diff options
58 files changed, 17 insertions, 15793 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..195704a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60313 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60313) diff --git a/old/60313-0.txt b/old/60313-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index db42674..0000000 --- a/old/60313-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7337 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, by -Gilbert Livingstone Wilson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians - An Indian Interpretation - -Author: Gilbert Livingstone Wilson - -Contributor: Albert Ernest Jenks -Frederick N. Wilson - -Release Date: September 17, 2019 [EBook #60313] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS *** - - - - -Produced by MFR, K Nordquist and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - - The University of Minnesota - - STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES NUMBER 9 - - AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS - AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION - - BY - GILBERT LIVINGSTONE WILSON, Ph.D. - - [Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA] - - MINNEAPOLIS - Bulletin of the University of Minnesota - November 1917 - - PRICE: 75 CENTS - - - - -RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA - - -These publications contain the results of research work from various -departments of the University and are offered for exchange with -universities, scientific societies, and other institutions. Papers will -be published as separate monographs numbered in several series. There -is no stated interval of publication. Application for any of these -publications should be made to the University Librarian. - - -STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES - -1. THOMPSON AND WARBER, Social and Economic Survey of a Rural Township in -Southern Minnesota. 1913. $0.50. - -2. MATTHIAS NORDBERG ORFIELD, Federal Land Grants to the States, with -Special Reference to Minnesota. 1915. $1.00. - -3. EDWARD VAN DYKE ROBINSON, Early Economic Conditions and the -Development of Agriculture in Minnesota. 1915. $1.50. - -4. L. D. H. WELD AND OTHERS, Studies in the Marketing of Farm Products. -1915. $0.50. - -5. BEN PALMER, Swamp Land Drainage, with Special Reference to Minnesota. -1915. $0.50. - -6. ALBERT ERNEST JENKS, Indian-White Amalgamation: An Anthropometric -Study. 1916. $0.50. - -7. C. D. ALLIN, A History of the Tariff Relations of the Australian -Colonies. In press. - -8. FRANCES H. RELF, The Petition of Right. In press. - -9. GILBERT L. WILSON, Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian -Interpretation. 1917. $0.75. - -10. NOTESTEIN AND RELF, _Editors_, Commons Debates for 1629. In press. - -11. RAYMOND A. KENT, State Aid to Public Schools. In press. - - -STUDIES IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS - -1. FRANKFORTER AND FRARY, Equilibria in Systems Containing Alcohols, -Salts, and Water. 1912. $0.50. - -2. FRANKFORTER AND KRITCHEVSKY, A New Phase of Catalysis. 1914. $0.50. - - -STUDIES IN ENGINEERING - -1. GEORGE ALFRED MANEY, Secondary Stresses and Other Problems in Rigid -Frames: A New Method of Solution. 1915. $0.25. - -2. CHARLES FRANKLIN SHOOP, An Investigation of the Concrete Road-Making -Properties of Minnesota Stone and Gravel. 1915. $0.25. - -3. FRANKLIN R. MCMILLAN, Shrinkage and Time Effects in Reinforced -Concrete. 1915. $0.25. - -(Continued inside back cover) - - - - -[Illustration: Maxi´diwiac, or Buffalobird-woman - -Photographed in 1910] - - - - - The University of Minnesota - - STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES NUMBER 9 - - AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS - AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION - - BY - GILBERT LIVINGSTONE WILSON, Ph.D. - - [Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA] - - MINNEAPOLIS - Bulletin of the University of Minnesota - November 1917 - - COPYRIGHT 1917 - BY THE - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA - - - - -PREFACE - - -The field of primitive economic activity has been largely left -uncultivated by both economists and anthropologists. The present study -by Mr. Gilbert L. Wilson is an attempt to add to the scanty knowledge -already at hand on the subject of the economic life of the American -Indian. - -The work was begun without theory or thesis, but solely with the object -of gathering available data from an old woman expert agriculturist in -one of the oldest agricultural tribes accessible to a student of the -University of Minnesota. That the study has unexpectedly revealed certain -varieties of maize of apparently great value to agriculture in the -semi-arid areas west of Minnesota is a cause of satisfaction to both Mr. -Wilson and myself. This fact again emphasizes the wisdom of research work -in our universities. When, now and then, such practical dollar-and-cent -results follow such purely scientific researches, the wonder is that -university research work is not generously endowed by businesses which -largely profit by these researches. - -It is the intention of those interested in the anthropological work of -the University of Minnesota that occasional publications will be issued -by the University on anthropological subjects, although at present -there is no justification for issuing a consecutive series. The present -study is the second one in the anthropological field published by the -University. The earlier one is number 6 in the _Studies in the Social -Sciences_, issued March, 1916. - - ALBERT ERNEST JENKS - _Professor of Anthropology_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGES - - Foreword 1-5 - - Chapter I—Tradition 6-8 - - Chapter II—Beginning a garden 9-15 - - Turtle 9 - Clearing fields 9 - Dispute and its settlement 10 - Turtle breaking soil 11 - Turtle’s primitive tools 12 - Beginning a field in later times 13 - Trees in the garden 15 - Our west field 15 - Burning over the field 15 - - Chapter III—Sunflowers 16-21 - - Remark by Maxi´diwiac 16 - Planting sunflowers 16 - Varieties 16 - Harvesting the seed 17 - Threshing 18 - Harvesting the mapi´-na´ka 18 - Effect of frost 18 - Parching the seed 19 - Four-vegetables-mixed 19 - Sunflower-seed balls 21 - - Chapter IV—Corn 22-67 - - Planting 22 - A morning’s planting 23 - Soaking the seed 23 - Planting for a sick woman 24 - Size of our biggest field 24 - Na´xu and nu´cami 25 - Hoeing 26 - The watchers’ stage 26 - Explanation of sketch of watchers’ stage 28 - Sweet Grass’s sun shade 30 - The watchers 30 - Booths 31 - Eating customs 32 - Youths’ and maidens’ customs 33 - Watchers’ songs 33 - Clan cousins’ custom 34 - Story of Snake-head-ornament 35 - - Green corn and its uses 36-41 - The ripening ears 36 - Second planting for green corn 37 - Cooking fresh green corn 37 - Roasting ears 37 - Mätu´a-la´kapa 38 - Corn bread 38 - Drying green corn for winter 39 - - Mapë´di (corn smut) 42 - Mapë´di 42 - Harvest and uses 42 - - The ripe corn harvest 42-47 - Husking 42 - Rejecting green ears 44 - Braiding corn 45 - The smaller ears 46 - Drying the braided ears 47 - - Seed corn 47-49 - Selecting the seed 47 - Keeping two years’ seed 48 - - Threshing corn 49-58 - The booth 49 - Order of the day’s work 52 - The cobs 53 - Winnowing 54 - Removing the booth 55 - Threshing braided corn 57 - Amount of harvest 57 - Sioux purchasing corn 58 - - Varieties of corn 58-60 - Description of varieties 58 - How corn travels 59 - - Uses of the varieties 60-67 - Atạ´ki tso´ki 60 - Mäpi´ nakapa´ 60 - Mä´nakapa 61 - Atạ´ki 62 - Boiled corn ball 62 - Tsï´di tso´ki and tsï´di tapa´ 62 - Mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a 63 - Other soft varieties 63 - Ma´ikadicakĕ 63 - Mä´pĭ mĕĕ´pĭi’´kiuta, or corn balls 63 - Parched soft corn 64 - Parching whole ripe ears 64 - Parching hard yellow corn with sand 64 - Mạdạpo´zi pạ´kici, or lye-made hominy 64 - General characteristics of the varieties 65 - Fodder yield 66 - Developing new varieties 66 - - Sport ears 67 - Names and description 67 - Na’´ta-tawo´xi 67 - Wi´da-aka´ta 67 - I´ta-ca´ca 67 - Okĕi´jpita 67 - I´tica´kupadi 67 - - Chapter V—Squashes 68-81 - - Planting squashes 68 - Sprouting the seed 68 - Planting the sprouted seed 69 - Harvesting the squashes 69 - Slicing the squashes 70 - Squash spits 71 - Spitting the slices 72 - In case of rain 73 - Drying and storing 73 - Squash blossoms 75 - - Cooking and uses of squash 76 - The first squashes 76 - Boiling fresh squash in a pot 76 - Squashes boiled with blossoms 77 - Other blossom messes 77 - Boiled blossoms 77 - Blossoms boiled with mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a 77 - Blossoms boiled with mäpi´ nakapa´ 78 - - Seed squashes 78-81 - Selecting for seed 78 - Gathering the seed squashes 78 - Cooking the ripe squashes 79 - Saving the seed 79 - Eating the seeds 80 - Roasting ripe squashes 80 - Storing the unused seed squashes 80 - Squashes, present seed 81 - Squash dolls 81 - - Chapter VI—Beans 82-86 - - Planting beans 82 - Putting in the seeds 82 - Hoeing and cultivating 83 - Threshing 83 - Varieties 84 - Selecting seed beans 85 - Cooking and uses 85 - Ama´ca di´hĕ, or beans-boiled 86 - Green beans boiled in the pod 86 - Green corn and beans 86 - - Chapter VII—Storing for winter 87-97 - - The cache pit 87 - Grass for lining 88 - Grass bundles 89 - The grass binding rope 89 - Drying the grass bundles 89 - The willow floor 89 - The grass lining 90 - Skin bottom covering 90 - Storing the cache pit 90 - The puncheon cover 93 - - Cache pits in Small Ankle’s lodge 95 - First account 95 - A second account on another day 96 - Diagram of Small Ankle’s lodge 97 - - Chapter VIII—The making of a drying stage 98-104 - - Stages in Like-a-fishhook village 98 - Cutting the timbers 98 - Digging the post holes 99 - Raising the frame 100 - The floor 100 - Staying thongs 101 - Ladder 101 - Enlarging the stage 102 - Present stages 102 - Building, women’s work 102 - Measurements of stage 103 - Drying rods 104 - Other uses of the drying stage 104 - - Chapter IX—Tools 105-106 - - Hoe 105 - Rakes 105 - Squash knives 106 - - Chapter X—Fields at Like-a-fishhook village 108-112 - - East-side fields 108 - East-side fences 108 - Idikita´c’s garden 110 - Fields west of the village 110 - West-side fence 111 - Crops, our first wagon 112 - - Chapter XI—Miscellanea 113-118 - - Divisions between gardens 113 - Fallowing, ownership of gardens 113 - Frost in the gardens 115 - Maxi´diwiac’s philosophy of frost 115 - Men helping in the field 115 - Sucking the sweet juice 116 - Corn as fodder for horses 116 - Disposition of weeds 116 - The spring clean-up 116 - Manure 117 - Worms 117 - Wild animals 117 - About old tent covers 118 - - Chapter XII—Since white men came 119-120 - - How we got potatoes and other vegetables 119 - The new cultivation 120 - Iron kettles 120 - - Chapter XIII—Tobacco 121-127 - - Observations by Maxi´diwiac 121 - The tobacco garden 121 - Planting 122 - Arrow-head-earring’s tobacco garden 122 - Small Ankle’s cultivation 122 - Harvesting the blossoms 123 - Harvesting the plants 124 - Selling to the Sioux 125 - Size of tobacco garden 126 - Customs 126 - - Accessories to the tobacco garden 126-127 - Fence 126 - The scrotum basket 127 - - Old garden sites near Independence 129 - - - - -HIDATSA ALPHABET - - - a as a in what - e ” ai ” air - i ” i ” pique - o ” o ” tone - u ” u ” rule - - ä ” a ” father - ë ” ey ” they - ï ” i ” machine - - ạ ” u ” hut - ĕ ” e ” met - ĭ ” i ” tin - - c ” sh ” shun - x ” ch ” machen (German) - j ” ch ” mich (German) - z ” z ” azure - - b, d, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, as in English - b, w, interchangeable with m - n, l, r, interchangeable with d - - An apostrophe (’) marks a short, nearly inaudible breathing. - -Native Hidatsa words in this thesis are written in the foregoing -alphabet. This does not apply to the tribal names Hidatsa, Mandan, -Dakota, Arikara, Minitari. - - - - -AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION - - - - -FOREWORD - - -The Hidatsas, called Minitaris by the Mandans, are a Siouan linguistic -tribe. Their language is closely akin to that of the Crows with whom -they claim to have once formed a single tribe; a separation, it is said, -followed a quarrel over a slain buffalo. - -The name Hidatsa was formerly borne by one of the tribal villages. The -other villages consolidated with it, and the name was adopted as that -of the tribe. The name is said to mean “willows,” and it was given the -village because the god Itsikama´hidic promised that the villagers should -become as numerous as the willows of the Missouri river. - -Tradition says that the tribe came from Miniwakan, or Devils Lake, in -what is now North Dakota; and that migrating west, they met the Mandans -at the mouth of the Heart River. The two tribes formed an alliance and -attempted to live together as one people. Quarrels between their young -men caused the tribes to separate, but the Mandans loyally aided their -friends to build new villages a few miles from their own. How long the -two tribes dwelt at the mouth of the Heart is not known. They were found -there with the Arikaras about 1765. In 1804 Lewis and Clark found the -Hidatsas in three villages at the mouth of the Knife River, and the -Mandans in two villages a few miles lower down on the Missouri. - -In 1832 the artist Catlin visited the two tribes, remaining with them -several months. A year later Maximilian of Wied visited them with the -artist Bodmer. Copies of Bodmer’s sketches, in beautiful lithograph, -are found in the library of the Minnesota Historical Society. Catlin’s -sketches, also in lithograph, are in the Minneapolis Public Library. - -Smallpox nearly exterminated the Mandans in 1837-8, not more than 150 -persons surviving. The same epidemic reduced the Hidatsas to about 500 -persons. The remnants of the two tribes united and in 1845 removed up -the Missouri and built a village at Like-a-fishhook bend close to the -trading post of Fort Berthold. They were joined by the Arikaras in 1862. -Neighboring lands were set apart as a reservation for them; and there the -three tribes, now settled on allotments, still dwell. - -The Mandans and Hidatsas have much intermarried. By custom children -speak usually the language of their mother, but understand perfectly the -dialect of either tribe. - -In 1877 Washington Matthews, for several years government physician to -the Fort Berthold Reservation Indians, published a short description -of Hidatsa-Mandan culture and a grammar and vocabulary of the Hidatsa -language.[1] More extensive notes intended by him for publication were -destroyed by fire. - -In 1902 the writer was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church -of Mandan, North Dakota. In ill health, he was advised by his physician -to purchase pony and gun and seek the open; but spade and pick plied -among the old Indian sites in the vicinity proved more interesting. A -considerable collection of archaeological objects was accumulated, a part -of which now rests in the shelves of the Minnesota Historical Society; -the rest will shortly be placed in the collections of the American Museum -of Natural History. - -In 1906 the writer and his brother, Frederick N. Wilson, an artist, -and E. R. Steinbrueck drove by wagon from Mandan to Independence, -Fort Berthold reservation. The trip was made to obtain sketches for -illustrating a volume of stories, since published.[2] At Independence the -party made the acquaintance of Edward Goodbird, his mother Maxi´diwiac, -and the latter’s brother Wolf Chief. A friendship was thus begun which -has been of the greatest value to the writer of this paper. - -A year later Mr. George G. Heye sent the writer to Fort Berthold -reservation to collect objects of Mandan-Hidatsa culture. Among those -that were obtained was a rare old medicine shrine. Description of this -shrine and Wolf Chief’s story of its origin have been published.[3] - -In 1908 the writer and his brother, both now resident in Minneapolis, -were sent by Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of anthropology, American Museum -of Natural History, to begin cultural studies among the Hidatsas. This -work, generously supported by the Museum, has been continued by the -writer each succeeding summer. His reports, preparations to edit which -are now being made, will appear in the Museum’s publications. - -In February, 1910, the writer was admitted as a student in the Graduate -School, University of Minnesota, majoring in Anthropology. At suggestion -of his adviser, Dr. Albert E. Jenks, and with permission of Dr. Wissler, -he chose for his thesis subject, _Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: -An Indian Interpretation_. It was the adviser’s opinion that such a -study held promise of more than usual interest. Most of the tribes in -the eastern area of what is now the United States practiced agriculture. -It is well known that maize, potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, beans, sweet -potatoes, cotton, tobacco, and other familiar plants were cultivated -by Indians centuries before Columbus. Early white settlers learned the -value of the new food plants, but have left us meager accounts of the -native methods of tillage; and the Indians, driven from the fields of -their fathers, became roving hunters; or adopting iron tools, forgot -their primitive implements and methods. The Hidatsas and Mandans, shut -in their stockaded villages on the Missouri by the hostile Sioux, were -not able to abandon their fields if they would. Living quite out of the -main lines of railroad traffic, they remained isolated and with culture -almost unchanged until about 1885, when their village at Fort Berthold -was broken up. It seemed probable that a carefully prepared account of -Hidatsa agriculture might very nearly describe the agriculture practiced -by our northern tribes in pre-Columbian days. It was hoped that this -thesis might be such an account. - -But the writer is a student of anthropology; and his interest in the -preparation of his thesis could not be that of an agriculturist. The -question arose at the beginning of his labors, Shall the materials of -this thesis be presented as a study merely in primitive agriculture, or -as a phase of material culture interpreting something of the inner life, -of the soul, of an Indian? It is the latter aim that the writer endeavors -to accomplish. - -But again came up a question, By what plan may this best be done? -The more usual way would be to collect exhaustively facts from -available informants; sift from them those facts that are typical and -representative; and present these, properly grouped, with the collector’s -interpretation of them. But for his purpose and aim, it has seemed to -the writer that the type choice should be human; that is, instead of -seeking typical facts from multiple sources, he should rather seek a -typical informant, a representative agriculturist—presumably a woman—of -the Indian group to be studied, and let the informant interpret her -agricultural experiences in her own way. We might thus expect to learn -how much one Indian woman knew of agriculture; what she did as an -agriculturist and what were her motives for doing; and what proportion of -her thought and labor were given to her fields. - -After consulting both Indians and whites resident on the reservation, the -writer chose for typical or representative informant, his interpreter’s -mother, Maxi´diwiac. - -The writer’s summer visit of 1912 to Fort Berthold Reservation was -planned to obtain material for his thesis. His brother again accompanied -him, and for the expenses of the trip a grant of $500 was made by -Curator Wissler. This trip the writer will remember as one of the -pleasantest experiences of his life. The generous interest of Dr. Jenks -and Dr. Wissler in his plans was equaled by the faithful coöperation -of interpreter and informant. The writer and his brother arrived at -the reservation in the beginning of corn harvest. As already stated, -Maxi´diwiac was the principal informant, and her account was taken down -almost literally as translated by Goodbird. Models of tools, drying -stage, and other objects pertaining to agriculture were made and -photographed, and sketched. Before the harvest closed notes were obtained -which furnished the material for the greater part of this thesis. - -In the summers of 1913, 1914, and 1915, additional matter was recovered. -Previously written notes were read to Maxi´diwiac and corrections made. - -In addition to the museum’s annual grant of $250, Dean A. F. Woods, -Department of Agriculture, University of Minnesota, in 1914 contributed -$60 for photographing, and collecting specimens of Hidatsa corn; and Mr. -M. L. Wilson of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Bozeman, Montana, -obtained for the writer a grant of $50 for like purposes. - -A few words should now be said of informant and interpreter. Maxi´diwiac, -or Buffalobird-woman, is a daughter of Small Ankle, a leader of the -Hidatsas in the trying time of the tribe’s removal to what is now Fort -Berthold reservation. She was born on one of the villages at Knife River -two years after the “smallpox year,” or about 1839. She is a conservative -and sighs for the good old times, yet is aware that the younger -generation of Indians must adopt civilized ways. Ignorant of English, she -has a quick intelligence and a memory that is marvelous. To her patience -and loyal interest is chiefly due whatever of value is in this thesis. In -the sweltering heat of an August day she has continued dictation for nine -hours, lying down but never flagging in her account, when too weary to -sit longer in a chair. Goodbird’s testimony that his mother “knows more -about old ways of raising corn and squashes than any one else on this -reservation,” is not without probability. Until recently, a small part of -Goodbird’s plowed field was each year reserved for her, that she might -plant corn and beans and squashes, cultivating them in old fashioned -way, by hoe. Such corn, of her own planting and selection, has taken -first prize at an agricultural fair, held recently by the reservation -authorities. - -Edward Goodbird, or Tsaka´kasạkic, the writer’s interpreter, is a son of -Maxi´diwiac, born about November, 1869. Goodbird was one of the first of -the reservation children to be sent to the mission school; and he is now -native pastor of the Congregational chapel at Independence. He speaks the -Hidatsa, Mandan, Dakota, and English languages. Goodbird is a natural -student; and he has the rarer gift of being an artist. His sketches—and -they are many—are crude; but they are drawn in true perspective and do -not lack spirit. Goodbird’s life, dictated by himself, has been recently -published.[4] - -Indians have the gentle custom of adopting very dear friends by -relationship terms. By such adoption Goodbird is the writer’s brother; -Maxi´diwiac is his mother. - -For his part in the account of the _Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians_, -the writer claims no credit beyond arranging the material and putting -the interpreter’s Indian-English translations into proper idiom. Bits -of Indian philosophy and shrewd or humorous observations found in the -narrative are not the writer’s, but the informant’s, and are as they -fell from her lips. The writer has sincerely endeavored to add to the -narrative essentially nothing of his own. - -_Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians_ is not, then, an account merely of -Indian agriculture. It is an Indian woman’s interpretation of economics; -the thoughts she gave to her fields; the philosophy of her labors. -May the Indian woman’s story of her toil be a plea for our better -appreciation of her race. - - - - -CHAPTER I - -TRADITION - - -We Hidatsas believe that our tribe once lived under the waters of Devils -Lake. Some hunters discovered the root of a vine growing downward; and -climbing it, they found themselves on the surface of the earth. Others -followed them, until half the tribe had escaped; but the vine broke under -the weight of a pregnant woman, leaving the rest prisoners. A part of our -tribe are therefore still beneath the lake. - -My father, Small Ankle, going, when a young man, on a war party, visited -Devils Lake. “Beneath the waves,” he said, “I heard a faint drumming, as -of drums in a big dance.” This story is true; for Sioux, who now live at -Devils Lake, have also heard this drumming. - -Those of my people who escaped from the lake built villages near by. -These were of earth lodges, such as my tribe built until very recent -years; two such earth lodges are still standing on this reservation. - -The site where an earth lodge has stood is marked by an earthen ring, -rising about what was once the hard trampled floor. There are many such -earthen rings on the shores of Devils Lake, showing that, as tradition -says, our villages stood there. There were three of these villages, my -father said, who several times visited the sites. - -Near their villages, the people made gardens; and in these they planted -ground beans and wild potatoes, from seed brought with them from their -home under the water. These vegetables we do not cultivate now; but we do -gather them in the fall, in the woods along the Missouri where they grow -wild. They are good eating. - -These gardens by Devils Lake I think must have been rather small. I know -that in later times, whenever my tribe removed up the Missouri to build a -new village, our fields, the first year, were quite small; for clearing -the wooded bottom land was hard work. A family usually added to their -clearing each year, until their garden was as large as they cared to -cultivate. - -As yet, my people knew nothing of corn or squashes. One day a war party, -I think of ten men, wandered west to the Missouri River. They saw on the -other side a village of earth lodges like their own. It was a village of -the Mandans. The villagers saw the Hidatsas, but like them, feared to -cross over, lest the strangers prove to be enemies. - -It was autumn, and the Missouri River was running low so that an arrow -could be shot from shore to shore. The Mandans parched some ears of ripe -corn with the grain on the cob; they broke the ears in pieces, thrust the -pieces on the points of arrows, and shot them across the river. “Eat!” -they said, whether by voice or signs, I do not know. The word for “eat” -is the same in the Hidatsa and Mandan languages. - -The warriors ate of the parched corn, and liked it. They returned to -their village and said, “We have found a people living by the Missouri -River who have a strange kind of grain, which we ate and found good!” The -tribe was not much interested and made no effort to seek the Mandans, -fearing, besides, that they might not be friendly. - -However, a few years after, a war party of the Hidatsas crossed the -Missouri and visited the Mandans at their village near Bird Beak Hill. -The Mandan chief took an ear of yellow corn, broke it in two, and gave -half to the Hidatsas. This half-ear the Hidatsas took home, for seed; and -soon every family was planting yellow corn. - -I think that seed of other varieties of corn, and of beans, squashes, and -sunflowers, were gotten of the Mandans[5] afterwards; but there is no -story telling of this, that I know. - -I do not know when my people stopped planting ground beans and wild -potatoes; but ground beans are hard to dig, and the people, anyway, liked -the new kind of beans better. - -Whether the ground beans and wild potatoes of the Missouri bottoms are -descended from the seed planted by the villagers at Devils Lake, I do not -know. - -My tribe, as our old men tell us, after they got corn, abandoned their -villages at Devils Lake, and joined the Mandans near the mouth of the -Heart River. The Mandans helped them build new villages here, near their -own. I think this was hundreds of years ago. - -Firewood growing scarce, the two tribes removed up the Missouri to the -mouth of the Knife River, where they built the Five Villages, as they -called them. Smallpox was brought to my people here, by traders. In a -single year, more than half my tribe died, and of the Mandans, even more. - -Those who survived removed up the Missouri and built a village at -Like-a-fishhook bend, where they lived together, Hidatsas and Mandans, -as one tribe. This village we Hidatsas called Mu´a-idu´skupe-hi´cec, or -Like-a-fishhook village, after the bend on which it stood; but white men -called it Fort Berthold, from a trading post that was there. - -We lived in Like-a-fishhook village about forty years, or until 1885, -when the government began to place families on allotments. - -The agriculture of the Hidatsas, as I now describe it, I saw practiced in -the gardens of Like-a-fishhook village, in my girlhood, before my tribe -owned plows. - -[Illustration: An earth lodge - -Note ladder at right of lodge entrance. Drying stage before entrance -lacks the usual railings. (Photograph by courtesy of Rev. George -Curtis.)] - -[Illustration: Like-a-fishhook village in process of being dismantled -(about 1885) - -Drying stage in foreground is floored Arikara fashion with a mat of -willows. The Arikaras at this time had joined the Hidatsa-Mandans. -(Photograph by courtesy of Rev. George Curtis.)] - - - - -CHAPTER II - -BEGINNING A GARDEN - - -_Turtle_ - -My great-grandmother, as white men count their kin, was named Atạ´kic, or -Soft-white Corn. She adopted a daughter, Mata´tic, or Turtle. Some years -after, a daughter was born to Atạ´kic, whom she named Otter. - -Turtle and Otter both married. Turtle had a daughter named Ica´wikec, or -Corn Sucker;[6] and Otter had three daughters, Want-to-be-a-woman, Red -Blossom, and Strikes-many-women, all younger than Corn Sucker. - -The smallpox year at Five Villages left Otter’s family with no male -members to support them. Turtle and her daughter were then living in -Otter’s lodge; and Otter’s daughters, as Indian custom bade, called Corn -Sucker their elder sister. - -It was a custom of the Hidatsas, that if the eldest sister of a household -married, her younger sisters were also given to her husband, as they -came of marriageable age. Left without male kin by the smallpox, my -grandmother’s family was hard put to it to get meat; and Turtle gladly -gave her daughter to my father, Small Ankle, whom she knew to be a good -hunter. Otter’s daughters, reckoned as Corn Sucker’s sisters, were given -to Small Ankle as they grew up; the eldest, Want-to-be-a-woman, was my -mother. - -When I was four years old, my tribe and the Mandans came to -Like-a-fishhook bend. They came in the spring and camped in tepees, or -skin tents. By Butterfly’s winter count, I know they began building earth -lodges the next winter. I was too young to remember much of this. - -Two years after we came to Like-a-fishhook bend, smallpox again visited -my tribe; and my mother, Want-to-be-a-woman, and Corn Sucker, died of -it. Red Blossom and Strikes-many-women survived, whom I now called my -mothers. Otter and old Turtle lived with us; I was taught to call them my -grandmothers. - - -_Clearing Fields_ - -Soon after they came to Like-a-fishhook bend, the families of my tribe -began to clear fields, for gardens, like those they had at Five Villages. -Rich black soil was to be found in the timbered bottom lands of the -Missouri. Most of the work of clearing was done by the women. - -In old times we Hidatsas never made our gardens on the untimbered, -prairie land, because the soil there is too hard and dry. In the bottom -lands by the Missouri, the soil is soft and easy to work. - -[Illustration: Figure 1 - -Map of newly broken field drawn under Buffalobird-woman’s direction. The -heavy dots represent corn hills; the dashes, the clearing and breaking of -ground between, done after hills were planted. - -In the lower left hand corner is the ground that was in dispute.] - -My mothers and my two grandmothers worked at clearing our family’s -garden. It lay east of the village at a place where many other families -were clearing fields. - -I was too small to note very much at first. But I remember that my father -set boundary marks—whether wooden stakes or little mounds of earth or -stones, I do not now remember—at the corners of the field we claimed. -My mothers and my two grandmothers began at one end of this field and -worked forward. All had heavy iron hoes, except Turtle, who used an old -fashioned wooden digging stick. - -With their hoes, my mothers cut the long grass that covered much of the -field, and bore it off the line, to be burned. With the same implements, -they next dug and softened the soil in places for the corn hills, which -were laid off in rows. These hills they planted. Then all summer they -worked with their hoes, clearing and breaking the ground between the -hills. - -Trees and bushes I know must have been cut off with iron axes; but I -remember little of this, because I was only four years old when the -clearing was begun. - -I have heard that in very old times, when clearing a new field, my people -first dug the corn hills with digging sticks; and afterwards, like my -mothers, worked between the hills, with bone hoes. My father told me this. - -Whether stone axes were used in old times to cut the trees and -undergrowths, I do not know. I think fields were never then laid out on -ground that had large trees on it. - - -_Dispute and Its Settlement_ - -About two years after the first ground was broken in our field, a dispute -I remember, arose between my mothers and two of their neighbors, Lone -Woman and Goes-to-next-timber. - -These two women were clearing fields adjoining that of my mothers; as -will be seen by the accompanying map (figure 1), the three fields met at -a corner. I have said that my father, to set up claim to his field, had -placed marks, one of them in the corner at which met the fields of Lone -Woman and Goes-to-next-timber; but while my mothers were busy clearing -and digging up the other end of their field, their two neighbors invaded -this marked-off corner; Lone Woman had even dug up a small part before -she was discovered. - -However, when they were shown the mark my father had placed, the two -women yielded and accepted payment for any rights they might have. - -It was our Indian rule to keep our fields very sacred. We did not like -to quarrel about our garden lands. One’s title to a field once set -up, no one ever thought of disputing it; for if one were selfish and -quarrelsome, and tried to seize land belonging to another, we thought -some evil would come upon him, as that some one of his family would die. -There is a story of a black bear who got into a pit that was not his own, -and had his mind taken away from him for doing so! - - -_Turtle Breaking Soil_ - -Lone Woman and Goes-to-next-timber having withdrawn, my grandmother, -Turtle, volunteered to break the soil of the corner that had been in -dispute. She was an industrious woman. Often, when my mothers were busy -in the earth lodge, she would go out to work in the garden, taking me -with her for company. I was six years old then, I think, quite too little -to help her any, but I liked to watch my grandmother work. - -With her digging stick, she dug up a little round place in the center -of the corner (figure 1); and circling around this from day to day, she -gradually enlarged the dug-up space. The point of her digging stick she -forced into the soft earth to a depth equal to the length of my hand, and -pried up the soil. The clods she struck smartly with her digging stick, -sometimes with one end, sometimes with the other. Roots of coarse grass, -weeds, small brush and the like, she took in her hand and shook, or -struck them against the ground, to knock off the loose earth clinging to -them; she then cast them into a little pile to dry. - -In this way she accumulated little piles, scattered rather irregularly -over the dug-up ground, averaging, perhaps, four feet, one from the -other. In a few days these little piles had dried; and Turtle gathered -them up into a heap, about four feet high, and burned them, sometimes -within the cleared ground, sometimes a little way outside. - -In the corner that had been in dispute, and in other parts of the field, -my grandmother worked all summer. I do not remember how big our garden -was at the end of her summer’s work, nor how many piles of roots she -burned; but I remember distinctly how she put the roots of weeds and -grass and brush into little piles to dry, which she then gathered into -heaps and burned. She did not attempt to burn over the whole ground, only -the heaps. - -Afterwards, we increased our garden from year to year until it was as -large as we needed. I remember seeing my grandmother digging along the -edges of the garden with her digging stick, to enlarge the field and make -the edges even and straight. - -I remember also, that as Turtle dug up a little space, she would wait -until the next season to plant it. Thus, additional ground dug up in the -summer or fall would be planted by her the next spring. - -There were two or three elm trees in the garden; these my grandmother -left standing. - -[Illustration: Fig. 2 - -Figure 2. Drawn from specimen in author’s collection. Length of specimen, -37½ inches.] - -[Illustration: Figure 3. - -Figure 3. Drawn from model made by Buffalobird-woman, duplicating that -used by her grandmother. Specimen is of full size. Length of wooden -handle, 35 inches; length of bone blade, 8½ inches. The blade is made of -the shoulder bone of an ox.] - -It must not be supposed that upon Turtle fell all the work of clearing -land to enlarge our garden; but she liked to have me with her when she -worked, and I remember best what I saw her do. As I was a little girl -then, I have forgotten much that she did; but this that I have told, I -remember distinctly. - - -_Turtle’s Primitive Tools_ - -In breaking ground for our garden, Turtle always used an ash digging -stick (figure 2); and when hoeing time came, she hoed the corn with -a bone hoe (figure 3). Digging sticks are still used in my tribe for -digging wild turnips; but even in my grandmother’s lifetime, digging -sticks and bone hoes, as garden tools, had all but given place to iron -hoes and axes. - -My grandmother was one of the last women of my tribe to cling to these -old fashioned implements. Two other women, I remember, owned bone hoes -when I was a little girl; but Turtle, I think, was the very last one in -the tribe who actually worked in her garden with one. - -This hoe my grandmother kept in the lodge, under her bed; and when any -of the children of the household tried to get it out to look at it, she -would cry, “Let that hoe alone; you will break it!” - - -_Beginning a Field in Later Times_ - -As I grew up, I learned to work in the garden, as every Hidatsa woman was -expected to learn; but iron axes and hoes, bought of the traders, were -now used by everybody, and the work of clearing and breaking a new field -was less difficult than it had been in our grandfathers’ times. A family -had also greater freedom in choosing where they should have their garden, -since with iron axes they could more easily cut down any small trees and -bushes that might be on the land. However, to avoid having to cut down -big trees, a rather open place was usually chosen. - -A family, then, having chosen a place for a field, cleared off the ground -as much as they could, cutting down small trees and bushes in such -way that the trees fell all in one direction. Some of the timber that -was fit might be taken home for firewood; the rest was let lie to dry -until spring, when it was fired. The object of felling the trees in one -direction was to make them cover the ground as much as possible, since -firing them softened the soil and left it loose and mellow for planting. -We sought always to burn over all the ground, if we could. - -Before firing, the family carefully raked off the dry grass and leaves -from the edge of the field, and cut down any brush wood. This was done -that the fire might not spread to the surrounding timber, nor out on the -prairie. Prairie fires and forest fires are even yet not unknown on our -reservation. - -Planting season having come, the women of the household planted the -field in corn. The hills were in rows, and about four feet or a little -less apart. They were rather irregularly placed the first year. It was -easy to make a hill in the ashes where a brush heap had been fired, or -in soil that was free of roots and stumps; but there were many stumps -in the field, left over from the previous summer’s clearing. If the -planter found a stump stood where a hill should be, she placed the hill -on this side the stump or beyond it, no matter how close this brought the -hill to the next in the row. Thus, the corn hills did not stand at even -distances in the row the first year; but the rows were always kept even -and straight. - -While the corn was coming up, the women worked at clearing out the roots -and smaller stumps between the hills; but a stump of any considerable -size was left to rot, especially if it stood midway between two corn -hills, where it did not interfere with their cultivation. - -My mothers and I used to labor in a similar way to enlarge our fields. -With our iron hoes we made hills along the edge of the field and planted -corn; then, as we had opportunity, we worked with our hoes between the -corn hills to loosen up the soil. - -[Illustration: Figure 4 - -Drawn from specimen made by Yellow Hair. Length of specimen, following -curvature of tines, 36½ inches.] - -[Illustration: Figure 5 - -Drawn from specimen made by Buffalobird-woman. Length of wooden handle, -42 inches; spread of tines of antler, 15½ inches.] - -Although our tribe now had iron axes and hoes from the traders, they -still used their native made rakes. These were of wood (figure 4), or of -the antler of a black-tailed deer (figure 5). It was with such rakes that -the edges of a newly opened field were cleaned of leaves for the firing -of the brush, in the spring. - -[Illustration: In the field with a horn rake] - -[Illustration: Hoeing squashes with a bone hoe] - - -_Trees in the Garden_ - -Trees were not left standing in the garden, except perhaps one to shade -the watchers’ stage. If a tree stood in the field, it shaded the corn; -and that on the north side of the tree never grew up strong, and the -stalks would be yellow. - -Cottonwood trees were apt to grow up in the field, unless the young -shoots were plucked up as they appeared. - - -_Our West Field_ - -The field which Turtle helped to clear, lay, I have said, east of the -village. I was about nineteen years old, I think, when my mothers -determined to clear ground for a second field, west of the village. - -There were five of us who undertook the work, my father, my two mothers, -Red Blossom and Strikes-many-women, my sister, Cold Medicine, and myself. -We began in the fall, after harvesting the corn from our east garden, so -that we had leisure for the work; we had been too busy to begin earlier -in the season. - -We chose a place down in the bottoms, overgrown with willows; and with -our axes we cut the willows close to the ground, letting them lie as they -fell. - -I do not know how many days we worked; but we stopped when we had cleared -a field of about seventy-five by one hundred yards, perhaps. In our east, -or yellow corn field, we counted nine rows of corn to one na´xu; and I -remember that when we came to plant our new field, it had nine na´xu. - - -_Burning Over the Field_ - -The next spring my father, his two wives, my sister and I went out and -burned the felled willows and brush which the spring sun had dried. We -did not burn them every day; only when the weather was fine. We would go -out after breakfast, burn until tired of the work, and come home. - -We sought to burn over the whole field, for we knew that this left a -good, loose soil. We did not pile the willows in heaps, but loosened -them from the ground or scattered them loosely but evenly over the soil. -In some places the ground was quite bare of willows; but we collected -dry grass and weeds and dead willows, and strewed them over these bare -places, so that the fire would run over the whole area of the field. - -It took us about four days to burn over the field. - -It was well known in my tribe that burning over new ground left the soil -soft and easy to work, and for this reason we thought it a wise thing to -do. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -SUNFLOWERS - - -_Remark by Maxi´diwiac_ - -This that I am going to tell you of the planting and harvesting of our -crops is out of my own experience, seen with my own eyes. In olden times, -I know, my tribe used digging sticks and bone hoes for garden tools; and -I have described how I saw my grandmother use them. There may be other -tools or garden customs once in use in my tribe, and now forgotten; of -them I cannot speak. There were families in Like-a-fishhook village less -industrious than ours, and some families may have tilled their fields -in ways a little different; of them, also, I can not speak. This that I -now tell is as I saw my mothers do, or did myself, when I was young. My -mothers were industrious women, and our family had always good crops; -and I will tell now how the women of my father’s family cared for their -fields, as I saw them, and helped them. - - -_Planting Sunflowers_ - -The first seed that we planted in the spring was sunflower seed. Ice -breaks on the Missouri about the first week in April; and we planted -sunflower seed as soon after as the soil could be worked. Our native -name for the lunar month that corresponds most nearly to April, is -Mapi´-o´cë-mi´di, or Sunflower-planting-moon. - -Planting was done by hoe, or the woman scooped up the soil with her -hands. Three seeds were planted in a hill, at the depth of the second -joint of a woman’s finger. The three seeds were planted together, pressed -into the loose soil by a single motion, with thumb and first two fingers. -The hill was heaped up and patted firm with the palm in the same way as -we did for corn. - -Usually we planted sunflowers only around the edges of a field. The hills -were placed eight or nine paces apart; for we never sowed sunflowers -thickly. We thought a field surrounded thus by a sparse-sown row of -sunflowers, had a handsome appearance. - -Sometimes all three seeds sprouted and came up together; sometimes only -two sprouted; sometimes one. - - -_Varieties_ - -Of cultivated sunflowers we had several varieties, black, white, red, -striped, named from the color of the seed. The varieties differed only -in color; all had the same taste and smell, and were treated alike in -cooking. - -White sunflower seed when pounded into meal, turned dark, but I think -this was caused by the parching. - -Each family raised the variety they preferred. The varieties were well -fixed; black seed produced black; white seed, white. - - -_Harvesting the Seed_ - -Although our sunflower seed was the first crop to be planted in the -spring, it was the last to be harvested in the fall. - -For harvesting, we reckoned two kinds of flowers, or heads. - -A stalk springing from seed of one of our cultivated varieties had one, -sometimes two, or even three larger heads, heavy and full, bending the -top of the stalk with their weight of seed. Some of these big heads had -each a seed area as much as eleven inches across; and yielded each an -even double handful of seed. We called the seed from these big heads -mapi´-i’ti´a from mapi´, sunflower, or sunflower seed, and i’ti´a, big. - -Besides these larger heads, there were other and smaller heads on the -stalk; and wild sunflowers bearing similar small heads grew in many -places along the Missouri, and were sure to be found springing up in -abandoned gardens. These smaller heads of the cultivated, and the heads -of the wild, plants, were never more than five inches across; and these -and their seed we called mapi´-na´ka, sunflower’s child or baby sunflower. - -Our sunflowers were ready for harvesting when the little petals that -covered the seeds fell off, exposing the ripe seeds beneath. Also, the -back of the head turned yellow; earlier in the season it would be green. - -To harvest the larger heads, I put a basket on my back, and knife in -hand, passed from plant to plant, cutting off each large head, close to -the stem; the severed heads I tossed into my basket. These heads I did -not let dry on the stalk, as birds would devour the seeds. - -My basket filled, I returned to the lodge, climbed the ladder to the -roof, and spread the sunflower heads upon the flat part of the roof -around the smoke hole, to dry. The heads were laid face downward, with -the backs to the sun. When I was a girl, only three or four earth lodges -in the village had peaked roofs; and these lodges were rather small. All -the larger and better lodges, those of what we deemed wealthier families, -were built with the top of the roof flat, like a floor. A flat roof was -useful to dry things on; and when the weather was fair, the men often sat -there and gossiped. - -The sunflower heads were dried face downward, that the sun falling on -the back of the head might dry and shrink the fiber, thus loosening the -seeds. The heads were laid flat on the bare roof, without skins or other -protection beneath. If a storm threatened, the unthreshed heads were -gathered up and borne into the lodge; but they were left on the roof -overnight, if the weather was fair. - -When the heads had dried about four days, the seeds were threshed out; -and I would fetch in from the garden another supply of heads to dry and -thresh. - - -_Threshing_ - -To thresh the heads, a skin was spread and the heads laid on it face -downward, and beaten with a stick. Threshing might be on the ground, or -on the flat roof, as might be convenient. - -An average threshing filled a good sized basket, with enough seed left -over to make a small package. - - -_Harvesting the Mapi´-na´ka_ - -The smaller heads of the cultivated plants were sometimes gathered, -dried, and threshed, as were the larger heads; but if the season was -getting late and frost had fallen, and the seeds were getting loose in -their pods, I more often threshed these smaller heads and those of the -wild plants directly from the stalk. - -For this I bore a carrying basket, swinging it around over my breast -instead of my back; and going about the garden or into the places where -the wild plants grew, I held the basket under these smaller, or baby -sunflower heads, and beating them smartly with a stick, threshed the -seeds into the basket. It took me about half a day to thresh a basket -half full. The seeds I took home to dry, before sacking them. - -The seeds from the baby sunflowers of both wild and cultivated plants -were sacked together. The seeds of the large heads were sacked -separately; and in the spring, when we came to plant, our seed was always -taken from the sack containing the harvest of the larger heads. - -In my father’s family, we usually stored away two, sometimes three sacks -of dried sunflower seed for winter use. Sacks were made of skins, perhaps -fourteen inches high and eight inches in diameter, on an average. - -Sunflower harvest came after we had threshed our corn; and corn threshing -was in the first part of October. - - -_Effect of Frost_ - -Because they were gathered later, the seeds of baby sunflowers were -looked upon as a kind of second crop; and as I have said, they were kept -apart from the earlier harvest, because seed for planting was selected -from the larger and earlier gathered heads. Gathered thus late, this -second crop was nearly always touched by the frost, even before the seeds -were threshed from the stalks. - -This frosting of the seeds had an effect upon them that we rather -esteemed. We made a kind of oily meal from sunflower seed, by pounding -them in a corn mortar; but meal made from seed that had been frosted, -seemed more oily than that from seed gathered before frost fell. The -freezing of the seeds seemed to bring the oil out of the crushed kernels. - -This was well known to us. The large heads, left on the roof over night, -were sometimes caught by the frost; and meal made from their seed was -more oily than that from unfrosted seed. Sometimes we took the threshed -seed out of doors and let it get frosted, so as to bring out this -oiliness. Frosting the seeds did not kill them. - -The oiliness brought out by the frosting was more apparent in the seeds -of baby sunflowers than in seeds of the larger heads. Seeds of the latter -seemed never to have as much oil in them as seeds of the baby sunflowers. - - -_Parching the Seed_ - -To make sunflower meal the seeds were first roasted, or parched. This -was done in a clay pot, for iron pots were scarce in my tribe when I was -young. The clay pot in use in my father’s family was about a foot high -and eight or nine inches in diameter, as you see from measurements I make -with my hands. - -This pot I set on the lodge fire, working it down into the coals with a -rocking motion, and raked coals around it; the mouth I tipped slightly -toward me. I threw into the pot two or three double-handfuls of the seeds -and as they parched, I stirred them with a little stick, to keep them -from burning. Now and then I took out a seed and bit it; if the kernel -was soft and gummy, I knew the parching was not done; but when it bit dry -and crisp, I knew the seeds were cooked and I dipped them out with a horn -spoon into a wooden bowl. - -Again I threw into the pot two or three double-handfuls of seed to parch; -and so, until I had enough. - -As the pot grew quite hot I was careful not to touch it with my hands. -The parching done, I lifted the pot out, first throwing over it a piece -of old tent cover to protect my two hands. - -Parching the seeds caused them to crack open somewhat. - -The parched seeds were pounded in the corn mortar to make meal. Pounding -sunflower seeds took longer, and was harder work, than pounding corn. - - -_Four-vegetables-mixed_ - -Sunflower meal was used in making a dish that we called -do´patsa-makihi´kĕ, or four-vegetables-mixed; from do´patsa, four things; -and makihi´kĕ, mixed or put together. Four-vegetables-mixed we thought -our very best dish. - -To make this dish, enough for a family of five, I did as follows: - -I put a clay pot with water on the fire. - -Into the pot I threw one double-handful of beans. This was a fixed -quantity; I put in just one double-handful whether the family to be -served was large or small; for a larger quantity of beans in this dish -was apt to make gas on one’s stomach. - -When we dried squash in the fall we strung the slices upon strings of -twisted grass, each seven Indian fathoms long; an Indian fathom is the -distance between a woman’s two hands outstretched on either side. From -one of these seven-fathom strings I cut a piece as long as from my -elbow to the tip of my thumb; the two ends of the severed piece I tied -together, making a ring; and this I dropped into the pot with the beans. - -When the squash slices were well cooked I lifted them out of the pot by -the grass string into a wooden bowl. With a horn spoon I chopped and -mashed the cooked squash slices into a mass, which I now returned to the -pot with the beans. The grass string I threw away. - -[Illustration: Figure 6 - -Drawn from specimens in author’s collection.] - -To the mess I now added four or five double-handfuls of mixed meal, of -pounded parched sunflower seed and pounded parched corn. The whole was -boiled for a few minutes more, and was ready for serving. - -I have already told how we parched sunflower seed; and that I used two -or three double-handfuls of seed to a parching. I used two parchings of -sunflower seed for one mess of four-vegetables-mixed. I also used two -parchings of corn; but I put more corn into the pot at a parching than I -did of sunflower seed. - -Pounding the parched corn and sunflower seed reduced their bulk so that -the four parchings, two of sunflower seed and two of corn, made but four -or five double-handfuls of the mixed meal. - -Four-vegetables-mixed was eaten freshly cooked; and the mixed -corn-and-sunflower meal was made fresh for it each time. A little alkali -salt might be added for seasoning, but even this was not usual. No other -seasoning was used. Meat was not boiled with the mess, as the sunflower -seed gave sufficient oil to furnish fat. - -Four-vegetables-mixed was a winter food; and the squash used in its -making was dried, sliced squash, never green, fresh squash. - -The clay pot used for boiling this and other dishes was about the size of -an iron dinner pot, or even larger. For a large family, the pot might be -as much as thirteen or fourteen inches high. I have described that in use -in my father’s family. - -When a mess of four-vegetables-mixed was cooked, I did not remove the pot -from the coals, but dipped out the vegetables with a mountain-sheep horn -spoon, into wooden bowls (figure 6.) - - -_Sunflower-seed Balls_ - -Sunflower meal of the parched seeds was also used to make sunflower seed -balls; these were important articles of diet in olden times, and had a -particular use. - -For sunflower-seed balls I parched the seeds in a pot in the usual way, -put them in a corn mortar and pounded them. When they were reduced to a -fine meal I reached into the mortar and took out a handful of the meal, -squeezing it in the fingers and palm of my right hand. This squeezing it -made it into a kind of lump or ball. - -This ball I enclosed in the two palms and gently shook it. The shaking -brought out the oil of the seeds, cementing the particles of the meal -and making the lump firm. I have said that frosted seeds gave out more -oil than unfrosted; and that baby sunflower seeds gave out more oil than -seeds from the big heads. - -In olden times every warrior carried a bag of soft skin at his left -side, supported by a thong over his right shoulder; in this bag he kept -needles, sinews, awl, soft tanned skin for making patches for moccasins, -gun caps, and the like. The warrior’s powder horn hung on the outside of -this bag. - -In the bottom of this soft-skin bag the warrior commonly carried one of -these sunflower-seed balls, wrapped in a piece of buffalo-heart skin. -When worn with fatigue or overcome with sleep and weariness, the warrior -took out his sunflower-seed ball, and nibbled at it to refresh himself. -It was amazing what effect nibbling at the sunflower-seed ball had. If -the warrior was weary, he began to feel fresh again; if sleepy, he grew -wakeful. - -Sometimes the warrior kept his sunflower-seed ball in his flint case that -hung always at his belt over his right hip. - -It was quite a general custom in my tribe for a warrior or hunter to -carry one of these sunflower-seed balls. - -We called the sunflower-seed ball mapi´, the same name as for sunflower. - -Sunflower meal, parched and pounded as described, was often mixed with -corn balls, to which it gave an agreeable smell, as well as a pleasant -taste. