Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: Report On the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology

The Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology contains J. W. Powell's description of the Bureau's plans and operations in the fiscal year 1890 - 1891. The majority of the report is Cyrus Thomas' accompanying paper entitled "Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology." Thomas documents the Bureau's directive to examine the mounds constructed throughout the Midwest and Eastern Woodlands, from the Southeast north to the Great Lakes region. His report describes mounds in the Mississippi River valley, from Minnesota southward; the Gulf States, from Mississippi eastward; and the Appalachian areas, from North Carolina north to New York. It also contains observations on the over 40,000 artifact specimens collected during the mound explorations.