APPENDIX 2. 
REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 
Sir: In response to your request I have the honor to submit the 
following report on the researches and other operations of the Bureau 
of American Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, 
conducted in accordance with the act of Congress approved July 1, 
1918, making provision for sundry civil expenses of the Government, 
and following a plan submitted by the chief and approved by you as 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The act referred to con- 
tains the following item: 
American ethnology: For continuing ethnological researches among the 
American Indians and the natives of Hawaii, including the excavation and 
preservation of archzologic remains, under the direction of the Smithsonian 
Institution, including necessary employees and the purchase of necessary books 
and periodicals, $42,000. 
The ethnological and archeological researches of the staff which 
are considered in the following report being by law restricted to the 
American Indians thus from necessity are more or less limited in 
scope, but notwithstanding this limitation and the intensive work that 
has been done in the past there is no indication that this field has been 
sufficiently cultivated or is approaching exhaustion. It is evident 
that aboriginal manners and customs are rapidly disappearing, but 
notwithstanding that disappearance much remains unknown, and 
there has come a more urgent necessity to preserve for posterity by 
adequate record the many survivals before they disappear forever. 
The remnants of languages once spoken by large populations have 
dwindled to survivals spoken by one or more centenarians, and when 
they die these tongues, if not recorded, will be lost forever. Such a 
fate nearly happened with an Indian language in California last year 
on account of a contagious disease, but fortunately, through the field 
work of one of our staff, it was rescued before its extinction. 
The continued study of the material culture of the Indians has a 
practical economic value. Certain food plants, like maize, and fibers, 
like henequen, have already been adopted from our aborigines, and 
there are others of vast economic value which await investigation. 
Ethnological studies of our Indians along these lines are being made 
by the members of the staff. 
Another instructive line of work the past year relates to the history 
of the Indians both before and after the advent of the Europeans. 
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