46 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



Otherwise consist of a number of bowl-like depressions varying in 

 depth up to 3 feet or more and in diameter up to approximately 50 

 or 60 feet. There is no evidence of a protective ditch or embankment. 



Preliminary excavations in several of the depressions disclosed 

 ash-filled fireplaces and rather poorly defined floor levels, indicating 

 the former presence of semisubterranean house structures. Test 

 pits in various other parts of the site revealed food caches, secondarily 

 used for refuse disposal by the Indians. Most of the 5 weeks spent 

 at the location were devoted to examination of the feature represented 

 by the largest surface depression. 



Removal of the fill within the depression showed that the structure 

 which once stood here had been subrectangular in outline, measuring 

 approximately 35 by 65 feet. Circular discolorations in the floor 

 marked the positions of the four rows of posts outlining the house 

 area. A single small pole was recovered from one side, but most of 

 the posts seem to have been removed when the structure was aban- 

 doned. From the position of the post molds, it is suggested that there 

 was some sort of long central hall in the structure. The arrangement 

 of one large and two small fireplaces, the scarcity of household refuse, 

 the presence of three piles of bison bones (mostly unburned skull 

 parts and horn cores) on the floor, and the exceptional size of the 

 structure as compared to other depressions on the site, suggest that 

 it may have been used primarily for ceremonial or other special pur- 

 poses. Two large pots, broken but restorable, were recovered. Agri- 

 culture can be inferred from discovery of several bison-scapula hoes 

 and a fragment of carbonized maize cob, but bison appear to have 

 been a major dietary item. No burials were encountered, nor was 

 there any evidence of trade contacts with white men. 



Materials found during excavation include some bone tools, incised 

 bone ornaments, two circular shell beads, numerous small end scrapers, 

 a few side scrapers, projectile points, knives, choppers, scapula hoes, 

 "squash knives," bison-rib beamers, a fragment of carbonized corncob, 

 and much animal- and bird-bone refuse. 



Pottery was not abundant on the site, but from some of the refuse 

 pits and the fill of the structure excavated came a fair sample. A 

 rather complex problem is presented. In addition to types that seem 

 clearly in the tradition which culminated in the historic Mandan- 

 Hidatsa wares farther upriver, there are numerous fragments that 

 suggest borrowings from, or more direct relationships with, Upper 

 Republican, Mill Creek, Cambria, and perhaps western or "Prairie" 

 Hopewellian traditions. The site evidently falls somewhere in the 

 prehistoric period of development of Upper Missouri village Indian 



