46 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



gathered that it was preceded by a stage indicated by one-house con- 

 struction, and the suggestion is made that it antedated pueblos, on 

 which account it has been designated a middle phase in the Southwest. 

 A considerable number of small ruins of the same structural type 

 but with only one room were discovered in the tributaries of the 

 McElmo and Dolores Rivers. 



As a sequel to the exploration of the great houses, towers, and 

 pueblos of Square Tower, Holly, and Hackberry Canyons, at the 

 suggestion of Dr. Fewkes, the Director of the Public Park Service, 

 Department of the Interior, has taken steps to have the ruins on these 

 and adjacent canyons set aside from the public domain as a reserve, 

 to be called the Hovenweep National Monument. 



During the year Mr. James Mooney, ethnologist, remained in the 

 office, engaged, as impaired health permitted, in the elaboration of 

 his Cherokee sacred formulas. Throughout the winter and spring 

 months much of his time was given to assisting the various delega- 

 tions from the tribes of his working acquaintance, in the West, in 

 their efforts before Congress, particularly in regard to their native 

 Peyote religion, of which he has made a special study. The proof of 

 friendship in the assistance thus given has completely won the hearts 

 of the tribes concerned, and has opened the door to successful investi- 

 gation along every line of inquiry. 



On June 28 he left Washington for an extended stay with the 

 Kiowa and associated tribes, among whom he is now at work. 



During the past year, Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, has de- 

 voted the greater part of his time to a study of three languages 

 formerly spoken on and near the lower course of the Mississippi 

 River — the Tunica, Chitimacha, and Atakapa (or Attacapa). The 

 results of this study have been embodied in four papers — sketches of 

 the grammars of the three languages in question, and a comparative 

 study. A sketch of the Tunica language, covering about 70 type- 

 written pages, has been accepted for publication in the International 

 Journal of American Linguistics. The sketch of Atakapa, of 40 or 

 50 pages, is practically complete and is designed for publication in 

 the same journal; that of Chitimacha covers about 100 pages. The 

 latter is withheld from publication for the present so that more 

 material may be added. Finally, the paper in which the three lan- 

 guages are compared and the conclusion drawn that they belong in 

 reality to but one linguistic stock, is to be published as a bulletin by 

 this bureau. This covers about 70 typewritten pages. 



During the latter half of April and all of May Dr. Swanton was 

 engaged in field work in Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. 

 In the first-mentioned State he continued his investigation of the 

 Chitimacha language. His visit to Mississippi was principally for 

 the purpose of inquiring into the social organization of the Choctaw 



