NO. 15 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I92I 12$ 



Two of these surface finds throw Hght on the extent of aboriginal 

 barter. One of these is a broken obsidian implement. The nearest 

 source of this material is probably in the Rocky Mountains, some 

 1,000 miles to the west. Another is a shard of Mesa Verde pottery, 

 the nearest source of which is in the Mesa Verde culture region around 

 the southwestern corner of Colorado, about 800 miles to the west. 



The largest Osage village in Vernon County is at what is still known 

 as Old Town, on Old Town creek, about 3^ miles south of Pike's 

 village of the Grand Osage. This site covers about 40 acres and is 

 the best known of any of the Osage sites. It has yielded a large 

 amount of iron axes, gun barrels, gun locks, fragments of brass 

 kettles, glass beads, and other articles of early white manufacture. 

 Along with these large quantities of shell beads, flint arrow heads, 

 broken pipes, and other objects of purely aboriginal origin were 

 found. Old Town culture furnishes an excellent example of Indian 

 culture in the days of early contact with the whites. 



The most picturesque Indian site in this Osage region is Halley's 

 Blufif on the Osage River, about i^ miles down stream from where 

 the Marmiton and Marais des Cygnes unite to form the Osage River. 

 A photograph of a portion of this bluff is shown in figure 126. There 

 is evidence showing occupancy of this bluff by Indians long before 

 the coming of the white man and probably before the coming of the 

 Osages. 



The long summit of the bluff shows many small, low heaps of stones 

 and other Indian signs. The sheltered spaces at the foot of the over- 

 hanging cliffs were out of reach of the highest waters and were 

 sheltered in large degree from the winds and rains. Here, in these 

 dry, sheltered spaces, these ancient people lived and worked. They 

 dug about 20 cache pits at present about 5 feet in depth, in the mod- 

 erately soft red sandstone. 



FIELD-WORK ON THE KIOWA, PUEBLO, AND CALIFORNIA 



INDIANS 



At the end of July Mr. J. P. Harrington, ethnologist, proceeded to 

 California to continue his studies of the Indians of the Chumashan 

 area of that state. Place-names, material culture, and sociology, all 

 these branches being closely related to language, were especially in- 

 vestigated and all obtainable data recorded. By rare good fortune 

 several dozen old ceremonial songs were obtained on the phonograph, 

 with full notes and translation where possible, these songs having 

 not been in use since the middle of the past century. The songs were 



