Molstad Village, designated by the

Smithsonian trinomial A Smithsonian trinomial (formally the Smithsonian Institution Trinomial System, abbreviated SITS) is a unique identifier assigned to archaeological sites in many states in the United States. They are composed of one or two digits coding for the sta ...

39DW234, is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

in Dewey County,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, near the city of Mobridge. It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1964. The site contains the remains of a small fortified Native America village, consisting of earth lodges surrounded by a bastioned palisade, with further lodges scattered in the area outside the fortification. Evidence gathered at the site indicates it was occupied for a relatively brief period in the mid-1500s CE, and was assigned to the Chouteau aspect of Middle Missouri taxonomy, later known as the Extended Coalescent phase. Four lodge sites were excavated in the early 1960s, uncovering post holes and cache pits, one of which contained skull-less human remains. Finds at the site included pottery fragments and stone tools. Bone tools were also found, including plows made from

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

shoulder blades. Molstad Village was named after Irene and Oscar Molstad, on whose ranch the village was found. The land belonged to Irene Molstad, a member of the federally recognized Cheyenne River Sioux Nation. She and her husband Oscar operated a cattle ranch, and allowed

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

researches to camp on their land while investing archaeological sites in the area in advance of the creation of

Lake Oahe Lake Oahe () is a large reservoir behind Oahe Dam on the Missouri River; it begins in central South Dakota and continues north into North Dakota in the United States. The lake has an area of and a maximum depth of . By volume, it is the List of l ...

. The Molstad village site was excavated by this team in 1962 under the direction of J. Jake Hoffman. Finds at the site were important in enabling Hoffman to use pottery styles to establish a chronology of regional sites.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota Geography of Dewey County, South Dakota National Historic Landmarks in South Dakota National Register of Historic Places in Dewey County, South Dakota

See also

References