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Show XLIV ANNUAL REPORT OP THE DIRECTOR was steadily engaged in collecting material for a grammar and a dictionary of the Navajo language. He was also occupied in the preparation of the paper on " Navajo Silversmiths" and that on " Navajo Weavers," published respectively in the second and third annual reports, and in the investigation of other branches of anthropology in relation to the above mentioned tribe with a view to future publication. OFFICE WORK. Former reports have recognized the demand made by the public for certain publications as fundamental to the study of Indian anthropology: to furnish these is conceived to be the first and most obvious duty of the Bureau These publications in the order of inquiry and request are: ( 1) a series of charts showing the habitat of all tribes when first met by Europeans and at subsequent eras; ( 2) a dictionary of tribal synonymy, which should refer the multiplied and confusing titles, as given in literature and in varying usage, to a correct and systematic standard of nomenclature; ( 3) a classification, on a linguistic basis, of all the known Indians of North America, remaining and extinct, into families or stocks. The order of possible preparation of these publications is the reverse of the above. The charts cannot be drawn until the tribes, as villages, confederacies, and leagues, shall have been resolved from multiplicity and conftision into identification and simplicity. The linguistic classification precedes the whole of the work, and the difficulties attending it have at times suspended its satisfactory progress until expeditions of research had been sent forth to clear up the obstacles of uncertainty or ignorance. Numerous publications of ethnologic charts, of partial synonymies, and of tentative classifications have appeared from various sources, but all have been imperfect and more or less erroneous. The personal attention of the Director and of all the officers and employes of the Bureau has been steadily directed, in addition to the several branches of work from time to time undertaken, to presenting them in a proper form. The labor and study required have been beyond |