PREHISTORY AND THE MISSOURI VALLEY 

 DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 



SUMMARY REPORT ON THE MISSOURI RIVER BASIN 

 ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN 1947 



By WALDO R. WEDEL 



Associate Curator, Division of Archeology, 

 U. S. National Museum 



(With Eight Plates) 



INTRODUCTION 



This report summarizes the field and laboratory activities in arche- 

 ology and paleontology by the Missouri River Basin Survey during 

 the calendar year 1947. It is not a complete or final statement of 

 accomplishments during the year, nor does it undertake to set forth 

 the opinions of the various staff members w^ho have been directly 

 responsible for the field and laboratory researches, and whose findings 

 constitute much of the basic information on which this summary is 

 based. Essentially, it is a report of progress as of December 31, 1947, 

 at the end of the first 18 months in a scientific salvage program 

 linked to "the most comprehensive and far-reaching river basin de- 

 velopment plan ever undertaken in America" — the harnessing of the 

 Missouri River and its tributaries. 



The general background, organization, and basic objectives of the 

 Missouri River Basin Survey have been adequately set forth else- 

 where and need not be detailed again here.^ The project represents 

 but one regional phase of the River Basin Surveys, a nation-wide 

 archeological and paleontological scientific salvage program under 

 the direction of Dr. F. H. H. Roberts, Jr., for the Smithsonian 

 Institution. This program is based directly on a memorandum of 

 understanding formulated in 1945 between the Institution and the 

 National Park Service, and indirectly on a series of interbureau 

 agreements between the Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, 

 and the Corps of Engineers. Its purpose, briefly, is to locate, record, 



1 See Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 107, No. 6, Apr. 23, 1947; and Amer. Antiq., 

 vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 209-225, April 1947. 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. Ill, NO. 2 