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -CORN - - -_Planting_ - -Corn planting began the second month after sunflower-seed was planted, -that is in May; and it lasted about a month. It sometimes continued -pretty well into June, but not later than that; for the sun then begins -to go back into the south, and men began to tell eagle-hunting stories. - -We knew when corn planting time came by observing the leaves of the wild -gooseberry bushes. This bush is the first of the woods to leaf in the -spring. Old women of the village were going to the woods daily to gather -fire wood; and when they saw that the wild gooseberry bushes were almost -in full leaf, they said, “It is time for you to begin planting corn!” - -Corn was planted each year in the same hills. - -Around each of the old and dead hills I loosened the soil with my hoe, -first pulling up the old, dead roots of the previous year’s plants; these -dead roots, as they collected, were raked off with other refuse to one -end of the field outside of the cultivated ground, to be burned. - -This pulling up of the dead roots and working around the old hill with -the hoe, left the soil soft and loose for the space of about eighteen -inches in diameter; and in this soft soil I planted the corn in this -manner: - -I stooped over, and with fingers of both hands I raked away the loose -soil for a bed for the seed; and with my fingers I even stirred the soil -around with a circular motion to make the bed perfectly level so that the -seeds would all lie at the same depth. - -A small vessel, usually a wooden bowl, at my feet held the seed -corn. With my right hand I took a small handful of the corn, quickly -transferring half of it to my left hand; still stooping over, and plying -both hands at the same time, I pressed the grains a half inch into the -soil with my thumbs, planting two grains at a time, one with each hand. - -[Illustration: Figure 7] - -I planted about six to eight grains in a hill[7] (figure 7). Then with my -hands I raked the earth over the planted grains until the seed lay about -the length of my fingers under the soil. Finally I patted the hill firm -with my palms. - -The space within the hill in which the seed kernels were planted should -be about nine inches in diameter; but the completed hill should nearly -cover the space broken up by the hoe. - -The corn hills I planted well apart, because later, in hilling up, I -would need room to draw earth from all directions over the roots to -protect them from the sun, that they might not dry out. Corn planted in -hills too close together would have small ears and fewer of them; and the -stalks of the plants would be weak, and often dried out. - -If the corn hills were so close together that the plants when they grew -up, touched each other, we called them “smell-each-other”; and we knew -that the ears they bore would not be plump nor large. - - -_A Morning’s Planting_ - -We Hidatsa women were early risers in the planting season; it was my -habit to be up before sunrise, while the air was cool, for we thought -this the best time for garden work. - -Having arrived at the field I would begin one hill, preparing it, as I -have said, with my hoe; and so for ten rows each as long as from this -spot to yonder fence—about thirty yards; the rows were about four feet -apart, and the hills stood about the same distance apart in the row. - -The hills all prepared, I went back and planted them, patting down each -with my palms, as described. Planting corn thus by hand was slow work; -but by ten o’clock the morning’s work was done, and I was tired and ready -to go home for my breakfast and rest; we did not eat before going into -the field. The ten rows making the morning’s planting contained about two -hundred and twenty-five hills. - -I usually went to the field every morning in the planting season, if the -weather was fine. Sometimes I went out again a little before sunset and -planted; but this was not usual. - - -_Soaking the Seed_ - -The very last corn that we planted we sometimes put into a little tepid -water, if the season was late. Seed used for replanting hills that had -been destroyed by crows or magpies we also soaked. We left the seed in -the water only a short time, when the water was poured off. - -The water should be tepid only, so that when poured through the fingers -it felt hardly warmed. Hot water would kill the seeds. - -Seed corn thus soaked would have sprouts a third of an inch long within -four or five days after planting, if the weather was warm. I know this, -because we sometimes dug up some of the seeds to see. This soaked seed -produced strong plants, but the first-planted, dry seeds still produced -the first ripened ears. - -If warm water was not convenient, I sometimes put these last planted -corn seeds in my mouth; and when well wetted, planted them. But these -mouth-wetted seeds produced, we thought, a great many wi´da-aka´ta, or -goose-upper-roof-of-mouth, ears. - - -_Planting for a Sick Woman_ - -It was usual for the women of a household to do their own planting; but -if a woman was sick, or for some reason was unable to attend to her -planting, she sometimes cooked a feast, to which she invited the members -of her age society and asked them to plant her field for her. - -The members of her society would come upon an appointed day and plant her -field in a short time; sometimes a half day was enough. - -There were about thirty members in my age society when I was a young -woman. If we were invited to plant a garden for some sick woman, each -member would take a row to plant; and each would strive to complete her -row first. A member having completed her row, might begin a second, and -even a third row; or if, when each had completed one row, there was but a -small part of the field yet unplanted, all pitched in miscellaneously and -finished the planting. - - -_Size of Our Biggest Field_ - -When our corn was in, we began planting beans and squashes. Beans we -commonly planted between corn rows, sometimes over the whole field, more -often over a part of it. Our bean and squash planting I will describe -later; and I speak of it now only because I wish to explain to you how a -Hidatsa garden was laid out. - -The largest field ever owned in my father’s family was the one which I -have said my grandmother Turtle helped clear, at Like-a-fishhook village, -or Fort Berthold, as the whites called it. The field, begun small, was -added to each year and did not reach its maximum size for some years. - -The field was nearly rectangular in shape; at the time of its greatest -size, its length was about equal to the distance from this spot to yonder -fence—one hundred and eighty yards; and its width, to the distance from -the corner of this cabin to yonder white post—ninety yards. - -The size of a garden was determined chiefly by the industry of the family -that owned it, and by the number of mouths that must be fed. - -When I was six years old, there were, I think, ten in my father’s family, -of whom my two grandmothers, my mother and her three sisters, made six. I -have said that my mother and her three sisters were wives of Small Ankle, -my father. It was this year that my mother and Corn Sucker died, however. - -My father’s wives and my two grandmothers, all industrious women, added -each year to the area of our field; for our family was growing. At the -time our garden reached its maximum size, there were seven boys in the -family; three of these died young, but four grew up and brought wives to -live in our earth lodge. - - -_Na´xu and Nu´cami_ - -In our big garden at Like-a-fishhook village, nine rows of corn, running -lengthwise with the field, made one na´xu, or Indian acre, as we usually -translate it. There were ten of these na´xus, or Indian acres, in the -garden. - -[Illustration: Figure 8] - -Some families of our village counted eight rows of corn to one na´xu, -others counted ten rows. - -The rows of the na´xus always ran the length of the garden; and if the -field curved, as it sometimes did around a bend of the river, or other -irregularity, the rows curved with it. - -In our garden a row of squashes separated each na´xu from its neighbor. - -Four rows of corn running widthwise with the garden made one nu´cami; and -as was the na´xu, each nu´cami was separated from its neighbor by a row -of squashes, or beans, or in some families, even by sunflowers. - -Like those of the na´xus, the rows of the nu´camis often curved to follow -some irregularity in the shape of the garden plot. (See figure 8.) - - -_Hoeing_ - -Hoeing time began when the corn was about three inches high; but this -varied somewhat with the season. Some seasons were warm, and the corn and -weeds grew rapidly; other seasons were colder, and delayed the growth of -the corn. - -Corn plants about three inches high we called -“young-bird’s-feather-tail-corn,” because the plants then had blunt ends, -like the tail feathers of a very young bird. - -Corn and weeds alike grew rapidly now, and we women of the household were -out with our hoes daily, to keep ahead of the weeds. We worked as in -planting season, in the early morning hours. - -I cultivated each hill carefully with my hoe as I came to it; and if the -plants were small, I would comb the soil of the hill lightly with my -fingers, loosening the earth and tearing out young weeds. - -We did not hoe the corn alone, but went right through the garden, corn, -squashes, beans, and all. Weeds were let lie on the ground, as they were -now young and harmless. - -We hoed but once, not very many weeds coming up to bother us afterwards. -In my girlhood we were not troubled with mustard and thistles; these -weeds have come in with white men. - -In many families hoeing ended, I think, when the corn was about seven or -eight inches high: but I remember when my mothers finished hoeing their -big field at Like-a-fishhook village, the corn was about eighteen inches -high, and the blossoms at the top of the plants were appearing. - -A second hoeing began, it is true, when the corn silk appeared, but was -accompanied by hilling, so that we looked upon it rather as a hilling -time. Hilling was done to firm the plants against the wind and cover the -roots from the sun. We hilled with earth, about four inches up around the -roots of the corn. - -Not a great many weeds were found in the garden at hilling time, unless -the season had been wet; but weeds at this season are apt to have seeds, -so that it was my habit to bear such weeds off the field, that the seeds -might not fall and sprout the next season. - -With the corn, the squashes and beans were also hilled; but this was an -easier task. The bean hills, especially, were made small at the first, -and hilling them up afterwards was not hard work. If beans were hilled -too high the vines got beaten down into the mud by the rains and rotted. - - -_The Watchers’ Stage_ - -Our corn fields had many enemies. Magpies, and especially crows, pulled -up much of the young corn, so that we had to replant many hills. Crows -were fond of pulling up the green shoots when they were a half inch or -an inch high. Spotted gophers would dig up the seed from the roots of -young plants. When the corn had eared, and the grains were still soft, -blackbirds and crows were destructive. - -Any hills of young corn that the birds destroyed, I replanted if the -season was not too late. If only a part of the plants in a hill had been -destroyed, I did not disturb the living plants, but replanted only the -destroyed ones. In the place of each missing plant, I dug a little hole -with my hand, and dropped in a seed. - -We made scarecrows[8] to frighten the crows. Two sticks were driven -into the ground for legs; to these were bound two other sticks, like -outstretched arms; on the top was fastened a ball of cast-away skins, or -the like, for a head. An old buffalo robe was drawn over the figure and a -belt tied around its middle, to make it look like a man. Such a scarecrow -would keep the crows away for a few days but when they saw that the -figure never moved from its place, they lost their fear and returned. - -A platform, or stage, was often built in a garden, where the girls and -young women of the household came to sit and sing as they watched that -crows and other thieves did not destroy the ripening crop. We cared for -our corn in those days as we would care for a child; for we Indian people -loved our gardens, just as a mother loves her children; and we thought -that our growing corn liked to hear us sing, just as children like to -hear their mother sing to them.[9] Also, we did not want the birds to -come and steal our corn. Horses, too, might break in and crop the plants, -or boys might steal the green ears and go off and roast them. - -Our Hidatsa name for such a stage was adukati´ i´kakĕ-ma´tsati, or field -watchers’ stage; from adukati´, field; i´kakĕ, watch; and ma´tsati, -stage. These stages, while common, were not in every garden. I had one in -my garden where I used to sit and sing. - -A watchers’ stage resembled a stage for drying grain, but it was built -more simply. Four posts, forked at the top, supported two parallel -beams, or stringers; on these beams was laid a floor of puncheons, or -split small logs, at about the height of the full grown corn. This floor -was about the length and breadth of Wolf Chief’s table—forty-three by -thirty-five inches—and was thus large enough to permit two persons to sit -together. A ladder made of the trunk of a tree rested against the stage. - -Such stages we did not value as we did our drying stages, nor did we use -so much care in building them. If the posts were of green wood, we did -not trouble to peel off the bark; at least, I never saw such posts with -the bark peeled off. The beams in the forks of the posts often lay with -the bark on. The puncheons that made the floor of the stage were free of -bark, because they were commonly split from old, dead, floating logs, -that we got down at the Missouri River; if the whole stage was built of -these dead logs, as was often done, the bark would be wanting on every -beam. - -A watchers’ stage, indeed, was usually of rather rough construction; wood -was plentiful and easy to get, and the stage was rebuilt each year. - -As I have said, it was our custom to locate our gardens on the timbered, -bottom lands, and when we cleared off the timber and brush, we often -left a tree, usually of cottonwood, standing in the field, to shade the -watchers’ stage. The stage stood on the north, or shady, side of the tree. - -Cottonwood seedlings were apt to spring up in newly cleared ground. If -there was no tree in the field, one of these seedlings might be let grow -into a small tree. Cottonwoods grew very rapidly. - -The tree that shaded the watchers’ stage in our family field, and which -I have indicated on the map, was about as high as my son Goodbird’s -cabin, and had a trunk about four inches in diameter. The cottonwood -tree standing in Wolf Chief’s corn field this present summer, is perhaps -about the height of the trees that used to stand in our fields at -Like-a-fishhook village. - - -_Explanation of Sketch of Watchers’ Stage_ - -My son Goodbird has made a sketch, under my direction, of a watchers’ -stage (figure 9). - -The stage was placed close to the tree shading it, about a foot from the -trunk. Holes for the posts were dug with a long digging stick; and the -posts were set firm, like fence posts. - -The stage was made nearly square, so that the watchers could sit facing -any side with equal ease. The beams supporting the floor might be laid -east and west, or north and south; but as the tree stood always on the -south side of the stage, the floor beams lay always in one of these two -ways. - -[Illustration: Figure 9 - -Redrawn from sketch by Edward Goodbird.] - -In the sketch a skin[10] is seen lying on the stage floor. This is a -buffalo calf skin, folded fur out, to make a seat for the watcher. The -skin might be folded tail to head, or side to side; and sometimes it was -folded flesh side out. It never hung down over the edges of the stage -floor, but was folded up neatly to make a kind of cushion. The puncheon -floor, at best never very smooth, was rather hard to sit upon; and -letting a part of the skin hang down over the side would have been waste -of good cushion material. - -The three poles on the right of the stage support another calf skin, used -as a shield against the sun. The poles merely rested on the ground; they -were not thrust into the soil. They could be shifted about with the sun, -so that the watcher had shade in any part of the day. - -The calf skin used for a sun shade hung on the poles head downward; -whether it lay fur or flesh side down did not matter. - -Skins dressed by Indians have holes cut along the edges for the wooden -pins by which they are staked out on the ground to dry. The poles -upholding the skin shade we cut of willows; and we were careful to trim -off the branches, leaving little stubs sticking out on the trunk of the -pole. These little stubs we slipped through some of the holes in the edge -of the skin shade to uphold it and stay it in place. It was not necessary -to bind the skin down with thongs; just slipping the stubs through the -holes was enough. - -Poles for a sun shade were cut indifferently of dry or green wood; and -they lasted the entire season. - -The ladder by which we mounted a watchers’ stage rested against either of -the corners next the tree, against one of the two beams supporting the -floor; however we did not consider a watchers’ stage to be sacred, and we -placed the ladder anywhere it might be convenient. - -The ladder was a cottonwood trunk, cut with three steps; more were not -needed, as the stage floor was not high. - - -_Sweet Grass’s Sun Shade_ - -If the tree sheltering a stage had scant foliage, we often cut thick, -leafy cottonwood boughs and thrust them horizontally through the branches -of the tree to increase its shade. It was a common thing for the watchers -to tie a robe across the face of the tree for the same purpose. - -If no tree grew in the garden, a small cottonwood with thick, leafy -branches was cut and propped against the south or sunny side of the stage. - -There was an old woman named Sweet Grass who had no tree in her garden. -She built a stage just like that in Goodbird’s sketch (figure 9). To -shade it I remember she cut several small cottonwood trees and set them -in holes made with her digging stick, along the south side of her stage. -They stood there in a row and shaded the stage quite effectively. Her -stage stood rather close to the edge of her garden. - - -_The Watchers_ - -The season for watching the fields began early in August when green corn -began to come in; for this was the time when the ripening ears were apt -to be stolen by horses, or birds, or boys. We did not watch the fields in -the spring and early summer, to keep the crows from pulling up the newly -sprouted grain; such damage we were content to repair by replanting. - -Girls began to go on the watchers’ stage to watch the corn and sing, when -they were about ten or twelve years of age. They continued the custom -even after they had grown up and married; and old women, working in the -garden and stopping to rest, often went on the stage and sang. - -Two girls usually watched and sang together. The village gardens were -laid out close to one another; and a girl of one family would be joined -by the girl of the family who owned the garden adjoining. Sometimes -three, or even four, girls got on the stage and sang together; but never -more than four. A drum was not used to accompany the singing. - -The watchers sometimes rose and stood upon the stage as they looked to -see if any boys or horses were in the field, stealing corn. Older girls -and young married women, and even old women, often worked at porcupine -embroidery as they watched. Very young girls did not embroider. - -Boys of nine to eleven years of age were sometimes rather troublesome -thieves. They were fond of stealing green ears to roast by a fire in the -woods. Sometimes—not every day, however—we had to guard our corn alertly. -A boy caught stealing was merely scolded. “You must not steal here -again!” we would say to him. His parents were not asked to pay damage for -the theft. - -We went to the watchers’ stage quite early in the day, before sunrise, or -near it, and we came home at sunset. - -The watching season continued until the corn was all gathered and -harvested. My grandmother, Turtle, was a familiar figure in our family’s -field, in this season. I can remember her staying out in the field daily, -picking out the ripening ears and braiding them in a string. - - -_Booths_ - -There were a good many booths in the gardens that lay west of the -village. Usually a booth stood at one side of every field in which was a -watchers’ stage. - -To make a booth, we cut diamond willows, stood them in the ground in a -circle, and bending over the leafy tops, tied them together. A few leafy -branches were interwoven into the top to increase the shade; but there -was no further covering. - -A booth had a floor diameter of nine or ten feet, and was as high as I -can conveniently reach with my hands—six feet. - -The girls who sang and watched the ripening corn cooked in these booths. -I often did so when I was a young girl; for cooking at the booth was done -by all the watchers, even young girls of ten or twelve years. I have -often seen my grandmother, Turtle, also, in her booth very early in the -morning, in the corn season. - - -_Eating Customs_ - -A meal was eaten sometimes just after sunrise, or a little later; but we -never had regular meal hours in the field. We cooked and ate whenever -we got hungry, or when visitors came; or we strayed over to other -gardens and ate with our friends. If relatives came, the watchers often -entertained them by giving them something to eat. - -To cook the meal a fire was made in the booth. Meat had been brought out -from the village, dried or fresh buffalo meat usually. Fresh meat was -laid on the coals to broil; dried meat was thrust on the end of a stick -that leaned over the coals; and when one side was well toasted it was -turned over. - -Fresh squashes we boiled in clay or iron pots; a good many brass or -copper kettles also were in use when I was young. We were fond of -squashes. - -A common dish was green corn and beans. The corn was shelled off the cob -and boiled with green beans that were shelled also; sometimes the beans -were boiled in the pod. - -[Illustration: Figure 10 - -Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird of specimen made by Buffalobird-woman.] - -To serve the corn and beans we poured the mess into a wooden bowl and ate -with spoons made from the stems of squash leaves. Figure 10 is a sketch -of such a spoon. The squash stem was split at one end and the split was -held open by a little stick. Stems of leaves of our native squashes have -tiny prickles on them, but these did not hurt the eater’s lips. Leaf -stems of native squashes I think are firmer and stronger than those of -white men’s squashes, such as we now raise. - -My grandmother, Turtle, was a faithful watcher in our family field in the -watching season. I remember she used to bring home in the evening all the -uneaten corn she had boiled that day. - - -_Youths’ and Maidens’ Customs_ - -We always kept drinking water at the stage; and if relatives came out, we -freely gave them to drink. But boys and young men who came were offered -neither food nor drink, unless they were relatives. - -Our tribe’s custom in such things was well understood. - -The youths of the village used to go about all the time seeking the -girls; this indeed was almost all they did. Of course, when the girls -were on the watchers’ stage the boys were pretty sure to come around. -Sometimes two youths came together, sometimes but one. If there were -relatives at the watchers’ stage the boys would stop and drink or eat; -they did not try to talk to the girls, but would come around smiling and -try to get the girls to smile back. - -To illustrate our custom, if a boy came out to a watchers’ stage, we -girls that were sitting upon it did not say a word to him. It was our -rule that we should work and should not say anything to him. So we sat, -not looking at him, nor saying a word. He would smile and perhaps stop -and get a drink of water. - -Indeed, a girl that was not a youth’s sweetheart, never talked to him. -This rule was observed at all times. Even when a boy was a girl’s -sweetheart, or “love-boy” as we called him, if there were other persons -around, she did not talk to him, unless these happened to be relatives. - -Boys who came out to the watchers’ stage, getting no encouragement from -the girls there, soon went away. - -A very young girl was not permitted to go to the watchers’ stage unless -an old woman went along to take care of her. In olden days, mothers -watched their daughters very carefully. - - -_Watchers’ Songs_ - -Most of the songs that were sung on the watchers’ stage were love songs, -but not all. - -One that little girls were fond of singing—girls that is of about twelve -years of age—was as follows: - - You bad boys, you are all alike! - Your bow is like a bent basket hoop; - You poor boys, you have to run on the prairie barefoot; - Your arrows are fit for nothing but to shoot up into the sky! - -This song was sung for the benefit of the boys who came to the near-by -woods to hunt birds. - -Here is another song; but that you may understand it I shall first have -to explain to you what ikupa´ means. - -A girl whom another girl loves as her own sister, we call her ikupa´. I -think your word chum, as you explain it, has about the same meaning. This -is the song: - - “My ikupa´, what do you wish to see?” you said to me. - What I wish to see is the corn silk coming out on the growing ear; - But what _you_ wish to see is that naughty young man coming! - -Here is a song that we sang to tease young men that were going by: - - You young man of the Dog society, you said to me, - “When I go to the east on a war party, you will hear news of me how - brave I am!” - I have heard news of you; - When the fight was on, you ran and hid! - And you think you are a brave young man! - Behold you have joined the Dog society; - Therefore, I call you just plain dog! - -These songs from the watchers’ stage we called mi´daxika, or gardeners’ -songs. The words of these I have just given you we called love-boy words; -and they were intended to tease. - -There was another class of songs sung from the watchers’ stage that did -not have love-boy words. I will give you one of these, but to make it -intelligible, I must first explain a custom of my tribe. - - -_Clan Cousins’ Custom_ - -Let us suppose that a woman of the Tsi´stska Doxpa´ka marries a man of -the Midipa´di clan. Their child will be a Tsi´stska; for we Hidatsas -reckon every child to belong to the clan of his mother; and the members -of the mother’s clan will be clan sisters and clan brothers to her child. - -Another woman of the tribe, of what clan does not matter, also marries a -Midipa´di husband; and they have a child. The child of the first mother -and the child of the second we reckon as makutsati, or clan cousins, -since their fathers being of the same clan, are clan brothers. - -In old times these clan cousins had a custom of teasing one another; -especially was this teasing common between young men and young women. -For example, a young man, unlucky in war, might be passing the gardens -and hear some mischievous girl, his clan cousin, singing a song taunting -him for his ill success. From any one else this would be taken for the -deepest insult; but seeing that the singer was his clan cousin, the young -man only called out good humoredly, “Sing louder, cousin!” - -I can best explain this custom by telling you a story. - - -_Story of Snake-head-ornament_ - -A long time ago, in one of our villages at Knife River, there lived a man -Mapuksao´kihec, or Snake-head-ornament. He was a great medicine man; and -in his earth lodge he kept a bull snake, whom he called “father.” - -When Snake-head-ornament started to go to a feast he would say to the -bull snake, “Come, father, let us go and get something to eat!” - -The snake would crawl up the man’s body, coil about his neck and thrust -his head forward over the man’s crown and forehead; or he would coil -about the man’s head like the head cloth a hunter used to wear, with his -head thrust forward as I have said. - -Bearing the snake thus on his head, Snake-head-ornament would enter some -man’s lodge and sit down to eat. The snake however never ate with him, -for his food was not the same as the man’s; the bull snake’s food was -hide scrapings which the women of the lodge fed to him. - -When Snake-head-ornament came home again he would say to the bull snake, -“Father, get off.” - -The snake would creep down from the man’s head, but before he entered -his hole he would roll himself about on the earth lodge floor. -Snake-head-ornament would say to him, “What are you doing? Do you think I -am bad smelling, and do you want to wash off the smell from your body? It -is you who are bad smelling; yet I do not despise _you_!” - -The snake, hearing this, would creep into his hole as if ashamed. - -Snake-head-ornament made up a war party and led it against enemies on -the Yellowstone River. The party not only failed to kill any of the -enemy, but lost three of their own men. This was a kind of disgrace to -Snake-head-ornament; for as leader of the war party he was responsible -for it. He thought his gods had deserted him; and when he came home he -went about crying and mourning and calling upon his gods to give him -another vision. He was a brave man and had many honor marks; and his ill -success made his heart sore. - -In old times, when one mourned, either man or woman, he cut off his hair, -painted his body with white clay and went without moccasins; he also cut -himself with some sharp instrument. - -In those days also, when a man went out to seek his god, he went away -from the village, alone, into the hills; and thus it happened that -Snake-head-ornament, on his way to the hills, went mourning and crying -past a garden where sat a woman, his clan cousin, on her watchers’ stage. -Seeing him, she began to sing a song to tease him: - - He said, “I am a young bird!” - If a young bird, he should be in a nest; - But he comes around here looking gray, - And wanders aimlessly everywhere outside the village! - He said, “I am a young snake!” - If a young snake, he should stay in the hills among the red buttes; - But he comes around here looking gray and crying, - And wanders aimlessly everywhere! - -When the woman sang, “he comes around here looking gray,” she meant that -the man was gray from the white clay paint on his body. - -Snake-head-ornament heard her song, but knowing she was his clan cousin, -cried out to her: - -“My elder sister, sing louder! You are right; let my fathers hear what -you say. I do not know whether they will feel shame or not; but the snake -and the white eagle both called me ‘son’!” - -What he meant was that the snake and the white eagle were his dream gods; -and that they had both called him “son,” in a vision. In her song the -woman had taunted him with this. If she had been any one but his clan -cousin, he would have been beside himself with anger. As it was, he kept -his good humor, and did her no hurt. - -But the woman had sung her song for a cause. Years before, when -Snake-head-ornament was quite a young man and as yet had won few honors -he went on a war party and killed a Sioux woman. When he came home he -was looked upon as a successful warrior; and he was, of course, proud -that people now looked up to him. Not long after this, he joined the -Black Mouth society. It happened, one day, that the women were erecting -palisades around the village to defend it, and Snake-head-ornament, as a -member of the Black Mouths, was one of those overseeing the work. This -woman, his clan cousin, was rather slow at her task and did not move -about very briskly. Snake-head-ornament, seeing this, approached her and -fired off his gun close by her legs. She looked around, but seeing that -it was Snake-head-ornament that had shot, and knowing he was her clan -cousin, she did not get angry. Just the same she did not forget; and -years after she had a good humored revenge in the taunting song I have -given you. - - -GREEN CORN AND ITS USES - - -_The Ripening Ears_ - -The first corn was ready to be eaten green early in the harvest moon, -when the blossoms of the prairie golden rod are all in full, bright -yellow; or about the end of the first week in August. We ate much green -corn, boiling the fresh ears in a pot as white people do; but every -Hidatsa family also put up dried green corn for winter. This took the -place with us of the canned green corn we now buy at the trader’s store. - -I knew when the corn ears were ripe enough for boiling from these signs: -The blossoms on the top of the stalk were turned brown, the silk on the -end of the ear was dry, and the husks on the ear were of a dark green -color. - -I do not think the younger Indians on this reservation are as good -agriculturists as we older members of my tribe were when we were young. I -sometimes say to my son Goodbird: “You young folks, when you want green -corn, open the husk to see if the grain is ripe enough, and thus expose -it; but I just go out into the field and pluck the ear. When you open an -ear and find it too green to pluck, you let it stand on the stalk; and -birds then come and eat the exposed kernels, or little brown ants climb -up the stalk and eat the ear and spoil it. I do not think you are very -good gardeners in these days. In old times, when we went out to gather -green ears, we did not have to open their faces to see if the grain was -ripe enough to be plucked!” - - -_Second Planting for Green Corn_ - -Our green corn season lasted about ten days, when the grain, though not -yet ripe, became too hard for boiling green. - -To provide green corn to be eaten late in the season, we used to make a -second planting of corn when June berries were ripe; and for this purpose -we left a space, not very large, vacant in the field. In my father’s -family this second planting was of about twenty-eight hills of corn. It -came ready to eat when the other corn was getting hard; but it often -got caught by the frost. Nearly every garden owner made such a second -planting; it was, indeed, a usual practice in the tribe. - - -_Cooking Fresh Green Corn_ - -Our usual way of cooking fresh, green corn, was to boil it in a kettle on -the cob. - -Fresh, green corn, shelled from the cob, was often put in a corn mortar -and pounded; and then boiled without fats or meat. Prepared thus, it had -a sweet taste and smell; much like that of the canned corn we buy of the -traders. - -Shelled green corn, in the whole grain, was also boiled fresh, mixed with -beans and fats. - - -_Roasting Ears_ - -Green ears were sometimes roasted, usually by an individual member of -the family who wanted a little change of diet. The women of my father’s -family never prepared a full meal of roasted ears that I remember; if any -one wanted roasted, fresh, green corn, he prepared it himself. - -When I wanted to roast green corn I made a fire of cottonwood and -prepared a bed of coals. I laid the fresh ear on the coals with the husk -removed. As the corn roasted, I rolled the ear gently to and fro over the -coals. When properly cooked I removed the ear and laid on another. - -As the ear roasted, the green kernels would pop sometimes with quite a -sharp sound. If this popping noise was very loud, we would laugh and say -to the one roasting the ear, “Ah, we see you have stolen that ear from -some other family’s garden!” - -Green corn was regularly taken out of the garden to roast until frost -came, when it lost its fragrance and fresh taste. To restore its -freshness, we would take the green corn silk of the same plucked ear and -rub the silk well into the kernels of the ear as they stood in the cob. -This measurably restored the fresh taste and smell. - -We did not do this if the ear was to be boiled, only if we intended to -roast it. - -For green corn, boiled and eaten fresh, we used all varieties except the -gummy; for when green they tasted alike. But for roasting ears we thought -the two yellow varieties, hard and soft, were the best. - - -_Mätu´a-la´kapa_ - -A common dish made from green corn was mätu´a-la´kapa, from mätu´a, green -corn; and la´kapa, mush, or something mushy; thus, wheat flour mixed with -water to a thick paste we call la´kapa, even if unboiled. - -Ripening green corn, with the grain still soft, was shelled off the cob -with the tip of the thumb or with the thumb nail. The shelled corn was -pounded in a mortar and boiled with beans; it was flavored with spring -salt. - - -_Corn Bread_ - -We also made a kind of corn bread from green corn. - -Green ears were plucked and the corn shelled off with the thumb nail, so -as not to break open the kernels. Boiled green corn could be shelled with -a mussel shell because boiling toughened the kernels; but unboiled green -corn was shelled with the thumb nail. - -Two or three women often worked at shelling the corn as it was rather -tedious work. - -When enough of the corn had been shelled, it was put in a corn mortar and -pounded. - -Some of the ears were naturally longer than others: a number of these had -been selected and their husks removed. Some of these husks were now laid -down side by side, but overlapping like shingles, until a sheet was made -about ten inches wide. - -Another row of husks was laid over the first, transversely to them; and -so until four or five layers of the green husks were made, each lying -transversely to the layer of husks beneath. - -The shelled corn, pounded almost to a pulp, was poured out on this husk -sheet, and patted down with the hand to a loaf about seven or eight -inches square, and an inch or two thick. However, this varied; a girl -would make a much smaller loaf than would a woman preparing a mess for -her family. - -The ends of the uppermost layer of husks were now folded over the top -of the loaf, leaf by leaf; then the next layer of husks beneath; and so -until the ends of all the husks were folded over the top of the loaf, -quite hiding it. - -Two or three husk leaves had been split into strips half an inch to three -quarters of an inch in width. These strips were tied together to make -bands to bind the loaf. Three bands passed around the loaf each way, or -six bands in all. - -No grease nor fat, nor any seasoning, had been added to the loaf; the -pounded green corn pulp was all that entered into it. - -The loaf made, now came the baking. The ashes in the fire place in an -earth lodge lay quite deep. A cavity was dug into these ashes about as -deep as my hand is long. Into the bottom of this cavity live coals and -hot ashes were raked, and upon these the loaf was laid; a few ashes were -raked over the top, and upon these ashes live coals were heaped. The loaf -baked in about two hours. - -We called this loaf naktsi´, or buried-in-ashes-and-baked. Soft white -and soft yellow corn were good varieties from which to make this -buried-and-baked corn, as we called it. - - -_Drying Green Corn for Winter_ - -Every Hidatsa family put up a store of dried green corn for winter. This -is the way in which I prepared my family’s store. - -In the proper season I went out into our garden and broke off the ears -that I found, that were of a dark green outside. Sometimes I even broke -open the husks to see if the ear was just right; but this was seldom, as -I could tell very well by the color and other signs I have described. I -went all over the garden, plucking the dark green ears, and putting them -in a pile in some convenient spot on the cultivated ground. If I was -close enough I tossed each ear upon the pile as I plucked it; but as I -drew further away, I gathered the ears into my basket and bore them to -the pile. - -I left off plucking when the pile contained five basketfuls if I was -working alone. If two of us were working we plucked about ten basketfuls. - -Green corn for drying was always plucked in the evening, just before -sunset; and the newly plucked ears were let lie in the pile all night, -in the open air. The corn was not brought home on the evening of the -plucking, because if kept in the earth lodge over night it would not -taste so fresh and sweet, we thought. - -The next morning before breakfast, I went out to the field and fetched -the corn to our lodge in the village. As I brought the baskets into the -lodge, I emptied them in a pile at the place marked _B_ in figure 11, -near the fire. - -Sitting at _A_, I now began husking, breaking off the husks from each ear -in three strokes, thus: With my hand I drew back half the husk; second, I -drew back the other half; third, I broke the husk from the cob. The husks -I put in a pile, _E_, to one side. No husking pegs were used, such as you -describe to me; I could husk quite rapidly with my bare hands. - -As the ears were stripped, they were laid in a pile upon some of the -discarded husks, spread for that purpose. The freshly husked ears made a -pretty sight; some of them were big, fine ones, and all had plump, shiny -kernels. A twelve-row ear we thought a big one; a few very big ears had -fourteen rows of kernels; smaller ears had not more than eight rows. - -Two kettles, meanwhile, had been prepared. One marked _D_ in figure 11, -was set upon coals in the fireplace; the other, _C_, was suspended over -the fire by a chain attached to the drying pole. The kettles held water, -which was now brought to a boil. - -When enough corn was husked to fill one of these kettles, I gathered -up the ears and dropped them in the boiling water. I watched the corn -carefully, and when it was about half cooked, I lifted the ears out with -a mountain sheep horn spoon and laid them on a pile of husks. - -[Illustration: Figure 11] - -When all the corn was cooked, I loaded the ears in my basket and bore -them out upon the drying stage, where I laid them in rows, side by side, -upon the stage floor. There I left them to dry over night. - -The work of bringing in the five basketfuls of corn from the field and -boiling the ears took all day, until evening. - -In the morning the corn was brought into the lodge again. A skin tent -cover had been spread on the floor and the half boiled ears were laid -on it, in a pile. I now sat on the floor, as an Indian woman sits, with -ankles to the right, and with the edge of the tent cover drawn over my -knees, I took an ear of the half boiled corn in my left hand, holding it -with the greater end toward me. I had a small, pointed stick; and this -I ran, point forward, down between two rows of kernels, thus loosening -the grains. The right hand row of the two rows of loosened kernels I now -shelled off with my right thumb. I then shelled off all the other rows of -kernels, one row at a time, working toward the left, and rolling the cob -over toward the right as I did so. - -There was another way of shelling half boiled corn. As before, I would -run a sharpened stick down two rows of kernels, loosening the grains; and -I would then shell them off with smart, quick strokes of a mussel shell -held in my right hand. We still shell half boiled corn in this way, using -large spoons instead of shells. There were very few metal spoons in use -in my tribe when I was a girl; mussel shells were used instead for most -purposes. - -If while I was shelling the corn, a girl or woman came into the lodge -to visit, she would sit down and lend a hand while we chatted; thus the -shelling was soon done. - -The shelling finished, I took an old tent cover and spread it on the -floor of the drying stage outside. On this cover I spread the shelled -corn to dry, carrying it up on the stage in my basket. - -At night I covered the drying corn with old tent skins to protect it from -dampness. - -The corn dried in about four days. - -When the corn was well dried, I winnowed it. This I sometimes did on the -floor of the drying stage, sometimes on the ground. - -Having chosen a day when a slight wind was blowing, I filled a wooden -bowl from the dried corn that lay heaped on the tent cover; and holding -the bowl aloft I let the grain pour slowly from it, that any chaff might -be winnowed out. - -The corn was now ready to be put in sacks for winter. - -Corn thus prepared we called maada´ckihĕ, from ada´ckihĕ, -treated-by-fire-but-not-cooked, a word also used to designate food that -has been prepared by smoking. - -All varieties of corn could be prepared in this way.[11] - -The Arikaras on this reservation have a different way of preparing and -drying green corn. They make a big heap of dried willows, and upon these -lay the ears, green and freshly plucked, in the husk. When all is ready, -they set fire to the willows, thus roasting the corn; and they often -roast a great pile of corn at one time, in this way. The roasted ears are -husked and shelled, and the grain dried, for storing. Corn that has been -roasted in the Arikara way, dries much more quickly than that prepared by -boiling. - -Of late years some Mandan and Hidatsa families occasionally roast their -corn in imitation of the Arikara way; but I never saw this done in my -youth. - -I do not like to eat food made of this dried, roasted corn; it is dirty! - - -MAPË´DI (CORN SMUT) - - -_Mapë´di_ - -Mapë´di is a black mass that grows in the husk of an ear of corn; it is -what you say white men call corn smut fungus. Sometimes an ear of corn -appears very plump, or somewhat swelled; and when the husk is opened, -there is no corn inside, only mapë´di, or smut; or sometimes part of the -ear will be found with a little grain at one end, and mapë´di at the -other. These masses of mapë´di, or corn smut, that we found growing on -the ear, we gathered and dried for food. - -There is another mapë´di that grows on the stalk of the corn. It is not -good to eat, and was not gathered up at the harvest time. The mapë´di -that grows on the stalk is commonly found at a place where the stalk, by -some accident, has been half broken. - -We looked upon the mapë´di that grew on the corn ear as a kind of corn, -because it was borne on the cob; it was found on the ears the grain of -which was growing solid, or was about ready to be eaten as green corn. We -did not find many mapë´di masses in one garden. - - -_Harvest and Uses_ - -We gathered the black masses and half boiled and dried them, still on -the cob. When well dried, they were broken off the cob. These broken off -pieces we mixed with the dried half boiled green corn, and stored in the -same sack with them. - -Mapë´di was cooked by boiling with the half-boiled dried corn. We did -not eat mapë´di fresh from the garden, nor did we cook it separately. -Mapë´di, boiled with corn, tasted good, not sweet, and not sour. - -I still follow the custom of my tribe and gather mapë´di each year at the -corn harvest. - - -THE RIPE CORN HARVEST - - -_Husking_ - -As the corn in the fields began to show signs of ripening, the people of -Like-a-fishhook village went hunting to get meat for the husking feasts. -This meat was usually dried; but if a kill was made late in the season, -the meat was sometimes brought in fresh. - -When the corn was fully ripened, the owners of a garden went out with -baskets, plucked the ears from the stalks and piled them in a heap ready -for the husking. The empty stalks were left standing in the field. - -A small family sometimes took as many as three days to gather and husk -their ripe corn; this was because there were not many persons in the -family to do the work. - -In a big family, like my fathers, harvesting was more speedily done. We -had a large garden, but we never spent more than one day gathering up the -corn, which we piled in a heap in the middle of the field. - -The next day after the corn was plucked, we gave a husking feast. We took -out into the field a great deal of dried meat that my mothers had already -cooked in the lodge; or we took the dried meat into the field and boiled -it in a kettle near the corn pile. We also boiled corn on a fire near by. -The meat and corn were for the feast. - -Instead of dried meat, a family sometimes took out a side of fresh -buffalo meat and roasted it over a fire, near the corn pile. - -Having then arrived at the field, and started a fire for the feast, all -of our family who had come out to work sat down and began to husk. Word -had been sent beforehand that we were going to give a husking feast, and -the invited helpers soon appeared. There was no particular time set for -their coming, but we expected them in one of the morning hours.[12] - -For the most part these were young men from nineteen to thirty years of -age, but a few old men would probably be in the company; and these were -welcomed and given a share of the feast. - -There might be twenty-five or thirty of the young men. They were paid for -their labor with the meat given them to eat; and each carried a sharp -stick on which he skewered the meat he could not eat, to take home.