74 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 189 



excavations were carried out within an area covered by heavy vege- 

 tation (map Y). This area, consisting of about 2 acres, appears to 

 have been the major village area. About 10 percent of the area was 

 stripped of overburden by a bulldozer and a road patrol. Five houses 

 were located by this method and subsequently excavated, and two 

 other probable house sites were located. A speculative projection, 

 based on the distribution of these houses, gives a total of about 30 

 dwellings in the village. 



Demery appears to have been an open, unfortified site. A test 

 trench dug from the east wall of House 4 in excavation 5 to the ter- 

 race edge revealed no evidence of fortification, and a close inspection 

 of the terrain and of aerial photographs revealed nothing suggesting 

 the presence of a fortifying ditch. In an effort to find burials, test 

 pits were dug along the terrace edge south of excavation 7, but no 

 positive evidence of either burials or occupational debris was found. 



Most of the area bearing heavy vegetation had been cultivated, 

 which obliterated indications of surface features. Only a few acres 

 of grassland near the creek are still in undisturbed sod, and somewhere 

 in this area Will and Hecker (1944, p. 87) reported a number of cir- 

 cular lodge ruins. Early in the field season a single circular depres- 

 sion was noted here, but excavation 2, which explored this feature, 

 yielded the remains of an irregular pit, Feature 1, which was inter- 

 preted as a borrow area (map 9) . 



A few flint chips and body sherds were found near the bridge across 

 John Grass Creek (designated by an "x" on map 7). Surface inspec- 

 tion of the terrace beyond the large gully south of the site, near the 

 remains of the former Demery home, revealed no sherds or other evi- 

 dence of aboriginal occupation, although there are a few sherds in the 

 State Historical Society collections that are said to be from this vicin- 

 ity. These sherds resemble those from the major occupation of the 

 Demery site in all details, and they are probably the source for the 

 statement by Will and Hecker (1944, p. 88) that there was a small site 

 contemporaneous with Demery south of the gully. 



A number of grassy surface irregularities, as well as many clumps 

 of dense buckbrush, occurred throughout the site area. The excava- 

 tions revealed no correlation between either these irregularities or 

 the brush patches and the house sites. In fact, the houses appeared 

 to have been on level, grassy areas. Toward the end of August, how- 

 ever, when a dense cover of sunflowers and weeds had overgrown the 

 site, there were spots on level, grassy areas where this cover was ex- 

 ceedingly dense, and such areas we feel were house sites. Since the 

 field season was over we did not have the opportunity to investigate 

 them, although it would clearly have been desirable. 



