NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 63 



In 1 95 1 two excavation units were in operation in the Oahe Reser- 

 voir area. A party composed mainly of local workers, under Lehmer's 

 supervision, returned to the Philip Ranch site, while another party, 

 led by Waldo R. Wedel and composed of student workers, established 

 camp at the mouth of the Cheyenne River to undertake the investiga- 

 tion of the Cheyenne River site (39ST1). Previous reconnaissance 

 and minor testing had indicated that the latter had been occupied 

 more than once and it was thought excavation would cast additional 

 light on the tradition represented by the later components of the sites 

 under investigation in the Oahe Dam area and demonstrate its tem- 

 poral relation to a new, as yet undefined complex. A survey team 

 detached from this unit reconnoitered parts of the Missouri River 

 banks, mainly on the east side, above the Cheyenne River, 



The Dodd site was situated on the right bank of the Missouri River 

 on two sides of a ravine the bottom of which has been severely gullied 

 in relatively recent times. Both parts of the site were in sod and had 

 apparently never been cultivated. Depressions of varying size and 

 prominence characterized the surface and marked the locations of 

 some of the original houses and cache pits, but excavations revealed 

 that there were many such features for which there was no surface 

 evidence. In the time which was available before the contractor 

 moved his machinery onto the site to begin excavation for the ap- 

 proach channel, 21 houses were completely uncovered, and numerous 

 features outside the houses were excavated in test trenches. An addi- 

 tional eight houses were test-trenched. Houses of three different kinds 

 were found, in several instances in definite stratigraphic relationship 

 (pi. 10, a, b). Thus it is clear that nine circular houses and one octag- 

 onal structure (containing an altar and presumably having a cere- 

 monial function) belong to the latest occupation of the site, while 

 two earlier components are both characterized by rectangular houses, 

 which exhibit some differences. The rather shallow circular houses 

 had a central fireplace, a square central roof-support complex with 

 single or multiple posts at the corners, upright posts around the edge 

 of the pit, and a covered entrance passage. The entrances were ori- 

 ented generally toward the river. The rectangular structures were 

 alike in being oblong, having the fireplace situated between the center 

 and the entrance, having a step within the house at the doorway, and 

 in having the floor deeper than those of the round houses. An ante- 

 chamber was at least often a part of the entrance complex. In each 

 instance, the doorway was to the southwest, away from the river. 

 The earlier structures of this type, however, differed in that post holes 

 were distributed more or less evenly along all walls of the pit in con- 



