XLVIII BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



About tliis time Mr J. ( )\vl'U Dorsey, first u iiii.ssiouary and 

 then an assistant in the Bureau of Ethnology, studied the reli- 

 gious cults of the Ponka Indians and other tribes related to 

 them, and collected a great body of valuable material about 

 them. 



I nnist not in this place forget to mention the brilliant work 

 of Miss Alice Fletcher in this same field — the tribal fraternities 

 of the Amerinds. She has already published much material on 

 the subject, and is ])reparing a great monograpli on one of the 

 fraternities of Pawnee. ■ 



Dr J. Walter Fewkes some }^ears ago was appointed ethnol- 

 ogist in the P)ureau and sent among the Tusayan people espe- 

 cially for the purpose of studying their religious cults. From 

 these expeditions he has retin-ned Avith a very large l)ody of 

 material relating to the Hojji fraternities, with a deep insight 

 into their characteristics, and with a wealth of illustration 

 which enables him to set forth the subject in a manner which 

 is sim|)le, clear, and forceful. 



Early in the last decade Mr Gushing, Mrs Stevenson, and 

 Dr Fewkes each prepared a model of an altar, with its ])ara- 

 pliernalia of worship, one of which (that by Mr Gushing) was 

 put on exhibition ;it the Ghicago Quadrennial Exjiosition. 

 These models are still in the United States National Museum. 

 Subsequently other altars were prepared under Dr Dorsey's 

 direction for the Field Columbian Museum in Ghicago. Thus 

 we ali-eady have made a feir beginning in the study and repre- 

 sentation as museum models of the altars of the Pueblo tribes 

 and their symbolism. 



Some of the important contributions to tliis subject l>y Dr 

 Fewkes are published with this report, and in connection with 

 these I take occasion to publish the illustration which I pre- 

 pared in 1870 of an altar which I saw used in a ceremony at 

 Shumopovi, as the first one prepared for the Bureau of Ethnol- 

 ogy I can not now give a complete account of this cere- 

 mony, nor can I give a complete account of the synd)olism 

 represented upon the altar; I can only set forth tliat wliich I 

 learned at the time. Nor can I affirm that tlie illustration is 

 perfect. I secured much of tlie ]iara])hernalia of the altar and 

 brought them with me to Washington, and 1 also got such 



