NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, 1950-1951 — COOPER 5I 



siderably expanded to uncover 27 unprepared hearths and an area 

 about 7 feet in diameter paved with fragmented concretions which 

 may be the floor of a sweat lodge. The evidence suggests a seasonal 

 hunting camp occupied by one or more groups of agricultural people 

 whose main settlements were outside the immediate area. The pot- 

 tery, of which there is only a fair sample, is a rather heterogeneous 

 lot as to paste, tempering, and surface finish. Both coarse, heavily 

 grit-tempered, and compact, sparsely tempered pastes are represented. 

 Surfaces are cord-marked or smooth, and two smooth sherds, contain- 

 ing as tempering material thin plates of what appears to be shell, 

 have polished outer surfaces. One of these bears the remnant of a 

 rather elaborate incised design. The few rims are simple flaring or 

 recurve slightly toward the mouth to create a slightly S-shaped profile. 

 They may be undecorated or the space between the lip and neck may 

 be filled with a series of rather crudely incised horizontal lines ; incis- 

 ing of the lip is rare. Other artifacts include small triangular side- 

 notched and plain points of chert, chalcedony, jasper, quartzite, and 

 obsidian ; drills ; and a number of fairly large blades, some stemmed, 

 most often made of quartzite. Diagnostic bone artifacts are rare. 



The 1950 work at Angostura, terminated July 18 when the Wheeler 

 party moved to Boysen Reservoir for the remainder of the season, 

 did not materially change the general cultural picture as it was deline- 

 ated by the two earlier seasons' work and was described by Wedel 

 ( 1953b, pp. 74-80) , It did, however, considerably expand our knowl- 

 edge of three sites, one occupied by an early hunting and gathering 

 people, the others by late prehistoric groups whose main settlements 

 were probably elsewhere, and did nothing to invalidate the characteri- 

 zation of the region as one which had been occupied on a temporary 

 basis by people of various cultures for many millennia. The evidence 

 points, not to intensive and prolonged occupation, but to brief, and 

 probably seasonal, incursions from various directions — probably from 

 considerable distances — by small groups attracted by the varied re- 

 sources available here. As Wedel has pointed out, this situation pre- 

 sents an unusual potentiality for determining temporal and cultural 

 sequences involving groups ordinarily so separated spatially as to 

 make correlation difficult or impossible. 



Fort Randall Reservoir site. — Reconnaissance in 1947, together 

 with information from South Dakota institutions and the documen- 

 tary research of National Park historians, had revealed that sites of 

 Indian and frontier White provenience were numerous in this reservoir, 

 but, except for some test-trenching in 1947 and a salvage excavation 

 in the area of the spillway at the dam site in 1949, no excavation was 



