SECRETARY'S REPORT 65 



are complete or little damaged and are marked as to origin or pur- 

 pose. Objects of earthenware in great quantity, including Oriental 

 earthenware, and numerous items of metal and leather were recovered. 

 Strictly military objects are in the minority but unusual items of 

 both military and civilian use will form a valuable comparative col- 

 lection and future exhibit material. Even specimens of printer's 

 type, for printing official orders, were found. 



Investigations at the site of Fort Bennett (1870-91) in Stanley 

 County, directly opposite Fort Sully, having been abandoned in June 

 owing to flooding by the Oahe Keservoir, were resimied in August 

 when the pool level had receded somewhat. The site was uncovered 

 but the ground was so thoroughly waterlogged that excavation was 

 impractical. Photographs were take for record purposes and some 

 historic specimens were collected. The experience gained there, as at 

 other flooded sites, clearly emphasizes the hopelessness, in a great 

 majority of cases, of trying to do archeological work in sites that have 

 once been flooded and reexposed when the waters receded, whether the 

 sites in question be historic or prehistoric. 



On August 10 the fifth Missouri Basin Project field party, con- 

 sisting of Smith and his crew, moved into the Big Bend Keservoir 

 area to conduct preliminary tests at site 39ST202, believed to be that 

 of Fort George, a trading post of the 1840's. Only the scantiest con- 

 temporary record of this post has been found, although it was visited 

 by Audubon and is reputed to have been of some importance as an 

 opposition post in the fur trade. Tests there located former log habi- 

 tations and occupational debris of the period. The site is located in 

 Stanley Coimty at the northeast corner of the Brule Indian Reserva- 

 tion. This field party also took charge of an emergency excavation of 

 six human burials accidentally located by construction activities at 

 the Big Bend Dam site and reported by the Corps of Engineers. The 

 interments were in wooden coffins and contained glass beads and other 

 late objects suggesting the early reservation period, though no record 

 of such graves has been found. The Smith party completed 9 weeks 

 in the field and returned to Lincoln August 19. 



During the period October 26 to November 6, one Missouri Basin 

 Project field party investigated a site being destroyed by gravel opera- 

 tions in the upper reaches of the Big Bend Reservoir area. Robert 

 W. Neuman and a crew of two examined and tested the areas of the 

 Arzberger site (39HTJ6), which were being cut away as a gravel 

 quarry. A rich midden and several cache pits were exposed and ex- 

 cavated. Artifacts were collected and data compiled, but there aj>- 

 peared to be little material that had not already been discussed in a 

 report on this site. During the same period Neuman also made a 

 flight over the lower portion of the Oahe Reservoir and took aerial 

 photos of several sites that had been flooded and reexposed by a drop 



