292 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



fair sample, not only of the artifact complex but of all other structural 

 features as well. Otherwise, partial comparisons based on selected 

 lines of evidence can hardly be expected to solve the obviously difficult 

 and involved problem presented. If the historic, protohistoric, and 

 prehistoric i^hases of these two main cultures can be disentangled, a 

 large proportion of the known village sites on the upper Missouri 

 should be accounted for. In the same way the known Cheyenne and 

 Hidatsa sites should be investigated to determine whether these repre- 

 sent distinct cultural types or are mainly imitations of the apparently 

 dominant Arikara and Mandan cultures. Finally, it may be |X3ssible 

 to determine the degree of domination exerted respectively by the 

 ancestral Arikara and Mandan peoples, the relative antiquity of each 

 of these groups in the area, the direction from which each people came, 

 and the cultural associations which each brought with them. The 

 peculiar floresence of native culture on the upper Missouri seems at 

 present best accounted for by the contact between these two groups 

 representing a relatively highly advanced Siouan people from the 

 north and east and a similarly advanced Caddoan people from the south 

 and east. 



Little is on record concerning the high plains and Rocky Mountain 

 foothill regions to the west of Nebraska. For eastern Wyoming the 

 survey trips of Harlan I. Smith in 1907 and 1908 and that of E. B. 

 Renaud in 193 1 furnish nearly all the available data.'^ Both report 

 numerous quarry sites, of which the very extensive " Spanish Dig- 

 gings " are the best known. The latter were made to obtain quartzite, 

 and Renaud also found quarries from which speckled or peppered 

 jasper was obtained. Smith noted numerous boulder lodge circles, one 

 stone " fort," and a number of promising caves with entrances closed 

 up by poles. Renaud reports over 200 aboriginal sites, and it appears 

 that there are abundant evidences of human occupation in this portion 

 of the State. Both found small amounts of pottery, Smith finding 

 pottery at only one site (near Rawhide Buttes) but hearing of its oc- 

 currence at eight other places. He also reports the presence of metates 

 and muUers in the southern part of the State and mentions steatite 

 pots of egg-shaped or truncated pyramid form. The occurrence of 

 steatite artifacts in southwestern Nebraska has already been noted. 

 From Smith's account petroglyphs occur in both the eastern and 

 western portion of Wyoming but Renaud found comparatively few 

 in the eastern portion covered by his survey. Both report colored 

 pictographs. From these reports it appears that althuugh no striking 



Harlan I. Smith, 1910; Renaud, 1932 b. 



