﻿NO. I SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I925 89 



ARCHEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOMETRICAL WORK IN 



MISSISSIPPI 



Henry B. Collins, Jr.. assistant curator of ethnology, U. S. Na- 

 tional ]\Iuseiim, was engaged during the summer of 1925 in an 

 archeological reconnoissance and exploration of the ancient Choctaw 

 territory in Mississippi for the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

 In cooperation with the Bureau, the Mississippi Department of 

 Archives and History detailed Mr. H. H. Knoblock, assistant in 

 the department, to participate in the work. 



The region selected for investigation was the eastern part of 

 the state, the former center of the Choctaw tribe. Here are found 

 not only the village sites known to have been occupied by the 

 Choctaw within historic times, but also a number of prehistoric 

 mounds similar to those found throughout the Mississippi V^alley and 

 in other parts of the South and East, denoting a still earlier occu- 

 pancy of this region by either the Choctaw themselves or by related 

 tribes. 



At the time of first contact with Europeans, the Choctaw were 

 the most numerous of all the southern Indians. They are also gen- 

 erally regarded as a basic type, culturallv and physically, of the 

 great ^Muskhogean linguistic stock. In any consideration of the 

 ethnic problems of the South, therefore, the Choctaw must assume 

 a place of importance, but as yet very little work has been done 

 among them. It was decided, therefore, that operations for the 

 svmimer should be confined to definitely-known Choctaw territory, 

 devoting ])art of the time to exploration of historic village sites 

 and part to the excavation of prehistoric mounds, in an attempt to 

 establish as far as possible the relation of the two. 



Mr. Collins left Jackson, May 24, to make a reconnoissance of 

 the field and to select sites for exploration. Mounds were examined 

 in the counties of Hinds, Lowndes, Winston, Neshoba, Kemper, 

 Newton, Lauderdale, Clarke, and Wayne. Perhaps the most im- 

 portant earthwork examined was Nanih Waiya, the sacred mound 

 of the Choctaws, in the southern part of Winston County, shown 

 in figure 90. This famous mound, one of the largest and best pre- 

 served in Mississippi, is regarded by the Choctaw as their place of 

 origin, and figures prominently in their legendary history. 



The historic village sites visited were Holihtasha, Yanabi, East 

 Yazoo, Shomo Takali, and Ibetap Okla Iskitini, all in Kemper 

 County ; Halunlawasha and Kastasha in Neshoba County ; Coat- 

 raw in Newton ; Coosha in Lauderdale ; and Yowanne in Wayne 

 County. 



