RIVER BASIN SALVAGE PROGRAM — ROBERTS 537 



the aboriginal trade route which followed up the Columbia and down 

 the Missouri Eiver. Eock Village presumably was the most northerly 

 of the fortified earth-lodge communities belonging to the period inmie- 

 diately preceding the replacement of aboriginal material culture by 

 trade goods obtained from the white man and is of particular impor- 

 tance for that reason. The cause for its abandonment is not yet clear, 

 but it presumably pertains to the disturbed conditions resulting from 

 the intrusion of other tribes into the area at about that period. 



Approximately 12 miles above Rock Village on the opposite side of 

 the stream, portions of Like-a-Fishhook Village, which had been built 

 in the 1840's by the Hidatsa and Mandan and to which some of the 

 Arikara moved in 1862, were excavated during three summer field 

 seasons by a party from the State Historical Society of North Dakota 

 in cooperation with the National Park Service. While there is con- 

 siderable documentary infomiation pertaining to that village, it was 

 thought that the possibilities for coordinating archeological, etlmolog- 

 ical, and historical data were such as to justify the excavations. In 

 addition, two trading posts, Fort Berthold and Fort Atkinson (Fort 

 Berthold II), had been located there and it seemed likely that useful 

 information on the process of acculturation would be obtained from a 

 careful study of the village remains. From the excavations it is evi- 

 dent that at about 1845 the village was still largely Indian in orienta- 

 tion and in material culture. Bows and arrows and the buffalo lance 

 were still in use. Twenty years later most of the dwellings were still 

 earth lodges but the objects of daily use were largely of white manu- 

 facture. Rifles, pistols, and shotguns were the principal weapons. 

 By 1872 log cabins were replacing the earth-lodge type of dwelling to 

 such an extent that there were 97 cabins and only 78 earth lodges. In 

 succeeding years the shift continued until eventually only log cabins 

 were erected. During the coui*se of the excavations there, the field 

 party uncovered the floors of 18 earth lodges and two log cabins, traced 

 the line of the palisade which had been erected around the village, and 

 uncovered the remains of both trading posts. Fort Berthold II was 

 dug by a River Basin Surveys party, while Fort Berthold I was a 

 cooperative project between the Surveys and the State Historical So- 

 ciety of North Dakota. With the coming of more peaceful times and 

 the allotting of lands on the reservation, the Indians began to scatter, 

 and by 1890 Like-a-Fishhook Village was virtually abandoned. 



In other parts of the country, village remains yielded useful data, 

 but in most cases the structures were found not to be as well developed 

 or substantial as those along the Missouri. In the Columbia Basin, 

 village sites were excavated in the McNary, O'Sullivan, and Chief 

 Joseph Reservoir areas. In general the evidence showed that many of 

 the structures were circular to oval in form with diameters ranging 



