106 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



Woodland in the Eastern United States. In Nebraska and Iowa it has 

 been found stratigraphically below all other known local ceramic 

 horizons. Directly associated with this cord-roughened pottery was 

 a superior ware bearing decoration of the Hopewellian type (fig. 107, 

 A-D , F-H), never before reported as far west as Kansas City. There 

 was no trace of house remains, so the habitations must have been 

 entirely of perishable materials. Refuse-filled storage pits were plenti- 

 ful, and from them were taken many objects of chipped and ground 

 stone, bone, and horn (fig. 108), as well as some native copper and 

 hematite. Ground stone work included several grooved axes (fig. 108, 

 P) , one unfinished, a type whose makers in the central Plains have 

 heretofore been unknown. The remains are unlike those left by any 

 of the protohistoric and historic peoples in the region. Through 

 courtesy of Transcontinental Western Air and Bureau of Air Com- 

 merce officials, the writer was afforded an unforgettable opportunity 

 to make aerial observations of the site and its surroundings. 



At the old river town of Doniphan, Kans., whose older residents 

 still speak pridefully of a visit from Abraham Lincoln in 1859, we 

 next investigated the site of an early Kansa Indian village. This is 

 supposed to have been visited by Bourgmond in 1724 and was seen in 

 ruins by Lewis and Clark in 1804. Several graves (fig. 109) and cache 

 pits were opened, yielding both historical and native remains. Twenty 

 miles north of Doniphan, at Fanning, another earlier but tribally 

 unidentified village was examined. Some historical material was ob- 

 tained here, but aboriginal remains of a type known to archeologists 

 as Oneota were much more plentiful. 



The latter part of the season was spent on the Kansas River near 

 Manhattan, about 120 miles west of Kansas City. Here were found 

 further traces of Hopewellian-like pottery. A few miles below the 

 mouth of Blue River we excavated a circular house site in the old 

 Kansa village visited and described by members of Major Long's ex- 

 ploring expedition in 1819. As expected at this late date, the native 

 arts and crafts had largely been superseded by introduced European 

 trade goods. Xo aboriginal potter}- was found here. Two miles west 

 of Manhattan a much older pre-contact village yielded a rectangular 

 earthlodge floor (fig. no) and lesser remains. 



In summary, it was not possible to determine the distinguishing 

 characteristics of early Kansa Indian culture. However, the season's 

 work indicated a wealth of important and varied archeological re- 

 mains in this portion of the Plains. For northeastern Kansas, the 

 probable sequence of early peoples is emerging, at least in broad out- 

 line, but more extended investigations are needed before the details 

 can be filled in. 



