pip^No! isl" ■^^^^ PIERRE II — SMITH 151 



little known in detail — perhaps less well known, in fact, than native 

 life itself, as a result of long study of the latter topic by many inter- 

 ested students) ; and (4) the identification, from material evidences 

 and limited documentary sources, of the nature of the site, i.e., that 

 of a trading post, specifically Fort Pierre II, used ca. 1858-1863, 

 Most of these data, obtained from excavations and related studies, 

 are new. They may perhaps serve as "control data" for future studies 

 of sites of other trading posts, which may have greater individual 

 historic significance or may be more fully preserved. An example 

 is the site of Fort Pierre Chouteau itself, an important commercial 

 establishment, serving as the center of a vast area during an impor- 

 tant period in the development and decline of the fur trade and hide 

 trade with the Indian (itself a major historical topic in the earlier 

 history of the West) — a site occupied for a longer time than most such 

 posts, with the possible exception of Fort Union, its equivalent for 

 the trade of the upper parts of the Missouri valley. 



RECOMMENDATIONS 



Further studies of several kinds are suggested by the results here 

 described of excavations made at the site of a trading post of the past 

 century in central South Dakota, one wliich had but a brief existence, 

 though perhaps a larger role in its own critical period than has been 

 appreciated by historians. Fort Pierre II was the successor of a 

 great departmental headquarters of the trade at Fort Pierre Chou- 

 teau, and as the major trade center of a vast region during a period 

 when the trade was slowly expiring and native- White relations rap- 

 idly deteriorating, its full story would complement and complete 

 existing knowledge of its great predecessor, as well as help to 

 place the somewhat more romantic previous establishment in better 

 historical perspective. 



It may be reiterated that, even yet, little is known in accurate detail 

 of the design or construction of the numerous earlier trading estab- 

 lishments of the Missouri Basin. Although such posts were in exist- 

 ence, providing specially designed and specially built facilities for 

 comm,erce and, without fail, for due security to life and property, at 

 least as early as the year 1724, when the explorer Bourgmont built 

 Fort Orleans on the lower Missouri (near the mouth of the Grand 

 River, in the State of Missouri), not one original structure remains 

 above ground today, from which their physical character can be 

 directly judged. And there is as yet but one competent reconstruc- 

 tion in the entire basin — Fort Osage, near Independence, Mo. Closely 

 comparable reconstructions and "restorations" maintained for public 

 use, of course, exist elsewhere, but for some of these, it must be said, 

 little or no research, either in the gromid or in documentary sources, 



