SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THE 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Frank H. H. Koberts, Jr. Director 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the field 

 researches, officework, and other operations of the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Etlinology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1959, conducted 

 in accordance with the act of Congress of April 10, 1928, as amended 

 August 22, 1949, which directs the Bureau "to continue independently 

 or in cooperation anthropological researches among the American In- 

 dians and the natives of lands under the jurisdiction or protection of 

 the United States and the excavation and preservation of archeologic 



SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 

 (Prepared from data submitted by staff members) 



Dr. Frank H. H. Eoberts, Jr., Director of the Bureau, devoted a 

 portion of the fiscal year to office duties and the general supervision 

 of the activities of the Bureau and the River Basin Surveys. In 

 September he went to the Mesa Verde !N"ational Park in southwestern 

 Colorado as a consultant to the Research Committee of the National 

 Geographic Society. While there he visited a number of ruins that 

 are to be excavated to obtain new inforaiation on the aboriginal peo- 

 ple of the region and also to provide additional exhibit areas for 

 visitors to the park. As a result of the conferences on the Mesa Verde, 

 the National Geographic Society made a grant to the National Park 

 Service to assist in the excavation program on Wetherill Mesa. It is 

 contemplated that the digging will continue over approximately six 

 field seasons. Following the sessions on the mesa. Dr. Roberts spent 

 a day at Hovenweep National Monument on the Colorado-Utah line 

 north of the McElmo Canyon area where the late Dr. J. Walter 

 Fewkes, a former Chief of the Bureau, carried on investigations some 

 50 years ago. Judging from Dr. Fewkes's report and the condition 

 of the area today, there has been little change since he first described 

 the towers for which the area is famous. 



After his return to Washington, D.C., Dr. Roberts went late in 

 September to Athens, Ga., and visited a number of projects in other 

 parts of Georgia and South Carolina where salvage operations were 

 underway, and participated in discussions relative to continuing work 



