4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



lated to the ethnology of the Eastern North American Indians. Par- 

 ticularly he broadened his Iroquois research, previously concentrated 

 on the Seneca of New York, to include the very poorly known Seneca- 

 Cayuga of northeastern Oklahoma. During August 1961 he spent 3 

 weeks doing field work among this group (including attendance at 

 their major annual ceremony, the Green Corn Dance). In January 

 and May he spent several days studying Oklahoma Seneca- Cayuga 

 specimens in the Museum of the American Indian in New York, and 

 in June visited the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa to study 

 the large collection made among this group by Marius Barbeau in 1911 

 and 1912. These Iroquois are descended from a group which settled in 

 Ohio in the 18th century, together with accretions received since then 

 from New York and Canada. At present those who speak an 

 Indian language speak Cayuga. Although there have been continu- 

 ous mtermittent contacts with other Iroquois, the culture of this group 

 is the most deviant found in any Iroquois community, and its study 

 promises to elucidate several aspects of general Iroquois culture — 

 particularly some features of the various major ritual complexes. 

 Conversations with informants during a brief return visit to the New 

 York Seneca in October helped clarify some of these matters. 



While in Oklahoma Dr. Sturtevant spent a day among the Delaware 

 inquiring about the last years of their ceremonial structure, the Big 

 House. Carved posts from this building were studied in museums 

 in Oklahoma, New York, and Toronto during this and previous years, 

 and some notes on the subject by F. G. Speck were located in the 

 American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia. Dr. Sturte- 

 vant returned from Oklahoma via Mississippi and North Carolina, 

 stopping about 3 days in each State to renew and expand his acquaint- 

 ance with the Choctaw and Cherokee. 



During September Dr. Sturtevant prepared a paper on "Spanish- 

 Indian Relations in Southeastern North America," which he delivered 

 at the annual meeting of the American Indian Ethnohistoric Con- 

 ference in Providence in October. This later appeared in Etlino- 

 history (vol. 9, pp. 41-94, 1962). His paper on "Taino Agriculture" 

 was published in Antropologica Supplement Publication No. 2 

 ( Caracas, 1961 ) . In October Dr. Sturtevant attended an International 

 Conference on Iroquois Research, at McMaster University, Hamilton, 

 Ontario, where he presented an oral report on his Oklahoma field 

 work. In November he attended the annual meetings of the American 

 Anthropological Association in Philadelphia. 



Dr. Wallace L. Chafe, linguist, spent July and August in Anadarko, 

 Okla., collecting material for a description of the Caddo language. 

 He recorded a considerable quantity of linguistic data on this language 

 for which almost no information was previously available, and he 



