32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 



bison kills, a group of rock cairns, a workshop area, an Indian trail, 

 and a recent Indian hunting lodge. Several of the camp sites are of 

 considerable size, and some appear to have deposits of appreciable 

 depth. Cultural materials, although absent or scanty on the surfaces 

 of some sites, are rather abundant on others. One interesting site, 

 48BH7 (pi. 5, b), consisting of 23 stone circles, yielded numerous 

 sherds of pottery characterized by coarse, abundant grit tempering; 

 surfaces which probably were treated with a grooved or thong- 

 wrapped paddle; and, at least sometimes, a constricted neck and a 

 flat lip thickened to the interior. In addition, a number of artifacts 

 of stone were collected from the surface. 



Despite the relative inaccessibility of the canyon, much of the 

 favorable terrain within its confines was found to bear evidence of 

 aboriginal occupation, usually camp sites with or without "tipi rings." 

 Aside from the circles of stones, the occupational evidence observable 

 on the surface consisted primarily of hearths, stone artifacts, and 

 chipping debris. 



The evidence accumulated by the surveys in the Yellowtail area 

 demonstrates that the banks of the Bighorn River, lying within the 

 historic habitat of the Crow Indians, have been inhabited during a 

 relatively long period of time, most of which undoubtedly antedates 

 the arrival of that group in the area. 



NEBRASKA 



Field work in Nebraska by the River Basin Surveys was restricted 

 during this period to the Niobrara River Basin, where 10 potential 

 reservoir sites were reconnoitered by Richard P. Wheeler and J. M. 

 Shippee in October, 1950, and to the Lower Platte River Basin, where 

 Robert B. Cumming, Jr., and Shippee carried out limited investiga- 

 tions in November of the same year. 



Lower Platte River Basin 



A number of potential reservoirs in the Lower Platte Basin had 

 been previously surveyed by the River Basin Surveys and by a party 

 from the Laboratory of Anthropology of the University of Nebraska. 

 A brief reconnaissance was undertaken in November 1950 by Robert 

 B. Cumming, Jr., and J. M. Shippee to supplement the earlier surveys 

 and to investigate burials reported by the Bureau of Reclamation to 

 have been encountered by its survey crews. Both reported burials 

 were excavated and the sites of several possible water-development 

 structures were examined. One of the burials, 25HW201, was near 

 the Cushing Dam site, in Howard County. Although badly disturbed 



