AN ARCHEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE IN THE 



MISSOURI VALLEY 



By WILLIAM DUNCAN STRONG 

 Ethnologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



When the travel-weary company of Coronado first visited the 

 natives of the great Plains of North America in 1541 they ohserved 

 large settled villages in the vicinity of the Espiritu Santo River. This 

 river was evidently the northwestern extension of the Espiritu Santo 

 proper, that is the Missouri River. Here they found an abundant and 

 settled population among whom the horse was unknown. Less than 

 300 years later when Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri River they 

 found a greatly reduced population possessed of large herds of horses 

 and to a great extent dependent on buffalo hunting. These were the 

 tribes that became famous in frontier history and their nomadic life, 

 based so largely upon the horse, has come to be looked upon as the 

 typical native culture of the Plains. It is obvious, however, that this 

 horse Indian culture must have been very different from that observed 

 by Coronado. Since the chroniclers of the colorful but unfortunate 

 Conquistador were so remiss in furnishing details of Indian life it 

 falls to the lot of the archeologist and the ethnologist to discover just 

 what degree of civilization existed in the Missouri River valley prior 

 to the coming of the white man and his horse. 



It was this problem, in conjunction with work already commenced 

 in Nebraska, that caused the writer to push his investigations farther 

 afield on a rapid survey trip from August 8 to September 29, 1931. 

 The trip covered parts of central and western Nebraska, and central 

 South Dakota and culminated among the Arikara Indians on the 

 Fort Berthold Reservation in northern North Dakota. 



In central Nebraska a week was spent at a site near the little town 

 of Sweetwater, where a University of Nebraska archeological party 

 under the writer's supervision was excavating a prehistoric Pawnee 

 village. Waldo Wedel, in direct charge of the University field party, 

 had three earth lodges uncovered, beside many cache or storage pits. 

 The three houses were especially interesting since one was round, one 

 square, and one intermediate in outline (fig. 146). All had the four- 

 post roof foundation and all were of the same period as demon- 

 strated by abundant pottery and other cultural remains. 



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