Show find indian fort with stockade Mil itry ry engineering used by reds before white man arrived NEW YORK american indians indian discovered and used some of the modern principles of military engineering long before the coming of the white man according to prof W duncan strong of the department of anthropology of columbia university in a report on cical studies of the northern great plains of america conducting the first extensive exploration of a prehistoric indian fort more than years old dr strong and his associates examined the remains of indians who inhabited parts of south dakota during the seventeenth century the construction of the moat and stockade surrounding the fortified village makes it apparent that the indians had some knowledge of engineering before their contact with european settlers dr strong says the design of the fortifications proved to be distinctly indian in origin the tribe which lived chiefly by farming apparently built the fort as a protection against bands of ma nomad hunters the survey of indian villages in the upper missouri river valley where the prehistoric fort was discovered was made in conjunction with the university of south dakota moat around village approximately 1500 indians had lived in a village surrounded by wooden stockades and a moat one and one half miles in circumference professor strong reports excavations show that the ditch which at present is one foot in depth was originally filled with water four feet deep the wooden stockades closely resemble the forts built later by the whites the fortifications built by the settlers had blockhouses jutting from each corner that because the europeans possessed rifles L enabled the defenders to guard the outside of the walls since the arrows of the indians had a much shorter range ranae than the rifles the fort constructed ted by the red men had bastions projecting from the side of the stockade about every yards so that the indians could shoot their arrows along the walls two types of houses aw within athin the fortification were shallow circular depressions marking the places where the earth lodges of the indians had been four of these depressions were excavated to determine the type of houses used it was found that the inhabitants lived in both a round and a rectangular type of building they were constructed with a timber framework over which rafters and finally a layer of earth had been placed absence of any material made by europeans shows that the village was abandoned before the traders had made their way into the region region hoes made of the shoulder blades of buffaloes and charred corn showed that agriculture was practiced while bone fishhooks and numerous bones of game animals indicated that hunting and bishin fishing aag were also important economic activities tivi ties A second indian village in the same region was excavated and the iron fish hooks and scraps of brass found in the cache pits prove that the villa village e was occupied after trade with the whites had begun in the missouri valley the second village was probably built by the tribe in the latter part of the eighteenth century |