144 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



cident we learned of a prehistoric village near here that had never 

 been dug in. Visiting the latter site under the guidance of Harold 

 Gates, we found it to be extensive and promising. We therefore 

 moved our camp to the place the next day. 



It had been planned to excavate in the historic Omaha village of 

 Palnl tho^^datlw'^ " in order to determine the characteristics of the 

 sedentary Siouan occupation in historic times before excavating any 

 more prehistoric sites. Although it is possible to identify the pre- 

 vious location of the forks before a new channel was excavated for 

 Papillion Creek, the former village remains have disappeared entirely, 

 owing to both the artificial changes in the channel of the creek and 

 the intensive cultivation. A thorough search of the vicinity here yielded 

 only one nondescript potsherd and a few flint chips, and numerous test 

 pits were all negative. It was therefore impossible to carry out our 

 original plan. 



The prehistoric village, encountered by accident, was on the farm 

 of J. M. Gates and proved to be unique in that neither pot hunters nor 

 archeologists had dug it over looking for cache pits. The majority of 

 the very numerous earth-lodge sites near Omaha have been gutted 

 in this fashion, but the Gates site had fortunately been overlooked. 

 Even Dr. R. F. Gilder, who has been extremely active in this vicinity 

 for over 25 years, was unaware of a village at this place. The site is 

 also unusual because of its location some distance away from any 

 large river or stream, being about 6 miles west of the Missouri River, 

 5 miles north of the Platte River, and about i^ miles south of the 

 main channel of Papillion Creek (see map, fig. i, site 21). Permission 

 to excavate was readily granted by the owner, and throughout all our 

 work the entire Gates family were helpful in ways too numerous to 

 mention. It is a pleasure to acknowledge our great indebtedness to 

 them at this time. Our work at this site included the period June 20 

 to July 4, 1930, four week-ends in September and October of the 

 same year, and two days, March 29 and April 11, in 1931. 



Located on a beautifully wooded ridge just west of a secondary 

 branch of Papillion Creek, the nine house pits extend in an irregular 

 line a little over 300 yards long from north to south (fig. 15). Large 

 maples and oaks grow on the ridges, and large cottonwoods lean over 



"Fletcher and La Flesche, 1911, p. 100. This village, occupied by the Omaha 

 from 1847 to 1854, when they went on their present reservation, was visited and 

 sketched by the artist Kurz in 1851 ; see Bushnell, 1908, where some of the 

 sketches are reproduced. Gilder, 1907, p. 75, mentions mounds and pits here, 

 but in 1930, when I visited the site with him we were unable to find any trace 

 of either. Also see Blackman, 1905, p. 390. 



