REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



Such studies tend to a broader appreciation of racial character and 

 have special value Avhen we reflect how rapidly the Indian population 

 is merging into American life. The excavation and repair of i^re- 

 historic monuments in our Southwest is enlarging our knowledge of 

 history as well as attracting more and more tourists and replacing 

 threadbare prejudices with saner ideas of Indian possibilities in many 

 lines. 



The logical results of the events of the last years appear in the calls 

 for information made on the staff for accurate knowledge of other 

 races besides the American Indian. It needs no prophet to predict 

 that the future will demand an extension of the bureau work to other 

 races. The calls for ethnological information on the Indian during 

 the past year have been many and varied and considerable time of 

 the ethnologists has been taken up in answering the many requests of 

 this nature that are made. The chief has given much time to admin- 

 istration and routine work. 



In addition to administrative duties the chief has been able to 

 ■devote considerable time to research work in the field and has pre- 

 pared for publication several scientific articles, the largest of which 

 will soon be published as Bulletin No. 70. These field researches are 

 in accordance with the above-mentioned act of Congress, which in- 

 cludes the excavation and preservation of archeological remains. 

 In September he took the field, continuing his explorations of the 

 castles and towers of the McElmo and tributary canyons in south- 

 western Colorado, extending his studies westward into southeastern 

 Utah as far as Montezuma Canyon. The object was to determine 

 the western horizon of the area of the pure type of pueblos and cliff 

 dwellings, and to investigate the remains of antecedent peoples from 

 which it sprung in order to obtain data bearing on the question of 

 the origin of the San Juan drainage culture. The country traveled 

 through is especially rich in prehistoric towers and castellated build- 

 ings, but contains also many clusters of mounds formed by fallen 

 walls of large communal buildings, many of which were wholly or 

 partially unknown to science. The work was largely a reconnoissance 

 and no extensive excavations or repair work was attempted. Special 

 attention was paid to the structure and probable use of towers which 

 are combined with cliff houses like Cliff Palace, or great villages like 

 those of the Mummy Lake and upper San Juan and its tributaries. 

 Amon,g the most significant new towers discovered were two found 

 in McLean Basin, near the old Bluff City trail not far from the State 

 line of Utah and Colorado. The McLean Basin ruin has a rec- 

 tangular shape, with a round tower on one corner and one of semi- 

 circular form on the diagonally opposite angle, each 15 feet high. 

 The building on which these towers stand must have presented a 

 very exceptional appearance in prehistoric times before its walls 



