River Basin Surveys Papers, No. 15: Historic Sites Archeology On the Upper Missouri

Published as a series sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, the “River Basin Surveys Papers” are a collection of archeological investigations focused on areas now flooded by the completion of various dam projects in the United States. The River Basin Surveys Papers (numbered 1-39) were mostly published in bundles with 5-6 papers in each bundle. In collaboration with the United States (US) National Park Service and the US Bureau of Reclamation, the US Department of the Interior, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Smithsonian Institution pulled archeological and paleontological remains from several sites prior to losing access to the sites due to flooding. The Smithsonian Institution calls this project the Inter-Agency Archeological Salvage Program. Paper number 15 is a summary of the Archeology Salvage Program in the upper Missouri River area, including an introduction on the background of the project as well as a history of the area as recorded by European explorers. The paper is relatively short and meant to provide a foundation for the more detailed papers discussing excavation of specific sites in this area.