8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



sistants, made surveys of the Burns, Bear, and Owens Reservoirs of 

 the Merced group, in the San Joaquin Valley. Nineteen sites were 

 located in the three projects, but as all of them are of little significance 

 no additional work has been recommended for them. In June, Mohr 

 and Freed m.ade a survey at the Cachuma Reservoir on the Santa 

 Ynez River, near Santa Barbara. They located 18 sites and at the 

 end of the fiscal year Mohr was making preparations to dig a series of 

 test trenches in two of them. 



Franklin Fenenga joined the River Basin Surveys as archeologist 

 on June 19 and initiated a series of excavations at the Terminus 

 Reservoir on the Kaweah River in the Central Valley. That area is 

 particularly important because it w^as at the boundary of the terri- 

 tories of the Wikchamni division of the Yokuts of the San Joaquin 

 Valley and of the Balwisha group of the Mono Indians. The archeo- 

 logical materials from the sites should provide important information 

 on the problem of cultural contact and diffusion between the different 

 tribes. 



Columbia Basin. — Work in the Columbia Basin was continued 

 under the direction of the field headquarters at Eugene, Oreg., where 

 the University of Oregon provided laboratory and ofiice space. 

 Douglas Osborne, acting field director, was in charge of the program 

 in that area until he resigned on September 3 to accept a position 

 Vvdth the University of Washington. Joel L. Shiner was appointed 

 to succeed him and continued as acting field director throughout the 

 remainder of the year. 



During August excavations were carried on in the McNary Reser- 

 voir area, with Washington State College cooperating in the project. 

 Eight sites were tested or excavated on the south side of the Columbia 

 River between Umatilla Rapids and Techumtas Island, and in addi- 

 tion further work was done at one of the sites excavated during the 

 previous fiscal year. Survey reports had indicated that at two of 

 the locations there probably were remains beneath a layer of volcanic 

 ash. Digging there, however, failed to produce any evidence for such 

 an occupation. Information from other sites investigated demon- 

 strated that there were at least two cultural horizons along that 

 portion of the river. The data seem to indicate that the older in- 

 habitants made most of their implements of basalt while the later 

 ones used chalcedony for the most part. The economy of the two 

 groups appears to have been basically the same, although the earlier 

 was less complex than the later. This is indicated by greater de- 

 pendency on shellfish and a tendency toward sporadic occupation 

 and a wandering life. 



During September Charles C. Case, Jr., and Robert C. Salisbury, 

 field assistants, surveyed 11 proposed reservoirs in the Willamette 



