12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Eeduction of funds for fiscal year 1960 necessitated a curtailment 

 of field activities, in comparison with past years, and a shift in the 

 methods of carrying on the salvage program. Despite the accom- 

 plishments of previous years in salvaging archeological values from 

 the many reservoir areas in the Missouri Basin, scores of sites still 

 remain to be studied and the reservoirs are rapidly nearing comple- 

 tion. The enforced reduction of activities presented a critical prob- 

 lem. The shift, or readjustment, in methods of field work seemed 

 the only reasonable expedient to accomplish the mission set out for 

 the Salvage Program. This was a shift from major excavation of 

 key sites and sampling of nearby, related sites, to a mere sampling 

 of both key and secondary sites. This change in emphasis will be 

 satisfactory for at least two seasons because of the earlier work in 

 these same areas when full-scale excavations were possible at a num- 

 ber of key sites. There is a framework of information from exten- 

 sively excavated sites against which the data from the newly sampled 

 sites can be evaluated. There are, however, many major sites, outside 

 the known cultural framework, that promise to provide an abundance 

 of new information if excavated, but little or nothing if only sampled. 

 Another year, these sites must be excavated or lost forever. The 

 sampling approach, in the face of limited field activities, produced 

 worthwhile results in the field seasons of 1959 and 1960. Full-scale 

 excavations of key sites, though, must again be carried on in succeed- 

 ing years. 



At the beginning of the fiscal year. Dr. Warren W. Caldwell and a 

 crew of six were engaged in testing a series of sites in the Big Bend 

 Reservoir area. The specific locality was that of the construction area 

 of the dam along the right bank of the Missouri River in Lyman 

 County, South Dakota, and extending upstream to the area of the old 

 Lower Brule subagency, a distance of approximately 12 miles. Sam- 

 pling investigations were made at 19 of the recorded sites in the area 

 and two new sites were located, recorded, and tested. A variety of 

 cultural manifestations is represented. 



The first group of these sites is located near the mouth of Good Sol- 

 dier Creek in the area where the powerhouse and right abutment for 

 the Big Bend dam is to be built. Site 39LM235 had been partially de- 

 stroyed by landing-ramp construction but was extensively tested in the 

 remaining portions. Site 39LM236 was inundated by extreme high 

 water of the Fort Randall Reservoir and tests made in it in the latter 

 part of the season, after the water had receded, again demonstrated the 

 uselessness of working a site that had been flooded. Sites 39LM237 

 and 39LM238 were examined with limited test pits. All four sites 

 consisted of stratified concentrations of refuse material partially ex- 

 posed in the cut bank along the river and creek. Very little artifact 



