70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1922, 



Arikara the sacred chant and dance of the calumet was used to ce- 

 ment this union. 



In Vernon and Bates Counties, western Missouri, near the junction 

 of the Osage and Marmiton Rivers, Mr. Myer found several sites 

 known to have been occuj)ied by the Osage Indians in early historic 

 times, shortly after they had come in contact with the whites. 



The largest Osage village in Vernon County was situated at Old 

 Town, on Old Town Creek, about 3^ miles south of Pikes 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, gunlocks, fragments of brass kettles, glass 

 beads, and other articles of early white manufacture, as well as 

 objects of purely aboriginal origin. 



The most picturesque Indian site in this Osage region is Halleys 

 Bluff, on the Osage River, about 1^ miles downstream from where 

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

 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. 



During the month of October, 1921, Mr. David I. Bushnell, jr., 

 visited Scott Field, east of Belleville, 111., for the purpose of getting 

 airjDlane pictures of the Cahokia mounds. The commanding officer 

 of the field, Maj. Frank M. Kennedy, appreciating the interest and 

 importance of the work, detailed Lieuts. Harold R, Wells and Ashley 

 C. McKinley, of the Air Service, to make the pictures. They suc- 

 ceeded in making some very interesting photographs of mounds in 

 the vicinity of Cahokia, as well as of the great mound itself, but 

 unfortunately the photographic apparatus at that time available at 

 Scott Field was not suitable, and although the pictures obtained were 

 not very clear, nevertheless no better results could have been secured 

 with the cameras which they were obliged to use. Four of the pic- 

 tures made by Lieutenants Wells and McKinley were reproduced as 

 Figures 101, 102, 103, and 104 in Explorations and Field Work of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in 1921 and should prove of special interest 

 as the first photographs of American earthworks made from the air. 



The article in which the four airplane pictures were used was pre- 

 pared for the purpose of showing the great importance of the Cahokia 

 group and of the other related groups to the north, west, and south 

 of Cahokia. The southern group, although many of the units have 

 been destroyed, is of special interest. It is situated near the left 

 bank of the Mississippi, opposite Jefferson Barracks. Bits of pot- 

 tery, chips of flint, and other traces of a settlement, together with 

 stone-lined graves in the vicinity of the mounds, may indicate the 

 position of a village of one of the Illinois tribes two centuries or 

 more ago. 



