SEVENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THE 

 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Frank H. II. Roberts, Jr. Director 



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

 researches, office work, and other operations of the Bureau of Amer- 

 ican Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1961, 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 iVmerican, 

 Indians and the natives of lands under the jurisdiction or protection 

 of the United States and the excavation and preservation of arche- 



ologic remains." 



SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 



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

 portion of the year to general supervision of the activities of the 

 Bureau and the River Basin Surveys. In midsummer he inspected 

 the work of excavating parties operating in the Big Bend and Oahe 

 Reservoir areas in South Dakota and a portion of the Oahe Basin 

 in North Dakota, as well as a field party working in the Wilson 

 Reservoir area in Kansas. Three of the parties represented the River 

 Basin Surveys and three were from cooperating agencies. In addi- 

 tion. Dr. Roberts visited one excavation that was not a part of the 

 salvage program. The w^ork at that location consisted of investiga- 

 tions in the remains of Fort Kearney, Nebr., a historic army post 

 being studied by the Nebraska State Historical Society. During part 

 of the trip Dr. Roberts was accompanied by Dr. John M. Corbett and 

 Carroll A. Burroughs of the Wasliington office of the National Park 

 Service, and during the entire trip by Paul L. Beaubien, regional 

 archeologist, Region Three, National Park Service. While at Pierre, 

 S. Dak., the group took part in an informal conference attended by 

 leaders of all the parties and many of their student helpers working 

 in the Plains during the summer. A wide range of archeological 

 problems in the Missouri Basin was discussed. 



In September Dr. Roberts went to Mesa Verde National Park 

 where he served as chairman of the Advisory Group for the Wetherill 

 Mesa Project, a cooperative undertaking between the National Park 

 Service and the National Geographic Society. The group spent 3 

 days discussing and inspecting the excavations underway in two large 

 cliff ruins and studied the operations of the field laboratory handling 



