192 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 176 



than upon separate footings. The joists had, of course, been 

 destroyed by the fire. A metal object that appears to be part of 

 a coffee mill was found lying on top of the chimney heap nearest to 

 the cellar (fig. 17) (thus, probably, near the actual kitchen area), hi 

 such a position as to suggest that the mill had originally been fastened 

 to the chimney. Clear evidence of the action of the fire that had de- 

 stroyed the building was the abundant melted window and bottle 

 glass found, and the heat-damaged metals and earthenware, in addi- 

 tion to the evidence of the burning of the structure itself. 



Of smaller object materials about the building at the time of the 

 fire, and obtained in excavation, many appear to pertain to the military 

 period of the use of tliis building, while a few objects are definitely 

 attributable to this period, having survived the period of the use of the 

 building as a dormitory for the Indian school. Such objects as the 

 mess gear of military style may not, however, have been directly 

 military. It seems probable that much of what was in use here in 

 1894 had actually been inherited from the military command on the 

 abandonment of the post in 1883, or was subsequently obtained 

 through the War Department for the school, from property previously 

 used here or elsewhere at military installations. 



One architectural detail of interest, situated along the exterior of 

 the east wall of the West Wing (toward the yard), and united 

 with the original masonry footing at this point, is a cistern (fig. 17). 

 This had been constructed of conunon fired brick and had been plas- 

 tered on the interior with what appeared to be Portland cement, 

 rather than with lime mortar or other material. Inasmuch as Port- 

 land cement was not commercially available, or widely used, in the 

 West until the 1880's, this addition to the original building was prob- 

 ably introduced during the period of the use of the building as a school. 

 It is the only major late architectural alteration or modification 

 of the military buildings, for which evidence was found on exca- 

 vation at the site of the fort. The cistern, in all probability, had not 

 been used for any length of time, and prior to the fire had been 

 partly filled with lignite, gravel, sand, and other material. Above 

 this fill was adobe-brick rubble derived from the walls of the build- 

 ing after the fire. The adobe brick, of earlier manufacture, was 

 thus superimposed upon construction of a later period, in which Port- 

 land cement had been used. 



Excavation of the site of the West Wing of the South Barracks also 

 turned up great quantities of obviously recent farm debris. Among 

 these was a butchering sink made from a large galvanized-iron tub, 

 the skeleton of a pig, stove parts that appeared to have been used in 

 the later farm rather than at the earlier school or military post, and 

 other objects. Few of these were of permanent interest, or were 

 saved, and frequently the only distinction that could be made between 



