48 ANNUAL KEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



San Pedro River to its juuction with the Gila a number of ruins were discovered 

 on both banks of the San Pedro and of Aravaipa Creek. A visit was also made 

 to the imposing cliff houses, near Roosevelt dam, lately declared national monu- 

 ments by executive proclamation. Ruins near the mouth of Tonto River were 

 likewise examined. 



At the close of April, by direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, Doctor Fewkes proceeded to the INIesa Yerde National Park in southern 

 Colorado, where he took charge of the excavation and repair work of the 

 celebrated Spruce-Tree House. This ruin was thoroughly excavated and its 

 walls were repaired and put in good condition, in order that it might serve as 

 a type ruin of the cliff dwellings of the Mesa Yerde National Park. One hun- 

 dred and fourteen rooms and eight kivas were excavated; two of the kivas 

 were furnished with roofs reconstructed like aboriginal kiva roofs in Peabody 

 House; an approach to the ruin was graded and drained, and labels were placed 

 at convenient points for the information of visitors. Several large rooms, 

 hitherto unknown, were unearthed, and the structure of the kivas was carefully 

 studied. In order to deflect the water that fell on the ruin from the rim of 

 the canyon, causing great damage, a channel 300 feet long was blasted out of 

 the rock on top of the cliff. Two collections of considerable size were made, 

 one at Casa Grande and the other at Spruce-Tree House. The former includes 

 many rare and several unique objects that shed much light on our knowledge 

 of the culture of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Casa Grande of the Gila ; 

 the latter includes skulls, pottery of rare forms and decoration, stone and 

 wooden implements, basketry, cloth and other woven fabrics, sandals, and bone 

 implements of various kinds. The objects from the Spruce-Tree House will be 

 the first large accession by the National Museum of collections of objects from 

 the Mesa Yerde ruins. Doctor Fewkes completed his work at Spruce-Tree 

 House on June 27. 



Mr. J. N, B. Hewitt, ethnologist, remained in the office during the entire year. 

 Much time was devoted to the collection and preparation of linguistic data for 

 a sketch of Iroquoian grammar as exemplified by the Onondaga and the 

 Mohawk, with illustrative examples from the Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora 

 dialects, for the forthcoming Handbook of American Indian Languages. In 

 pursuing these studies Mr. Hewitt was fortunate in obtaining data which 

 enabled him to supply translations of a number of very important archaic 

 political and diplomatic terms in the native texts embodying the founding, 

 constitution, and structure of the government of the League of the Iroquois. 

 The meanings of these terms are now practically lost among those who speak 

 the Iroquoian languages. As time permitted, these texts were studied and 

 annotated for incorporation in a monograph on the above-mentioned phases 

 of the government of the League of the Iroquois, a work which hitherto has 

 not been seriously undertaken because of its cumbrousness, its extremely com- 

 plicated character, and the great difficulty in recording the native material 

 expressed in tens of thousands of words. 



In addition to these studies Mr. Hewitt prepared for the Handbook of 

 American Indians descriptions of the early mission towns and villages of the 

 Iroquois tribes, brief biographical sketches of Red Jacket ( Shag03'ewatha ) and 

 Thayendanegen (Joseph Brant), and wrote several articles on Iroquois subjects. 



From time to time Mr. Hewitt was called on to assist also in preparing data 

 of an ethnologic nature for replies to correspondents of the oSice. 



During the greater part of the year Dr. Cyrus Thomas, ethnologist, devoted 

 attention chiefly to the preparation of the catalogue of books and papers relat- 

 ing to the Hawaiian Islands. After the number of titles had reached about 



