NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 43 



turfed, and a pole 8 feet high in the Center on this pole we fixed a white 

 flage bound with red Blue & white, this hill about 300 feet above the water 

 forming a Bluff. 



There are a few other references to Omaha hurial customs and 

 village sites in the original journals, but these do not directly concern 

 us in the present report. When the latter have been definitely relocated 

 and carefully excavated, so that the criteria for the historic sedentary 

 Siouan occupation are known, a great step in Plains archeology will 

 have been made. 



A summary of all the accounts during the period of exploration 

 which touch on the village sites of Nebraska tribes would have great 

 value but cannot be included here.'" For present purposes we may 

 only sum up such as have a definite archeological bearing on the 

 problem in hand. An early record of this sort is made by Hayden in 

 1872, when he describes an ancient Pawnee village site near Beaver 

 Creek just northwest of the present town of Genoa, Nebr.^' He also 

 mentions in passing, but without locating them, ancient village sites 

 associated with pottery in the valleys of the Little Blue, Big Blue, 

 Platte, and Loup Rivers. The finding of a " large coarse arrow or 

 spearhead " in a railroad cut 2^ miles southeast of Omaha, Nebr., is 

 recorded by Samuel Aughey. The find as reported was remarkable, 

 since 13 inches above the point and almost in line with it, likewise 

 under 20 feet of loess, occurred the lumbar vertebrae of a fossil 

 elephant." The point was stemmed and about 3^ inches in length. 

 The record stands by itself without further confirmation, and later 

 anthropologists and geologists generally have placed little credence 

 in it. It is interesting, however, in connection with later finds to 

 be discussed shortly. 



The disputed aboriginal flint quarry sites near Nehawka in Cass 

 County early excited much local interest and discussion. They were 

 described in 1888 by Todd (1888, pp. 374-3/6), in some detail and 

 with great clarity. He concluded, partly on the basis of his own ob- 

 servations and partly as a result of the disinterested labors of Isaac 

 Pollard, that they were of human origin. A conclusion confirmed 

 by Blackman '" as well as by Winchell, Upham, and Brower (Black- 

 man, 1903, pp. 314-317), who formed part of a committee that visited 



^^ See Wedel (no date) for a summary of such early records concerning the 

 Pawnee tribes in Nebraska. 



^Hayden, 1872, pp. 411-412. Quoted by Holmes, 1903, p. 199, with illustra- 

 tions of the pottery. This was either the Burkett site or one nearby of similar 

 protohistoric Pawnee affiliations. 



^Hayden, 1876, p. 254. Compare Shimek, 1908, p. 244, and 1917, p. 97. 



^1907 b, pp. 103-110. Also 1903, p. 297, 1905, pp. 3-5, and 1907 a, p. 354. 



