THE PRICE WE'VE PAID: DAMS ALONG THE MISSOURI RIVER
The Missouri basin was home to numerous Native American tribes, that inhabited the valley for millennia. The value and sacredness of these places have been handed down from generation to generation up to the present day.
It is therefore natural to imagine the devastating impact of the massive construction of dams along the entire course of the river, between the 40s and 60s, on the numerous tribes.
Over 800 archaeological sites, sacred places and necropolises have been submerged by the artificial lakes created by the 15 dams. The papers below provide an introduction to the impact of dams on cultural heritage along the Missouri river, while the maps show the location and approximate extension of the six largest ones.
Thiessen, T.D. 1999 . Emergency Archeology in the Missouri River Basin: The Role of the Missouri River Basin Project and the Midwest Archeological Center in the Interagency Archeological Salvation Program, 1946-1975 , Midwest Archeological Center Special Report No. 2 . Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln .
Banks, K., Snortland, J. and Czapliki, J. 2011. The Price We’ve Paid: From Salvage Archaeology to Cultural Resource Management and Beyond in the Missouri River Basin , Plain Anthropologist, 56, 371-385.
Cunliffe, E. L., De Gruchy, M. W., & Stammitti, E. 2012. How to Build a Dam and Save Cultural Heritage. International Journal of Heritage in the Digital Era, 1, 221-226.
Cunliffe, E. L., De Gruchy, M. W., & Stammitti, E. 2012. Dam(ned) archaeology. International Water Power 64, 62-65.