Prehistoric Houses Along the Middle Missouri River

This document presents a general survey of prehistoric houses found along the Middle Missouri River. Photographs and descriptions of location, construction and use of these structures is included. The Archaeological Salvage Program urges the excavation and documentation of these sites to add to what is already known concerning the history of the land and its prehistoric occupation.
Salvage archaeology has progressed rapidly in the great reservoir areas of the Missouri River during the last fifteen years. A wealth of information concerning the prehistoric peoples of the Northern Plains s known to us. Much work remains to be done, but certain aspects of the human prehistory can now be explained with some degree of confidence. Among these are the houses built and occupied by Indians who lived along the Middle Missouri River over 1,500 years before the coming of the White man.
The structures referred to are true houses, as opposed to temporary or portable shelters such as wickiups and pole shelters or the well- known tipi of the Northern Plains Indian. Houses represent a settled, occupation; a relatively long period of time spent in a certain locale. This may be only a few months or it may be several years. In any event, the evidence left by the structural remains leads the archeologist to infer that the house builders had a definite affinity for the land that they occupied. For the most part, house builders on the Northern Plains were part-time farmers. Their successful cultivation of corn, squash and beans demanded that they spend considerable periods in one place.