Abstract
READERS of NATURE do not need to be reminded of the important work being done by the Bureau of American Ethnology, which is conducted under Act of Congress “for continuing ethnologic researches among the American Indians under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution.” The value of the researches that are being carried on, and the results of which are issued in the form of annual reports and bulletins, cannot be over-estimated; for the Indian customs and beliefs, which form the subject of the majority of the papers, are not destined to survive for many years. The Indian reserves are gradually being curtailed, the Indians themselves are slowly becoming civilised, and this process is naturally attended with change and decay of their primitive ceremonial and belief. It must be admitted that the Indian nature is slow to change, and retains its tribal instincts under a veneer of civilisation. In fact, the case of a young Arapaho Indian, who, though speaking good English and employed as a clerk in a store, thought it but natural that he should join his tribe in dancing the sun-dance for three days and nights Without food, drink or sleep, is far from exceptional. But the change, though gradual, is constant, and at no distant period the American Indian will have ceased to furnish the anthropologist with opportunities for the study of primitive man. When that time arrives the value of these reports, compiled by trained observers in accordance with a scientifically organised plan, will be unique.
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Ceremonial Dances of the American Indians. Nature 58, 125–127 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058125d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058125d0