52 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



to do further j&eldwork on Caddo. He was also fortunate in being 

 able to do some work with a speaker of Oklahoma Cherokee living 

 in Washington. 



RIVER BASIN SURVEYS 



The Kiver Basin Surveys, a unit of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology organized to cooperate with the National Park Service and 

 the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior and 

 the Corps of Engineers of the Department of the Army in the Inter- 

 Agency Archeological and Paleontological Salvage Program, con- 

 tinued its activities throughout the year. Attention was directed to 

 areas that are to be flooded or otherwise destroyed by the construction 

 of large dams in the various river systems of the United States. 

 The year's investigations were supported by a transfer of $123,895 

 from the National Park Service to the Smithsonian Institution. Of 

 that sum, $103,895 was for work in the Missouri Basin and $20,000 for 

 studies along the Chattahoochee River in Alabama and Georgia. On 

 July 1, 1960, the Missouri Basin Project had a carryover of $9,420, 

 and that, with the new appropriation, provided a total of $113,315 

 for the Missouri Basin Project. The grand total of funds available 

 in 1960-61 for the River Basin Surveys was $133,315. 



Activities in the field were mainly concerned with excavations, al- 

 though there were some limited surveys in two areas. The funds 

 available for the last fiscal year were slightly greater than those 

 for the preceding one, but because of increased costs there was little 

 gain in the amount of work accomplished. On July 1, 1960, there 

 were three excavating parties working in the Missouri Basin in South 

 Dakota. One of them was digging sites in the Big Bend Reservoir 

 area, and the other two were working in the Oahe Reservoir area 

 farther north. The Missouri Basin parties completed their field 

 activities the latter part of August and returned to the headquarters 

 at Lincoln, Nebr. 



In September a party resumed explorations and excavations along 

 the Chattahoochee River in Alabama and subsequently extended its 

 efforts to the Georgia side of the river in the Walter F. George 

 Reservoir area. Work continued there until the end of December. 

 During October a small party spent a brief period investigating a site 

 that was being destroyed by gravel operations in the upper reaches 

 of the Big Bend Reservoir area in South Dakota and also collected 

 material from the immediate construction areas of the Big Bend Dam. 



The 1961 field season got under way in May, when a small party 

 went to the Merritt Reservoir area in Nebraska to make a final check 

 on possible archeological manifestations at that location. Two pre- 

 vious surveys there had failed to reveal cultural materials, but it was 

 thought that because of shifting sand dunes and construction activities 

 something previously missed might have been uncovered. Nothing 



