Mr. G. R. Shafer informed me that there were holes, the remains of old houses on the flat in the Naches Valley, twelve miles above the Nelson Bridge which crosses the river a short distance above the mouth of Cowiche Creek. At Fort Simcoe, immediately south of the Indian agency, on the north edge of "scab land" overlooking a small ravine as mentioned on [p. 8], is a large pit surrounded by an embankment of earth, the remains of a winter house site. This hole is so deep and the embankment is so high that both Mrs. Lynch and the Indians call it a fort. About fifteen miles above Kennewick on the eastern side of the Columbia River, according to Mr. D. W. Owen, there were the remains of hundreds of semi-underground winter houses and we saw several large and deep sites immediately below Mr. Craig's house above Priest Rapids as mentioned on page 20.
A semi-subterranean winter house, with an entrance through the roof, seen by Lewis and Clark[127] on the north side of the Columbia near the mouth of White Salmon River, was uninhabited at that time (1805). As described, it does not differ from the winter house of the Thompson Indians. The Chinook, so far as we know, never erected such houses. The pit of an underground house, according to Clark[128] was found among the Nez Perce. Gibbs[129] mentions what were probably similar pits on the Lower Yakima. Kane[130] describes a somewhat similar house used by the Walla Walla but much ruder. Such houses were used by the Klamath.[131]
Not far from the ranch of Mr. Frank Turner on Rock Creek about six miles below Rock Lake on Section 6, Town 18 north, Range 40 east in the country locally known as "The Rocks," there are two pits that are supposed to be the remains of houses which with other remains (pp. [29], [82], [140]) have been in their present condition since about 1874 when they were first seen by the whites. Both the pioneers and the old Indians are said to know nothing about them. Mr. Turner's place is best reached from Sprague on the Northern Pacific Railroad, although his Post Office is Winona. My information regarding these two pits is from Mr. J. S. Cotton, then in charge of cooperative range work in Washington.
It is quite possible as pointed out by Lewis[132] that the introduction of the buffalo skin covered lodge which probably came after the advent of the horse into this region, had something to do with the apparent scarcity of the semi-subterranean winter house in the Yakima region in historic times, the buffalo skin lodge possibly having taken the place of the earth-covered dwellings.
The so-called cremation circles near Cherry Creek and near the mouth of the Naches which were mentioned on pp. [12] and [15] and described on pp. [163] and [157], may be the remains of small houses of the type of semi-subterranean winter house sites that were made especially as grave houses. As before mentioned, this type of semi-subterranean circular lodge is found as far north as the Thompson River country, and I have seen one site on the prairie near Rochester, Thurston Co., probably of this type. In the Nez Perce region to the east, remains that appear like those of semi-subterranean houses consisting of ridges of earth about a foot above the general level of the ground, surrounding a circular pit, from three to five feet deep, measuring from the top of the ridge; and about seventy feet in diameter, are found near the mouth of Tammany Creek on the east bank of Snake River, a few miles above Lewiston. The site may be identified with Hasutin.[133] The place is known to have been used as a camp until about 1878, especially during the season of lamprey eel fishing. These house rings are in several groups. A little charcoal, some unio shell, flint chips, a digging stick with a bone handle, glass beads and other objects are reported to have been found in them. Somewhat similar house rings about twenty-five feet in diameter were found on the south bank of the Middle fork of Clearwater River, near the town of Kooskia. Spinden[134] refers to Lewis and Clark[135] for evidence of considerable antiquity for the circular house rings in this Nez Perce region. They mention one as being about thirty feet in diameter with a rim over three feet high and the floor sunken four feet below the surface of the ground or seven feet below the top of the rim. The Mountain Snakes, according to Ross[136] never used underground houses.
At the site near Kooskia there is another type of house site such as I have not seen in the Yakima, Thompson or Coast regions. Spinden describes them as long and narrow, about sixty to eighty-five feet long by eighteen feet wide. The interior is sunken from one to three feet and surrounded by well marked elevated rims. As a rule, these pits are not so deep or clearly marked as those of the circular type. The axis of the house is parallel with the river. He states that these house sites have not been used for a long time and that trees, some of which are eighteen inches in diameter grow directly out of them. Excavation revealed a number of fireplaces about twelve feet apart along the axis of these houses suggesting that they were communal lodges.[137] We discovered no indications of communal dwellings in the Yakima region.
Circles of Stones (Summer House Sites). A circle of stones which marked a small lodge site was examined and photographed. The stones were no doubt cleared from the interior and all or part of these possibly with others, were no doubt used to hold down the lodge covers. Although I saw no such circle of stones in the Thompson River region I am informed by Mr. Teit that they are occasionally to be seen there and that they represent old lodge sites. The circle of stones above-mentioned as described on [p. 15] was found on a terrace somewhat lower than the one on which were situated the remains of the two semi-subterranean houses described on [p. 52] This terrace is a few yards down stream from the one on which they stand, and is separated from it by a small ravine. The site is a little further down the stream and towards the southeast. It is shown in [Fig. 1, Plate IV],[138] from the point on the hillside a few feet above it to the north, shown on the lower end of the slope in [Fig. 2, Plate IV] and in negative nos. 44491, 5-4, and 44492, 5-5. This circle of stones on the level ground was made up of angular rocks such as are scattered on the immediate surface. It measures ten by eleven feet in diameter inside; fifteen by seventeen feet from the top of the circle; and twenty-two by twenty-three feet over all. The top of the highest stones was from fourteen to twelve inches above the middle of the space enclosed which as before stated, seemed to be on a level with the outside, all measuring being east to west and north to south respectively. Among the rocks was found a chipped piece of jasper or brown chalcedony.
No saucer-shaped depressions were seen in the Yakima region, although it is quite probable that they formerly existed and have been obliterated by weathering. It will be remembered that such saucer-shaped depressions are often made by sweeping out the summer lodges in the Thompson River region[139] and that they marked the sites of such houses.
Two summer lodges photographed[140] by us near Ellensburg which were mentioned on page 12 and the one seen below Union Gap down stream from Old Yakima, resemble those of the Thompson River region to the north. It will be remembered that mat covered tipis are found in the Nez Perce region to the east.[141] Lewis and Clark[142] mention but one buffalo skin lodge among the Nez Perce in 1806 and that was apparently reserved for special occasions, but a few years later this type of lodge had practically supplanted the mat lodge among that tribe and was in common use among all the interior Salish and Sahaptin tribes. The mat houses of the Yakima are mentioned by Gibbs in the Pacific Railroad Reports.[143]
A pile of stones shown in [Fig. 2, Plate V][144] and mentioned on [p. 20] as uncovered by the wash of the flood waters of the Columbia, was seen on the bottom-lands on the western side of the Columbia, south of Sentinal Bluffs and within a hundred feet north of the house of Mr. Britain Everette Craig. It is possible that this may have been a house hearth or ancient cooking place, although the presence of human bones among these stones, suggests that it was a grave covered with flat oval river pebbles. Near by, uncovered by the same wash, was a small patch of fresh water unio shells shown from the west of south in [Fig. 1, Plate V].[145] This was probably kitchen refuse. The little pits, each encircled with a slight embankment made up of the soil thrown out in making it, [p. 15], are probably the remains of food caches near the houses.