REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 79 



from the mouth of the Yakima River to the Canadian border was 

 explored. During the season of 1927 exploration of archeological 

 sites was continued from the mouth of the Yakima River to Hosier, 

 Oreg., in the vicinity of The Dalles. At this point an appreciable 

 increase in rainfall and forest growth marks the dividing line between 

 the humid northwest coast and the arid plateau of the interior. 



In most essentials the early occupants of the upper plateau 

 possessed a remarkably uniform culture. It was found that the sub- 

 culture area of north-central Oregon appears to be distinguished by 

 the excellent chipping of weapon points and tools from obsidian, 

 jasper, agate, and chalcedony. The subarea of The Dalles and Miller 

 Island, the so-called " Dalles culture," is characterized to a greater 

 degree than is the subarea of north-central Oregon by realistically 

 shaped animal and human figurines executed in stone and wood and 

 appearing on wooden combs, stone pestle heads, stone bowls, and as 

 stone plaques. The subarea of The Dalles is also unique in the 

 possession of a lozenge or ovoid-shape stone knife with beveled lateral 

 surfaces shaped by rubbing. This type of knife was found in 

 abundance at Lyle, Wash, In the Snake River Valley a form of bone 

 or horn knife supplants the knife of chipped stone which prevails 

 elsewhere in the Columbia Basin, except in the areas mentioned. 



Materials used as tools or as media on which to execute art designs 

 are characteristic of very restricted localities and vary in many 

 instances from village to village. The distinctions are the more 

 clear cut the more ancient the site and the more free the area from 

 the influence of contiguous culture areas. 



At Page, Wash., on the Snake River, about 20 miles from Pasco, 

 were noted definite departures from the general type of archeological 

 remains characteristic of the sites along the Columbia River. No 

 copper ornaments or other objects of metal were found; nor were 

 any objects uncovered, other than dentalium shell, that might indi- 

 cate intercourse with British Columbia or with the tribes of the 

 lower Columbia. Bone knives and scrapers here displaced those of 

 chipped stone; weaving implements and perforators were of antler 

 or bone instead of rubbed stone as on the Columbia. Pairs of sand- 

 stone arrow-shaft rasps; fine-grained, grooved stone polishers; bas- 

 ketry fragments, showing styles of false embroiderj^ lattice weave, 

 and simple coiling and twining; ovoid stone clubs; and burials either 

 with red paint or of the usual cremation group type — all these char- 

 acteristics indicate a subculture area transitional between the Sho- 

 shoni on the east and south and the Shahaptian tribes of the middle 

 Columbia Basin. 



The type of early culture that existed within the arid sections of 

 the Columbia Basin has. become definitely established. Many of the 

 connecting culture and trade relationships are now known. The re- 



