The papers by Dr. Yarrow and Colonel Mallery, and the catalogue of manuscripts in the Bureau, prepared by Mr. Pilling, appended to this volume, will illustrate the value of these agencies.
It is proposed in the near future to prepare similar volumes, as follows:
Introduction to the Study of Medicine Practices of the North American Indians;
Introduction to the Study of the Tribal Governments of North America;
Introduction to the Study of North American Mythology.
These additional manuals are nearly ready. Still others are projected, and it is hoped that the field of North American anthropology will be entirely covered by them. The series will then be systematically combined in a Manual of Anthropology for use in North America.
SYSTEMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN TRIBES.
There is in course of preparation by the Bureau a linguistic classification of North American tribes, with an atlas exhibiting their priscan homes, or the regions inhabited by them at the time they were discovered by white men.
The foregoing sketch of the Bureau, for the first fiscal year of its existence, is designed to set forth the plan on which it is organized and the methods of research adopted, and the papers appended thereto will exhibit the measure of success attained.
It is the purpose of the Bureau of Ethnology to organize anthropologic research in America.