SIXTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THE 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



M. W. Stirling, Chief 



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

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

 can Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1948, conducted 

 in accordance with the Act of Congress of June 27, 1944, which pro- 

 vides "* * * for continuing ethnological researches among the 

 American Indians and the natives of Hawaii and the excavation and 

 preservation of archeologic remains. * * *" 



SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 



Dr. M. W. Stirling, Director of the Bureau, spent the first part of 

 the fiscal year in Washington attending to administrative duties and 

 in preparing a study on "Olmec Jade." 



On January 1 Dr. Stirling left for western Panama where he spent 

 3% months in the excavation of four archeological sites on the Azuero 

 Peninsula in cooperation with the National Geographic Society. Two 

 of these were representative of the relatively late Code culture. A 

 third was a mound site representing a new culture apparently ances- 

 tral to Qocle, while the fourth site was a shell mound near the mouth 

 of the Parita Kiver, which was found to contain a very early and 

 completely new culture, unrelated to anything heretofore known in 

 Panama. During this work Dr. Stirling was assisted in the field by 

 Dr. Gordon Willey of the Bureau staff. 



At the close of the archeological field season a brief visit was made 

 to the Guaymi Indians in the Province of Chiriqui. 



Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., Associate Director of the Bureau 

 and Director of the River Basin Surveys, was mainly occupied 

 throughout the fiscal year in directing the River Basin Surveys. In 

 connection with this work he established cooperative projects with 

 State and local institutions in various parts of the country, aided in 

 the preparation of preliminary reports pertaining to the results of 

 investigations in various reservoir basins, and wrote progress reports 

 for the co.operating agencies. He went to Lincoln, Nebr., November 26 

 to December 5, where he inspected the field headquarters and labora- 

 tory for the Missouri Basin project, received reports on the results 

 of the summer's surveys in that area, and aided in the preparation of 

 plans for evaluating and handling the material collected. While in 

 Lincoln he attended sessions of the Fifth Plains Conference for Ar- 

 cheology and presided at a symposium on "The Paleo-Indian in the 



1 



