Remote Sensing Investigations at Midipadi Butte (32DU2) and Nightwalker’s Butte (32ML39), North Dakota

Summary

As part of a flood assessment effort in collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the South Dakota State Historical Society, archaeo-geophysicists from the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas performed remote sensing investigations in 2014 at fifteen sites along the Missouri River in North and South Dakota. Among these are Midipadi and Nightwalker, two related late eighteenth to early nineteenth century Hidatsa sites located on opposite sides of Lake Sakakawea. We performed magnetic gradiometry, electromagnetic induction (yielding conductivity and magnetic susceptibility), and UAV-based aerial surveys at the sites. The integrated datasets provide contrasting results. At Nightwalker’s Butte the imagery clearly indicates the extent of Smithsonian Institution River Basin Surveys excavations as well as the presence of unexcavated features. The impact of erosion is made apparent at Midipadi. However, our geophysical surveys reveal many previously unknown features, including numerous lodges as well as a possible palisade, significantly changing our understanding of the site. Remote sensing efforts such as this one demonstrate how spatial technologies may be implemented in large-scale resource management and research contexts.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Those Dam Sites: Recent Archaeological Research in the Dakotas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage