66 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



the main channel and consisted of two distinct groups of houses. The 

 largest gi'oup was centered about 500 feet downstream from the 

 smaller one. An almost identical condition had previously been noted 

 at another site where work was done during the summer of 1949, but 

 thus far no explanation for such a division has been found. The pits 

 at. this particular location were also circular in form and indicated 

 a single occupation. The lack of well-developed midden or refuse 

 areas implies that the village must have been short-lived or that par- 

 ticular care was taken to throw refuse into or near the river. Trade 

 goods were scarce at this site, which would seem to indicate that it 

 should be dated as slightly earlier than the time of the first contact 

 with the Wliites or just prior to 1800. The Lewis and Clark map shows 

 the "island" but does not indicate the presence of a village or at least 

 the existence of houses. It would appear that the village had been 

 abandoned and had fallen into ruin before 1805. The most important 

 contribution from the excavations at these sites is the verification of 

 data secured at other locations in the McNary, particularly with re- 

 spect to the size and shape of the former houses and their artifact asso- 

 ciations; also, it was indicated that, while fishing was the primary 

 source of subsistence, hunting actually played a larger part in the econ- 

 omy than previously supposed. Mr. Osborne also completed the exca- 

 vation of a house pit at a site 1 mile downstream where work was done 

 the previous summer, and in addition located and removed 17 burials 

 from Sheep Island in the middle of the river about equidistant from 

 the other three sites. Some work had been done previously at that lo- 

 cation by Thomas R. Garth, who was then with the National Park 

 Service. Osborne, who was under a temporary appointment as con- 

 sulting archeologist, completed his investigations the end of August 

 and returned to his regular duties at the Washington State Museum. 

 Richard D. Daugherty and his party continued the excavations 

 started near the end of the previous fiscal year at the O'Sullivan Reser- 

 voir near Ephrata, Wash., and completed the investigations on Sep- 

 tember 2. They spent the summer season at a small village site close to 

 a larger one where Daugherty did some work in the summer of 1948. 

 During the current year two large circular house pits were dug, and 

 the remains of a rectangular mat dwelling were uncovered. A series 

 of cairns that had formerly contained burials was also studied. The 

 graves had been systematically rifled by local collectors, however, and 

 little could be learned other than that the piles of stone had covered 

 the remains of cremations. Information pertaining to the house 

 types agreed with that from the previous digging, and from that data 

 it will be possible to draw a number of conclusions about the dwellings 

 of the area. Not a single item was found suggesting White contact, 

 but the similarity of the artifacts to those from other sites in the 

 region where there was association with contact material suggests that 



