Frances Densmore recording Mountain Chief2

The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. But from the start, the bureau's visionary founding director, John Wesley Powell, promoted a broader mission: "to organize anthropologic research in America." Under Powell, the bureau organized research-intensive multi-year projects; sponsored

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

field research; initiated publications series (most notably its Annual Reports and Bulletins); and promoted the fledgling discipline of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

. It prepared exhibits for expositions and collected anthropological artifacts for the Smithsonian United States National Museum. In addition, the BAE was the official repository of documents concerning American Indians collected by the various US geological surveys, especially the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region and the Geological Survey of the Territories. It developed a manuscript repository, library and illustrations section that included photographic work and the collection of photographs. In 1897, the Bureau of Ethnology's name changed to the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) to emphasize the geographic limit of its interests, although its staff briefly conducted research in US possessions such as Hawaii and the Philippines. In 1965, the BAE merged with the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology to form the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology within the United States National Museum (now the Department of Anthropology,

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

). In 1968, the SOA archives became the

National Anthropological Archives The National Anthropological Archives is the third largest archive in the Smithsonian Institution and a sister archive to the Human Studies Film Archive. The collection documents the history of anthropology and the world's peoples and cultures, ...

Research

The BAE's staff included some of America's earliest field anthropologists, including Frank Hamilton Cushing, James Owen Dorsey, Jesse Walter Fewkes, Alice Cunningham Fletcher, John N.B. Hewitt, Francis La Flesche,

Cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...

and Victor Mindeleff,

James Mooney James Mooney (February 10, 1861 – December 22, 1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. Known as "The Indian Man", he conducted major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as of tribes on the Great ...

, William Henry Holmes, Edward Palmer, James Stevenson, and

Matilda Coxe Stevenson Matilda Coxe Stevenson (''née'' Evans) (May 12, 1849 – June 24, 1915), who also wrote under the name Tilly E. Stevenson, was an American anthropologist. She was the first woman ever employed as an anthropologist in the U.S. She was also the ...

. In the 20th century, the BAE's staff included such anthropologists as John Peabody Harrington (a linguist who spent more than 40 years documenting endangered languages), Matthew Stirling, and William C. Sturtevant. The BAE supported the work of many non-Smithsonian researchers (known as collaborators), most notably

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...

, Frances Densmore,

Garrick Mallery Garrick Mallery (April 25, 1831 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – October 24, 1894) was an American ethnologist specializing in Plains Indian Sign Language, Native American sign language and pictographs. Family His father was Judge Garrick ...

, Washington Matthews,

Paul Radin Paul Radin (April 2, 1883 – February 21, 1959) was an American cultural anthropologist and folklorist of the early twentieth century specializing in Native American languages and cultures. The noted legal scholar Max Radin was his older brothe ...

, Cyrus Thomas and T.T. Waterman. The BAE had three subunits: the Mound Survey (1882–1895); the Institute of Social Anthropology (1943–1952), and the River Basin Surveys (1946–1969).

Mound Survey

At the time the BAE was founded, there was intense controversy over the identity of the

Mound Builders Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "Mound Builders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks that in ...

, the term for the prehistoric people who had built complex, monumental earthwork

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

s. Archaeologists, both amateur and professional, were divided between believing the mounds were built by passing groups of people who settled in various places elsewhere, or believing they could have been built by Native Americans. Cyrus Thomas, the Bureau's appointed head of the Division of Mound Exploration, eventually published his conclusions on the origins of the mounds in the Bureau's ''Annual Report of 1894.'' It is considered to be the last word in the controversy over the Mound builders' identities. After Thomas' publication, scholars generally accepted that varying cultures of

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

, Native Americans, were the Mound builders.

References

* Fagan, Brian M. ''Ancient North America''. Thames & Hudson. New York, 2005 * Hinsley, Curtis M. 1994. ''The Smithsonian and the American Indian: making a moral anthropology in Victorian America''. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hodge, Frederick Webb, and Corinne L. Gilb. 1956. ''Frederick Webb Hodge, ethnologist''. Berkeley, Calif: University of California.
* Judd, Neil Merton. ''The Bureau of American Ethnology; a partial history''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967. * Thomas, Cyrus
Report on the mound explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology
Pp. 3–730. Twelfth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1890–91, by J. W. Powell, Director. XLVIII+742 pp., 42 pls., 344 figs. 1894. * Woodbury, Richard B., and Nathalie F. S. Woodbury
"The Rise and Fall of the Bureau of American Ethnology."
Journal of the Southwest, vol. 41, no. 3, 1999, pp. 283–296. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40170100.

External links

National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

* ttp://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37575968z/date Digitized copies of the BAE Annual Reports at Gallica
Digitized copies of BAE Annual Reports No. 1 - 15
at

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working ...

Digitized copies of BAE Annual Reports No. 16 - 81
at

Digitized copies of BAE Bulletins No. 1 – 24

Digitized copies of BAE Bulletins No. 25 – 200

Register to the Records of the Bureau of American Ethnology
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkLSkaYCe10 Bruce Smith videoon the 1880s Smithsonian BAE Mound Survey explorations to determine who built the ancient earthen mounds in eastern North America can be viewed as part of serie
19th Century Explorers and Anthropologists: Developing the Earliest Smithsonian Anthropology Collections
{{Authority control Indigenous peoples of North America History of Indigenous peoples of North America Smithsonian Institution Pre-Columbian studies 1879 establishments in the United States Government agencies established in 1879

Research

Mound Survey

See also

References

External links