PREFACE 



To the cultural anthropologist, as also to the archeologist, the United 

 States of America offer an unusually rich field in being a region where 

 civilized and primitive races exist side by side, where languages be- 

 longing to totally different linguistic stocks are still spoken by isolated 

 tribes differing from each other in their cultural and physical aspects, 

 and where traces of lost civilizations indicating the antiquity of man 

 are being unearthed every day. The Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 since its beginning in 1879, has attempted to preserve these ancient 

 records for posterity; and its annual reports are a veritable storehouse 

 of information on languages and customs of tribes, many of whom 

 have already disappeared and others are fast disappearing. In fact, 

 it would be safe to assert that there is no one series of books containing 

 so much material about the North American aborigines as these annual 

 reports. 



The present index had its origin some years ago when, on my arrival 

 in America, I frequently had occasion to use the annual reports. Out 

 of the vast amount of material contained in some 30,000 pages it was 

 often extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, to find any par- 

 ticular item. To save time and trouble I collected certain references 

 to subjects in which 1 was interested. It then occurred to me that a 

 general index to the reports might be useful to others too, and on my 

 suggesting the matter to the Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnol- 

 ogy it met with his approval. So what began as a mere handful of 

 references of a very special nature has ended in being a general index. 



Originally it was my intention to include only those volumes which 

 were published during the first 50 years of the existence of the bureau, 

 but owing to technical and other difficulties it was found advisable to 

 publish my "Index" as the accompanying paper to the Forty-eighth 

 Annual Report. Therefore, after my whole manuscript was prepared 

 and ready for the press, I included in it the report for the fifty-first 

 year of the bureau. Moreover, owing to the portly proportions this 

 work has already assumed, my former plan of including an index to 

 illustrations had to be abandoned. I hope, however, to be able to 

 pubhsh this at some future date. 



It is my pleasant duty to thank, first of all, the Chief of the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology, Mr. Matthew W. Stirling, for alloA\dng this 

 paper to be published in the series of annual reports, and for the 

 uniformly courteous treatment I have received from him. 



Dr. Truman Michelson and Dr. John R. Swan ton, both of the same 

 bureau, have very kindly given me the benefit of their wide experience, 

 and have offered me many valuable hints on how an index may be of 



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