18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



vegetal materials (corn, beans, seeds of sunflower, squash, and wild 

 plum) were found. In a number of cases sections of wood in an 

 excellent state of preservation were obtained from post holes in the 

 house floors. These specimens are of value for determining the type 

 of vegetation in the area hundred of years ago and possibly may 

 furnish information for dating purposes. 



Most of the remains in this district belong to the Upper Eepublican 

 culture, so named because the first of the type studied and defined 

 were located in the Republican River drainage of southern Nebraska. 

 It is not possible at this time to correlate them with any of the known 

 tribes, such as the Dakota, Pawnee, or Comanche, but this may be 

 done later. Remains of this culture are believed to date from ca. 

 A. D. 1200 to 1500. A few of the sites appear to belong to what has 

 been called "Woodland" because of their close relationship to others 

 east of the Missouri. Tentative dating places it in the centuries 

 A. D. 500 to 1200. In addition there are traces of a primitive hunting 

 people who inhabited the area several millennia earlier. There is no 

 doubt that the work at Medicine Creek has added a large and im- 

 portant body of new data on the pre-Columbian inhabitants of western 

 Nebraska and from it an unusually complete picture of life in the 

 area should emerge. It seems evident that several long-held scientific 

 theories regarding those people and their relationship to their environ- 

 ment will need to be revised. The information from Medicine Creek 

 certainly will be one of the most significant contributions yet made to 

 the study of Plains prehistory. 



The paleontological work, under T. E. White, while not as important 

 in some ways as the archeological investigations, is making a definite 

 contribution to geology. This is particularly true in the Wind River 

 Basin in Wyoming where data collected by the River Basin Surveys 

 field party has aided in tlie identification of younger beds than pre- 

 viously had been supposed to be present in the area. Furthermore, no 

 historical summary of paleontology in any of the river basins would 

 be complete without consideration of the fragments of fossil bones and 

 leaves frequently found by archeologists in Indian sites. These ob- 

 jects probably were collected as curiosities, although they occasionally 

 were used as ornaments and sometimes attempts were made to work 

 silicified bones into implements. While not of gieat significance to 

 paleontology, they are a part of the story, and study of the material 

 is helpful. Thus far 94 reservoir areas in the Missouri Basin have been 

 examined either briefly or in some detail, and specimens have been 

 collected from some 68. In a number of cases this material has helped 

 to clarify understanding of the area and will provide useful data for 

 future reference. 



As during the previous year. Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, on detail to the 

 River Basin Surveys from the Division of Archeology, United States 



