16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
Museum. The Mimbres Valley is practically the northern 
extension into the United States of an inland basin known in 
Chihuahua as the Sierra Madre Plateau. The fact that its 
drainage does not connect with any stream that flows into 
the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean imparts a peculiar character 
to its geographical environment. On the southern part of 
this plateau, as along the Casas Grandes River, mounds and 
ruins of large size are well known, from which have been 
taken some of the finest pottery in the Southwest; but the 
archeology of the extension of this plateau into New Mexico 
has never been adequately examined. In his brief recon- 
noissance Doctor Fewkes collected evidence that the prehis- 
toric culture of the Mimbres Valley was strikingly character- 
istic. The decorated pottery from the ruins in this valley is 
unlike that of any other region. It consists mainly of mor- 
tuary food bowls, which the prehistoric inhabitants were 
accustomed to break or “ kill’? and place over the heads of 
the deceased, who were buried beneath the floors of the 
houses. About 60 specimens of beautiful pottery, more than 
half of which are ornamented with painted figures of human 
beings and animals, were found or purchased. As these are 
the first examples ever brought to the National Museum from 
this region, the results are gratifying. They afford through 
their geometrical ornamentation, and especially because of 
the life forms which predominate, an interesting insight into 
the ancient culture of the Pueblo region to the north and in 
the Gila Valley to the west. It is Mexican in type, and some 
of the fragments are practically identical in form and orna- 
mentation with the beautiful pottery from Casas Grandes, 
Chihuahua. 
During the year Doctor Fewkes added about 350 pages of 
manuscript to his report on the aborigines of the West 
Indies, which was approaching completion at the close of the 
year. 
Shortly before the close of the preceding fiscal year Mr. 
James Mooney, ethnologist, proceeded to the reservation of 
the Kast Cherokee Indians in western North Carolina for the 
purpose of continuing the translation and elucidation of the 
