Its purpose is to locate, record, and evaluate the archaeological and paleontological materials that will be affected by each of the more than 100 federal water management projects proposed or under construction by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers; to report this information to the National Park Service along with such projects. recommendations for further action that appear necessary to collect a representative portion of the scientific data about to be lost; and to direct the federal phases of any subsequent recovery. From its inception in 1946 through the end of 1947, field activities of the Missouri River Basin Survey were limited mainly to preliminary explorations and some follow-up surveys. As a result, fieldwork continued on a smaller scale than originally planned and some of the professional staff could not be sent into the field.
Table 1 below summarizes the reservoir projects investigated by archaeological and paleontological field parties of the Missouri River Basin Survey and by cooperating agencies through December 31, 1948.
LABORATORY ACTIVITIES
As in the previous year, the Missouri River Basin Survey provided the National Park Service with preliminary mimeography-based assessments of the archaeological and paleontological resources of the surveyed reservoirs. These assessments consist of site maps, summary descriptions of materials seen and an assessment of the likely scientific significance of the located remains. These summaries were published in the April 1949 issue of American Antiquity, which is devoted exclusively to articles dealing with the Missouri Basin work of the River Basin Surveys and cooperating state agencies.
In addition to the various archaeological reports mentioned above, a 71-page assessment of the paleontological resources of certain river basins and reservoir sites in the Missouri watershed was also distributed.
FIELD WORK AND EXPLORATIONS
The reports prepared by the paleontologist on Boysen, Canyon Ferry, and Cedar Bluflf Reservoir were not distributed. Particularly gratifying in this connection was the sustained public interest in the excavations at Medicine Creek, where illustrated talks by the archaeologist in charge became a semi-weekly part of his duties. Several members of the staff participated in various ways in the sessions of the Sixth Plains Archaeological Conference held at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, November 25-27, 1948.
Cooper; and 2 weeks of mound excavation near Fort Randall Dam, South Dakota, also by Mr.
NEBRASKA
Five waste depots, each located near the entrance to one of the houses, were also excavated. Underground storage pits were a regular addition to the residential complex, occurring both inside and outside the houses. One of the few disappointments of the season at Medicine Creek was the fact that no upper Republican burial grounds could be located and developed.
With the removal of the overburden, the old occupation level emerged as a dark-colored zone of varying thickness and.
NORTH DAKOTA
1948, it can be concluded that the known antiquities threatened with destruction by Heart Butte Dam are not likely to constitute a serious loss to archaeology. Temporary hunting camps, some of them probably belonging to country tribes inhabiting the Missouri 50 or 60 miles to the east, appear to be the remnants of the chief.
SOUTH DAKOTA
On September 27, Hughes and Shippee made a brief reconnaissance of Pactola and Johnson Siding Reservoir sites, on
No evidence of any prolonged occupation; Regular and repeated use of the place by various people over a long period of time seems to be shown instead. Some affinities can be suspected with a late prehistoric pottery group, such as the Upper Republican peoples of the Loup-Platte-Republican region. Of more than passing interest are several sites in the lower part of the reservoir area where braai pits occur (pi. 8, h).
Some of the knives suggest affinities with the finely crafted implements recovered by Roberts at the AgateBasinbison kill in Wyoming a few miles to the west, and with specimens found by the University of Nebraska State Museum. None of these occur within the future pool area, but one of the largest is located about 6 miles airline northwest of the head of the future reservoir. Within historic times—that is, after about the first quarter of the nineteenth century—the Black Hills were dominated by the Teton Dakota.
Often the river swings towards the bottom of the slopes on one side, leaving on the opposite bank a wide terrace or. As a result of the meandering habit of the stream, the banks are thus characteristically rows of bottom or flat, alternating with rugged, hilly sections. They include some of the largest, best-preserved, and most impressive sites in the Missouri watershed and Great Plains region.
Of the 61 sites visited by or reported to the 1948 Surveys party, the majority appear to be remains of terrestrial lodge villages. It is therefore imperative that systematic sampling is carried out at all sites as early as possible, and that at least one, preferably 39ST14, is extensively investigated.
WYOMING
The fourth site lies about 1,100 yards upstream to the proposed dam, on the right bank of the stream and well within the area of the future basin. Excavation is a time-consuming task at best; and if the start of a systematic excavation program is delayed too long after the construction of the dam begins, archaeologists will be faced with an incredibly large task at the last minute. Surface, basin, and cave hearths are clearly represented, and there appears to be a considerable diversity of stone artefact types.
No pottery finds were recorded during this survey, although farmers living upstream of the proposed containment area report occasional finds of pottery along the Beaver. That this is probably a long time span can be inferred from the fact that the specimens found range from stone points of early types to glass trade beads from the historic period. The dam, 105 feet high and with an embankment about 1,100 feet long, will be located about 11 miles as the crow flies northeast of Moorcroft, Wyo.
