56 ANNUAL REPOBT SMITHSOXIAX INSTITUTION, 1922. 



has a great practical value as an asset to the communities in which 

 these ruins are situated. It is the intention of the chief of the bureau 

 to keep abreast of the other institutions in this regard. 



In the past year the bureau has entered upon two new lines of work 

 which it is believed will not only increase ite scientific output by 

 intensive research but also appeal strongly to the popular interest and 

 to the diffusion of knowledge already acquired. For many years it 

 has not been found practical to continue work on the Hawaiian 

 Islands, Avhich is mentioned as one of the imj)ortant items of ethno- 

 logical research in the above act of Congress. A meeting of the 

 Pan Pacific Convention in Honolulu shows an increased interest in 

 the study of the Polynesian islanders and their relation to the ques- 

 tion of the peopling of America from the South Seas. Mr. Gerard 

 FoAvke, a collaborator of the bureau, was commissioned to attend this 

 convention in the interest of the Smithsonian Institution, and he was 

 instructed to gather whatever information he could in relation to the 

 archeolog}' of the people, if any, that preceded the Hawaiian race of 

 the present day. Although his results were negative, it is gratifying 

 that the bureau took part in this convention, as it opened up several 

 lines of work in other islands Avhich it may later be advantageous to 

 follow. The Sandwich Islands lie practically on the periphery of 

 the sphere of influence of the Polynesian culture, and local investi- 

 gators have the Hawaiians well in hand. There is considerable to do 

 in mapping the distribution of temples and ancient buildings, but this 

 work is being rapidly done by local archeologists. It is desirable, 

 however, that the bureau take up archeological work in Samoa or 

 some island nearer the center of distribution of the race which has 

 occupied almost all the land in the Pacific Ocean. The imperfect 

 facilities for transportation from one island to another and the loss 

 of time in transit is a serious handicap in this work. 



A second line of research which promises even more to the scientific 

 investigator and the tourist is a study of the material culture, espe- 

 cially the architecture, of the houses of the aborigines of Alaska. In 

 the growth of the canning industry the Indians who formerly inhab- 

 ited southern Alaska have been drawn away from their aboriginal 

 villages, leaving them deserted and their totem poles and buildings 

 to the mercy of fire and decay. The monuments are rapidly going to 

 destruction, and it is very desirable that steps be immediately taken to 

 preserve these buildings or a typical example of them before they are 

 utterly destroyed. 



One of these settlements, Kasaan, has already been made a national 

 monument. Steps should be taken to preserve others. \ 



Dr. T. T. Waterman was sent by the bureau to investigate the whole 

 question — primarily to secure whatever vanishing ethnological data 

 is still extant. He was instructed to gather information on the svm- 



