While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Bureau of American Ethnology. The Bureau of (American)
Ethnology was organized in 1879 and was placed by Congress under the supervision
of the Smithsonian Institution. It was directed that all the archives, records,
and materials relating to the Indian tribes collected by the Survey of the Rocky
Mountain Region under the auspices of the Interior Department should be
transferred to the Institution for use by the Bureau. Prof. Spencer F. Baird,
Secretary of the Institution, recognizing the great value of Maj. J. W. Powell's
services in initiating re searches among the western tribes, selected him as the
person best qualified to organize and conduct the work.
The National Government had already recognized the importance of researches
among the tribes. As early as 1795 the Secretary of War appointed Leonard S.
Shaw deputy agent to the Cherokee with instructions to study their language and
home life and to collect materials for an Indian history. President Jefferson,
who planned the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06, "for the purpose of
extending the internal commerce of the United States," especially stipulated, in
his instructions to Lewis, the observations on the native tribes that should be
made by the expedition for the use of the Government. These were to include
their names and numbers; the extent and limits of their possessions; their
relations with other tribes or nations; their language, traditions, and
monuments; their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war,
arts, and the implements for these; their food, clothing, and domestic
accommodations; the diseases prevalent among them and the remedies they use;
moral and physical circum stances which distinguish them from known tribes;
peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions; and articles of commerce
they may need or furnish, and to what extent; "and considering the interest
which every nation has in extending and strengthening the authority of reason
and justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what
knowledge you can of the state of morality, religion, and information among
them, as it may better enable those who endeavor to civilize and instruct them
to adapt their measures to the existing notions and practices of those on whom
they are to operate." During much of his life Jefferson, like Albert Gallatin
later on, manifested his deep interest in the ethnology of the American tribes
by publishing accounts of his observations that are of extreme value today. In
1820 Rev. Jedidiah Morse was commissioned by the President to make a tour for
the purpose of "ascertaining, for the use of the Government, the actual state of
the Indian tribes of our country." The Government also aided the publication of
Schoolcraft s voluminous work on the Indians. The various War Department
expeditions and surveys had reported on the tribes and monuments encountered in
the W.; the Hayden Survey of the Territories had examined and described many of
the cliff-dwellings and pueblos, and had published papers on the tribes of the
Mississippi valley, and Maj. Powell, as chief of the Survey of the Rocky
Mountain Region, had accomplished important work among the tribes of the Rio
Colorado drainage in connection with his geological and geographic al
researches, and had commenced a series of publications known as Contributions to
North American Ethnology. The Smithsonian Institution had also taken an active
part in the publication of the results of researches undertaken by private
students. The first volume of its Contributions to Knowledge is The Ancient
Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, by Squier and Davis, and up to the founding
of the Bureau of Ethnology the Institution had issued upward of 600 papers on
ethnology and archeology. These early researches had taken a wide range, but in
a some what unsystematic way, and Maj. Powell, on taking charge of the Bureau,
began the task of classifying the subject-matter of the entire aboriginal field
and the selection of those subjects that seemed to require immediate attention.
There were numerous problems of a practical nature to be dealt with, and at the
same time many less strictly practical but none the less important problems to
be considered. Some of the practical questions were readily approached, but in
the main they were so involved with the more strictly scientific questions that
the two could not be considered separately.
From its inception the Government has had before it problems arising from the
presence within its domain, as dependent wards, of more than 300,000 aborigines.
