68 ANNUAL EEPOKT SMITHSONIAX INSTITUTION, 1!}22. 



Returning to the bureau on June 15, Doctor Waterman began the 

 preparation of a report on the Alaskan monuments. 



In the fall of 1921, Mr. W. E. Myer investigated sites in South 

 Dakota and western Missouri, known to have been occupied by the 

 Omahas and Osages in early historic times, after they had come in 

 contact with the whites but before they had been changed thereby 

 to any considerable extent. 



Especial attention was paid to any resemblance to the ancient 

 cultures found in the valleys of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Ten- 

 nessee Elvers. This line of research was suggested by certain tradi- 

 tions of both the Omahas and the Osages, and other branches of the 

 great Siouan linguistic family, that they had at one time lived east 

 of the Mississippi River, and after many wanderings, stopping here 

 and there for years, finally reached their present homes in South 

 Dakota and western Missouri. 



Mr. Francis La Flesche reported that the traditions of his people, 

 the Omahas, were that they had occupied two important villages on 

 what the Omahas call " The Big Bend of the Xe,'' at some time in the 

 seventeenth or eighteenth century. 



Mr. Myer was enabled to locate these two ancient villages; one, 

 Split Rock site on the Big Sioux River, at its junction with Split 

 Rock River; the other where the Rock Island Railroad now crosses 

 the Big Sioux River, about 10 miles southeast of Sioux Falls. It is 

 here designated the Rock Island site. 



Sometime in the seventeenth century the Omahas and Poncas re- 

 moved from the Pipestone region in Minnesota and finally, after 

 some further wanderings, built a fortified town on the Rock Island 

 site. While living in this fortified place they were attacked and de- 

 feated by an enemy, most probably the Dakotas, and finally forced 

 to leave the region. There is a tradition that they buried their dead 

 from this fight in a mound. This tradition was confirmed by excava- 

 tions made by Mr. A. G. Risty and Mr. F. W. Pettigrew, who report 

 finding a considerable amount of human bones. Some glass beads and 

 small copper bells of white man's make were also found in one of these 

 mounds. There is evidence that this site was occupied somewhere 

 between 1700 and 1725. 



After leaving the Rock Island site, the Omahas and Poncas roved 

 Avithout long permanent settlements for several years, but finally re- 

 turned to the Xe and built a permanent village at Split Rock at the 

 junction of the Big Sioux and Split Rock Rivers. 



Mr. Myer spent the month of October. 1921, in exploring this Split 

 Rock site. Many interesting relics of the Omahas were here un- 

 earthed, which throw new light on the life of these people before they 

 had been verv much changed by contact with the whites. 



