A PREHISTORIC PIT HOUSE VILLAGE SITE ON THE 

 COLUMBIA RIVER AT WAHLUKE, GRANT COUNTY, 

 WASH. 



By Herbert W. Krieger 

 Curator of Ethnology, United States National Museum 



During the spring and early summer months of 1926 and 1927 a 

 regional archeological survey of the middle and upper Columbia 

 River Valley was made by the writer for the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology. This survey is part of a larger project to determine how 

 far the general plateau culture may be classified according to its sub- 

 areas and to what extent these subareas interrelate with each other 

 and with early cultures on the north, west, east, and south. The 

 survey began with a study of the extensive collections obtained by 

 members of the Columbia River Archeological Society from burials 

 and surface finds at various ancient and historic Indian village sites 

 and cemeteries in the middle and upper Columbia River Valley. 



Most noteworthy among the collections studied are those of H. T. 

 Harding, of Walla Walla; the Eells collection of Whitman College, 

 also of Walla Walla, Wash.; of Adams H. East, O. B. Browne, R. T. 

 Congdon, T. H. Grosvenor, of Wenatchee, Wash.; of F. C. 

 Evertsbusch and others of Pateros, Okanogan County, Wash. ; of Earl 

 Simmons and others, of Quincy, Wash.; and the extensive and valu- 

 able material collected by F. S. Hall and others for the State Museum 

 of Washington in Seattle, Enthusiastic interest in the survey was 

 shown by members of the Columbia River Archeological Society who 

 have done pioneer work in locating many aboriginal villages and 

 burial sites and in gathering and classifying many different types of 

 archeological material. 



Information as to location of sites and distribution of type specimens 

 was in every instance cheerfully given. A check was made on data 

 already collected, amplified in several instances by a visit to the 

 reported location of an isolated pit-house ruin, camp site, or talus 

 burial. 



The next step in the survey was the plotting of an archeological 

 map of the middle and upper Columbia and tributary river valleys 

 showing known aboriginal village sites and cemeteries. The necessity 

 for obtaining an archeological map of the valley at this time becomes 



No. 2732.— Proceedings u. S. National Museum, Vol. 73. Art. 11 



789C0— 28 1 1 



