SECRETARY'S REPORT 49 



Kerr (Buggs Island) Reservoir in Virginia. In April Mr. Miller was 

 transferred to the regular staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology 

 for the purpose of carrying on investigations in a cave in Jackson 

 County, Ala., where the deposits contained a long sequence of Indian 

 cultural history. He returned from Alabama in June and resumed his 

 duties as a member of the River Basin Surveys staff. He proceeded 

 to Lincoln, Nebr., and on June 21 left for South Dakota where he 

 began excavations at a site in the Oahe Reservoir area. During the 

 months in the Washington office Mr. Miller spoke before a number 

 of Boy Scout troops and acted as scientific consultant to a number of 

 high-school students who were participating in a science contest in 

 Alexandria, Va. During the year Mr. Miller's manuscript "Revalua- 

 tion of the Eastern Siouan Problem, with Particular Emphasis on 

 the Virginia Branches — the Occaneechi, the Saponi, and the Tutelo," 

 which was a byproduct of his study of the data pertaining to the 

 John H. Kerr Reservoir, was sent to the printer and will appear as 

 Anthropological Paper No. 52 in Bulletin 164 of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology. 



After joining the River Basin Surveys Mr. Bass began a study of 

 the human skeletal material that had been collected in the Missouri 

 Basin and transferred to the U. S. National Museum. His work was 

 well under way at the end of the year. 



Columbia Basin. — After a lapse of several years the River Basin 

 Surveys resumed investigations in the Columbia Basin late in the 

 fiscal year. On June 11 Dr. Warren W. Caldwell joined the staff 

 as archeologist. He left Seattle, Wash., on June 22 and proceeded 

 with a party to Robinette, Oreg., where camp was established and 

 excavations were started in a cave not far from the town of Robinette. 

 The latter is built on a series of Indian sites, and tests were to be made 

 also at various places in the town. The party was actively engaged 

 in its investigations at the close of the year. 



A report, "Excavations in the McNary Reservoir Basin near Uma- 

 tilla, Oregon," by Dr. Douglas Osborne, was sent to the printer toward 

 the end of the fiscal year. It will appear as River Basin Surveys 

 Paper No. 8, Bulletin 166 of the Bureau of American Ethnology. The 

 report covers investigations made during a previous year when the 

 River Basin Surveys was operating a full-scale program along the 

 Columbia River. 



Missouri Basin. — The Missouri Basin project continued to operate 

 throughout fiscal 1956 from the field headquarters and laboratory at 

 1517 "O" Street, Lincoln, Nebr. Except for periods of one week in 

 August and two weeks in September, when he was detailed to the 

 Department of Justice to assist in an Indian Lands Claim case, G. 

 Hubert Smith served as archeologist-in-charge from July 1 to Janu- 



