284 SMITHSOKIAX MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



historic Pawnee " culture."" To judge from the ilhistrations, the 

 diamond-shaped knives, end scrapers, small triangular notched points, 

 shaft polishers, flint celts, bone fishhooks, bone beads, and shell beads 

 from this site are very similar to those from Upper Republican culture 

 sites in Nebraska. The pottery from the site, though inadequately 

 described or figured, suggests a similar relationship. In northeastern 

 Kansas a number of historic, protohistoric, and prehistoric cultures 

 are evidently represented.'" Harrington, on the basis of collections 

 and data furnished by Edward Park, of White Cloud, Kans., suggests 

 that the "latest culture " in northeastern Kansas is Siouan (Kansa 

 or Osage) in origin and finds it closely similar to the " top layer 

 culture " overlying the Ozark BlufT Dweller culture in Arkansas."' 

 From the work of Sterns it is obvious that the Nebraska culture is 

 also represented here. One is much tempted to regard the " latest 

 culture " as a development from the Nebraska culture, a sequence 

 which would involve important theoretical implications. However, 

 the literature on this very important corner of Kansas is so frag- 

 mentary that it seems futile to attempt definite correlations until more 

 systematic excavations and publications are available. The same can 

 be said regarding the highly suggestive but tantalizingly incomplete 

 data available in regard to northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, 

 where important early Caddoan cultures seem indicated but are not 

 yet defined in any clear or objective manner."^ Thus any attempt at 

 present to trace Nebraska or other northern cultures toward their 

 apparent sources in the south and east meets with little success, owing 

 to the lack of systematic field work and publication in the important 

 intervening areas. 



Thanks to the careful survey work of Dr. Charles R. Keyes, the 

 general distribution of prehistoric cultures in Iowa has been well out- 

 lined."* Up to the present the main emphasis in Iowa has been on 

 survey work and relatively few scientific excavations have been made. 

 Nevertheless, through careful surface surveys, study of local collec- 

 tions, and painstaking compilation of all newspaper accounts and 



"" Brower, 1898, p. 25. This report, and that by the same author in 1899, 

 give fragmentary data on a number of prehistoric sites evidently representing 

 several distinct cultures. 



^"Sterns, 1915 a; Zimmerman, 1918; Pryor Plank, 1910. 



^"Harrington, 1924, pp. 18-19. This "latest culture" suggests the Rulo and 

 Wolf Creek sites assigned to the Kansa by Sterns. A relationship to the Oiieota 

 culture of Iowa is also possible, but until careful excavations have been carried 

 on too much speculation is premature. 



'" Moorehead (and Joseph B. Thoburn), 1931, pp. 65-116. 



"* Keyes, 1925, 1929. Shetrone, 1931, pp. 330-339, touches on Iowa problems. 



