There were also many volumes of reports and monographs, among them the account of the expedition of 1869, entitled The Exploration of the Colorado River of the West, 1869 to 1872; The Geology of the Uinta Mountains, by Powell; Lands of the Arid Region by Powell; Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah, by C.E.Dutton of the Ordnance Department, U.S.A.; Geology of the Henry Mountains, by G.K.

Gilbert; and four volumes of Contributions to North American Ethnology, one of which contained Lewis H.Morgan's famous monograph on "Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines." Early in his Western work Powell became interested in the native tribes.

In the winter of 1868, while on White River, he studied language, tribal organisation, customs, and mythology of the Utes and from 1870 to 1873 he carried on studies among the Pai Utes, the Moki, etc., being adopted into one of the Moki clans.
On his journeys during these periods he often took with him several of the natives for the purpose of investigating their myths and language.
Eventually he became the highest authority on the Shoshonean tribes.

In 1874 he was one of the commissioners to select and locate the Southern Pai Utes on a reservation in south-eastern Nevada.
North American archaeology also claimed his interest and about the time of the consolidation of the Surveys Powell proposed the establishment of a Bureau of Ethnology to carry on investigations in this field as well as the ethnologic.

This was done and the Bureau was attached to the Smithsonian Institution with Powell as director, an office that he held without salary till his resignation as head of the Geological Survey in 1894.