FIFTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPOET 



OF THE 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



M. W, Stirling, Chief 



Sir: I hare the honor to submit the following report on tlie field 

 researches, office work, and other operations of the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1936, conducted 

 in accordance w^ith the act of Congress of February 2, 1935. The act 

 referred to contains tlie following item : 



American ethnology: For continuing etimological researches nniong the Amer- 

 can Indians and the natives of Hawaii, the excavation and preservation of 

 archeologic remains under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, includ- 

 ing necessary employees, the preparation of manuscripts, drawings, and illustra- 

 tions, the purchase of books find periodicals, jnul traveling expenses, $58,730.00. 



SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 



At the beginning of the fiscal year M. W. Stirling. Chief of the 

 Bureau, was in southern Florida for the purpose of locating arche- 

 oiogical sites which it was anticipated would be excavated later in 

 the year with relief labor. Mr. Stirling returned to Washington 

 the latter part of Jnlj. In December two Works Progress Admin- 

 istration archeologicai projects having been approved on recjuest of 

 the Florida State Archaeological Survey in cooperation with the 

 Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Stirling again went to Florida in order 

 to consult with Works Progress Administration officials and super- 

 vise the establishing of the projects in Hillsborough and Dade Coun- 

 ties. He returned to Washington December 22. Driring the visit 

 of a Blackfeet Indian delegation to Washington in the month of 

 March 1936 oi3portunity vras taken to make further checks and modi- 

 fications on the sign language material of the late Gen. Hugh L. 

 Scott. 



Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, devoted the greater part of his 

 time during the first half of the fiscal year to the arrangement of the 

 Timucua linguistic material under stems. Further material was 

 added to his large paper on the Indians of the Southeast. On De- 

 cember 26, 1935, Dr. Swanton w^as appointed by the President a mem- 

 ber of a commission of seven "to study and report to tlie next session 

 of Congress its recommendations for a suitable celebration of the 

 four-hundredth anniversary of the expedition of Hernando de Soto.'^ 



112348— o7 1 



