26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 



The bureau has collected data relating to 60 families or linguistic 

 stocks and upward of 300 tribes. It does not expect to study all of 

 the tribes in detail, but rather to investigate a sufficient number as 

 types which may stand for all. The results of the work heretofore 

 accomplished are embodied in 26 published reports, 36 bulletins, 8 

 volumes of contributions, and in many manuscripts preserved in the 

 archives of the bureau. It has seemed wise at this stage of the re- 

 searches to prepare a summary of our knowledge of the tribes, and 

 this has taken the form of a Handbook of the Indians, of which one 

 large volume is published and the second nearly through the press. 

 In order to keep this summary within the compass of an easily con- 

 sulted handbook many important subjects are treated merely in out- 

 line. Other handbooks dealing with the more important branches 

 of the work are in course of preparation. The first is the Hand- 

 book of Languages, which is now in press and will form two volumes. 

 The arts and industries are also being treated in separate volumes, 

 and handbooks relating respectively to religions, folklore, social cus- 

 toms, government, sign language, pictography, aesthetic arts, phys- 

 ical and mental characters, pathology and medicine, archeology, geo- 

 graphical names, etc., are in prospect. 



The people of the United States have two great obligations which 

 the bureau is trying to fulfill: (1) That of acquiring a thorough 

 knowledge of the Indian tribes in the interests of humanity; (2) 

 that of preserving to the world an adequate record of the American 

 race which is so rapidly disappearing. The work is of national, 

 even of world-wide, importance, and unless steadfastly carried for- 

 ward by the Government can never be completed. 



Recently much popular interest has been manifested in the antiqui- 

 ties of the country, more especially in the great pueblo ruins and 

 cliff dwellings of the arid region, and the Fifty-ninth Congress 

 enacted a law for the preservation of these antiquities. A first step 

 in making this law effective is their exploration. A second is the 

 excavation and repair of the more important ruins to insure their 

 preservation and to make them available to the public and for study. 



Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, has 

 continued the work of excavation and repair of the ancient ruins in 

 the Mesa Verde National Park, in cooperation with the Department 

 of the Interior. During the year the repair of Spruce Tree House 

 was completed, and at the end of June he had made excellent progress 

 in uncovering and repairing the crumbling walls of Cliff Palace, the 

 greatest of the ancient ruins of its kind in this country. 



There is need also for ethnological work in the Hawaiian Islands 

 and Samoa, for the following reasons: It is regarded as most im- 

 portant that the Government should have definite and detailed in- 

 formation regarding the native inhabitants of these islands, which 



