East Rainy Butte 


In the summer of 2000, PaleoCultural Research Group of Flagstaff, AZ conducted a testing project on the north slope of East Rainy Butte. Dr. Stan Ahler was the Principal Investigator on the project with Bob Gardner as Crew Chief.  Chad Badorek of PCRG and Dave Gardner, a student at the U.S. Naval Academy were the main crew members, while Jim, Dan and Larry Gardner, brothers of Bob, provided invaluable physical, financial and logistical aide to the project. Dr. Vance Haynes made a visit to the site to study the geology and take dirt samples to determine the age of the deposits.

The land is owned by Kenny Urlacher of East Rainy Butte Ranch, who along with Cheryl, Bryce, Julie and Destiny, provided the necessary permissions and who show continuing interest in the study and preservation of East Rainy Butte.  They have been receptive to many different groups making visits to the butte, including several University of North Dakota Field Schools which have made field trips here.  In addition, a previous testing project was conducted as part of an UND Field School conducted by Dr. Larry Loendorf.  A  unpublished report was written by Dr. Joseph Alan Artz about the artifacts and faunal assemblage of this field school.  John Hoganson and other members of the North Dakota Geological Survey and also scientists from the University of North Dakota have done a study on the paleontology and geology of the butte as well.

Historical Background
There is little published on the history of the Rainy Buttes, yet given their distinctive profile on a flat Dakota plain leave no doubt that they have been a landmark for millennia.  . An early ethnographic account retold in The Lance and the Shield by Robert Utley mentions a battle north of the  Rainy Buttes between the Sioux and the Crow in which Standing Bull, the father of Sitting Bull, dies.  The buttes also figure prominently in the Earth Naming Ceremony of the Hidatsas and are sacred to that tribe.  The Hidatsas believe that East Rainy Butte is the location where the elk first came and Middle Rainy (Old Baldy) is the ancestral home of the eagles.  Stone circles, Eagle Trapping pits, and multi-component campsites show evidence of the long Native American occupation of the butte.  There are several references to the Rainy Buttes in Alfred W. Bower's Hidatsa Social and Ceremonial Organization and also in his Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization.

An immigrant party led by Captain James L. Fisk passed north of  the butte on the way to Montana gold fields and was besieged near present-day Marmarth for two weeks; members of the party constructed sod breastworks now known as Fort Dilts.

In 1868 Father DeSmet with Galpin and a group of Sioux as guides left Fr. Rice at the mouth of the Cannonball and traveled west passing north of Rainy Buttes.  They camped on the Cannonball River and sent a small party to the buttes to visit an unnamed village there.  Galpin states in his journal that he wrote his name on a boulder.
Much later, in the days of early ranching, the butte was used by local cowboys as a beacon for guiding trail herds.  The Texas cattle trail for the E-6 Ranch, one of the largest local ranches, ran between East and West Rainy as the cowboys headed for the ranch headquarters in E-6 township.

Archaeological Investigation
A number of 1x1 meter test pits were dug in an area west of the big spring on the north slope of East Rainy, approximately 30 meters below the cap rock.  Previous survey by UND field crews and independent survey by Bob and Dave Gardner revealed a potential paleo component in this area.  Broad, thin bifaces made of both Knife River Flint and gray porcellanite were found eroding out of an old cut for a stock dam.  The initial test pit was located an arbitrary 10 meters west of the cut on what appeared to be undisturbed soil.  This pit was taken to a depth of 70 cm. with a small number of artifacts recovered.  A variety of types of stone flakes was recovered including significant percentages of  Tongue River Silicified Sediment, Rainy Butte Silicified Sediment and Knife River Flint.

One research objective was to try and discover possible trade or physical connection with localities both north and south of the buttes. In 1982, a Folsom point made of Rainy Butte Silicified Sediment, a material only found locally, was discovered by crews  from UNDAR West at Lake Ilo National Wildlife Refuge 60 miles NNE of the butte as illustrated on this map.
 

THE DIG


Sunset on West Rainy Butte on the Last Day