REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 63 



understood that liis gens performed the ceremonies of the ritual as 

 a mere matter of form rather than as an actual owner of the rite. 

 The ofSce of his gens, he explained, was one that was instituted for 

 the conservation of life and the maintenance of peace within the 

 tribe and with other tribes not related to the Osage. 



On the completion of the manuscripts for the second volume, Mr. 

 La Flesche began the task of assembling his notes for the third 

 volume, which will embrace two tribal rituals, the first of which is 

 entitled " Wa-x6-be A-wa-tho"," Songs Eelating to the Wa-x6-be. 

 The Wa-xo-be is the sacred hawk, the symbol of the valor of the 

 Osage warrior. The second ritual is entitled " Qa Tha-dse Ga-xe," 

 literally, The Making of the Eush, but meaning the Making of the 

 Woven Eush Shrine for the Wa-x6-be. 



On July 1, 1921, Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, was at Tama, 

 Iowa, continuing his work among the Fox Indians of that State. 

 He completed gathering data on Fox mortuary customs and beliefs 

 and restored texts appertaining to these and worked out a vocabu- 

 lary as far as possible in the field. On the completion of this he re- 

 stored phonetically a text previously collected on the Fox society 

 known as " Those who worship the little spotted buffalo." He also 

 worked out, as far as practical, the vocabulary to this text. At the 

 close of August he returned to Washington and elaborated the ma- 

 terial collected in the field. During the fiscal year Dr. Michelson 

 submitted two manuscripts for publication, namely, " Notes on Fox 

 mortuary customs and beliefs " and " Notes on the Fox society known 

 as ' Those who worship the little spotted buffalo.' " 



On May 25 Doctor Michelson left for the West to conduct 

 researches among the Algonquian Indians of Iowa, Kansas, and 

 Oklahoma. He stopped at Columbus, Ohio, to consult with Prof. 

 L. Bloomfield. As a result of this conference it became apparent 

 that Menomini is very clearly more closely related to Cree than to 

 any other Algonquian language. He found the work at Shawnee, 

 Okla., very difficult and expensive, owing to the fact that the Algon- 

 quian Indians of that State are scattered and distances are very 

 great. However, during his short stay he secured sufficient informa- 

 tion to show definitelj'^ that not only the Sauk but also the Kickapoo 

 share many mortuary customs and beliefs with the Fox of Iowa. He 

 thinks that these correspondences are too detailed and too numerous 

 to be .of independent origin and must be due to dissemination. This 

 point regarding the Sauk and Fox is not novel, but it is regarding 

 the Kickapoo. There are, however, some differences in the mortuary 

 customs of all neighboring tribes. This last fact is not so well known. 

 .A detailed study of all three neighboring tribes, Siouan as well as 

 Algonquian, on these matters alone can clear up the history of the 



