46 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION^ 1908. 



Dunn, of Indiauapolis ; Mr. Wilberforce Eames, of the New York Public 

 Library ; Lieut. G. T. Emmons, U. S. N. ; Dr. Livingston Farrand, of Columbian 

 University ; Miss Alice C. Fletcher, of Washington ; Mr. Gerard Fowke, of St. 

 Louis; Mr, Merrill E. Gates, of the Indian Rights Association; Mr. William 

 R. Gerard, of New York ; Dr. P. E. Goddard, of the University of California ; 

 Dr. George Bird Grinnell, of New York ; Mr. Henry W. Henshaw, of the United 

 States Biological Survey ; Dr. Edgar L. Hewett, of the Archaeological Institute 

 of America; Dr. Walter Hough and Dr. Ales Hrdli^ka, of the United States 

 National Museum ; Dr. William Jones, of the Field Museum of Natural History ; 

 Dr. A. L. Kroeber, of the University of California; Mr. Francis La Flesche, 

 of Washington; Dr. A. B. Lewis, of the Field Museum of Natural History; 

 Dr. Charles F. Lummis, of Los Angeles ; Dr. O. T. Mason, of the United States 

 National Museum ; Mr. Joseph D. McGuire, of Washington ; Rev. Leopold Oster- 

 mann, of Arizona; Mr. Doane Robinson, of the South Dakota Historical So- 

 ciety ; Mr. Edward Sapir and Mr. Frank G. Speck, of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania ; Mr. C. C. Willoughby, of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge; and Dr. 

 Clark Wissler, of the American Museum of Natural History. I take this occa- 

 sion to express the appreciation of the bureau for the valuable aid so gener- 

 ously rendered by these students, without which it would not have been pos- 

 sible to make the work either as complete or as accurate as it is. 



Throughout the year Mr. James Mooney, ethnologist, remained in the office, 

 occupied either in the preparation of articles intended for the second part of 

 the Handbook of American Indians or in preparing answers to ethnologic in- 

 quiries made by correspondents of the bureau. His principal work for the 

 handbook was an elaborate and detailed study of the numerical strength of the 

 aboriginal population north of Mexico from the time of their first contact with 

 the whites. This important foundation study of American ethnology has never 

 before been undertaken in a systematic and comprehensive manner, and the result 

 proves of much scientific interest. Contrary to the opinion frequently advanced 

 on superficial investigation, the Indians have not increased in number since 

 their first contact with civilized man, but have decreased by fully two-thirds, 

 if not three-fourths. California alone, the most populous large section during 

 the aboriginal period, contained probably as many Indians as are now officially 

 recognized in the whole United States. The causes of decrease in each geo- 

 graphic section are set forth in detail in chronologic sequence in Mr. Mooney's 

 study. 



During the year Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, was occupied entirely 

 with work in the office, principally in connection with the Indian languages of 

 Louisiana and Texas. He finished the analytic dictionary of the Tunica 

 language and compiled similar dictionaries of Chitimacha, Attacapa, and Ton- 

 kawa. All the extant Comecrudo and Cotoname material, as well as the material 

 pertaining to related tribes contained in Fray Bartholome Garcia's Manual 

 para administrar los sacramentos (Mexico, 1760), was similarly arranged, and 

 in addition a comparative vocabulary was constructed which embraces the last- 

 mentioned data as well as the Karankawa and Tonkawa. During the months of 

 May and June another dictionary was prepared, embracing all the Biloxi 

 linguistic material collected by Doctor Gatschet and Mr. J. O. Dorsey in 1886, 

 1892, and 1893. The material in this last work is exceptionally full and com- 

 plete. The Comecrudo and Cotoname, the material extracted from Garcia's 

 catechism, and the Biloxi, are nearly ready for the press. The languages 

 referred to above, with the addition of the Natchez, include practically all of 

 those in the eastern and southern United States that are in immediate danger 

 of extinction. The information regarding most of them is very limited, and 



