32 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 176 



pool level the impounded waters will back up almost 100 miles to the 

 Big Bend of the Missouri, inundating an area of 108,000 acres in 

 diaries Mix, Gregory, Brule, Lyman, and Buffalo Counties. 



The Missouri River in this area occupies a flat-floor trench, 1 to 

 2 miles wide, bordered with high bluff's that are moderately dissected 

 and profusely eroded into gullies. The only major perennial tribu- 

 tary entering the reservoir is the "V\^iite River, 11 miles below 

 Chamberlain on the right bank of the Missouri River. The timber 

 of the flood plain and valley floors is chiefly cottonwood, willow, and 

 cedar. The bluffs and uplands, where not under cultivation, consist 

 primarily of prairie grasses. Small game animals are plentiful 

 but the great herds of bison, antelope, and elk that once roamed over 

 this area are now extinct. 



In the latter half of the 18th century, the Missouri River became the 

 approach outlet to the western prairies of North America. The white 

 traders using it as a travel route from St. Louis were first led by a 

 Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Trudeau. Fur-trading posts were estab- 

 lished along the river banks, and one of the earliest of these posts was 

 located by Trudeau, in 1794, at a point somewhere near the, present 

 site of Fort Randall Dam, possibly 2 to 3 miles downstream. Trade 

 was conducted in this area with the Omaha and Ponca tribes, and 

 farther north with the Yankton and Teton Sioux. 



Exploratory expeditions followed the initial establishment of the 

 fur posts. These were led by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and Astor and 

 Lisa in 1811, and the Lisa-Immel party used the same route in 1812. 

 By the 1820's the Ashley party had traversed the waterway ; General 

 Leavenworth had led a military expedition to subjugate the aborigines 

 living in the Upper Missouri, and the famous Prince Paul of Wiirt- 

 temberg had visited the area on his continental journey. 



Following the Atkinson-O'Fallon expedition of 1825, the Fort 

 Randall Reservoir area remained one of trade exploitation that saw 

 relatively harmonious relations maintained between the Lidians and 

 traders until 1855. This latter year marked the establishment of mili- 

 tary posts along the Missouri, Fort Pierre at Pierre, S. Dak., and Fort 

 Randall in South Dakota near the Nebraska border. The military 

 occupation, first led by General Harney, in 1855, Avas to last on the 

 Upper Missouri until the 1890's. Indian agencies were established in 

 conjunction with many of the military posts — Whetstone was both 

 agency and military camp; Lower Brule Agency was protected by 

 Fort Lower Brule; Fort Hale (formerly known at Fort Lower Brule) 

 and Fort Lookout were located north of Chamberlain to protect the 

 white settlers from the Sioux and, theoretically, safeguard the rights 

 of the Indians on the reservations (map 1) . These sites were examined 

 in the course of the salvage program between the years 1947 and 1952, 

 inclusive, primarily to attain a better understanding of the circum- 



