152 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 76 



Not far from this mound is a large lodge site, one of the so-called 

 " buffalo wallows " as they are commonly known. These are the 

 ruins of aboriginal houses. The general construction is the same, the 

 only practical difference being that some are square in outline, others 

 round. This difference is not alwaj's apparent prior to the excava- 

 tion. In the making, a pit was dug, square or round as desired, and 

 the earth thrown out on every side. Posts were then set around the 

 margin of the excavation, and the house built in the same manne;- 

 as those with which we are familiar from accounts of early travelers. 

 Many of them have been examined by Zimmerman and Park, who 

 found masses of hard-burned earth in which are cavities and depres- 

 sions due to the burning of straw, grass, twigs, and poles, used in 

 the construction of the houses. This results from the destruction 

 of the houses by fire. Sometimes the floor has a layer of this burned 

 material which is evidently due to the falling in of the roof. Most 

 of these are on the hilltops, but some of them are on narrow 

 ridges leading from the high land to the creek or river bottoms. In 

 the latter event there is always a village site on the low ground 

 bordering the stream. The relics gathered up on these village sites 

 are in no wise different from those found when the lodge sites are 

 excavated ; and also are of the same character as those picked up on 

 what are no doubt modern village sites in the vicinity. This fact 

 militates against the idea that the lodge sites are extremely ancient. 



IOWA POINT 



On a low hill, cut off on every side by steep ravines, is a small 

 mound containing a cist grave. The bottom of this, which was dug 

 slightl}^ below the natural surface, was covered with a pavement of 

 limestone slabs. The grave was roughly oval or triangular in out- 

 line, measuring about T by 9 feet. Around it was a wall of similar 

 stones, set in contact and sloping outward at an angle of about 40 

 degrees from the vertical. There was nothing whatever in this grave. 



\t the edge of the mound was a box grave 5| by 2^ by 2^ feet, 

 the longer axis on a radial line. It was made of small flat stones built 

 up like a wall, the only grave of which I could learn that had any 

 resemblance to the vault graves farther down the Missouri. In the 

 grave were two skulls and some other bones, all bunched in the 

 northern end. 



NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE NEMAHA RIVER 



Lewis and Clark, in their journal, mention that when camped 

 near the mouth of the Nemaha, one or both of them went to an Indian 

 village about 2 miles up the stream. He, or they, climbed a low 

 ridge near the river and stood on a mound which commanded a fine 



