44 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, I26 



of Kansas, informs us was invented in England in 1819 are consistent 

 with Hartle's opinion, based on the archeology and on statements 

 obtained by Libby (1908, p. 465 ; 1920, pp. 200-201 ; and notes in files 

 of State Historical Society of North Dakota) from Hidatsa inform- 

 ants early in the twentieth century, that the Rock Village was oc- 

 cupied during part of the 1830's and perhaps as early as the mid- 

 1820's. 



Artifacts of Indian manufacture from local materials were nu- 

 merous ; over 4,500 pottery sherds were collected, for example. The 

 pottery appears to be very similar to the River Basin Survey's collec- 

 tions from the Hidatsa sites at the mouth of the Knife River, although 

 it is perhaps somewhat less homogeneous and carefully made. It cer- 

 tainly resembles this material more closely than it does the ceramics 

 described and illustrated from the earlier, presumably Mandan, Dou- 

 ble Ditch and Slant village sites near Bismarck. So-called Knife 

 River flint, a chalcedony available in abundance in quarries not more 

 than 35 miles distant, was overwhelmingly favored for chipped-stone 

 implements. Other materials, mainly schist and quartzite, were uti- 

 lized primarily for large choppers. Among ground-stone objects are 

 grooved mauls, abrading stones, shaft smoothers, pipes of cathnite 

 and other stones, a small vessel and a number of sherds of steatite, 

 and small double-pointed sandstone hammers perforated for hafting. 

 Bone artifacts include hoes and knives of scapula, toothed metapodial 

 fleshers, shaft wrenches, paint applicators, hide-tanning tools, knife 

 handles, whistles, bone tubes and awls. Antler was used for scraper 

 and knife handles and other items including what are apparently sad- 

 dle bows. Artifacts of shell and wood were recovered in small num- 

 bers. Notable among the latter is an object apparently intended as a 

 small-scale replica of a boat with pointed bow and square stern. 



Animal and vegetal remains indicate that agriculture, hunting, and 

 gathering all contributed to the solution of the subsistence problem. 

 There is a wide range of mammalian forms, but bison bones predomi- 

 nate. Horse bones are surprisingly rare, but dogs, some very large, 

 are rather well represented. Other animal forms are several species 

 of birds, two species of fish, and a number of molluscan species. Cul- 

 tivated plants indicated by the specimens recovered are corn (related 

 to the flint corns of northeastern United States, according to a letter 

 of October 29, 1952, from Norton H. Nickerson), squash, beans, 

 melons, and gourds, while edible wild plants include plums, choke- 

 cherries, grapes, wild black cherry, and blueberry or whortleberry. 



Evidence suggesting trade with tribes to the west consists in the 

 presence in the site of a shell of a Pacific coast olivella and of a quan- 



