68 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 185 
depth of a foot. Limited test excavations at two such sites have 
uncovered fireplaces, a few nondiagnostic stone artifacts, and from 
one a small number of sherds which cannot be assigned to any cultural 
manifestation yet known. 
An excavated site in this area, 32ME59, known as the Grand- 
mothers Lodge site from its connection with a Mandan-Hidatsa 
myth, has been the subject of a recent report (Woolworth, 1956). A 
shallow depression there was said by members of these tribes to mark 
the site of the dwelling of “Grandmother” or “Old Woman Who 
Never Dies.” Excavation of the reputed lodge site was begun by a 
Missouri Basin Project party late in the 1952 field season, but the 
sudden and unexpected termination of fieldwork for that year forced 
the project to be abandoned. The site was then investigated during 
the two following years by State Historical Society of North Dakota-— 
National Park Service units under the supervision of Alan R. Wool- 
worth. As a result of the complete excavation of the depression,.a 
number of postmolds and a fireplace were found, the arrangement of 
which suggests the former presence of a semisubterranean, rectangular 
earthlodge. A fair number of sherds as well as stone and bone arti- 
facts were uncovered which at present cannot be assigned to any cul- 
tural manifestation known for the area. Although scattered surface 
material suggests that the small site extends for some distance on all 
sides of the depression, no trace of other lodges of the same age were 
found. The site is a puzzling one in many ways, and if the complex 
of postholes and fireplace truly represents an earthlodge, as they 
seem to do, it is undoubtedly the oldest one known at present from 
the Missouri River area north of the Knife River. 
No Paleo-Indian sites are known from this part of North Dakota, 
but occasional surface finds of fluted points have been made in the 
area. Much more work is needed on this problem, and an intensive 
survey of the river bank exposures along the Little Missouri River is 
a project which might well yield good results to some student in the 
future. 
SITE DESCRIPTION 
Star Village is located on the right (south) side of the Missouri 
River, and just inside the Fort Berthold Reservation, the boundary 
line running a few hundred yards to the east of the site. It is in 
Mercer County, N. Dak., 16 miles north and 3 miles west of the town of 
Beulah. It may be more closely located as in the NW\, sec. 3, T. 146 
N., R. 88 W. In relation to excavated sites in the area, it lies 12 miles 
upstream from Rock Village (82ME15), the two sites being on the 
same side of the river. The site of Like-a-Fishhook Village (82ML2) 
lies across the river and a short distance below, so close that a particu- 
larly deep-voiced camp crier is said to have been able to shout messages 
