NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 4I 



Arikara earth lodge, which was used as a community and ceremonial 

 center from 1907 to 1918. Especially deserving of salvage are two 

 mound sites, which lie outside the pool but may be jeopardized by 

 road relocations, and a number of earth-lodge sites, some late but 

 others relating to a time when the culture was still basically aboriginal. 

 Site 32ME57 is a single mound approximately 60 feet in diameter and 

 6 feet high, from which a local resident has obtained many human 

 bones by minor pitting, while site 32ME63 is a group of seven mounds 

 which range in size from 25 feet in diameter and 2 feet in height to 

 almost 70 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height. Mounds along this 

 segment of the Missouri River appear to be exceedingly rare, so that 

 the relationships of the sites in question will have to be sought at con- 

 siderable distances. Apparently the nearest reported occurrences of 

 mounds are to the east on the Sheyenne and James Rivers, where the 

 cultural affiliations are as yet undefined, and to the north in south- 

 western Manitoba, where the manifestations have been ascribed to the 

 Headwaters Lakes aspect and an Assiniboin authorship has been 

 suggested (Vickers, 1949, p. 33). 



Among the earth-lodge sites which seem on present evidence to be 

 especially noteworthy are the Rock Village (32ME15), a fortified 

 site yielding primarily materials of native manufacture ; Like-a-Fish- 

 hook (32ML2), the last earth-lodge village of the Three Affiliated 

 Tribes; two butte-top earth-lodge villages (32ML39 and 32DU18) ; 

 a large fortified late Arikara site, the Star Village (32ME16) ; a 

 well-preserved late winter village (32ML38) ; and an earth-lodge site 

 (32ME59) associated by tradition with one of the Mandan-Hidatsa 

 supernaturals and known as Grandmother's Lodge. 



The intensive excavation program in Garrison Reservoir was car- 

 ried out by a single party in 1950 and by two parties in 1951. Dur- 

 ing these two summers, excavations were undertaken in two earth- 

 lodge villages, the Rock Village (32ME15) and the Star Village 

 (32ME16), and in a frontier military post, Fort Stevenson (32ML1). 

 The field season of 1950 was spent entirely in the Rock Village, where 

 a party under the supervision of G. Ellis Burcaw excavated from 

 mid- June until the end of October. In 195 1 a party headed by 

 Donald D. Hartle continued the investigation of this site from early 

 June until late August, after which the party, considerably reduced 

 in numbers, worked in the Star Village for the remainder of the 

 season, which terminated there about November i. 



Rock Village, so named because of its proximity to a conspicuous 

 expanse of sandstone which outcrops along the bank of the Missouri 

 River, is situated on a level uncultivated terrace approximately 15 



