This aerial view shows the proximity of the Awatixa Village or Sakakawea Village on the banks of the Knife River; it once held almost 60 earthlodges. Today, all that remains are the depressions of their earthlodges/NPS

River flows, burrowing rodents, and seeping water all pose a threat to archaeological resources at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, where officials are trying to come up with a solution to better preserve those pieces of history.

The site, located along the banks of the Knife River, a tributary of the Missouri River in central North Dakota, protects and preserves a landscape that was the center of trade for Native American tribes for hundreds of years. Lewis and Clark came through in October 1804 and spent the winter there in a fort they built, and passed back through the village in August 1806 on their return from the Pacific Coast.

A draft Archaeological Resources Management Plan and related environmental impact statement open for public review and comment through January 4, 2017, breaks down the problems and proposes solutions.

• Archaeologists have identified flooding of the Knife River and related erosion as the greatest threats to the park’s archaeological resources. "Substantial portions of the bank of the Knife River have been lost over the past few decades, leading to the irretrievable loss of adjacent village remnants and archeological sites. At least twice in the last decade, massive flood and ice flow events caused serious impacts on riverbanks, archaeological sites, and park infrastructure. Archaeologists have resorted to excavating threatened archaeological deposits at the park to document resources and preserve data before they are lost to erosion."
• Northern pocket gophers that live on site, meanwhile, dislodge archaeological artifacts when burrowing, and that displaces "soil and artifacts from chronologically stratified deposits." (At the same time, the gophers help archaeologists at times by bringing to the surface "important or unusual artifacts that are later placed in the museum collections.")
• Finally, two buildings -- the park's visitor center at maintenance building -- also pose threats to the archaeological resources. The maintenance building is "a visual intrusion in the cultural landscape of the park, particularly for the Big Hidatsa site, one of the park’s most important cultural sites and a primary interpretive site. ... In addition, the maintenance facility is located near burial sites and areas considered sacred by the tribes traditionally associated with the resources present in the park. The tribes consider this an inappropriate intrusion." While the visitor center was located in an area not thought to contain archaeological artifacts, it has a water seepage problem that poses threats to the archaeological resources stored in the building's basement. "Water issues have contributed to fluctuations in the temperature and relative humidity in the storage space, creating the potential for mold growth and damage to museum archives, objects, and records if not resolved."

These child's moccasins are among the artifacts in the basement of the park visitor center at risk to damage due to water seepage/Kurt Repanshek

Addressing these issues requires a number of approaches, the park staff said.

Under the preferred alternative, stabilization projects would be used to prevent additional erosion. Such an approach was used in 2003 to provide "stabilization at the Sakakawea site," and six years later crews rebuilt a stabilization fixture to protect the Taylor Bluff Village.

As for the museum collection in the basement of the visitor center, additional efforts would be made to solve the water seepage problem. Crews currently are installing a waterproofing exterior insulation system and a drainage system as well as applying a new sealant to the building's roof. If those measures don't prove successful, the collections would be moved off-site.

As for the maintenance building, the park's preferred alternative calls for the facility to be located off-site, but if a suitable building can't be found or leased, the existing building would be relocated in the park.

A combination of live trapping, fencing, trapping and "use of fumigants and toxicants" is proposed to deal with the gopher problem.