Three years of intensive excavations at the Big Black site--named after a 19th century Awatixa Hidatsa medicine bundle owner--have revealed multiple Folsom occupational levels. In this volume, individual contributors present their analyses of nearly a thousand stone tools that were found during the study, including over two hundred Folsom points, pre-forms, and channel flakes.With U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service support and assistance, the excavations at the Big Black site were part of a multi-year archaeology investigation of the Lake Ilo National Wildlife Refuge in western North Dakota. These comprehensive investigations also included work at the nearby Bobtail Wolf site. Along with a companion volume reporting on the Bobtail Wolf site, The Big Black Site (32DU955C) study presents essential new information on Paleoindian adaptations.

For the companion study, see Matthew J. Root, ed., The Archaeology of the Bobtail Wolf Site: Folsom Occupation of the Knife River Flint Quarry Area, North Dakota (Pullman: Washington State University Press, 2000).