12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETBDSTOLOGY [Bull. 176 



history. We would know precisely where to find it, yet we would 

 lack important data which we might reasonably expect to be revealed 

 by excavation. 



The Lewis and Clark expedition was unquestionably of epic im- 

 portance, hence the explorers' camp sites satisfy the first requirement. 

 However, it would be difficult to make a case for archeological work 

 at such sites since they would be virtually impossible to pinpoint — if 

 indeed they still survived over 150 years of channel shifting — hence 

 the returns would be extremely meager, if not entirely negative. 

 Steamboat landings, villages, missions, and other commmiities of 

 fairly recent origin might bear such similarity to still-existent com- 

 munities that archeological findings might not be rewarding. Tliree 

 classes of sites, representative of significant frontier eras, offered the 

 gi'eatest promise. These were the trading posts, the military posts, 

 and the early Indian agencies. 



Sites finally selected for exploration and for excavation were, in 

 order of their appearance, going upriver: Fort Randall (first phase). 

 Fort Randall steamboat landing. Whetstone Indian Agency, Bijou's 

 trading post. Fort Recovery, Lower Brule Indian Agency (first 

 phase). Fort Lower Brule, Fort Lookout (four phases), Fort Hale, 

 all in the Fort Randall Reservoir area, in Gregory, Charles Mix, 

 Lyman, Brule, Buffalo, and Hughes Counties, S. Dak. ; and Fort Ste- 

 venson, Fort Berthold (three phases), and Kipp's Post, all in the 

 Garrison Reservoir, in Mercer, McLean, Mountrail, Dunn, McKenzie, 

 and Williams Coimties, N. Dak. 



Any success achieved by the archeological search for historical data 

 in the Missouri River Reservoir areas is due in large measure to the 

 close and continuing cooperation between the Lincoln field office of 

 the Smithsonian Institution and the Omaha office of the National 

 Park Service, despite a succession of personnel in key positions at 

 both establishments. While under the continuing general direction 

 of Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., Bureau of American Ethnology, the 

 Missouri Basin Project of the Smithsonian Institution has been under 

 the successive leaderships of Waldo R. Wedel, Paul L. Cooper, Ralph 

 D. Brown, and Robert L. Stephenson. The post of liaison arche- 

 ologist for the National Park Service has been filled successively by 

 Jesse D. Jennings, Gordon C. Baldwin, and Paul L. Beaubien. How- 

 ever, as regional historian the writer has been identified with the 

 project continuously since 1946. Until 1949 he was historian for 

 the Missouri River Basin Project ; thereafter, in his present capacity, 

 he assumed general technical direction of all historical and archeologi- 

 cal programs in Region Two of the National Park Service. In 1950 

 Ray H. Mattison and Harry B. Robinson were appointed historians 

 for the Missouri River Basin. 



