EIGHTIETH ANNUAL REPORT 19 



edge of Mobridge and started digging on the Davis site (390014) at 

 the west end of the Mobridge bridge. They had begun there the 

 previous season and by the end of the year were well along with the 

 excavations. They had also dug the last unexcavated lodge at the 

 adjacent Eed Horse site (390034) that Bowers's crew excavated in 

 the 1962 season. 



One historic-sites party was in the field at the end of the year, 

 having begun work on June 14. This party, directed by G. Hubert 

 Smith, was searching for some of the more obscure historic sites in the 

 Big Bend Eeservoir area, such as Loisel's Trading Post, Fort 

 Defiance-Bouis, and the Eed Oloud Agency. If they find any of these 

 sites they will begin a program of excavations. By the end of the 

 year Smith had devoted considerable time to searching records in 

 various historical files both in Pierre and at Fort Pierre. 



Three crews excavating prehistoric sites in the Big Bend area also 

 began work on June 14. John J. Hoffman and a crew of 11 were at 

 work at the end of the year on the series of sites, in the southeast cor- 

 ner of Lyman Oounty on the right bank of the Missouri some 20 miles 

 below Pierre, known as the "La Eoche Sites." There, each of several 

 sites has been called "La Eoche" and much interpretation has been 

 based on a concept of "La Eoche." Hoffman's party was to excavate 

 each of the sites and endeavor to identify some one element as La 

 Eoche and correlate the others with it. By the end of the year ex- 

 cavations were well under way in 39ST9, the site which W. H. Over 

 many years ago designated as La Eoche. 



The second Big Bend field party was directed by William J. Folan, 

 who joined the Smithsonian Institution staff, for the summer season, 

 from Southern Illinois University. This crew of eight camped with 

 the Hoffman crew and was directing its attention to the same problem. 

 The two crews started together on the same site so that they would 

 begin with the same orientation. By the end of the year Folan's crew 

 was ready to move its operations to one of the other related sites in 

 the area. All the sites appear to represent villages of late circular 

 houses, or at least have one component of this "La Eoche" trait. 



The third Big Bend field party was directed by Eichard E. Jensen. 

 It consisted of a crew of 11 and was camped on the left bank of the 

 Missouri in the "pocket" of the Big Bend, some 40 miles by road below 

 Pierre. It was to conduct excavations in a series of circular-house vil- 

 lages nearby. By the end of the year progress had been made in work 

 on the remains of an extensive, diffuse village, .39HU213. Widespread 

 test trenching and the excavation of cache pits, middens, and a multiple 

 burial had been completed. 



Dr. William M. Bass of the University of Kansas, and an assistant, 

 Walter Birkby of the same institution, joined the Missouri Basin 



