50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



ary 10. On the latter date Dr. Robert L. Stephenson, chief, returned 

 from academic leave and resumed direction of the project. Activities 

 during the year included all four phases of the Salvage Program : (1) 

 survey; (2) excavation; (3) analysis; and (4) reporting. Phases 2 

 and 3 received the greatest attention however. 



At the beginning of the fiscal year the Missouri Basin project had 

 a permanent staff of eight, six assigned to the Lincoln office and two 

 to the Washington office. Since the chief was in leave status there 

 actually were only seven on active duty. Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, arche- 

 ologist, and George Metcalf, field assistant, were detailed to the 

 Missouri Basin project from the U. S. National Museum during July 

 and August. In July, August, September, and October there were 

 20 temporary student and local nonstudent employees working in 

 the field. Their services were gradually terminated as excavations 

 were brought to a close, and by November 5 only the permanent staff 

 remained. During the winter and early spring months a clerk- 

 stenographer, a photographer, and a part-time records custodian were 

 employed. These permanent additions to the staff continued on duty 

 throughout the remainder of the year. In addition, a temporary part- 

 time draftsman and a temporary part-time photographer assisted in 

 the laboratory on various occasions. Wedel and Metcalf were again 

 detailed to the Missouri Basin project on June 5 and were working 

 for it at the close of the fiscal year. One temporary field assistant 

 entered on duty May 28 and another on June 11. Both were with 

 field parties at the end of the year. A temporary physical anthro- 

 pologist was appointed on June 18 and was assigned to the Wash- 

 ington office to prepare reports on the skeletal materials from various 

 Missouri Basin sites. The archeologist assigned to the Washington 

 office returned to the Missouri Basin on June 20 and was on duty there 

 at the end of the fiscal year. Also, 29 temporary student and local 

 nonstudent laborers were employed in the field. Thus at the close of 

 the year there were 11 permanent employees, 2 employees detailed to 

 the Surveys, 2 temporary field assistants, 1 temporary physical anthro- 

 pologist, and 29 temporary laborers on the staff of the Missouri Basin 

 project. 



During the year eight River Basin Surveys field parties operated 

 in the Missouri Basin, three in the period July-October and five in the 

 period May-June. One party in the July-October period and one in 

 the May-June period were occupied in survey and site-testing activ- 

 ities. One party in the May-June period was engaged in the excava- 

 tion of a historic site. The other five were excavating in prehistoric 

 and protohistoric Indian village sites. Other fieldwork in the Mis- 

 souri Basin during the year included six field parties from State insti- 

 tutions working under agreements with the National Park Service 



