90 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



sible, to distinguish the traders' remains from those of the 18th-century 

 Arikara. 



During the first half of the field season the Folan group shared camp 

 facilities with the Hoffman crew. The party completed work in 

 August 30, after 79 days in the field. 



At the beginning of the year a fourth party of five men, directed 

 by G. Hubert Smith, was investigating historic sites within the Big 

 Bend Reservoir. Excavations were made at the Red Cloud Agency 

 (39LM247), on the right bank of the Missouri near Medicine Creek. 

 The Agency, established for the Oglala Sioux, under Red Cloud, was 

 used only briefly (1877-78) before the group was settled permanently 

 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Although little survived at the Red 

 Cloud site (apparently the buildings had been systematically re- 

 moved) , some structural details were recovered together with a small 

 group of representative specimens. 



A thorough search was made of Dorion or Cedar Island, near the 

 mouth of Cedar Creek, for the site of a trading post established in 

 1802 or 1803 by Regis Loisel. Despite excellent descriptions left by 

 members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the post could not be 

 located; however, another site (39HU301) foimd on the island was 

 partially excavated. Cultural remains were not abimdant but the 

 appearance of the site and the presence of a number of machine-made 

 objects suggest that the site was occupied during the 1860's by White 

 "squatters" who supplied wood for steamboat fuel. 



An intensive reconnaissance was made near the mouth of Medicine 

 Creek, continuing a search begun some years ago for the Fort Defiance 

 (or Bonis) trading post Imown to have been in existence in the 1840's. 

 Although there were several hopeful leads, the search was fruitless. 

 The Smith party shared camp facilities with Hoffman's crew. They 

 returned to Lincoln on August 30 after 79 days in the field. 



Three field parties were at work in the Oahe Reservoir at the begin- 

 ning of the fiscal year. Tlie first, a crew of 10 men, directed by Robert 

 W. Neuman, was excavating at two prehistoric sities in Dewey County 

 on the right bank of the Missouri near Mobridge, S. Dak. The Grover 

 Hand Mounds (39DW240) include five tumuli, one of which was ex- 

 cavated by Neuman in 1963. Two additional examples were dug 

 during the current year. The first was 90 feet in diameter and slightly 

 more than 4 feet high. It covered a central subfloor burial pit con- 

 taining about 23 secondary human burials of both sexes and various 

 ages, some of which were sprinkled with hematite. The burials were 

 in association with a number of implements and ornaments of bone and 

 stone. Support logs overlay the burial pit, and above was another 

 secondary burial partly covered by an inverted basket and associated 

 with stone and shell artifacts. On the mound floor, adjacent to the 



