84 [Senate 



II. 



To the Honorable the Board of Regents of the University of the State of 



New- York. 



The undersigned submits, with the specimens of Indian Art, herewith 

 presented to the State " Historical and Antiquarian Collection," the 

 following Report upon their names and localities: 



But few remains of the skill and industry of our predecessors have 

 come down to us, to illustrate the era of Indian occupation. The 

 low state of the most useful arts among them detracts greatly from 

 the interest with which the scanty vestiges of their civilization would 

 otherwise be invested. Such specimens as we discover are rude to 

 the last degree in their construction, and bespeak a social condition 

 of extreme simplicity. Still there is no condition of man, however 

 rude, in which he is not surrounded by mementoes of his handy- 

 work. The possession of the thinking principle, and of the human 

 form, render existence without work impossible. Artificial con- 

 trivances are inseparable from the social state; and when these 

 specimens of human ingenuity are brought together, they unlock the 

 social history of the people from whom they come. In this view 

 especially, the artificial remains of our Indian predecessors, incon- 

 siderable as they are in every ordinary sense, possess an intrinsic 

 value, and should be sought out and preserved as the unwritten 

 history of their social existence. 



The establishment of an Indian Cabinet, under the shadow of the 

 State Geological Collection, is by no means a barren or unpromising 

 enterprise. There is not in our Republic an Indian Collection which 

 fully and fairly illustrates the condition of the arts among our Indian 

 races. It is much clearer that there should be such a Cabinet, than 

 that it can be collected; and as to the feasibility of the enterprise, it 

 is at least worthy of the effort. The fugitive specimens are suffi- 

 ciently numerous for a respectable foundation, and new relics will 

 be constantly exhumed for centuries to come. 



The remains of Indian art which are found scattered over, and 

 entombed within, the soil of New-York, are of two distinct kinds, 

 and to be ascribed to widely different periods. The first class belong 

 to the Ante-Columbian period, as it is denominated by Indian scholars; 



