SECRETARY'S REPORT 85 



human burials, and a very few artifacts on the mound floor, but no 

 burial pit. The circular house provided a minimal floor pattern with- 

 out center posts and a small quantity of artifacts. This party also 

 excavated Mound 3 of a series of five burial mounds at the Grover 

 Hand site ( 39D W240 ) . That mound resembled Mound 1 at the Swift 

 Bird site, including the burial pit. Eemains of 17 bison were re- 

 covered from the mound fill and floor. A new site, the Stelzer 

 (39DW242), was tested. It is situated about a mile downstream from 

 39DW240. Occupational levels and artifacts indicate that this may 

 be a substantial camp site of Plains Woodland times. Neuman's two 

 crews shared a single camp and completed their fieldwork on Sep- 

 tember 2 after 12 weeks in the field. 



A third field crew in the Oahe Reservoir was directed by Dr. Wil- 

 fiam M. Bass, assisted by Jon Muller and a crew of six. Based in 

 Pierre, this party utilized a caterpillar tractor and scraper to exca- 

 vate large sections of the burial areas at the Sully site (39SL4), 

 which is located approximately 20 miles northwest of Pierre, on the 

 left bank of the Missouri River. It comprises the largest prehistoric 

 village remams in the Missouri Basin and was excavated in previous 

 years by Smithsonian Institution field crews. The large burial areas 

 vv^ere not exhausted and, in order to get a sufficiently large sample of 

 the physical remains of the people who had lived there some 250--400 

 years ago, the current season's work was directed toward exhausting 

 the burial areas. The heavy equipment was used to remove the over- 

 burden above the graves. Each grave was then excavated by hand. 

 During the first three seasons of work, 264 burials were excavated. 

 This season an additional 293 were recovered, m.aking a total of 557 

 burials from this one village. Brief investigations at other sites pro- 

 vided additional burials. At the Swan Creek site (39P01), exca- 

 vated during a previous season by a cooperating institution, a single 

 burial was obtained. At the Bleached Bone site (39HU48), 20 

 burials were recovered and 8 were taken from the Second Hand site 

 (39PO207). In addition, a good quantity of burial artifacts was 

 recovered, correlating the burials directly with the village areas and 

 providing cultural meaning for the skeletal remains. This party 

 completed its fieldwork on August 30 after a season of 12 weeks. 



The fourth Oahe Reservoir party was directed by Dr. Alfred W. 

 Bowers, assisted by William B. Colvin and a crew of 10. Based at 

 Mobridge, S. Dak., this crew excavated 14 circular earth lodges in the 

 Red Horse site (39C034) just west of the bridge from Mobridge and 

 at the mouth of the Grand River. This was a moderately large, 

 fortified earth-lodge village of the late period and probably dates 

 in the 18th century. A large artifact yield as well as good architec- 

 tural details resulted from the excavations. Bowers's crew also exca- 



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