48 REPOKT OF THE ACTING SECRETARY. 



the Bureau appropriation. These papers were assigned to the Twenty-fifth 

 Annual Report and were in type at the close of the year. Doctor Fewkes 

 liliewise made considerable progress in the preparation of a bulletin on the 

 antiquities of the Little Colorado Valley, Arizona. 



During the year Dr. John R. Swanton completed and prepared for the press 

 all of the Tlingit material, ethnological and mythological, collected by him 

 during previous years ; and all of the ethnological, as well as a portion of the 

 mythological material, has been accepted for introduction into the Twenty- 

 sixth Annual Report. Doctor Swanton also interested himself particularly 

 in the study of the linguistic stocks of Louisiana and southern Texas, many 

 of these languages being either on the verge of extinction or already extinct; 

 he also has in course of preparation a grammer and dictionary and an ethno- 

 logical sketch of the Natchez Indians, and has made the important discovery 

 that this people did not form a distinct linguistic stock, as has been supposed, 

 but formed a part of the great Muskhogean family. 



Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt was engaged almost entirely in investigating and report- 

 ing on etymologies of terms and names, and in elaborating and preparing 

 important articles for the Handbook of the Indians, and also in reading proof 

 of that important work conjointly with the other collaborators. 



During the year Dr. Cyrus Thomas was engaged almost continuously on the 

 Handbook of the Indians, assisting in final revision of the manuscript and In 

 reading proof. During the first two or three months he assisted also in 

 reading and correcting proofs of Bulletin 28, which treats of Mexican antiq- 

 uities — a work for which his extensive researches regarding the glyphics of 

 middle America especially fitted him. 



The manuscript of the body of the Handbook of the Indians was trans- 

 mitted to the Public Printer early in July. In view of the fact that numerous 

 tribal and general articles were prepared by specialists not connected directly 

 with the Bureau, it was deemed advisable to submit complete galley proofs 

 of the Handbook to each as received. While this involved considerable delay 

 in the proof reading, the corrections and suggestions received showed the 

 wisdom of the plan. By the close of the year all the material was in type 

 thi'ough the letter N, and 544 pages of this, to the article " Heraldry," had 

 been finally printed. 



The work on the Handbook of Languages, in charge of Dr. Franz Boas, 

 honorary philologist of the Bureau, has been continued. The several sketches 

 of American languages — sixteen in number — which are to form the body of 

 this work are now practically complete with the exception of those on the 

 Eskimo and the Iroquois. Field work was conduted by Mr. Edward Sapir 

 among the Yakima of Oregon and by Mr. Frank J. Speck among the Yuchi in 

 Indian Territory. 



Mr. Stewart Culin, curator of ethnology in the Brooklyn Institute Museum, 

 whose monograph on Indian Games forms the bulk of the Twenty-fourth 

 Annual Report, was engaged during the year in reading the proofs of that 

 volume ; but his absence in the field for a protracted period prevented its com- 

 pletion. 



The movement for the enactment by Congress of a law for the preservation of 

 American auti(iuities, which was inaugurated during previous years, was con- 

 tinued by various individuals and institutions, and the perfected measure 

 became a law in June. With the view of assistuig the departments of the Gov- 

 ernment having charge of the public domain in the initiation of practical meas- 

 ures for the preservation of the antiquities of the Southwest, the Bureau has 

 actively continued the compilation of a card catalogue of the archaeological 

 sites, esnecially the ruined pueblos and cliff dwellings, and during the year has 