[13] - -The husking season was looked upon as a time of jollity; and youths and -maidens dressed and decked themselves for the occasion. - -Of course each young man gave particular help to the garden of his -sweetheart. Some girls were more popular than others. The young men were -apt to vie with one another at the husking pile of an attractive girl. - -Some of the young men rode ponies, and when her corn pile had been -husked, a youth would sometimes lend his pony to his sweetheart for her -to carry home her corn. She loaded the pony with loose ears in bags, -bound on either side of the saddle, or with strings of braided corn laid -upon the pony’s back. - -The husking season, like the green corn season, lasted about ten days. -The young men helped faithfully each day, and when they had husked all -the corn in one field, they moved to another. Thus all the corn piles -were speedily husked. - -The husking was always done in the field. We never carried the corn to -the village to be husked, as the husks would then have dried, and hurt -the hands of the husker. As we plucked the ears, we piled them in a heap -in the field, to keep the husks moist and soft.[14] - - -_Rejecting Green Ears_ - -As the huskers worked they were careful not to add any green ears to -the husked pile. A green ear would turn black and spoil, and be fit for -nothing. - -Every husker knew this; and if a young man was helping another family -husk, he laid in a little pile beside him, any green ears that he found. -These green ears belonged to him, to eat or to feed to his pony. - -Last year a white man hired me to gather the corn in his field and husk -it; and I kept all the green ears for myself, for that is my custom. I -do not know whether that white man liked it or not. It may be he thought -I was stealing that green corn; but I was following the custom that I -learned of my tribe. - -I am an Indian; if a white man hires me to do work for him, he must -expect that I will follow Indian custom. - - -_Braiding Corn_ - -Most of the corn as it was husked was tossed into a pile, to be borne -later to the village. This was true of all the smaller and less favored -ears: the best of the larger ears were braided into strings. - -As we husked, if a long ear of good size and appearance was found, it was -laid aside for braiding. For this purpose the husk was bent back upon -the stub of the stalk on the big end of the ear, leaving the three thin -leaves that cling next to the kernels still lying on the ear in their -natural position. The part of the husk that was bent back was cut off -with a knife; the three thin leaves that remained were now bent back on -the ear, and the ear was laid aside. Another ear was treated in the same -way and laid beside the first, also with its thin leaves bent back. And -thus, until a row of ears lay extended side by side upon the ground, all -the ears lying point forward. - -Another row was started; and the ears, also lying point forward and -leaned against the first row, were laid so as to cover the thin bent-back -leaves of the first row, to protect them from the sun. As the braiding -was done with these thin leaves, if they were too dry—as the sun was very -apt to make them—they would break. - -When a quantity of these ears, all with thin husk leaves bent back, had -accumulated, one of the huskers passed them to someone of the young men, -who braided them; or one of the women of the family owning the field -might braid them. - -Even with care the thin leaves were sometimes too dry for the braider to -handle safely; and he would fill his mouth with water and blow it over -the leaves. - -Fifty-four or fifty-five ears were commonly braided to a string; but -the number varied more or less. In my father’s family, we often braided -strings of fifty-six or fifty-seven ears. - -I do not know why this number was chosen; but I think this number of ears -was about of a weight that a woman could well carry and put upon the -drying stage. - -When the string was all braided, the braider took either end in his hand, -and placing his right foot against the middle of the string, gave the -ends a smart pull. This stretched and tightened the string, and made it -look neater and more finished; it also tried if there might be any weak -places in it. - -We braided all varieties of corn but two, atạ´ki tso´ki, or hard white, -and tsï´di tso´ki, or hard yellow. These varieties we reckoned too hard -to parch, and for this reason they were not braided. We did, however, -sometimes parch hard yellow to be pounded up into meal for corn balls. - -The strings of braided corn were borne to the village on the backs of -ponies. Some families laid ten strings on a pony; but in my father’s -family we never laid on so many, believing it made too heavy a load for -the poor beast. - -The braided strings were hung to dry on the drying stage upon the railing -that lay in the upper forks; and if there was need, poles or drying rods -were laid across the rails and strings were hung over these also.[15] - -These drying rods were laid across only where the forks supported the -rails (at the same places the staying thongs were tied), for at these -places the stage could better bear the weight of the heavy strings of -corn; the drying rods were bound at either end to the railing, to stay -them. - - -_The Smaller Ears_ - -Meanwhile the smaller and less favored ears were being carried home in -baskets. It took the members of my father’s family a whole day, and the -next day following until late in the afternoon, to get this work done. - -Each carrier, as she brought in a basket of corn, ascended the log ladder -of the stage and emptied the corn on the stage floor. Here the corn lay -in a long heap, in the middle of the floor; for a free path was always -left around the edge for us women; having this path for our use, we did -not have to tread on the corn as we moved about. Also, if a pony came in -with a load of braided corn, the heavy strings could be handed up to us -women on the stage as we moved around in this free path. - -As I now remember, our family’s husked corn when piled on the stage -floor, made a heap about eight yards long and four yards wide, and about -four feet high in the middle, from which point the pile sloped down on -all sides. This was the loose corn, the smaller ears; and besides these -there were about one hundred strings of braided corn hung on the railing -above the heap. I give these measurements, judging as nearly as I can -from the size of our drying stage, and from our average yearly corn -yield, when I was a young woman. I think the figures are approximately -accurate. - -For about eight days the corn lay thus in a long heap upon the stage. -At the end of that time the ears on the top of the heap had become dry -and smooth and threatened to roll down the sides of the pile. We now -took drying rods and laid them along the floor against the posts, two or -three of them, for the whole length of the stage on either side, and on -the ends of the stage. Planks split from cottonwood trunks were leaned -against these drying rods, on the side next the corn. The corn heap -was now spread evenly over the floor of the drying stage for the depth -of about a foot; the split planks prevented the dry smooth ears from -sliding off the stage. The dry ears had a tendency to roll or slide down -the sides of the corn pile, as fresh ears did not. - -This spreading out the corn heap evenly had also the effect of stirring -up the underlying ears and exposing them to the air. - -If rain fell while the corn was thus drying on the stage, it gave us no -concern. The corn soon dried again, and no harm was done it. - -The corn, spread thus in an even heap, took about three more days to dry, -or eleven days in all. Then we began threshing. - - -_Drying the Braided Ears_ - -The strings of braided corn hanging on the rails at the top of the posts -of the drying stage, dried much more quickly than the loose ears heaped -on the stage floor. The wind, rattling the dry ears of the strings -together, was apt to shell out the drying kernels; it was therefore usual -for us before threshing time to tie these braids together so that the -wind could not rattle them. - -To do this I would ascend the ladder and make my way along the edge of -the stage floor, making places in the corn with my feet as I walked, so -that my feet would be on the stage floor and not tread on the drying -corn. I would push ten of the braided strings together on the rail or the -drying rod on which they hung, and tie them by passing around them a raw -hide thong. - -These braided strings, bound thus in bundles of ten, hung on the stage -until we were ready to store them in the cache pit; and this we could not -do until we had our main harvest, the loose ears, threshed and ready to -store also. - - -SEED CORN - - -_Selecting the Seed_ - -I have said that for braiding corn we chose the longest and finest ears. -In my father’s family we used to braid about one hundred strings, some -years less, some years more, as the season had been wet or dry; for -the yield of fine ears was always less in a dry year. Of these braided -strings we selected the very best in the spring for seed. - -My mothers reckoned that we should need five braided strings of soft -white, and about thirty ears of soft yellow, for seed. Of ma´ikadicakĕ, -or gummy, we raised a little each year, not much; ten ears of this, for -seed, my mothers thought were a plenty. - -Hard white and hard yellow corn, I have said, were not braided, because -not used for parching. For seed of these varieties, some good ears were -taken from the drying pile on the corn stage and stored in the cache pit -for the next year with loose grain of the same variety. The ears were not -put in a sack, but thrown in with the loose grain. - -When I selected seed corn, I chose only good, full, plump ears; and I -looked carefully to see if the kernels on any of the ears had black -hearts. When that part of a kernel of corn which joins the cob is black -or dark colored, we say it has a black heart. This imperfection is caused -by plucking the ear when too green. A kernel with a black heart will not -grow. - -An ear of corn has always small grains toward the point of the cob, and -large grains toward the butt of the ear. When I came to plant corn, I -used only the kernels in the center of the cob for seed, rejecting both -the small and the large grains of the two ends. - -Seed corn was shelled from the cob with the thumb; we never threshed it -with sticks. Sometimes we shelled an ear by rubbing it against another -ear. - - -_Keeping Two Years’ Seed_ - -Corn kept for seed would be best to plant the next spring; and it would -be fertile, and good to plant, the second spring after harvesting. The -third year the seed was not so good; and it did not come up very well. -The fourth year the seed would be dead and useless. - -Knowing that seed corn kept good for at least two years, it was my -family’s custom to gather enough seed for at least two years, in seasons -in which our crops were good. Some years, in spite of careful hoeing, our -crops were poor; the ears were small, there was not much grain on them, -and what grain they bore was of poor quality. We did not like to save -seed out of such a crop. Also, frost occasionally destroyed our crop, or -most of it. - -When, therefore, we had a year of good crops, we put away seed enough to -last for two years; then, if the next year yielded a poor crop, we still -had good seed to plant the third season. - -In my father’s family we always observed this custom of putting away seed -for two years; and we did this not only of our corn, but of our squash -seeds, beans, sunflower seeds, and even of our tobacco seeds; for if I -remember rightly, the tobacco fields were sometimes injured by frost just -as were our corn fields. - -Not all families in our village were equally wise. Some were quite -improvident, and were not at all careful to save seed from their crops. -Such families, in the spring, had to buy their seed from families that -were more provident. - -Saving a good store of seed was therefore profitable in a way. In my -father’s family we often sold a good deal of seed in the spring to -families that wanted. The price was one tanned buffalo skin for one -string of braided seed corn. - -[Illustration: Corn stage of Butterfly’s wife - -This stage lacks railings, and is floored Arikara fashion with a willow -mat. A pile of drying corn is seen on the stage floor. In the ancient -villages, where the lodges were crowded together, the railings were -always present.] - -[Illustration: Owl Woman pounding corn into meal in a corn mortar] - -Even to-day, families on this reservation come to me to buy seed corn and -seed beans. A handful of beans, enough for one planting, I sell for one -calico—enough calico, that is, to make an Indian woman a dress, or about -ten yards. - - -THRESHING CORN - - -_The Booth_ - -The threshing season was always a busy one, for all the families of the -village would be threshing their corn at the same time. - -Corn was threshed in a booth, under the drying stage. - -[Illustration: Figure 12 - -The figure has been redrawn from sketches by Goodbird. The original is -a stage now standing on the reservation, but with mat of willows for -floor; to this Goodbird added a threshing booth as he saw used by his -grandmother when he was a boy. Goodbird’s sketches are closely followed, -excepting that the floor of slabs is restored. The figure tallies in -every respect with Buffalobird-woman’s description, and the model made by -her for the American Museum of Natural History.] - -To make the booth, I began with the section at one end of the stage. As -is shown in figure 12, on the posts _A_ and _D_, and _B_ and _C_, were -bound two poles, _e_ and _f_, at about two feet below the stage floor; -upon these were bound two other poles, _g_ and _h_; the poles _e_, _f_, -and _h_ were bound outside of the posts that supported them. - -A long raw hide thong was used for the corner ties. The first pole was -raised in position and bound firmly to the post; and if a second pole was -to be laid over the first—as was done at two of the corners—the thong was -drawn up and made to bind it also to the post. We always kept a number of -these raw hide thongs in the lodge against just such uses as this; they -were strong, and served every purpose of ropes; we oiled them to keep -them soft. - -A tent cover was now fetched out of the lodge. Tents were of different -sizes, from those of seven, to those of sixteen buffalo cow hides. A -woman used whatever sized tent cover she owned; but a cover of thirteen -skins was of convenient size. - -[Illustration: Figure 13] - -Around the curved bottom of the tent cover was a row of holes, through -which wooden pins were driven to peg the tent to the ground. The tent -cover was bound to the four over-hanging poles, inside of the four posts, -by means of a long thong woven in and out through the holes, as shown in -figure 13. - -[Illustration: Figure 14] - -Bound thus to the poles, and quite enclosing the space within them, the -tent cover made a kind of booth. The upper parts of the cover, including -the smoke flaps, that now hung sweeping the ground, were drawn in and -spread flat on the ground to make a floor for the booth; and stones laid -upon them weighted the cover against the wing. - -In figure 12 the four posts, _A_, _B_, _C_, and _D_, enclose one section -of the drying stage; the booth did not enclose the whole ground space of -this section, but about three fifths of it. - -Figure 14, I think, will explain the arrangement of the booth. The -end corners, _X_ and _Y_, were bound to opposite posts, _M_ and _N_, -respectively, the lapping edges, at _O_, forming a door through which -the threshers entered the booth; _P_ and _P´_ were bound to posts at _p_ -and _p´_; the final corner, _M_, was left untied until the threshers had -entered and were ready to begin their task. (Compare with figure 12, in -which, however, the posts are differently lettered.) - -Before they did this they went above and removed the planks and drying -rods laid around the edge of the stage floor, and pushed the corn back -toward the middle of the floor into a long heap again, that it might not -fall over the edge, now that the planks were taken away. One of the floor -planks was now removed, at _R_. Through the aperture thus made, corn was -pushed down to left and right of _R_; this was continued until there was -a pile of corn just under the aperture, and running the width of the -booth, about eighteen or twenty inches high. - -The threshers now entered the booth and tied the corner at _M_, closing -the door. In my father’s family there were usually three threshers, -women; and they sat in a row on the floor of the booth, facing the pile -of corn. Each woman had a stick for a flail, with which she beat the corn. - -[Illustration: Figure 15] - -Flails were of ash or cottonwood. An ash flail would be about three -and a half feet long and from three quarters of an inch to an inch in -diameter, and was cut green. A cottonwood flail was seldom used green; -and as it was therefore lighter than the green ash, a cottonwood flail -was a little greater in diameter, but of the same length. We were careful -that a flail should not be too heavy, lest it break the kernels in the -threshing. Kinikinik sticks were sometimes used for flails. - -A diagram (figure 15) has been drawn to illustrate how I worked in a -threshing booth when I was a young woman. As shown, I sat on the extreme -left; one of my mothers and my sister sat as indicated, on my right. More -than three seldom worked in a threshing booth at the same time, at least -in our family; however, I have known my sister, Not-frost, to make a -fourth. I have even known five to be threshing in the booth of some other -family in the village, but never more than five. - -To thresh the corn, I raised my flail and brought it down smartly, but -not severely, upon the pile of corn. The grain as it was thus beaten off -the dry cobs would fall by its own weight into the pile, and work its way -to the bottom; while the lighter cobs would come to the top of the pile. - -Beating the ears with the flails caused many of the kernels to leap and -fly about; but the tent cover, enclosing the booth, caught all these -flying kernels. It was, indeed, for this that the booth was built. - -As the cobs, beaten empty of grain, accumulated on the pile, we drew them -off and cast them out of the door of the booth upon a tent cover, spread -to receive them, under the middle section of the stage. Many of these -cobs had a few small grains clinging to them; and these must be saved, -for we wasted nothing. - -Having paused then to throw out the cobs, we returned to the pile and -thrust our flails in under it, drawing them upward through the corn, thus -working the unthreshed ears to the top. As much as we could, we tried -to keep the unthreshed ears in the middle of the pile, and the threshed -grain pushed to right and left, as will be seen by studying the diagram. -To thresh one pile, or filling of corn in a booth, took a half day’s work. - - -_Order of the Day’s Work_ - -Our habit was to begin quite early in the morning, enclose the booth with -the tent cover, and set to work threshing; finishing the first filling, -or pile, about midday. In the afternoon we began a second pile, first -heaping the already threshed grain to right and left, and behind the -threshers. - -I have said that on the ground under the second section of the stage, a -second tent cover was spread to catch the cobs. A part of this tent cover -was drawn in under the edge of the booth to help carpet the floor of the -booth. - -At the end of the day we turned our attention to the pile of cobs; and -with our thumbs we shelled off every grain that clung to the cobs. From -the cobs of a day’s threshing we collected about as many grains of corn -as would fill a white man’s hat. This was taken into the booth and thrown -on the pile of threshed grain. - -We now disposed of the grain for the night. If we had gotten through -threshing rather early in the day, we bore the newly threshed grain in -baskets into the lodge, and emptied it into a bull boat. - -If we had gotten through our threshing rather late in the day, we made -the door of the booth tight, and left the grain on the booth floor -throughout the night. - - -_The Cobs_ - -The day’s threshing over, we attended to the cobs. I have said that we -shelled off any kernels that clung to them after threshing, so that they -were now quite clean of grain. - -All day long, as we threshed, we had watched that no horses got at the -cobs to trample and nibble them, or that any dog ran over them, or any -children played in them. Then, in the evening, if the weather was fine, -and there was little wind, one of my mothers or I carried the cobs -outside of the village to a grassy place and heaped them in a pile about -five feet high. A pile of cobs of such a height I usually gathered from a -day’s threshing. - -In our prairie country, on a fair day, the wind usually dies down about -sunset; and now, when the air was still, I fired the cob pile. As the -pile began to burn, I could usually see the burning cob piles of two or -three other families lighting up the gathering dusk. - -I had to stay and watch the fire, to keep any mischievous boys from -coming to play in the burning heap. Children of from ten to fifteen years -of age were quite a pest at cob-firing time. They had a kind of game -they were fond of playing. Each would cut a long, flexible, green stick, -and at the edge of the Missouri he would get a ball of wet mud and stick -it on his stick. He would try to approach one of the burning piles, and -with his stick, slap the mud ball smartly into the burning coals, some of -which, still glowing, would stick in the wet mud. Using the stick as a -sling, the child would throw the mud ball into the air, aiming often at -another child. Other children would be throwing mud balls at one another -at the same time, and these, with the bits of glowing charcoal clinging -to them, would go sailing through the air like shooting stars. Knowing -very well that the children would get into my burning cobs if I even -turned my back, I was careful to stay by to watch. - -At last the fire had burned down and the coals were dead; and nothing was -left but a pile of ashes. It was now night, and I would go home. Early -the next morning, before the prairie winds had arisen, I would go out -again to my ash heap. On the top of the ashes, if nothing had disturbed -them in the night and an unexpected wind had not blown them about, I -would find a thin crust had formed. This crust I carefully broke and -gathered up with my fingers, squeezing the pieces in my hand into little -lumps, or balls. Sometimes I was able to gather four or five of these -little balls from one pile of ashes; but never more than five. - -These balls I carried home. There were always several baskets hanging in -the lodge, ready for any use we might want of them; and it was our habit -to keep some dried buffalo heart skins, or some dried buffalo paunch -skins, in the lodge, for wrappers, much as white families keep wrapping -paper in the house. The ash balls I wrapped up in one of these skins, -into a package, being careful not to break the balls. I put the package -in one of the baskets, to hang up until there was occasion for its use. - -These ash balls were used for seasoning. I have explained elsewhere how -we used spring salt to season our boiled corn; and that every day in the -lodge, we ate mä´dạkạpa, or pounded dried ripe corn boiled with beans. -But in the fall, instead of seasoning this dish with spring salt, or -alkali salt as you call it, we preferred to use this seasoning of ash -crust. - -In my father’s family, for each meal of mä´dạkạpa we filled the corn -mortar three times, two-and-a-half double handfuls of corn making one -filling of the mortar. Each time we filled the mortar, we dropped in with -the corn a little of the ash crust, a bit about as big as a white child’s -marble. Finally, a piece about as big, or perhaps a little larger, was -also dropped into the boiling pot. - -We Indians were fond of this seasoning; and we liked it much better than -we did our spring salt. We did not use spring salt, indeed, if we had ash -balls in the lodge. - -We called these ash balls mä´dạkạpa isĕ´pĕ, or mä´dạkạpa darkener. - -We did not make ash balls if the dogs or horses had trampled on the cobs; -or if children had mussed in the fire; nor would we make ash balls if the -day had not been rather calm, for a high wind was sure to blow dust into -the cobs. - -We burned cobs and collected ash balls after every threshing day, unless -hindered by storm or high wind. But even if the harvest was a good one, -the ash balls that we got from the burned cobs for seasoning never lasted -long. We were so fond of seasoning our food with them that every family -had used up its store before the autumn had passed. - - -_Winnowing_ - -I have said that after the day’s threshing we stored the newly threshed -grain for the night, either in the booth or in a bull boat in the earth -lodge; and that we then fired the cobs that had accumulated during the -day. - -The next morning we spread an old tent cover outside the lodge, near -the drying stage; and we fetched the loose grain of the previous day’s -threshing out of the booth, or the earth lodge and spread it evenly and -thinly upon the tent cover. The grain was here left to dry until evening. - -A little before sunset, and before the prairie wind had died down, we -fetched baskets and winnowed the grain. The basket was half filled with -grain, held aloft, and the grain poured gently out in the wind. Wooden -bowls were often used for winnowing, instead of baskets; but they did not -hold as much grain. - -The winnowing over, I would take up a few grains of the corn to test with -my teeth. If, when I bit a kernel in two, it broke with a sharp, snappy -sound, I knew it was quite dried; if it broke dull and soft, I knew the -grain needed another day’s drying; but at the most, this second day’s -drying was enough. - -[Illustration: Figure 16] - -The winnowed grain, now well dried, was borne into the earth lodge and -stored temporarily in bull boats. In the diagram (figure 16), is shown -where the bull boats full of grain used to stand in my father’s lodge. -Some years our harvest filled three bull boats of threshed grain; some -years it filled five. In the year illustrated by this diagram, there were -three bull boats standing between the planks at the left of the door, and -the fire; and two bull boats on the other side of the fire, all full of -grain. - -The threshed grain, I have said, received its final drying and winnowing -upon a tent cover (or covers) spread on the ground near the earth lodge. -It was my own habit always to spread these tent covers beside the drying -stage on the side farthest away from the lodge. However, the particular -spot where the winnowing was done, was determined by the convenience of -the household. - -We did not usually thresh consecutive days. We threshed one day; dried -the grain and winnowed it the second; and threshed again the third day. - - -_Removing the Booth_ - -During these days the booth did not remain always in one place. When the -corn on the floor of the first section had all been threshed, the booth -was removed to another section. I will now explain how this was done. - -In figure 17 my son has diagramed the floor plan of my mothers’ stage and -threshing booth, as I remember them. - -The stage stands in front of Small Ankle’s lodge, which faces toward the -west. The stage is divided into three sections, _A_, _B_, _C_. The posts -upon which the floor of the stage rests are _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_, _h_, _i_, -_j_, _k_. - -The booth was first raised under section _A_, based upon _fg_ and -enclosing ground space _lmfg_. - -Sometimes we got up early, bound the poles to the posts and erected our -booth before breakfast; then after we had eaten, three or four of us -would go out to thresh, one first going up to push down the corn. She -raised a plank along the side, _fg_, just within the booth; this, if the -door of the booth was on the side _lm_. The corn on the floor of the -stage in section _A_ was then shoved down as wanted. - -[Illustration: Figure 17 - -Ground plan of earth lodge here accompanies that of stage to show -relative positions of the two structures. The stage always stood, as -here, directly before the lodge entrance. The figures are drawn to scale.] - -The corn pushed down for one threshing, made a pile running the width of -the booth, and about forty inches wide and twenty inches high. When the -pile was threshed one of the women went up and shoved down another pile. -The corn in one section was threshed in about three such piles. - -Sometimes, if we worked hard and had plenty of help, we threshed one -whole section in one day; but the beating, beating, beating of the corn -was hard work, and we more often stopped when wearied and rested until -the next day. I have already said that we often spent the next day at the -lighter work of drying and winnowing. - -When the corn in section _A_ was all threshed, the booth was moved over -under the floor of section _B_, enclosing _fgno_; and again a plank was -taken up to let down the corn. Now this plank was always taken up above -the side of the booth opposite the door; and the door was always placed -down wind. Thus, if the wind was from the north, the door would be placed -on the south side of the booth, and the plank was taken up on the north -side, just within the booth. Corn was always threshed in the booth on the -side opposite the door. - -Sections _A_ and _B_ of my mothers’ stage, as shown in diagram (figure -17) contained only yellow corn. Section _C_, or a part of it, contained -white corn. Braided strings of corn were also hung all around the railing -above, but these were not to be threshed. - -Section _B_ having been threshed, the booth was removed to section _C_, -enclosing _hiqp_. I have said that this section had white corn. Now this -white corn was piled toward the south end of the stage; and between it -and the yellow corn was left a narrow vacant place on the floor. Above -this vacant place, meat was often dried; but this meat was removed when -we were ready to thresh. - -Placing the booth to enclose _hiqp_, directly under the vacant place, -made it easy for us to raise a plank here to push down the white corn. If -we had placed the booth on the south end of this section, we should have -had to dig into the corn piled here, in order to raise a plank. - -Our family’s threshing lasted about five days in a year of good yield; if -the year was a poor one, threshing lasted only two or three days. - - -_Threshing Braided Corn_ - -The strings of braided corn were stored in the cache pit (which I will -describe later) in the whole ear. If, during the winter, or the following -spring, I wanted to thresh a string of braided corn, I put the whole -string into a skin sack; and this sack I beat and shook, turning it over -and around until all the grain had fallen off the cobs. The sack was then -emptied. - - -_Amount of Harvest_ - -Our harvested corn, in a good year, lasted my father’s family until the -next harvest, with a small quantity even then unused. Some years we ran -out of corn before the harvest came, but not often. We ate our corn as -long as it lasted, not husbanding it toward the last, because we knew -there were elk and buffalo and antelope to be had for the hunting. If we -ran out of corn at all, it was about the first of August; sometimes a -little earlier. Sometimes when we had eaten all our last year’s harvest -there was a small quantity from the previous season’s harvest with which -we eked out our shortage. - -My mothers, however, were industrious women, and our shortage, if any, -was never for long. Some families, not very provident, had consumed all -their harvest as early as in the spring; but such never happened in my -father’s family. - - -_Sioux Purchasing Corn_ - -The Standing Rock Sioux used to buy corn of us, coming up in midsummer, -or autumn. They came not because they were in need of food, but because -they liked to eat our corn, and had always meat and skins to trade to us. -For one string of braided corn they gave us one tanned buffalo robe. - - -VARIETIES OF CORN - - -_Description of Varieties_ - -We raised nine well marked varieties of corn in our village. Following -are the names of the varieties: - - Atạ´ki tso´ki Hard white - (White hard) - - Atạ´ki Soft white - (White) - - Tsï´di tso´ki Hard yellow - (Yellow hard) - - Tsï´di tapa´ Soft yellow - (Yellow soft) - - Ma´ïkadicakĕ Gummy - (Gummy) - - Do´ohi Blue - (Blue) - - Hi´ci cĕ´pi Dark red - (Red dark) - - Hi´tsiica Light red - (Light-red) - - Atạ´ki aku´ hi´tsiica Pink top - (White, kind of light red) - -Our Hidatsa word for corn is ko´xati; but in speaking of any variety of -corn, the work ko´xati is commonly omitted. In like manner, atạ´ki means -white; but if one went into a lodge and asked for “atạ´ki” it was always -understood to mean soft white corn. - -Of the nine varieties, the atạ´ki, or soft white, was the kind most -raised in our village. The ma´ïkadicakĕ, or gummy, was least raised, as -almost its only use was in making corn balls. - -In my father’s family, we raised two kinds of corn, tsï´di tso´ki, or -hard yellow; and atạ´ki, or soft white. - -The names of the varieties suggest pretty well their characteristics. The -atạ´ki aku´ hi´tsiica, or white-with-light-red, was marked by a light red -or pink color toward the top or beard end of the ear. The name pink-top -which you suggest for this variety will, I think, do for an English name, -if the literal translation of the Indian term is, as you say, rather -clumsy. - -We planted each variety of corn separately. We Indians understood -perfectly the need of keeping the strains pure, for the different -varieties had not all the same uses with us. - - -_How Corn Travels_ - -We Indians knew that corn can travel, as we say; thus, if the seed -planted in one field is of white corn, and that in an adjoining field is -of some variety of yellow corn, the white will travel to the yellow corn -field, and the yellow to the white corn field. - -Perhaps you do not understand what I mean by corn traveling. Well, let us -suppose that there are two fields lying side by side, the one in yellow, -the other in white corn. When the corn of the two fields is ripe, and the -ears are opened, it will be found that many of the ears in the yellow -rows that stand nearest the white field will have white kernels standing -in the cob; also, in the rows of white corn that stand nearest the yellow -field, there will be many ears with yellow kernels mixed in with the -white kernels. - -We Indians did not know what power it was that causes this. We only knew -that it was so. We also knew that when a field stands alone, away from -other fields, and is planted with white corn, it will grow up in white -corn only; there will not be any yellow grains in the ears. And so of any -other variety. - -[Illustration: Figure 18] - -Sometimes two women, owning adjoining fields, would make an agreement; -they would divide their fields into sections and plant the corresponding -sections on opposite sides of the division line alike. Thus in the -diagram (figure 18), _A_ and _A´_ may be planted in a variety of yellow -corn; _B_ and _B´_ may be planted in beans and squashes; and _C_ and _C´_ -may be planted in a variety of white corn; but even this did not make so -very much difference; still the corn traveled. - -We thought that perhaps the reason of this was that the ground here was -soft, or mellowed and broken by cultivation. We thought corn could not -travel readily over hard, or unbroken ground; and as you notice in the -diagram, although the two patches of yellow corn are separated from the -white corn by the two patches of squashes and beans, yet the beans and -squashes are in soft, or cultivated ground. We thought corn traveled more -easily over soft ground. - -However, we really did not know what made corn travel; we just knew that -it did. - - -USES OF THE VARIETIES - - -_Atạ´ki Tso´ki_ - -I think that perhaps at first, there was but one variety of corn, atạ´ki -tso´ki, or hard white; and that all other varieties have sprung from -it. I know that when we plant hard white seed, ears often develop that -show color in the grain. Sometimes ears are produced bearing pink grains -toward the beard end of the cob; such ears we call i´puta (top) hi´tsiica -(pink); that is, pink top, or light-red top. In color these ears differed -in no wise from atạ´ki aku´ hi´tsiica. - -Hard white was very generally raised, nearly every family in the tribe -having a field of it. - -There were two chief dishes chiefly prepared from hard white corn; these -I will now describe. - -_Mäpi´ Nakapa´._ I put water in a pot, and in this I dropped a section -of a string of dried squash, with some beans. Dried squash was always -strung on long grass strings; and having, from one of these strings, cut -off a piece I tied the ends together, making a wreath, or ring, four or -five inches in diameter. It was this ring of dried squash slices that I -dropped into the pot. When well boiled, I lifted the squash slices out -by the string and dropped them into a wooden bowl, where I mashed them -and chopped them fine with a horn spoon. The mashed squash I dropped back -into the kettle again, with the beans; the now empty string I threw away. - -Meanwhile corn had been parched, and some buffalo fats had been held over -the coals on a stick, to roast. The parched corn and roast fats I pounded -together in the corn mortar; and the pounded mass I stirred into the -kettle. The mess was now ready to be eaten. - -This dish we called mäpi´-nakapa´, or pounded-meal mush; from mäpi,´ -something pounded, and nakapa´, mush, something mushy. - -The dish was especially a morning meal; after eating it we started to -work. - -_Mä´nakapa._ A second way of preparing hard white corn was as follows: I -pounded the corn in a mortar to a meal, but without first parching it. -Most of this meal was fine, but there were many coarser bits in it, some -of them as big as quarter grains of corn. - -Water was put in a kettle; I added the pounded meal, and when it boiled -put in beans. No fats were added. - -As the mess boiled. I stirred it with a wooden paddle to prevent -scorching; I did not stir with a horn spoon as the hot water softened and -spoiled the horn. - -When well boiled, the mess was served. - -We called this dish mä´nakapa´.[16] - -A seasoning of spring salt, as we called it, was often added. A small -palmful of the salt was mixed with a little water in a horn spoon; this -dissolved the salt and let the sand and dirt drop to the bottom. The -dissolved salt was poured off through the fingers, held to the mouth of -the horn spoon; this strained out the sand and dirt. The salt turned the -mush slightly yellow. - -As the soft mush boiled up in the cooking, we were fond of dipping a horn -spoon into it, and licking off the back of the spoon. This was especially -a children’s habit. - -Also at morning and evening meals we ate hard white corn parched and -mixed with fats; or mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a, boiled whole corn. - - -_Atạ´ki_ - -This is a soft, or as you call it, a flour corn, and was perhaps the -favorite variety grown by us. The word atạ´ki means white; but when -applied to corn we translate soft white, to distinguish from atạ´ki -tso´ki, or hard white. - -The use of atạ´ki, or soft white, was very general, since it could be -made into almost every kind of corn food used by us. “It is the one -variety,” we used to say, “that can be used in any and every way.” - -Soft white corn, parched and pounded into a meal, was boiled with squash -and beans to make mäpi´ nakapa´. The unparched grain was pounded for meal -to make mä´nakapa; but although good, we did not think the mush made from -soft white meal was as good as that from the hard white corn meal. - -_Boiled Corn Ball._ A less frequent dish made from soft white corn was -boiled corn balls; it was made only from the dried ripe grain. - -I pounded a quantity of grain into meal, and poured the meal into a pot -having hot water—but not too much water—stirring it well about. I now -lifted out some of the mass into my left palm and patted it down with my -right, making a cake about as big around as a baking powder biscuit, but -not so thick. This cake I dropped into a pot of boiling water, where it -sank to the bottom. I continued until the pot was full, or until I had -all I wished to cook. - -No salt or other seasoning was added. - -As the pot boiled, one could see the corn cakes move around in the water; -but they never floated, nor did they break apart. The boiling lasted -about an hour. - -In olden days we ate these corn balls alone; now we more often eat them -with coffee. - - -_Tsï´di Tso´ki and Tsï´di Tapä´_ - -The two varieties of tsï´di, or golden yellow corn, could be pounded and -boiled to make mush, or mä´dakapa; or they could be boiled whole, to make -mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a. - -_Mạdạpo´zi I’ti´a._ For this dish I put the shelled ripe grain, with -fats, in a pot and boiled them until I saw the kernels break open; then I -added beans, and when these were boiled, the mess was served. This dish -we called mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a. I do not know the derivation of mạdạpo´zi; -i’ti´a means large. I think you can translate “corn boiled whole.” - -Hard yellow and soft yellow corn, roasted in the green ear, tasted sweet, -as if a little sugar were in them. Especially was this true at the time -when kernels were beginning to turn yellow. At this time each kernel -shows a little yellow spot on the very top. For this reason this season -was called tsi´dotsxĕ, or yellow-drop time; for the little yellow spot -looked like a drop on the top of the kernel. - - -_Other Soft Varieties_ - -Do´ohi, or blue, hi´ci cĕ´pi, dark red, and hi´tsiica, light red, were -all soft corns and were cooked and prepared and stored just like atạ´ki; -these four varieties tasted exactly alike, if cooked in the same way. - - -_Ma´ikadicakĕ_ - -Ma´ikadicakĕ, or gummy corn, is of different colors; some is of a light -red; some yellow flaked with red; and some is in color like hard white; -but all these slightly differing strains are alike in this, that when -the kernels dry they shrink up and become rough, or wrinkled. The name, -ma´ikadicakĕ, comes from kadi´cakĕ, or gum-like. - -Ma´ikadicakĕ was the least grown of our five principal varieties of corn; -however, a good deal of this variety is still raised on this reservation. - -Ma´ikadicakĕ was sometimes roasted green, when the kernels chewed up -gummy in the mouth; but the one recognized use of this variety was to -make corn balls. - -_Mä´pĭ Mĕĕ´pĭ I’´kiuta_, or _Corn Balls_. Into a clay pot while yet -cold, I put shelled corn and set it on the fire. As the grain parched, I -stirred it with a stick. The heat made the kernels pop open somewhat, but -not much. - -Meanwhile fats were roasted over the coals on the point of a stick; and -these and the parched grain were dropped into the corn mortar and pounded -together. I then reached into the mortar and took out a handful of the -meal, which being oily with the fats, held together in a lump. This lump -I squeezed in my fingers and then tapped it gently on the edge of the -mortar, making a slight dent or groove, lengthwise, in one side of the -lump. The lump or ball—it was not exactly round—I dropped into a wooden -bowl. The process was repeated until the bowl was full. - -Our native name for corn ball is mä´pi mĕĕ´pĭ i’´kiuta, from mä´pi, -something pounded, mĕĕ´pĭ, mortar, and i’´kiuta, hit or pressed against; -that is pounded meal pressed against the mortar; but we translate, just -corn ball. - -Corn balls were an acceptable present for a woman to give her daughter to -take to her husband; the son-in-law might himself eat the corn balls, or -share them with his parents or sisters. - -As I have said, the one recognized use of gummy corn was for parching to -make corn balls; but any of the soft corns could be used to make corn -balls, as soft yellow, soft white, blue, light red, and the like. - -_Parched Soft Corn._ Corn of any of the soft varieties parched in a -pot as just described, was often carried by hunters or travelers to be -eaten as a lunch. The corn was carried in a little bag made by drying a -buffalo’s heart skin. - -_Parching Whole Ripe Ears._ We parched the whole ears, sometimes, of ripe -soft white and soft yellow corn. We had many squash spits piled up in the -rear of the lodge behind the beds; these made excellent roasting sticks. -The ear was stuck on the end of the stick and held over the coals. - -Parching ripe corn on the ear was a winter custom; but boys herding -horses in the summer also parched whole ears sometimes for their midday -lunch. - -We did parch other kinds of corn thus, besides soft white and soft -yellow, but they were not so good. - -The gummy was not cooked in this way. - -_Parching Hard Yellow Corn with Sand._ We sometimes parched hard yellow -corn in a clay pot of our own make, with sand. Down on the sand bars by -the Missouri we found clean, pure sand; if I wanted to parch hard yellow, -I put a handful of this sand in my clay pot. - -The pot I now set on the coals of the fire place until the sand within -was red hot. With a piece of old tent skin to protect my hand, I drew -the pot a little way from the coals and dropped a double handful of corn -within. I stirred the corn back and forth over the sand with a little -stick. - -When I thought the corn was quite heated through, I put the pot back on -the coals again, still stirring the corn with the stick. Very soon all -the kernels cracked open with a sharp crackling noise; they burst open -much as you say white man’s popcorn does. - -Hard yellow corn parched in this way was softer than even the soft corns -parched in a pot without sand. - -No variety of corn was good cooked in this way, except hard yellow; no -other kind would do. - -_Mạdạpo´zi Pạ´kici, or Lye-Made Hominy._ There was another way in which -we prepared hard and soft yellow and hard and soft white; this was to -make it into hominy with lye. - -I collected about a quart of ashes; only two kinds were used, cottonwood -or elm wood ashes. When I was cooking with such wood and thought of -making hominy, I was careful to collect the ashes, raking away the other -kinds first. - -I put on an iron kettle nearly full of water, and brought it to a boil. -Into the boiling water I put the ashes, stirring them about with a stick. -Then I set the pot off to steep for a short time. - -When the ashes had settled I poured the lye off into a vessel and cleaned -the pot thoroughly. - -In earlier times the ashes were boiled in an earthen pot as indeed I have -often seen it done when I was a girl. I was not quite twenty when we -bought an iron pot for cooking. Before that we used only earthen pots for -cooking in our family. - -Having cleaned the pot I poured the lye back into it, put the pot on the -fire, and added shelled, ripe, dried corn. This I boiled until the hulls -came off the grain and the corn kernels appeared white. - -I added a little water, and took the pot off the fire; I drained off the -lye. - -I poured water into the pot and washed the corn, rubbing the kernels -between my palms; I drained off the water. - -I poured in water and washed the corn a second time, in the same way; I -drained off the water. - -Again I put water in the pot and boiled the corn in it. As the corn was -already soft, this boiling did not take long. I now added fats, and -beans, and sometimes dried squash, all at the same time; and the pot I -replaced on the fire. When the beans and squash were cooked, the mess was -ready to eat. - -Corn so prepared we call mạdạpo´zi pạ´kici, or boiled-whole-corn rubbed. -It is so called because the hulls of the kernels were rubbed off between -the palms at the time the corn was washed in water after the lye was -poured off. - - -_General Characteristics of the Varieties_ - -We Hidatsas thought that our five principal varieties of corn, hard and -soft white, hard and soft yellow, and gummy, had characteristics that -marked them quite distinctly one from the other. - -For one thing, they had each a distinct taste. If at night I were given -to eat of hard white corn, or hard yellow or soft yellow, I could at once -tell each from any of the others. If I were given mush at night made from -these three varieties, each by itself, I could distinguish each variety, -not by its smell, but in my mouth by taste. - -Meal made by pounding ripe hard white corn became thick and mushy when -boiled in a pot. - -Tsï´di tapa´, or soft yellow corn, was quite soft to pound when we made -meal of it; and the boiled meal, or mush, seemed to contain a good deal -of water in it—that is, it seemed thin and gruel-like when we came to eat -it. - -To pound tsï´di tso´ki, or hard yellow corn, into meal took a long time; -but when it had been pounded and the meal boiled into food, it was very -good to eat and had an appetizing smell. - -Of the nine varieties I have named, the atạ´ki, or soft white, was the -earliest maturing. If seeds of all nine varieties were planted at the -same time, the soft white would always be the first to ripen in the fall; -and the tsï´di tso´ki, or hard yellow, would be the last to ripen. - -Although the blue, light red, dark red, pink top, and soft white were -all soft or flour corns, yet the soft white was the earliest to ripen. I -reckon the soft white, also, to be the softest of all our varieties of -corn. - -I also rate the hard yellow and hard white as equal in value. Both are -equally hard, and can not be pounded up into the fine flour or meal which -we get from the soft varieties. - -The hard yellow and soft yellow we thought were the best varieties from -which to prepare half-boiled dried corn for winter storing. The dark and -light reds were also used, and if not quite so good, were but little -inferior. Indeed, for half-boiled dried corn, all varieties were used, -even the ma´ikadicakĕ, or gummy; but this last we did not think a good -variety for this way of putting up corn. Our gummy corn had but one well -recognized use; it was good for parching to make corn balls. - -[Illustration: Figure 19] - -[Illustration: Figure 20] - - -_Fodder Yield_ - -I do not think there was any perceptible difference in the fodder yield -of the various races of corn which we Hidatsas cultivated; but the fodder -yield was always much heavier in rainy years. In a dry season, the stalks -of the corn would be small and weak; and the leaves would be smaller than -in seasons of good rainfall. - - -_Developing New Varieties_ - -We Hidatsas knew that slightly differing varieties could be produced -by planting seeds that varied somewhat from the main stock. A woman -named Good Squash used to raise a variety of corn that tasted just like -soft white. This corn had large swelling kernels with deep yellow, -almost reddish, stripes running down the sides of the grain. We called -it Adaka´-dahu-ita ko´xati, or Arikaras’ corn, though it was not -Arikara corn at all. Good Squash’s daughter, Hunts Water, lives on this -reservation; she may have some of the seed of this variety. - - -SPORT EARS - - -_Names and Description_ - -Quite often ears of corn appear that are marked by some unusual form; and -for the more marked of these forms, we had special names. Following are -some of them: - -_Na’´ta-tawo´xi._ From na’´ta, grain; and tawo´xi, a name applied to -youth, or the young, and conveying the idea of small. This is an ear of -corn having seventeen or eighteen rows of very small kernels. Our largest -ears of corn had usually but fourteen rows of kernels of normal size. - -In the old legends of my tribe appear many women bearing this name -Na’´ta-tawo´xi. - -_Wi´da-Aka´ta._ From wi´da, goose; and aka´ta, roof of the mouth. This is -an ear having two rows of corn on either side, with vacant spaces on the -cob between the double rows; often, toward the larger end of the ear, the -two rows will expand into three. Goodbird has made a drawing of such an -ear (figure 19). A wi´da-aka´ta ear, we thought, looks like the roof of -the mouth of a goose. - -_I´ta-Ca´ca._ Forked face, or cloven face; from i´ta, face. A kind of -double ear. Goodbird has made a drawing of one (figure 20). - -_Okĕi´jpita._ From o´kĕ, or o´ki, head-ornament, plume; i´jpu, top; and -i´ta, fruit. This is a small ear that sometimes appears at the top, on -the tassel of the plant. - -Okĕi´jpita ears, if large enough, we gathered and put in with the rest -of the harvest; but smaller ears of this kind, hardly worth threshing, -we gathered and fed to our horses. Sometimes, if the harvesters were in -haste, these ears were left in the field on the stalk; a pony was then -led into the field to crop the ears. - -_I´tica´kupadi._ I´tica´kupadi, or muffled head; so called because the -kernels come down and cover the face or bearded end of the cob quite to -the point. We thought such an ear looked like a man with his head muffled -up in his robe. - -Muffled-head ears were more numerous in good crop years than in poor -years; and we thought such ears, if otherwise well favored, made good -seed corn. