NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 9I 



at Boysen Reservoir, only a few days to a month were spent by the 

 Project party at each of the shallow and/or small sites investigated. 

 On the other hand, nearly two full seasons were devoted to Rock 

 Village and the Oldham site, large important earth-lodge villages on 

 the Missouri River in the Garrison and Fort Randall Reservoirs, 

 respectively. The fact that reconnaissance was the sole responsibility 

 of but a single small party each year also reflects the changing em- 

 phasis from extensive search to discover what remains are threatened 

 to intensive study of the important sites which will be submerged. 

 Despite the seemingly considerable accomplishment in the way of ex- 

 cavation suggested by the figures cited above, in actuality work will 

 have to proceed in the future on an appreciably larger scale, at least 

 in some areas, if the minimum essential sample of the archeological 

 data is to be obtained. Only three of the hundreds of earth-lodge 

 villages to be lost in the Oahe Reservoir had been at all extensively 

 excavated by the end of 1951, and additional work in one of these is 

 necessary. 



The reconnaissance of a large number of reservoirs, most of them 

 in the more westerly portions of the Basin, gratifyingly revealed that 

 a number of the smaller projects will result in no serious archeological 

 loss and will require no further attention, although others will call 

 for additional examination if construction is initiated. 



Although the full significance of the intensive research by the vari- 

 ous agencies in Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the Dakotas will 

 not be known until the laboratory studies have been completed and 

 the results made available, it is evident that a considerable advance 

 in our knowledge of aboriginal culture history over a wide spatial 

 and temporal range can be anticipated. In the western part of the 

 area, the recent work in the Angostura, Boysen, Canyon Ferry, Key- 

 hole, and Tiber Reservoirs has produced information that is rather 

 uneven as far as quantity and potentiality for reconstructing history 

 are concerned. Sites within the confines of the Canyon Ferry Reser- 

 voir appear to have been occupied so briefly and are so unproductive 

 that any interpretation must be largely of a negative nature. Else- 

 where, on the other hand, new information was acquired which should 

 materially aid in closing some of the temporal and spatial gaps in the 

 current picture of prehistoric occupancy of the western Plains. As 

 far as the apparently earliest occupations that have been studied are 

 concerned, the work of the two years under review consisted mainly 

 of supplementation of previous investigations. At the Ray Long site 

 in the Angostura Reservoir area, the exposing of a rather extensive 

 area yielded a few additional specimens of the characteristic Angos- 



