Viewing page 103 of 129

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-101-

action by the Attorney General of New York regarding determinations as to the possibility of moving the collection from New York awaiting completion of that inventory. Simultaneously, a professional task force is being formed at the Museum to study and recommend future courses of action. We will continue to follow the progress of these parallel efforts with great interest and will take every appropriate opportunity to reiterate our willingness to be of assistance and to explore the chances for eventual acquisition of the collection.

As to our concern for proper attention to the history and culture of North American Indians in other programs, the following comments regarding current activities in the National Museum of Natural History's Anthropology Department and in the Center for the Study of Man may be of interest.

The major program of the Center for the Study of Man (CSM) since 1971 has been a twenty-volume encyclopedia, [[underlined]] Handbook of North American Indians [[/underlined]]. This work will summarize what is known of all Indian groups north of Mexico and will replace the previous two-volume encyclopedia which was issued by the Smithsonian in 1907-1910. Several volumes are expected to be out by the end of this year. When completed, the [[underlined]] Handbook [[/underlined]] will become the standard reference work on all aspects of North American Indian history and anthropology.

Another program in the CSM provides small grants to North American Indian communities. Many of the requests for these grants