River Basin Surveys Papers, No. 1: Prehistory and the Missouri Valley Development Program, 1948

The Missouri River Basin Survey of the Smithsonian Institution, organized in 1946, continued during calendar year 1948 its archeological and paleontological investigations at Federal water-control projects throughout the watershed of the Missouri. The present report, third in a continuing series, briefly reviews the year's activities in field and laboratory. Although primarily concerned with the work of the River Basin Surveys, it includes also summary statements on the researches of various State agencies cooperating in recovery of scientific materials that might otherwise be lost because of the water-control program. As in previous yearly summaries, this one makes no pretense at complete and final coverage of accomplishments during the period involved. Neither should it be regarded as necessarily representing the opinions and judgments of the staff members and others on whose findings in field and laboratory it is very largely based. It is, in short, a statement of progress during calendar year 1948, at the end of 2% years of sustained work. To that statement have been added certain preliminary generalizations regarding the significance of the findings in the over-all picture of native humau history in the Great Plains and nearby regions.