REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 67 



In June, 1923, the chief made a trip to Deming, southern New 

 Mexico, and visited different localities, Fort Bayard, Central, Silver 

 City, and Pinos Altos, where pictured food bowls have been found. 

 He purchased a beautiful collection of pottery from the Mimbres 

 Valley, which supplements that already installed in the Museum. 



In 1914 the chief first pointed out that the Mimbres Valley, in 

 which this pottery is found, was inhabited in prehistoric times by 

 a people who excelled all other pueblos in painting realistic figures 

 on pottery. The scientific value of these pictures is very great from 

 the fact that the prehistoric dwellers in the Mimbres Valley in this 

 way left a reliable and permanent record of certain occupations 

 (hunting, fishing, gambling), as well as wonderful representations 

 of mythological animals of all varieties. If we could truthfully 

 interpret these figures, our knowledge of the prehistoric mythology 

 of a people of whose history, language, and relationship we know 

 nothing from documentary sources would be greatly increased. 



Not far from the close of the fiscal year, President Harding issued 

 a proclamation declaring three ' groups of towers in southwestern 

 Colorado and southeastern Utah to be a national monument. This 

 announcement was particularly gratifying to the chief, not only 

 because it preserved for future generations good examples of unique 

 types of ancient buildings in our southwest but also because the idea 

 of the reservation of Hovenweep National Monument originated in 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology. The three groups composing 

 this monument lie within a few miles of each other and are locally 

 called Ruin Canyon group, Holly Canyon group, and the Tejon 

 Mesa group. 



During the fiscal year Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, has com- 

 pleted the following manuscripts : " Social Organization and Social 

 Usages of the Indians of the Creek Confederacy " ; " Religious Be- 

 liefs and Medical Practices of the Creek Indians " ; and "A Gram- 

 matical Sketch of the Alabama Language." 



Doctor Swanton also completed a card catalogue, arranged under 

 stems, of all of the linguistic material contained in the Arte de la 

 Lengua Timuquana, by Francisco Pareja, and an English-Indian 

 index for the same ; and initiated a report on the stories of the south- 

 eastern Indians. By July 1 he had completed translations of stories 

 in the Koasati language and made a beginning on those in Alabama. 

 Material was added to his collection of references bearing on the 

 economic basis of American Indian life, and some map work was 

 done in connection with this phase of Indian life. 



The 1st of July, 1923, found Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, 

 at work among the Fox Indians of Iowa. He collected sufficient 

 material for a manuscript entitled " The traditional origin of the 



