12 
SCHOOL OF AMERICAN RESEARCH 
DIRECTOR’S REPORT, 1928 
APPENDIX I 
THE STATUS OF ETHNOLOGICAL AND 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN 
THE SOUTHWEST 
The foundations on which southwestern ethnology and 
archaeology have been built were laid in the last quarter 
of the nineteenth century. It is true that valuable re¬ 
ports were written prior to that time but nothing that 
would afford the basis for a substantial scientific struc¬ 
ture. William H. Holmes was the founder of the science. 
(Southwestern ethnology and archaeology are simply chro¬ 
nological aspects of one science). He prepared the way 
through his geological studies in the Southwest and 
then proceeded with his masterly interpretations of the 
remains left by man. He wiped out the mythical ideas 
of “Vanished Races,” demonstrating that the ancient cliff 
dwellers were the Pueblo Indians of the centuries pre- 
ceeding the European occupation. We owe it to him 
that students'of man now concede that the archaeology 
of the American Southwest is mainly the early history 
of the Pueblo Indians. It is regrettable that there is 
still need for some clarification. A veil of false mystery 
shrouds these regions in the popular mind. The special 
writers want buried cities and sepulchres comparable to 
that of Tutankhamon and create them for the public if 
the archaeologist will not. The belief is still too preval¬ 
ent that distinct races flourished on and long ago vanished 
fiom the American continent. The public has never ac¬ 
cepted the fact, and archaeologists have not made it clear 
that the Pueblo Indians of today are the surviving remn¬ 
ants af ancient communities who built no cities and who 
left no tombstones or sarcophagi. In some respects the 
science of American archaeology is still in the romantic 
stage. The service done by William H. Holmes, in set¬ 
ting the students of early America on the right road has 
steadily continued for half a century. He has stood out 
dgainsL the acceptance of paleolithic man in America on 
insufficient evidence and has set a standard of scientific 
exactness that enables us to avoid some of the pitfalls 
that abound in archaeology. 
