538 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



from 25 to 40 feet. Such houses were grouped in dusters along the 

 terraces above the river. Little was found to indicate the type of 

 superstructure erected for the dwellings. For that reason it has been 

 supposed that the Indians took with them the main supports from the 

 structures when they moved from place to place. On the basis of 

 knowledge about later houses in the area, it would seem that the 

 dwellings probably consisted of a framework of poles to which 

 branches or mats were lashed. The poles were not embedded in the 

 earth, but some stability was obtained by heaping dirt against the 

 outside walls. The remains of several long oval or rectangular dwell- 

 ings probably represent so-called "mat houses" which were a form of 

 multifamily dwelling during the historic period in that area. The 

 oval forms found in the McNary Basin agree closely with the descrip- 

 tions of such houses obtained by investigators working among the 

 Umatilla Indians. Most of the villages investigated along the Colum- 

 bia were occupied just prior to the coming of the white man or at the 

 contact period. None of the sites excavated gave indication of having 

 been inhabited for any length of time after the visit of the Lewis and 

 Clark Expedition. 



In the Terminus Reservoir area on the Kaweah River in Tulare 

 County, Calif., a River Basin Surveys party uncovered the remains 

 of an interesting small village. Trade materials present at the site 

 make it possible to date the village at about 1850. The results of the 

 excavations are significant in that they provide an opportunity to study 

 the material culture left by people who occupied the region in historic 

 times and about whom there is a fairly complete etlinographic record. 

 Items of material culture previously known only through tradition 

 are now represented by actual objects. Information on other village 

 types was obtained elsewhere in California by the Archaeological Sur- 

 vey of the University of California, at Berkeley, which carried on 

 excavations in the Pine Flat, Isabella, and Monticello areas under 

 agreements with the National Park Service. 



Two pre-Spanish pueblos, Te'ewi and Leaf Water, in the area of the 

 proposed Abiquiu Reservoir in the Chama Valley in New Mexico were 

 partially excavated by the Department of Anthropology of the Mu- 

 seum of New Mexico under an agreement with the National Park 

 Service. The period represented by both pueblos covers the interval 

 A.D. 1250 to 1500. During that time the Pueblo occupation in the 

 Chama Valley was established, reached florescence, and receded. Con- 

 siderable infonnation obtained on cultural developments at the two 

 villages helps to explain subsequent Pueblo activities in the Rio 

 Grande Valley below the Chama area. One interesting result of the 

 excavations pertains to the presence of materials which show trade re- 

 lations with peoples in the central and southern Plains areas. It is 



