50 REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 



During the latter part of the previous fiscal year, in pursuance of bis lin- 

 guistic studies. Dr. John K. Swanton, ethnologist, was engaged in preparing an 

 English-Natchez and Natchez-English analytical dictionary, embodying all the 

 published and unpublished material available — that is, about two thousand words 

 and phrases ; he also copied on cards all the words and phrases collected by the 

 late Doctor Gatschet from the Attacapa, Chitimacha, and Tunica Indians. At 

 the beginning of the fiscal year Doctor Swanton was engaged in compiling a 

 dictionary of the Tunica language similar to that made for the Natchez. In the 

 field of general ethnology he excerpted and, when necessary, translated, all the 

 available material bearing on the tribes of the lower Mississippi Valley, and 

 arranged for publication that portion dealing with the Natchez. 



On April 3 he left Washington to make investigations among the tribal rem- 

 nants of Louisiana and Oklahoma, and visited the members of the Houma, 

 Chitimacha, Attacapa, Alibamu, Biloxi, Tunica, and Natchez tribes, and was 

 able definitely to establish the relationship of the Houma to the Choctaw and to 

 identify the Ouspie — a small people referred to by the early French writers — 

 with the Offagoula. From the Tunica and Chitimacha he collected several 

 stories which will be of importance iu the endeavor to restore the mythology 

 of the tribes of this area, now almost a blank. In the Cherokee Nation (Okla- 

 homa), contrary to expectation, Doctor Swanton found several persons who 

 still speak the Natchez language. This discovery will necessarily delay the 

 publication of the Natchez material already referred to, but if prompt measures 

 are taken, will insure the preservation of that language in its completeness. 

 At Eufaula (Creek Nation) he made a slight investigation into the social organi- 

 zation of the Creeks — enough to determine that much work still remains to be 

 done in that tribe entirely apart from language. Doctor Swanton returned to 

 the office June 7, and during the remainder of the year was engaged in arrang- 

 ing and collating the material collected by him. 



Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, ethnologist, was employed in the office during the 

 first month of the year reading proofs of his articles on The Aborigines of 

 Porto Rico and Neighboring Islands and on Antiquities of Eastern Mexico, for 

 the Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau. Part of August and all of 

 September were devoted to the preparation of a bulletin on the Antiquities of 

 the Little Colorado. He spent seven months in Arizona, leaving Washington on 

 October 15 and returning the middle of May. During four months he super- 

 intended the work of excavation, repair, and preservation of the Casa Grande 

 Ruin, iu Pinal County, Arizona, and in March and April visited a number of 

 little-known and undescribed ruins along Canyon Diablo and Grapevine Can- 

 yon, gathering material for his bulletin on The Antiquities of the Little Colo- 

 rado Valley. During May and June he was employed in the office, devoting 

 his time to the preparation of an account of the excavations at Casa Grande. 

 The explorations at Casa Grande were conducted under a special appropriation 

 disbursed directly by the Smithsonian Institution, and Doctor Fewkes's pre- 

 liminary report has been submitted to the Secretary. It is anticipated that a 

 final report on the work when completed will be published by the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology. 



Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt was occupied during the earlier months of the year in 

 preparing and correcting matter for the Handbook of American Indians, devot- 

 ing special attention to the articles on the Iroquoian family, Iroquois, Mohawk, 

 Montour, Mythology, Nanabozho, Neutrals, Oneida, Onondaga, and Ottawa, and 

 to the lists of towns formerly belonging to the Iroquois tribes. 



From the 20th of January to the 23d of March, 1007, he was engaged in 

 field work among the Iroquois tribes in New York and in Ontario, Canada. 

 The entire period was devoted to collecting texts in the Onondaga and Mohawk 



