4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



of the University of Illinois, who respectively identified certain botani- 

 cal and molluscan remains recovered in our excavations. Without their 

 aid many significant determinations would have been impossible. To 

 Dr. Paul B. Sears, of the University of Oklahoma, both Maurice E. 

 Kirby and the writer are very grateful for analyses and suggestions 

 concerning the soil conditions on Signal Butte. 



In the location of sites, in preliminary survey work, in regional 

 comparisons of artifact types, and often in actual excavation, the 

 efforts of the Nebraska Archeological Survey were supplemented by 

 the assistance of several Nebraska archeologists and a number of 

 other interested persons. Without this cooperation much of the data 

 here presented would never have been assembled. Two archeologists 

 of long standing, Dr. Robert F. Gilder and E. E. Blackman, were 

 especially kind in furnishing a newcomer orientation in a field with 

 which they were so familiar and in furnishing valuable information. 

 To A. T. Hill, Director of the State Historical Society Museum, and 

 to Dr. G. H. Gilmore, of Murray, the writer is particularly indebted. 

 The exact nature of this debt will become evident in the following 

 pages. In addition, John Champe, of Lincoln, Thomas L. Green, of 

 Scottsbluff, Gene P. Spence, of Franklin, Karl L. Spence, of Craw- 

 ford, A. L. Bishop, of Omaha, L. E. Simmerman, of Fremont, J. B. 

 O'Sullivan, of O'Neill, and Ralph Douglas, of Bloomington, all as- 

 sisted the Survey in a number of ways. The information thus gained 

 and the pleasure afforded by such associations are appreciated beyond 

 any brief acknowledgment that the present writer might make. 



It must be obvious that the present paper is actually a cooperative 

 piece of work wherein the writer has been directly and materially aided 

 by a large number of persons. Of this latter group only a small 

 proportion have been professional archeologists, the majority being 

 persons in other walks of life who have been drawn to archeology 

 as an avocation. Owing to the increasing interest in prehistoric re- 

 search in this country, the number of amateur archeologists is grow- 

 ing rapidly. Encouraging as this rising interest in archeology un- 

 doubtedly is, it must frankly be admitted that inasmuch as it is often 

 unaccompanied by technical knowledge, it is both a potential and an 

 actual danger. This is demonstrated by the rapidly increasing de- 

 struction of important archeological sites, either by enthusiastic but 

 untrained amateurs or by persons who are frankly mere collectors 

 or relic hunters. There is a world of difference between these two 

 types. The former is interested primarily in the human story sug- 

 gested by the arrowpoints or potsherds he finds and carefully pre- 

 serves ; the latter regards such specimens as mere curios or relics, to be 



