NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 85 



closely those of the second component at the Dodd site, near Pierre, 

 Specimens found in relative abundance in the fill of houses, in the 

 cache pits, and on the general village level indicate heavy reliance for 

 subsistence on agriculture and hunting and rather little emphasis on 

 fishing or the collection of shellfish. The artifact inventory, notably 

 the pottery, together with the architecture, suggests a close relation- 

 ship to villages on the James and Big Sioux Rivers to the east — 

 among them the Mitchell and Brandon sites, previously excavated and 

 reported by the W. H. Over Museum — and Hurt has assigned the 

 Swanson site, together with these others, to the Over focus. 



In 195 1, with a maximum party of 13 individuals. Hurt reinvesti- 

 gated two sites, 39GR1 (Scalp Creek site) and 39GR2 (EUis Creek 

 site), which had been partially investigated in 1941 by the W. H. 

 Over Museum, with WPA assistance, but which required additional 

 field study to make laboratory analysis and reporting possible. The 

 Scalp Creek site appeared superficially to be simply a small fortified 

 earth-lodge village, with perhaps 15 houses, on the point of a terrace 

 cut off by the remains of a ditch, but previous excavation had revealed 

 that materials relating to at least two cultural complexes were present. 

 The work during the two seasons, including the complete uncovering 

 of nine earth lodges and the excavation of a number of trenches, 

 demonstrated that a village of earth lodges is underlain by materials 

 of Woodland affiliations. The upper village, surrounded by a stockade 

 of posts spaced i to 3 feet apart and defended with a ditch 3 feet deep 

 on the side not protected by a slope, contains circular houses with 

 central fire basin, four center posts, varying numbers of outer roof 

 supports, a row of leaners, and a covered entrance passage. Unlike 

 the situation in many earth-lodge villages of the region, cache pits 

 were rather scarce and were usually small. A subsistence pattern 

 based on agriculture and hunting, especially of bison, is indicated by 

 the specimens recovered. The pottery is simple-stamped and deco- 

 rated primarily by incising, both on the rim and body, and appears to 

 resemble that previously recovered and reported from the La Roche 

 site, some distance up the Missouri River (Meleen, 1948). Although 

 there seem to be some differences, at least in proportions of various 

 pottery types and perhaps in architectural and other traits. Hurt has 

 assigned the upper (Wheeler) component of the Scalp Creek site to 

 the La Roche focus. 



In the lowest cultural deposits at the Scalp Creek site and at the 

 Ellis Creek site, situated on a terrace some 2 miles downriver, arti- 

 facts were recovered which included pottery very similar to the cer- 

 amics at sites on Loseke Creek and Eagle Creek in Nebraska, the 



