Prior to Gallatin's time little or nothing had been done in the direction of a systematic classification of Indian languages. In 1836 Gallatin issued his treatise in which he classified all the languages which he was able to study by a direct comparison of vocabularies. His classification was an immense advance over anything previously done and has proved a boon for scholars, having served, indeed, practically as the basis for most of the work in the same line performed since his time. No fixed rules of nomenclature, however, have ever been adopted by linguistic writers, and authors have named and renamed linguistic groups without regard to the names imposed upon the same or similar groups by earlier writers. As a result great confusion has followed not only respecting the status of the various linguistic families, but also respecting the identity of the languages which have served as a basis for the several groups proposed. The remedy for this state of affairs is the adoption, with strict adherence thereto, of a code of nomenclatural rules similar in scope to those prevailing among zoölogists.
There would appear to be no good reason why the rule of priority of name, for instance, should not be followed in linguistic as well as in zoölogic classification, or why the same beneficial result of fixity of nomenclature should not be expected to result from the adoption of this rule in the one case as in the other. Students who may attempt to unravel the many perplexing nomenclatural problems arising from unnecessary change of names will certainly agree that such a rule is no less desirable in linguistics than in zoölogy.
Accordingly, the rule of priority of name, within certain limitations, together with some other rules, has been adopted by the Bureau. These limitations and rules, together with a discussion of the subject, which would still be premature, may be presented by the Director in his next annual report.
Mr. H. W. Henshaw, when not in the field, was specially engaged in the organization and details of the office work upon tribal synonymy and linguistic classification above described. A careful examination of all the literature pertaining to these correlated subjects was necessary and also the preparation of tentative tables of synonymy. He has prepared such tables and made in connection with them a brief historical résumé of the literature. Much longer time and the work of the whole official force will, however, be needed for the completion for publication of the results of this vast and complicated undertaking.
Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith was occupied, while not engaged in the field as reported above, in the revision for publication of her Tuscarora dictionary, the material for which had been collected during several years.
Col. Garrick Mallery continued the collection and classification of material on the two correlated subjects of sign language and pictographs. His two preliminary papers on those subjects have appeared in former annual reports. It is intended, while increasing the data obtained from the Indian tribes of North America, bearing upon these subjects, to supplement and illustrate the mass of information collected from those tribes by comparison with everything of a similar character to be found in other parts of the world and to publish the results of the collection and study in the form of monographs.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman, when not in the field, continued to assist in the work mentioned.
Mr. James C. Pilling's preparation of the Bibliography of North American Languages continued during the year. In October and November he visited several libraries in Boston and Providence, for the purpose of clearing up a number of doubtful points. During the year pages 839-1135 were received from the printer, which completed the volume. In the spring a limited number of copies were struck off by the Public Printer, and these have been sent to various libraries, public institutions, and to individuals interested in the subject, for the purpose of obtaining additions and corrections, with the intention, if these should prove to be numerous, of resetting the matter.
Mr. Frank H. Cushing was stationed at Washington at the commencement of the fiscal year and was engaged in the classification of his field material in preparation for its publication. During the fall he completed a short paper on Zuñi culture growth as evidenced by studies of Pueblo ceramics, which was published in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau. In this paper he maintains, with a large amount of linguistic evidence, that the Zuñi culture is mainly autochthonous, and that its growth, especially the growth of architectural, agricultural, ceramic, and other arts and industries pertaining to it, has been largely accomplished within the desert areas of America which still form the habitat of the Pueblo Indians, and probably, also, within a period more limited than has usually been supposed essential to such development.
He prepared also a paper on the "Ancient province of Cibola and the seven lost cities," in which he not only identifies the seven cities of Cibola above referred to with seven ruins near the present Zuñi village, but also furnishes interesting examples of the permanence of Indian tradition and of its value, when properly used, as a factor, in ethnographic and historic research.