One such hamlet or family homestead of Bossier people is under study at the Montgomery site in upper Webster Parish at the Springhill Airport (Webb and Jeane 1977). The people seem to have lived here long enough for their thatched roof, clay-daubed houses to have been repaired and relocated a number of times, leaving numerous post molds. Their simple tools and arrow points were made of local cherts; ornaments are missing and polished stone tools are rare. Residues of gathered or hunted food stuffs are present: hickory nuts, acorns, persimmons, mussels, turtle, fish, and deer bones. No corn, beans, or pumpkin seeds have been found, but they must have grown these crops and probably did so in gardens rather than in fields. Their pottery, as shown by broken sherds, ranged from rough culinary or storage pots to nicely engraved bowls and red-surfaced or engraved bottles. [Illustration: Bossier Focus pottery from Mill Creek site, Lake Bistineau. Photos courtesy of Sergeant O. H. Davis.] A Bossier group of higher culture lived along Willow Chute, an old Red River channel in the valley east of Bossier City. Farming homesteads and hamlets are strung along its course and two large mounds—Vanceville and Werner—mark the Bossier ceremonial centers. Beneath the Werner mound, destroyed in the 1930’s, were the ruins of an immense lodge which was circular with a projecting entrance. The entire lodge measured eighty by ninety feet. It was probably ceremonial, or the lodge of a _Caddi_ (chief), as few arrows, tools, or personal possessions were found. There were quantities of deer and other animal bones, fish and turtle bones, and mussel shells. Broken pottery in large amounts denoted feasts and the ceramics were of exceptional quality. No burials or whole vessels were found. Each lateral lake along Red River—Black Bayou, Caddo, Wallace, Clear, and Smithport lakes on the west side; Bodcau, Bistineau, Swan, and Black lakes on the east—has Bossier period sites around its margins. Occupations continue westward to Sabine River and into eastern Texas, southward almost to Catahoula Lake, eastward along D’Arbonne and Corney bayous toward the Ouachita, and northward into Arkansas. Either late Bossier or Belcher people could have been in the populous Naguatex district described by the De Soto chroniclers, encountered just before the Spaniards crossed Red River. BELCHER FOCUS The Belcher mound site, in Red River Valley about twenty miles north of Shreveport, gives its name to this Caddo culture period. Radiocarbon dates at the site and comparisons with other cultures suggest that the Belcher Focus began about A.D. 1400 and lasted into the 17th century. During its beginning. Belcher culture probably overlapped and coexisted with Bossier culture.