ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 107 
Indians. He devoted especial attention to the ceremonial 
runners of these Indians, and in the course of the winter 
submitted a manuscript on them for publication by the 
bureau. Further, a number of Fox texts were translated 
and other ethnological data obtained. Doctor Michelson 
returned to Washington near the close of September. He 
made another trip among the Foxes in May and returned to 
Washington toward the end of June. During this trip he 
obtained new data on Fox ceremonials. 
By joint arrangement with the Museum of the American 
Indian, Heye Foundation, the bureau undertook in the sum- 
mer of 1923 the excavation of the Burton Mound at Santa 
Barbara, Calif., which was the chief village of the Santa 
Barbara Indians and without question the most important 
archeological site on the southern California coast. Mr. J. 
‘P. Harrington, ethnologist of the bureau, was detailed to 
take charge of the exploration of the mound and the work 
was commenced early in May, 1923, and continued through- 
out the summer and fall. The first day’s work revealed the 
location of the cemetery, just where old Indians had stated 
that it was situated. During several months of careful 
stratigraphical excavation many facts of interest for the 
prehistory of the Santa Barbara Indians and the early 
culture of the Pacific coast in general were recorded. 
The principal rancheria or village of the ancient Santa 
Barbara Valley was not at the mission, where the Indians 
were later gathered, but at the beach. It was situated just 
west of the mouth of Mission Creek, where a landing cove 
for canoes and two low mounds, one by the beach and a 
larger one 650 feet inland and now known as the Burton 
Mound, afforded unusual attraction as a dwelling place for 
Indians. At:a number of places in the locality were sulphur 
springs; also springs of good drinking water. The name of 
the village was Syujtun, meaning ‘‘where the trail splits.” 
There a thriving population of some 500 Indians lived on the 
wild food products of the neighboring shore and sea and of the 
Santa Barbara Valley, rich in acorn-bearing oaks and game 
animals. 
