The remainder of the time was largely taken up studying materials gathered previously and also in extracting from Petter’s Cheyenne Dictionary such stems and words as can be rigorously proved to be Algonquian. The material on the physical anthropology of the Cheyenne showed clearly the great variation that occurs among living races. A proper technique was worked out for determining the Cheyenne words of Algonquian origin. Though Petter’s alphabet is inadequate, it was possible to partially control this material by comparing it with that of Doctor Michelson. Approximately 700 of such words and stems were extracted. Though the technique mentioned above is very slow, Doctor Michelson is convinced that it is the correct procedure. It was entirely feasible to establish about 70 phonetic shifts which have transformed Cheyenne from normal Algonquian into divergent Algonquian.
Toward the close of May Doctor Michelson left for Oklahoma and renewed his work with the Cheyenne of that State. He restored phonetically the material extracted from Petter, with the result that it is now possible to formulate the transforming phonetic shifts with greater nicety. He also measured a number of Cheyenne. Though the number is not yet large enough to be absolutely decisive in a statistical sense, there is good reason to believe that the vault of their skulls is low, thus resembling the Dakota Sioux rather than most Algonquian tribes. Some new data on Cheyenne social life and mythology were obtained. It was his privilege to consult with some other anthropologists in Oklahoma and to visit one museum.
John P. Harrington, ethnologist, was engaged during the summer of 1930 in the preparation of his report on the Indians who were brought together at San Juan Bautista Mission in the first half of the nineteenth century by the Spanish-speaking padres from various parts of San Benito County, Calif., and the adjacent region. A valuable vocabulary of the language, recorded by Father Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, had already been published by the Smithsonian Institution in the sixties of the last century, but aside from this vocabulary there was little or nothing in print on these Indians. Elaborating a wealth of material obtained from Mrs. Ascención Solórsano, the last San Juan Indian who spoke the language, who died in January, 1930, Mr. Harrington prepared a report on all phases of the life of these Indians, as far as reconstructable. This report tells of the remarkable way in which the language and partial ethnography were rescued from this sole survivor, and then proceeds to the history, geography, and customs of the tribe, including all that could be learned of former religion, ceremony, and mythology.