SECRETARY'S REPORT 63 



homogenous throughout the site, uidicating a single La Eoche-Iona- 

 Kussell Ware tradition and but one occupation. This would place 

 the village in the late sedentary-farmer period of the 15th to I7th 

 centuries. The second site of the group, 39LM224, is located but a 

 mile downstream from 39LM222, and represented another La Roche 

 village of diffuse pattern, but with only four houses apparent from the 

 surface. One of them, a bunied circular structure with widely spaced 

 wall posts and long entry passage was partially excavated. 



On July 19, Dr. Caldwell moved to the Oahe Reservoir area in old 

 Armstrong County (now a part of Dewey Comity), above the mouth 

 of the Cheyenne River on the west bank of the Missouri, and hired a 

 new crew of laborers. The Oahe Reservoir, already beginning to 

 flood, had begun to cover some of the sites in that vicinity. One of 

 those still above water was site 39AR201, the remains of a large com- 

 pact village of 18 long-rectangular houses placed in rows but without 

 apparent fortifications. The renmants of one of the structures were 

 excavated and other tests were made in the site. This extremely long, 

 narrow house had been nearly twice as long as it was wide and its 

 ruins were covered by 4.5 feet of overburden. There had been a low 

 bench along the rear wall into which a shallow trench had been dug to 

 receive the rear wall posts. Dentalium, native copper, and abundant 

 human bone scraps lay on the floor and an ochre-covered hmnan 

 bundle burial associated with a bison skull was found in the southeast 

 corner. Pottery was consistently Thomas Riggs Ware. Tliis site 

 represented a village of the Thomas Riggs Focus of middle-period 

 sedentary farmers in the Missouri Valley and may date from the 15th 

 century. Less than 500 yards downstream the remains of another 

 large Thomas Riggs village, site 39AR210, were tested and found to 

 resemble 39AR201 in all respects except that there had been a rectan- 

 gular, bastioned fortification system. This site had been flooded by the 

 Oahe Reservoir and reexposed by a drop in the water level. Recovery 

 of archeological details was minimal, owing to their having been 

 obscured by the flood waters, but a good artifact sample was collected. 

 The Caldwell party completed the season's work after 9 weeks in the 

 field. 



The third River Basin Surveys party in the field at the beginning 

 of the year, consisting of a crew of six under the direction of Robert 

 W. Neuman, was excavating at the Boimdary Mound site (32SI1) on 

 the North Dakota-South Dakota boundary line in the Oahe Reservoir 

 area, Sioux County, N. Dak. The site consisted of four dome-shaped 

 burial mounds, ranging from 3 to 5 feet in height and 60 to 80 feet in 

 diameter. Three of the mounds were excavated. Each contained a 

 rectangular central burial pit covered with timbers and lined with 

 matting. Bison remains (skulls, partial skeletons, and complete 

 skeletons in articulation) were found around the timbers. The burial 



