210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 176 



materials derived from the Indian school belong to a subsequent period 

 and some agricultural objects to still another. But much of the 

 material of the specific periods is not clearly related to one or another. 

 An example is the marked white earthenware, probably first used in 

 quantity at the site during the Indian school period. The firm which 

 manufactured most of this, Burgess and Campbell, of Trenton, N.J., 

 began operations in 1879 and could, presumably, have supplied the 

 enlisted men's messes of the military post. It seems unlikely, how- 

 ever, that the military messes would have been furnished with such 

 tableware and it is known merely that the pieces were in the former 

 South Barracks at the time the building was in use as a boys' dormi- 

 tory, when the structure was burnt in the summer of 1891:. Metal 

 mess gear, which may have been used at either or both the military 

 and school messes, was also found at this site. 



It is manifestly impossible, from the fragments that have survived 

 from such a site as this, to reconstruct more than a small part of the 

 life at a military post, subsequently used as an Indian school, and last 

 of all as a farmstead. This is particularly true by reason of the fact 

 that what has survived has ordinarily been preserved only by acci- 

 dent. In this respect, of course, the site of Fort Stevenson is like many 

 arclieological sites both historic and prehistoric. On the other hand, 

 materials are now available from this site that reveal bits of the 

 physical history of the post nowhere else preserved, or preserved less 

 adequately. One would scarcely expect to find in any document that 

 dominoes was a game played, and perhaps favored, by soldiers or 

 Indian boys who once lived at the post. The example is a trivial one, 

 but arclieological investigation frequently contributes such sidelights 

 on more formal history. 



Interestingly enough, the great bulk of the objects obtained at Fort 

 Stevenson is derived from essentially modern industrial processes, 

 and are machine made ; practically nothing was found, even for later 

 periods of the use of the site, that can be said to represent true hand- 

 craft, or even local improvisation. This is scarcely surprising, since 

 the needs of the post could be, and were, supplied from industrial cen- 

 ters by transport, even from a great distance. Supplies of all sorts 

 were at first received by steamboat — even, as has been seen, flooring 

 and millwork, fired brick, and similar bulky construction materials. 

 After the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad to Bismarck, in 

 1873, transport was probably largely by wagon from that point, rather 

 than by river, as previously. Though steamboats continued in use for 

 some time after this date, they probably became less important there- 

 after for transport. 



During the development of industrial manufactures in the latter 

 part of the 19th century, new and wider applications and uses were 

 rapidly made of raw materials previously of restricted use or but 



