NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 95 



tions in the lower part of the Oahe Reservoir and in the Fort Ran- 

 dall Reservoir have revealed cultural remains that apparently will be 

 assignable to something more than lo foci. Although there seems no 

 doubt that some of these complexes represent different stages of 

 development in single cultural traditions, additional research will be 

 necessary before it is possible to state in each instance what differ- 

 ences are of primarily temporal significance. One thing, however, 

 seems clear; the region is characterized, not by the development 

 through time of a single cultural tradition, but by several traditions 

 present during various segments of the total cultural time span and 

 participating in the characteristics of the horizons into which that 

 time span can undoubtedly be subdivided. Relationships to cultural 

 manifestations both to the east and the south are apparent in the 

 materials recovered to date, and analysis now in progress will un- 

 doubtedly clarify these relationships. External evidences of the rela- 

 tive temporal positions of various complexes have already made pos- 

 sible the construction of a partial sequence. Cultural deposits have 

 been found in clear stratigraphic relationship at the Scalp Creek, 

 Dodd, Talking Crow, Che3^enne River, and Oldham sites. At the 

 Scalp Creek site, a Woodland component assignable to the Loseke 

 Creek focus defined in Nebraska underlay a component related to 

 the La Roche site. At the Oldham site, an occupation with Great 

 Oasis pottery is earlier than one related to the Oacoma sites and the 

 latest occupation at the Talking Crow site, where the earliest occupa- 

 tion, assigned to the Campbell Creek focus, bears some relationship 

 to the Nebraska and Upper Republican manifestations. At the Dodd 

 site, two components characterized by long rectangular houses and 

 cord-marked pottery lay beneath a horizon containing circular houses, 

 simple-stamped pottery, and White trade goods. Finally, at the Chey- 

 enne River site, a historic occupation in the Arikara tradition is later 

 than a component with predominantly incised pottery, which in turn 

 overlies rectangular structures. Other evidences for placement of 

 sites in time consists, of course, in the presence or absence of metal 

 and, as a partial framework based on external evidence is constructed, 

 the internal evidence of typology is becoming more significant as a 

 means of completing the sequence. 



It should be apparent that when present studies have been reported 

 a good beginning will have been made toward filling the gap in our 

 knowledge of cultural history in the area where the largest reservoirs 

 in the water-development program will eliminate a large proportion 

 of the archeological data, the Missouri River in the Dakotas. It will 

 be only a beginning, however; perhaps the most impressive accom- 



