SEVENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT O 



During the first three weeks of November Dr. Chafe traveled to 

 North Dakota and Oklahoma to acquaint himself with the present 

 number and location of speakers of the Caddoan languages. This 

 language family includes Arikara, Pawnee, Wichita, and Caddo. He 

 obtained estimates of the number of speakers of each language, col- 

 lected word lists, and made lexicostatistic comparisons. The trip was 

 made under a grant from the American Philosophical Society. 



He returned to North Dakota for the first three weeks of June to 

 collect further material on the Arikara language. He obtained 

 phonological, grammatical, and lexical data which will be used in 

 a comparative study of the languages of the Caddoan family. 



Dr. Chafe published articles on the Seneca language in Language 

 and the International Journal of American Linguistics, In March 

 he completed an index of the journal Language for the years 1955-59. 

 Under the auspices of the American Philosophical Society, he began 

 work during the spring on a project designed to obtain estimates of 

 the present number of speakers of each of the Indian languages of 

 North America. 



RIVER BASIN SURVEYS 



The Eiver Basin Surveys continued its participation in the Inter- 

 Agency archeological and paleontological salvage program. Its ac- 

 tivities were in areas to be flooded or otherwise destroyed by the 

 construction of large dams. The work was carried on in cooperation 

 with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Eeclamation of the 

 Department of the Interior, the Corps of Engineers of the Depart- 

 ment of the Army, and a number of State and local institutions. The 

 investigations during the fiscal year 1959-60 were supported by a 

 transfer of $122,055 from the National Park Service to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. Of that sum, $98,055 v^as for use in the Missouri 

 Basin and $24,000 for investigations along the Chattahoochee River 

 in Alabama and Georgia. On July 1, 1959, the Missouri Basin Project 

 had a carryover of $10,764, and that, with the new appropriation, pro- 

 vided a total of $108,819 for the program in the Missouri Basin. The 

 grand total of funds available for the River Basin Surveys for 1959- 

 60 was $132,819. 



Activities in the field throughout the year were mainly concerned 

 with excavations, although some limited surveys were carried on and 

 one party made a series of studies of skeletal material in museums 

 and laboratories throughout the Missouri Basin. Because of a reduc- 

 tion in funds, fieldwork was more limited than in the previous year. 

 On July 1, 1959, there were three excavating parties working in the 

 Missouri Basin in South Dakota, and the mobile group was operating 

 in Nebraska. One of the parties in South Dakota was digging sites 

 in the Big Bend Reservoir area and the other two were working in 