In the main the difficulties encountered in solving these problems arose from a
lack of knowledge of the distribution, numbers, relationships, and languages of
the tribes, and a real appreciation of their character, culture status, needs,
and possibilities. It was recognized that a knowledge of these elements lies at
the very foundation of intelligent administration, and thus one of the important
objects in organizing the Bureau of Ethnology was that of obtaining such
knowledge of the tribes as would enable the several branches of the Government
to know and appreciate the aboriginal population, and that at the same time
would enable the people generally to give intelligent ad ministration
sympathetic support. An essential step in this great work was that of locating
the tribes and classifying them in such manner as to make it possible to
assemble them in harmonious groups, based on relationship of blood, language,
customs, beliefs, and grades of culture. It was found that within the area with
which the nation has to deal there are spoken some 500 Indian languages, as
distinct from one another as French is from English, and that these languages
are grouped in more than 50 linguistic families. It was found, further, that in
connection with the differences in language there are many other distinctions
requiring attention. Tribes allied in language are often allied also in
capacity, habits, tastes, social organization, religion, arts, and industries,
and it was plain that a satisfactory investigation of the tribes required a
systematic study of all of these, conditions. It was not attempted, however, to
cover the whole field in detail. When sufficient progress had been made in the
classification of the tribes, certain groups were selected as types, and
investigations among them were so pursued as to yield results applicable in
large measure to all. Up to the present time much progress has been made and a
deeper insight has been gained into the inner life and character of the native
people, and thus, in a large sense, of primitive peoples generally, than had
been reached before in the world's history. Many of the results of these re
searches have already been published and are in the hands of all civilized
nations.
Some of the more directly practical results accomplished may be briefly
mentioned:
(1) A study of the relations, location, and numbers of the tribes, and their
classification into groups or families, based on affinity in language a
necessary basis for dealing with the tribes practically or scientifically;
(2) a study of the numerous sociologic, religious, and industrial problems
involved, an acquaintance with which is essential to the intelligent management
of the tribes in adjusting them to the requirements of civilization;
(3) a history of the relations of the Indian and white races embodied in a
volume on land cessions;
(4) investigations into the physiology, medical practices, and sanitation of
a people w r ho suffer keenly from imperfect adaptation to the new conditions
imposed on them;
(5) the preparation of bibliographies embodying all works relating to the
tribes;
(6) a study of their industrial and economic resources;
(7) a study of the antiquities of the country with a view r to their record
and preservation; and
(8) a handbook of the tribes, embodying, in condensed form, the accumulated
information of many years.
The more strictly scientific results re late to every department of
anthropologic research physical, psychological, linguistic, sociologic,
religious, technique, and esthetic and are embodied in numerous papers published
in the reports, contributions, and bulletins; and the general results in each of
these departments, compiled and collated by the highest available authorities,
have now begun to appear in the form of handbooks.
Maj. Powell, director, died Sept. 23, 1902, and on Oct. 11 W. H. Holmes was
appointed to succeed him, with the title of chief. In addition to the chief the
scientific staff of the Bureau comprises (1906) 7 ethnologists, an illustrator,
an editor, a librarian, and 7 other employees. Besides the regular scientific
members of the Bureau there are numerous associates or collaborators, including
many of the best-known ethnologists of the country, who contribute papers or who
engage at intervals in research work under the Bureau s auspices. The library
contains about 12,000 volumes and 7,000 pamphlets, accumulated largely through
exchange of publications. There are about 1,600 linguistic manuscripts, and
15,000 photographic negatives illustrating the aborigines and their activities.
The publications consist of Contributions to North American Ethnology, Annual
Reports, Bulletins, Introductions, and Miscellaneous Publications. The series of
contributions was begun by the Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region before the
organization of the Bureau, 3 volumes having been completed, and was
discontinued after 8 volumes had been issued. Twenty-three annual reports,
comprising 28 volumes, 30 bulletins (including the present Handbook) , 4
introductions, and 6 miscellaneous publications have appeared. The present
edition of the annual reports and bulletins is 9,850 copies, of which the Senate
receives 1,500, the House of Representatives 3,000, and the Bureau 3,500 copies.
Of the Bureau edition 500 are distributed by the Smithsonian Institution. From
the remaining 1,850 copies are drawn the personal copies of members of Congress,
and 500 for distribution to Government libraries and other libraries throughout
the country, as designated by Congress; the remainder are sold by the
Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office. With the exception of
the few disposed of by the Superintendent of Documents, the publications are
distributed free of charge; the popular demand for them is so great, however,
that the editions are soon exhausted. The quota allowed the Bureau is
distributed to libraries, to institutions of learning, and to collaborators and
others engaged, in anthropologic research or in teaching. The publications are
as follows: Reports 1-48
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
