Iroquoian. To the "American Antiquarian" (vol. xx. pp. 1–16) for January-February, 1897, Rev. W. M. Beauchamp contributes an article on "Wampum used in Council and as Currency." The author notes that "the Mohawk word gaionni, used for a belt, is from the same root as the title of the Iroquois aristocracy, and signifies something highly esteemed." A point worth more study is "the great and sudden impetus" given to the use of wampum in the seventeenth century.
Keresan. To the "Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci." for 1897, Prof. Frederick Starr contributes "A Study of a Census of the Pueblo of Cochiti."
Kiowan. In "Urquell" (N. F., vol. i. pp. 329–333) Mr. James Mooney treats of "The Kiowa Peyote Rite."
Kwakiutl-Nootka. To the "Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1895" (Washington, 1897), Dr. Franz Boas contributes a valuable detailed and elaborate account of "The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians" (pp. 311–737). The essay is accompanied by §1 plates and 215 text-figures, while an appendix gives Indian texts of songs and speech, with translations and music. The subjects discussed are: Social organization; potlach; marriage; clan legends; spirits; winter society; winter ceremonials, songs and dances. Dr. Boas emphasizes the complexity of the Kwakiutl secret societies, and the difficulties of interpreting all their phenomena correctly: "The psychological explanation for the development of the complicated system of the membership in secret societies lies in the combined action of the social system on the one hand and the method of acquiring manitous on the other" (p. 664). The customs observed nowadays are "evidently a modern development of more ancient forms." Dr. Boas also suggests a close relationship between customs having to do with warfare and the development of secret societies.
Northwest Coast. In the "Inter. Arch. für Ethnogr." (vol. x. pp. 225–245), Mr. O. M. Dalton publishes "Notes on an Ethnographical Collection from the West Coast of North America (more especially California), Hawaii, and Tahiti, formed during the voyage of Captain Vancouver, 1790–95, and now in the British Museum."
Pueblos. "The Cliff Palace and its Surroundings" is the title of a paper by Rev. S. D. Peet, in the "American Antiquarian" (vol. xx. pp. 19–36), in which are given some of the results of later explorations of the so-called "High Houses and Round Towers" and other cliff-dwellings, especially of the "Cliff Palace’" of the Mancos Cañon, said to be the largest ruin of its kind in the United States.—In a subsequent number (pp. 81–101) Dr. Peet discusses "Cliff Fortresses." See Keresan, Tusayan, Zuñi.
