SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT 9 



three of the regular staff were engaged in excavation activities. The 

 temporary employees were gradually laid off as the excavations and 

 test digging were brought to a close and by the first of October only the 

 permanent staff, a temporary assistant archeologist, and a part-time 

 office worker were on the rolls. By the first of November it became 

 evident that the funds available for 1956 would not permit the con- 

 tinuance of as large a staff and a reduction in force became necessary. 

 As a result on June 30 the staff had been cut to seven persons. 



During the year only three Kiver Basin Surveys field parties op- 

 erated in the Missouri Basin. Two of them were primarily occupied 

 in conducting full-scale excavations while the third was engaged in 

 making a series of test excavations. The latter and one of the full- 

 scale digging parties worked in the Fort Randall Reservoir area in 

 South Dakota while the other excavating party worked in the Garri- 

 son Reservoir area in North Dakota. All three parties were in the 

 field at the start of the fiscal year. At the Fort Randall Reservoir, 

 which has been flooding since the closing of the dam in July 1953, 

 excavations were carried on by a group under the direction of Harold 

 A. Huscher at the Oldham Village site w^here previous digging had 

 revealed evidence for several components but the relationships were 

 not clear. Because of the rising waters of the reservoir pool and un- 

 satisfactory working conditions, the investigations were brought to 

 a close on July 24. The results of the season's efforts clarified the sit- 

 uation at the Oldham site and will make possible a much more satis- 

 factory story of the occupations there in the period A. D. 1500 to ITOO. 

 Shortly after the departure of the field party, the Oldham site went 

 under water and will continue to be flooded throughout the indefinite 

 future. 



The second party in the Fort Randall area under Paul L. Cooper 

 continued its intensive sampling operations until September 20. Dur- 

 ing the season 13 sites ranging from the Woodland to the historic pe- 

 riods were studied. The sites varied from small temporary camps 

 to the remains of extensive earth-lodge villages. Several cultural 

 traditions are represented in the material obtained from them. Mr. 

 Cooper had planned to dig at several additional locations but the rising 

 waters of the reservoir prevented his doing so. 



During the period the two field parties from the Missouri Basin 

 Project were engaged in the Fort Randall area, a third party repre- 

 senting the Nebraska State Historical Society, led by Marvin F. 

 Kivett, and working under an agreement with the National Park 

 Service, excavated at Crow Creek Village site. The imposing re- 

 mains of that former fortified earth-lodge village have been well 

 known to students for many years, but it was not until the summer 

 of 1954 and excavations were under way that the presence of a second 



