ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 



in a statistical sense, there is good reason to believe that 

 the vault of their skulls is lov^^, thus resembling the Dakota 

 Sioux rather than most Algonquian tribes. Some new data 

 on Cheyenne social life and mythology were obtained. It 

 was his privilege to consult with some other anthropologists 

 in Oklahoma and to visit one museum. 



John P. Harrington, ethnologist, was engaged during the 

 summer of 1930 in the preparation of his report on the 

 Indians who were brought together at San Juan Bautista 

 Mission in the first half of the nineteenth century by the 

 Spanish-speaking padres from various parts of San Benito 

 County, Calif., and the adjacent region. A valuable vocabu- 

 lary of the language, recorded by Father Felipe Arroyo de 

 la Cuesta, had already been pubUshed by the Smithsonian 

 Institution in the sixties of the last century, but aside from 

 this vocabulary there was little or nothing in print on these 

 Indians. Elaborating a wealth of material obtained from 

 Mrs. Ascencion Solorsano, the last San Juan Indian who 

 spoke the language, who died in January, 1930, Mr. Harring- 

 ton prepared a report on all phases of the life of these 

 Indians, as far as reconstructable. This report tells of the 

 remarkable way in which the language and partial ethnog- 

 raphy were rescued from this sole survivor, and then pro- 

 ceeds to the history, geography, and customs of the tribe, 

 including all that could be learned of former religion, 

 ceremony, and mythology. 



Mrs. Solorsano was an Indian herb doctor, and a feature 

 of the work during the summer of 1929 had been to obtain 

 specimens and information to cover the ethnobotany of the 

 tribe. Further specimens were obtained in the summer of 

 1930 by Mrs. Dionisia Mondragon and Miss Marta J. 

 Herrera, daughter and granddaughter of Mrs. Solorsano, 

 and these were all identified by Mr. C. V. Morton, of the 

 National Herbarium. This section gives the treatment 

 for curing some 60 different ailments with these herbs and 

 by other curious means. It forms a nucleus for making 

 comparative studies in Indian medicine. 



At the end of January, 1931, Mr. Harrington left for 

 California for the purpose of continuing his studies in this 



