of 
the Bureau of American Ethnology is to discover and to 
disseminate correct ideas of the Indian as a race, that our 
people may better understand and appreciate his history, 
language, sociology, music, religion, and various arts and 
industries. It is obligatory for the bureau to preserve 
accurate records of customs indigenous to America that are 
rapidly being lost in the settlement of the former homes of 
the Indians by members of the white race. The value of 
this material will increase in coming years, for the records 
that are now being made are final and in many cases will be 
the sole objective information that posterity will have of the 
Indian and his customs. This work is imperative, for within 
the past few decades a great deal of information of this kind 
has disappeared unrecorded, and the probability is that this 
generation will witness the death of most aboriginal survivals 
in culture. 
While the ideal of the bureau is the acquisition of knowl- 
edge and the publication of the same through reports, there 
has grown up a great deal of work on related subjects that 
absorbs more or less of the time of the chief and his staff. 
Information is sought from all quarters regarding the Indians, 
and urgent calls from State institutions and universities 
asking for advice and help in local problems have been more 
numerous than at any other time in the history of the institu- 
tion. Routine office work has assumed in the past ten years 
a larger relative proportion than in former decades. Va- 
rious agencies have quickened interest in the problems con- 
sidered by the Bureau of American Ethnology. The great 
increase in travel resutling from the development of the 
