16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 176 



Fort Lookout III Maximilian's "Sioux Agency" of 1833, probably, 



but not certainly, identical with Fort Lookout 

 I, in any event also destroyed by river action. 



Fort Lookout IV The military post of 1856 adjoining Fort Lookout, 



location confirmed by Garth in 1950. 



One other important discovery was made in 1950. An unidentified 

 historic site on the right bank, near Chamberlain, had been reported 

 by a Smithsonian reconnaissance party; one local informant had 

 mistakenly identified this as Fort Lookout military post. Excavation 

 here revealed the hitherto unidentified remains of an establisliment 

 tentatively identified as Fort Lower Brule, predecessor of Fort Hale, 

 a military post established in 1870 to police the newly relocated Lower 

 Brule (U.S. Surg. Gen. Off., 1870, p. 410). 



Garth also reconnoitered and confirmed the site of Lower Brule 

 Indian Agency, 1868-90, below the mouth of American Crow Creek 

 (Andreas, 1884, p. 94) ; the site of Fort Hale, 1870-84, opposite the 

 mouth of Crow Creek (U.S. Surg. Gen. Off., 1875; Hackett, 1916), 

 nine-tenths of which had already been claimed by the Missouri Kiver ; 

 and the site of Wlietstone Agency, 1868-72, just above the mouth of the 

 creek of the same name (Comm. Ind. Aff., 1868-84; Eobinson, 1916, 

 p. 99; Kingsbury, 1915, p. 808; Poole, 1881). An intensive search of 

 the area around the mouth of White River failed to disclose the re- 

 mains of anything resembling a trading post, thus tending to confirm 

 the writer's belief that the historical concept of a Fort Brasseaux at 

 White River was erroneous. 



In 1951 Carl Miller intensively excavated the site of Fort Lookout 

 II, finding two historic levels that fit the variable descriptions of 

 Maximilian's "French Post" and La Barge's Fort Lookout, both 

 establishments of modest proportions in comparison with the historic 

 Fort Lookout I of the 1820's. Debris from this site, while scantier 

 than anticipated, will aid in studies of the material and crude archi- 

 tecture of the little-known commercial outposts of the Upper 

 Missouri. 



During this same season, G. Hubert Smith conducted limited exca- 

 vations at the site of Fort Stevenson (1867-83), destined to lie under 

 200 feet of water behind the gigantic Garrison Dam (Mattison, 1951 ; 

 Kane, 1951 ) . Although less than 25 percent of this site was excavated, 

 no further work here was deemed necessary. Findings confirmed the 

 general accuracy of building plans preserved in the National Archives ; 

 and an excellent collection of objects of the military period was made, 

 insuring the salvage of authentic remains for the information of future 

 students. This project was complicated by the fact that Fort Steven- 

 son was taken over by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and used as an 

 Indian boarding school imtil 1893. The debris of this latter episode 

 was liberally intermixed with the military. 



