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Show LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY During the first century of our national existence, in his private capacity, the citizen of the republic paid small attention to this most important field of historical research. The govINVESTIGATIONS BY ernment, however, at a very early day, recogTHE GOVERNMENT nized the importance of the subject. In 1795, an agent of the Cherokees, under instructions from the war department, made a careful study of their language and home life, and also collected material for a history of the Indians. President Jefferson, who planned the Lewis and Clark expedition to the northwest in the years 1804-06, ‘‘for the purpose of extending the internal commerce of the United States,’’ especially stipulated in his instructions to Lewis, the observations of the native tribes that should be made by the expedition for the use of the national government. These included their names and numbers; the extent and limit of their possessions; their relations with other tribes or nations; their language, traditions, and monuments; their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, and the implements for these; their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations; the diseases prevalent among them and the remedies they used; moral and physical circumstances which distinguished them from known tribes; peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions; and articles of commerce they might need or furnish, and to what extent; ‘and considering the interest which every nation has in extending and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you can of the state of morality, religion, and information among them, as it may better enable those who endeavour to civilize and instruct them to adapt their measures to the existing notions and practices of those on whom they are to operate. ’’ During much of his life President J effers on, like Albert Gallatin, later on, manifested his deep interest in the ethnology of the Amerii tribes Md publishing accounts of his observations that are of ORIGIN AND HISTORY | : S 7 EX Shofinne. ee ahs , os | Su OF FIRST INHABITANTS ip oh A Sart Vo $8) santa Gros vf Creea warteliag : o TS Po a STANT He PSSA tore ‘ err EN +t rf edi ae AoE do aT 4 Ke po a | mcr GRANT {{ 2 Cocnrs & mfp de! f i Pe FR Eshratse C8 o. | eq Papas li \ extreme value today. In 1820 Rev. Jedediah Morse was commi ssioned by President Monroe to make a tour for the purpose of ‘‘ ascertaining, for the use of the PRR SA Inhabited government, the actual state of the Indian tribes of our country.”’ The . government also aided the publicat ion of Schooleraft’s voluminous work on the Indians. The various war department exped itions - . e * ach Rit Shnnes so nnaibetnenaninisa a hee inked ee Tere os adr ath 2 e Le etacde a> leat ee ee . lin Pueblo knportant Pueblo Ruin e aan Ch Gome Pit a esa Dwell a eel = Milee. ee Bow s 2 ane J |