REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 67 



During the fall and winter months at Lincoln the staff members 

 prepared and completed preliminary appraisal reports covering 25 of 

 the projects visited during the 1946 field season. By June 30 most 

 of these reports had been distributed to the National Park Service, the 

 Bureau of Reclamation, and the Corps of Engineers, or were ready to 

 be mailed. A general paper entitled "Prehistory and the Missouri 

 Valley Development Program: Summary Report on the Missouri 

 River Basin Archeological Survey in 1946," written by Dr. Wedel, was 

 published in April in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 

 volume 107, No. 6. Throughout this period the field laboratory 

 cleaned and cataloged more than 10,000 archeological specimens 

 gathered from 208 different sites, and in addition processed 426 photo- 

 graphic negatives and prepared approximately 2,200 prints for use in 

 the reports. Maps were drawn showing the location of sites in each 

 reservoir area, and the reports were mimeographed, assembled, and 

 made ready for distribution. 



Field work was resumed in the latter part of April when three 

 archeological parties consisting of four men each and one paleontologi- 

 cal party consisting of one man, started for various reservoir projects. 

 The paleontologist subsequently was joined by a student assistant. In 

 addition to further investigations in reservoir areas visited during 

 the 1946 field season, other projects were added to the list, and by 

 the end of the fiscal year a total of 44 Bureau of Reclamation and 

 6 Corps of Engineers projects had been surveyed. They are located 

 in the States of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, 

 Wyoming, and Montana. All parties were in the field on June 30 

 and expected to continue throughout the summer. During this 

 period Dr. Wedel directed operations in the Lincoln office and made 

 several visits to the field parties at the locations where they were 

 working. He also attended conferences between the regional officers 

 of the National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of 

 Engineers representatives. 



The survey findings to date indicate that the Wyoming-Montana 

 area contains few pottery-bearing sites. There, as in the western 

 Dakotas, stone circles or "tipi-rings" are to be found in great num- 

 bers. Numerous outcrops of artifacts in strata exposed by stream 

 cuttings are j)lentiful and occur at varying depths below the surface. 

 Some of them give promise of containing material belonging to 

 early occupations, possibly even those of the Paleo-Indian, and they 

 may supply much needed data on that phase of Plains prehistory. 

 Throughout northern Kansas and northwestern Nebraska pithouse 

 villages attributed to semisedentary peoples predominate. Pottery- 

 bearing sites as well as "tipi-rings" occur on the tributaries of the 

 Missouri in North and South Dakota. Groups of mounds, village 

 remains, and former camp sites suggesting a more sedentary type of 



