80 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



Skinner of the Frick Laboratories who is thoroughly familiar with 

 the area. From October 8 to 14 Dr. Wliite examined Pliocene de- 

 posits in tlie Bonny Reservoir in northeastern Colorado. From No- 

 vember until June he was engaged in work elsewhere. Returning to 

 the Missouri Basin on June 17, he proceeded to the Canyon Ferry 

 Reservoir in Montana to continue his search for fossils. Nearly 100 

 specimens were collected, including forms previously unknown from 

 the area. Those from the Oligocene deposits consisted of marsupials, 

 insectivores, rodents, and small artiodactyls. The larger animals, 

 such as the rhinoceroses, are represented only by fragments. The 

 material obtained from the Miocene deposits consists of large oreo- 

 donts, beavers, rabbits, and small rodents. While at the Lincoln 

 office Dr. White prepared a paper, "Observations on the Butchering 

 Technique of Some Aboriginal Peoples," which was presented before 

 the Eighth Annual Conference for Plains Archeology held at Lincoln 

 late in November. 



Oklahoma. — During the fiscal year both surveys and excavations 

 were carried on in Oklahoma. From July 1 to August 10 Leonard 

 G. Johnson and James G. Smith, field assistants, made a reconnais- 

 sance of the Gaines Creek Reservoir on Gaines Creek, a tributary of 

 the South Canadian, in eastern Oklahoma. They located 52 archeo- 

 logical sites, most of which indicate temporary occupation despite the 

 fact that at two locations there were mounds, and at other places vil- 

 lages seemed to have existed. Most of the sites in the Gaines Creek 

 area were found on high ground above the high-water mark, but a 

 number of those that will be flooded appear to be of some significance, 

 and excavations have been recommended for six of them. In addi- 

 tion to the aboriginal remains, the former location of one historic 

 settlement. North Fork Town, was established. The Gaines Creek 

 Reservoir constitutes part of an alternate plan that has been prepared 

 for that area. One plan calls for a single large reservoir to be known 

 as the Eufaula. The other calls for three smaller projects which in 

 the main will inundate approximately as large an area as the one 

 reservoir. In view of that situation the surveys have been carried on 

 f j'om the standpoint of the three smaller reservoirs but extending the 

 investigations sufficiently beyond their limits to take in the one large 

 project. The other two smaller reservoirs, the Canadian and the 

 Onapa, were surveyed during previous years. At that time the Ca- 

 nadian was found to involve 41 archeological sites and the Onapa 25. 

 With the results of the Gaines Creek survey, it now is evident that a 

 total of 118 sites will be included in the Eufaula basin if the one large 

 project is carried through. If only one or two of the smaller reser- 

 voirs are completed, the archeological salvage needs will, of course, 

 be less. 