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -SQUASHES - - -PLANTING SQUASHES - - -_Sprouting the Seed_ - -Squash seed was planted early in June; or the latter part of May and the -first of June. - -In preparation for planting, we first sprouted the seed. - -I cut out a piece of tanned buffalo robe about two and a half feet long -and eighteen inches wide, and spread it on the floor of the lodge, fur -side up. - -I took red-grass leaves, wetted them, and spread them out flat, matted -together in a thin layer on the fur. Then I opened my bag of squash -seeds, and having set a bowl of water beside me, I wet the seeds in -the water—not soaking them, just wetting—and put them on the matted -grass leaves until I had a little pile heaped up, in quantity about two -double-handfuls. - -I next took broad leaved sage, the kind we use in a sweat lodge, and buck -brush leaves, and mixed them together. At squash planting time, the sage -is about four inches high - -Into the mass of mixed sage-and-buck-brush leaves, I worked the wetted -squash seeds, until they were distributed well through it. The mass -I then laid on the grass matting, which I folded over and around it. -Finally I folded the buffalo skin over that, making a package about -fifteen by eighteen inches. We called this package kaku´i kida´kci, -squash-thing-bound, or squash bundle. - -This squash bundle I hung on the drying pole near one of the posts. The -bundle did not hang directly over the fire, but a little to one side. Sed -si femina in domo menstrua erat, she should tell it so that the package -of seeds could be removed to the next lodge, or they would spoil. - -After two days I took the bundle down and opened it. From a horn spoon I -sipped a little tepid water into my mouth and blew it over the seeds. I -took care that the water was neither too hot nor too cold, lest it kill -the seeds. I rebound the bundle and hung it up again on the drying pole. -At the end of another day the seeds were sprouted nearly an inch and were -ready to plant. - -I took a handful of the grass-and-leaves, and from them separated the -sprouted squash seeds. A wooden bowl had been placed beside me with a -little moist earth in it. Into this bowl I put the seeds, sprinkling -a little earth over them to keep them moist. I was now ready to begin -planting. - - -_Planting the Sprouted Seed_ - -Usually two or three women did the family planting, working together. - -One woman went ahead and with her hoe loosened up the ground for a -space of about fifteen inches in diameter, for the hill. Care was taken -that each hill was made in the place where there had been a hill the -year before. I am sure that in olden times we raised much better crops, -because we were careful to do so; using the same hill thus, each year, -made the soil here soft and loose, so that the plants thrived. - -One woman, then, as I have said, with her hoe, loosened up the soil where -an old hill had stood, and made a new hill, about fifteen inches in -diameter at the base. Following her came another woman who planted the -sprouted seeds. - -Four seeds were planted in each hill, in two pairs. The pairs should be -about twelve inches apart, and the two seeds in each pair, a half inch -apart. The seeds were planted rather under, or on one side of the hill, -and about two inches deep in the soil. A careful woman planted the seeds -with the sprouts upright; but even if she did not do this, the sprouts -grew quickly and soon appeared through the soil. - -We had a reason for planting the squash seeds in the side of the hill. -The squash sprouts were soft, tender. If we planted them in level ground -the rains would beat down the soil, and it would pack hard and get -somewhat crusted, so that the sprouts could not break through; but if we -planted the sprouts on the side of the hill, the water from the rains -would flow over them and keep the soil soft. Likewise, we did not plant -the sprouted seeds on the top of the hill because here too the rain was -apt to beat the soil down hard. - -We Indian women helped one another a good deal in squash planting; -especially would we do turns with our relatives. If I got behind with my -planting, some of my relatives, or friends from another family, would -come and help me. When a group of relatives thus labored together, four -women commonly went ahead making the hills, and two women followed, -planting the sprouted seeds. - - -_Harvesting the Squashes_ - -The squash harvest began a little before green corn came in. It was -our custom to pick squashes every fourth morning; and the fourth -picking—twelve days after the first picking—brought us to green corn time. - -The first picking was, naturally, not very large—three or four -basketfuls, I think, in my father’s family; and these we ate ourselves. -The basket used for bringing in the squashes was about fifteen inches -across the mouth and eleven inches deep. - -The second picking was about ten basketfuls, enough for us to eat -and spare a little surplus to our neighbors. After this each picking -increased until a maximum was reached, and then the pickings decreased in -size. The fifth or sixth picking was usually the largest. - -The pickings were made before sunrise. In my father’s family, one of my -mothers and I usually attended to the actual picking. It was her habit to -get up early in the morning, go to the field and pluck the squashes from -the vines, piling them up in one place in the garden. She returned then -to the lodge; and after the morning meal, the rest of us women of the -household went out and fetched the squashes home in our baskets. - -Squashes grow fast, and unless we picked them every four days, we did not -think them so good for food. Moreover, squashes that were four days old -we could slice for drying, knowing that the slices would be firm enough -to retain their shape unbroken. If the squashes were plucked greener, the -slices broke, or crumbled. - -We could tell when a squash was four days old. Its diameter then was -about three and a quarter inches; some a little more, some a little less; -but we chiefly judged by the color of the fruit. A white squash should -just have rid itself of green; a green colored squash should have its -color a dark green. We could judge quite accurately thus, by the state of -the colors. - -The hills yielded some three, some two, some only one squash at a -picking. I have made as many as six trips to our family garden for the -squashes of a single picking; our garden was distant as far as from here -to Packs Wolf’s cabin—three quarters of a mile. - -We picked a good many squashes in a season. One year my mother fetched in -seventy baskets from our field. I have known families to bring in as many -as eighty, or even a hundred baskets, in a season. - -The baskets, as they were brought in, were borne up on the drying stage, -and the squashes emptied out on the floor for slicing and drying; -squashes not cooked and eaten fresh were sliced and dried for winter, -excepting those saved for seed. - - -_Slicing the Squashes_ - -Slicing squashes for drying began about the third picking. Sometimes, in -good years, a few squashes might be sliced at the second picking; but at -the third picking, slicing and drying began in earnest. - -When the squashes, emptied from the baskets, made a great heap on the -floor of the drying stage, the women of the family made a feast, cooking -much food for the purpose; some old women were then invited to come and -cut up the squashes with knives, into slices to dry. We regarded these -old women as hired; and I remember that in my father’s family we hired -sometimes eight, sometimes ten, sometimes only six. I think that at the -time I was a young woman, when my mothers made such a feast, about ten -old women came. - -These old women ascended the drying stage, and sat, five on either side -of the pile of squashes. Each of the old women had a squash knife in her -hand, made of the thin part of the shoulder bone of a buffalo, if it was -an old-fashioned one; butcher knives of steel are now used. - -The squashes were cut thus: - -An old woman would draw a robe up over her lap, as she sat Indian -fashion, with ankles to the right, on the floor of the stage. She took a -squash in her left hand, and with her bone knife in her right, she sliced -the squash into slices about three eighths of an inch thick. - -The squash was sliced from side to side, not from stem to blossom. An old -woman slicing squash would take up a squash, cut out the stem pit and the -blossom, then turn the squash sidewise and slice, beginning on the side -nearest her. The cut was made by pressing the bone blade downward into -the squash as the latter lay in her palm. - -The first three slices and the last three of a large squash; or the first -two and the last two of a smaller squash, the old woman put beside her in -a pile, as her earnings for her work; upon this pile also went any squash -thought too small to be worth slicing. - -These end slices we thought less valuable than those from the middle -of the squash; and unlike the latter, they were not spitted on willow -sticks, but were taken home by the old woman worker in her blanket, or -her robe, or in something else in which she could carry them. About three -sacks of these inferior slices would be carried home at one time by an -old woman worker. - -These less valuable slices being cut close to the rind were of solid -flesh. The better slices had each a hollow in the center, caused by the -seed cavity. The old women did not spit their solid slices on willows, -but dried them on the ground, carefully guarding them against rain; for -if wet, the drying slices would spoil. - - -_Squash Spits_ - -All the better slices, the ones to be retained by the family that hired -the old women workers, were spitted on willow rods to dry. - -These rods we called kaku´iptsa; from kaku´i, squash; and i´ptsa, spit, -stringer. The word may be translated squash spit. - -Squash spits were usually made of the small willows that we call mi´da -hatsihi´ci, or red willow; from mi´da, wood; and hi´ci, light red. When -the outer skin of one’s finger, for example, is peeled off, the color -of the flesh beneath we call hi´ci. This red willow however is not -kinikinik, which white men call red willow. - -A squash spit should be about half an inch in diameter; and its length -should be measured from the center of my chest to the end of my index -finger, as I do now; or about two feet, six, or two feet, seven inches. - -A spit was sharpened at one end to a point. At the other end there was -left about an inch of the natural bark like a button, to keep the squash -slices from slipping off. The rest of the rod was peeled bare. - -Small Ankle used to make our drying spits for us. He cut the rods in June -or early July when the bark peeled off easily; he peeled off the bark -with his teeth. - -It was his habit to cut quite a number of rods at a time and after -peeling them, he would tie them up in a bundle of about three hundred -rods, so that they would dry straight—would not warp, I mean, in drying. - -In seasons when they were not in use our squash spits were made into a -bundle as big as I could hold in my two arms and bound about with two -thongs. The bundle was stored away on the floor of the lodge, under the -eaves, or in the atu´ti, as we called the space under the descending -roof. The next year, in harvest time, the bundle was unbound and the -spits examined to see if any had warped. Such warped ones were thrown -away, and new ones were made to take their places. - - -_Spitting the Slices_ - -Each of the old women hired to slice our squashes worked with a pile of -these squash spits beside her; and as she sliced a squash she laid aside -those slices which she retained as her pay; and taking the others up -in her right hand, she spitted them with a single thrust, upon one of -the willow spits. The spitted slices were then separated about a half -inch apart, so that the first two fingers of the hand could be thrust -astraddle the spit between each slice and its neighbor. This was to give -the slices air to dry. - -One willow spit held the slices of four squashes, and two slices from a -fifth squash, if the squashes were of average size. - -Sometimes an old woman brought her granddaughter along to help her, the -little girl spitting the slices as her grandmother cut them. - -Drying rods, which I have already described, were laid across the upper -rails of the stage; and each spit as it was loaded was laid with either -end resting on a drying rod. The spits were laid with a certain method. -Each projecting end bore two squash slices, which acted as a button to -stay the spit from being blown down by the wind. - -As the drying rods rested transversely on the upper rails, the spits -which the rods bore lay parallel with the rails, and therefore lengthwise -with the stage. The spits were laid with the heavier, or bark covered end -toward the front, or ladder end of the stage, which in our family, was -the right, as one came out of the lodge door. - -[Illustration: Owl Woman putting squash slices on a spit] - -[Illustration: Squash slices drying - -Are on squash spits and on stage built to resemble the top of an old time -corn stage.] - -When a pair of drying rods was quite filled with these loaded spits, -they made what we called one i´tsạki—one walking stick, or one staff. We -counted the quantity of squash we dried as so many staves. - -We never laid the loaded spits on the floor of the stage, as the weight -of the load caused the drying squash slices to warp, thus making them -hard to handle. - - -_In Case of Rain_ - -If a sudden rain came up the day we began drying squash, we felt no -concern, for the slices having just been cut, were still green and would -not be harmed. - -But if rain threatened the second day, or thereafter, we women ran up on -the stage and drew the loaded spits toward the middle of the drying rods; -and over them we spread hides, upon which we laid poles, or unused drying -rods to weight the hides against the wind. Sometimes we even lashed the -poles down with thongs. - -If the drying squash got wet after the first day, the slices swelled up, -and the fruit spoiled. - - -_Drying and Storing_ - -When the squash slices had dried for two days, two women of the family -went up on the stage; and working, one from the front, the other from the -rear end of the stage, they took the spits one by one, and with thumb -and fingers of each hand slipped the drying slices into the middle of -the spit, thus loosening them from it; and for the same purpose, the -spit itself was turned and twisted around as it lay skewered through the -slices. When well loosened, the squash slices were again spaced apart as -before, and the spit was replaced on the rods, to be left for another -day. On the evening of the third day the slices were dry enough to string. - -The strings, three to six in number, had been prepared from dry grass. -Each string was seven Indian fathoms long; we Hidatsas measure a fathom -as the distance between a woman’s two outstretched hands. Each grass -string had a wooden needle about ten inches long, bound to one end. - -All the slices on one spit were now slid off and the worker by a single -thrust skewered the wooden needle through them and slid them down the -long string to the farther end; this end of the string was now looped -back and tied just above the first three or four slices of the dried -squash that fell down the string; doing thus made these slices act as a -button or anchor to prevent the rest of the squash slices from slipping -off the string. - -In stringing the squash slices, the spit was held in the right hand, the -left hand straddling the spit with the index and second fingers. The -slices were slid down the spit toward the right hand, the spit being then -drawn out and cast away. The squash slices were held firmly in the first -two fingers and thumb of the left hand and the needle was run through -the hole left by withdrawing the spit. As the spit had a greater diameter -than the grass string, the slices easily slid down the string. - -[Illustration: Figure 21] - -When stringing slices of squash myself, I always sat on the floor of the -drying stage with a pile of loaded spits at my left side. As I unloaded a -spit, I dropped it at my right side. The grass string hung over the edge -of the stage floor, on the side nearest the lodge. On the ground below I -had spread some scraped hides, so that the squash slices, falling down -the string, would not touch the ground and become soiled. - -When a string became full, I tossed the end over the edge of the floor, -letting it fall down upon the heap on the scraped hides. - -The needle used to skewer the slices was bound to the end of the grass -string two inches or more from its extremity, as shown in figure 21. When -the string was filled, one had but to turn the needle athwart, and it -became a button or anchor, preventing the slices from slipping off. - -The strings filled with dried squash slices, were now taken into the -lodge. Between the right front main post of the lodge and the circle of -outer posts and near the puncheon fire screen at the place it bent in -toward the wall, a stage had been built. Two forked posts, about as high -as my head, supported a pole ten or twelve feet long; and over this pole -the strings of squash were looped, care being taken that they hung at a -height to let the dogs run under without touching and contaminating the -squash. I speak of the right front main post; I use right and left in the -Indian sense, which assumes that an earth lodge faces the doorway; the -door indeed is the lodge’s mouth. - -On sunny days these strings were taken outside. Several of the long -poles, or drying rods, already described, were brought down from the top -of the stage and lashed to the outside of the stage posts on either side. -If the harvest was a good one, a row of these rods might extend the whole -length of either side of the stage, and even around the ends. On the -railing thus made the squash strings were taken out and hung on a fair -day; in the morning, on the east side; in the afternoon, on the west side -of the stage. - -On wet days, the squash strings were left inside the lodge; and if the -rain was falling heavily, a tent skin, or scraped rawhides, dried and -ready to tan, were thrown over them to protect from dampness. The air in -the lodge was damp on a rainy day; and sometimes the roof leaked. - -When the strings of squash were thought to be thoroughly dried, they were -ready for storing. A portion was packed in parfleche bags, to be taken to -the winter lodge, or to be used for food on journeys. The rest was stored -away in a cache pit, covered with loose corn. - -Several seasons, as I recollect, the women of my father’s family were a -month harvesting and drying their squashes. - - -_Squash Blossoms_ - -Besides our squashes, we also gathered squash blossoms, three to five -basketfuls at a picking; and they were a recognized part of our squash -harvest. - -On every squash vine are blossoms of two kinds; one kind bears a squash, -but the other never bears any fruit, for it grows, as we Indians say, at -the wrong place among the leaves. We Indians knew this, and gathered only -these barren blossoms; if we did not they dried up anyway and became a -dead loss, so we always gathered them. - -These blossoms we picked in early morning while they were fresh, but not -if rain had fallen in the night, as the rain splashed dirt and sand into -the blossoms, making them unfit for food. - -The blossoms we took home in baskets. On the prairie there is a kind of -grass which we Indians call “antelope hair.” We chose a place where this -grass grew thick and was two or three inches high, to dry the blossoms -on. They were taken out of the basket one by one; the green calyx leaves -were stripped off and the blossom was pinched flat, opened, and spread -on the grass, with the inside of the blossom upward, thus exposing it to -the sun and air. A second blossom was split on one side, opened, and laid -upon the first, upon the petal end, so that the thicker, bulbous part of -the first—the part indeed that had been pinched flat—remained exposed to -dry. This was continued until quite a space on the grass was covered with -the blossoms. - -They remained all day drying. In the evening I would go out and gather -them, pulling them up in whole sheets. Splitting them open and laying -them down one upon another, caused them to adhere as they dried, so that -they lay on the grass in a kind of thin matting. I always began pulling -up the blossoms from one side of this matting, and as I say, they came -away in whole sheets. - -We put away the dried blossoms in bags, like those used for corn. These -bags were made with round bottom and soft-skin mouth that tied easily. -Bags were usually made of calf skin. - -In my father’s family we always put away one sack full of dried squash -blossoms for winter. - - -COOKING AND USES OF SQUASH - - -_The First Squashes_ - -The first squashes of the season that we plucked were about three inches -in diameter; that is, they were gathered as soon as we thought they were -fit for cooking; and that same day we picked blossoms also. - -There might be three or four basketfuls of squashes at this first -picking. These squashes we did not dry, but ate fresh; as they were the -first vegetables of the season, we were eager to eat them. We cooked -fresh squashes as follows: - -_Boiling Fresh Squash in a Pot._ I took a clay pot of our native -manufacture, partly filled it with fresh squashes and added water. The -smaller squashes I put in whole; larger ones I cut in two. I did not -remove the seeds; left in the squash they made it taste sweeter. - -[Illustration: Figure 22 - -Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.] - -I now took big leaves of the sunflower and thrust them, stem upward, -between the squashes and the sides of the pot; the leaves then stood in a -circle around the inside of the pot, with the upper surface of each leaf -inward. I added more squashes until the pot was quite full, even heaping. -The sunflower leaves I then bent inward, folding them naturally over the -squashes. I now set the pot on the fire. - -Under my direction Goodbird has made a sketch of a pot of fresh squashes -(figure 22); the sunflower leaves are placed and ready to be folded down. - -Squashes thus prepared were boiled a little longer than beef is boiled. -The sunflower leaves were put over the pot merely as a lid or covering. -It is hard to cook squashes without a cover, and this was our way of -providing one. Blossoms were not added when squashes were thus prepared. - -When the cooking was done, the green sunflower leaves, used as a cover, -were removed with a stick, and thrown away. - -I had a bowl of cold water near by. I dipped my hand into the water and -lifted out the squash pieces one by one, and laid them on a bowl or dish. -The cold water protected my hand; for the squashes were quite hot. - -Most of the water in the pot had boiled out, only a little being left in -the bottom of the pot. The pieces of squash immersed in this hot water -I lifted out with a horn spoon. Not much water was ever put in the pot -anyhow, for it was the steam mostly that cooked the squashes. The pot -was quite heaped with squashes at the first, but the cooking reduced the -bulk, making the heap go down. - -The squash pieces in the bottom of the pot were apt to be a little burned -or browned; and so were made sweeter, and were very good to eat. - -This was the way we cooked fresh squashes in my father’s family until I -was eighteen years old; at that time we got an iron dinner pot, and began -to boil our food in it instead of the old fashioned clay pot. - -Fresh squashes, to be at their best, should be cooked on the day they are -picked; left over to the next day they never taste so good. - -_Squashes Boiled with Blossoms._ Fresh squashes were sometimes boiled -with fresh blossoms and fats. Sunflower leaves were not then used as a -covering. Squashes so cooked were usually small; and when done, they were -lifted out of the pot with a horn spoon. Cooking this mess was really by -boiling, not steaming, as in the mess above described. - - -_Other Blossom Messes_ - -When I wanted to cook fresh squash blossoms, I plucked them early in the -morning, stripping them of the little points, or spicules shown as _a_, -_a´_, and _a´´_ in figure 23. These spicules I stripped backward, or -downward. I do not know why we did this; it was our custom. Then I broke -the blossom off the stem at the place in the figure marked with a dotted -line. The green bulbous part of the blossom I crushed or pinched between -my thumb and finger, to make it soft and hasten cooking; for the yellow, -blossom part soon cooked. - -[Illustration: Figure 23] - -I will now give you recipes for some messes made with these fresh, -crushed, spicule-stripped blossoms; however, dried blossoms were often -used in these messes instead, and were just as good. - -_Boiled Blossoms._ A little water was brought to boil in a clay pot. A -handful of blossoms, either fresh or dried, was tossed into the pot and -stirred with a stick. They shrunk up quite small, and another handful of -blossoms was tossed in. This was continued until a small basketful of the -blossoms had been stirred into the pot. - -Into this a handful of fat was thrown, or a little bone grease was poured -in; and the mess was let boil a little longer than meat is boiled, and a -little less than fresh squash is boiled. The mess was then ready to eat. - -_Blossoms Boiled with Mạdạpo´zi I’ti´a._ Mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a was made, the -pot being put on the fire in the early afternoon and boiled for the rest -of the day. In the night following the fire would go out and the mess -would get cold. - -In the morning the pot was set on the fire again, and if I was going to -use fresh blossoms I went out to the field to gather them, expecting to -return and find the pot heated and ready. The newly gathered blossoms, -crushed as described, I dropped in the rewarmed mess, and boiled for half -an hour, when the pot was taken off, and the mess was served. - -Sometimes this mess was further varied by adding beans. - -_Blossoms Boiled with Mäpi´ Nakapa´._ The blossoms were first boiled. -Meal of pounded parched corn and fats were then added and the whole was -boiled for half an hour. - -Like the previous mess, this was sometimes varied by adding beans. - - -SEED SQUASHES - - -_Selecting for Seed_ - -Seed squashes were chosen at the first or second picking of the -season. At these pickings, as we went from hill to hill plucking the -four-days-old squashes, we observed what ones appeared the plumpest and -finest; and these we left on the vine to be saved for seed. We never -chose more than one squash in a single hill; and to mark where it lay, -and even more, to protect it from frost, we were careful to pull up a -weed or two, or break off a few squash leaves and lay them over the -squash; and thus protected, it was left on the vine. - -There was a good deal of variety in our squashes. Some were round, -some rather elongated, some had a flattened end; some were dark, some -nearly white, some spotted; some had a purple, or yellow top. We did not -recognize these as different strains, as we did the varieties of corn; -and when I selected squashes for seed, I did not choose for color, but -for size and general appearance. Squashes of different colors grew in the -same hill; and all varieties tasted exactly alike. - -In later pickings, while we continued to gather the four-days-old -squashes we did not disturb the seed squashes. They were easily avoided, -for if not plainly marked by the leaves I have said we laid over them, -they could be recognized by their greater size, and their rough rind. A -four-days-old squash is smaller and has a smoother rind than a mature -squash. - - -_Gathering the Seed Squashes_ - -The time for plucking the seed squashes was after we had gathered the -first ripe corn, but had not yet gathered our seed corn. It was our -custom to pluck our corn until the first frost fell; then to gather our -seed squashes; and afterwards our seed corn. Some years the first frost -fell very early, before we had plucked our first corn; in such seasons we -gathered our seed squashes first, for we never let them lie in the field -after the first frost had set in. - -On this reservation the first frost falls at the end of the moon -following this present moon. We Indians call the present moon the -wild cherry moon, because June berries ripen in the first half, and -choke-cherries in the second half of the moon; and we reckon June berries -as a kind of cherry. Our next moon we call the harvest moon; and in it -wild plums ripen and the first frost falls. - -The seed squashes when plucked, were all taken into the earth lodge and -laid in a pile, on a bench. The bench was made of planks split from -cottonwood trunks, laid lengthwise with the lodge wall. The squashes -were piled in a heap on this bench; they were bigger than four-days-old -squashes and their rinds were rougher and hard, like a shell. - - -_Cooking the Ripe Squashes_ - -When now we wanted to have squash for a meal, I went over to this heap of -ripe seed squashes and brought a number over near the fire. There I broke -them open, carefully saving the seeds. I would lay a squash on the floor -of the lodge; with an elk horn scraper I would strike the squash smart -blows on the side, splitting it open. - -The broken half rinds I piled up one above another, concave side down, -until ready to put them in the pot. Ripe squashes were less delicate than -green four-days-old squashes, and did not spoil so quickly. - -I was able to boil about ten ripe squashes in our family pot; but it took -three such cookings of ten squashes each to make a mess for our family, -which I have said was a large one. We boiled these ripe squashes like the -four-days-old, in a very little water. - - -_Saving the Seed_ - -Always near the fireplace in our lodge there lay a piece of scraped hide -about two feet square. It had many uses. When boiling meat we would lift -the steaming meat from the pot and lay it on the hide before serving. We -also used the hide for a drying cloth. - -This piece of hide I drew near me when I was breaking ripe squashes; -and as I removed the seeds I laid them in a pile on the hide. Squash -seeds, freshly removed from the squash, are moist and mixed with more or -less pulpy matter. To remove this pulp I took up a small handful of the -fresh seeds, laid a dry corn cob in my palm and alternately squeezed and -opened my hand over the mess. The porous surface of the cob absorbed the -moisture and sucked up the pulpy matter, thus cleansing the seeds. As -the cleansed seeds fell back upon the hide I took up another handful and -repeated the process. - -If there was a warm autumn sun, I often carried the hide with the -cleansed seeds upon it, and laid it on the floor of the drying stage -outside for the seeds to dry; but if the day was chill or winter had set -in, I dried the seeds by the fire. - -When quite dried, the seeds were put in a skin sack to be stored in a -cache pit. The storing bag was often the whole skin of a buffalo calf, -with only the neck left open for a mouth; or it might be made of a small -fawn skin; or it might be made of a piece of old tent cover and shaped -like a cylinder. - - -_Eating the Seeds_ - -Sometimes we boiled ripe squashes whole, seeds and all; and we then ate -the seeds. They tasted something like peanuts. - -These seeds of boiled squashes were eaten just as they came from the -squash. I would take up two or three seeds in my mouth, crushing them -with my teeth; and with my tongue I would separate the kernels from the -shells which I spat out. I was rather fond of squash seeds. - -I have also heard of families who prepared squash seeds by parching or -roasting; but I never did this myself. - - -_Roasting Ripe Squashes_ - -I have heard that in old days my tribe used to roast fall-kept ripe -squashes. They were buried in the ashes and roasted whole. I never did -this myself, however. - -There is a story that an old man who was blind, was handed a squash thus -roasted. He found the squash to his liking, but did not know how it had -been cooked. - -“Girl,” he cried, “let me have the broth this was boiled in!” - -“The squash was roasted in the ashes; it has no broth,” answered the girl -who had handed it to him. - -The blind man laughed. “I thought it was boiled in a pot,” he said. - -I judge from this story that several squashes had been roasted, and that -the blind man got one as his share. - - -_Storing the Unused Seed Squashes_ - -It was our custom to remove to our winter village in the mida´-pạx´di -widi´c, or leaf-turn-yellow moon; it corresponds about to October. I -remember the leaves used to be falling from the trees while we were -working about our winter lodges, getting ready for cold weather. - -When moving time came in the fall, any squashes left over in the lodge, -uneaten, were stored in a cache pit until spring. But it was a difficult -thing to store these squashes so that they would keep sound; and when -spring came many of them would be found to have rotted. Some families -were more careful in making ready and storing their cache pits than were -others. Squashes kept best when stored in carefully prepared pits. - -On the family’s return the next spring the cache pit was opened; and the -squashes that had kept sound could be used for cooking, and their seeds -could be planted. The number thus stored over winter was not large. - -The seeds of rotted squashes were just as good to plant as were the seeds -of the sound squashes. - -We carried no squash seeds with us to our winter village. For our spring -planting we depended on the seed we had left stored in the cache in our -summer lodge, in my father’s family. - -The seeds of a ripe squash are swelled and plump in the center; those -of a four-days-old squash are flat. We could tell in this way if squash -seeds were ripe. - - -_Squashes, Present Seed_ - -I grew our native squashes in my son Goodbird’s garden until four years -ago. I stopped cultivating them because my son’s family did not seem -to care to eat them. Last year a squash vine came up wild in my son’s -garden. The squashes that grew on it were of two colors. I saved some of -the seed and planted them this year. It is from their yield that I have -given you seed. - -As I have said, squashes were of different colors and varied a good deal -in shape; yet we recognized but one strain of seed. “We plant but one -kind of seed,” we said, “and all colors and shapes grow from it, dark, -white, purple, round, elongated.” - - -_Squash Dolls_ - -There is one other thing I will tell before we forsake the subject of -squashes. Little girls of ten or eleven years of age used to make dolls -of squashes. - -When the squashes were brought in from the field, the little girls -would go to the pile and pick out squashes that were proper for dolls. -I have done so, myself. We used to pick out the long ones that were -parti-colored; squashes whose tops were white or yellow and the bottoms -of some other color. We put no decorations on these squashes that we had -for dolls. Each little girl carried her squash about in her arms and sang -for it as for a babe. Often she carried it on her back, in her calf skin -robe. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -BEANS - - -_Planting Beans_ - -Bean planting followed immediately after squash planting. - -Beans were planted in hills the size and shape of squash hills, or about -seven by fourteen inches; but if made in open ground the hills were not -placed so far apart in the row. Squash hills, like corn hills, stood -about four feet apart in the row, measuring from center to center; but -bean hills might be placed two feet or less in the row. - -Beans, however, were very commonly planted not in open ground, but -between our rows of corn; the hills were arranged as shown in diagram -(figure 8, page 25). - -Corn hills, I have said, stood four feet, or a little less in the row, -and the rows were about four feet apart,[17] when corn was planted by -itself. But if beans were to be planted between, the corn rows were -placed a little farther apart, to make room for the bean hills. - - -_Putting in the Seeds_ - -To make a hill for beans, I broke up and loosened the soil with my -hoe, scraping away the dry top soil; the hill I then made of the soft, -slightly moist under-soil. The hill, as suggested by the measurements, -was rather elongated. - -I took beans, three in each hand, held in thumb and first two fingers, -and buried them in a side of the hill, two inches deep, by a simultaneous -thrust of each hand, as I stooped over; the two groups of seeds were six -inches apart. - -I have heard that some families planted four seeds in each group, instead -of three; but I always put in three seeds and think that the better way. -Figure 24 will explain the two ways of planting. - -I am not sure that I know just why we planted beans always in the side of -the hill; I have said we planted squash thus because the sprouted seeds -were tender and the soil in the side of the hill did not bake hard after -a rain. Also, we were careful not to make our bean hills too large, as -the heavy rains turned the soft soil into mud which beat down over the -vines, killing them. - - -_Hoeing and Cultivating_ - -These subjects I have sufficiently described, I think, when I told you -how we hoed and cultivated corn. - - -_Threshing_ - -Threshing was in the fall, after the beans had ripened and the pods were -dead and dried. Sometimes, when the weather had been favorable, the -bean vines were quite dry and could be threshed the same day they were -gathered. But if the weather was a little damp, or if, as was usually the -case, the vines were still a little green, they had to be dried a day or -two before they could be threshed. - -To prepare for this labor, I went out into the field and pulled up all -the corn stalks in a space four or five yards in diameter; this was for a -drying place. - -I pulled up the vines of one bean hill and transferred them to my left -hand, where I held them by the roots; I gathered another bunch of bean -vines in my right hand, as many as I could conveniently carry; and I took -these vines, borne in my two hands, to the drying place, and laid them on -the ground, roots up, spreading them out a little. I thus worked until I -had pulled up all the vines that grew near the drying place. - -[Illustration: Figure 24 - -Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.] - -I made several such drying places, as the need required; and on them I -put all the bean vines to dry. - -At the end of about three days, when the vines were dry I took out into -the field half of an old tent cover and laid it on the ground in an open -space made by clearing away the corn stalks. This tent cover, so laid, -was to be my threshing floor. - -We never laid this tent cover at the edge of the field on the grass, -because in threshing the vines, some of the beans would fly up and fall -outside the tent cover, on the ground. We always picked these stray beans -up carefully, after threshing. This could not be done if we threshed on -the grass. - -My threshing floor ready, I took up some of the dry vines and laid them -on the tent cover in a heap, about three feet high. I got upon this heap -with my moccasined feet and smartly trampled it, now and then standing on -one foot, while I shuffled and scraped the other over the dry vines; this -was done to shake the beans loose from their pods. - -When the vines were pretty well trampled I pushed them over two or three -feet to one side of the tent cover; and having fetched fresh vines, I -made another heap about three feet high, which also I trampled and pushed -aside. When I had trampled three or four heaps in this manner I was ready -to beat them. - -We preferred to tread out our beans thus, because beating them with a -stick made the seeds fly out in all directions upon the ground; when the -vines were trampled, this would not happen. However, after the treading -was over, there were always a few unopened pods still clinging to the -vines; and to free the beans from these pods, we beat the vines at the -end of every three or four treadings. - -This beating I did with a stick, about the size of the stick used as a -flail in threshing corn. - -I always threshed my beans on a windy day if possible, so that I might -winnow them immediately after the threshing. If the wind died down, I -covered over the threshed beans and waited until the wind came up again. -A small carrying basket or a wooden bowl, was used to winnow with. - -After the beans were winnowed, they were dried one more day, either on a -tent cover in the garden, or at home on a skin placed on the ground near -the drying stage. At the end of this day’s drying, they were ready to be -packed in sacks. - -Our bean harvests varied a good deal from year to year; in my father’s -family, from as little as half a sack, to as much as three barrels. The -biggest harvest our family ever put up, that I remember, was equivalent -to about three barrelfuls. Of course we did not use barrels in those days. - -Bean threshing never lasted long; it was work that could be done rapidly. - -Gathering up the vines, threshing, and winnowing took about a day and a -half; the actual threshing lasted only about half a day. But this does -not take into account the time the vines and the threshed beans lay -drying. - -I remember that one year, when our crop was of good size, for the whole -work of threshing and labor of getting our bean crop in, I spent but -three days. In this time I had gathered up the vines, threshed them, and -winnowed the threshed beans. - -However, the time necessary for these labors varied much with the crop, -the weather, and the greenness of the vines. - - -_Varieties_ - -There were five varieties of beans in common use in my tribe, as follows: - - Ama´ca ci´pica Black bean - Ama´ca hi´ci Red bean - Ama´ca pu´xi Spotted bean - Ama´ca ita´ wina´ki matu´hica Shield-figured bean - Ama´ca atạ´ki White bean - -These varieties we planted, each by itself; and each kind, again, was -kept separate in threshing; also, only beans of the same variety were put -in one bag for storing. Black, red, white, shield-figured, spotted, each -had a separate bag. - -Besides the foregoing varieties, there were some families who raised a -variety of yellow beans. I once planted some seed of this variety, but -did not find that they bred very true to color; I do not know if this was -because I did not get very good seed. - -I do not think these yellow beans were in use in my tribe in very old -times. Whether they were imported to us by white men, or, as seems -likely, were brought from other tribes, I do not know. - -The white beans now raised in this part of the reservation, seed of which -you have purchased, is from white man’s stock. The seed was brought to -us, I think, when I was a little girl, or about sixty years ago. But we -Hidatsas and Mandans had white beans before this. The two strains are -easily distinguished. In the white man’s variety, the eye is a little -sunken in the seed. In the native white beans, the eye is on a level with -the body of the bean. - - -_Selecting Seed Beans_ - -In the spring, when I came to plant beans, I was very careful to select -seed for the following points: seed should be fully ripe; seed should be -of full color; seed should be plump, and of good size. - -If the red was not a deep red, or the black a deep black, I knew the seed -was not fully ripe, and I would reject it. So also of the white, the -spotted, and the shield-figured. - -Did I learn from white men thus to select seed? (Laughing heartily.) No, -this custom comes down to us from very old times. We were always taught -to select seed thus, in my tribe. - -White men do not seem to know very much about raising beans. Our school -teacher last year raised beans in a field near the school-house; and when -harvest time came, he tried to pluck the pods directly into a basket, -without treading or threshing the vines. I think it would take him a very -long time to harvest his beans in that manner. - - -_Cooking and Uses_ - -Of the several varieties, I like to eat black beans best. Especially I -like to use black beans in making mä´dakapa. However, all the other kinds -were good.[18] - -I have already described to you some of the dishes we made, and still -make, with beans. Following are some messes I have not described: - -_Ama´ca Di´hĕ_, or _Beans-Boiled_. The beans were boiled in a clay pot, -with a piece of buffalo fat, or some bone grease. If the beans were dried -beans, they were boiled a little longer than squash is boiled—a half hour -or more. Spring salt, or other seasoning, was not used. - -Green beans, shelled from the pod, were sometimes prepared thus, boiled -with buffalo fat or bone grease; but green beans did not have to be -boiled quite as long as dried beans. - -_Green Beans Boiled in the Pod._ Green beans in the pod we boiled and -ate as a vegetable from the time they came in until fall; but we did not -plant beans, as we did corn, to make them come in late in the season, -that we might then eat them green. - -Green beans in the pod were boiled in a clay pot, with a little fat -thrown in. Pods and seeds were eaten together. - -But a green bean pod has in it two little strings that are not very good -to eat. At meal time the boiled pod was taken up in the fingers and -carried to the eater’s mouth. At one end of the pod is always a kind of -little hook; the unbroken pod was taken into the mouth with this little -hook forward, between the teeth; and the eater, seizing the little hook -between thumb and finger, drew it out of his mouth with the two little -strings that were always attached to the hook. - -_Green Corn and Beans._ Pounded green shelled corn was often boiled with -green beans, shelled from the pod. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -STORING FOR WINTER - - -_The Cache Pit_ - -We stored our corn, beans, sunflower seed and dried squash in cache pits -for the winter, much as white people keep vegetables in their cellars. - -[Illustration: Figure 25 - -Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.] - -A cache pit was shaped somewhat like a jug, with a narrow neck at the -top. The width of the mouth, or entrance, was commonly about two feet; on -the very largest cache pits the mouth was never, I think, more than two -feet eight, or two feet nine inches. In diagram (figure 25), the width of -pit’s mouth at _BB´_ should be a little more than two feet, narrowing to -two feet a little higher up. - -In my father’s family, we built our cache pits so that they were each of -the size of a bull boat at the bottom. Other measurements were, as I -here show with my hands, one foot eight inches from the top of the mouth, -where it is level with the ground, down to the puncheon cover that lay in -the trench dug for the purpose; and two feet and a half from this plank -cover to the lower part of the neck, marked _BB´_ in the diagram. - -Descent into one of these big cache pits was made with a ladder; but in a -small one, such as I have made you in vertical-section model, in a bank -by the Missouri, and which you have photographed, the depth was not so -great. In one of these smaller pits, when standing on the floor within, -my eyes just cleared the level of the ground above, so that I could look -around. When such a pit was half full of corn, I could descend and come -out again, without the help of a ladder. At other times I had to be -helped out; I would hold up my hands, and my mother, or some one else, -would come and give me a lift. - -Usually, two women worked together thus in a cache pit, one helping the -other out, or taking things from her hands. One of my mothers was usually -my helper. - -The digging and storing of a cache pit was women’s work. For digging the -pit, a short handled hoe was used; of iron, in my day; of bone, I have -heard, in olden times. - -I have dug more than one cache pit myself. I began by digging the round -mouth, dragging the loosened earth away with my hoe. As the pit grew in -depth, the excavated earth was carried off in a wooden bowl. I stood in -the pit with the bowl at my feet and labored with my hoe, raking the -earth into the bowl. When it was full, I handed the bowl to my mother, -who bore it away and emptied it. - -It took me two days and a good part of a third to dig a cache pit, my -mother helping me to carry off the dirt; such a cache pit, I mean, as we -used in my father’s family, and which, as I have said, was large enough -for a bull boat cover to be fitted into the bottom. - -A trench for the puncheon cover of the mouth was the very last part of -the cache pit to be dug; but I will describe the use of this trench a -little farther on. - - -_Grass for Lining_ - -When the cache pit was all dug, it had next to be lined with grass. The -grass used for this purpose, and for closing the mouth of the cache pit, -was the long bluish kind that grows near springs and water courses on -this reservation; it grows about three feet high. In the fall, this kind -of grass becomes dry at the top, but is still green down near the roots; -and we then cut it with hoes and packed it in bundles, to the village. - -This bluish grass was the only kind used for lining a cache pit. We knew -by repeated trials that other kinds of grass would mold, and did not keep -well. - - -_Grass Bundles_ - -I remember, one time, I went out with my mother to cut grass. I took a -pony along to pack our loads home. I loaded the pony with four bundles -of grass, two on each side, bound to the saddle. A bundle was about four -feet long, and from two and a half to three feet thick, pressed tight -together. One bundle made a load for a woman. - -Besides the four bundles loaded on my pony, my mother packed one bundle -back to the village, and three or four dogs dragged each a bundle on a -travois. - -We reckoned that three of these bundles would be needed to line and -close a large cache pit; and two and a half bundles, for a smaller pit. -A hundred such bundles were needed to cover the roof of an earth lodge. -Long established use made us able to make the bundles about alike in -weight, though of course we had no scales to weigh them in those days. - - -_The Grass Binding Rope_ - -Each bundle was bound with a rope of grass. In a bed of this grass as it -stands by the spring or stream, there is often found dead grass from the -year before, or even from two years previous, standing among the other -grass stems that are still somewhat green at the roots. To make a binding -rope I must use only dead grass. I did so in this manner: - -I stooped, took a wisp of grass in my hands, twisting it to the left and -at the same gently lifting it, when all the dry stems would break off at -the roots. I took a half step forward, laid the twisted end of the strand -on the ground, and grasped another wisp of grass, which I twisted to the -left and broke off as before; but I twisted the new wisp in such manner -that it made part of the continued twisted strand. I continued thus until -I had a strand long enough to tie my bundle. Figure 26 is a sketch made -after my description of a grass bundle, showing the grass rope and the -tie. - -[Illustration: Figure 26 - -Exact reproduction of sketch by Goodbird. The tie is pronounced accurate -by Buffalobird-woman.] - - -_Drying the Grass Bundles_ - -These grass bundles we fetched home and laid on the drying stage until we -were ready to use them. Just before using, we took the bundles up on the -roof of the earth lodge, broke the binding ropes and spread the grass out -to dry, for one day. - - -_The Willow Floor_ - -The walls of the cache pit were left bare for the grass lining; but a -floor was laid on the bottom. This was rather simply made by gathering -dead and dry willow sticks, and laying them evenly and snugly over the -bottom of the pit. - - -_The Grass Lining_ - -Over this willow floor, the grass, now thoroughly dried, was spread -evenly, to a depth of about four inches. Grass was then spread over the -walls to a depth of three or four inches, and stayed in place with about -eight willow sticks. These were placed vertically against the walls -and nailed in place with wooden pins made each from the fork of a dead -willow, as shown in figure 27. The ends of the sticks should reach to the -neck of the cache pit, at the place marked _B_, in diagram (figure 25, -page 87). - -We were careful to spread the grass lining evenly over the walls; and we -were especially careful not to let the root ends get matted together, as -they were very apt to do. - -It will be noticed that the willow flooring of the pit, the willow -staying rods, and the wooden pins that held them in place, were all made -of dead and dry willows; this was done that everything within the pit -might be perfectly dry. - -It did not take long to place the grass lining of the cache pit. - -[Illustration: Figure 27] - - -_Skin Bottom Covering_ - -If the cache pit was a small one, we covered the bottom with a circular -piece of skin, cut to fit the pit bottom, and laid it directly on the -grass matting that covered the willow floor; but if the cache pit was a -large one, we fitted into the bottom the skin cover of a bull boat, with -the willow frame removed. - - -_Storing the Cache Pit_ - -The cache pit was now ready to be stored. - -My mother and I—and by “my mother” I mean always one of my two mothers, -for my mother that bore me was dead—fetched an old tent cover from the -earth lodge, and laid it by the cache pit so that one end of the cover -hung down the pit’s mouth. Upon this tent cover we emptied a big pile of -shelled ripe corn, fetched in baskets from the bull boats in which it had -been temporarily stored inside the lodge. We also fetched many strings of -braided corn, and laid them on one side of the tent cover. Lastly, we -fetched some strings of dried squash and laid them on the tent cover. - -Of dried squash, I fetched but one string at a time, doubled and folded -over my left arm. A string of dried squash, as I have said, was always -seven Indian fathoms long; and I have described an Indian fathom as -the distance from the tips of the fingers of one hand to the tips of -the fingers of the other, with both hands outstretched at either side. -As these measurements were made by the women workers, an Indian fathom -averaged about five and a half feet in length. A string of dried squash, -seven Indian fathoms in length, we knew by experience to be just about -the weight that a woman could conveniently carry. A string eight fathoms -long would be too heavy; and one six fathoms long would be rather short. - -[Illustration: Figure 28 - -Plan of cache in horizontal section: A, floor ready for storing; B, the -first series of braided strings; C, loose corn; D, first squash string. - -In vertical section: E, the first series of braided strings of corn; F, -adding loose corn; G, the first squash string; H, loose corn filled in -around squash.] - -All being now ready, my mother descended into the cache pit. Leaning over -the mouth, I handed her a string of braided corn. In my father’s family, -we usually braided fifty-four, or fifty-five ears, to a string; and a -woman could carry about three strings on her left shoulder. These braided -strings, as I have said, my mother and I fetched from the drying stage; -she stood on the stage floor and