74 8 The Smithsonian Institution 



ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND PACIFIC SLOPE 



By an interesting coincidence, in the same year that the 

 Smithsonian was founded, there was added to the territory 

 of the United States an immense domain in the Southwest, 

 rich in most interesting antiquities of a prehistoric race of 

 unique characters. Early explorers of this vast region 

 brought back fascinating accounts of ruins of a kind novel 

 to men of Anglo-Saxon blood the cliff-houses and so-called 

 pueblos. The influence of the Institution can readily be 

 traced in the aims of several exploring expeditions, which, 

 one after another, enlarged our knowledge of this new arch- 

 aeological realm. Active work in this prolific field began 

 with the foundation of the Bureau of American Ethnology 

 in 1879, an account of which would naturally fall in another 

 chapter. The most important publication on the architecture 

 of the ancient pueblos of Cibola and Tusayan, as likewise 

 the most complete on the antiquities of the pueblo area which 

 has yet appeared, is to be found in one of the " Reports of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology," a work of great industry, 

 both in office and field, by Victor Mindeleff. The expedi- 

 tions of James Stevenson brought enormous collections of 

 ethnological material from this region, enriching the museum 

 with many archaeological objects of great value. 



Valuable archaeological work has been carried on under the 

 auspices of the Smithsonian Institution on the Santa Barbara 

 Islands, off the coast of southern California, and in the caves 

 of the Aleutian Islands, the character of which in the latter 

 locality can best be considered elsewhere. 



The Alaska Commercial Company in 1875 presented to 

 the Institution a series of mummies from the Aleutian Islands 

 and Prince William's Sound. W. H. Dall prepared a memoir 



