THE PAUL BRAVE SITE (32SI4), OAHE 

 RESERVOIR AREA, NORTH DAKOTA^ 



By W. Eatmond Wood and Alan R. Woolworth 



INTRODUCTION 



The purpose of this study is to present a detailed descriptive state- 

 ment of the archeology of one of the early village sites in the northern 

 part of the Middle Missouri area. The Middle Missouri area consists 

 of the Missouri River Valley and the lower reaches of its tributaries 

 between Bismarck, N. Dak., and southeastern South Dakota (see 

 Lehmer, 1954, p. 140). The Paul Brave site is significant because it 

 was occupied at the time when the first village or town dwellers were 

 establishing themselves in the northern part of this area. The deri- 

 vation of these early village people and the subsequent settlement 

 patterns of the Northern Plains are topics of interest to the anthro- 

 pologists and historians of the region. 



Since 1906, when George F. Will and Herbert J. Spinden reported 

 work at the Double Ditch (Bourgois) Mandan site, north of the city 

 of Bismarck, N. Dak., archeological interest in the northern Middle 

 Missouri area has increased. Some of the stages in the history of the 

 area have been blocked in roughly, particularly by George F. Will 

 and Thad. C. Hecker (1944). Details, however, are scant, and the 

 present study provides a base from which a more adequate definition 

 of the early village people may be made. The lack of any real fund 

 of comparative data precludes any sweeping conclusions, although 

 a few tentative generalizations are justified on the basis of excavations 

 at the Paul Brave site. 



Preliminary statements of the archeology of Paul Brave have ap- 

 peared in several publications. The first reference to the site is in 

 Will and Hecker (ibid., p. 89), where it is described as an unnamed 

 "Archaic Mandan" site on tribal land north of the Paul Brave estate. 

 Test excavations in 1947 resulted in tw^o brief articles by the exca- 

 vator, Gordon W. Hewes. The first of these (1949 a) describes the 

 excavations in summary form, discusses some of the significant finds 

 and tentatively places the site in time. A second article (1949 b) is 



^ Submitted September 1959 ; some revision April 1961. 



