REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 
Mr. Hewitt has also attended the meetings of the United States 
Geographic Board, on which he represents the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. 
As custodian of manuscripts, Mr. Hewitt has charged out and 
received back such items as were required by collaborators. 
Mr. Hewitt also spent much time and study in the preparation of 
matter for official replies to letters of correspondents of the bureau 
or to those which have been referred to the bureau from other depart- 
ments of the Government. 
On May 12, 1919, Mr. Hewitt left Washington on field duty. His 
first stop was on the Onondaga reservation, situated about 8 miles 
south of Syracuse, N. Y. There he was able to record in native text 
all of the doctrines of the great Seneca religious reformer, Skanyo- 
daiyo (“ Handsome Lake”). This is an important text, as it will 
serve to show just how much was original native belief and how 
much was added by the reformer from his impressions formed from 
observing the results of European intrusion. This text contains 
about 14,000 native terms. He also recorded the several remnant 
league rituals and chants which are still available on this reserva- 
tion. But they are so much abbreviated and their several parts so 
confused and intermixed one with another that with these remains 
alone it would be absolutely impossible to obtain even an approxi- 
mate view of their original forms and settings—a most disappoint- 
ing situation for the recorder. Only the most elementary and super- 
ficial knowledge of the structure and constitution of the Iroquois 
League survives here. 
Having completed his projected work at this reservation, Mr. 
Hewitt. went, May 31, to the Six Nations reservation on Grand 
River, Ontario, Canada. Here he resumed the analysis, correction, 
amendation, and translation of the league texts which he had re- 
corded in previous years. Satisfactory progress was made in this 
work up to the time of the close of his field assignment. 
During the year Mr. Francis LaF lesche, ethnologist, devoted a 
part of his time to the task of assembling his notes taken at the time 
of his visit among the Osage people in the month of May, 1918. 
These notes relate to the tribal rite entitled Ga-hi’-ge O-k’o", The 
Rite of the Chiefs. The ritual contains 27 wi’-gi-es (recited parts), 
20 of which belong to individual gentes and 7 of which are tribal. 
In this ritual is embodied the story of the four stages of the de- 
velopment of the tribal government, including both the military and 
the civil forms, beginning with the chaotic state of the tribal exist- 
ence. 
The securing of the information relating to this rite required con- 
siderable tact, patience, and time, because the men familiar with all 
the details still regard the ancient rites with reverence and supersti- 
