REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I9II 7I 



think it will be found to be the greatest ever devised by barbaric 

 man on any continent. By adhering to it the Five Nations became 

 the dominant native power east of the Mississippi and during colonial 

 times exercised an immense influence in determining the fate of 

 English civilization on the continent. They, as allies of the British, 

 fought for it and destroyed all French hopes for colonization. 



The authors of the Great Immutable Law gave the Iroquois two 

 great culture heroes, heroes without equal in American Indian 

 annals. Through the law^ as a guiding force and through the heroes 

 as ideals the Iroquois have persisted as a people, preserved their 

 national identity and much of their native culture and lore. Today 

 in their various bodies they number more than 16,000 souls. ^ This 

 is a remarkable fact Avhen it is considered that they are entirely 

 surrounded by a dominant culture whose encroachments are per- 

 sistent and unrelenting in the very nature of things. 



The Canadian Iroquois indeed govern themselves by the laws 

 contained in these codes, proving their utility even in modern days. 



Fate of the New York State collections in archeology and 

 ethnology in the Capitol fire. In the New York State Capitol 

 conflagration of March 29tli the archeological and ethnological col- 

 lections of the State Museum were almost totally destroyed by fire 

 and water. The collections were installed in vertical wall and square 

 alcove cases about the corridors at the head of the western staircase. 

 The location seemed to insure singular protection from fire, there 

 being nothing inflammable in the yicinity save the molding that held 

 the cases together. The damage seems to have been done by the 

 long sheets of flame that burst through from the large corridor 

 windows of the library bindery on one side and of the Education 

 Department oflices on the other. The immense amount of inflam- 

 mable material there fed the flames once established and the draft 

 caused by the breaking of the heavy plate windows that opened out 

 into the hall about the staircase carried the blast directly against the 

 cases, shattering the glass and exposing the specimens within. The 

 archeological cases suffered most from the breakage brought about 

 by the crumbling of the sandstone ceilings that had been subjected 

 to the intense heat. The falling of the ceilings in great blocks broke 

 the shelves that had so far resisted the fire and spilled the specimens 

 into the water and debris. The continual dropping of masses of 

 cracked rocks from the w^ills made work of rescuing valuable objects 

 most hazardous. However, (les]:»itc tlie clinking smoke, the sudden 



1 Southern Workman, Dec. lyii. 