The reservoir is intended for flood and silt control and for storing irrigation water for the Belle Fourche Project in western South Dakota. With two or three exceptions, any animals found will be largely or completely destroyed when the reservoir becomes full. Judging from the results of the exploration, there appear to be many locations in the lower parts of the future swimming pool area around it.
So it is likely that the hunt has earlier horizons than most of those represented at other reservoir sites. In the opinion of the archaeologist making this discovery, Keyhole offers more promise than Edgemont and would probably be relatively as productive and important as Angostura.
FIELD WORK IN PALEONTOLOGY
32 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull.154 From 6 localities, most of them downstream of Cottonwood Creek, in the Lower Eocene Lost Cabin faunal zone, the remains of 23 species of fossil mammals were collected. From July 14 to August 19, work was done in the Oligocene and Miocene deposits of the Canyon Ferry Reserve, on the Missouri River north of Townsend, Broadwater County, Mont. The period from August 21 to September 3 was spent at Angostura Reservoir, on the Cheyenne River south of Hot Springs, S.
Boreholes were drilled with a hand drill to determine the depth and character of the valley fill on Horsehead Creekintheim in the immediate vicinity. Based on these preliminary studies, it appears that the physiographic history of Horsehead Creek will need to be developed in conjunction with the history of the Cheyenne River, and that the key to age dating the terrace in which 39FA65 is located likely lies in correlating the terrace with retreating Cheyenne Falls. Therefore, it seems possible that Cheyenne Gorge at the dam site was largely cut after the occupation of site 39FA65.
After completing the physiographic studies in Angostura and preparing a report thereon, Dr. White enters the field again. Because much remains to be learned about the paleontological chorizons represented at Boysen and Canyon Ferry, it is highly desirable that further work be done before filling the pool areas.
FIELD WOEK BY COOPERATING AGENCIES
Some of the mentioned sites were visited by river basin survey staff while the state authorities' investigations on the site were in progress.
KANSAS
Most of them, however, have been destroyed b}^ the removal of stones for use in building fences. In the vicinity of the reservoir, the Republican flows through a flat-floored valley from 1 to 2 miles wide, bounded by wide escarpments. Terraceremnto occur at various heights above the channel of the main stream, as well as along its larger tributaries.
To the north of the river valley lie soft loess hills, while the region to the south will be somewhat more. Accordingly, the Laboratory of Anthropology of the University of Nebraska was invited to make such investigations as desirable and feasible, especially in the lower part of the prospective area. Within this pentagon, charcoal and rubbish were mixed all over the ground to a depth of 5 or 6 inches below the level of the top of the chimney.
There was no sign of wattles, such as occur at the more familiar earth lodge sites of the Central Plains. Water development plans by the Bureau of Reclamation for the lower PlatteBasin include the construction of about 16 major reservoirs. Preliminary reports on the results of the several projects mentioned here have been issued, but in no case.
Gushing Reservoir location. - The location of the proposed Gushing Reservoir is at Spring Greek in Howard and Greeley Gounties, Nebr. Objectives of the project are flood control, water supply for industrial and municipal use and pollution reduction.
RESUME AND CONCLUSIONS
These investigations represent a widely distributed sampling—spatially, temporally, and culturally—of aboriginal remains of the Missouri Basin region. It is also clear that many of the problems that concern the archaeologist cannot be solved without the help of qualified students from other disciplines. That the sites involved are at or near the base of one of the older terraces.
With the exception of certain projectile points, most stone and bone artifacts reported so far from Lime Creek can be replicated. More detailed and extended analyzes and comparisons than have yet been made are necessary before this problem and the true relationships of the Lime Creek materials can be determined. Several "early" point types have been found on the eroded edge of the site; in a similar position, as well as in coal-.
The Angostura were a series of ill-defined and sparsely represented complexes found along the upper Cheyenne and its tributaries in southwestern South Dakota. The latter type is reminiscent of the somewhat similarly shaped but usually larger fry pit of the protohistoric Dismal River horizon of the upper Kansas-Republican drainage. As already mentioned, some of the individual features of these burial grounds occur in widely separated localities from northern Kansas to Minne-.
With the exception of the last-named occurrence, all localities listed are within the previously known range of the Upper Republican culture. 14EW6, lying somewhat to the north and west of the previously known. complex string, can be predicted to mark a periodic camp. Because 1948 witnessed extended excavation at any of the many village sites along the Missouri River in the Dakotas, it seems pointless to add further conjecture and conjecture to the literature on this area.
In the western portions of the Basin, including Montana, Wyoming, and adjacent areas, numerous. sites have been located but very few have been systematically and comprehensively excavated.