handed me the braided strings, and I -bore them off to the cache pit. - -Leaning over the pit then, as I have said, I handed my mother one of the -braided strings that now lay in a heap on the tent cover. My mother -took the string of corn, folded it once over, and laid it snugly against -the wall of the cache pit, on the skin bottom covering, with the tips of -the ears all pointed inward. Folding a string thus kept the ears from -slipping, and stayed them more firmly in place; and the ears, laid husk -end to the wall, were better preserved from danger of moisture. - -My mother continued thus all around the bottom of the pit, until she had -surrounded it with a row of braided corn laid against the wall, two ears -deep; for the strings, being doubled, lay therefore two ears deep. - -My mother now started a second row, or series, of strings of braided corn -doubled over, laying them upon the first series; and like these, with the -ears all pointed inward. When this series was completed, the bottom of -the cache pit was surrounded by strings of braided corn, which, because -doubled, now lay four ears deep. - -My mother now called to me that she was ready for the shelled, or loose, -corn. Obeying her, I pushed the shelled corn that lay on the tent cover, -down the overhanging end of the skin into the cache pit, until the floor -of the pit was filled up level with the top of the four-tiered series of -strings of braided corn. It will be seen now how necessary it was that a -hide or bull boat cover be put in the bottom of the cache pit, to receive -this shelled grain. - -I next passed down a string of dried squash, seven fathoms long; and this -my mother coiled and piled up in the center of the cache pit upon the -shelled corn. This loose corn, I have already said, lay level with the -topmost row of ears laid against the pit’s wall, but did not quite cover -the ears. I remember, as I looked down into the pit, I could see these -corn ears lying in a circle about the loose corn within. Figure 28, drawn -under my direction, shows in a series of rough sketches how the cache pit -was filled. - -Again I passed down strings of braided corn to my mother. These she -doubled, as before, and laid them around the wall of the cache pit, until -they came up level with the top of the squash heap coiled in the center. -We did not have any fixed number of rows of corn to place now; my mother -just piled the doubled braids around the wall until they came even with -the top of the coiled squash string. - -My mother then called to me, and again I shoved loose corn into the cache -pit, until it just barely covered the coiled squash pile and the topmost -row of braided ears. - -The object of our putting the squash in the center of the shelled corn -was to protect it from dampness. The shelled ripe corn did not spoil very -easily, but dried squash did. We were careful, therefore, to store the -strings of squash in the very center of the cache pit and surround them -on every side with the loose corn; this protected the squash and kept it -dry. - -We continued working, my mother and I, until the cache pit was filled. -In an average sized cache pit we would usually store four seven-fathom -strings of dried squash, coiled each in a heap in the center of the -cache and hidden as described, in the loose corn; and as I recollect -it, I think it took about thirty or more strings of braided corn to lie -around the wall of an average sized pit; but my memory here is a little -uncertain, and this estimate may not be quite accurate. - -We filled the pit about up to the point marked _B_ in the diagram (figure -25), the last two feet being filled with shelled corn only; thus the last -string of squash put in the cache pit should be covered with at least two -feet of loose corn. - -Over this shelled corn, at _B_ in the diagram, we snugly fitted a -circular cover, cut from the thick skin of the flank of a buffalo bull. -A bull’s hide is thicker than a buffalo cow’s, and for this reason was -seldom made into a robe; but there were purposes for which a bull’s hide -was preferred. Thus the heavy thick-haired parts of a bull’s hide were -much used for making saddle skins, because the heavy wool protected the -horse’s back; and the short haired parts were much used for making cache -pit covers. Using these parts of the hide for covers, we did not have -to bother to scrape off the hair, which in summer is very short on a -buffalo’s flanks. The skin cover was laid hair side up, so that the flesh -side would come next to the loose corn. - -On this hide cover my mother and I laid grass,[19] of the same kind as -used for lining the cache pit wall. - -[Illustration: Figure 29 - -Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.] - - -_The Puncheon Cover_ - -Upon this grass, if the pit was one of the smaller ones, we laid -puncheons; and these puncheons, as I have said, rested in a trench. - -The puncheons, split from small logs, were laid in the trench flat side -down, so that they would not rock. There were about five main planks, or -puncheons, the middle one being the heaviest, the better to sustain the -weight of any horse that might happen to walk over the cache pit’s mouth. -On either side of these main puncheons were two shorter ones, laid to -cover the small area of the pit’s mouth not covered by the main puncheons. - -Figure 29 by Goodbird, drawn from the small model I made for you in Wolf -Chief’s yard, will explain this. The puncheons shown in the figure -exactly fit the trench; and their circumscribed outline represents also -the shape of the trench. The dotted circle represents the pit’s mouth, -now hidden by the over-lying puncheons. - -Upon the puncheons we now laid grass, quite filling the pit’s mouth, and -even heaped, it might be, a foot high above the level of the ground; this -we trampled down hard, well into the mouth of the pit. - -Over this grass we fitted a second cover, cut as was the first from a -buffalo bull’s hide; and upon this we heaped earth until the pit was -filled level with the ground. - -Lastly, we raked ashes and refuse dirt over the spot, to hide it from any -enemy that might come prowling around in the winter, when the village was -deserted. - -I have said that puncheons, resting in a trench, were used to cover the -mouth of a cache pit of smaller size. If the pit was of the larger size, -I dug about two feet down in the neck or opening, a rectangular place -on either side, with my knife. Puncheons were thrust down into one of -these rectangular openings and drawn through into the other, covering -the mouth of the pit; and as in the smaller pit, there were several main -puncheons, with one or two smaller and shorter ones at either side. Grass -was stuffed into the two openings, above the ends of the puncheons, to -firm the latter. Above the puncheons, the mouth of the pit was filled in, -as was that of the smaller pit, with grass, a circular skin cover, and -earth. - -The two rectangular openings which I dug with my knife in the neck of the -larger pit, were, as will be noted, a little farther down than was the -floor of the trench of the smaller pit. This was because the neck was -longer in a pit of the larger size. - - -CACHE PITS IN SMALL ANKLE’S LODGE - - -_First Account_ - -In diagram (figure 30), I have marked the positions of the cache pits we -had in use in my father’s family, when I was a girl. Cache _A_ was used -for hard yellow shelled corn; but the braids piled against the wall of -the pit were of white corn; so also of _B_ and _C_. In cache _D_ were -stored dried boiled corn and strings of dried squash. - -[Illustration: Figure 30] - -Sometimes in one of the cache pits outside of the lodge we put a bag of -beans, or sometimes two bags. Each bag was of skin and was about as long -as one’s arm; its shape was long and round. - -In the fall, when we went to our winter lodges, corn, squash, beans, and -whatever else was needed, we loaded on our horses and took with us. As -soon as we came to our winter lodge we made ready a cache pit at once and -stored these things away. - -We opened a cache pit whenever we got out of provisions. When should -this be, you ask? When we got out of provisions. This might happen -at any time. One winter, I remember, we got out of provisions and a -number of our people left the winter village and went to the lodges at -Like-a-fishhook village, to open a cache. The Sioux surrounded them -there. Our people took refuge in a kind of fort that belonged to the -traders and fired down from an upper room; they killed two of the Sioux. - -Cache pit _F_ in the diagram, we made afterwards. Pit _E_ was also of -later make; we dug it after we got potatoes; it was inside the lodge and -near the corral for horses. - -Cache pit _C_ we had to abandon because mice got into it and we could not -get rid of them. So we filled it up with earth and dug pit _D_. We stored -gummy corn in cache pit _D_ and used it for two years. The third year the -Sioux came against our village in the winter time and stole our corn and -burned down my father’s lodge. - -I have been telling you how the cache pit was used for storing things -for winter; but I do not mean that it was of no use in summer time. In -early spring we put into a cache pit two big packages of dried meat and a -bladder full of bone grease. We did not take them out until about August -or a little earlier. The meat would still be good, and the bone grease -would be hard and sweet, just as if it were frozen. - -A cache pit lasted for a long time, used year after year. - - -_A Second Account on Another Day_ - -We had four cache pits to store grain for my father’s family; one held -squash, vegetables, corn, etc. - -A second held shelled yellow corn. In this cache the usual strings of -corn laid around to protect the shelled grain from the wall, were of -white corn. We did not braid hard yellow corn. It was corn that we did -not often use for parching. - -A third cache held white shelled corn, protected by the usual braided -strings of white corn. - -A fourth cache pit was a small one inside the lodge; here we stored dried -wild turnips, dried choke-cherries, and dried June berries; and any -valuables that we could not take with us to our winter village. - -Our cache pits were for the most part located outside the lodge, because -mice were found inside the lodge, and they were apt to be troublesome. - -In the cache pit where we stored our yellow corn, we stored the grain -loose, not in sacks. - -I knew of course where each cache pit was located. - -The Sioux sometimes came up against us in winter and raided our cached -corn. One winter (about 1877) they came up and burned our lodges and -stole all that was in our cache pits. - -We returned from our winter quarters to our permanent village a little -before ice breaks on the Missouri, or in the latter part of March. - - -_Diagram of Small Ankle’s Lodge_ - -[Illustration: Figure 31 - -Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird. - -A. Bed of Small Ankle and Strikes-many-women. - -B. Bed of Wolf Chief and wife. - -C. Bed of Bear’s Tail and wife. - -D. Bed of Son-of-a-Star and his wife Buffalo-bird-woman. - -E. Bed of Flies-low, Yellow Front Hair and Fell-upon-his-house, three -boys. - -F. Bed of Turtle. - -G. Place for storing ax, hay, wood, or any thing that could be piled or -laid away. - -H. Bed of Small Eyes, elder sister of Strikes-many-women; the bed here -by the fireplace being the warmest was commonly reserved for an elderly -person. (Small Eyes is probably the same as Red Blossom). - -K. Corn mortar and pestle. - -L. and M. Cache pits. - -N. Platform of slabs on which were stored food, utensils, etc. - -P. Lazy-back or native chair. - -XXX. Small Ankle’s medicines, or sacred objects.] - -Figure 31 is a diagram of Small Ankle’s lodge, as I remember it. My three -brothers slept in bed _E_, but often Wolf Chief or Bear’s Tail and their -wives would be away, staying at some other lodge, perhaps at the wife’s -mother’s; sometimes they visited thus for a long time. The boys might -then make use of the vacant bed of the visiting couple. - -All beds were covered with skins, as I have before described to you. - -Small children slept with their parents. - -I do not know why my father put his medicine shrines in the rear of the -lodge. Ours was a big family and there was not room enough for all the -beds on one side. Probably Small Ankle wanted the medicine objects near -his bed and not where the children were. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE MAKING OF A DRYING STAGE - - -_Stages in Like-a-fishhook Village_ - -There were about seventy lodges in Like-a-fishhook village, when I was a -girl. A corn drying stage stood before every lodge. - -That before Small Ankle’s lodge was a three-section stage, of eight -posts. White Feather, or his wives, owned two of these big eight-post -stages, one before each of their two lodges; for White Feather had four -wives. Many Growths—a woman—had a big eight-post stage. There were a few -other eight-post stages in the village, but they were small, with narrow -sections and posts placed relatively rather close to one another. - -The rest of the stages in the village, as I recollect, were all six-post, -or two-section, stages. - -In all cases, whether of a six-post or eight-post stage, the floor was -upheld by two long, but narrow beams, that ran the whole length of the -stage. - -The description I shall now give of the making of a drying stage, is of -an eight-post stage, such as always stood before my father’s lodge. - - -_Cutting the Timbers_ - -The timbers we used for building a drying stage were all of cottonwood. -Being thus of a soft wood, the timbers did not last so very long when -exposed to the weather; and a stage built of cottonwood timbers lasted -only about three years; the fourth year, unless the stage was rebuilt, -the posts rotted and the stage would fall down. Unlike the posts of a -watchers’ stage, those of a drying stage were always carefully peeled of -bark, as they rotted more quickly if the bark was left on. - -My mother’s drying stage, as I have said, had eight posts; and these -posts we cut with forks at the top. If we could find them, or if we had -time to hunt for them in the woods, we cut double-forked posts, like -that of figure 32. But it was much easier to get the smaller posts, of -the height of the stage floor. Such a post had but one fork at the top, -in which lay one of the beams that supported the floor; and a companion -post, longer and not so heavy, stood by it to support the railing at the -top of the stage. However, in reckoning the number of posts of a stage, I -count a single-forked post and its companion as but one post. - -For the two long beams on which the floor of the stage was to be laid, we -cut two rather slender logs, the longest we could find in the woods. - -All these timbers we cut in the summer time, peeling off the bark and -letting them lie until winter, to dry. Then when there was snow on the -ground, we hitched ropes to the seasoned timbers and dragged them into -the village. - -The stage was built the following spring or summer, to be ready for the -fall harvest; so that we commonly cut the timbers for a stage nine months -or a year before they were to be used in building it. - - -_Digging the Post Holes_ - -When we were ready to begin building, the first thing we had to do was -to mark the post holes. We laid the two long floor beams parallel on -the ground, at such a distance apart as to enclose the space necessary -for the stage. We then marked the places for the post holes, at proper -distances along the inside of the two beams; there were eight of these -post holes, four on a side. - -These post holes were dug with a long digging stick, and the dirt -removed, to the depth of a woman’s arm from the shoulder to the hand; -that was as far as one could reach down to lift out the dirt. To get the -post holes all of a depth, I took a stick and measured on it the length -of my arm from shoulder to fingers; this stick I used to probe the holes -to see that they were of a proper depth. - -We now laid down all the posts in a row, and so adjusted them that the -forks that were to receive the floor beams lay all in a straight line; -that is, if the posts were two-forked posts, all the forks _C_ (figure -32) would lie in a straight line; and if the posts, or some of them, were -single-forked posts, their tops would lie in a line with fork _C_ of the -double-forked posts. - -[Illustration: Figure 32] - -On all the posts a charcoal line was now drawn at _A_ (figure 32). The -distance from _A_ to _B_ (figure 32) should be the length of a woman’s -arm, which also was the depth of the post hole. But in cutting the posts, -no matter how careful we were, there was always some irregularity in -lengths so that the part from _A_ to _B_ upon the various posts might -slightly vary. - -All having now been marked with the charcoal line, the posts were rolled -each to its proper post hole and the part _AB_ on the post was carefully -measured and compared with the hole’s depth. For this purpose the stick -used to probe the post holes came again into use. If the length of the -part _AB_ on any post happened to be an inch or two longer than my arm -its post hole was deepened to the same extent. All this was necessary in -order that when the posts were dropped into their holes, the forks that -were to receive the floor beams would lie all at the same height. - -I have said that a charcoal line was drawn around each post at _A_ -(figure 32). The position of this line, after the first one was drawn, -was obtained by measuring from the fork _C_; and care was taken that the -measurements on all the posts should be exactly alike. The charcoal line -quite encircled the post. - - -_Raising the Frame_ - -The posts were now raised and dropped into the post holes; raising was -by hand. The posts were turned so that the forks lay in proper position -to receive the floor beams and upper rails; a two-forked post was placed -with the prong _C_ (figure 32) turned inward. - -A single-forked post had to have a companion post beside it, also forked, -to support the railing at the top of the stage. This companion post was -not so heavy, but of course was longer. It stood just beside the main -post and was carefully adjusted to receive the upper rail properly. It -was lashed to the main post by a green-hide thong. - -This thong might pass around the shorter post just below its fork; or it -might bind the companion post to one of the prongs of the fork itself. - -If I had several two-forked posts and several one-forked posts with -companion posts beside them, it required some little bit of fitting to -adjust them all so that the floor beams and rails would lie properly. To -better permit this to be done, it was not my custom to firm the earth -about the post, until the frame had been set up and adjusted; for little -irregularities in the fitting could be cured by slightly moving the posts -as they stood unfirmed, in their holes. When the frame was properly -adjusted, I took my digging stick—it was always a long one that was used -for digging holes—and rammed the earth around the foot of each post, -firming it. - -It was the custom of my tribe when digging the post holes, to dig each -one just the diameter of its post, or as nearly to it as we could; then -the posts when raised fitted snugly into the holes. - -The two long floor beams having been raised into position, the two poles -that were to make the top railing were also raised. These rails were of -the same length, but were not so heavy, as the floor beams. We were now -ready to lay the floor. - - -_The Floor_ - -The floor of the stage was of cottonwood planks. Cottonwood logs, nine -to twelve inches in diameter, had been cut of proper length. Out of the -center of each was split a plank, or board, with ax and wedge. These -planks were laid to make the floor, the ends of the planks resting on the -two floor beams that lay on the forks of the posts. We took care to make -the floor as snug as possible. The planks were carefully fitted together, -and if there was any little crooked place in a plank that left a crack in -the floor, we stuffed a dry cornstalk into the crack so that no ear of -corn could fall through. - -The planks that made the floor were not bound to the floor beams, nor -weighted down in any way; their own weight stayed them in place. - -I have said that the drying stage had to be rebuilt about every three -years because the posts rotted down in that time. This was not true of -the floor planks; they lasted much longer and were used year after year. - - -_Staying Thongs_ - -The eight posts of the stage stood in pairs, a post on either side of -the floor; and between the tops of each pair of posts a green-hide thong -was bound, and left to dry. These thongs stayed the stage and made it -stronger and firmer; often they were also made to bind down the upper -rails to the forks of the posts. - - -_Ladder_ - -The stage stood always in front of the earth lodge with its longer side -to the door. A ladder stood at the right hand nigher corner post—as one -comes out of the lodge—with the foot of the ladder resting a little way -from the stage. The top of the ladder leaned against the end of the floor -beam on the side next the lodge. - -Of course if the ladder were left here with nothing to stay it, it would -fall against the loose planks of the stage floor and force them out of -position. To prevent this a pole was bound firmly to the two posts _A_ -and _B_ (figure 12) and resting on the two floor beams just outside the -posts. The ladder rested against this pole. To receive the pole, the -floor beams were made to project a little bit forward at the ladder end -of the stage. - -The ladder was made of a cottonwood trunk, about ten inches in diameter, -with notches cut in it for steps. At its lower end it was brought to -an edge that it might more firmly rest on the ground and not turn when -someone stepped on it. At the upper end a notch was cut in the back to -receive the end of the floor beam against which the ladder rested. (See -figure 33.) - -[Illustration: Figure 33] - -The ladder had always one fixed place; or, if for any reason it had to be -moved during labors, we took pains to warn our friends. A woman in our -village once moved her ladder to another place on her stage and forgot -about it. When she started to come down she stepped in the old place and -fell and broke both her arms. We did not like to have a ladder removed -from its accustomed place for fear of just such accidents. - -When the owner descended from her drying stage, she took down her ladder -and laid it on the ground beside the stage. It was not proper for -strangers to go up on the drying stage, nor were children allowed to go -up there. - -Neighbors sometimes came in and borrowed the ladder; but when not in use, -its proper place was on the ground by the stage. - -You ask me how we Indian women ascended and descended a ladder. I never -thought of our having any particular custom in this; but now that you -call my attention to it, I remember that a woman ascended and descended a -ladder with her face toward the stage, giving her the appearance of going -up sidewise, and coming down in the same manner. - -In going up a ladder I usually placed my left foot on the lowest step; -brought my right foot around in front and over my left to the second -step; then my left foot past and behind my right foot, with my face -toward the drying stage. My left hand might or might not touch the -ladder, as I was used to ascending it and felt no fear. - -In descending a ladder I placed my right foot on the highest step, and -overlapped with my left; and so until the bottom was reached. - -I do not know if other women had exactly this custom, for I never -observed or thought anything about it; but I do know that always, -ascending or descending, an Indian woman went sidewise, with her face -toward the stage. - - -_Enlarging the Stage_ - -Some years, if our family’s corn crop was very large, we extended our -drying stage, making it five posts long instead of four posts long, on -a side. Other families did likewise, as they had need; one family might -have corn enough to require a stage five posts long, while another family -needed one only four posts long, on a side. Stages, indeed, varied in -length with the needs of the family, but they were all of about the same -width. - - -_Present Stages_ - -The stage that I have been describing is of the kind that was in use in -my tribe when I was a young girl of twelve or thirteen years of age. At -present we no longer use this, our old form, but the Arikara form instead. - -The Arikara stage differs in having a floor of willows, and is easier to -make. It took two days to erect a stage of the old fashioned kind, such -as I have been describing. - - -_Building, Women’s Work_ - -Building the drying stage was women’s work, although the men helped raise -the heavy posts and floor beams. In my father’s family, my two mothers -and I built the stage; but my father also helped us, especially if there -was any heavy lifting to do. - - -_Measurements of Stage_ - -I will now give you the measurements of such a stage as we used in my -father’s family. - -Pacing it off here, on the ground, the length of the stage was, I think, -about so long—thirty feet.[20] Its width was about thus—twelve feet. -From the ground to the top of the stage floor was a little higher than a -woman can reach with her hand, or about six feet, six inches; there were -horses in the village, and the stage floor must be high enough so that -the horses could not reach the corn. From the floor of the stage to the -upper railing was about so high (holding up a stick), or five feet and -nine inches. - -I will now give you the measurements of the posts and beams; and for -this, we will use the little model which I have made for you. In this -model I have used double-forked posts on one side, and single-forked -posts, with companion posts, on the other side. - -[Illustration: Figure 34] - -In the diagram (figure 34), _A_, _B_, _C_, _D_, are double-forked posts; -_a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, are single-forked posts; and _xa_, _xb_, _xc_, _xd_, -are companion posts. - -The double-forked posts, _A_, _B_, _C_, and _D_, should be about ten -inches in diameter between the lower fork and the ground, but tapering -slightly toward the upper fork. This upper fork, if it was not in the -post naturally, might be cut to receive the upper rail. The posts _a_, -_b_, _c_, and _d_, should be ten inches in diameter; and the companion -posts, _xa_, _xb_, _xc_, and _xd_, should be, perhaps, four inches in -diameter. All of these posts are set in the ground with the smaller, or -branch end upward. - -The floor beams should each be about nine and one-half inches in diameter -at one end, tapering to four or five inches in diameter at the other end. -This tapering was the natural growth of the trunk; it was not, I mean, -cut tapering with an ax. The beams were so laid that the heavy ends were -always at the front of the stage as we called it; that is, at the end -where the ladder stood. - -The upper rails were about three and a half inches in diameter. They -were chosen for strength, if possible of trunks that were branchless, or -nearly so. These upper rails were also laid with the heavy ends toward -the front, or ladder end, of the stage. - -I have said that if the long posts, _A_, _B_, _C_, _D_, had no natural -fork at the top, one was cut; but all other forks, and those also on the -tops of the shorter posts were natural. - -We took pride in building the stage of well chosen timbers, and in making -the parts fit snugly. The floor especially was laid as smooth and as -evenly as possible; and here and there, if a crack appeared, a dry corn -stalk was caulked in to make the floor snug and smooth. We were also -careful to choose straight, well formed trunks for posts and floor beams. - - -_Drying Rods_ - -Lying across the top of the stage in harvest time, with their ends -resting on the upper rails, were often a number of drying rods. A drying -rod was a pole averaging a little more than two inches in diameter and -about thirteen feet long, its length permitting six or seven inches to -project over the rail on which either end rested. - -These drying rods were much used in harvest time. When old women came -to the stage to slice squashes, they spitted the slices, as I have -described, on willow spits; and these spits again were laid on the drying -rods, each end of a spit resting on one of the rods. - -The drying rods had other uses. If the day was warm, old women working on -the floor of the stage would lay two or three of these rods across the -upper rails and throw a buffalo robe over them, and thus have shade while -they worked. They bound the robe down with thongs to hold it firm. - -When not in use the drying rods were laid lengthwise on the floor of the -stage that the wind might not blow them about. - - -_Other Uses of the Drying Stage_ - -By far the chief use of the drying stage, was to dry our vegetables, -especially our corn and sliced squashes. Firewood, collected from the -Missouri river in the June rise, was often piled on and under the stage -floor, to dry. - -The keepers of the O´kipạ ceremony used to bring out their buffalo head -masks, and air them on the drying stage that stood before their lodge -door. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -TOOLS - - -_Hoe_ - -Iron hoes had come into general use when I was a girl, but there were -two or three old women who used old fashioned bone hoes. I think my -grandmother, Turtle, was the very last to use one of these bone hoes. I -will describe the hoe she used, as I remember it. - -The blade was made of the shoulder bone of a buffalo, with the edge -trimmed and sharpened; and the ridge of bone, that is found on the -shoulder blade of every animal, was cut off and the place smoothed. - -The handle of the hoe was split, and grooves were cut in the split to -receive the bone blade; this was slightly cut to fit and was so set that -the edge pointed a little backwards. - -Raw-hide thongs bound the split firmly about the blade and a stout thong, -running from a groove a little way up the handle, braced the blade in -place. (See figure 3, page 12). - -Under my directions, Goodbird has made a hoe such as I saw my grandmother -use, using the shoulder bone of a steer for a blade. You can make -necessary measurements from it. - -Hoe handles were made of cottonwood or some other light wood. - - -_Rakes_ - -We Hidatsas began our tilling season with the rake. - -We used two kinds,[21] both of native make; one was made of a -black-tailed deer horn (figure 5, page 14), the other was of wood (figure -4, page 14). - -Of the two, we thought the horn rake the better, because it did not grow -worms, as we said. Worms often appear in a garden and do much damage. It -is a tradition with us that worms are afraid of horn; and we believed if -we used black-tailed deer horn rakes, not many worms would be found in -our fields that season. - -We believed wooden rakes caused worms in the corn. These worms, we -thought, came out of the wood in the rakes; just how this was, we did not -know. - -However, horn rakes were heavy and rather hard to make; and for this -reason, the handier and more easily made wooden rakes were more commonly -used. - -All this that I tell you of our tools and fields is our own lore. White -men taught us none of it. All that I have told you, we Indians knew since -the world began. - -[Illustration: Figure 35] - - -_Squash Knives_ - -Squash knives of bone were still in use when I was young. I have often -seen old women using them but, as I recollect, I never saw one being made. - -The knife was made from the thin part of a buffalo’s shoulder bone; -never, I think, from the shoulder bone of a deer, elk, or bear. - -The bone of a buffalo cow was best, because it was thinner. If the squash -knife was too thick, the slices of squash were apt to break as they were -being severed from the fruit. Bone squash knives, as I remember, were -used for slicing squashes and for nothing else. - -A squash knife should be cut from green bone; it would then keep an -edge, for green bone is firm and hard. I do not think I ever saw anyone -sharpening a bone knife so far as I can now recollect. - -There was no handle to a bone squash knife, beyond the natural bone. - -A bone squash knife lasted a long time. Old women in our village who used -these bone knives, brought them out each summer in the squash harvest. -It was their habit, I think, to keep the knives in the back part of the -lodge, by the owner’s bed. Whether it was customary to keep the knives in -bags, or in some other receptacle, I do not know. - -My mothers used a white man’s steel knife for slicing squashes; but as I -have said, there were old women in the village who still used the older -bone knives. - -Yellow Squash, I remember, was one; an old Hidatsa woman named Blossom -was another; so also was Goes-around-the-end. - -This model of a squash knife (figure 35) that I have had my son Goodbird -make for you, is of rather dry bone; I have had him grease it, that it -may be more like green bone. - -[Illustration: Figure 36 - -MAP of GARDENS S.E. of VILLAGE.] - - - - -CHAPTER X - -FIELDS AT LIKE-A-FISHHOOK VILLAGE - - -_East-Side Fields_ - -Figure 36 is a map I have made of the gardens east, or better, southeast, -of Like-a-fishhook village. The fields lay, as indicated on the map, -upon a point of land that went out into the Missouri river. The map is -only approximately correct. There were many other gardens than those -represented here on the map; for I have made no attempt to indicate any -but those that lay in the immediate vicinity of the field my family -tilled. These, however, I remember pretty clearly, and believe my map to -be, as far as it goes, fairly accurate. - -Our family garden is the one marked “Strikes-many-women’s and -Buffalobird-woman’s.” It lay just south of Lone Woman’s and -Want-to-be-a-woman’s. The field was rather irregular at first; a corner -of it, as I have said, was claimed by Lone Woman and Goes-to-next-timber, -as they had started to clear it. My mothers bought out the rights of the -claimants, in order to keep our field more nearly rectangular, so that we -could count our Indian acres more accurately. This corner is marked by a -dotted line, on the map. - -I remember that when I was a little girl, the boundaries of the field -were rather irregular at first; and my grandmother, Turtle, would go -along the edge with her digging stick and dig up the ground to make the -corners come out more nearly squared, and the sides of the field be -straightened. - -The field was also enlarged from year to year toward the sides; and much -of this work my grandmother did with her digging stick. The garden when -completed was the largest ever owned in my family; it was this field -whose size I measured off for you on the prairie the other day. - -The village gardens varied in size. Some families tilled large fields; -others rather small ones. Some families did not work very energetically; -and these were often put to it to have food. Other families worked hard, -and always had a plenty. Families were not all equally industrious. - -There were no watchers’ stages nor booths in these east-side fields. The -ground rose in a shelf, or bluff, just north of the gardens; from this -shelf the watchers could watch their fields and sing to the growing corn -without the trouble of having to build stages. - -The soil of the east-side gardens was bottom land and prairie, with -little or no timber. - - -_East Side Fences_ - -Our fields on the east-side of the village were fenced, as will be seen -from the map. The fences were made thus: - -Posts were cut of any kind of wood two or three inches in diameter and -forked at the top. These were set in holes, at distances about as we now -use for corral posts, or twelve feet from post to post. Posts were sunk -the length of my forearm and fingers into the ground. Holes were made -with digging stick and knife, and the dirt drawn out by hand. - -Rails were laid in the forks of the posts and bound down with strips of -bark; elm bark was strongest, but other kinds were used. The railing thus -made ran about three and a half feet from the ground, the height of the -posts that upheld it. All the rails were peeled of bark. - -No attempt was made to firm the structure, as we did our drying stages. -Our object was but to keep out the horses, and if the fence was strong -enough to withstand the winds we thought that enough. - -As will be seen from the map, some of the fields were fenced quite -around; but this was done only when the field was isolated. When several -gardens adjoined, a single fence usually ran around them all, and not -around each individual field. - -When several gardens were enclosed in a single fence, each owner looked -after that part of the fence that bordered her own land, and kept it in -repair. - -We did not run our fences close to the boundary of our gardens as white -men do. As we built our fences chiefly to keep horses out of the gardens, -we placed them far enough away so that even if the horses approached the -fence, they could not reach over and nibble the growing corn. - -I think our fences stood twelve or fifteen feet away from the cultivated -ground, as I pace it here on the ground. I know no reason why they were -run thus, except as I have said, to keep the horses from nibbling the -corn. You see, fifteen feet is quite a little distance; and the fence -could have stood closer to the cultivated ground and still been far -enough away to keep the horses from nibbling the crops. All I know is, -that it was a custom of my tribe, and I always followed this custom if I -had a fence to build. - -As will be seen by the map, the corners of the fences were turned rather -round; not built squared, as white men build their fences. We could not -square the corners as white men do when they build wire fences, because -we could not lay the rails in the forks of the posts and bind them down -firmly if we did so. Perhaps that is the reason we ran the fences so far -from the cultivated ground, that the fence, turning the corners, might -not invade the cultivated ground—if you will look at the map you will see -what I mean. However, I do not know if this is the reason or not. - -Horses did not trouble us much, as we did not permit them to graze near -our garden lands; they were pastured on the prairie. - -We always had fences around our fields as long ago as I know anything -about; and I have heard that our tribe had such fences in the villages -they built at the mouth of the Knife River, to protect their fields -there from their horses. Such, I have heard, has been our Indian custom -since the world began. - -At the very first it is true, we did not own ponies; but we soon got them. - -I think my tribe obtained ponies from the western tribes. In my own youth -we Hidatsas got many of our horses from western tribes, especially from -the Crows. - - -_Idikita´c’s Garden_ - -On the map there appears a garden marked as belonging to a woman named -Idikita´c. She made her garden after all the others had been fenced in. -There was a road that went down to some June-berry and choke-cherry -patches, in the small timber that stood beyond the gardens; it was a mere -path used by villagers afoot, by women with their dogs, and sometimes by -horsemen. - -Now, Idikita´c laid out her field so that it enclosed a small section -of this road; and she built a fence around it and tried to keep the -villagers from going across her land. The people did not like this. -Idikita´c would tie up her fence tight, but the villagers going down to -the choke-cherry patch, would go right through her garden, following the -road that had been there; sometimes they even went through with horses. - -“You must not make your garden here,” the people said to Idikita´c, “this -is a road!” - -And Idikita´c answered, “I do not want you to do damage to my garden!” - -There was quite a deal of talk in the village about this matter, and -quite a bit of trouble came of it. - - -_Fields West of the Village_ - -The first field cleared by my father’s family on the west side of the -village, is that marked _A_, on the plot legended with Turtle’s name, on -the map (figure 37), which I have had my son Goodbird draw for you of -our west-side fields. A coulee bordered one end of the field; and in the -rainy months the water washed out much of the good soil. Willows growing -up along the edge of the coulee also gave us much trouble. We therefore -extended our field to the other side of the coulee, to include the part -marked _B_. - -Afterwards we added another field, marked on the map with my name, -Maxi´diwiac. - -In Turtle’s garden there was a watchers’ stage, _C_, with a tree beside -it. There was also a booth, _D_. - -Peppermint and Yellow Hair had each a watchers’ stage and a booth in -her garden, as indicated on the map. Another stage and a tree stood in -a garden near by, the name of whose owner I have now forgotten. I have -marked the position of stage and tree in each field only approximately -except in Turtle’s garden; as this was one of our own family fields, I -remember the position of stage and tree very accurately. - -In this map, as in that of the east-side gardens, I have indicated only -the fields that lay in the vicinity of those cultivated by my own family; -there were many others, but I can not, after so many years, accurately -mark their positions, nor tell the names of the owners. - -[Illustration: Figure 37] - - -_West-Side Fence_ - -A fence protected our west-side gardens also, but only on the side -nearest the village, probably because the horses could be expected to -come from that direction. This fence differed somewhat from those on the -east side. - -The fence was built thus: - -A heavy stick was sharpened at one end and driven into the ground with an -ax; it was loosened by working it from side to side with the hands, and -withdrawn, leaving a hole about a foot deep. - -Into this hole was thrust a diamond willow, butt end downward, for post. -The long tapering top with the twigs and leaves still on it, was bent -over and around a rail (that was raised into position for the purpose) -and then twisted around the post and tied down with bark. A second rail -was bound to the post below the first. The sketch on the map gives an -idea of what is meant, and in figure 38 is sketch and diagram by Goodbird. - -[Illustration: Figure 38 - -Reproduced from sketch by Goodbird. On the left is post newly placed with -foliage intact. On the right is post with foliage omitted to show how top -was bound down over rails.] - -This fence was nearly or quite shoulder high to a woman, or about four -feet; and the posts were about two feet apart, so that even a traveller -going afoot could not squeeze his way between them. - - -_Crops, Our First Wagon_ - -The first wagon owned in my tribe belonged to Had-many-antelopes. My -father hired him for a pair of trousers to haul in the corn from our -gardens, one year. Had-many-antelopes fetched in three wagon loads from -my garden; the field I mean, marked with my name; and three more wagon -loads from the field _A_, in Turtle’s garden. From the field _B_, in -Turtle’s garden, the family fetched the corn that year, for that field -we had planted all to sweet corn; not gummy corn, but corn planted to -half-boil and dry, for winter. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -MISCELLANEA - - -_Divisions Between Gardens_ - -When two-fields adjoined the dividing space, or ground that ran between -them, we called maạdupatska´; it was always about four feet wide. - -The word really means, I think, a raised ridge of earth. We still use the -word in this sense. Down by the government school house at Independence, -our agent has run a road; and the earth dug out of the roadway has been -piled along the side in a low ridge to get rid of it. This ridge, running -along the side of the road, we call maạdupatska´. - -But the maạdupatska´ dividing two gardens in old times was never raised -in a ridge. It was nothing but a four-foot-wide dividing line. Nothing -grew on it. Each gardener hoed her half of the maạdupatska´ to keep it -clean of grass and weeds. We were particular about this; we did not want -to have any weeds in our gardens. - -I do not mean that I, for example, was accustomed to hoe exactly one -half of the maạdupatska´ that bordered my garden, leaving exactly the -other half to my neighbor. I merely hoed as needed, and my neighbor did -likewise; but the work was pretty equally divided, each woman recognizing -that she should do her share. - -Sometimes, however, the owner of a garden would come to her next neighbor -and say, “I do not want you to have any hard feelings, nor speak against -me; but I want to plant the maạdupatska´ that divides our gardens, in -squash;” or instead of squash, she might want to plant it in sunflowers -or beans. - -Permission being given, she would plant as she had requested; and -thereafter, of course, she would hoe all the maạdupatska´, because she -had a crop standing on it. But even then the ground would not be hers, -and her neighbor might refuse the permission asked. - -I have said that it might be asked to plant squash, or beans, or -sunflowers. A gardener never asked to plant corn on the maạdupatska´ that -bordered her field. Rows of corn hills should be about four feet apart; -and as this was the width of the maạdupatska´, even a single row of hills -would have crowded the corn; but beans or squashes or sunflowers planted -on the maạdupatska´ did not do so. - - -_Fallowing, Ownership of Gardens_ - -The first crop on new ground was always the best, though the second was -nearly as good. The third year’s crop was not so good; and after that, -each year, the crop grew less, until in some seasons, especially in a dry -summer, hardly anything was produced. - -The owners then stopped cultivating the garden and let it lie for two -years; the third year they again planted the garden and found it would -yield a good crop as before. During the two years their garden lay -fallow, the family owning it would plant their season’s crop elsewhere. - -In my father’s family we owned garden lands both on the east and on the -west side of the village, as I have told you in explaining the two maps -made for you. This made it easy, if need arose, to work one garden while -we let the other rest. There were families in the village who owned more -fields even, than did my father’s household. - -Sometimes when a woman died, her relatives did not trouble themselves to -work her garden for a couple of years, but just let it rest; then they -would begin planting it again, and the ground was sure to bring forth a -good crop. I think our custom of fallowing ground may have arisen in this -way. When a woman died leaving a garden, and her relatives did not at -once take possession, it was found that a two years’ rest increased the -yield; and so the custom of fallowing, perhaps, arose. Every one in the -village knew the value of a two years’ fallowing. - -Ground that was newly broken produced good crops for a long time. Our -family’s west side garden once got to producing very poor crops; and we -let it lie untilled for two years. I do not recollect how long it was -before we let it rest again. - -There was no rule how long we should use land before we fallowed it; nor -was there any rule that we should let it rest for just two years. We -merely knew that two years’ rest brought a poorly producing field back -into good condition. - -Sometimes a woman died and her garden was abandoned by her relatives, who -perhaps had more land than they could use. For this and other causes, -there were always some of the cultivated lands of the village lying -vacant. We never had all our fields in use every year; there were always -some lying untilled, either for fallowing, or for some other reason. - -If a woman died and her relatives did not care to till her garden, it was -free to any one who cared to make use of it. However, if a woman desired -to take possession of such an abandoned field, it was thought right that -she should ask permission of the dead owner’s relatives. Permission might -be asked of the dead woman’s son, or daughter, her mother, her husband’s -sister, or of the husband himself. - -The woman did not wait two years before asking; if she wanted the dead -woman’s field, she just went to the relatives and asked for it. - -When the owner of a field died, I never heard that her relatives ever -sold it; if they did not care to use it themselves, they gave it to some -one who did, or let it lie abandoned. - - -_Frost in the Gardens_ - -The fields that lay on the west side of our village got frosted more -easily than those on the east side. Indeed, our west-side gardens -suffered a good deal from frost. - -The reason was that the ground along the Missouri was lower on the west -side of the village; and fields that lay on lower ground, we knew, were -more likely to get frosted than those on higher ground. Gardens on the -higher grounds east of the village were seldom touched by frost. - - -_Maxi´diwiac’s Philosophy of Frost_ - -Fields lying on lower ground catch frost more easily than those that lie -higher. On a warm day, the ground becomes warmed; but at night cool air -comes up out of the ground, and we can see that where it meets the warm -air above, it creates a kind of snow [hoar frost]. - -Also, some days the wind is high; and toward evening it dies down. The -hot airs are then sucked down into the ground and cause moisture to rise -up out of the ground in steam. Afterwards, if the cool air comes up out -of the ground and meets that hot air, it makes a kind of snow on the -weeds and corn, killing them. But you can not see this steam until the -cold air arises; then it becomes visible. - - -_Men Helping in the Field_ - -Did young men work in the fields? (laughing heartily.) Certainly not! The -young men should be off hunting, or on a war party; and youths not yet -young men should be out guarding the horses. Their duties were elsewhere, -also they spent a great deal of time dressing up to be seen of the -village maidens; they should not be working in the fields! - -But old men, too old to go to war, went out into the fields and helped -their wives. It was theirs to plant the corn while the women made the -hills; and they also helped pull up weeds.[22] - -When their sweethearts were working in the fields, young men often came -out and talked to them, and maybe worked a little. However, it was not -much real work that they did; they were but seeking a chance to talk, -each with his sweetheart. - - -_Sucking the Sweet Juice_ - -When the first green corn was plucked, we Indian women often broke off a -piece of the stalk and sucked it for the sweet juice it contained. We did -this merely for a little taste of sweets in the field; we never took the -green stalks home to use as food at our meals. - -Did old men do this, you ask? (laughing.) How could they, with their -teeth all worn down? Old men could not chew such hard stuff! - -No, just women and children did this—sucked the green corn stalks for the -juice. - - -_Corn as Fodder for Horses_ - -In the early part of the harvest season, when we plucked green corn to -boil, we gathered the ears first; afterwards we gathered the green stalks -from which the ears had been stripped. These stalks with the leaves on -them we fed to our horses, either without the lodge, or inside, in the -corral. - -We commonly husked our corn, as I have said, out in the fields, piling up -the husks in a heap. After the corn was all in, we drove our horses to -the field to eat both the standing fodder and the husks that lay heaped -near the husking place. Horses readily ate corn fodder, and by the time -spring came again, there was little left in the field; not only were the -husks devoured, but most of the standing stalks were eaten off nearly or -quite to the ground. - - -_Disposition of Weeds_ - -Weeds that we cut down in hoeing a field, we let lie on the ground if -they were young weeds and bore no seeds nor blossoms, but if the weeds -had seeded, we bore them off the garden about fifteen or twenty yards -from the cultivated ground and left them to rot. - -In olden times we Indian women let no weeds grow in our gardens. I was -very particular about keeping my own garden clean all the time. - - -_The Spring Clean-up_ - -We never bothered to burn weeds; but in the spring we always cleaned up -our fields before planting. We pulled up the stubs of corn stalks and -roots, and piled them with the previous year’s bean vines and sunflower -stalks, in the middle of the garden and burned them; this was commonly -done at the husking place, where the husks had been piled. There was not -a great deal of refuse left from the corn crop, however, as the horses -had eaten most of it for fodder in the previous fall; but bean vines they -would not eat. - -I never saw any one fire their corn stalks in the fall. Our yearly -clean-up was always in the spring, when every field must be raked and -cleaned before planting. - - -_Manure_ - -We Hidatsas did not like to have the dung of animals in our fields. The -horses we turned into our gardens in the fall dropped dung; and where -they did so, we found little worms and insects. We also noted that where -dung fell, many kinds of weeds grew up the next year. - -We did not like this, and we therefore carefully cleaned off the dried -dung, picking it up by hand and throwing it ten feet or more beyond the -edge of the garden plot. We did likewise with the droppings of white -men’s cattle, after they were brought to us. - -The dung of horses and cattle raised sharp thistles, the kind that grows -up in a big bush; and mustard, and another plant that has black seeds. -These three kinds of weeds came to us with the white man; other weeds we -had before, but they were native to our land. - -Our corn and other vegetables can not grow on land that has many weeds. -Now that white men have come and put manure on their fields, these -strange weeds brought by them have become common. In old times we -Hidatsas kept our gardens clean of weeds. I think this is harder to do -now that we have so many more kinds of weeds. - -I do not know that the worms in the manure did any harm to our gardens; -but because we thought it bred worms and weeds, we did not like to have -any dung on our garden lands; and we therefore removed it. - - -_Worms_ - -Our corn, we knew, raised a good many worms. They came out in the ears; -it was the corn kernels that became the worms. Wood also became worms. -Leaves became worms. All these bred worms of themselves. - -I knew also, when I was a young woman, that flies lay eggs, that after a -time the eggs move about alive; and that later these put on wings and fly -away. Whether all flies do this, I did not know, but I knew that some do. - -Many worms appeared in our gardens in some years; in other years they -were fewer. - - -_Wild Animals_ - -Did buffaloes or deer ever raid our gardens? (laughing.) No. Buffaloes -have keen scent, and they could wind an Indian a long way off. While they -could smell us Indian people, or the smoke from our village, there was no -danger that they would come near to eat our crops. - -Antelopes lived out on the plains, in the open country; they never came -near our fields. - -Rocky Mountain sheep lived in the clay hills, in the very roughest -country, where cedar trees and sage brush grow. - -Black-tailed deer lived far away in the Bad Lands, in the little round -patches of timber that are found there, where the country is very rough. -They were not found near our village, nor in such places as those in -which we planted our gardens. - -White-tailed deer, however, lived in the heavy timber that lines the -banks of the Missouri river. A few are still found on this reservation. -However, though haunting the woods near our gardens, these deer never -molested our crops; they never ate our corn ears nor nibbled the stalks. - - -_About Old Tent Covers_ - -I have said that we made the threshing booth under the drying stage of an -old tent cover. - -Buffalo hides that we wanted to use for making tent covers, were taken in -the spring when the buffaloes shed their hair and their skins are thin. -The skin tent cover which we then made would be used all that summer; -and the next winter, perhaps, we would begin to cut it up for moccasins. -The following spring, again, we could take more buffalo hides and make -another tent cover. - -Not all families renewed a tent so often. Some families used a tent two -years, and some even a much longer time; but many families used a tent -cover but a single season. It was a very usual thing for the women of a -family to make a new tent cover, in the spring. - -Old tent covers, as I have said, were cut up for moccasins, or they were -put to other uses. There was always a good deal of need about the lodge -for skins that had been scraped bare of hair; and the skins in a tent -cover were, of course, of this kind. Every bed in the earth lodge, in old -times, was covered with an old tent cover. - -Skins needed in threshing time were partly of these bed covers, taken -down from the beds. Often the piece of an old tent cover from which -we had been cutting moccasins would be brought out and used. Then we -commonly had other buffalo hides, scraped bare of hair, stored in the -lodge, ready for any use. - -Buffaloes were plentiful in those days, and skins were easy to get. We -had always abundance for use in threshing time. