22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



1,850 feet (m.s.l.), some 390,000 acres will be under water. Affected 

 directly will be portions of Mercer, McLean, Mountrail, Williams, 

 McKenzie, and Dunn Counties, and of the Fort Berthold Indian 

 Reservation — an area equivalent to nearly half that of the State of 

 Rhode Island. 



Comparatively little is on record regarding the prehistory of this 

 section of the Missouri. The reservoir will lie for the most part 

 upstream from the area generally identified in historic times with such 

 Upper Missouri village tribes as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara. 

 In sharp contrast to numerous sites along the mainstem from Knife 

 River to the White, where even the casual visitor may see house 

 depressions, cache pits, fortifications, refuse mounds, and other sur- 

 face traces, the remains above Garrison dam site are usually small, 

 more or less deeply buried, and quite inconspicuous. For the Garrison 

 Reservoir area, approximately a dozen sites were reported to the 

 River Basin Surveys field party before it began operations. Most of 

 these were thought to be winter villages, temporary camps, or late 

 sites showing few of the pre-white elements of Indian culture. 



Coverage by Kivett's party included areas in five counties, above 

 and below Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. No work was possible 

 on the Reservation, but record was made of nine sites reported to exist 

 thereon. Areas most readily accessible by automobile received the 

 closest attention. In all sections of the area seen, however, it is 

 believed that further work is needed ; and it is anticipated that more 

 intensive survey, including access to the Reservation lands, will add 

 many other sites to the present list. 



Flint chips, stone, bone slivers, and other evidence of former 

 human activity are to be found on virtually every suitable terrace 

 throughout the area. In the 2-month survey, 70 sites and localities 

 were recorded, most of them apparently unknown previously. In- 

 cluded are 59 occupational areas, i burial site, and 10 unclassified 

 locations. No burial mounds were noted, but local informants report 

 occasional burials in rock piles on some of the tipi-ring sites. 



Eleven of the occupational areas consist of grouped circles of 

 glacial boulders, 10 to 20 feet in diameter, and located usually on the 

 bluffs and uplands above the future water level. Locally these are 

 termed tipi rings, on the supposition that the stones were used to hold 

 down skin tipi covers. Such sites are particularly common on the left 

 bank of the future reservoir area between Sanish and Williston. 

 Refuse and artifacts are usually scarce about these sites ; when present, 

 they include flint chips, occasional arrowpoints. scrapers or knives, 

 grooved mauls, and perhaps glass beads and metal. Presence of metal 



