62 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buun. 185 
the reservation. Russell Reid, Superintendent of the State Historical 
Society of North Dakota, was most generous in making the files of the 
Society available, and to that Society we are further indebted for 
permission to reproduce the A.B. Stout map of the site. To Vincent 
Malnouri, Elbowoods, N. Dak., we are indebted for permission to ex- 
cavate the site. To Alfred Fox, Pete Star, John Star, and Burton Bell 
of Beulah, N. Dak., thanks are due for telling members of the field 
party many of the traditions concerning the site. It is a pleasure to 
acknowledge our indebtedness, also, to the members of the Ben Jones, 
Alfred Fox, and Renner families for their numerous favors to the 
field unit. To the many persons not named here, who helped to make 
the 1951 field season both pleasant and profitable, we offer our sincere 
thanks. The cooperation received from every quarter was most grat- 
ifying and is deeply appreciated. 
For aid in preparing this report, I wish particularly to acknowledge 
my indebtedness to G. Hubert Smith and Dr. Robert L. Stephenson, 
of the Missouri Basin Project, and to Drs. Waldo R. Wedel, Clifford 
Evans, and Betty Meggers, of the United States National Museum, 
without whose encouragement, advice, and criticism it would never 
have been completed. Alan R. Woolworth, then at the State Histori- 
cal Society of North Dakota and now with the Minnesota State His- 
torical Society, read the manuscript and offered invaluable suggestions 
from his knowledge of the area and its history. Iam most grateful to 
Dr. Theodore E. White, National Park Service, who identified the 
animal bones; Dr. J. P. E. Morrison, Division of Mollusks, United 
States National Museum, who identified the shell remains; C. Mal- 
colm Watkins, Division of Ethnology, United States National Mu- 
seum, who identified the glass and ceramic material; and Harold L. 
Peterson, Staff Historian, National Park Service, for suggestions in 
regard to other trade items from the site. Not least of those to whom 
I owe thanks for aid in preparation of the manuscript are Mrs. 
Jeraldine Whitmore, Division of Archeology, United States National 
Museum, who typed and retyped the manuscript, and Herman Harp- 
ster and Mrs. Evelyn Bauman Stewart, of the Missouri Basin Project, 
who made the photographs and prepared the plates. To all these 
people I am sincerely grateful. 
ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND 
Mercer County lies in the Great Plains province, in the west-central 
part of North Dakota, 75 miles east of the Montana line and approxi- 
mately 100 miles south of the Canadian border. It is divided by the 
eastward-flowing Knife River, which empties into the Missouri near 
the county-seat town of Stanton. Much of the area is a high, rolling 
prairie with well-developed drainage ways, although south of the 
