SECRETARY'S REPORT 69 



1868. By 1869 about 1,000 Indians were living there, and by 1870 the 

 number had increased to about 2,250. One year later the Indians 

 were moved to a new location but the agency buildings continued in 

 use through the later 1870's as a steamboat landing for supplies to be 

 conveyed overland to Indian agencies in the interior. Little is known 

 about the physical characteristics of the agency or of the Indian 

 camp, and digging there should provide interesting data to augment 

 the documentary records. By the end of June floor areas had been 

 uncovered and cedar post butts in palisade trenches were exposed. 

 Work at that site is scheduled to continue until it is completed, which 

 probably will be at about the end of the current field season. 



In the Oahe Reservoir area during the 1951 field season excavations 

 were carried on at two Indian sites. One of them is located just 

 below the dam in an area which will ultimately be destroyed by con- 

 struction activities, while the other is several miles upstream on the 

 west bank just below the point where the Cheyenne River empties into 

 the Missouri. At the first location, known as the Phillips Ranch site, 

 5 earth lodges and 47 cache pits were uncovered, 2 trenches were dug 

 across the fortification ditch which surrounded the village, and the 

 refuse-bearing overburden was stripped from approximately one- 

 eighth of the village area. During the previous year 5 lodges and 

 46 cache pits had been dug, so the total for the village was 10 houses 

 and 96 cache pits. A large collection of specimens was obtained there, 

 the most outstanding probably being a few small fragments of coiled 

 basketry. The latter is extremely rare in archeological sites in the 

 Plains area. The data obtained from the site provided the basis for 

 establishing a previously unrecognized cultural complex for the dis- 

 trict. It appears to date from the early part of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury and almost certainly represents the protohistoric Arikara 

 occupation of the area. Excavations at the Phillips Ranch site have 

 been completed. 



The other site, known as the Cheyenne River village, was only par- 

 tially dug and will be completed at a later date. The work there 

 consisted of the excavation and mapping of four house sites (a fifth 

 was nearly finished when heavy storms flooded it so badly that it had 

 to be abandoned) and the digging of cache pits. Cultural materials 

 from house sites and cache pits were recovered in large quantities 

 and preliminary studies indicate that they will provide much new 

 information about the arts and industries of their makers. 



The 1952 excavations in the Oahe Reservoir were started at new 

 sites. One of them, which had been partly destroyed by construction 

 activities, is on the east bank of the Missouri River opposite the 

 Phillips Ranch site, while the other, which represents a large village, 

 is located not far downstream from the Cheyenne River village. 



