Huff Village was surrounded on three sides by a fortification system that exemplified civil defense and community preparation for conflict. Inter-village conflict may have been heightened by drought, climatic change, and related population movement. Three sides of the village were protected by a ditch and a palisade wall of closely spaced wooden posts, with ten bastions projecting outward along the wall lines at the corners and at intervals of 180 to 240 feet. A ditch ran just outside the palisade line on three sides of the village; today it is about 15 feet wide and about 2 feet deep, but when the village was occupied it was about 5 feet deep. Dirt removed from the ditch was thrown inside, and the palisade posts were set in this dirt. Building the fortification system required enormous labor and heavy use of local timber resources. Excavation of sections of the palisade wall shows that the posts were about eight inches in diameter and centered about one foot apart, with about 2500 posts used in the wall. The posts probably came from trees that grew along the banks of the Missouri River somewhere near the village. Magnetic readings taken along part of the fortification show numerous circular and oval shapes three to six feet in diameter just inside the palisade wall, probably deep pits used to store corn and other garden crops.