Throughout almost the entire year Mr. James Mooney, ethnologist, was occupied in the office in compiling the material for his study of Indian population covering the whole territory north of Mexico from the first white occupancy to the present time. By request of the Nebraska State Historical Society he was detailed in January, 1911, to attend the joint session of that body and the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, at Lincoln, Nebraska, where he delivered three principal addresses bearing particularly on the method and results of the researches of the bureau with the view of their application in local historical and ethnological investigations.
On June 4 Mr. Mooney started for the reservation of the East Cherokee in North Carolina to continue former studies of the sacred formulas and general ethnology of that tribe, and was engaged in this work at the close of the month.
At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, ethnologist, was in northern Arizona examining the great cave pueblos and other ruins within the Navaho National Monument. He found that since his visit in 1909 considerable excavation had been done by others in the rooms of Betatakin, and that the walls of Kitsiel, the other large cliff-ruin, were greatly in need of repair. Guided by resident Navaho, he visited several hitherto undescribed cliff-dwellings and gathered a fairly good collection of objects illustrating prehistoric culture of this part of northern Arizona, which have been deposited in the National Museum. In order to facilitate the archeological work and to make the region accessible to students and visitors it was necessary to break a wagon road from Marsh Pass through the middle of the Navaho National Monument to the neighborhood of Betatakin, and by this means the valley was traversed with wagons for the first time.
On the return journey to Flagstaff, Doctor Fewkes visited the ruins in Nitsi, or West Canyon, and examined Inscription House, a prehistoric cliff-dwelling of considerable size, hitherto undescribed, the walls of which are built [[15]]of loaf-shaped adobes strengthened with sticks. On account of the size and great interest of these ruins, it is recommended that the area covered thereby be included in the Navaho National Monument and the ruins permanently preserved, and that either Betatakin or Kitsiel be excavated, repaired, and made a “type ruin” of this culture area. Along the road to Flagstaff from West Canyon, Doctor Fewkes observed several ruins and learned of many others ascribed to the ancient Hopi. He visited the Hopi pueblo of Moenkopi, near Tuba, and obtained considerable new ethnological material from an old priest of that village regarding legends of the clans that formerly lived in northern Arizona. He learned also of a cliff, or rock, covered with pictographs of Hopi origin, at Willow Spring, not far from Tuba, the figures of which shed light on Hopi clan migration legends.
Returning to Flagstaff, Doctor Fewkes reoutfitted in order to conduct investigations of the ruins near Black Falls of the Little Colorado River, especially the one called Wukoki, reputed to have been the last habitation of the Snake clans of the Hopi in their stubborn migration before they finally settled near the East Mesa. A little more than a month was spent at these ruins, during which time extensive excavations were made in numerous subterranean rooms, or pit-dwellings, a new type of habitations found at the bases of many of the large ruined pueblos on the Little Colorado. Incidentally several other pueblo ruins, hitherto unknown, with accompanying reservoirs and shrines, were observed. The excavations at Wukoki yielded about 1,800 specimens, consisting of painted pottery, beautiful shell ornaments, stone implements, basketry, wooden objects, cane “cloud blowers,” prayer sticks, a prayer-stick box, an idol, and other objects. The results of the excavations at Wukoki will be incorporated in a forthcoming bulletin on Antiquities of the Little Colorado Basin.
On the completion of his work at the Black Falls ruins, Doctor Fewkes returned to Washington in September and [[16]]devoted the next three months to the preparation of a monograph on Casa Grande, Arizona.
At the close of January, 1911, Doctor Fewkes again took the field, visiting Cuba for the purpose of gathering information on the prehistoric inhabitants of that island and their reputed contemporaneity with fossil sloths, sharks, and crocodiles. A fortnight was devoted to the study of collections of prehistoric objects in Habana, especially the material in the University Museum from caves in Puerto Principe Province, described by Doctors Montoné and Carlos de la Torre. With this preparation he proceeded to the Isle of Pines and commenced work near Nueva Gerona. In this island there are several caves from which human bones have been reported locally, but the Cueva de los Indios, situated in the hills about a mile from the city named, promised the greatest reward. A week’s excavation in this cave yielded four fragments of Indian skulls, not beyond repair; one undeformed, well-preserved human cranium; and many fragments of pelves, humeri, and femora. The excavations in the middle of the cave indicated that the soil there had previously been dug over; these yielded little of value, the best-preserved remains occurring near the entrance, on each side. The skulls were arranged in a row within a pocket sheltered by an overhanging side of the cave, and were buried about 2 feet in the guano and soil; beneath these crania were human long-bones, crossed. Several fragments of a single skull, or of several skulls, were embedded in a hard stalagmitic formation over the deposit of long-bones. No Indian implements or pottery accompanied the bones, and no fossils were found in association with them. So far as recorded this is the first instance of the finding of skeletal remains of cave man in the Isle of Pines. Their general appearance and mode of burial were the same as in the case of those discovered by Doctors Montoné and Carlos de la Torre.
Doctor Fewkes also examined, in the Isle of Pines, about 30 structures known as cacimbas, their Indian name. [[17]]These are vase-shaped, subterranean receptacles, averaging 6 feet in depth and 4 feet in maximum diameter, generally constricted to about 2 feet at the neck, and with the opening level with the surface of the ground. Although these cacimbas are generally ascribed to the Indians, they are thought by some to be of Spanish origin, and are connected by others with buccaneers, pirates, and slavers. They are built of masonry or cut in the solid rock; the sides are often plastered and the bottoms commonly covered with a layer of tar. On the ground near the openings there is generally a level, circular space, with raised periphery. The whole appearance supports the theory that these structures were used in the manufacture of turpentine or tar, the circular area being the oven and the cacimba the receptacle for the product.
Doctor Fewkes found that the Pineros, or natives of the island, employ many aboriginal terms for animals, plants, and places, and in some instances two Indian words are used for the same object. An acknowledged descendant of a Cuban Indian explained this linguistic duality by saying that the Indians of the eastern end of the Isle of Pines spoke a dialect different from those of the western end, and that when those from Camaguey, who were Tainan and of eastern Cuban origin, came to the Isle of Pines at the instance of the Spanish authorities they brought with them a nomenclature different from that then in use on that island.
Several old Spanish structures of masonry, the dates of which are unknown, were also examined in the neighborhood of Santa Fe, Isle of Pines. The roof of a cave at Punta de Este, the southeastern angle of the island, bears aboriginal pictographs of the sun and other objects, suggesting that it is comparable with the cave in Haiti, in which, according to Indian legend, the sun and the moon originated, and from which the races of man emerged.