Through his duties, Emmons got in contact with, and interested in, the Alaska Native cultures of the region: particularly the Tlingit and Tahltan.
He was dedicated to learning about native traditions, such Chilkat weaving,[1] bear hunting, feuds, and the potlatch (a large ceremonial feast).
(In 1902, the Field Museum of Natural History purchased a large and varied collection of more than 1,900 Tlingit objects.)
F. W. Putnam, curator of the American Natural History Museum, asked for his help on a report in 1896 and repeated the request to the Navy the following year.
So Emmons was officially detached from active service and ordered to write the Ethnological Report on the Native Tribes of Southeast Alaska, elaborated from the museum collections.
At the recommendation of Franz Boas, with whom he corresponded regularly and at the request of the president of the American Museum of Natural History, Morris K. Jesup, he began to organize his notes and prepare a manuscript on the Tlingit.