Riv. Bas. Sur. 
Par, No 26], SMALL SITES ABOUT FORT BERTHOLD—METCALF 33 
in the photographs which were taken (pl. 4, 6), but also prevented 
our finding any surface material which may have been present. 
Our guide informed us that another cairn with an associated line 
of small boulders was located between the Missouri and Little Mis- 
souri Rivers, in the neighborhood of Saddle Butte. The line of 
boulders at that site is apparently curvilinear, since it was described 
as representing “a snake crawling up to the rock pile.” 
82M E63 (map 1).—This site is 1.5 miles northwest of 32ME62 and is 
located on the crest of a mound approximately 60 feet in diameter and 
6 feet high. This cairn, like the first, is composed of boulders as large 
as aman could lift and measures 6 feet in diameter and 2 feet in height. 
Four alinements of smaller boulders, 25 feet in length, radiate from 
the cairn to the four cardinal points of the compass. On the slopes of 
the mound were found a few flint chips, a few retouched flakes, an 
end-scraper or two, and two very tiny nondescript sherds. 
Another cairn, smaller and consisting of but a dozen boulders, now 
somewhat scattered and deeply imbedded, is present on the apex of a 
smaller mound 150 feet east of the first. No alinement is associated 
with this cairn. 
Montgomery, discussing mounds north of here in Manitoba and 
Saskatchewan, describes a feature similar to the cairn and mound pres- 
ent at this site. The mound he describes is smaller, about 20 feet in 
diameter and 5 feet high, and constructed of earth and boulders. 
From the cairn three well-defined rows of small boulders extended 
in straight lines for a distance of 220 feet. These rows were at right 
angles to each other, running to the north, west, and east, with each 
row terminating in another cairn (Montgomery, 1908). 
Other cairns which were recorded in the Garrison Reservoir area 
were associated with tipi rings and will be mentioned in the descrip- 
tions of those sites. 
The problem presented by the rock cairns of the northern Plains 
is one which deserves a great deal more study. Such of these features 
as were seen during the course of the survey, coupled with the 
data contained in the few references quoted in this section, leads one 
to suspect that in western North Dakota they represent more than 
one cultural group and vary greatly in age. It seems certain that they 
have been erected for varying reasons; some were built to cover bur- 
ials, while others may have served as shrines or may in some cases 
mark the sites of occurrences which were considered noteworthy. 
TIPI RINGS 
Sites showing one or more circles of small boulders or, in some locali- 
ties, of stone slabs, are common in the Northern Plains and were fre- 
quently found on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and in the 
