SIXTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 19 



Reservoir project on the Missouri River a few miles above Pierre, 

 S. Dak. On the basis of findings by that unit, it appears unhkely 

 that remains of any great importance to archeology will be lost at 

 Heart Butte. At Oahe, 61 sites were recorded between Pierre and 

 the Cheyenne River, a distance of about 40 miles. They include some 

 of the largest, best preserved, and most impressive Indian village re- 

 mains in the Missoin-i Basin. Most of them are virtually untouched 

 by trained archeologists and, with one or two possible exceptions, none 

 has been adequately tested by excavation. Five of the sites will be 

 affected almost as soon as construction work begins on the dam site, 

 the access roads, and the raihoad classification yards. Hence, 

 salvage operations will be necessary at an early date. Because of the 

 abundance and variety of remains, comprehensive excavation has 

 been recommended to begin soon and to be carried forward vigorously 

 so that a representative sample of the materials to be affected by Oahe 

 Reservoir may be saved. 



From November 9 to 24 Cooper and Shippee excavated a burial 

 mound in the spillway area of Fort Randall Dam, South Dakota. The 

 Corps of Engineers provided a bulldozer and operator as needed, and 

 assisted in numerous other ways. Without that cooperation, the 

 work there would not have been possible. The findings, although not 

 spectacular, are important because burial mounds are extremely rare 

 on that portion of the Missouri, and their temporal and cultural 

 relationships to other archeological complexes of the region can be 

 determined, if at ail, only through controlled excavations by trained 

 investigators. 



A paleontological unit under Dr. T. E. White was in the field from 

 July 1 to October 1. It worked at the Boysen Reservoir, Wyoming; 

 in the Canyon Ferry Reservoir area on the Missouri River north of 

 Townsend, Mont.; at the Angostura Reservoir, South Dakota; and at 

 the Cedar Bluff Reservoir on the Smoky Hill River in Kansas. 



Limited field work was resumed in the spring. Richard P. Wheeler, 

 archeologist, left Lincoln on May 27 for preliminary reconnaissance 

 at several hitherto un visited reservoir projects and for further survey 

 of others previously examined in preliminary fashion. Projects 

 visited by Wheeler prior to June 30 include Rocky Ford, Philip, Bixby, 

 and Shadehill, in South Dakota; Cannonball and Dickinson, in North 

 Dakota; Moorhead, in Wyoming-Montana, and Onion Flat in 

 Wyoming. 



Among the particularly gratifying features of the year's field work 

 were the results achieved through use of power machinery and the 

 direct cooperation extended by the Bureau of Reclamation at Medicine 

 Creek and by the Corps of Engineers at Fort Randall Reservoir. 

 Such cooperative work, in terms of research accomplished, is the most 



