SECRETARY'S REPORT 67 



the occupancy was not long prior to the time the first white men reached 

 the area. In general the artifacts consist of projectile points, various 

 types of scrapers, knives, drills, hammerstones, sinkers, pendants, 

 grinding stones and pestles, stone pipes, bone awls and points, bone 

 flaking tools, gaming pieces, and beads. While carrying on his excava- 

 tions, Daugherty also tested a site in the Lind Coulee where materials 

 attributable to the Paleo-Indian occur. The site is outside the reser- 

 voir basin but is along the course of lateral and distribution-system 

 canals, and as Lind Coulee is to be used as a wasteway for them the 

 archeological remains will ultimately be destroyed. 



A party under the direction of Samuel J. Tobin was excavating in 

 a large rock shelter in the Equalizing Reservoir basin southwest of the 

 town of Grand Coulee, Wash., at the start of the fiscal year. The 

 work was carried on through July. Evidence obtained there was that 

 the shelter was not a regular dwelling place but rather a spot where 

 small parties probably camped from time to time. Three distinct 

 levels of occupation were found, but apparently no great length of 

 time intervened between each level, and the materials suggest that 

 the same cultural group was involved throughout. The chief signifi- 

 cance of the shelter is that a considerable amount of dry material such 

 as is rarely found in open sites was obtained. Included in it are 

 cordage, fragments of bow staves, arrow or spear shafts, textile frag- 

 ments, matting, and pieces of basketry. Nonperishable artifacts are 

 projectile points, bone implements and beads, and shell beads. The 

 rear wall of the shelter was decorated with pictographs, some made 

 with white paint and others in red. Analysis of the dry materials 

 should throw considerable light on that phase of the material culture 

 of the people in the area. Present indications are that the shelter 

 may well have been occupied by either the Nespelem or their eastern 

 neighbors the Sanpoil. Although contact objects were lacking below 

 the surface, it is difficult to assign either a historic or a pre-Columbian 

 age to the site. 



The beginning of the fiscal year found a party under George A. 

 Cheney digging in village remains along the Columbia River in the 

 basin to be flooded by the Chief Joseph Reservoir. The work con- 

 tinued through July and August and into early September. In 

 August Tobin's party was shifted to that project to assist in the in- 

 vestigations. The work in September was a cooperative effort, the 

 Washington State Museum providing the necessary labor. At the 

 end of the season 42 house pits located in 7 sites had been dug and 

 accompanying trash mounds examined. Good information was ob- 

 tained concerning the house type, and indications are that there was 

 no particular village pattern. The structures do not seem to have 

 been grouped, but at all the sites were strung along a terrace above 

 the river in sheltered areas well back from the water. The artifacts 



