NO. 2 MISSOURI VALLEY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM — WEDEL 5 1 



at an earlier date than is commonly supposed. Still earlier, presum- 

 ably, are several small, scattered mound groups; one of these near 

 Wheeler Bridge included mounds with log-covered burial pits con- 

 taining disarticulated burials, perforated long bones, and other ele- 

 ments heretofore unreported from the Great Plains or the upper 

 Missouri. From the limited excavations so far made in this section, 

 it is evident that the late prehistoric and protohistoric archeology will 

 be rather complicated, as may be anticipated from what we know of 

 tribal movements into and through the locality from several direc- 

 tions. The presence of stratified sites leads to the conviction that an 

 orderly arrangement of cultural events will be feasible when enough 

 systematic work will have been done. 



Still farther south, in the Lower Platte Basin and adjacent westerly 

 subdrainages of the Missouri, promising data have been accumulating 

 on several inadequately known archeological complexes of the Central 

 Plains. Of particular interest is a series of sites represented at Harlan 

 County, Ericson, and Mullen Reservoir areas. The pottery and some 

 other remains show similarities to sites at Glen Elder and on White 

 Rock Creek, in northeastern Kansas, and also to certain sites in 

 northeastern Nebraska. The complex has not yet received careful 

 study, but it seems to ofifer some promise of throwing light on such 

 late prehistoric or protohistoric tribal movements as one would suspect 

 for the Ponca, Kansa, and perhaps other Siouan tribes, or possibly 

 for certain northern Caddoan peoples. Probably belonging to the 

 same general time period, but of different tribal affiliation, are the 

 several Dismal River culture sites that have come to light, one in 

 Harlan County and several in Mullen Reservoir area. This complex 

 is a little better known than the preceding one, and seems to be 

 attributable to a late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century Apache 

 or possibly Comanche occupation. Clarification of the temporal and 

 cultural position of both these complexes awaits further field work 

 and careful laboratory analysis. 



For such earlier Central Plains cultures as Upper Republican and 

 Woodland, the 1947 field work of the River Basin Surveys has also 

 gathered significant distributional and other data. It is becoming 

 increasingly evident that there are variations in both which probably 

 have developmental significance, but only further excavation of sites 

 on a comprehensive scale can enable us accurately to define and 

 interpret these variations. It is worth noting that the 1946 excavation 

 by the River Basin Surveys of an ossuary on Prairie Dog Creek, near 

 the upper end of Harlan County Reservoir, promises to compel re- 

 vision of current concepts regarding burial practices of Woodland 



