﻿NO. 15 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I92I II7 



western United States. Through such data it is hoped uhimately to 

 arrive at the approximate age of this famous center of pre-Cokimbian 

 civilization. 



The National Geographic Society proposes, as an essential feature 

 of its Pueblo Bonito Expedition, to conduct dependent researches 

 which will seek to determine the ancient source of water supply ; the 

 agricultural possibilities of Chaco Canyon in prehistoric times ; the 

 rapidity of subsequent sedimentation ; the age and probable source 

 of the large timbers used in roofing the dwellings of Pueblo Bonito, and 

 the geophysical changes, if any, brought about since abandonment 

 of the great ruin. These are lines of investigation which may result 

 in information of far-reaching significance and yet they have been 

 generally neglected, heretofore, in connection with archeological 

 explorations. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL FIELD-WORK IN SOUTH DAKOTA AND 



MISSOURI 



In the fall of 192 1 Mr. W. E. IMyer, a voluntary collaborator of 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology, investigated sites in South Dakota 

 and western Missouri, known to have been occupied by the Omahas 

 and Osages in early historic times, after they had come in contact with 

 the whites but before they had been changed thereby to any con- 

 siderable extent. 



Especial attention was paid to any resemblance to the ancient cul- 

 tures found in the valleys of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee 

 rivers. This line of research was suggested by certain traditions of 

 both the Omahas and Osages, as well as some of the other branches of 

 the great Siouan linguistic family, that they had at one time lived 

 east of the ]\Iississippi River, on the Ohio, and elsewhere, and after 

 many wanderings, stopping here and there for years, finally reached 

 their present sites in South Dakota and western Missouri. 



THE OMAHA SITES 



Mr. Francis La Flesche reported that the traditions of his people, 

 the Omahas, stated that they had occupied two important villages on 

 what the Omahas call " The Big Bend of the Xe." at some time in the 

 seventeenth or eighteenth century. These traditions also told of 

 many important events while the Omahas dwelt on these two sites. 



Aided by these traditions, Mr. Myer was enabled to locate these 

 two ancient villages. He found one of these on the Big Sioux River, 

 at its junction wnth Split Rock River, designated Split Rock site in 

 this report. 



