348 A Pre-Historic Indian Village — Pettigrew. 



A PRE-HISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGE. F. W . PcttigreZV. 



There are about Sioux Falls, South Dakota, numerous indi- 

 cations of former Indian villages, belonging to that class of abo- 

 rigines familiarly known as the "mound builders." These vil- 

 lages were located along the Sioux river covering a distance of 

 fifteen miles north of Sioux Falls, and twelve miles southeast, 

 occupying for the most part, some high point of prairie overlook- 

 ing the surrounding country for many miles around. The con- 

 fluence of small creeks, or on the opposite side of the river in a 

 semi-inaccessible location such as a people would naturally select 

 for a fortress, seemed to be the favorite location. 



For the most part, these village sites which are marked by 

 irregular groups of mounds of earth varying in hight from one to 

 ten feet are of interest only to the archaeologist, there being alto- 

 gether of these mounds about three hundred and seventy-five. 

 Many of them have been defaced by the plow, and others by the 

 spade and shovel in the hands of unskillful r-elic hunters, who at 

 different times since the country has been settled by whites, have 

 dug them over, thus making the work of scientific investigation 

 difficult. It was not until the season of 1889 that the writer made 

 a careful examination of the different localities, and for the first 

 time brought to public notice the location of these villages, the 

 most prominent and interesting of which is located ten miles 

 southeast of Sioux Falls, on the east side of the Sioux river, on 

 Sec. 25, T. 100, R. 49 at the river crossing of the B., C. R. & N. R. 

 R., at the mouth of Spring Creek, that comes in from the east, and 

 opposite Nine Mile creek^ that comes in from the west. The river 

 valley at this place is narrow, not more than one-half mile wide, 

 the bluffs on either side are high, and in many places rise abruptly. 

 The village was located on prairie bench which bears N. E. and 

 S. W. and extends for two miles. The accompanying diagram 

 [See Fig. i, PI. vii.] shows a portion of the village containing 

 about twenty acres just north of the railroad track on the land 

 owned by Mr. Peterson; fortunately this is the original prairie 

 sod and has been undisturbed except where the mounds have been 

 dug into in search for relics. On this account, this is the most in- 

 teresting portion of the village which extends across the adjoining 

 forty acres on the northeast belonging to a Mr. Iverson, to Spring 

 Creek, thence across, covering about fifty acres belonging to a Mr. 



