The Morning Astorian

GATHERING INDIAN RELICS.
Museum of American Antiquities Planned by Mrs. Hearst for the University of California.

Dr. Philip M. Jones, one of the foremost ethnologists of the Pacific coast and the leading authority on the tribal customs and traditions of the American Indians, is in the city, the guest with his wife, of the latter's aunt, Mrs. Hawes. Dr. Jones has just returned from a trip through Canada and the Northwest territory during which he visited several reservations and acquired valuable material bearing on Indian lore.

The department of the university with which Dr. Jones is connected is being encouraged and fostered by Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, widow of the multi-millionaire California senator, and the mother of W.R. Hearst, of yellow-journal fame. Mrs. Hearst has supplied the university liberally with funds in all of its undertakings. She is lavishing the millions of the Hearst estate upon her favorite educational institution and plans to make it the foremost school of the Pacific coast. Among Mrs. Hearst's cherished plans is one for the establishment of a museum that shall be recognized the world over as the most complete and authentic exhibit of all things pertaining to the life and history of races who have gone before.

To attain this end expeditions have been equipped and sent to all parts of the world. Excavations and explorations are being made under the direction of archeological experts in Egypt and Assyria. Five men have been engaged to compile information and collect desirable relics, costumes, implements and whatever can be found, all bearing on development and evolution of the American Indian. To each man has been assigned a territory and Dr. Jones' field, the most important of all, embraces all of the North American continent. Although already several years have been spent in the work, the surface had hardly been more than skimmed and there yet remains a decade's research before the desired collections for the museum will have been completed. From the frozen north at the farthest inhabitable points to the southern boundaries of Mexico, everything bearing on Indian lore is to be culled and all possible information concerning the tribes, living and extinct, is to be compiled. It is a vast work and there will be necessary expenditures of upwards of a million dollars which will be supplied by Mrs. Hearst.

Dr. Jones has previously visited the Oregon Indians and contemplates a second visit in the near future. The Klamath Indians, near the California border Dr. Jones regards as the best type of the Pacific coast Indians of today. They are vigorously strong physically and mentally; their communities are governed by well organized laws and they are in every way a superior people of their race. Moreover the Klamaths are living today where their forefathers lived, and have preserved and continued their tribal mythology and customs.

During Dr. Jones' visit to Canada, the chief of the Blackfeet, Running Rabbit, arranged in his honor a ceremonial war dance, and braves were summoned from all parts of the reservation. At the conclusion of the dance Running Rabbit displayed the treasures of the tribe and Dr. Jones was permitted to purchase several articles of interest. The feature of his purchases were three costumes worn in the war dance, by a man, a woman and a boy. The garments are decorated profusely, after the Indian fashion, and highly ornamented with colored beads. To the sleeve of the costume worn by the man was attached thirty ermine hides, the rarest of Northern furs, and in themselves a considerable fortune. The Indians are loth to part with their belongings that are of value to the ethnologist and unless the temporary need for money is strong the prices named are generally prohibitive.

Dr. Jones is compiling the Indian folk lore and securing enough of their languages to be of value in tracing the relationship of the tribes to each other. The study of Indian languages will be commenced at the university this fall and a portion of the collections that will eventually form the museum exhibits will be installed in the near future.

Dr. Jones will remain in the city until Monday, when he will leave for California to confer with the university authorities and later will return and visit the reservations of Washington and Oregon.