FORT PIERRE II (39ST217) 



A HISTORIC TRADING POST IN THE OAHE DAM 



AREA, SOUTH DAKOTA^ 



By G. HuBEBT Smith 



FOREWORD 



From time to time since the establishment of the Missouri Basin 

 Project of the River Basin Surveys, as funds and personnel were 

 available, in addition to studies of native sites the Project has 

 given attention to sites of White origin in areas to be flooded. Less 

 numerous than native sites (both prehistoric and historic) in these 

 areas, the White sites — fur-trade posts, military posts, and the like — 

 have also been carefully studied, with actual excavation in certain 

 instances, inasmuch as they have independent importance in the his- 

 tory of the region, as well as direct bearing upon its native history. 

 This work by the Missouri Basin Project supplements and expands 

 systematic documentary investigations of historic sites made by the 

 National Park Service in these areas of the basin, including that of 

 the Oahe Reservoir area. 



The report that follows presents results of excavation at one such 

 site of White origin, that of Fort Pierre II, a successor of a more 

 famous original, Fort Pierre Chouteau, both posts having been oper- 

 ated by the St. Louis firm of P. Chouteau, Jr., and Company; Fort 

 Pierre II was constructed after 1855, when the previous post was 

 sold for military purposes. It is probable that the use of the later 

 establishment, the site of wliich has now been partially excavated, 

 was of relatively short duration, and that the post itself was of rela- 

 tively minor importance even during its own period — one of rapid 

 decline in the trade as a whole. These inferences call for a brief 

 statement explaining why the present work was undertaken, in view 

 of the urgent demands of numerous other sites. 



The claims of historic sites known for reservoir areas in the basin 

 cannot be allowed to overshadow those of the prehistoric and historic 

 native sites so widely distributed throughout these sections of the 

 Missouri valley. Furthermore, other sites of White origin are not 



1 Submitted February 1959. 



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