CHARACTERIZATION OF ACCOMPANYING PAPERS 



Distribution of Subjects 



The four accompanying papers, illustrating- the methods and 

 results of work conducted by the Bureau, find their subjects 

 in the Avestern portion of tlie continent. The first paper deals 

 with a little-known portion of northwestern Mexico and a local 

 tribe which retains aboriginal characteristics to an unusual and 

 perhaps unequaled degree. The field work involved the sur- 

 vey of considerable areas hitherto untrodden by white men 

 and the first scientific observation of the tribesmen and their 

 customs in their own haljitat. The second paper relates to a 

 typical tribe of the plains, hitherto little known to scientific 

 students; and while the tribesmen are now confined to a reser- 

 vation, they formerly ranged from the snowy plains of Canada 

 to the sun-parched bt)lsons of Mexico, while the tribe as a 

 whole slowh- migrated from the Saskatchewan to the Arkan- 

 sas, so that the area covered by the study is coincident with 

 that of the Great Plains from the Mississippi to the Rocky 

 mountains. The two remaining papers deal with the arid 

 plateau region of the southwest. The third treats of a tribe 

 prominent in the history of American exploration and settle- 

 ment, i-evealiug a new and highly significant aspect of their 

 everyday life and their adjustment to a distinctive environment. 

 The researches summarized in the fourth paper shed light on 

 the life and habits of other tribes, under the same peculiarly 

 effective environmental conditions, during prehistoric time. 



The historical range of the papers covers several centuries. 

 The objects described by Dr Fewkes represent, for the most 

 part, a period considerably antedating the Columbian discov- 

 erv; but the method of research has been to compare the pre- 

 historic works with those of living people in the same region, 

 in such manner as, in some measure, to penetrate the mists of 



