36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 



Anthropology. The latter party also recorded two sites in the reser- 

 voir area which were not observed in 1950. The reconnaissance pro- 

 duced no evidence of structures in any of the sites, some of which are 

 extensive while others appear to be the locations of small camps. The 

 collections, although in no case large and often rather scanty, suggest 

 that, except for a suspected lithic component at one site, all the occu- 

 pations represented are referable to a single complex or to rather 

 closely related ones. The pottery in the larger collections has simple- 

 stamped surfaces; trailed or incised and punctated shoulders; rims 

 which are undecorated or have incised decorations, usually a series 

 of horizontal lines, on the exterior surface; and lips which usually 

 bear incised or impressed lines. Most of the sherds from the smaller 

 collections have characteristics which are compatible with the ceramic 

 complex represented by the larger collections. The pottery is like that 

 reported from northeastern Wyoming by Wedel (1947a) and closely 

 resembles ceramics found in excavations at the Minaric sites near the 

 mouth of Ponca Creek by the University of Nebraska Laboratory of 

 Anthropology. Similar pottery has been collected from numerous 

 sites in northern Nebraska and on the Missouri River as far north as 

 the North Dakota-South Dakota line. It has been suggested, on the 

 basis of the presumably relatively late date of the complex and its 

 presence in an area dominated by the Ponca tribe when first recorded 

 by Europeans, that this ethnic group was responsible for the culture 

 revealed, but not yet reported, by the excavations in northeastern 

 Nebraska. 



Meadville Reservoir site. — The Meadville project, if carried 

 through, would include a reservoir approximately 21 miles long in the 

 valley of the Niobrara River, with an arm extending about 8 miles 

 up the valley of Plum Creek. Both of these streams flow perennially 

 in valleys with wooded bottom lands and slopes. Less than half the 

 reservoir area was covered by the reconnaissance in October 1950, 

 but six sites of aboriginal occupation were found. Few artifacts were 

 recovered, and they were generally not diagnostic. Three of the sites 

 (25BW202, 203, and 204), all apparently nonceramic, may be of some 

 age and are considered worthy of further investigation. Additional 

 survey will probably produce further evidence of Indian activity. 



Merritt Reservoir site. — Current plans call for a dam on the Snake 

 River, in Cherry County, about 3 miles below the mouth of Board- 

 mans Creek and a similar distance above the Snake River Falls. The 

 impounded water will extend about 12 miles up the Snake River and 

 about 4 miles up Boardmans Creek, the principal tributary in the 

 reservoir area. The vegetation in this sandhill region is limited to 



