REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 15 
ARCHEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN MISSISSIPPI 
Mr. Henry B. Collins, jr., assistant curator of ethnology in the 
National Museum, was detailed during the summer of 1925 to the 
Bureau of American Ethnology to conduct an archeological explora- 
tion of the region in Mississippi formerly occupied by the Choctaw 
Indians. In describing the scope of the work, Mr. Collins says: 
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 Missis- 
sippi Valley and in other parts of the South and Hast, denoting a still earlier 
occupancy 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 generally regarded as a 
basie type, culturally 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 
summer should be confined to definitely known Choctaw territory, devoting 
part 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. 
From Jackson, Miss., Mr. Collins made a thorough reconnaissance 
of the ancient mounds in some nine counties of the State. The 
most important mound examined was the famous Nanih Waiya, 
which is regarded by the Choctaw as the place of their origin. This 
large, well-preserved earthwork plays an important part in the 
legendary history of the Choctaw. 
The first mounds to be excavated by Mr. Collins were a group of 
eight near Crandall, in Clarke County. These proved to be burial 
mounds, and numerous skeletons were found in them, some of them 
showing evidences of cremation. The next mound opened, near the 
town of Increase, was of a different type and much larger. Although 
containing no skeletons and but a few artifacts, the mound proved of 
unusual interest because of a peculiar stratification encountered. 
Regarding this stratification and the relationships of the mound, 
Mr. Collins writes: 
This stratification consisted of a series of brilliantly colored sand layers, 
yellow, brown, orange, blue-gray, and pure white, from which, at the center 
of the mound, there suddenly arose a dome-shaped structure of compact yellow 
clay. This clay dome and the succession of colored sand strata probably 
had a ceremonial significance, haying been placed on the floor of what had 
very likely been a temple, the site of which was later covered over with a 
mound of earth, on the top of which, still later, there probably stood a temple 
or council house. Colored sand strata in much the same arrangement have 
also been found in the effigy mounds of Wisconsin. 
Within this small inner mound or clay dome was found a rectangular 
ornament of sheet copper and silver inclosing a core of wood. Both copper 
