River Basin Surveys Papers, No. 27: Star Village: a Fortified Historic Arikara Site In Mercer County, North Dakota

As a part of the River Basin Surveys program a field party of the Missouri Basin Project, Smithsonian Institution, conducted excavations at two sites in Mercer County, North Dakota, during the summer of 1951. Funds for the work were provided by the National Park Service. Excavation at the first of these sites, Rock Village (32ME15), had been started in 1950 by a similar unit under the leadership of G.
Ellis Burcaw. Excavation at the second site, Star Village (32ME16), was carried on during the period August 20 to October 25, 1951, most of the time with but a small crew. This site was the last to be occupied by the Arikara prior to their joining the Mandan and Hidatsa at Like-a-Fishhook Village (32ML2). Excavations at the latter site by the State Historical Society of North Dakota during 1950 and 1951 had yielded little pottery and but few objects of strictly aboriginal origin. It was hoped that the Star Village site would yield a good series of artifacts that could be unquestionably assigned to the Arikara. The artifact yield proved to be disappointingly meager and consisted largely of trade goods and of objects which, it is suspected, antedate the village. Data were obtained, however, on details of house construction and village arrangement.