REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41 



proposed to prepare at once a handbook of the American languages as a preliminary 

 publication. 



The Bureau has had under way for some years the transcription of the Diccionario 

 de j\Iotul, a manuscript ]\Iaya-Spanish dictionary, borrowed from the library of the 

 University of Pennsylvania. The copy is intended for the use of Seilor Andomaro 

 Molina, of Merida, Yucatan, who is engaged in compiling a Maya-English dictionary 

 to be published by the Bureau. The transcription was in the hands of Miss Jessie 

 E. Thomas, librarian of the Bureau, but her untimely death in January brought 

 the work to a close. The dictionary was returned to the university library on March 

 15, as previously arranged, but permission has since been granted to bring it again 

 to Washington when a competent copyist is found. 



An important feature of the work of the year has been the preparation of material 

 for a dictionary of the Indian tribes. It was the Secretary's wish that this under- 

 taking should be carried rapidly to completion, and Mr. F. W. Hodge, formerly of 

 the Bureau, but now connected directly with the parent Institution, was detailed to 

 take charge of the work. Mr. Hodge arranged to spend the afternoon of each day 

 at the Bureau, and was thus able to personally direct the work, a report on which is 

 here presented. 



DICTIONARY OF INDIAN TRIBES. 



At the time of the early exploration and settlement of North America there were 

 encountered many Indian tribes varying in customs and speaking diverse lan- 

 guages. Lack of knowledge of the aborigines and ignorance of their languages led 

 to many curious errors on the part of the early explorers and settlers; names 

 were applied to the Indians that had no relation whatever to those by which they 

 were aboriginally known; sometimes nicknames were bestowed, owing, perhaps, to 

 some personal characteristic, fancied or real; sometimes there was applied the name 

 given by another tribe, which was often opprobrious; frequently an effort was made 

 to employ the designation by which a tribal group knew itself, and, as such names 

 are often unpronounceable by an alien tongue and unrepresentable by a civilized 

 alphabet, the result was a sorry corruption, varying as the sounds were impressed 

 on English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Russian, or Swedish ears, or as they were 

 recorded in many languages, only to be as grossly corrupted when the next traveler 

 appeared. 



Sometimes, again, bands of a single tribe would be given distinctive names, while 

 clans or gentes would be regarded as independent, autonomous groups to which 

 separate tribal designations were likewise applied. Consequently, in the literature 

 of the American Indians, which is practically coextensive with the literature of the 

 first three centuries of the New World, thousands of tribal names are encountered, 

 only a small proportion of which are recognizable at a glance; therefore, one of the 

 most practical and important studies which was undertaken at the inception of the 

 work of the Bureau was the classification of these names with the view of their pub- 

 lication as an Indian synonymy. As time passed, however, the scope of the work 

 was enlarged, for, as the studies of the Bureau were prosecuted, a large amount of 

 information in regard to the tribes, both past and present, was gained, so that it was 

 deemed desirable to make of the work a cyclopedia or dictionary of the Indians, 

 containing tril)al synonyms. 



The work continued at intervals during several years, most of the scientific corps, 

 particularly Mr. James Mooney, being engaged in the compilation, under the general 

 supervision of Mr. H. W. Henshaw, until 1891, when, owing to failure of health, 

 Mr. Henshaw was compelled to relinquish ethnologic work. Later the task was 

 assigned to Mr. Hodge, who continued it, so far as his other duties permitted, until 

 early in 1901, when he was transferred to the office of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 The work was continued, with many interruptions, until November of the present 



