62 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 



by the Oahe Dam some attention, the amount of work accomplished to 

 date is only a microscopic proportion of the investigation that is 

 essential for even a bare sampling of the most important sites. Exca- 

 vations prior to 1950 of which there are published accounts have been 

 accomplished by the Bureau of American Ethnology in burials in the 

 Mobridge, S, Dak., vicinity in 1923 and in village sites in the same 

 vicinity in 1932 (Stirling, 1924; Strong, 1940); by Columbia Uni- 

 versity and the State Historical Society of North Dakota at Slant 

 Village near Mandan, N. Dak., in 1938 (Strong, 1940; Will and 

 Hecker, 1944) ; by Columbia University at the Buffalo Pasture site 

 near Pierre, S. Dak., in 1939 (Strong, 1940) ; by the University of 

 South Dakota at the Thomas Riggs site, also near Pierre, in 1940 and 

 by the South Dakota Archaeological Commission at the same site in 

 1947 (Meleen, 1949) ; by the University of North Dakota and the 

 State Historical Society of North Dakota near Fort Yates, N. Dak., 

 in 1947 (Hewes, 1949a, b) ; and by the South Dakota Archaeological 

 Commission at the Robinson and Myers sites, in the lower part of the 

 reservoir area, in 1948 and 1949 (George, 1949; Hoard, 1949). Much 

 of this work was on a small scale and in some instances constituted 

 little more than testing. 



Except for very minor test trenching in two or three sites in 1948, 

 the year 1950 saw the first excavation by the River Basin Surveys 

 in the Oahe Reservoir area. The reconnaissance of 1948 had indi- 

 cated that at least three sites would be in jeopardy immediately upon 

 or soon after the initiation of construction on the dam. One of these, 

 the Dodd site (39ST30), lay on the course of the approach channel, 

 scheduled for early excavation. The others are the Philip Ranch 

 site (39ST14) in the work area just below the dam on the same 

 (right) bank of the river, and site 39HU22, which will be covered 

 by the dam on the left bank. These three sites were accordingly sche- 

 duled for investigation in 1950 by a party supervised by Donald J, 

 Lehmer. Original plans were for relatively small-scale excavations 

 in the Dodd site, the first on the schedule because of the imminence 

 of its destruction. Early in the investigation, however, it became ap- 

 parent that this site was so complex and of such significance that 

 nearly all the resources of a comparatively large unit (13 to 19 work- 

 ers) were devoted to it until late October, when work was begun on 

 the Philip Ranch site. This unit remained in the field until the end 

 of November. During the summer, minor excavations were under- 

 taken in nearby sites, and a 2-man team spent some time in reconnais- 

 sance of the east side of the river between the dam site and the mouth 

 of the Cheyenne River. 