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -SINCE WHITE MEN CAME - - -_How We Got Potatoes and Other Vegetables_ - -The government has changed our old way of cultivating corn and our other -vegetables, and has brought us seeds of many new vegetables and grains, -and taught us their use. We Hidatsas and our friends, the Mandans, have -also been removed from our village at Like-a-fishhook bend, and made to -take our land in allotments; so that our old agriculture has in a measure -fallen into disuse. - -I was thirty-three years old when the government first plowed up fields -for us; two big fields were broken, one between the village and the -agency, and another on the farther side of the agency. - -New kinds of seeds were issued to us, oats and wheat; and we were made to -plant them in these newly plowed fields. Another field was plowed for us -down in the bottom land along the Missouri; and here we were taught to -plant potatoes. Each family was given a certain number of rows to plant -and cultivate. - -At first we Hidatsas did not like potatoes, because they smelled so -strongly! Then we sometimes dug up our potatoes and took them into our -earth lodges; and when cold weather came, the potatoes were frozen, and -spoiled. For these reasons we did not take much interest in our potatoes, -and often left them in the ground, not bothering to dig them. - -Other seeds were issued to us, of watermelons, big squashes, onions, -turnips, and other vegetables. Some of these we tried to eat, but did not -like them very well; even the turnips and big squashes, we thought not so -good as our own squashes and our wild prairie turnips. Moreover, we did -not know how to dry these new vegetables for winter; so we often did not -trouble even to harvest them. - -The government was eager to teach the Indians to raise potatoes; and to -get us women to cultivate them, paid as much as two dollars and a half a -day for planting them in the plowed field. I remember I was paid that sum -for planting them. After three or four years, finding the Indians did not -have much taste for potatoes and rather seldom ate them, our agent made -a big cache pit—a root cellar you say it was—and bought our potato crop -of us. After this he would issue seed potatoes to us in the spring, and -in the fall we would sell our crop to him. Thus, handling potatoes each -year, we learned little by little to eat them. - - -_The New Cultivation_ - -The government also broke up big fields of prairie ground, and had us -plant corn in them; but these fields on the prairie near the hills I do -not think are so good as our old fields down in the timber lands along -the Missouri. The prairie fields get dry easily and the soil is harder -and more difficult to work. - -Then I think our old way of raising corn is better than the new way -taught us by white men. Last year, 1911, our agent held an agricultural -fair on this reservation; and we Indians competed for prizes for the best -corn. The corn which I sent to the fair took the first prize. I raised -it on new ground; the ground had been plowed, but aside from that, I -cultivated the corn exactly as in old times, with a hoe. - - -_Iron Kettles_ - -The first pots, or kettles, of metal that we Hidatsas got were of yellow -tin [brass]; the French and the Crees also traded us kettles made of red -tin [copper]. - -As long as we could get our native clay pots, we of my father’s family -did not use metal pots much, because the metal made the food taste. When -I was a little girl, if any of us went to visit another family, and they -gave us food cooked in an iron pot, we knew it at once because we could -taste and smell the iron in the food. - -I have said that we began cooking food in an iron kettle in my father’s -family when I was about eighteen years old; but the great iron kettle -that lies in Goodbird’s yard was given us by an Arikara woman before I -was born. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -TOBACCO - - -_Observations by Maxi´diwiac_ - -Tobacco was cultivated in my tribe only by old men. Our young men did not -smoke much; a few did, but most of them used little tobacco, or almost -none. They were taught that smoking would injure their lungs and make -them short winded so that they would be poor runners. But when a man got -to be about sixty years of age we thought it right for him to smoke as -much as he liked. His war days and hunting days were over. Old men smoked -quite a good deal. - -Young men who used tobacco could run; but in a short time they became -short of breath, and water, thick like syrup, came up into the mouth. A -young man who smoked a great deal, if chased by enemies, could not run to -escape from them, and so got killed. For this reason all the young men of -my tribe were taught that they should not smoke. - -Things have changed greatly since those good days; and now young and old, -boys and men, all smoke. They seem to think that the new ways of the -white man are right; but I do not. In olden days, we Hidatsas took good -care of our bodies, as is not done now. - - -_The Tobacco Garden_ - -The old men of my tribe who smoked had each a tobacco garden planted -not very far away from our corn fields, but never in the same plot -with one. Two of these tobacco gardens were near the village, upon the -top of some rising ground; they were owned by two old men, Bad Horn -and Bear-looks-up. The earth lodges of these old men stood a little -way out of the village, and their tobacco gardens were not far away. -Bear-looks-up called my father “brother” and I often visited his lodge. - -Tobacco gardens, as I remember them, were almost universal in my tribe -when I was five or six years of age; they were still commonly planted -when I was twelve years old; but white men had been bringing in their -tobacco and selling it at the traders’ stores for some years, and our -tobacco gardens were becoming neglected. - -As late as when I was sixteen, my father still kept his tobacco garden; -but since that day individual gardens have not been kept in my tribe. -Instead, just a little space in the vegetable garden is planted with seed -if the owner wishes to raise tobacco. - -The seed we use is the same that we planted in old times. A big insect -that we call the “tobacco blower” used always to be found around our -tobacco gardens; and this insect still appears about the little patches -of tobacco that we plant. - -The reason that tobacco gardens were planted apart from our vegetable -fields in old times was, that the tobacco plants have a strong smell -which affects the corn; if tobacco is planted near the corn, the growing -corn stalks turn yellow and the corn is not so good. Tobacco plants were -therefore kept out of our corn fields. We do not follow this custom now; -and I do not think our new way is as good for the corn. - - -_Planting_ - -Tobacco seed was planted at the same time sunflower seed was planted. - -The owner took a hoe and made soft every foot of the tobacco garden; and -with a rake he made the loosened soil level and smooth. - -He marked the ground with a stick into rows about eighteen inches apart. -He opened a little package of seed, poured the seed into his left palm, -and with his right sowed the seed very thickly in the row. He covered the -newly sowed seed very lightly with soil which he raked with his hand. - -When rain came, and warmth, the seeds sprouted. The seed having been -planted thickly, the plants came up thickly, so that they had to be -thinned out. The owner of the garden would weed out the weak plants, -leaving only the stronger standing. - -The earth about each plant was hilled up about it with a buffalo rib, -into a little hill like a corn hill. It was a common thing to see an -old man working in his tobacco garden with one of these ribs. Young men -seldom worked in the tobacco gardens; not using tobacco very much, they -cared little about it. - - -_Arrow-head-earring’s Tobacco Garden_ - -An old man, I remember, named Arrow-head-earring, or Ma´iạ-pokcahec, had -a patch of tobacco along the edge of a field on the east side of the -village. He was a very old man. He used a big buffalo rib, sharpened on -the edge, to work the soil and cultivate his tobacco. He caught the rib -in his hands by both ends with the edge downward; and stooping over, -he scraped the soil toward him, now and then raising the rib up and -loosening the earth with the point at one end—poking up the soil, so to -speak. - -He wore no shirt as he worked; but he had a buffalo robe about his -middle, on which he knelt as he worked. - - -_Small Ankle’s Cultivation_ - -My father always attended to the planting of his tobacco garden. When the -seed sprouted he thinned out the plants, weeded the ground and hilled up -the tobacco plants later with his own hands. - -Tobacco plants often came up wild from seed dropped by the cultivated -plants. These wild plants seemed just as good as the cultivated ones. -There seemed little preference between them. - - -_Harvesting the Blossoms_ - -Tobacco plants began to blossom about the middle of June; and picking -then began. Tobacco was gathered in two harvests. The first harvest was -of these blossoms, which we reckoned the best part of the plant for -smoking. Old men were fond of smoking them. - -Blossoms were picked regularly every fourth day after the season set in. -If we neglected to pick them until the fifth day, the blossoms would -begin to seed. - -This picking of the blossoms my father often did, but as he was old, and -the work was slow and took a long time, my sister and I used to help him. - -I well remember how my sister and I used to go out in late summer, when -the plants were in bloom, and gather the white blossoms. These I would -pluck from the plants, pinching them off with my thumb nail. Picking -blossoms was tedious work. The tobacco got into one’s eyes and made them -smart just as white men’s onions do to-day. - -We picked, as I have said, every fourth day. Only the green part of the -blossom was kept. The white part I always threw away; it was of no value. - -To receive the blossoms I took a small basket with me to the garden. -There were two kinds used; one was the bark basket that we wove, and of -which you have specimens; the other kind was made of a buffalo bull’s -scrotum, with hair side out. - -Such a basket as the latter was a little larger than the crown of a -white man’s hat, the hat band being about the same diameter as the rim -that we put on the basket. It had the usual band to go over forehead or -shoulders. I bore the basket in the usual way on my back; or I could -swing it around on my breast when actually picking, thus making it easy -to drop the blossoms into it. - -More often, however, I took the basket off and set it on the ground when -plucking blossoms. I would make a little round place in the soft soil -with my hands and set the basket in it, so that it would stand upright. -The basket did not collapse, for the skin covering was tough and rigid, -not soft. - -I often used the scrotum basket also for picking choke-cherries or June -berries. It was more convenient when berrying to carry the basket swung -around on my breast. Going home with the basket filled with berries, I -bore it in the usual way on my back. - -My father usually worked with us; and indeed it was to help him, because -he was old, that we picked the blossoms at all. It was slow work. I did -not expect to gather more than a fourth of a small basketful every four -days; and as the blossoms shrunk a good deal in drying, a day’s picking -looked rather scant. - -When we fetched the blossoms home to the lodge, my father would spread a -dry hide on the floor in front of his sacred objects of the Big Birds’ -ceremony; they were two skulls and a sacred pipe, wrapped in a bundle and -lying on a kind of stand. We regarded these objects as a kind of shrine. -Nobody ever walked between the fire and the shrine as that would have -been a kind of disrespect to the gods. My father spread the new-plucked -blossoms on the hide to dry. Lying here before the shrine, it was certain -no one would forget and step on the blossoms. - -It took quite a time to dry the blossoms. If the weather was damp and -murky for several days, my father, on appearance of the sun again, would -move the hide over to a place where the sun shining through the smoke -hole, would fall on the blossoms. The smoke hole, being rather large, -would let through quite a strong sunbeam, and the drying blossoms were -kept directly in the beam. - -When the blossoms had quite dried, my father fetched them over near the -fireplace, and put them on a small skin, or on a plank. We commonly had -planks, or boards, split from cottonwood trunks, lying in the lodge; they -had many uses. - -My father then took a piece of buffalo fat, thrust it on the end of a -stick and roasted it slowly over the coals. This piece of hot fat he -touched lightly here and there to the piled-up blossoms, so as to oil -them slightly, but not too much. He next moved the skin or board down -over the edge of the fire pit, tipping it slightly so that the heat from -the fire would strike the blossoms. Here he left them a little while, but -watching them all the time. Now and then he would gently stir the pile -of blossoms with a little stick, so that the whole mass might be oiled -equally. - -This done my father took up the blossoms and put them into his tobacco -bag. The tobacco bag that we used then was exactly like that used to-day, -ornamented with quills or bead work; only in those days old men never -bothered to ornament their tobacco bags, just having them plain. - -When my father wanted to smoke these dried blossoms, he drew them from -his tobacco bag and chopped them fine with a knife, a pipeful at a time. -Cured in this way, tobacco blossoms were called ạduatạkidu´cki. They were -smoked by old men unmixed. - -The blossoms were always dried within the lodge. If dried without, the -sun and air took away their strength. - - -_Harvesting the Plants_ - -About harvest time, just before frost came, the rest of the plants were -gathered—the stems and leaves, I mean, left after the harvesting of the -blossoms. My father attended to this. He took no basket, but fetched the -plants in his arms. - -He dried the plants in the lodge near the place where the cache pit lay. -For this he took sticks, about fifteen inches long, and thrust them over -the beam between two of the exterior supporting posts, so that the sticks -pointed a little upwards. On each of these sticks he hung two or three -tobacco plants by thrusting the plants, root up, upon the stick, but -without tying them. - -When dry, these plants were taken down and put into a bag; or a package -was made by folding over them a piece of old tent cover; and the package -or bag was stored away in the cache pit. - -When the tobacco plants were quite dry, the leaves readily fell off. -Leaves that remained on the plants were smoked, of course; but it was -the stems that furnished most of the smoking. They were treated like the -blossoms, with buffalo fat, before putting into the tobacco pouch; we did -not treat tobacco with buffalo fat except as needed for use, and to be -put into the tobacco pouch, ready for smoking. - -I do not remember that my father ever saved any of the blossoms to store -away in the cache pit, as he did the stem, or plant tobacco. Friends and -visitors were always coming and going; and when they came into the lodge -my father would smoke with them, using the blossoms first, because they -were his best tobacco. In this way, the blossoms were used up about as -fast as they were gathered. - -Before putting the tobacco away in the cache pit, my father was careful -to put aside seed for the next year’s planting. He gathered the black -seeds into a small bundle about as big as my fingers bunched together, or -about the size of a baby’s fist, wrapping them up in a piece of soft skin -which he tied with a string. He made two or three of these bundles and -tied them to the top of his bed, or to a post near by, where there was no -danger of their being disturbed. - -We had no way of selecting tobacco seed. We just gathered any seed that -was borne on the plants. Of course there were always good and bad seeds -in every package; but as the owner of a tobacco garden always planted his -seed very thickly, he was able to weed out all the weak plants as they -came up, as I have already explained. - -A tobacco plant, pulled up and hung up in the lodge, we called o´puti: -opi, tobacco, and uti, base, foundation, substantial part. - -The Mandans and Arikaras raised tobacco exactly as we did, in little -gardens. - - -_Selling to the Sioux_ - -We used to sell a good deal of tobacco to the Sioux. They called it -Pana´nitachani, or Ree’s tobacco. - -A bunch six or seven inches in diameter, bound together, we sold for one -tanned hide. - - -_Size of Tobacco Garden_ - -My father’s tobacco garden, when I was a little girl, was somewhat larger -than this room; and that, as you measure it, is twenty-one by eighteen -feet. I have seen other tobacco gardens planted by old men that measured -somewhat larger; but this was about the average size. - - -_Customs_ - -If any one went into a tobacco garden and took tobacco without notifying -the owner, we said that his hair would fall out; and if any one in the -village began to lose his hair, and it kept coming out when he brushed -it, we would laugh and say, “Hey, hey, you man! You have been stealing -tobacco!” - -What? You say you got this tobacco out of Wolf Chief’s garden without -asking? (laughing heartily.) Then be sure your hair will fall out when -you comb it. Just watch, and see if it doesn’t! - -I have said that my father softened the soil of his tobacco garden with -a hoe. After the plants began to grow, the hoe was not used, either for -cutting the weeds or for hilling up the plants. I have said that the weak -plants were culled out by hand, and that the strong plants were hilled up -with a buffalo rib. - - -ACCESSORIES TO THE TOBACCO GARDEN - - -_Fence_ - -When I was a little girl every tobacco garden had a willow fence around -it. - -I remember very well seeing such fences built. Post holes were made -by driving a sharp stake into the ground with an ax; the stake was -withdrawn, and into the hole left by it, a diamond willow was thrust for -a post; on this willow were left all the upper branches with the leaves. -A rail was run from the post to its next neighbor, at the height of a -woman’s shoulder, and stayed in place by bending over the leafy top of -the willow post, and drawing it around the rail, then twisting it down -and around the body at the post in a spiral manner. If the leafy top -of the post was long enough, and slender enough, it might, after being -wrapped spirally about the post, be even drawn out and woven into the -fence. - -Below the top rail at a convenient distance, there ran a second rail, -bound to the post with bark. Besides these rails, branches and twigs, and -as I have said, the tops of the posts themselves, were interwoven into -the fence to make it as dense as possible. - -The posts of the fence stood about two and a half feet apart, making, -with the rails and the interwoven twigs, a barrier so dense that even a -dog could not push through it. - -There was an opening left to enter the garden, closed by a kind of -stile—bars of small poles thrust right and left between the posts; -against these bars were leaned one or two bull berry bushes, which were -removed when the owner wanted to enter. - -If a weak place was found in the fence, it was strengthened with a bull -berry bush thrust into the ground and leaned against the fence or woven -into it. - - -_The Scrotum Basket_ - -I have said that we used a basket made of the scrotum of a buffalo bull, -for picking tobacco blossoms. - -A fresh scrotum was taken, and a rim or hoop of choke-cherry wood was -bound around its mouth; choke-cherry limbs are flexible and easily bent. -The hoop was sewed in place with sinew passing through the skin and -around the hoop spirally. - -[Illustration: Figure 39 - -Reproduced from sketch by Goodbird.] - -A thong was bound at either end to opposite sides of the hoop, and the -whole was hung upon the drying stage, or at the entrance to the earth -lodge in the sun. The skin was then filled with sand until dry, when it -was emptied, the thong removed, and a band, or leather handle, was bound -on one side of the hoop, at places a few inches apart, and the basket was -ready for use. - -The scrotum is the toughest part of the buffalo’s hide. When dried it is -as hard and rigid as wood. - -Figure 39 is a sketch by Goodbird showing what the basket was like. - -[Illustration: Figure 40] - -Down in the bottoms along the Missouri near Independence school house -are the gardens—now abandoned—used by the neighboring families when they -first came to this part of the reservation, about 1886. - -The fields are plainly marked in the underbrush and trees from the fact -that they are relatively open. Goodbird accompanied me to the several -locations and I made maps of the fields, which I include in figure 40. -While not accurately surveyed—I had to pace off the distances—the fields -are fairly accurately represented by the maps. - -Figure 40, _I_, is a diagram in vertical section of the land surface in -which the gardens lie. Toward the right is seen the basin of the Missouri -river. - -At the extreme left is a bit of the prairie that abuts the foothills. -Between are two level terraces, one eighty yards, the other and lower, -one hundred and seventy-five yards in width. Four of the gardens lie -in the eighty-yard terrace; field _A_, of Small Ankle; _B_ of Big Foot -Bull; _E_ of Crow’s Breast, and _H_, a small bit of ground used by the -Small Ankle family for a squash garden. Gardens _C_ of Small Horn; _D_ of -Leggings; _F_ of Crow’s Breast; and _G_ of Cedar Woman, lie in the lower -and wider terrace. - -With one exception the fields are called by the names of the male heads -of the families, a custom that probably began at the time allotments were -first made. - -The relative positions of the fields are not as shown in the figure, -except of _A_ and _B_, the gardens of Small Ankle and Big Foot Bull. -These are separated by a wagon road that descends to the lower terrace, -as indicated on the map. - -Doubtless the two terraces have been made by over-flow waters. It is -likely that both are still subject to overflow at long intervals, -especially the lower. The soil is light and sandy, but black and rich. -The overflow of the river would seem to suggest that the land would be -fertilized by silt deposited upon it; but my Indian informants seem to -attach no significance to this. Fields were located near the Missouri -“because the soil there is soft and easily worked, and does not become -dry and burn up the crops.” - - GILBERT L. WILSON. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Washington Matthews, _Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa -Indians_. U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey. - -[2] Gilbert L. Wilson, _Myths of the Red Children_. Ginn and Company, -1907. - -[3] George H. Pepper and Gilbert L. Wilson, _An Hidatsa Shrine and -the Beliefs Respecting It_. Memoirs of the American Anthropological -Association, 1908. - -[4] Gilbert L. Wilson, _Goodbird, the Indian: His Story_. Fleming H. -Revell Co. 1914. - -[5] “In the garden vegetable family are five; corn, beans, squashes, -sunflowers, and tobacco. The seeds of all these plants were brought up -from beneath the ground by the Mandan people. - -“Now the corn, as we believe, has an enemy—the sun who tries to burn the -corn. But at night, when the sun has gone down, the corn has magic power. -It is the corn that brings the night moistures—the early morning mist and -fog, and the dew—as you can see yourself in the morning from the water -dripping from the corn leaves. Thus the corn grows and keeps on until it -is ripe. - -“The sun may scorch the corn and try hard to dry it up, but the corn -takes care of itself, bringing the moistures that make the corn, and also -the beans, sunflowers, squashes, and tobacco grow. - -“The corn possesses all this magic power. - -“When you white people met our Mandan people we gave to the whites the -name Maci´, or Waci´, meaning nice people, or pretty people. We called -them by this name because they had white faces and wore fine clothes. We -said also ‘We will call these people our friends!’ And from that time to -this we have never made war on white men. - -“Our Mandan corn must now be all over the world, for we gave the white -men our seeds. And so it seems we Mandans have helped every people. But -the seed of our varieties of corn were originally ours. - -“We know that white men must also have had corn seed, for their corn is -different from ours. But all we older folk can tell our native corn from -that of white men.”—WOUNDED FACE (Mandan) - -[6] Corn sucker, i. e., the extra shoot or stem that often springs up -from the base of the maize plant. - -[7] Buffalobird-woman says she planted six to eight kernels to a hill. -Just what pattern she used she could not tell until she went out with a -handful of seed and planted a few hills to revive her memory. The three -patterns shown in figure 7 will show how she laid the grains in the -bottom of the several hills.—GILBERT L. WILSON - -[8] “Twice in the corn season were scarecrows used; first, when the corn -was just coming up; and again when the grain was forming on the ear and -getting ripe.”—EDWARD GOODBIRD - -[9] In August, 1910, Buffalobird-woman related the story of “The -Grandson,” in the course of which she said in explanation of reference to -a watchers’ stage: - -“I will now stop a moment to explain something in the other form of this -tale. - -“According to this way of telling it, there was a garden and in the -middle of the garden was a tree. There was a platform under the tree made -of trunks and slabs; and there those two girls sat to watch the garden -and sing watch-garden songs. They did this to make the garden grow, just -as people sing to a baby to make it be quiet and feel good. In old times -we sang to a garden for a like reason, to make the garden feel good and -grow. This custom was one used in every garden. Sometimes one or two -women sang. - -“The singing was begun in the spring and continued until the corn was -ripe. We Indians loved our gardens and kept them clean; we did not let -weeds grow in them. Always in every garden during the growing season, -there would be some one working or singing. - -“Now in old times, many of our gardens had resting stages, or watchers’ -stages, such as I have just described. We always made our gardens down -in the woods by the river, because there is better ground there. When we -cut off the timber we would often leave one tree standing in the garden. -Under this tree were erected four forked posts, on which was laid a -platform. This made the stage; in the tree overhead we often spread robes -and blankets for shade. - -“This resting stage was small. It was just big enough for two persons to -sit on comfortably. Corn was never dried on it; it was used for a singing -and resting place only. It was reached by a ladder. Its height was about -four and a half feet high. - -“This resting stage or watchers’ stage was built on the north side of the -tree so that the shade of the tree would fall upon it. Robes were laid -on the floor of the stage to make a couch or bed. Sometimes people even -slept on this platform—sometimes a man and his wife slept there. - -“This resting stage we used to rest on after working in the garden; and -to sing here the songs that we sang at this season of the year, and which -I have called watch-garden songs. A place to cook in was not far away on -the edge of the garden. It was a kind of booth, or bower. With a stake we -made holes in the ground in a circle, and into the holes thrust willows. -The tops of these willows we bent toward the center and joined together -to make a bower. Over the top we threw a robe. We built a fire beneath to -cook by. - -“Our gardens I am describing were those at Like-a-fishhook village; and -they were on the Missouri on either side of the village. They were strung -along the river bank for a mile or more on either side of the village.” - -[10] In redrawing Goodbird’s sketch this calf-skin has been omitted, that -the construction of the stage floor might be shown. - -[11] “My wife is drying half-boiled corn on the ear this year. This way -we find makes the dried corn sweeter, but takes longer to dry it. We cook -it in winter by dropping the ear, cob and all, into the pot. This method -of drying corn was known also in old times.”—EDWARD GOODBIRD - -[12] Buffalobird-woman means that the buskers arrived in the fields in -the morning to begin the day’s labors. More than one corn pile might be -husked in a single day.—GILBERT L. WILSON - -[13] Water Chief having strolled into the cabin while Buffalobird-woman -was dictating, here interrupted with the following: - -“The owner of a field would come and notify the crier of some society, as -the Fox or Dog society, or some other. The crier would go on the roof of -the society’s lodge and call, ‘All you of the Fox society come hither; -they want you to husk. When you all get here, we will go to that one’s -garden and husk the corn!’ - -“We young men of the society all gathered together and marched to the -field to which we were bidden. In old times we took our guns with us, for -the Sioux might come up to attack us. As we approached the field we began -to sing, that the girls might hear us. We knew that our sweethearts would -take notice of our singing. The girls themselves did not sing. - -“At the corn pile in each garden would be the woman owner and maybe two -or three girls. On our way to some field, if we passed through other -fields with corn piles at which were girls, each young man looked to see -if his sweetheart was there; and if he saw her he would yell, expecting -that she would recognise his voice. - -“Sometimes two societies husked at one corn pile. Any of the societies -might be asked. If the pile was too big for one society, another society -was asked, if the owner could afford the food for the feast. - -“Different societies would be husking in different gardens all at the -same time. - -“Sometimes a group of young men belonging to different societies were -asked to come and husk. This was chiefly at small gardens; the societies -were usually asked to come and husk the big corn piles of the larger -gardens. - -“If a society went early, they got through just after midday. By early I -mean nine o’clock in the morning. - -“When we had finished husking one pile, we went to another. We worked -late, by moonlight, even. - -“Some man of the family and his wife would be out all night and watch -by the corn if they had not gotten all the husked ears borne in to the -village. Also while the pile awaited husking watchers stayed by to -protect against horses.” - -[14] “Corn in old times was gathered in September. A basket was carried -on the back and the corn was tossed into it over the shoulder, or the -basket was set on the ground and filled. This work was done by the women. -The corn having been plucked, the owner of the field notified people what -food she wanted to serve—meat or boiled corn-and-beans—and young men came -to husk the corn. A pile might be three or four feet high and twenty feet -long. The men huskers sat on one side of the pile and the women on the -other. The big ears were strung in braids. A braid was long enough to -reach from the thigh around under the foot and up again to the other side -of the thigh. A husker would try the newly made braid with his foot as -he held the ends in his hands. Unless this was done a weak place in the -string might escape notice and the braid break, and all the others would -then laugh. - -“Small ears were tossed into one place. Four or five women would carry -off these ears in baskets; they bore the filled baskets right up the -ladder to the top of the drying stage. The braided strings were often -borne home on the backs of ponies, ten strings on a pony. They were hung -like dead snakes on the railings above the floor of the stage to dry. - -“Boys and young men went to the husking bees because of the fun to be -had; they wanted to see the girls!”—EDWARD GOODBIRD (related in 1909). - -[15] “Sometimes for fun we lads used to take long poles with nooses on -the end and snare off one ear of a braid of corn as it hung drying; for -the braids were soft when fresh. An ear broken off, we would run off and -make a fire and parch the corn. This was when we were little fellows, ten -or eleven years old. The owner would run after us, and if he caught one -of us, whipped him. However, this was our custom; and the owner and the -boy’s father both looked upon it as a kind of lark, and not anything very -serious.”—EDWARD GOODBIRD - -[16] In 1910 Buffalobird-woman gave an interesting and detailed account -of the making of a clay pot. A newly made pot, she explained, was rubbed -over with boiled pounded-corn meal; and she added this rather humorous -variation of the recipe above: - -“This mush, or boiled, pounded-corn meal was made thus: - -“A clay pot was three-quarters filled with water and put on the fire to -boil. Meanwhile, twelve double handfuls of corn were pounded in the corn -mortar; usually we pounded three or four double handfuls at a time. This -began after breakfast; it was work and made us women sweat. The corn was -hard, ripe corn, yellow or white. - -“These twelve double handfuls were thrown into the pot of now boiling -water, and boiled for half an hour. As there was no grease in the pot, we -had to stir the contents with a smooth stick to keep from sticking. - -“As the corn boiled a scummy substance would rise to the top. To this -the woman cooking would touch the point of her horn spoon, and carry it -to her tongue and lick it off. When she could taste that it was sticky -enough, she knew that it was time to add beans. It took, as I have said, -about half an hour for the corn to boil to this point. - -“She now added some spring salt. This is alkaline salt which we gathered -about the mouth of springs. It was white. The woman put some of this salt -in a cup and made a strong liquor—in old times instead of a cup she used -a horn spoon. She now added the salt liquor to the mess. It took about -enough of this white salt to make a heaping tablespoonful to one pot of -this corn mess. As the salt liquor was poured into the pot, the woman -held her hand over the mouth of the cup, so that if any pieces of grass -or other refuse were in it, they would be strained out by her fingers. - -“The corn when it is pounded does not pound evenly; and so when it was -put into the pot, the finer part of the meal was cooked first. This rose -to the top, and in old times was skimmed off. The coarser parts of the -meal took longer to cook; but the skimmed-off part, when the other was -done, was poured back into the pot again. - -“When the pounded corn meal had now all cooked and the salt had been -added, the beans were put in—red, spotted, black, or shield-figured, -we did not have white beans in very old times; they were brought in by -white men. The pot was now let boil until the beans were done. Beans were -always added to the pot. - -“A pot of corn meal and beans was [almost] always on the fire in the -lodge. The boys of the lodge liked to come around when the corn was -cooking and dip horn spoons into the thick, rising liquor, and lick it -off as I have described the woman doing as she cooked. - -“It was this sticky, rising liquor taken off the boiling corn to keep and -return to it, that was used to rub over a newly made pot. When this was -done, the pot was ready to boil corn in. - -“After using a pot, it was usually rubbed over with the residue of the -boiled corn meal, or mush, because this made the pot look better and last -longer. - -“The skimmed-off liquor from a pot of boiling corn meal was also fed to -a baby whose mother had died, and whose family could not hire a woman to -nurse it.” - -[17] Measuring from center of corn hill to center of next corn hill.—G. -L. W. - -[18] “I have raised white beans mostly of late years because it is easier -to sell them to white men. This summer, however (1913), I planted several -acres also to other kinds of our Hidatsa beans, red, black, spotted. - -“I find that the black beans have yielded best, next the red, then the -spotted, last of all the white. I have observed before that this is true; -that black beans yield the most.”—WOLF CHIEF - -[19] Slough grass, a species of Spartina. - -[20] Buffalobird-woman here means a three-section stage. A stage of four -sections would be forty feet or more in length.—G. L. W. - -[21] “The first that rakes are mentioned in the stories of my tribe -so far as I know, is in the tale of ‘The Grandson.’ There is a little -lake down near Short River where lived an old magic woman, whom we call -Old-woman-who-never-dies. There is a level piece of ground near by, -about five miles long by one and a half mile wide. This flat land was -the garden of Old-woman-who-never-dies. Her servants were the deer that -thronged the near-by timber. These deer worked her garden for her. All -buck deer have horns; and with their horns the deer raked up the weeds -and refuse of Old-woman-who-never-dies’s garden. - -“Now deer shed their horns. Old-woman-who-never-dies got these shed horns -and bound them on sticks and so we got our first rakes. Her grandson saw -what she did and afterwards taught the people to make rakes also. - -“In later times we learned to make rakes of ash wood instead of horns; -but we still reckon the teeth to mean the tines of a deer’s antler. -Sometimes deer have six, sometimes seven tines on an antler. So we make -our ash rakes, some with six, some with seven teeth. - -“If the Grandson had not seen what his grandmother did, we Hidatsas would -never have known how to make rakes, either of horn or of ash wood.”—WOLF -CHIEF (told in 1910). - -[22] “In my tribe in old times, some men helped their wives in their -gardens. Others did not. Those who did not help their wives talked -against those who did, saying, ‘That man’s wife makes him her servant!’ - -“And the others retorted, ‘Look, that man puts all the hard work on his -wife!’ - -“Men were not alike; some did not like to work in the garden at all, and -cared for nothing but to go around visiting or to be off on a hunt. - -“My father, Small Ankle, liked to garden and often helped his wives. He -told me that that was the best way to do. ‘Whatever you do,’ he said, -‘help your wife in all things!’ He taught me to clean the garden, to help -gather the corn, to hoe, and to rake. - -“My father said that that man lived best and had plenty to eat who helped -his wife. One who did not help his wife was likely to have scanty stores -of food.”—WOLF CHIEF (told in 1910). - - * * * * * - - -STUDIES IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES - -1. HERBERT G. LAMPSON, A Study on the Spread of Tuberculosis in Families. -1913. $0.50. - -2. JULIUS V. HOFMAN, The Importance of Seed Characteristics in the -Natural Reproduction of Coniferous Forests. In press. - - -STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE - -1. ESTHER L. SWENSON, An Inquiry into the Composition and Structure of -_Ludus Coventriae_; HARDIN CRAIG, Note on the Home of _Ludus Coventriae_. -1914. $0.50. - -2. ELMER EDGAR STOLL, _Othello_: An Historical and Comparative Study. -1915. $0.50. - -3. COLBERT SEARLES, _Les Sentiments de l’Académie Française sur le Cid_: -Edition of the Text, with an Introduction. 1916. $1.00. - -4. PAUL EDWARD KRETZMANN, The Liturgical Element in the Earliest Forms of -the Medieval Drama. 1916. $1.00. - -5. ARTHUR JERROLD TIEJE, The Theory of Characterization in Prose Fiction -prior to 1740. 1916. $0.75. - - -CURRENT PROBLEMS - -1. WILLIAM ANDERSON, The Work of Public Service Commissions. 1913. $0.15. - -2. BENJAMIN F. PITTENGER, Rural Teachers’ Training Departments in -Minnesota High Schools. 1914. $0.15. - -3. GERHARD A. GESELL, Minnesota Public Utility Rates. 1914. $0.25. - -4. L. D. H. WELD, Social and Economic Survey of a Community in the Red -River Valley. 1915. $0.25. - -5. GUSTAV P. WARBER, Social and Economic Survey of a Community in -Northeastern Minnesota. 1915. $0.25. - -6. JOSEPH B. PIKE, Bulletin for Teachers of Latin. 1915. $0.25. - -7. AUGUST C. KREY, Bulletin for Teachers of History. 1915. $0.25. - -8. CARL SCHLENKER, Bulletin for Teachers of German. 1916. $0.25. - -9. WILLIAM WATTS FOLWELL, Economic Addresses. In press. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, by -Gilbert Livingstone Wilson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS *** - -***** This file should be named 60313-0.txt or 60313-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/3/1/60313/ - -Produced by MFR, K Nordquist and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/old/60313-0.zip b/old/60313-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3f91dd7..0000000 --- a/old/60313-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h.zip b/old/60313-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9bf7644..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/60313-h.htm b/old/60313-h/60313-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 129abba..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/60313-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8456 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson, Ph.D. - </title> - - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - -<style type="text/css"> - -a { - text-decoration: none; -} - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -h1,h2,h3,h4 { - text-align: center; -} - -h1,h2 { - clear: both; -} - -hr { - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - clear: both; - width: 65%; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; -} - -p { - margin-top: 0.5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; - text-indent: 1em; -} - -table { - margin: 1em auto 1em auto; - max-width: 40em; - border-collapse: collapse; -} - -td { - padding-left: 0.25em; - padding-right: 0.25em; -} - -tr.padded td { - padding-top: 1.5em; -} - -.contents td { - padding-left: 2.25em; - padding-right: 0.25em; - vertical-align: top; - text-indent: -2em; -} - -.contents tr.chapter td { - padding-top: 1em; -} - -.contents .l2 { - padding-left: 3.75em; -} - -.contents .l3 { - padding-left: 5.25em; -} - -.contents .l4 { - padding-left: 6.75em; -} - -.contents .tdpg { - vertical-align: bottom; - text-align: right; -} - -.caption1 { - text-align: center; - font-size: 90%; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.caption2 { - text-align: justify; - font-size: 80%; -} - -.center { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - padding-bottom: 1em; -} - -.figleft { - float: left; - clear: left; - margin-left: 0; - margin-bottom: 1em; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-right: 1em; - padding: 0; - text-align: center; -} - -.figright { - float: right; - clear: right; - margin-left: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-right: 0; - padding: 0; - text-align: center; -} - -.figmulti { - display: inline-block; - vertical-align: bottom; - margin: 0.5em; -} - -.footnotes { - margin-top: 1em; - border: dashed 1px; -} - -.footnote { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - font-size: 0.9em; -} - -.footnote .label { - position: absolute; - right: 84%; - text-align: right; -} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: none; -} - -.gothic { - font-family: 'Old English Text MT', 'Old English', serif; -} - -.larger { - font-size: 150%; -} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; -} - -.poetry-container { - text-align: center; - margin: 1em; -} - -.poetry { - display: inline-block; - text-align: left; -} - -.poetry .verse { - text-indent: -3em; - padding-left: 3em; -} - -.right { - text-align: right; -} - -.smaller { - font-size: 80%; -} - -.smcap { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; -} - -.spacer { - margin-left: 5em; -} - -.titlepage { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 3em; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -@media handheld { - -img { - max-width: 100%; - width: auto; - height: auto; -} - -.poetry { - display: block; - margin-left: 1.5em; -} -} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, by -Gilbert Livingstone Wilson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians - An Indian Interpretation - -Author: Gilbert Livingstone Wilson - -Contributor: Albert Ernest Jenks -Frederick N. Wilson - -Release Date: September 17, 2019 [EBook #60313] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS *** - - - - -Produced by MFR, K Nordquist and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<p class="titlepage larger gothic">The University of Minnesota</p> - -<p class="center smaller">STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES <span class="spacer">NUMBER 9</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage">AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS<br /> -AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION</p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -GILBERT LIVINGSTONE WILSON, Ph.D.</p> - -<div class="figcenter titlepage" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/u-minn.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA" /> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">MINNEAPOLIS<br /> -Bulletin of the University of Minnesota<br /> -November 1917</p> - -<p class="center smaller"><span class="smcap">Price: 75 Cents</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS<br /> -<span class="smaller">OF THE</span><br /> -UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA</h2> - -<p>These publications contain the results of research work from various departments -of the University and are offered for exchange with universities, scientific -societies, and other institutions. Papers will be published as separate monographs -numbered in several series. There is no stated interval of publication. Application -for any of these publications should be made to the University Librarian.</p> - -<h3>STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES</h3> - -<p>1. <span class="smcap">Thompson and Warber</span>, Social and Economic Survey of a Rural Township in -Southern Minnesota. 1913. $0.50.</p> - -<p>2. <span class="smcap">Matthias Nordberg Orfield</span>, Federal Land Grants to the States, with -Special Reference to Minnesota. 1915. $1.00.</p> - -<p>3. <span class="smcap">Edward Van Dyke Robinson</span>, Early Economic Conditions and the Development -of Agriculture in Minnesota. 1915. $1.50.</p> - -<p>4. <span class="smcap">L. D. H. Weld and Others</span>, Studies in the Marketing of Farm Products. -1915. $0.50.</p> - -<p>5. <span class="smcap">Ben Palmer</span>, Swamp Land Drainage, with Special Reference to Minnesota. -1915. $0.50.</p> - -<p>6. <span class="smcap">Albert Ernest Jenks</span>, Indian-White Amalgamation: An Anthropometric -Study. 1916. $0.50.</p> - -<p>7. <span class="smcap">C. D. Allin</span>, A History of the Tariff Relations of the Australian Colonies. -In press.</p> - -<p>8. <span class="smcap">Frances H. Relf</span>, The Petition of Right. In press.</p> - -<p>9. <span class="smcap">Gilbert L. Wilson</span>, Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation. -1917. $0.75.</p> - -<p>10. <span class="smcap">Notestein and Relf</span>, <i>Editors</i>, Commons Debates for 1629. In press.</p> - -<p>11. <span class="smcap">Raymond A. Kent</span>, State Aid to Public Schools. In press.</p> - -<h3>STUDIES IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS</h3> - -<p>1. <span class="smcap">Frankforter and Frary</span>, Equilibria in Systems Containing Alcohols, Salts, -and Water. 1912. $0.50.</p> - -<p>2. <span class="smcap">Frankforter and Kritchevsky</span>, A New Phase of Catalysis. 1914. $0.50.</p> - -<h3>STUDIES IN ENGINEERING</h3> - -<p>1. <span class="smcap">George Alfred Maney</span>, Secondary Stresses and Other Problems in Rigid -Frames: A New Method of Solution. 1915. $0.25.</p> - -<p>2. <span class="smcap">Charles Franklin Shoop</span>, An Investigation of the Concrete Road-Making -Properties of Minnesota Stone and Gravel. 1915. $0.25.</p> - -<p>3. <span class="smcap">Franklin R. McMillan</span>, Shrinkage and Time Effects in Reinforced Concrete. -1915. $0.25.</p> - -<p class="titlepage">(Continued inside back cover)</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="500" height="575" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Maxi´diwiac, or Buffalobird-woman</p> -<p class="caption2 center">Photographed in 1910</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger gothic">The University of Minnesota</p> - -<p class="center smaller">STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES <span class="spacer">NUMBER 9</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage">AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS<br /> -AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION</p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -GILBERT LIVINGSTONE WILSON, Ph.D.</p> - -<div class="figcenter titlepage" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/u-minn.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA" /> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">MINNEAPOLIS<br /> -Bulletin of the University of Minnesota<br /> -November 1917</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller"><span class="smcap">Copyright 1917<br /> -by the<br /> -University of Minnesota</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>PREFACE</h2> - -<p>The field of primitive economic activity has been largely left uncultivated -by both economists and anthropologists. The present study by -Mr. Gilbert L. Wilson is an attempt to add to the scanty knowledge -already at hand on the subject of the economic life of the American Indian.</p> - -<p>The work was begun without theory or thesis, but solely with the -object of gathering available data from an old woman expert agriculturist -in one of the oldest agricultural tribes accessible to a student of the -University of Minnesota. That the study has unexpectedly revealed -certain varieties of maize of apparently great value to agriculture in the -semi-arid areas west of Minnesota is a cause of satisfaction to both Mr. -Wilson and myself. This fact again emphasizes the wisdom of research -work in our universities. When, now and then, such practical dollar-and-cent -results follow such purely scientific researches, the wonder is -that university research work is not generously endowed by businesses -which largely profit by these researches.</p> - -<p>It is the intention of those interested in the anthropological work of -the University of Minnesota that occasional publications will be issued -by the University on anthropological subjects, although at present there -is no justification for issuing a consecutive series. The present study is -the second one in the anthropological field published by the University. -The earlier one is number 6 in the <cite>Studies in the Social Sciences</cite>, issued -March, 1916.