206 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



In addition to burial mounds, artificial structures of this sort may be 

 erected as fortifications, ceremonial enclosures, substructures for tem- 

 ples or other buildings, and finally, may be the result of the gradual 

 accumulation of mollusk shells or camp debris in kitchen middens or 

 refuse heaps. Of these the second, third, and last types may be quickly 

 dealt with. So far as the ethnographic data are concerned there is 

 no historic record of either large ceremonial enclosures, mounds for 

 temples, or earth substructures for buildings among any of the Ne- 

 braska tribes, a state of afifairs so far confirmed by archeological 

 research. Refuse heaps are the natural concomitants of all human 

 habitations and occur in Nebraska as elsewhere. They have been par- 

 ticularly noted at certain protohistoric Pawnee villages (Blackman, 

 1907 a, 1924, and Wedel, no date). From the abundance of fresh- 

 water mollusks at certain Nebraska sites it is possible that shell heaps 

 may occur, but so far none have been reported. Since refuse heaps 

 or middens are of such universal occurrence and dififer markedly from 

 the artificial earth or stone structures usually designated as mounds, 

 we can eliminate them from the present discussion. 



Although Bushnell (1922, p. yy') states that the Dhegiha division 

 of Siouan tribes, which includes the Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, Ouapaw, 

 and Osage, were responsible for the great earthworks of southern 

 Ohio and adjacent regions bordering the Ohio River, fortifications or 

 ceremonial enclosures seem to have been largely lacking at historic 

 Omaha and Ponca sites in Nebraska. Dorsey (1886, p. 220 and 

 map 4), however, describes and figures a small " fort" near Ponca 

 Creek on the old Ponca Reservation. No earthworks of this sort are 

 mentioned in historic accounts of the Oto villages within the state 

 (Bushnell, 1927). Blackman (1903) mentions clearly defined earth- 

 works at the Oto site near Yutan, but neither Bradbury, who gives 

 a description of the site in 181 1, nor Irving, who does the same in 

 1833, mention this feature (Bradbury, 1817; Bushnell, 1927). Thus, 

 while the Siouan tribes along the Missouri River in Nebraska raised 

 burial mounds, they do not appear to have commonly erected earth- 

 works either for purposes of defense or for ceremonial usage, nor 

 have any extensive earthworks been recorded by archeologists within 

 this region. According to Wedel (no date), nearly every Pawnee 

 village of the nineteenth century was surrounded by earth or sod em- 

 bankments. These have largely disappeared, owing to recent plowing, 

 but are still visible at the Horse Creek Pawnee site in Nance County. 

 Ceremonial enclosures, other than large earth lodges, are not recorded, 

 but a circular embankment some 90 feet across at the historic Pawnee 

 site near Linwood, Butler County, may indicate such usage. The 



