98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLn. 185 
DITCH AND DITCH TESTS 
In 1908 the ditch which enclosed the site was described by Stout as 
about 6.5 feet wide and from 1.5 to 2.0 feet in depth, with a mound 
showing that the earth removed in its construction was thrown to the 
outside to form a breastwork. In 1951 the ditch measurements 
showed a range in width of from 2 to 11 feet with an average of 
slightly over 6 feet. The width varied sharply from place to place, 
suggesting that it was dug in sections by individual groups. In 1951 
the depth was not as great as in 1908 and varied from 12 to 15 inches, 
although the low embankment caused it to appear greater. The earth 
removed in digging it appears to have been, generally, piled on the 
outer rim, but at every place where it was trenched it was found, when 
a level-line was drawn across it, that a low embankment was also 
present on the inner side. 
Local traditions gathered by the 1951 party, nearly 90 years after 
the site was abandoned, are contradictory in regard to the time when 
the ditch was dug. It was asserted by some that the ditch was not dug 
until after the battle with the Dakota. Other informants stated that 
it was dug during the first night after the beginning of hostilities, with 
the entire population—men, women and older children—joining in a 
concerted effort to complete it before sunrise. This tale appears to 
have been told to Stout, also, for he says, “Ditch thrown up when 
Arikara had big fight with Sioux.” On the other hand some inform- 
ants in describing the battle stated that many Dakota women were 
in the village when the fighting began. The gates were immediately 
closed and, according to this version of the affair, the women were 
captured and their relatives forced to ransom them with horses. This 
tale implies that the village was palisaded, but doubt is cast upon it 
at once by the fact that only the scantiest evidence of palisade posts 
was found in the limited excavations made in and about the ditch. 
Feature 7 (fig. 14). —In a number of places (map 3) no evidence of 
a ditch could be found for a short distance. These breaks in the 
continuity of the ditch were presumed to represent the entrances, 
and the largest of these was investigated. This was done by stripping 
the sod from the area and carefully excavating some 4 feet of the ditch 
on each side of the break. 
Feature 7, as this excavation was known, was located east of the 
center of the south line of the ditch. No trace of the postmolds of a 
stockade was found, making it probable that no gate existed here and 
that the breaks in the continuity of the ditch were merely sections 
allowed to remain undug for convenience of entry. Most of the earth 
removed in digging had been piled on the outer edge of the trench, 
but a small amount was thrown up on the inside as well. Profiles 
taken here show the ditch, at this point, to have been rather shallow, 
measuring originally from 3.5 to 5.5 feet in width, with a depth of 
