b BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Chief Gibson dictated a longer version of the same legend to Dr. Alex- 

 ander Goldenweiser, and this manuscript was turned over to Dr. Fen- 

 ton some years ago by its collector. A translation of the Hewitt 

 manuscript was completed in the field, and this has been reworked in 

 part during the winter. Plans were made to translate the Golden- 

 weiser manuscript during the ensuing year. 



Two other research projects continued through the year. New mate- 

 rials were discovered by Dr. Fenton's collaborators in a study of Corn- 

 planter's Senecas on the upper Allegheny River, mentioned in the 

 report of last year, and the search for journals of the Quaker missions 

 after 1798 has continued with some success. In this work Dr. Fenton 

 acknowledges the labors of Messrs. M. E. DeardorfF, of Warren, Pa., 

 and C. E. Congdon, of Salamanca, N. Y., in transcribing manuscript 

 sources and collecting much new material in the field. 



The second project was conceived several years ago to fulfill a grow- 

 ing need among Americanists for an English edition of J. F. Lafitau's 

 important but now rare Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains {2 vols., 

 Paris, 1724) . Dr. Elizabeth L. Moore, of Parkersburg, W. Va., one- 

 time member of the French department at St. Lawrence University, 

 has undertaken the translation, and at the end of the year had com- 

 pleted, under Dr. Fenton's direction, the translation of those sections 

 in volmrie 1 which include Lafitau's observations of the American sav- 

 ages at his mission among the Mohawks of Caughnawaga and the 

 Abenaki of nearby St. Francis, omitting for the most part long ex- 

 tracts from contemporary and earlier works that Lafitau felt obliged 

 to copy. In order to conserve the Bureau's copy of this rare work, a 

 microfilm copy was made, which is fortunate since the original library 

 copy has been evacuated for the duration. 



Early in March Dr. Fenton commenced compiling, with the help 

 of Drs. Metraux, Collins, and Steward, a cumulative list of anthropolo- 

 gists arriving in Washington for war work and the agencies in which 

 they were employed. 



Following appointment to the Smithsonian War Committee on April 

 1, a large proportion of Dr. Fenton's time and efforts have gone into 

 the work of the Committee, of which he has served as secretary. At 

 his suggestion the Committee drafted and distributed questionnaires 

 soliciting basic data for ''A roster of personnel, world travel, and spe- 

 cial knowledge available to war agencies at the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion," and by early June the roster had been ushered through a pre- 

 liminary and a first edition. The Smithsonian roster was patterned 

 after personnel lists of the Oceania committee of the old "Ethnographic 

 Board" of the National Research Council, and through these contacts 

 the Smithsonian participated in setting up the Ethnogeographic 

 Board. At the end of the fiscal year Dr. Fenton was detailed to act 



