6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, was at work among 

 the Kickapoo of Oklahoma at the beginning of the fiscal 

 year. A really representative body of Kickapoo mythology 

 is now available, and it is quite certain that it is more northern 

 than Fox mythology. The ritualistic origin myths are still 

 terra incognita. A good beginning has been made on Kicka- 

 poo social organization. In the middle of July Doctor 

 Michelson went among the Foxes of Iowa. The object of 

 the trip was to restore one Fox text phonetically and to obtain 

 some new texts, in the current syllabic script, on Fox cere- 

 monials, in both of which projects he was successful. Doctor 

 Michelson returned to Washington August 4. He completed 

 his memoir on the Fox WapAnowiweni and transmitted it for 

 publication February 7. His paper, Contributions to Fox 

 Ethnology, II, Bulletin 95 of the bureau, appeared in the 

 course of the fiscal year. 



The remainder of the time was largely taken up studying 

 materials gathered previously and also in extracting from 

 Fetter's Cheyenne Dictionary such stems and words as can 

 be rigorously proved to be Algonquian. The material on the 

 physical anthropology of the Cheyenne showed clearly the 

 great variation that occurs among living races. A proper 

 technique was worked out for determining the Cheyenne 

 words of Algonquian origin. Though Fetter's alphabet is 

 inadequate, it was possible to partially control this material 

 by comparing it with that of Doctor Michelson. Approxi- 

 mately 700 of such words and stems were extracted. Though 

 the technique mentioned above is very slow. Doctor Michel- 

 son is convinced that it is the correct procedure. It was 

 entirely feasible to establish about 70 phonetic shifts which 

 have transformed Cheyenne from normal Algonquian into 

 divergent Algonquian. 



Toward the close of May Doctor Michelson left for 

 Oklahoma and renewed his work with the Cheyenne of 

 that State. He restored phonetically the material extracted 

 from Fetter, with the result that it is now possible to formu- 

 late the transforming phonetic shifts with greater nicety. 

 He also measured a number of Cheyenne. Though the 

 number is not yet large enough to be absolutely decisive 



