ETHNOLOGY, BUREAU OF AMERICAN

ETHNOLOGY, BUREAU OF AMERICAN. The American Bureau of Ethnology was established on 3 March 1879 as the Bureau of Ethnology, when Congress transferred to the Smithsonian Institution ethnological investigations of the American Indians, previously conducted by the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. Maj. John Wesley Powell, who had headed the Geological Survey's investigations, guided the new bureau until his death in 1902.

In spite of its limited resources—a scientific and supporting staff never larger than twenty and meager budgets—the bureau became recognized as the foremost center for the study of American Indians. Its publications on linguistics, ethnology, archaeology, physical anthropology, and Native American history are listed in a 130-page booklet, List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology with Index to Authors and Titles. In addition to hundreds of sometimes massive monographs, the bureau has issued the encyclopedic Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, edited by F. W. Hodge; the three-volume Handbook of American Indian Languages, by Franz Boas; Handbook of the Indians of California, by A. L. Kroeber; and the seven-volume Handbook of South American Indians, by Julian H. Steward. In 1964 the bureau was merged with the Department of Anthropology of the U.S. National Museum.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Judd, Neil M. The Bureau of American Ethnology: A Partial History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.

Henry B.Collins/j. h.

See alsoAnthropology and Ethnology ; Smithsonian Institution .