12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



reaches of the Platte. To the east, chiefly along or near the Missouri, 

 dwelt the Omaha; upstream, also on the mainstem, were the Ponca; 

 the Otoe and Missouri lived on the Platte below Elkhorn River and 

 elsewhere in southeastern Nebraska. On the west, the Lower Platte 

 Basin was hunting range for the still unidentified Padouca before 

 1800, and for the Dakota and other roving, nonhorticultural horse 

 nomads after that date. 



As in the Republican drainage, so here it is evident that before 

 arrival of the tribes named above, a succession of other native peoples 

 had lived in and traveled through the region. From the surveys here 

 summarized, and work previously done at several localities by the 

 Nebraska State Historical Society and the University of Nebraska, 

 at least three earlier occupations by pottery-making and possibly or 

 probably horticultural peoples may be recognized. These include 

 remains attributed to one or more variants of the Woodland horizon, 

 regarded as perhaps the earliest pottery-making peoples of the area; 

 the Upper Republican peoples, who dwelt in small, unfortified villages 

 of earth lodges, raised corn and beans, and otherwise left evidences 

 of a relatively stable tenure of the land ; and a still unidentified but 

 apparently later group, the nature of whose occupation remains to be 

 disclosed through archeological excavation. On the headwaters of 

 the Middle and North Loup are village sites attributable to the Dismal 

 River complex, also of fairly late date and probably of Apache or 

 Comanche origin, but not yet identified with certainty with either of 

 these. 



The principal archeological excavations to date in the area with 

 which we are here immediately concerned are few indeed, considering 

 the extent and abundance of remains. They include work by the 

 Nebraska State Historical Society on Davis Creek, in Greeley, 

 Howard, and Sherman Counties; and on Myra Creek, in Valley 

 County; by the University of Nebraska in Sherman County; and at 

 various times by both organizations along the Loup River, in Howard, 

 Nance, Platte, Colfax, and other counties along the major river valleys. 

 Reports have been issued on the findings in Valley and Sherman 

 Counties, and on some of the work along the Loup, but a great deal 

 of the material remains unpublished. 



Amherst Reservoir. — This is proposed for the Wood River, a small 

 branch of the Platte, in west-central Buffalo County ; the dam is to be 

 at the south edge of the town of Amherst. The terrain is well suited to 

 aboriginal occupancy, and the area is evidently one of considerable 

 archeological interest. Five sites were located and recorded; all are 

 within the proposed pool area. Three are represented by pottery 



