REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 19 



Considerable progress has been made in arranging the large 

 quantities of natural-history specimens collected by the Smithsonian 

 African expedition and the Smithsonian biological survey of the 

 Panama Canal Zone. Some of the African mammals of greatest 

 public interest have been mounted in groups. 



BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 



The Bureau of American Ethnology has been engaged for a 

 number of years in scientific studies of the American aborigines, 

 including their arts and industries, government, religious and soci- 

 ological systems, and languages, as well as their mental and physical 

 characteristics, their history, and antiquities. Much has been ac- 

 complished in this direction, and many of the results have been 

 permanently recorded and disseminated by means of publication; 

 but a large body of material still awaits final study and arrange- 

 ment, and much work remains to be done both in the field and in the 

 office. 



The investigations of the bureau have, however, reached a stage 

 at which it has been found possible to summarize some of the results 

 in the form of handbooks, designed especially for the use of schools 

 and unprofessional students. The demand for those already issued, 

 or about to be published, is very large. Many changes are taking 

 place among the Indians, owing to their advance in civilization, and 

 for that reason the researches are being pressed with all possible 

 speed while knowledge of primitive conditions is still available. The 

 Indians form one of the great races of mankind, and the world 

 properly looks 'to our Government to gather and record accurate 

 knowledge of this branch of the human family, while by many the 

 work of the Bureau of American Ethnology is regarded as the basis 

 of American history. 



One of the immediate demands upon the bureau is vigorous activity 

 in the exploration and preservation of antiquities, especially in 

 Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, before these important and 

 most interesting ruins are entirely destroyed by vandalism or the 

 elements. 



Another important work that should speedily be undertaken is 

 an ethnological study of the Indians and Eskimo of Alaska before 

 the advent of greater numbers of white people shall have so modified 

 them as to destroy their primitive character. So also there is need 

 of further activity in the study of the few survivors of Indian tribes 

 in the Middle West. 



The bureau has conducted various lines of field work among the 

 tribes which composed the Creek Confederacy of the Southern 

 States; the Tewa Indians of the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico; 



