Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891

About this book

The volume is the Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, submitted in 1887 to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and printed by the Government Printing Office in 1891. It opens with a formal letter of transmittal, followed by a terse “Report of the Director” that outlines the Bureau’s organizational plan and then launches into a series of specialist papers. The contents are catalogued in exhaustive detail: field‑work summaries, mound explorations, and individual contributions from a long list of scholars such as Cyrus Thomas, James C. Pilling, and Victor Mindeleff. The bulk of the text is devoted to a systematic study of Pueblo architecture in the Tusayan and Cibola provinces, complete with chapter‑by‑chapter descriptions of ruins, village plans, and construction techniques, and concludes with a separate ethnographic account of Navajo rites and sand‑painting.

Written in the formal, report‑style prose of late‑19th‑century government publications, the work combines dense technical description with illustrative plates and maps. Its voice is scholarly and documentary, reflecting the meticulous standards of the Smithsonian’s Bureau of Ethnology. Readers with a keen interest in historic anthropology, archaeology of the Southwest, or the development of early American scientific institutions will find the report a valuable primary source, while anyone fascinated by the detailed architecture and ceremonial practices of Pueblo and Navajo peoples will appreciate its thoroughness and visual documentation.