ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 



At the completion of this reconnaissance, Mr. Stirhng re- 

 turned to Washington, leaving almost immediately for Chi- 

 cago in order to attend a meeting of the National Research 

 Council, the purpose of which was to organize research on the 

 subject of early man in America. 



Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, was engaged in field 

 work in Louisiana from July 1 to August 14, 1930. It was 

 found that Rosa Pierrette, the sole Indian acquainted with 

 the Ofo language and the one from whom, in 1908, he ob- 

 tained the only specimens of that language in existence, was 

 dead, and the language therefore is dead also. A search 

 was made for speakers of Atakapa, but all appeared to be 

 gone except one old woman who could barely recall a few 

 words. The Chitimacha Indians of Charenton were visited 

 and a small amount of linguistic material was obtained from 

 them. Of the Tunica at Marksville, only two or three are 

 still able to use the old tongue, but one of these proved to 

 be an ideal informant and Doctor Swanton obtained from 

 him a number of short stories and one long story in native 

 text. The rest of the time was spent at Kinder, where a 

 considerable body of material in Koasati was obtained. 



In view of the extinction of Atakapa as a spoken language, 

 Doctor Swanton considered that the words, phrases, and 

 text collected by Dr. A. S. Gatschet in 1886, which com- 

 prise by far the greater portion of the material in that tongue 

 still preserved, should be published without delay and the 

 greater part of the winter of 1930-31 was spent in editing it. 

 To Gatschet's material have been added the Eastern Ata- 

 kapa words collected by Murray and the Akokisa vocabulary 

 obtained by the French captain, Berenger, and published by 

 Du Terrage and Rivet. A bulletin containing all this is now 

 in the hands of the printer. 



Work has progressed on the tribal map of North America 

 which is being copied by Mrs. E. C. M. Payne, and additions 

 have been made to the text to accompany it. 



Doctor Swanton is preparing the first draft of a Handbook 

 of the Indians of the Southeast. 



The closing weeks of the year were devoted to reading the 

 proof of Bulletin 103, entitled '' Source Material for the Social 

 and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians." 



