S or 
| AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
’ 
Work of Smithsonian Institution in| 
_ Preserving Ancient Records. 
= : [From The Tribune Bureau. ] 
_ Washington, Dec. 14.—“Not only to preserve 
a record of the native races of our country but 
to place at the disposal of the general, govern- | 
ment information which will enable .it suecess- 
‘fully to deal with the indian tribes has been 
jthe object always before the members of this 
bureau,” said Professor W. H. Holmes, chief of 
the bureau of American ethnology of es Smith 
sonian Institution, the other day. “These trib : 
jare all that remain of one of the four ae 
jraces of man (Caucasian, Negro, itheslinn ant | 
American), They are the former owners of the 
j American continent, and we are spurred on to 
Jing culture is passing away i 
unrecorded. 
; “Although there has been i 
18 
1a great measura 
n recent years a 
eneral awakening of interest in the Indian 
= 
few realize the rapidi i = 
are taking place pe ret s toe — 
| acting now. We- believe deta ae 
| the Tatio age #overnment to co te eS 
fof this prUpie for the hb ee 
as = Oenefit of science and 
a a 
history, so far as the fast vanishing remnants 
will permit. No other agency is equal to the 
task, and what is not done by the present gen-| 
jeration of students must remain forever oss 
plete. 
“The work already accomplished by this bu- 
reau since its foundation is valuable and im- 
portant, and its researches, if properly carried 
| jout, will form the greatest body of information 
regarding the history of man: in the primitive | 
stages of his development that the world can 
ever possess, for primitive conditions in all parts 
of the world are being rapidly swept away, even 
in the remotest regions, by encroachments of 
the advance guard of civilization. It is believed 
that the work now being done by the bureau, 
_ {since it cannot be repeated, must grow in value 
_ {with the flight of vears, and few publications of 
{ the government will be so enduring and re- 
main so long a valuable source of historical and 
| |scientific information as those embodying the re- 
_ [sults of our investigations.” 
i 
f 
a a eae 
0 ; however, | 
not the first governmental investigations among | 
the Indians. As early as 1795 the Secretary of. 
i War appointed Leonard S. Shaw deputy agent 
to the Cherokees, with instructions to study’ 
their language and home life and to collect 
materials fer an Indian history. Thomas Jef- 
{ferson, in planning the Lewis and Clark expe- 
dition of 1804-’06, instructed Lewis to make ex- 
tensive investigations among the Indian tribes 
{with which he came in contact. Jefferson and 
Albert Gallatin both published accounts of per- 
sonal observations. The Rev. Jedidiah Morse 
was commissioned by the President in 1820 to 
ascertain for the use of the government the 
actual state of the Indian tribes of our country. 
Over half a century ago the Smithsonian Ir- 
stitution published as the first volume of its 
“Contributions to Knowledge” a work on the 
‘Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,” 
by Squier ang Davis, and up to the time of the 
founding of the bureau of ethnology the institu- 
tion had issued many publications on ethnology 
‘and archeology. 
Before the organization of the bureau Con- 
gress had given substantial aid to the publica- 
tion of Schoolcraft’s. voluminous work on the 
Indians, and various representatives of the War 
Department had visited and reported on the 
tribes and monuments in various parts of the 
West. The Hayden survey of the territories. 
had examined and described many of the cliff 
and pueblo dwellings and had published papers 
jon the ethnology of the Mississippi Valley. 
Major J. W. Powell, chief of the survey of the 
1 Rocky Mountain region, the first man to explore 
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, had accom- 
plished much among the tribes of the South- 
| west’ and had begun a series of publications 
|known as “Contributions to North American 
Ethnology.” It is observed, however, that these 
early studies were generally disconnected, and it 
remained for the bureau to systematize the work 
and to verify and round out the matter in such 
a way as to make it of real and permanent 
value. 
In 1789 Congress recognized the importance 
of investigations among the tribes by establish- 
ing the bureau, the operations of which were 
placed under the supervision of the Smithsonian 
institution. Major Powell was selected by Pro- 
fessor Baird, secretary of the institution, to 
organize and conduct the hureau. The new — 
director found before him a diversified field, and 
began to classify the tribes and the various sub- 
jects relating to them as a means of deciding © 
just what part of the task should be undertaken 
by the government. The vast extent of the 
work will be realized wheri’-it is stated that 
attered over the country from the Atlantic to 
he Pacific and from the Gulf to the Arctic 
