pip-^airf' EXCAVATIONS AT FORT LOOKOUT II — ^MILLER 61 



These two levels constituted the remains of the post temporarily 

 occupied by the trader La Barge, and the preceding French Fur 

 Trading Co.'s Fort Lookout 11. They were not, as originally thought, 

 the site of Fort Lookout I and the earlier Fort Kiowa. 



Although the level of Fort Lookout gave little architectural data, 

 enough remained to indicate that a rectangular log structure had 

 been built upon the spot, allowed to fall partially into ruins, and 

 later was burned. The debris was subsequently leveled to make way 

 for the establishment of another trading post which was built directly 

 upon the same spot. The two log buildings almost comcided in 

 orientation, but the later one was alined slightly more to the north- 

 northwest-south-southeast. The only truly diagnostic artifacts re- 

 covered from this portion of the site were the few copper percussion 

 caps of a variety that possibly dates from 1822 to 1850, which correlated 

 with the reported dates of the trading post's existence. Beneath the 

 two historic horizons were two levels pertaining to aboriginal occu- 

 pation. Since they unquestionably antedated the periods when the 

 whites were in the area, they will not be discussed in the present paper 

 but will be described in a separate report pertaining to the Indian 

 cultures. 



SPECIMENS 



Among the artifacts recovered are objects both of European and 

 Indian manufacture. A number of the European objects were found 

 upon the surface. They could have been dropped or deposited there 

 by soldiers from the subsequent, nearby. Fort Lookout Military Post, 

 by settlers of a much later date, or by the Indian occupants of the 

 Lower Brule Indian Reservation. This, coupled with the fact that 

 large herds of cattle grazed over the site, speeded the mixing of the 

 later deposits. The artifacts found within the site display varying 

 degrees of preservation and are certainly of 19th-century origin. 

 During the excavations all artifacts, whether complete or fragmentary, 

 were saved, also all samples of wood and the larger pieces of charcoal 

 which might be aseful in either establishing a tree-ring chronology 

 for that section of South Dakota and the Missouri River drainage or 

 in making carbon- 14 tests. 



The European objects throw some light upon the life of the period, 

 but since the site was subjected to scavenging by the Indians and the 

 soldiers, many of the more noticeable objects may have been carried 

 away, leaving only those which lay beneath the sod. Trading posts 

 were not primarily intended as "centers of culture," but they did 

 serve somewhat in that capacity for the whites in the area. The 

 houses were good indicators of the age. They were mostly crude log 



