74 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu. 185 
in height, and the area within the rings “about level with the general 
level—not dug down in the least.” He was shown where the Grand- 
father Rock had stood, in front of the ceremonial lodge, and indicated 
the position on his map. He noted the depressions encircling many 
lodge rings, and indicated the plainest of them by dotted areas on his 
map. Regarding these features he says: “The dirt was removed ir- 
regularly to a depth of from six inches to two feet . . . evidently for 
building purposes. It does not appear however that enough dirt was 
thus removed to build all the huts. Many huts have no dug areas near- 
by, in others it is close around wall. In many cases it merges into 
ditch from inner side” (Stout, 1908). 
In the course of his interviews Stout was told by one informant, 
Yellow Wolf, that the nearby western village was much smaller than 
32ME16, and that it had no ceremonial lodge. Yellow Knife is said 
to have been chief of the smaller village, with Eagle-On-Hill as aide or 
subchief. Star “was chief of all the Arikara . . . [and] lived in the 
large village to the east, across Dancing Bear creek . . . under him 
were White Shield and Tall Bull” (ibid., 1908). The gardens and 
cemetery were said to have been held in common by the two villages, 
the cemetery being located across the small stream, northwest of 
32ME16. This spot was pointed out to the 1951 party as the site of 
the cemetery and, although no excavations were made here, fragments 
of human skeletal material were picked up from the surface of the 
plowed field at this point. Evidently the burials were either very 
shallow or scaffold burials have been made here. 
O. G. Libby, in a paper on Indian village patterns in North Dakota, 
(1908, p. 506), described 82ME16, citing Stout’s notes as authority 
for his statements. Libby says that the village was built in May 1860 
and gives the names of the leaders as Wolf Chief and Yellow Knife, 
with Wolf Necklace as assistant. “In August of the same year eight 
bands of Sioux came to trade at the store in the large village, ... 
and being dissatisfied at the prices paid by the white man .. . killed 
him. The Arikara at once attacked the Sioux to revenge his death, 
since he had married into their tribe. Only a few were armed with 
guns at this time, and they suffered severely, sixteen of their number 
being killed. On the evening of the battle, both villages hastily forti- 
fied themselves by a ditch, and the next day they all crossed the river 
to the Fort Berthold Village.” 
Today the older Arikara remember tales of incidents which oc- 
curred at this village, either before or during the fight, tales which 
they were told by their parents or grandparents. In a general way 
the stories agree, although they often vary greatly in detail. In 1951 
it was found impossible to obtain the native name of the village, and 
only one or two people hazarded a guess that the name of the chief 
