j 6 Report of the President 



collected texts and phonographic records of songs, checked 

 up several uncertain points in phonetics and collected a series 

 of motion films of technological processes. He was accom- 

 panied by Mr. Howard McCormick who made sketches and 

 studies for the proposed Apache Group. 



Associate Curator Lowie visited the Shoshonean tribes of 

 Nevada where he made a beginning in the systematic survey 

 of these little-known tribes. With one possible exception 

 there is no group of living Indians about which we have so 

 few anthropological data as the Nevada Shoshone. During 

 the remainder of the year, Dr. Lowie was chiefly concerned 

 with an investigation of the ceremonies of the Crow Indians 

 based upon data accumulated on previous visits to that tribe. 



Assistant Curator Skinner spent part of the year in an 

 investigation of the societies of the Plains-Ojibway and Plains- 

 Cree, based upon former field data, and later visited the Iowa, 

 Kansa and Eastern Dakota for new data on societies. Not- 

 withstanding the historical importance of these Siouan tribes 

 there was heretofore available little in the way of definite 

 knowledge of their cultures; hence, the work of this season, 

 though preliminary, makes a definite contribution. 



Rev. G. L. Wilson of Minneapolis continued his investi- 

 gations of the agriculture of the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians. 

 This work has developed a problem of considerable practical 

 importance in adapting the Mandan variety of maize to the 

 tillable lands of the upper Missouri valley where the season is 

 too short for the common varieties to mature. Mr. Wilson 

 has been able to cooperate effectively with the United States 

 Department of Agriculture and the University of Minnesota in 

 these investigations, which promise to be of great economic 

 importance in the Northwest. 



Assistant Curator Spinden spent the first half of the year 



in archaeological explorations in Guatemala and San Salvador. 



^ . . . The ruins at Seibal, Tikal, Ixkun, etc., were 

 Primitive . . , a ' \ ,. ' ' 

 _> , visited and several new stelae discovered bear- 

 Peoples , ,.'.■. A 

 f ing important dates and inscriptions. A good 



^ iL , beginning: was made in the study of ceramic 



Southwest , o ' o , " j o- ■ 



types for San Salvador. Since returning to the 



Museum, Dr. Spinden has given his time to the completion of 