</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Albert Ernest Jenks</span><br /> -<i>Professor of Anthropology</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table class="contents" summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdpg smaller">PAGES</td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Foreword</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#FOREWORD">1-5</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter I—Tradition</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">6-8</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter II—Beginning a garden</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">9-15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Turtle</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Clearing fields</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Dispute and its settlement</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Turtle breaking soil</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Turtle’s primitive tools</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Beginning a field in later times</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Trees in the garden</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Our west field</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Burning over the field</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter III—Sunflowers</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">16-21</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Remark by Maxi´diwiac</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Planting sunflowers</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Varieties</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Harvesting the seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Threshing</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Harvesting the mapi´-na´ka</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Effect of frost</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Parching the seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Four-vegetables-mixed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Sunflower-seed balls</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter IV—Corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">22-67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Planting</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">A morning’s planting</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Soaking the seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Planting for a sick woman</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Size of our biggest field</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Na´xu and nu´cami</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Hoeing</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The watchers’ stage</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Explanation of sketch of watchers’ stage</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Sweet Grass’s sun shade</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The watchers</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Booths</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Eating customs</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Youths’ and maidens’ customs</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Watchers’ songs</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Clan cousins’ custom</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Story of Snake-head-ornament</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Green corn and its uses</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_36">36-41</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The ripening ears</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Second planting for green corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span>Cooking fresh green corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Roasting ears</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Mätu´a-la´kapa</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Corn bread</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Drying green corn for winter</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Mapë´di (corn smut)</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Mapë´di</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Harvest and uses</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">The ripe corn harvest</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_42">42-47</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Husking</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Rejecting green ears</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Braiding corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The smaller ears</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Drying the braided ears</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Seed corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_47">47-49</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Selecting the seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Keeping two years’ seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Threshing corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_49">49-58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The booth</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Order of the day’s work</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The cobs</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Winnowing</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Removing the booth</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Threshing braided corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Amount of harvest</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Sioux purchasing corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Varieties of corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_58">58-60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Description of varieties</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">How corn travels</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Uses of the varieties</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_60">60-67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Atạ´ki tso´ki</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Mäpi´ nakapa´</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Mä´nakapa</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Atạ´ki</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Boiled corn ball</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Tsï´di tso´ki and tsï´di tapa´</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Other soft varieties</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Ma´ikadicakĕ</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Mä´pĭ mĕĕ´pĭi’´kiuta, or corn balls</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Parched soft corn</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Parching whole ripe ears</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Parching hard yellow corn with sand</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Mạdạpo´zi pạ´kici, or lye-made hominy</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">General characteristics of the varieties</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Fodder yield</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Developing new varieties</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Sport ears</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Names and description</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>Na’´ta-tawo´xi</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Wi´da-aka´ta</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">I´ta-ca´ca</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Okĕi´jpita</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">I´tica´kupadi</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter V—Squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">68-81</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Planting squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Sprouting the seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Planting the sprouted seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Harvesting the squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Slicing the squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Squash spits</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Spitting the slices</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">In case of rain</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Drying and storing</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Squash blossoms</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Cooking and uses of squash</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The first squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Boiling fresh squash in a pot</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Squashes boiled with blossoms</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Other blossom messes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Boiled blossoms</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Blossoms boiled with mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Blossoms boiled with mäpi´ nakapa´</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Seed squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_78">78-81</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Selecting for seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Gathering the seed squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Cooking the ripe squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Saving the seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Eating the seeds</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Roasting ripe squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Storing the unused seed squashes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Squashes, present seed</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Squash dolls</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter VI—Beans</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">82-86</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Planting beans</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Putting in the seeds</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Hoeing and cultivating</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Threshing</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Varieties</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Selecting seed beans</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Cooking and uses</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Ama´ca di´hĕ, or beans-boiled</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Green beans boiled in the pod</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l4">Green corn and beans</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter VII—Storing for winter</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">87-97</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The cache pit</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Grass for lining</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Grass bundles</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The grass binding rope</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>Drying the grass bundles</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The willow floor</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The grass lining</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Skin bottom covering</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Storing the cache pit</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The puncheon cover</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Cache pits in Small Ankle’s lodge</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">First account</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">A second account on another day</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Diagram of Small Ankle’s lodge</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter VIII—The making of a drying stage</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">98-104</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Stages in Like-a-fishhook village</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Cutting the timbers</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Digging the post holes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Raising the frame</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The floor</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Staying thongs</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Ladder</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Enlarging the stage</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Present stages</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Building, women’s work</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Measurements of stage</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Drying rods</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Other uses of the drying stage</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter IX—Tools</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">105-106</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Hoe</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Rakes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Squash knives</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter X—Fields at Like-a-fishhook village</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">108-112</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">East-side fields</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">East-side fences</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Idikita´c’s garden</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Fields west of the village</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">West-side fence</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Crops, our first wagon</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter XI—Miscellanea</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">113-118</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Divisions between gardens</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Fallowing, ownership of gardens</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Frost in the gardens</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Maxi´diwiac’s philosophy of frost</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Men helping in the field</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Sucking the sweet juice</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Corn as fodder for horses</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Disposition of weeds</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The spring clean-up</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Manure</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Worms</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Wild animals</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>About old tent covers</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter XII—Since white men came</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">119-120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">How we got potatoes and other vegetables</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The new cultivation</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Iron kettles</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Chapter XIII—Tobacco</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">121-127</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Observations by Maxi´diwiac</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The tobacco garden</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Planting</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Arrow-head-earring’s tobacco garden</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Small Ankle’s cultivation</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Harvesting the blossoms</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Harvesting the plants</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Selling to the Sioux</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Size of tobacco garden</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Customs</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l2">Accessories to the tobacco garden</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_126">126-127</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">Fence</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="l3">The scrotum basket</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td> - </tr> - <tr class="chapter"> - <td>Old garden sites near Independence</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> - -<h2>HIDATSA ALPHABET</h2> - -<table summary="The Hidatsa alphabet and a pronunciation guide"> - <tr class="padded"> - <td>a</td> - <td class="center">as</td> - <td>a</td> - <td class="center">in</td> - <td>what</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>e</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>ai</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>air</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>i</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>i</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>pique</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>o</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>o</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>tone</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>u</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>u</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>rule</td> - </tr> - <tr class="padded"> - <td>ä</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>a </td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>father</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>ë</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>ey</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>they</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>ï</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>i</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>machine</td> - </tr> - <tr class="padded"> - <td>ạ</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>u</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>hut</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>ĕ</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>e</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>met</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>ĭ</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>i</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>tin</td> - </tr> - <tr class="padded"> - <td>c</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>sh</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>shun</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>x</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>ch</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>machen (German)</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>j</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>ch</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>mich (German)</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>z</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>z</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td>azure</td> - </tr> - <tr class="padded"> - <td colspan="5">b, d, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, as in English</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="5">b, w, interchangeable with m</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="5">n, l, r, interchangeable with d</td> - </tr> - <tr class="padded"> - <td colspan="5">An apostrophe (’) marks a short, nearly<br />inaudible breathing.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>Native Hidatsa words in this thesis are written in the foregoing alphabet. -This does not apply to the tribal names Hidatsa, Mandan, Dakota, Arikara, -Minitari.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> - -<h1>AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS<br /> -AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION</h1> - -<hr /> - -<h2 id="FOREWORD">FOREWORD</h2> - -<p>The Hidatsas, called Minitaris by the Mandans, are a Siouan linguistic -tribe. Their language is closely akin to that of the Crows with whom they -claim to have once formed a single tribe; a separation, it is said, followed a -quarrel over a slain buffalo.</p> - -<p>The name Hidatsa was formerly borne by one of the tribal villages. -The other villages consolidated with it, and the name was adopted as that -of the tribe. The name is said to mean “willows,” and it was given the -village because the god Itsikama´hidic promised that the villagers should -become as numerous as the willows of the Missouri river.</p> - -<p>Tradition says that the tribe came from Miniwakan, or Devils Lake, -in what is now North Dakota; and that migrating west, they met the Mandans -at the mouth of the Heart River. The two tribes formed an alliance -and attempted to live together as one people. Quarrels between their young -men caused the tribes to separate, but the Mandans loyally aided their -friends to build new villages a few miles from their own. How long the -two tribes dwelt at the mouth of the Heart is not known. They were -found there with the Arikaras about 1765. In 1804 Lewis and Clark found -the Hidatsas in three villages at the mouth of the Knife River, and the Mandans -in two villages a few miles lower down on the Missouri.</p> - -<p>In 1832 the artist Catlin visited the two tribes, remaining with them -several months. A year later Maximilian of Wied visited them with the -artist Bodmer. Copies of Bodmer’s sketches, in beautiful lithograph, are -found in the library of the Minnesota Historical Society. Catlin’s sketches, -also in lithograph, are in the Minneapolis Public Library.</p> - -<p>Smallpox nearly exterminated the Mandans in 1837-8, not more than -150 persons surviving. The same epidemic reduced the Hidatsas to about -500 persons. The remnants of the two tribes united and in 1845 removed -up the Missouri and built a village at Like-a-fishhook bend close to the -trading post of Fort Berthold. They were joined by the Arikaras in 1862. -Neighboring lands were set apart as a reservation for them; and there the -three tribes, now settled on allotments, still dwell.</p> - -<p>The Mandans and Hidatsas have much intermarried. By custom -children speak usually the language of their mother, but understand perfectly -the dialect of either tribe.</p> - -<p>In 1877 Washington Matthews, for several years government physician -to the Fort Berthold Reservation Indians, published a short description of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> -Hidatsa-Mandan culture and a grammar and vocabulary of the Hidatsa -language.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> More extensive notes intended by him for publication were -destroyed by fire.</p> - -<p>In 1902 the writer was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church -of Mandan, North Dakota. In ill health, he was advised by his physician -to purchase pony and gun and seek the open; but spade and pick plied -among the old Indian sites in the vicinity proved more interesting. A considerable -collection of archaeological objects was accumulated, a part of -which now rests in the shelves of the Minnesota Historical Society; the -rest will shortly be placed in the collections of the American Museum of -Natural History.</p> - -<p>In 1906 the writer and his brother, Frederick N. Wilson, an artist, and -E. R. Steinbrueck drove by wagon from Mandan to Independence, Fort -Berthold reservation. The trip was made to obtain sketches for illustrating -a volume of stories, since published.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> At Independence the party made -the acquaintance of Edward Goodbird, his mother Maxi´diwiac, and the -latter’s brother Wolf Chief. A friendship was thus begun which has been -of the greatest value to the writer of this paper.</p> - -<p>A year later Mr. George G. Heye sent the writer to Fort Berthold -reservation to collect objects of Mandan-Hidatsa culture. Among those -that were obtained was a rare old medicine shrine. Description of this -shrine and Wolf Chief’s story of its origin have been published.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> - -<p>In 1908 the writer and his brother, both now resident in Minneapolis, -were sent by Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of anthropology, American Museum -of Natural History, to begin cultural studies among the Hidatsas. -This work, generously supported by the Museum, has been continued by the -writer each succeeding summer. His reports, preparations to edit which -are now being made, will appear in the Museum’s publications.</p> - -<p>In February, 1910, the writer was admitted as a student in the Graduate -School, University of Minnesota, majoring in Anthropology. At suggestion -of his adviser, Dr. Albert E. Jenks, and with permission of Dr. Wissler, -he chose for his thesis subject, <cite>Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian -Interpretation</cite>. It was the adviser’s opinion that such a study held -promise of more than usual interest. Most of the tribes in the eastern -area of what is now the United States practiced agriculture. It is well -known that maize, potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, beans, sweet potatoes, -cotton, tobacco, and other familiar plants were cultivated by Indians centuries -before Columbus. Early white settlers learned the value of the new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> -food plants, but have left us meager accounts of the native methods of tillage; -and the Indians, driven from the fields of their fathers, became roving -hunters; or adopting iron tools, forgot their primitive implements and -methods. The Hidatsas and Mandans, shut in their stockaded villages -on the Missouri by the hostile Sioux, were not able to abandon their fields -if they would. Living quite out of the main lines of railroad traffic, they -remained isolated and with culture almost unchanged until about 1885, -when their village at Fort Berthold was broken up. It seemed probable -that a carefully prepared account of Hidatsa agriculture might very nearly -describe the agriculture practiced by our northern tribes in pre-Columbian -days. It was hoped that this thesis might be such an account.</p> - -<p>But the writer is a student of anthropology; and his interest in the preparation -of his thesis could not be that of an agriculturist. The question -arose at the beginning of his labors, Shall the materials of this thesis be -presented as a study merely in primitive agriculture, or as a phase of material -culture interpreting something of the inner life, of the soul, of an -Indian? It is the latter aim that the writer endeavors to accomplish.</p> - -<p>But again came up a question, By what plan may this best be done? -The more usual way would be to collect exhaustively facts from available -informants; sift from them those facts that are typical and representative; -and present these, properly grouped, with the collector’s interpretation -of them. But for his purpose and aim, it has seemed to the writer that the -type choice should be human; that is, instead of seeking typical facts from -multiple sources, he should rather seek a typical informant, a representative -agriculturist—presumably a woman—of the Indian group to be studied, -and let the informant interpret her agricultural experiences in her own way. -We might thus expect to learn how much one Indian woman knew of -agriculture; what she did as an agriculturist and what were her motives -for doing; and what proportion of her thought and labor were given to her -fields.</p> - -<p>After consulting both Indians and whites resident on the reservation, -the writer chose for typical or representative informant, his interpreter’s -mother, Maxi´diwiac.</p> - -<p>The writer’s summer visit of 1912 to Fort Berthold Reservation was -planned to obtain material for his thesis. His brother again accompanied -him, and for the expenses of the trip a grant of $500 was made by Curator -Wissler. This trip the writer will remember as one of the pleasantest experiences -of his life. The generous interest of Dr. Jenks and Dr. Wissler -in his plans was equaled by the faithful coöperation of interpreter and informant. -The writer and his brother arrived at the reservation in the beginning -of corn harvest. As already stated, Maxi´diwiac was the principal -informant, and her account was taken down almost literally as translated -by Goodbird. Models of tools, drying stage, and other objects pertaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> -to agriculture were made and photographed, and sketched. Before -the harvest closed notes were obtained which furnished the material for -the greater part of this thesis.</p> - -<p>In the summers of 1913, 1914, and 1915, additional matter was recovered. -Previously written notes were read to Maxi´diwiac and corrections -made.</p> - -<p>In addition to the museum’s annual grant of $250, Dean A. F. Woods, -Department of Agriculture, University of Minnesota, in 1914 contributed -$60 for photographing, and collecting specimens of Hidatsa corn; and Mr. -M. L. Wilson of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Bozeman, Montana, -obtained for the writer a grant of $50 for like purposes.</p> - -<p>A few words should now be said of informant and interpreter. Maxi´diwiac, -or Buffalobird-woman, is a daughter of Small Ankle, a leader of -the Hidatsas in the trying time of the tribe’s removal to what is now Fort -Berthold reservation. She was born on one of the villages at Knife River -two years after the “smallpox year,” or about 1839. She is a conservative -and sighs for the good old times, yet is aware that the younger generation -of Indians must adopt civilized ways. Ignorant of English, she has a -quick intelligence and a memory that is marvelous. To her patience and -loyal interest is chiefly due whatever of value is in this thesis. In the sweltering -heat of an August day she has continued dictation for nine hours, -lying down but never flagging in her account, when too weary to sit longer -in a chair. Goodbird’s testimony that his mother “knows more about -old ways of raising corn and squashes than any one else on this reservation,” -is not without probability. Until recently, a small part of Goodbird’s -plowed field was each year reserved for her, that she might plant -corn and beans and squashes, cultivating them in old fashioned way, by -hoe. Such corn, of her own planting and selection, has taken first prize -at an agricultural fair, held recently by the reservation authorities.</p> - -<p>Edward Goodbird, or Tsaka´kasạkic, the writer’s interpreter, is a son -of Maxi´diwiac, born about November, 1869. Goodbird was one of the -first of the reservation children to be sent to the mission school; and he is -now native pastor of the Congregational chapel at Independence. He -speaks the Hidatsa, Mandan, Dakota, and English languages. Goodbird -is a natural student; and he has the rarer gift of being an artist. His -sketches—and they are many—are crude; but they are drawn in true perspective -and do not lack spirit. Goodbird’s life, dictated by himself, has -been recently published.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> - -<p>Indians have the gentle custom of adopting very dear friends by relationship -terms. By such adoption Goodbird is the writer’s brother; -Maxi´diwiac is his mother.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> - -<p>For his part in the account of the <cite>Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians</cite>, -the writer claims no credit beyond arranging the material and putting the -interpreter’s Indian-English translations into proper idiom. Bits of -Indian philosophy and shrewd or humorous observations found in the -narrative are not the writer’s, but the informant’s, and are as they fell -from her lips. The writer has sincerely endeavored to add to the narrative -essentially nothing of his own.</p> - -<p><cite>Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians</cite> is not, then, an account merely of -Indian agriculture. It is an Indian woman’s interpretation of economics; -the thoughts she gave to her fields; the philosophy of her labors. May the -Indian woman’s story of her toil be a plea for our better appreciation of -her race.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br /> -<span class="smaller">TRADITION</span></h2> - -<p>We Hidatsas believe that our tribe once lived under the waters of Devils -Lake. Some hunters discovered the root of a vine growing downward; -and climbing it, they found themselves on the surface of the earth. Others -followed them, until half the tribe had escaped; but the vine broke under -the weight of a pregnant woman, leaving the rest prisoners. A part of -our tribe are therefore still beneath the lake.</p> - -<p>My father, Small Ankle, going, when a young man, on a war party, -visited Devils Lake. “Beneath the waves,” he said, “I heard a faint -drumming, as of drums in a big dance.” This story is true; for Sioux, who -now live at Devils Lake, have also heard this drumming.</p> - -<p>Those of my people who escaped from the lake built villages near by. -These were of earth lodges, such as my tribe built until very recent years; -two such earth lodges are still standing on this reservation.</p> - -<p>The site where an earth lodge has stood is marked by an earthen ring, -rising about what was once the hard trampled floor. There are many such -earthen rings on the shores of Devils Lake, showing that, as tradition says, -our villages stood there. There were three of these villages, my father -said, who several times visited the sites.</p> - -<p>Near their villages, the people made gardens; and in these they planted -ground beans and wild potatoes, from seed brought with them from their -home under the water. These vegetables we do not cultivate now; but -we do gather them in the fall, in the woods along the Missouri where they -grow wild. They are good eating.</p> - -<p>These gardens by Devils Lake I think must have been rather small. I -know that in later times, whenever my tribe removed up the Missouri to -build a new village, our fields, the first year, were quite small; for clearing -the wooded bottom land was hard work. A family usually added to their -clearing each year, until their garden was as large as they cared to cultivate.</p> - -<p>As yet, my people knew nothing of corn or squashes. One day a war -party, I think of ten men, wandered west to the Missouri River. They -saw on the other side a village of earth lodges like their own. It was a -village of the Mandans. The villagers saw the Hidatsas, but like them, -feared to cross over, lest the strangers prove to be enemies.</p> - -<p>It was autumn, and the Missouri River was running low so that an -arrow could be shot from shore to shore. The Mandans parched some ears -of ripe corn with the grain on the cob; they broke the ears in pieces, thrust -the pieces on the points of arrows, and shot them across the river. “Eat!” -they said, whether by voice or signs, I do not know. The word for “eat” -is the same in the Hidatsa and Mandan languages.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> - -<p>The warriors ate of the parched corn, and liked it. They returned to -their village and said, “We have found a people living by the Missouri -River who have a strange kind of grain, which we ate and found good!” -The tribe was not much interested and made no effort to seek the Mandans, -fearing, besides, that they might not be friendly.</p> - -<p>However, a few years after, a war party of the Hidatsas crossed the -Missouri and visited the Mandans at their village near Bird Beak Hill. -The Mandan chief took an ear of yellow corn, broke it in two, and gave -half to the Hidatsas. This half-ear the Hidatsas took home, for seed; and -soon every family was planting yellow corn.</p> - -<p>I think that seed of other varieties of corn, and of beans, squashes, and -sunflowers, were gotten of the Mandans<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> afterwards; but there is no story -telling of this, that I know.</p> - -<p>I do not know when my people stopped planting ground beans and wild -potatoes; but ground beans are hard to dig, and the people, anyway, liked -the new kind of beans better.</p> - -<p>Whether the ground beans and wild potatoes of the Missouri bottoms -are descended from the seed planted by the villagers at Devils Lake, I -do not know.</p> - -<p>My tribe, as our old men tell us, after they got corn, abandoned their -villages at Devils Lake, and joined the Mandans near the mouth of the -Heart River. The Mandans helped them build new villages here, near -their own. I think this was hundreds of years ago.</p> - -<p>Firewood growing scarce, the two tribes removed up the Missouri to -the mouth of the Knife River, where they built the Five Villages, as they -called them. Smallpox was brought to my people here, by traders. In a -single year, more than half my tribe died, and of the Mandans, even more.</p> - -<p>Those who survived removed up the Missouri and built a village at -Like-a-fishhook bend, where they lived together, Hidatsas and Mandans, -as one tribe. This village we Hidatsas called Mu´a-idu´skupe-hi´cec, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> -Like-a-fishhook village, after the bend on which it stood; but white men -called it Fort Berthold, from a trading post that was there.</p> - -<p>We lived in Like-a-fishhook village about forty years, or until 1885, when -the government began to place families on allotments.</p> - -<p>The agriculture of the Hidatsas, as I now describe it, I saw practiced -in the gardens of Like-a-fishhook village, in my girlhood, before my -tribe owned plows.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">An earth lodge</p> -<p class="caption2">Note ladder at right of lodge entrance. Drying stage -before entrance lacks the usual railings. (Photograph by courtesy of -Rev. George Curtis.)</p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Like-a-fishhook village in process of being dismantled (about 1885)</p> -<p class="caption2">Drying stage in foreground is floored Arikara fashion -with a mat of willows. The Arikaras at this time had joined the Hidatsa-Mandans. -(Photograph by courtesy of Rev. George Curtis.)</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br /> -<span class="smaller">BEGINNING A GARDEN</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Turtle</i></h3> - -<p>My great-grandmother, as white men count their kin, was named -Atạ´kic, or Soft-white Corn. She adopted a daughter, Mata´tic, or Turtle. -Some years after, a daughter was born to Atạ´kic, whom she named Otter.</p> - -<p>Turtle and Otter both married. Turtle had a daughter named Ica´wikec, -or Corn Sucker;<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> and Otter had three daughters, Want-to-be-a-woman, Red -Blossom, and Strikes-many-women, all younger than Corn Sucker.</p> - -<p>The smallpox year at Five Villages left Otter’s family with no male -members to support them. Turtle and her daughter were then living in -Otter’s lodge; and Otter’s daughters, as Indian custom bade, called Corn -Sucker their elder sister.</p> - -<p>It was a custom of the Hidatsas, that if the eldest sister of a household -married, her younger sisters were also given to her husband, as they came -of marriageable age. Left without male kin by the smallpox, my grandmother’s -family was hard put to it to get meat; and Turtle gladly gave her -daughter to my father, Small Ankle, whom she knew to be a good hunter. -Otter’s daughters, reckoned as Corn Sucker’s sisters, were given to Small -Ankle as they grew up; the eldest, Want-to-be-a-woman, was my mother.</p> - -<p>When I was four years old, my tribe and the Mandans came to Like-a-fishhook -bend. They came in the spring and camped in tepees, or skin -tents. By Butterfly’s winter count, I know they began building earth -lodges the next winter. I was too young to remember much of this.</p> - -<p>Two years after we came to Like-a-fishhook bend, smallpox again visited -my tribe; and my mother, Want-to-be-a-woman, and Corn Sucker, died -of it. Red Blossom and Strikes-many-women survived, whom I now -called my mothers. Otter and old Turtle lived with us; I was taught to -call them my grandmothers.</p> - -<h3><i>Clearing Fields</i></h3> - -<p>Soon after they came to Like-a-fishhook bend, the families of my tribe -began to clear fields, for gardens, like those they had at Five Villages. -Rich black soil was to be found in the timbered bottom lands of the Missouri. -Most of the work of clearing was done by the women.</p> - -<p>In old times we Hidatsas never made our gardens on the untimbered, -prairie land, because the soil there is too hard and dry. In the bottom -lands by the Missouri, the soil is soft and easy to work.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;" id="fig1"> -<img src="images/figure1.jpg" width="300" height="225" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 1</p> -<p class="caption2">Map of newly broken field drawn under Buffalobird-woman’s -direction. The heavy dots represent corn hills; the -dashes, the clearing and breaking of ground between, done after -hills were planted.</p> -<p class="caption2">In the lower left hand corner is the ground that was in -dispute.</p> -</div> - -<p>My mothers and my two -grandmothers worked at -clearing our family’s garden. -It lay east of the -village at a place where -many other families were -clearing fields.</p> - -<p>I was too small to note -very much at first. But I -remember that my father -set boundary marks—whether -wooden stakes or -little mounds of earth or -stones, I do not now remember—at -the corners of -the field we claimed. My -mothers and my two grandmothers -began at one end -of this field and worked forward. All had heavy iron hoes, except Turtle, -who used an old fashioned wooden digging stick.</p> - -<p>With their hoes, my mothers cut the long grass that covered much of -the field, and bore it off the line, to be burned. With the same implements, -they next dug and softened the soil in places for the corn hills, which -were laid off in rows. These hills they planted. Then all summer they -worked with their hoes, clearing and breaking the ground between the hills.</p> - -<p>Trees and bushes I know must have been cut off with iron axes; but I -remember little of this, because I was only four years old when the clearing -was begun.</p> - -<p>I have heard that in very old times, when clearing a new field, my people -first dug the corn hills with digging sticks; and afterwards, like my mothers, -worked between the hills, with bone hoes. My father told me this.</p> - -<p>Whether stone axes were used in old times to cut the trees and undergrowths, -I do not know. I think fields were never then laid out on ground -that had large trees on it.</p> - -<h3><i>Dispute and Its Settlement</i></h3> - -<p>About two years after the first ground was broken in our field, a dispute -I remember, arose between my mothers and two of their neighbors, Lone -Woman and Goes-to-next-timber.</p> - -<p>These two women were clearing fields adjoining that of my mothers; -as will be seen by the accompanying map (<a href="#fig1">figure 1</a>), the three fields met -at a corner. I have said that my father, to set up claim to his field, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> -placed marks, one of them in the corner at which met the fields of Lone -Woman and Goes-to-next-timber; but while my mothers were busy clearing -and digging up the other end of their field, their two neighbors invaded -this marked-off corner; Lone Woman had even dug up a small part before -she was discovered.</p> - -<p>However, when they were shown the mark my father had placed, the -two women yielded and accepted payment for any rights they might have.</p> - -<p>It was our Indian rule to keep our fields very sacred. We did not like -to quarrel about our garden lands. One’s title to a field once set up, no -one ever thought of disputing it; for if one were selfish and quarrelsome, and -tried to seize land belonging to another, we thought some evil would come -upon him, as that some one of his family would die. There is a story of a -black bear who got into a pit that was not his own, and had his mind taken -away from him for doing so!</p> - -<h3><i>Turtle Breaking Soil</i></h3> - -<p>Lone Woman and Goes-to-next-timber having withdrawn, my grandmother, -Turtle, volunteered to break the soil of the corner that had been in -dispute. She was an industrious woman. Often, when my mothers were -busy in the earth lodge, she would go out to work in the garden, taking me -with her for company. I was six years old then, I think, quite too little -to help her any, but I liked to watch my grandmother work.</p> - -<p>With her digging stick, she dug up a little round place in the center of -the corner (<a href="#fig1">figure 1</a>); and circling around this from day to day, she gradually -enlarged the dug-up space. The point of her digging stick she forced into -the soft earth to a depth equal to the length of my hand, and pried up the -soil. The clods she struck smartly with her digging stick, sometimes with -one end, sometimes with the other. Roots of coarse grass, weeds, small -brush and the like, she took in her hand and shook, or struck them against -the ground, to knock off the loose earth clinging to them; she then cast them -into a little pile to dry.</p> - -<p>In this way she accumulated little piles, scattered rather irregularly over -the dug-up ground, averaging, perhaps, four feet, one from the other. In -a few days these little piles had dried; and Turtle gathered them up into -a heap, about four feet high, and burned them, sometimes within the cleared -ground, sometimes a little way outside.</p> - -<p>In the corner that had been in dispute, and in other parts of the field, -my grandmother worked all summer. I do not remember how big our -garden was at the end of her summer’s work, nor how many piles of roots -she burned; but I remember distinctly how she put the roots of weeds and -grass and brush into little piles to dry, which she then gathered into heaps and -burned. She did not attempt to burn over the whole ground, only the heaps.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> - -<p>Afterwards, we increased our garden from year to year until it was as -large as we needed. I remember seeing my grandmother digging along the -edges of the garden with her digging stick, to enlarge the field and make the -edges even and straight.</p> - -<p>I remember also, that as Turtle dug up a little space, she would wait -until the next season to plant it. Thus, additional ground dug up in the -summer or fall would be planted by her the next spring.</p> - -<p>There were two or three elm trees in the garden; these my grandmother -left standing.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<div class="figmulti" style="width: 200px;" id="fig2"> -<img src="images/figure2.jpg" width="75" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Fig. 2</p> -<p class="caption2">Figure 2. Drawn from specimen in author’s collection. Length of specimen, 37½ -inches.</p> -</div> - -<div class="figmulti" style="width: 400px;" id="fig3"> -<img src="images/figure3.jpg" width="400" height="150" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 3.</p> -<p class="caption2">Figure 3. Drawn from model made by Buffalobird-woman, duplicating that -used by her grandmother. Specimen is of full size. Length of wooden handle, 35 -inches; length of bone blade, 8½ inches. The blade is made of the shoulder bone of -an ox.</p> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>It must not be supposed that upon Turtle fell all the work of clearing -land to enlarge our garden; but she liked to have me with -her when she worked, and I remember best what I saw her do. -As I was a little girl then, I have forgotten much that she did; -but this that I have told, I remember distinctly.</p> - -<h3><i>Turtle’s Primitive Tools</i></h3> - -<p>In breaking ground for our garden, Turtle always used an ash digging -stick (<a href="#fig2">figure 2</a>); and when hoeing time came, she hoed the corn with a bone -hoe (<a href="#fig3">figure 3</a>). Digging sticks are still used in my tribe for digging wild -turnips; but even in my grandmother’s lifetime, digging sticks and bone -hoes, as garden tools, had all but given place to iron hoes and axes.</p> - -<p>My grandmother was one of the last women of my tribe to cling to these -old fashioned implements. Two other women, I remember, owned bone -hoes when I was a little girl; but Turtle, I think, was the very last one in -the tribe who actually worked in her garden with one.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> - -<p>This hoe my grandmother kept in the lodge, under her bed; and when -any of the children of the household tried to get it out to look at it, she would -cry, “Let that hoe alone; you will break it!”</p> - -<h3><i>Beginning a Field in Later Times</i></h3> - -<p>As I grew up, I learned to work in the garden, as every Hidatsa woman -was expected to learn; but iron axes and hoes, bought of the traders, were -now used by everybody, and the work of clearing and breaking a new field -was less difficult than it had been in our grandfathers’ times. A family had -also greater freedom in choosing where they should have their garden, since -with iron axes they could more easily cut down any small trees and bushes -that might be on the land. However, to avoid having to cut down big trees, -a rather open place was usually chosen.</p> - -<p>A family, then, having chosen a place for a field, cleared off the ground -as much as they could, cutting down small trees and bushes in such way -that the trees fell all in one direction. Some of the timber that was fit -might be taken home for firewood; the rest was let lie to dry until spring, -when it was fired. The object of felling the trees in one direction was to -make them cover the ground as much as possible, since firing them softened -the soil and left it loose and mellow for planting. We sought always to -burn over all the ground, if we could.</p> - -<p>Before firing, the family carefully raked off the dry grass and leaves -from the edge of the field, and cut down any brush wood. This was done -that the fire might not spread to the surrounding timber, nor out on the -prairie. Prairie fires and forest fires are even yet not unknown on our -reservation.</p> - -<p>Planting season having come, the women of the household planted the -field in corn. The hills were in rows, and about four feet or a little less -apart. They were rather irregularly placed the first year. It was easy to -make a hill in the ashes where a brush heap had been fired, or in soil that was -free of roots and stumps; but there were many stumps in the field, left over -from the previous summer’s clearing. If the planter found a stump stood -where a hill should be, she placed the hill on this side the stump or beyond -it, no matter how close this brought the hill to the next in the row. Thus, -the corn hills did not stand at even distances in the row the first year; but -the rows were always kept even and straight.</p> - -<p>While the corn was coming up, the women worked at clearing out the -roots and smaller stumps between the hills; but a stump of any considerable -size was left to rot, especially if it stood midway between two corn -hills, where it did not interfere with their cultivation.</p> - -<p>My mothers and I used to labor in a similar way to enlarge our fields. -With our iron hoes we made hills along the edge of the field and planted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> -corn; then, as we had opportunity, we worked with our hoes between the -corn hills to loosen up the soil.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<div class="figmulti" style="width: 150px;" id="fig4"> -<img src="images/figure4.jpg" width="150" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 4</p> -<p class="caption2">Drawn from specimen -made by Yellow Hair. -Length of specimen, following -curvature of tines, -36½ inches.</p> -</div> - -<div class="figmulti" style="width: 175px;" id="fig5"> -<img src="images/figure5.jpg" width="175" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 5</p> -<p class="caption2">Drawn from specimen made by -Buffalobird-woman. Length of -wooden handle, 42 inches; spread of -tines of antler, 15½ inches.</p> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>Although our tribe now had iron axes and hoes from the traders, they -still used their native made rakes. These were of wood (<a href="#fig4">figure 4</a>), or of -the antler of a black-tailed deer (<a href="#fig5">figure 5</a>). It was with such rakes that -the edges of a newly opened field were cleaned of leaves for the firing of the -brush, in the spring.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="400" height="550" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">In the field with a horn rake</p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus5.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Hoeing squashes with a bone hoe</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Trees in the Garden</i></h3> - -<p>Trees were not left standing in the garden, except perhaps one to shade -the watchers’ stage. If a tree stood in the field, it shaded the corn; and -that on the north side of the tree never grew up strong, and the stalks would -be yellow.