50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



noted, erected burial mounds along the stream valleys of eastern North 

 and South Dakota. 



In the Garrison Reservoir area north of Bismarck, N. Dak., the 

 work of the River Basin Surveys has thrown light on the problem 

 of what we may term the northwestern periphery of the Upper 

 Missouri culture area. Here the fortified earth-lodge-village complex, 

 so abundantly represented farther downstream, fades out ; tipi rings, 

 buried camp sites, and other vestiges of a less settled mode of life 

 become more characteristic. Noteworthy is the stratification of 

 cultures suggested at several sites : heavy cord-roughened sherds and 

 large-Stemmed projectile points underlying simple-stamped pottery 

 and small triangular or side-notched points. It would seem from this 

 that early Woodland manifestations preceded the Mandan-Hidatsa 

 village complex in the northern Great Plains, as they do the earth- 

 lodge-village dwellers in the Central Plains. At the moment, it does 

 not appear that these Woodland-like remains occur to any great extent 

 west of the Missouri River in the Dakotas, though further field work 

 may change this impression. Sherds bearing well-made dentate stamp 

 impressions and reminiscent of certain Illinois Valley specimens have 

 been found at least as far west as Medicine Lake in northeastern 

 Montana north of the Missouri. Check-stamped, simple-stamped and 

 other sherds have been noted in the Williston district of western North 

 Dakota. In general, what are perhaps the earlier ceramic sites in the 

 region appear to show affiliations with the Woodland horizon of Min- 

 nesota whereas the later material is suggestive rather of village in- 

 fluences from the Mandan-Hidatsa area. 



At Baldhill Reservoir, where the University of North Dakota plans 

 investigations in the summer of 1948, important mound and village 

 sites are present. Their strategic location with reference to east-to- 

 west movements in late prehistoric and protohistoric times, and the 

 rather strong evidences of an interplay of Woodland cultures from 

 the Minnesota area with more distinctively Plains complexes, lends 

 urgency to the problem of salvage and systematic study. 



Farther down the mainstem in South Dakota, at Fort Randall 

 Reservoir, further important information on the problem of Central 

 and Northern Plains interrelationships was gathered in 1947. At 

 several earth-lodge village sites there are strong evidences of an Upper 

 Republican-like complex, with ceramic traits strikingly like those 

 from the Republican Valley in southern Nebraska. Other sites ex- 

 hibit pottery wares, house types, and other elements strongly remi- 

 niscent of the protohistoric Lower Loup complex in east-central 

 Nebraska, suggesting that the Arikara may have moved northward 



