NO. 2 MISSOURI VALLEY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM — VVEDEL 49 



then unnotched concave-based forms, may be of primary importance 

 as a guide to the sequential arrangement of innumerable single-com- 

 ponent sites in this largely potteryless region. There are several widely 

 scattered sites that promise, if excavated, to yield important informa- 

 tion on Early Man and related problems. At the other end of the 

 time scale are sites, some of them beneath alluvial or aeolian deposits, 

 such as in the Tiber Reservoir area on the Marias River, Montana, 

 where glass beads and metal occur in association with well-defined 

 hearths and occupation strata. 



Brief mention has already been made of the bison kills of this 

 region. These localities, where masses of the animals were slaughtered 

 by being stampeded over cliffs or steep bluffs, or were perhaps am- 

 bushed in broken terrain, are widely scattered throughout Montana, 

 Wyoming, and the western Dakotas. They seem to be particularly 

 numerous along the stream valleys of western Montana, as in the 

 Teton, Sun River, and adjacent areas. Many have been dug into by 

 local collectors, who report the finding chiefly of great numbers of 

 notched triangular projectile points among the bones. Some of the 

 bone deposits in these kills or traps apparently cover thousands of 

 square feet in extent and exhibit some depth, suggesting repeated 

 use of the spot. Differences in form and size of projectile points are 

 observable, and one suspects some stratigraphic variations that may 

 be of chronological and developmental significance. It is highly de- 

 sirable that systematic stratigraphic excavations be made in a number 

 of these sites, to ascertain their age, length of use, and relationships 

 to the archeological horizons represented at camp and occupational 

 sites in the region. Very ancient, that is, paleo-Indian, remains have 

 apparently seldom been found in these kills ; and despite the suspected 

 recency of some, iron arrowpoints and evidence of use of firearms 

 are very rare or absent. 



Rock alignments in this region, including converging rows of small 

 boulder piles said to be sometimes associated with bison kills, also 

 remain mostly unexplained and the period of their construction 

 undetermined. 



In the eastern portion of the Missouri River Basin, from North 

 Dakota through South Dakota and Nebraska into northern Kansas, 

 the River Basin Surveys have been concerned largely, but not ex- 

 clusively, with the remains of semisedentary, pottery-making peoples. 

 The remains of their former villages decrease in abundance and 

 variety from east to west, with the largest villages and the climax 

 of their cultural development shown along the banks of the Missouri 

 and on some of its major tributaries. Some of these peoples, as already 



