254 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu. 185 
a few potsherds, triangular, side-notched projectile points, end 
scrapers, and a few bone tools. 
To the south-southwest of the site were two deep gullies from which 
skulls of bisons were recovered 28 and 32 feet below the present sur- 
face. These skulls have been identified by Dr. C. Lewis Gazin, of 
the United States National Museum, Department of Zoology, as be- 
longing to evolutionary stages separating Bison occidentalis Lucas 
from Bison bison bison Linnaeus. The same is apparently true for 
the bison bones from the site (pl. 45). According to exact measure- 
ments they could be either Bison occidentalis or Bison bison bison. 
However, these remains from the Galata site are not a distinct species, 
for they fall on the borderline between the two and represent an 
evolutionary trend making placement in time as either late Pleistocene 
or sub-Recent. 
CONCLUSIONS 
The Galata site, 24TL26, in the Tiber Reservoir basin on the 
Marias River, Toole County, Mont., was never occupied for any great 
length of time, but rather served as a camping spot year after year for 
groups that came from outside the reservoir or from nearby sites to 
hunt the bison which made use of a natural fording area during their 
migrations. The locale abutting the steeply cut-banked bluffs, to- 
gether with sufficient forage and the shallowness of the Marias River 
at this spot, undoubtedly attracted various bison herds which in turn 
attracted local Indian groups to hunt there for short periods of time. 
There the bison were slaughtered, skinned, and the flesh was cooked 
and prepared for transportation to the permanent abodes of the 
hunters. 
During their visits the Indians did a limited amount of chipping, 
making articles out of jasper, chalcedony, obsidian, and flint. This 
was evidenced by chipping debris noted in various spots in the site. 
Having come from their permanent settlements and intending to stay 
only a short time, the Indians carried along the barest of essentials. 
Very few clay vessels, or bone and stone tools, were among this 
equipment. At no time was the population of this encampment 
a large one. The site probably was occupied by only a single family 
group or a very small communal body. 
Wedel seems to think that the pottery from the Galata site cor- 
responds to a group of sherds recovered from the Ethridge site, a 
bison fall 8 miles north of Ethridge in Toole County. He is also of 
the opinion that “a Plains archeologist, inspecting them without pre- 
vious knowledge as to their provenience would, with little or no hesita- 
tion, at once suspect a late prehistoric horizon” (Wedel, 1951, p. 135). 
