Excavated rooms at San Pedro Viejo, showing a human burial, also two pottery vessels set into the 
floor for storage purposes 
EXPLORATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST BY THE 
AMERICAN MUSEUM 
By Clark Wissler 
HE Museum began in 1909 a 
systematic investigation of the 
native inhabitants in the great 
romantic area known as the Southwest. 
Of all localities in the United States 
this is the richest in archeological re- 
mains and the most conservative and 
aboriginal tribes are found within its 
borders. In the past, enough research 
had been carried on in the Southwest to 
make it clear that the magnitude and 
complexity of the problems to be solved 
were beyond the limits of the regular 
resources of the Museum, and that it 
would be unwise to take up work in that 
part of the country until substantial 
outside support could be found. In 
1909 Mr. Archer M. Huntington offered 
to give support to the undertaking. 
Accordingly, the curator of anthro- 
pology worked out a general plan, in 
conformity with which the work has pro- 
ceeded until now. 
In the main this plan was to take up 
the historical problem in the Southwest 
to determine if possible the relations 
between the prehistoric and_ historic 
peoples. It was decided to concentrate 
the Museum’s energies upon the Upper 
Rio Grande Valley, because that seemed 
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