NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 1/9 



by the recent cutting of Sterns Creek is haphazard and the present 

 gully only cuts across the former stream bed at a limited number of 

 places, it is evident that the early village or villages represented in the 

 lower levels were rather extensive. Covered as this horizon is at 

 present by many feet of alluvial fill, it has so far only been sampled 

 by digging in from the gully walls. The prohibitive expense in- 

 volved in removing the lO to 15 feet of covering soil over the hearths 

 has so far justified the easier but dangerous and unsatisfactory method 

 of burrowing in from the sides. However, as will be mentioned later, 

 there is a possibility that there are less deeply covered horizons of 

 the same culture in the northwestern portion of the site (fig. 24, A). 

 This possibility was discovered too late to be made use of in the 

 present work, but if verified, may permit more systematic excavations 

 in the future. 



A discussion of the probable sequence of events afifecting human 

 occupation at the Walker Gilmore site may assist in understanding the 

 foregoing description. From the available evidence it appears that the 

 Missouri River at a former time flowed directly past the southeastern 

 end of the small valley (see " former bank of the Missouri River," fig. 

 24). At this time another larger stream with a deeper bed and more 

 sloping banks drained the valley and entered the river a quarter of a 

 mile northwest of the present mouth of the Sterns Creek canal. The al- 

 luvial terrace and the relatively high ground level of the flat to the 

 northeast (fig. 24) were then nonexistent. At this period the people 

 of the lower levels built their houses along the banks of the old stream. 

 Then the Missouri began to withdraw to the east, changing the gra- 

 dient of the former stream, which accounts for the accumulations of 

 creek muck over the earliest habitation levels. Apparently such floods 

 were periodic at first, and the people came back to the same sites 

 to settle when the waters had receded. In this way the one, two, or 

 three levels of occupation separated by blue clay or black sandy soil 

 are best accounted for (figs. 25, 26). Such flood deposits as occur 

 between these lower levels are often so thin that the high waters of 

 one or two wet seasons might account for them. 



Finally, the stream bed became so clogged up that the flow was 

 intermittent and the small valley began to fill through erosion from 

 the surrounding hills. Living conditions were evidently unfavorable 

 and the older population went elsewhere. Thus by the silting up of 

 the old creek channel and the accompanying wash from the hills the 

 present flat was built up and the lower alluvial terrace to the east ex- 

 tended out as the Missouri River shifted its bed in that direction. 

 Unless the scattered charcoal in the redeposited loess from the sur- 



