HISTORIC SITES ARCHEOLOGY ON THE UPPER 



MISSOURI ' 



By Mekrill J. JVIattes ^ 



INTKODUCTION 



The Flood Control Act of 1944 laid the groundwork for a compre- 

 hensive water-control plan for the Missouri River Basin, involving the 

 survey of over 100 potential reservoir sites, and the early creation of 

 several of these reservoirs by the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau 

 of Reclamation. The construction of large dams, inundating extensive 

 river valleys, posed a grave threat to important historical and archeo- 

 logical values quickly recognized by two other Government agencies 

 which have primary responsibilities in these fields — the National 

 Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior, and the 

 Smithsonian Institution. Under the aggressive leadership of chief 

 historian R. F. Lee and assistant chief historian Herbert E. Kahler, 

 of the National Park Service, and Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, a program was launched for the sur- 

 vey and salvage of archeological sites threatened or doomed by the 

 prospect of inundation (Corbett, 1949; Johnson, 1951; Mattes, 1947; 

 Roberts, 1952). 



Conceived in 1945, the program was actually implemented in 1946 

 when a field office of the Smithsonian Institution was set up at the 

 Laboratory of Anthropology of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, 

 and the positions of historian and liaison archeologist were set up by 

 the National Park Service at its Region Two Office in Omaha (Wedel, 

 1947) . Field surveys were started in 1946, while comprehensive exca- 

 vation projects were started in 1949 (Wedel, 1949) , From the stand- 

 points of available funds and the intensity of fieldwork, the program 

 reached its climax in the summers of 1951 and 1952 when 16 separate 

 survey or excavation parties were operating (B.A.E. Ann. Reps.). 

 A drastic reduction in funds beginning in the fiscal year 1953 resulted 

 in a sharply curtailed program, there being only six field parties during 

 that summer. In 1954 the program continued on this limited basis 

 (U.S. Dept. Int., 1952 a). The need for continuing intensive salvage 



1 Submitted August 1954. 



» Regional Historian, National Park Service, Region Two. 



