FOURTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I907 85 



communicate for printing. The scope of the work is such as to 

 make it necessary to devote two volumes to the memoir. The 

 preparation of the second volume is well forwarded and it is ex- 

 pected that the entire work will be in press during the coming year. 



VI 



REPORT ON THE ARCHEOLOGY SECTION 



The wampums of the Iroquois Confederacy. By virtue of 

 the action of the Onondaga Nation in 1898 in electing the Uni- 

 versity of the State of New York the wampum keeper of the 

 '' Five Nations and Six Nations, and each of them " and by the 

 purchase of these wampums at that time through the Onondaga 

 Nation as keeper of all the wampums of the Iroquois Confederacy 

 from the funds of the State Museum, these invaluable archives 

 of the Confederacy have come into the custodianship of the 

 Director of the State Museum, to whom, by the action of the 

 President of the Onondaga Nation, has been transmitted the historic 

 title Ho-san-na-ga-da — Keeper of the Name. Although complete 

 records of these wampums have been kept in the manuscript files of 

 the museum it seems well to make the record more permanent and 

 decisive by introducing in this place photographic copies of each 

 piece of wampum received at that time from the chiefs of the 

 Onondaga Nation. These illustrations are herewith given. 



Work of the section. As an organized department of the State 

 Museum, the Archeological section began on October 19, 1906. The 

 work which devolves upon this section has necessitated its sub- 

 division into several subsections as follows : archeology, ethnology, 

 anthropometry and osteology, and philology and folklore. 



Each of these branches is necessary for the preservation and 

 study of the prehistoric and recent relics and remains of the New 

 York aborigines. The work necessary to carry on each of these 

 branches is nothing less than enormous as Vv^ill be realized when 

 it is stated that it is required that one person, the Archeologist, 

 carry on field work in archeology for at least four or five months 

 of the year, collect ethnologic specimens from the Indians, study, 

 classify and catalogue all the archeo logic and ethnologic material 

 acquired, study, measure, record and catalogue all the features of 

 the human remains exhumed from the ancient graves and ossuaries, 

 to collect and record legends and ceremonial rituals and songs from 

 the Indians, and to transmit proper reports covering these activities. 



