544 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



two forts. As a matter of fact, part of the Indian village had been 

 built over the ruins of the first fort and had completely obscured 

 them mitil they were uncovered by the diggmg in Indian house 

 remains. 



There is some question concerning the date of the original con- 

 struction of Fort Berthold I, and the only existing records do not 

 help to solve the problem. According to some accounts the original 

 fort was built in 1812, while others indicate that it may have been 

 1845. There is also some question as to whether the Indian village 

 was constructed and occupied first and the trading post was erected 

 subsequently, or if both were being built at the same time. However, 

 evidence obtained in the field would seem to suggest that the Indian 

 village probably was there first. Then a tradmg post called Fort 

 James was opened by James Kipp, presumably m the early 1840's. 

 Subsequently Kipj) either moved away or disposed of his interests to 

 the firm of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., often referred to by the name of 

 its predecessor the American Fur Company, because the latter, with 

 the assistance of the Indians, began to build a stockaded post on the 

 north side of Like-a-Fishhook Village which by 1846 had beeome 

 known as Fort Berthold. How extensive Kipp's buildings may have 

 been or where they were located is not known. They may have been 

 on the site of, and have been incorporated in, Fort Berthold I, but 

 the new traders miquestionably erected much of the post as it was 

 known in subsequent years. Kipp returned there later and for a 

 time was in charge. Fort Berthold I played an important part in 

 the native-white contacts in the area and helped to fix the patterns 

 of the relationship between the two peoples. It was during the period 

 of its activity that much of the aboriginal culture underwent the 

 change from "native" to "modern." A joint party from the River 

 Basin Surveys and the State Historical Society of North Dakota 

 conducted excavations at the site, during which the entire palisade 

 was traced and the remains of a number of buildings were located 

 and uncovered. The post appears to have been constructed almost 

 entirely of timber, probably for the most part hand-hewn square 

 members in the dwellings and storehouses and simple unhewn poles 

 in tlie stockade itself. The only timber available locally in suf- 

 ficient quantity for use in such construction was cottonwood, and 

 despite the soft and short-lived nature of that wood, it seems to have 

 been used throughout, as the excavations produced virtually no evi- 

 dence of any other varieties of wood. Various examples of the kinds 

 of hardware used in the construction were recovered along with a 

 variety of nails and some window glass. The lack of traces of lime 

 mortar suggested that the insides of the buildings were not plastered, 

 and the small amount of window glass indicates that they may not 



