74 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1928, Dr. Francis LaFlesche, 

 ethnologist, completed two manuscripts: Wa-sha-be A-thi°, contain- 

 ing 270 pages, and Wa-wa-tho", or Pipe Ceremony, containing 110 

 pages. Another manuscript is in the hands of the editor, entitled 

 " The Child-Naming Kitual." 



He started a dictionary of the Omaha language, obtaining about 

 7,000 words with both the Indian and the English meaning and 

 usage. In November he began the compilation of a dictionary of the 

 Osage language. About 20,000 words with their full meanings and 

 usage have been completed. 



The month of July, 1927, and the first part of August were spent 

 by Dr. F. H. H. Roberts, jr., archeologist, in the Chaco Canyon, 

 N. Mex., completing the excavation of a late basket-maker site. 

 It was discovered that the latter had been a village consisting of 18 

 houses, a kiva or circular ceremonial structure; 48 storage bins; and 

 a court. Definite knowledge of the house type was obtained during 

 the progress of these excavations, as well as other information of 

 value concerning one of the lesser known stages in the cultural de- 

 velopment of the sedentary, agricultural Indians of the prehistoric 

 Southwest. The work in the Chaco added materially to the infor- 

 mation on southwestern archeology. 



Two weeks of August were spent in southeastern Utah in a recon- 

 naissance along Montezuma Creek, one of the northern tributaries 

 of the San Juan. The purpose of this reconnaissance was to locate 

 additional late basket-maker sites which might warrant intensive 

 investigation. Despite heavy rains and flooded conditions of the 

 streams, he was able to make his way up Montezuma Creek a dis- 

 tance of 40 miles. Several late basket-maker sites were observed, 

 but in every case the remains were so eroded that it was not deemed 

 advisable to do any excavating. Several ruins were visited which 

 were of interest because they had been noted and described by W. H. 

 Jackson in the Hay den survey report for Colorado and adjacent ter- 

 ritory, 1876. Although unique from an architectural standpoint, the 

 ruins belong to the late Mesa Verde era, the period when the pottery 

 characteristic of the large Mesa Verde pueblos and cliff dwellings 

 was in vogue. 



At the end of August Doctor Roberts went to Pecos, N. Mex., 

 where he attended the conference of southwestern archeologists and 

 ethnologists held at the Pecos ruins, where the Andover Academy 

 expedition under Dr. A. V. Kidder was completing its extensive 

 investigations of that well-known pueblo. While at the conference 

 he assisted in the drafting of a new outline of the sequence of cul- 

 tural stages in southwestern prehistoric and early historic develop- 

 ment of the sedentary Indian groups. 



