NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 6/ 



tion Structures and greater quantities of trade materials) which have 

 led Lehmer to suggest that it should be considered a component of a 

 different focus (Snake Butte focus). A somewhat later date for this 

 site seems to be indicated. 



During the 1951 season, burials were exposed at the Indian Creek 

 site (39ST15) by machinery involved in construction of the access 

 railway. Lehmer's party was able to remove two of these. The burials 

 were encountered some distance west of the occupational area, which 

 may represent more than one component. In both instances the inter- 

 ments were in pits and the skeletons were articulated except that there 

 was evidence the legs may have been detached from the body before 

 burial. A small vessel of Stanley ware accompanied one of the indi- 

 viduals, while the other grave contained sherds of simple-stamped 

 pottery and two tubular beads of sheet copper. 



Site 39ST1 (Cheyenne River site) is situated on a point between 

 two ravines, and partially subdivided by a very short third ravine, 

 just below the mouth of the Cheyenne River. It has been occupied 

 more than once. On the upstream side of the short ravine is a small 

 area, partially enclosed by a well-defined ditch, within which are sev- 

 eral circular depressions. This area has been and is still subjected 

 to conditions — presumably saturation of the underlying Pierre shale — 

 which bring about severe slumping. The presence of abundant cul- 

 tural objects in the slumped materials far from the edge of the intact 

 surface testifies to an extensive occupied area prior to the drastic 

 alteration of the terrain. There is evidence that this alteration, at 

 least insofar as it has affected the archeological site, is of fairly recent 

 origin. At the beginning of the twentieth century the ditch entirely 

 enclosed an oval area, according to a contemporary observer. Out- 

 side this fortification ditch are a considerable number of depressions, 

 at least some of which are markedly oblong. The presence of another 

 ditch is suggested by a linear depression across the point on which the 

 entire site lies where this point narrows because of the headward 

 convergence of the two ravines which bound it. Collections previously 

 made from the surface and in minor test trenches had suggested that 

 the area within the ditch at the terrace edge represented at least pre- 

 dominantly an occupation in the Arikara tradition and that the area 

 to the southeast had been occupied by people with a culture related 

 to that of the Myers site (39ST10), a nearby earth-lodge village 

 which had been partially excavated and reported by the South Dakota 

 Archaeological Commission (Hoard, 1949). 



The Missouri Basin Project was able to assign a party to this site 

 for a relatively brief period (late June to early September) in 1951, 



