NO. 2 MISSOURI VALLEY DEVFXOPMENT PROGRAM WEDEL I7 



making groups are manifested, and there is good evidence that much 

 older materials probably representing prepottery peoples are also 

 present. The proximity of several earth-lodge village sites to the dam- 

 construction area seems to offer an exceptional opportunity for study 

 of one or more prehistoric communities of corn-growing Indians near 

 the presumed western limit of aboriginal American agriculture in 

 the Great Plains. The stripping by power machinery of the topsoil 

 in preparation for laying of the earth dam fill may lay bare most of 

 the former village areas, thus making possible the close scrutiny and 

 precise mapping of most or all of the house units, storage pits, refuse 

 deposits, and other features associated with the former human occu- 

 pants. Such mapping of the community plan, combined with recover}' 

 of a large sample of the artifacts and other remains from all sections 

 of the village, would permit a more definitive analysis of a prehistoric 

 settlement than has yet been made in any part of the Great Plains. 

 Such studies at two or three of the sites that will be worked over by 

 power machinery, supplemented by limited tests at other sites in the 

 reservoir area, are urgently recommended as a corollary to the actual 

 dam-construction program. 



It should be remembered that some of the prehistoric sites in, above, 

 and below the future pool area, like many in other parts of the Repub- 

 lican River watershed, are buried beneath prehistoric dust blankets. 

 The correlation of native occupations, as determinable by archeological 

 methods, with the cyclical or other periods of deposition represented 

 by the intervening or overlying soils, promises to give a sound footiiig 

 for any attempts at dating prehistoric climatic fluctuations. Such 

 problems, of course, transcend the field of archeology, and call for 

 an interdisciplinary attack by geologists, soils experts, and other 

 specialists, as well as by archeologists. 



SOUTH DAKOTA 



During the calendar year 1947, archeological work l)y the River 

 Basin Surveys in South Dakota was restricted to Fort Randall Reser- 

 voir in the immediate valley of the Missouri River. The field unit 

 was led by Paul Cooper, assisted by J. J. Bauxar, with Robert L. Hall 

 and Warren Wittry as student helpers. The party left Lincoln on 

 June 3 and terminated its activities during the first week in November. 

 The first 6 weeks were devoted to a rapid survey along both banks 

 of the Missouri from Fort Randall to Fort Thompson, to determine 

 in a general way the nature and extent of archeological remains in 

 the area. Beginning on July 18, limited test excavations were made. 



