24 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



yielded thick, coarsely tempered, cord-roughened sherds, together 

 with fragments of large notched and stemmed projectile points. In 

 this and the preceding site, the more deeply buried materials suggest 

 a Woodland horizon, not unlike materials found under somewhat 

 similar stratigraphic conditions in the central plains of Nebraska and 

 Kansas. 



It is not to be expected, of course, that a relatively rapid surface 

 reconnaissance along several hundred miles of stream bank will permit 

 definite conclusions as to relationships and significance of the materials 

 inventoried and recorded. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Garrison 

 Reservoir area has been inhabited by prehistoric peoples over a con- 

 siderable period of time. The buried sites suggest small groups, some 

 without pottery, others with pottery and perhaps some knowledge 

 of horticulture. It is worth noting in this connection that at the time 

 of first white contact, according to Will, the northern limit of abo- 

 riginal corn growing in the Missouri Valley was probably the Knife 

 River. Kivett observes that village sites appear to have become more 

 permanent and larger in later times, suggesting better adaptation to 

 the rather harsh environment. To what extent the adoption or im- 

 provement of corn agriculture may have figured in this improved 

 living is still uncertain. The soil which covers many of the sites 

 suggests extensive wind action, perhaps correlated with decreased 

 rainfall or prolonged drought conditions. 



As to succession of occupations, it seems probable that the later 

 sites with earth-lodge circles were left by the Mandan, Hidatsa, or 

 Arikara, but of what period is not always certain. Some are probably 

 late and decadent ; others may possibly represent westward extensions 

 of the vigorous village community economy flourishing farther 

 downstream during the eighteenth century and perhaps earlier. A 

 few pottery sites, to judge from the sherds, are of Woodland origin ; 

 their occurrence in buried zones and stratigraphically below sherd 

 areas of apparent Mandan-Hidatsa affiliation is an interesting parallel 

 to successions already known farther south. Some of these Woodland 

 materials occur on buttes (pi. 3, fig. 2) and other elevated locations. 

 Still other sites, without pottery and under several feet of over- 

 burden, suggest one or more prepottery occupations. No evidence 

 of geologically ancient remains, that is, of Early Man, has yet been 

 recognized in the Garrison area. 



Baldhill Reservoir. — This project is under construction in east-cen- 

 tral North Dakota, just outside the Missouri River watershed. An 

 earth-fill dam 57 feet high by some 2,000 feet long will be erected on 

 Sheyenne River about 1 1 miles above Valley City. The reservoir pool, 



