Pane EeACC ii: 
By the Editor, James OwEn Dorsey. 
In consequence of the death of the author in 1883, the copy furnished 
by him for the present volume was left in such a shape that some editing 
was necessary before it could be sent to the printer. 
By order of the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, the editorship 
of the manuscript was committed to me. I was requested also to prepare 
the table of contents and index, and to see that the arrangement of the 
chapters, headings, ete., conformed to the general plan of the publications 
issued by this Bureau. 
That such disposition of the manuscript was in harmony with the 
wishes of the author will appear after a perusal of the following extract 
from a letter, dated April 20, 1881, sent by Dr. 8. R. Riggs to Mr. J. C. 
Pilling, then chief clerk of the Bureau. After speaking of an article that 
he was preparing, to be entitled “ Unwritten Laws,” Dr. Riggs continues 
thus: “This letter, I think, will partly cover Ethnology. But I do not 
profess to be skilled in Ethnology as a science, and shall be glad of any 
suggestions from Maj. Powell and yourself.” 
In the manuscript as received from the author were sundry quotations 
from my letters to him. But as several years had elapsed since these were 
written and as I had been enabled to revise the quoted statements, bringing 
the information down to date, it was but proper that such revisions should 
appear as footnotes, each followed by my initials. 
During the process of editing the manuscript it wa s ascertained that, as 
there had been additional iny estigations among the Dakota and other tribes 
of the Siouan stock since the death of the author, several questions treated 
by him deserved further elucidation. When one considers the many years 
in which the venerable author was associated with the work among the 
Dakota Indians (1887-1883) it would seem to many persons very pre- 
XI 
