THE GOOD SOLDIER SITE (39LM238), BIG BEND 

 RESERVOIR, LYMAN COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA 



By Robert W. Neuman 



INTRODUCTION 



In July of 1958 a field party of the Missouri Basin Project, Smith- 

 sonian Institution, spent 14 days conducting archeological excavations 

 at the Good Soldier site (39LM238), a prehistoric Indian camp site 

 in the Big Bend Reservoir area, South Dakota. The site was first 

 recorded and tested in 1956 by a survey team of the Missouri Basin 

 Project mider the direction of Harold A. Huscher (Huscher and 

 McNutt, 1958). The 1958 investigations were supervised by the 

 writer ; James J. Stanek acted as field assistant.^ Excavations at this 

 prehistoric site were made possible through Federal funds provided 

 for the Inter- Agency Archeological Salvage Program of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, the National Park Service and cooperating Fed- 

 eral, State, and local institutions. 



ACKNO^VLEDGMENTS 



A number of people from the Missouri Basin Project assisted in the 

 compilation of this report, and to the following I am sincerely grate- 

 ful : Warren W. Caldwell, G. Hubert Smith, and Robert L. Stephen- 

 son, who read the original manuscript and offered helpful suggestions; 

 Evelyn B. Stewart, who proofread and handled the illustrations; lone 

 Wilson, who did the final typing ; Jerry Livingston, who did the draft- 

 ing ; and Wayne Nelson, who did the photographic work for the plates. 



Special thanks are due Hobart Eagle, Superintendent of Main- 

 tenance, Bureau of Indian Affairs, at the Crow Creek Indian Reserva- 

 tion. It was through his cooperation that I was loaned a boat, motor, 

 and other water equipment for our daily crossings of the Missouri 

 River from Fort Thompson to the Good Soldier site. To the crew 

 of the 1958 field party I am also deeply indebted, because no task or 

 suggestion was beyond their endurance. 



1 Members of the 1958 field party were as follows : Lee Azure, Joseph Benthall, Eugene 

 Brother-of-All, Adolph Burns Day, Michael Forth, Donald Howe, Milo Kearney, Frederick 

 Middle Tent, Horace Slow, and Junior Yellow Back. 



295 



