"In 1879 Congress established the Bureau of American Ethnology (B.A.E.) as a separate, purely research unit of the Smithsonian, independent of the National Museum. The focus of the Bureau's research was on North American Indian cultures, including important works in ethnology, archaeology, and linguistics. The B.A.E. effectively founded American anthropology (especially ethnology and linguistics) at a time when there were no advanced university degrees in the field and there were almost no full-time anthropologists employed anywhere else. The 200 Bulletins and 48 Annual Reports of the B.A.E. were the premier publications in anthropology in the country for most of the 86 years of the Bureau's existence."
http://anthropology.si.edu/outreach/depthist.html
Please note that not all items are primary sources, but many are translations of works, songs, and myths, etc. as well as field observations, journals and archeological finds.
Click the blue more link for titles of papers accompanying the annual report