46 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 



most of them small, were recovered. While the number and size are 

 SO small that virtually nothing can be said about them in reference 

 to form, decorative treatment, etc. (except that they have simple- 

 stamped bodies), the ware represented is of surprisingly good quality, 

 suggesting a much earlier date than that of the village for its 

 fabrication. 



Objects of White origin, recovered in rather small quantities, in- 

 clude glass beads ; nails, files, and knives of iron ; tinklers ; tin cans 

 and cups ; sheet iron; and fragments of glass, mostly from bottles. 



During the period June to October 1951, a party under the super- 

 vision of G. Hubert Smith accomplished the first excavation of a site 

 of White provenience in the Garrison Reservoir area. The site was 

 that of Fort Stevenson, a frontier military post from June 1867 until 

 August 1883 and thereafter utilized as an Indian school until 1894. 

 The post was established primarily for the protection of the Three 

 Affiliated Tribes, who were living at Like-a-Fishhook Village a few 

 miles above on the same side of the Missouri River, and of emigrants 

 from the east en route to the gold mines of Montana. The availabil- 

 ity of detailed official records of the post in the National Archives 

 (utilized in a comprehensive historical account by Mattison, 1951) 

 and of a contemporary account of life there by the commanding 

 officer during part of its existence (de Trobriand, 1951) provides 

 an opportunity for correlating archeological and historical data. It 

 was of course impossible to uncover the entire post area, or even the 

 major part of it. But during the time available sufficient excavation 

 was accomplished to check on the accuracy of contemporary records, 

 to supplement them in matters of architecture, for example, and to 

 recover a large collection of artifacts of the period during which the 

 site was occupied. In general, the archeological results confirmed the 

 contemporary records, although certain discrepancies, notably in the 

 relative positions of certain structures, were revealed. Excavation 

 was concentrated on features to the south and southwest of the parade 

 ground, near the edge of the terrace on which the post was located 

 and in an area that has been less affected by cultivation than have 

 other parts of the site (pi. 7, h) . 



A plan of the post made in 1879 was available during the investi- 

 gations and was very useful in the laying out of excavation units 

 and in the study of the site generally. Examination of the plan and 

 of the existing surface permitted the selection of areas for excavation 

 which promised to yield the most information for the effort expended. 

 On the basis of these two sources of information, the hospital, the 

 west half of the south barracks, the south officers' quarters, the com- 