</p> - -<p>Cottonwood trees were apt to grow up in the field, unless the young -shoots were plucked up as they appeared.</p> - -<h3><i>Our West Field</i></h3> - -<p>The field which Turtle helped to clear, lay, I have said, east of the village. -I was about nineteen years old, I think, when my mothers determined -to clear ground for a second field, west of the village.</p> - -<p>There were five of us who undertook the work, my father, my two mothers, -Red Blossom and Strikes-many-women, my sister, Cold Medicine, and -myself. We began in the fall, after harvesting the corn from our east -garden, so that we had leisure for the work; we had been too busy to begin -earlier in the season.</p> - -<p>We chose a place down in the bottoms, overgrown with willows; and -with our axes we cut the willows close to the ground, letting them lie as -they fell.</p> - -<p>I do not know how many days we worked; but we stopped when we had -cleared a field of about seventy-five by one hundred yards, perhaps. In -our east, or yellow corn field, we counted nine rows of corn to one na´xu; -and I remember that when we came to plant our new field, it had nine na´xu.</p> - -<h3><i>Burning Over the Field</i></h3> - -<p>The next spring my father, his two wives, my sister and I went out and -burned the felled willows and brush which the spring sun had dried. We -did not burn them every day; only when the weather was fine. We would -go out after breakfast, burn until tired of the work, and come home.</p> - -<p>We sought to burn over the whole field, for we knew that this left a -good, loose soil. We did not pile the willows in heaps, but loosened them -from the ground or scattered them loosely but evenly over the soil. In -some places the ground was quite bare of willows; but we collected dry -grass and weeds and dead willows, and strewed them over these bare places, -so that the fire would run over the whole area of the field.</p> - -<p>It took us about four days to burn over the field.</p> - -<p>It was well known in my tribe that burning over new ground left the -soil soft and easy to work, and for this reason we thought it a wise thing -to do.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br /> -<span class="smaller">SUNFLOWERS</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Remark by Maxi´diwiac</i></h3> - -<p>This that I am going to tell you of the planting and harvesting of our -crops is out of my own experience, seen with my own eyes. In olden times, -I know, my tribe used digging sticks and bone hoes for garden tools; and -I have described how I saw my grandmother use them. There may be -other tools or garden customs once in use in my tribe, and now forgotten; -of them I cannot speak. There were families in Like-a-fishhook village -less industrious than ours, and some families may have tilled their fields -in ways a little different; of them, also, I can not speak. This that I now -tell is as I saw my mothers do, or did myself, when I was young. My -mothers were industrious women, and our family had always good crops; -and I will tell now how the women of my father’s family cared for their -fields, as I saw them, and helped them.</p> - -<h3><i>Planting Sunflowers</i></h3> - -<p>The first seed that we planted in the spring was sunflower seed. Ice -breaks on the Missouri about the first week in April; and we planted sunflower -seed as soon after as the soil could be worked. Our native name for -the lunar month that corresponds most nearly to April, is Mapi´-o´cë-mi´di, -or Sunflower-planting-moon.</p> - -<p>Planting was done by hoe, or the woman scooped up the soil with her -hands. Three seeds were planted in a hill, at the depth of the second joint -of a woman’s finger. The three seeds were planted together, pressed into -the loose soil by a single motion, with thumb and first two fingers. The -hill was heaped up and patted firm with the palm in the same way as we -did for corn.</p> - -<p>Usually we planted sunflowers only around the edges of a field. The -hills were placed eight or nine paces apart; for we never sowed sunflowers -thickly. We thought a field surrounded thus by a sparse-sown row of -sunflowers, had a handsome appearance.</p> - -<p>Sometimes all three seeds sprouted and came up together; sometimes -only two sprouted; sometimes one.</p> - -<h3><i>Varieties</i></h3> - -<p>Of cultivated sunflowers we had several varieties, black, white, red, -striped, named from the color of the seed. The varieties differed only in -color; all had the same taste and smell, and were treated alike in cooking.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> - -<p>White sunflower seed when pounded into meal, turned dark, but I think -this was caused by the parching.</p> - -<p>Each family raised the variety they preferred. The varieties were well -fixed; black seed produced black; white seed, white.</p> - -<h3><i>Harvesting the Seed</i></h3> - -<p>Although our sunflower seed was the first crop to be planted in the -spring, it was the last to be harvested in the fall.</p> - -<p>For harvesting, we reckoned two kinds of flowers, or heads.</p> - -<p>A stalk springing from seed of one of our cultivated varieties had one, -sometimes two, or even three larger heads, heavy and full, bending the top -of the stalk with their weight of seed. Some of these big heads had each a -seed area as much as eleven inches across; and yielded each an even double -handful of seed. We called the seed from these big heads mapi´-i’ti´a from -mapi´, sunflower, or sunflower seed, and i’ti´a, big.</p> - -<p>Besides these larger heads, there were other and smaller heads on the -stalk; and wild sunflowers bearing similar small heads grew in many places -along the Missouri, and were sure to be found springing up in abandoned -gardens. These smaller heads of the cultivated, and the heads of the wild, -plants, were never more than five inches across; and these and their seed -we called mapi´-na´ka, sunflower’s child or baby sunflower.</p> - -<p>Our sunflowers were ready for harvesting when the little petals that -covered the seeds fell off, exposing the ripe seeds beneath. Also, the back -of the head turned yellow; earlier in the season it would be green.</p> - -<p>To harvest the larger heads, I put a basket on my back, and knife in -hand, passed from plant to plant, cutting off each large head, close to the -stem; the severed heads I tossed into my basket. These heads I did not -let dry on the stalk, as birds would devour the seeds.</p> - -<p>My basket filled, I returned to the lodge, climbed the ladder to the -roof, and spread the sunflower heads upon the flat part of the roof around -the smoke hole, to dry. The heads were laid face downward, with the -backs to the sun. When I was a girl, only three or four earth lodges in the -village had peaked roofs; and these lodges were rather small. All the -larger and better lodges, those of what we deemed wealthier families, were -built with the top of the roof flat, like a floor. A flat roof was useful to dry -things on; and when the weather was fair, the men often sat there and -gossiped.</p> - -<p>The sunflower heads were dried face downward, that the sun falling on -the back of the head might dry and shrink the fiber, thus loosening the seeds. -The heads were laid flat on the bare roof, without skins or other protection -beneath. If a storm threatened, the unthreshed heads were gathered up -and borne into the lodge; but they were left on the roof overnight, if the -weather was fair.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> - -<p>When the heads had dried about four days, the seeds were threshed -out; and I would fetch in from the garden another supply of heads to dry -and thresh.</p> - -<h3><i>Threshing</i></h3> - -<p>To thresh the heads, a skin was spread and the heads laid on it face -downward, and beaten with a stick. Threshing might be on the ground, -or on the flat roof, as might be convenient.</p> - -<p>An average threshing filled a good sized basket, with enough seed left -over to make a small package.</p> - -<h3><i>Harvesting the Mapi´-na´ka</i></h3> - -<p>The smaller heads of the cultivated plants were sometimes gathered, -dried, and threshed, as were the larger heads; but if the season was getting -late and frost had fallen, and the seeds were getting loose in their pods, I -more often threshed these smaller heads and those of the wild plants directly -from the stalk.</p> - -<p>For this I bore a carrying basket, swinging it around over my breast -instead of my back; and going about the garden or into the places where -the wild plants grew, I held the basket under these smaller, or baby sunflower -heads, and beating them smartly with a stick, threshed the seeds into -the basket. It took me about half a day to thresh a basket half full. The -seeds I took home to dry, before sacking them.</p> - -<p>The seeds from the baby sunflowers of both wild and cultivated plants -were sacked together. The seeds of the large heads were sacked separately; -and in the spring, when we came to plant, our seed was always taken from -the sack containing the harvest of the larger heads.</p> - -<p>In my father’s family, we usually stored away two, sometimes three -sacks of dried sunflower seed for winter use. Sacks were made of skins, -perhaps fourteen inches high and eight inches in diameter, on an average.</p> - -<p>Sunflower harvest came after we had threshed our corn; and corn -threshing was in the first part of October.</p> - -<h3><i>Effect of Frost</i></h3> - -<p>Because they were gathered later, the seeds of baby sunflowers were -looked upon as a kind of second crop; and as I have said, they were kept -apart from the earlier harvest, because seed for planting was selected from -the larger and earlier gathered heads. Gathered thus late, this second -crop was nearly always touched by the frost, even before the seeds were -threshed from the stalks.</p> - -<p>This frosting of the seeds had an effect upon them that we rather -esteemed. We made a kind of oily meal from sunflower seed, by pounding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> -them in a corn mortar; but meal made from seed that had been frosted, -seemed more oily than that from seed gathered before frost fell. The -freezing of the seeds seemed to bring the oil out of the crushed kernels.</p> - -<p>This was well known to us. The large heads, left on the roof over night, -were sometimes caught by the frost; and meal made from their seed was -more oily than that from unfrosted seed. Sometimes we took the threshed -seed out of doors and let it get frosted, so as to bring out this oiliness. -Frosting the seeds did not kill them.</p> - -<p>The oiliness brought out by the frosting was more apparent in the seeds -of baby sunflowers than in seeds of the larger heads. Seeds of the latter -seemed never to have as much oil in them as seeds of the baby sunflowers.</p> - -<h3><i>Parching the Seed</i></h3> - -<p>To make sunflower meal the seeds were first roasted, or parched. This -was done in a clay pot, for iron pots were scarce in my tribe when I was young. -The clay pot in use in my father’s family was about a foot high and eight -or nine inches in diameter, as you see from measurements I make with my -hands.</p> - -<p>This pot I set on the lodge fire, working it down into the coals with a -rocking motion, and raked coals around it; the mouth I tipped slightly -toward me. I threw into the pot two or three double-handfuls of the seeds -and as they parched, I stirred them with a little stick, to keep them from -burning. Now and then I took out a seed and bit it; if the kernel was soft -and gummy, I knew the parching was not done; but when it bit dry and -crisp, I knew the seeds were cooked and I dipped them out with a horn -spoon into a wooden bowl.</p> - -<p>Again I threw into the pot two or three double-handfuls of seed to parch; -and so, until I had enough.</p> - -<p>As the pot grew quite hot I was careful not to touch it with my hands. -The parching done, I lifted the pot out, first throwing over it a piece of old -tent cover to protect my two hands.</p> - -<p>Parching the seeds caused them to crack open somewhat.</p> - -<p>The parched seeds were pounded in the corn mortar to make meal. -Pounding sunflower seeds took longer, and was harder work, than pounding -corn.</p> - -<h3><i>Four-vegetables-mixed</i></h3> - -<p>Sunflower meal was used in making a dish that we called do´patsa-makihi´kĕ, -or four-vegetables-mixed; from do´patsa, four things; and -makihi´kĕ, mixed or put together. Four-vegetables-mixed we thought our -very best dish.</p> - -<p>To make this dish, enough for a family of five, I did as follows:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> - -<p>I put a clay pot with water on the fire.</p> - -<p>Into the pot I threw one double-handful of beans. This was a fixed -quantity; I put in just one double-handful whether the family to be served -was large or small; for a larger quantity of beans in this dish was apt to -make gas on one’s stomach.</p> - -<p>When we dried squash in the fall we strung the slices upon strings of -twisted grass, each seven Indian fathoms long; an Indian fathom is the -distance between a woman’s two hands outstretched on either side. From -one of these seven-fathom strings I cut a piece as long as from my elbow -to the tip of my thumb; the two ends of the severed piece I tied together, -making a ring; and this I dropped into the pot with the beans.</p> - -<p>When the squash slices were well cooked I lifted them out of the pot -by the grass string into a wooden bowl. With a horn spoon I chopped and -mashed the cooked squash slices into a mass, which I now returned to the -pot with the beans. The grass string I threw away.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;" id="fig6"> -<img src="images/figure6.jpg" width="300" height="125" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 6</p> -<p class="caption2">Drawn from specimens in author’s collection.</p> -</div> - -<p>To the mess I now added four or five double-handfuls of mixed meal, of -pounded parched sunflower seed and pounded parched corn. The whole -was boiled for a few minutes more, and was ready for serving.</p> - -<p>I have already told how we parched sunflower seed; and that I used two -or three double-handfuls of seed to a parching. I used two parchings of -sunflower seed for one mess of four-vegetables-mixed. I also used two -parchings of corn; but I put more corn into the pot at a parching than -I did of sunflower seed.</p> - -<p>Pounding the parched corn and sunflower seed reduced their bulk so -that the four parchings, two of sunflower seed and two of corn, made but -four or five double-handfuls of the mixed meal.</p> - -<p>Four-vegetables-mixed was eaten freshly cooked; and the mixed corn-and-sunflower -meal was made fresh for it each time. A little alkali salt -might be added for seasoning, but even this was not usual. No other seasoning -was used. Meat was not boiled with the mess, as the sunflower seed -gave sufficient oil to furnish fat.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> - -<p>Four-vegetables-mixed was a winter food; and the squash used in its -making was dried, sliced squash, never green, fresh squash.</p> - -<p>The clay pot used for boiling this and other dishes was about the size -of an iron dinner pot, or even larger. For a large family, the pot might -be as much as thirteen or fourteen inches high. I have described that in -use in my father’s family.</p> - -<p>When a mess of four-vegetables-mixed was cooked, I did not remove -the pot from the coals, but dipped out the vegetables with a mountain-sheep -horn spoon, into wooden bowls (<a href="#fig6">figure 6</a>.)</p> - -<h3><i>Sunflower-seed Balls</i></h3> - -<p>Sunflower meal of the parched seeds was also used to make sunflower -seed balls; these were important articles of diet in olden times, and had a -particular use.</p> - -<p>For sunflower-seed balls I parched the seeds in a pot in the usual way, -put them in a corn mortar and pounded them. When they were reduced -to a fine meal I reached into the mortar and took out a handful of the meal, -squeezing it in the fingers and palm of my right hand. This squeezing it -made it into a kind of lump or ball.</p> - -<p>This ball I enclosed in the two palms and gently shook it. The shaking -brought out the oil of the seeds, cementing the particles of the meal and -making the lump firm. I have said that frosted seeds gave out more oil -than unfrosted; and that baby sunflower seeds gave out more oil than seeds -from the big heads.</p> - -<p>In olden times every warrior carried a bag of soft skin at his left side, -supported by a thong over his right shoulder; in this bag he kept needles, -sinews, awl, soft tanned skin for making patches for moccasins, gun caps, and -the like. The warrior’s powder horn hung on the outside of this bag.</p> - -<p>In the bottom of this soft-skin bag the warrior commonly carried one -of these sunflower-seed balls, wrapped in a piece of buffalo-heart skin. -When worn with fatigue or overcome with sleep and weariness, the warrior -took out his sunflower-seed ball, and nibbled at it to refresh himself. It -was amazing what effect nibbling at the sunflower-seed ball had. If the -warrior was weary, he began to feel fresh again; if sleepy, he grew wakeful.</p> - -<p>Sometimes the warrior kept his sunflower-seed ball in his flint case -that hung always at his belt over his right hip.</p> - -<p>It was quite a general custom in my tribe for a warrior or hunter to -carry one of these sunflower-seed balls.</p> - -<p>We called the sunflower-seed ball mapi´, the same name as for sunflower.</p> - -<p>Sunflower meal, parched and pounded as described, was often mixed -with corn balls, to which it gave an agreeable smell, as well as a pleasant -taste.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV<br /> -<span class="smaller">CORN</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Planting</i></h3> - -<p>Corn planting began the second month after sunflower-seed was planted, -that is in May; and it lasted about a month. It sometimes continued -pretty well into June, but not later than that; for the sun then begins to go -back into the south, and men began to tell eagle-hunting stories.</p> - -<p>We knew when corn planting time came by observing the leaves of the -wild gooseberry bushes. This bush is the first of the woods to leaf in the -spring. Old women of the village were going to the woods daily to gather -fire wood; and when they saw that the wild gooseberry bushes were almost -in full leaf, they said, “It is time for you to begin planting corn!”</p> - -<p>Corn was planted each year in the same hills.</p> - -<p>Around each of the old and dead hills I loosened the soil with my hoe, -first pulling up the old, dead roots of the previous year’s plants; these dead -roots, as they collected, were raked off with other refuse to one end of the -field outside of the cultivated ground, to be burned.</p> - -<p>This pulling up of the dead roots and working around the old hill with -the hoe, left the soil soft and loose for the space of about eighteen inches -in diameter; and in this soft soil I planted the corn in this manner:</p> - -<p>I stooped over, and with fingers of both hands I raked away the loose -soil for a bed for the seed; and with my fingers I even stirred the soil around -with a circular motion to make the bed perfectly level so that the seeds -would all lie at the same depth.</p> - -<p>A small vessel, usually a wooden bowl, at my feet held the seed corn. -With my right hand I took a small handful of the corn, quickly transferring -half of it to my left hand; still stooping over, and plying both hands at the -same time, I pressed the grains a half inch into the soil with my thumbs, -planting two grains at a time, one with each hand.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="fig7"> -<img src="images/figure7.jpg" width="400" height="100" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 7</p> -</div> - -<p>I planted about six to eight grains in a hill<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> (<a href="#fig7">figure 7</a>). Then with -my hands I raked the earth over the planted grains until the seed lay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -about the length of my fingers under the soil. Finally I patted the hill -firm with my palms.</p> - -<p>The space within the hill in which the seed kernels were planted should -be about nine inches in diameter; but the completed hill should nearly cover -the space broken up by the hoe.</p> - -<p>The corn hills I planted well apart, because later, in hilling up, I would -need room to draw earth from all directions over the roots to protect them -from the sun, that they might not dry out. Corn planted in hills too close -together would have small ears and fewer of them; and the stalks of the -plants would be weak, and often dried out.</p> - -<p>If the corn hills were so close together that the plants when they grew up, -touched each other, we called them “smell-each-other”; and we knew that -the ears they bore would not be plump nor large.</p> - -<h3><i>A Morning’s Planting</i></h3> - -<p>We Hidatsa women were early risers in the planting season; it was my -habit to be up before sunrise, while the air was cool, for we thought this the -best time for garden work.</p> - -<p>Having arrived at the field I would begin one hill, preparing it, as I -have said, with my hoe; and so for ten rows each as long as from this spot -to yonder fence—about thirty yards; the rows were about four feet apart, -and the hills stood about the same distance apart in the row.</p> - -<p>The hills all prepared, I went back and planted them, patting down each -with my palms, as described. Planting corn thus by hand was slow work; -but by ten o’clock the morning’s work was done, and I was tired and ready -to go home for my breakfast and rest; we did not eat before going into the -field. The ten rows making the morning’s planting contained about two -hundred and twenty-five hills.</p> - -<p>I usually went to the field every morning in the planting season, if the -weather was fine. Sometimes I went out again a little before sunset and -planted; but this was not usual.</p> - -<h3><i>Soaking the Seed</i></h3> - -<p>The very last corn that we planted we sometimes put into a little tepid -water, if the season was late. Seed used for replanting hills that had been -destroyed by crows or magpies we also soaked. We left the seed in the -water only a short time, when the water was poured off.</p> - -<p>The water should be tepid only, so that when poured through the -fingers it felt hardly warmed. Hot water would kill the seeds.</p> - -<p>Seed corn thus soaked would have sprouts a third of an inch long within -four or five days after planting, if the weather was warm. I know this, -because we sometimes dug up some of the seeds to see. This soaked seed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> -produced strong plants, but the first-planted, dry seeds still produced the -first ripened ears.</p> - -<p>If warm water was not convenient, I sometimes put these last planted -corn seeds in my mouth; and when well wetted, planted them. But these -mouth-wetted seeds produced, we thought, a great many wi´da-aka´ta, or -goose-upper-roof-of-mouth, ears.</p> - -<h3><i>Planting for a Sick Woman</i></h3> - -<p>It was usual for the women of a household to do their own planting; -but if a woman was sick, or for some reason was unable to attend to her -planting, she sometimes cooked a feast, to which she invited the members -of her age society and asked them to plant her field for her.</p> - -<p>The members of her society would come upon an appointed day and -plant her field in a short time; sometimes a half day was enough.</p> - -<p>There were about thirty members in my age society when I was a young -woman. If we were invited to plant a garden for some sick woman, each -member would take a row to plant; and each would strive to complete her -row first. A member having completed her row, might begin a second, -and even a third row; or if, when each had completed one row, there was -but a small part of the field yet unplanted, all pitched in miscellaneously -and finished the planting.</p> - -<h3><i>Size of Our Biggest Field</i></h3> - -<p>When our corn was in, we began planting beans and squashes. Beans -we commonly planted between corn rows, sometimes over the whole field, -more often over a part of it. Our bean and squash planting I will describe -later; and I speak of it now only because I wish to explain to you how a -Hidatsa garden was laid out.</p> - -<p>The largest field ever owned in my father’s family was the one which I -have said my grandmother Turtle helped clear, at Like-a-fishhook village, -or Fort Berthold, as the whites called it. The field, begun small, was -added to each year and did not reach its maximum size for some years.</p> - -<p>The field was nearly rectangular in shape; at the time of its greatest -size, its length was about equal to the distance from this spot to yonder -fence—one hundred and eighty yards; and its width, to the distance from -the corner of this cabin to yonder white post—ninety yards.</p> - -<p>The size of a garden was determined chiefly by the industry of the family -that owned it, and by the number of mouths that must be fed.</p> - -<p>When I was six years old, there were, I think, ten in my father’s family, -of whom my two grandmothers, my mother and her three sisters, made six. -I have said that my mother and her three sisters were wives of Small Ankle, -my father. It was this year that my mother and Corn Sucker died, however.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> - -<p>My father’s wives and my two grandmothers, all industrious women, -added each year to the area of our field; for our family was growing. At -the time our garden reached its maximum size, there were seven boys in the -family; three of these died young, but four grew up and brought wives to -live in our earth lodge.</p> - -<h3><i>Na´xu and Nu´cami</i></h3> - -<p>In our big garden at Like-a-fishhook village, nine rows of corn, running -lengthwise with the field, made one na´xu, or Indian acre, as we usually -translate it. There were ten of these na´xus, or Indian acres, in the garden.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="fig8"> -<img src="images/figure8.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 8</p> -</div> - -<p>Some families of our village counted eight rows of corn to one na´xu, -others counted ten rows.</p> - -<p>The rows of the na´xus always ran the length of the garden; and if the -field curved, as it sometimes did around a bend of the river, or other irregularity, -the rows curved with it.</p> - -<p>In our garden a row of squashes separated each na´xu from its neighbor.</p> - -<p>Four rows of corn running widthwise with the garden made one nu´cami; -and as was the na´xu, each nu´cami was separated from its neighbor by a -row of squashes, or beans, or in some families, even by sunflowers.</p> - -<p>Like those of the na´xus, the rows of the nu´camis often curved to follow -some irregularity in the shape of the garden plot. (See <a href="#fig8">figure 8</a>.)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Hoeing</i></h3> - -<p>Hoeing time began when the corn was about three inches high; but this -varied somewhat with the season. Some seasons were warm, and the corn -and weeds grew rapidly; other seasons were colder, and delayed the growth -of the corn.</p> - -<p>Corn plants about three inches high we called “young-bird’s-feather-tail-corn,” -because the plants then had blunt ends, like the tail feathers of -a very young bird.</p> - -<p>Corn and weeds alike grew rapidly now, and we women of the household -were out with our hoes daily, to keep ahead of the weeds. We worked -as in planting season, in the early morning hours.</p> - -<p>I cultivated each hill carefully with my hoe as I came to it; and if the -plants were small, I would comb the soil of the hill lightly with my fingers, -loosening the earth and tearing out young weeds.</p> - -<p>We did not hoe the corn alone, but went right through the garden, corn, -squashes, beans, and all. Weeds were let lie on the ground, as they were -now young and harmless.</p> - -<p>We hoed but once, not very many weeds coming up to bother us afterwards. -In my girlhood we were not troubled with mustard and thistles; -these weeds have come in with white men.</p> - -<p>In many families hoeing ended, I think, when the corn was about seven -or eight inches high: but I remember when my mothers finished hoeing -their big field at Like-a-fishhook village, the corn was about eighteen inches -high, and the blossoms at the top of the plants were appearing.</p> - -<p>A second hoeing began, it is true, when the corn silk appeared, but was -accompanied by hilling, so that we looked upon it rather as a hilling time. -Hilling was done to firm the plants against the wind and cover the roots -from the sun. We hilled with earth, about four inches up around the roots -of the corn.</p> - -<p>Not a great many weeds were found in the garden at hilling time, unless -the season had been wet; but weeds at this season are apt to have seeds, -so that it was my habit to bear such weeds off the field, that the seeds might -not fall and sprout the next season.</p> - -<p>With the corn, the squashes and beans were also hilled; but this was an -easier task. The bean hills, especially, were made small at the first, and -hilling them up afterwards was not hard work. If beans were hilled too -high the vines got beaten down into the mud by the rains and rotted.</p> - -<h3><i>The Watchers’ Stage</i></h3> - -<p>Our corn fields had many enemies. Magpies, and especially crows, -pulled up much of the young corn, so that we had to replant many hills. -Crows were fond of pulling up the green shoots when they were a half inch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -or an inch high. Spotted gophers would dig up the seed from the roots of -young plants. When the corn had eared, and the grains were still soft, -blackbirds and crows were destructive.</p> - -<p>Any hills of young corn that the birds destroyed, I replanted if the season -was not too late. If only a part of the plants in a hill had been destroyed, -I did not disturb the living plants, but replanted only the destroyed -ones. In the place of each missing plant, I dug a little hole with my hand, -and dropped in a seed.</p> - -<p>We made scarecrows<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> to frighten the crows. Two sticks were driven -into the ground for legs; to these were bound two other sticks, like outstretched -arms; on the top was fastened a ball of cast-away skins, or the -like, for a head. An old buffalo robe was drawn over the figure and a belt -tied around its middle, to make it look like a man. Such a scarecrow -would keep the crows away for a few days but when they saw that the -figure never moved from its place, they lost their fear and returned.</p> - -<p>A platform, or stage, was often built in a garden, where the girls and -young women of the household came to sit and sing as they watched that -crows and other thieves did not destroy the ripening crop. We cared for -our corn in those days as we would care for a child; for we Indian people -loved our gardens, just as a mother loves her children; and we thought -that our growing corn liked to hear us sing, just as children like to hear their -mother sing to them.<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Also, we did not want the birds to come and steal -our corn. Horses, too, might break in and crop the plants, or boys might -steal the green ears and go off and roast them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> - -<p>Our Hidatsa name for such a stage was adukati´ i´kakĕ-ma´tsati, or -field watchers’ stage; from adukati´, field; i´kakĕ, watch; and ma´tsati, -stage. These stages, while common, were not in every garden. I had one -in my garden where I used to sit and sing.</p> - -<p>A watchers’ stage resembled a stage for drying grain, but it was built -more simply. Four posts, forked at the top, supported two parallel beams, -or stringers; on these beams was laid a floor of puncheons, or split small -logs, at about the height of the full grown corn. This floor was about the -length and breadth of Wolf Chief’s table—forty-three by thirty-five inches—and -was thus large enough to permit two persons to sit together. A ladder -made of the trunk of a tree rested against the stage.</p> - -<p>Such stages we did not value as we did our drying stages, nor did we use -so much care in building them. If the posts were of green wood, we did -not trouble to peel off the bark; at least, I never saw such posts with the -bark peeled off. The beams in the forks of the posts often lay with the -bark on. The puncheons that made the floor of the stage were free of bark, -because they were commonly split from old, dead, floating logs, that we -got down at the Missouri River; if the whole stage was built of these dead -logs, as was often done, the bark would be wanting on every beam.</p> - -<p>A watchers’ stage, indeed, was usually of rather rough construction; -wood was plentiful and easy to get, and the stage was rebuilt each year.</p> - -<p>As I have said, it was our custom to locate our gardens on the timbered, -bottom lands, and when we cleared off the timber and brush, we often left -a tree, usually of cottonwood, standing in the field, to shade the watchers’ -stage. The stage stood on the north, or shady, side of the tree.</p> - -<p>Cottonwood seedlings were apt to spring up in newly cleared ground. -If there was no tree in the field, one of these seedlings might be let grow into -a small tree. Cottonwoods grew very rapidly.</p> - -<p>The tree that shaded the watchers’ stage in our family field, and which -I have indicated on the map, was about as high as my son Goodbird’s -cabin, and had a trunk about four inches in diameter. The cottonwood -tree standing in Wolf Chief’s corn field this present summer, is perhaps -about the height of the trees that used to stand in our fields at Like-a-fishhook -village.</p> - -<h3><i>Explanation of Sketch of Watchers’ Stage</i></h3> - -<p>My son Goodbird has made a sketch, under my direction, of a watchers’ -stage (<a href="#fig9">figure 9</a>).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> - -<p>The stage was placed close to the tree shading it, about a foot from the -trunk. Holes for the posts were dug with a long digging stick; and the -posts were set firm, like fence posts.</p> - -<p>The stage was made nearly square, so that the watchers could sit facing -any side with equal ease. The beams supporting the floor might be laid -east and west, or north and south; but as the tree stood always on the south -side of the stage, the floor beams lay always in one of these two ways.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="fig9"> -<img src="images/figure9.jpg" width="500" height="550" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 9</p> -<p class="caption2 center">Redrawn from sketch by Edward Goodbird.</p> -</div> - -<p>In the sketch a skin<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> is seen lying on the stage floor. This is a buffalo -calf skin, folded fur out, to make a seat for the watcher. The skin might -be folded tail to head, or side to side; and sometimes it was folded flesh side -out. It never hung down over the edges of the stage floor, but was folded -up neatly to make a kind of cushion. The puncheon floor, at best never -very smooth, was rather hard to sit upon; and letting a part of the skin -hang down over the side would have been waste of good cushion material.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> - -<p>The three poles on the right of the stage support another calf skin, -used as a shield against the sun. The poles merely rested on the ground; -they were not thrust into the soil. They could be shifted about with the -sun, so that the watcher had shade in any part of the day.</p> - -<p>The calf skin used for a sun shade hung on the poles head downward; -whether it lay fur or flesh side down did not matter.</p> - -<p>Skins dressed by Indians have holes cut along the edges for the wooden -pins by which they are staked out on the ground to dry. The poles upholding -the skin shade we cut of willows; and we were careful to trim off -the branches, leaving little stubs sticking out on the trunk of the pole. -These little stubs we slipped through some of the holes in the edge of the -skin shade to uphold it and stay it in place. It was not necessary to bind -the skin down with thongs; just slipping the stubs through the holes was -enough.</p> - -<p>Poles for a sun shade were cut indifferently of dry or green wood; and -they lasted the entire season.</p> - -<p>The ladder by which we mounted a watchers’ stage rested against either -of the corners next the tree, against one of the two beams supporting the -floor; however we did not consider a watchers’ stage to be sacred, and we -placed the ladder anywhere it might be convenient.</p> - -<p>The ladder was a cottonwood trunk, cut with three steps; more were -not needed, as the stage floor was not high.</p> - -<h3><i>Sweet Grass’s Sun Shade</i></h3> - -<p>If the tree sheltering a stage had scant foliage, we often cut thick, leafy -cottonwood boughs and thrust them horizontally through the branches of -the tree to increase its shade. It was a common thing for the watchers to -tie a robe across the face of the tree for the same purpose.</p> - -<p>If no tree grew in the garden, a small cottonwood with thick, leafy -branches was cut and propped against the south or sunny side of the stage.</p> - -<p>There was an old woman named Sweet Grass who had no tree in her -garden. She built a stage just like that in Goodbird’s sketch (<a href="#fig9">figure 9</a>). -To shade it I remember she cut several small cottonwood trees and set -them in holes made with her digging stick, along the south side of her stage. -They stood there in a row and shaded the stage quite effectively. Her -stage stood rather close to the edge of her garden.</p> - -<h3><i>The Watchers</i></h3> - -<p>The season for watching the fields began early in August when green -corn began to come in; for this was the time when the ripening ears were -apt to be stolen by horses, or birds, or boys. We did not watch the fields -in the spring and early summer, to keep the crows from pulling up the newly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> -sprouted grain; such damage we were content to repair by replanting.</p> - -<p>Girls began to go on the watchers’ stage to watch the corn and sing, -when they were about ten or twelve years of age. They continued the -custom even after they had grown up and married; and old women, working -in the garden and stopping to rest, often went on the stage and sang.</p> - -<p>Two girls usually watched and sang together. The village gardens -were laid out close to one another; and a girl of one family would be joined -by the girl of the family who owned the garden adjoining. Sometimes -three, or even four, girls got on the stage and sang together; but never more -than four. A drum was not used to accompany the singing.</p> - -<p>The watchers sometimes rose and stood upon the stage as they looked -to see if any boys or horses were in the field, stealing corn. Older girls -and young married women, and even old women, often worked at porcupine -embroidery as they watched. Very young girls did not embroider.</p> - -<p>Boys of nine to eleven years of age were sometimes rather troublesome -thieves. They were fond of stealing green ears to roast by a fire in the -woods. Sometimes—not every day, however—we had to guard our corn -alertly. A boy caught stealing was merely scolded. “You must not steal -here again!” we would say to him. His parents were not asked to pay -damage for the theft.</p> - -<p>We went to the watchers’ stage quite early in the day, before sunrise, -or near it, and we came home at sunset.</p> - -<p>The watching season continued until the corn was all gathered and -harvested. My grandmother, Turtle, was a familiar figure in our family’s -field, in this season. I can remember her staying out in the field daily, -picking out the ripening ears and braiding them in a string.</p> - -<h3><i>Booths</i></h3> - -<p>There were a good many booths in the gardens that lay west of the village. -Usually a booth stood at one side of every field in which was a -watchers’ stage.</p> - -<p>To make a booth, we cut diamond willows, stood them in the ground in a -circle, and bending over the leafy tops, tied them together. A few leafy -branches were interwoven into the top to increase the shade; but there was -no further covering.</p> - -<p>A booth had a floor diameter of nine or ten feet, and was as high as I -can conveniently reach with my hands—six feet.</p> - -<p>The girls who sang and watched the ripening corn cooked in these booths. -I often did so when I was a young girl; for cooking at the booth was done -by all the watchers, even young girls of ten or twelve years. I have often -seen my grandmother, Turtle, also, in her booth very early in the morning, -in the corn season.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Eating Customs</i></h3> - -<p>A meal was eaten sometimes just after sunrise, or a little later; but we -never had regular meal hours in the field. We cooked and ate whenever -we got hungry, or when visitors came; or we strayed over to other gardens -and ate with our friends. If relatives came, the watchers often entertained -them by giving them something to eat.</p> - -<p>To cook the meal a fire was made in the booth. Meat had been brought -out from the village, dried or fresh buffalo meat usually. Fresh meat was -laid on the coals to broil; dried meat was thrust on the end of a stick that -leaned over the coals; and when one side was well toasted it was turned over.</p> - -<p>Fresh squashes we boiled in clay or iron pots; a good many brass or -copper kettles also were in use when I was young. We were fond of squashes.</p> - -<p>A common dish was green corn and beans. The corn was shelled off the -cob and boiled with green beans that were shelled also; sometimes the beans -were boiled in the pod.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;" id="fig10"> -<img src="images/figure10.jpg" width="300" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 10</p> -<p class="caption2">Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird of specimen made by -Buffalobird-woman.</p> -</div> - -<p>To serve the corn and beans we poured the mess into a wooden bowl -and ate with spoons made from the stems of squash leaves. <a href="#fig10">Figure 10</a> -is a sketch of such a spoon. The squash stem was split at one end and -the split was held open by a little stick. Stems of leaves of our native -squashes have tiny prickles on them, but these did not hurt the eater’s lips. -Leaf stems of native squashes I think are firmer and stronger than those of -white men’s squashes, such as we now raise.</p> - -<p>My grandmother, Turtle, was a faithful watcher in our family field in -the watching season. I remember she used to bring home in the evening -all the uneaten corn she had boiled that day.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Youths’ and Maidens’ Customs</i></h3> - -<p>We always kept drinking water at the stage; and if relatives came out, -we freely gave them to drink. But boys and young men who came were -offered neither food nor drink, unless they were relatives.</p> - -<p>Our tribe’s custom in such things was well understood.</p> - -<p>The youths of the village used to go about all the time seeking the girls; -this indeed was almost all they did. Of course, when the girls were on the -watchers’ stage the boys were pretty sure to come around. Sometimes two -youths came together, sometimes but one. If there were relatives at the -watchers’ stage the boys would stop and drink or eat; they did not try to -talk to the girls, but would come around smiling and try to get the girls to -smile back.</p> - -<p>To illustrate our custom, if a boy came out to a watchers’ stage, we girls -that were sitting upon it did not say a word to him. It was our rule that -we should work and should not say anything to him. So we sat, not looking -at him, nor saying a word. He would smile and perhaps stop and get -a drink of water.</p> - -<p>Indeed, a girl that was not a youth’s sweetheart, never talked to him. -This rule was observed at all times. Even when a boy was a girl’s sweetheart, -or “love-boy” as we called him, if there were other persons around, she -did not talk to him, unless these happened to be relatives.</p> - -<p>Boys who came out to the watchers’ stage, getting no encouragement -from the girls there, soon went away.</p> - -<p>A very young girl was not permitted to go to the watchers’ stage unless -an old woman went along to take care of her. In olden days, mothers -watched their daughters very carefully.</p> - -<h3><i>Watchers’ Songs</i></h3> - -<p>Most of the songs that were sung on the watchers’ stage were love songs, -but not all.</p> - -<p>One that little girls were fond of singing—girls that is of about twelve -years of age—was as follows:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse">You bad boys, you are all alike!</div> -<div class="verse">Your bow is like a bent basket hoop;</div> -<div class="verse">You poor boys, you have to run on the prairie barefoot;</div> -<div class="verse">Your arrows are fit for nothing but to shoot up into the sky!</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This song was sung for the benefit of the boys who came to the near-by -woods to hunt birds.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> - -<p>Here is another song; but that you may understand it I shall first have -to explain to you what ikupa´ means.</p> - -<p>A girl whom another girl loves as her own sister, we call her ikupa´. I -think your word chum, as you explain it, has about the same meaning. -This is the song:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse">“My ikupa´, what do you wish to see?” you said to me.</div> -<div class="verse">What I wish to see is the corn silk coming out on the growing ear;</div> -<div class="verse">But what <em>you</em> wish to see is that naughty young man coming!</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Here is a song that we sang to tease young men that were going by:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse">You young man of the Dog society, you said to me,</div> -<div class="verse">“When I go to the east on a war party, you will hear news of me how brave I am!”</div> -<div class="verse">I have heard news of you;</div> -<div class="verse">When the fight was on, you ran and hid!</div> -<div class="verse">And you think you are a brave young man!</div> -<div class="verse">Behold you have joined the Dog society;</div> -<div class="verse">Therefore, I call you just plain dog!</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>These songs from the watchers’ stage we called mi´daxika, or gardeners’ -songs. The words of these I have just given you we called love-boy words; -and they were intended to tease.</p> - -<p>There was another class of songs sung from the watchers’ stage that did -not have love-boy words. I will give you one of these, but to make it intelligible, -I must first explain a custom of my tribe.</p> - -<h3><i>Clan Cousins’ Custom</i></h3> - -<p>Let us suppose that a woman of the Tsi´stska Doxpa´ka marries a man -of the Midipa´di clan. Their child will be a Tsi´stska; for we Hidatsas -reckon every child to belong to the clan of his mother; and the members -of the mother’s clan will be clan sisters and clan brothers to her child.</p> - -<p>Another woman of the tribe, of what clan does not matter, also marries -a Midipa´di husband; and they have a child. The child of the first mother -and the child of the second we reckon as makutsati, or clan cousins, since -their fathers being of the same clan, are clan brothers.</p> - -<p>In old times these clan cousins had a custom of teasing one another; -especially was this teasing common between young men and young women. -For example, a young man, unlucky in war, might be passing the gardens -and hear some mischievous girl, his clan cousin, singing a song taunting -him for his ill success. From any one else this would be taken for the -deepest insult; but seeing that the singer was his clan cousin, the young -man only called out good humoredly, “Sing louder, cousin!”</p> - -<p>I can best explain this custom by telling you a story.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Story of Snake-head-ornament</i></h3> - -<p>A long time ago, in one of our villages at Knife River, there lived a man -Mapuksao´kihec, or Snake-head-ornament. He was a great medicine -man; and in his earth lodge he kept a bull snake, whom he called “father.”</p> - -<p>When Snake-head-ornament started to go to a feast he would say to -the bull snake, “Come, father, let us go and get something to eat!”</p> - -<p>The snake would crawl up the man’s body, coil about his neck and -thrust his head forward over the man’s crown and forehead; or he would -coil about the man’s head like the head cloth a hunter used to wear, with -his head thrust forward as I have said.</p> - -<p>Bearing the snake thus on his head, Snake-head-ornament would enter -some man’s lodge and sit down to eat. The snake however never ate with -him, for his food was not the same as the man’s; the bull snake’s food was -hide scrapings which the women of the lodge fed to him.</p> - -<p>When Snake-head-ornament came home again he would say to the bull -snake, “Father, get off.”</p> - -<p>The snake would creep down from the man’s head, but before he entered -his hole he would roll himself about on the earth lodge floor. Snake-head-ornament -would say to him, “What are you doing? Do you think I am -bad smelling, and do you want to wash off the smell from your body? It -is you who are bad smelling; yet I do not despise <em>you</em>!”</p> - -<p>The snake, hearing this, would creep into his hole as if ashamed.</p> - -<p>Snake-head-ornament made up a war party and led it against enemies -on the Yellowstone River. The party not only failed to kill any of the -enemy, but lost three of their own men. This was a kind of disgrace to -Snake-head-ornament; for as leader of the war party he was responsible -for it. He thought his gods had deserted him; and when he came home he -went about crying and mourning and calling upon his gods to give him -another vision. He was a brave man and had many honor marks; and his -ill success made his heart sore.</p> - -<p>In old times, when one mourned, either man or woman, he cut off his -hair, painted his body with white clay and went without moccasins; he -also cut himself with some sharp instrument.</p> - -<p>In those days also, when a man went out to seek his god, he went away -from the village, alone, into the hills; and thus it happened that Snake-head-ornament, -on his way to the hills, went mourning and crying past a -garden where sat a woman, his clan cousin, on her watchers’ stage. Seeing -him, she began to sing a song to tease him:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse">He said, “I am a young bird!”</div> -<div class="verse">If a young bird, he should be in a nest;</div> -<div class="verse">But he comes around here looking gray,</div> -<div class="verse">And wanders aimlessly everywhere outside the village!</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> -<div class="verse">He said, “I am a young snake!”</div> -<div class="verse">If a young snake, he should stay in the hills among the red buttes;</div> -<div class="verse">But he comes around here looking gray and crying,</div> -<div class="verse">And wanders aimlessly everywhere!</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>When the woman sang, “he comes around here looking gray,” she meant -that the man was gray from the white clay paint on his body.</p> - -<p>Snake-head-ornament heard her song, but knowing she was his clan -cousin, cried out to her:</p> - -<p>“My elder sister, sing louder! You are right; let my fathers hear what -you say. I do not know whether they will feel shame or not; but the snake -and the white eagle both called me ‘son’!”</p> - -<p>What he meant was that the snake and the white eagle were his dream -gods; and that they had both called him “son,” in a vision. In her song the -woman had taunted him with this. If she had been any one but his clan -cousin, he would have been beside himself with anger. As it was, he kept -his good humor, and did her no hurt.</p> - -<p>But the woman had sung her song for a cause. Years before, when -Snake-head-ornament was quite a young man and as yet had won few honors -he went on a war party and killed a Sioux woman. When he came home -he was looked upon as a successful warrior; and he was, of course, proud that -people now looked up to him. Not long after this, he joined the Black -Mouth society. It happened, one day, that the women were erecting palisades -around the village to defend it, and Snake-head-ornament, as a member -of the Black Mouths, was one of those overseeing the work. This -woman, his clan cousin, was rather slow at her task and did not move about -very briskly. Snake-head-ornament, seeing this, approached her and fired -off his gun close by her legs. She looked around, but seeing that it was -Snake-head-ornament that had shot, and knowing he was her clan cousin, -she did not get angry. Just the same she did not forget; and years after -she had a good humored revenge in the taunting song I have given you.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Green Corn and Its Uses</span></h3> - -<h4><i>The Ripening Ears</i></h4> - -<p>The first corn was ready to be eaten green early in the harvest moon, -when the blossoms of the prairie golden rod are all in full, bright yellow; or -about the end of the first week in August. We ate much green corn, boiling -the fresh ears in a pot as white people do; but every Hidatsa family also -put up dried green corn for winter. This took the place with us of the -canned green corn we now buy at the trader’s store.</p> - -<p>I knew when the corn ears were ripe enough for boiling from these signs: -The blossoms on the top of the stalk were turned brown, the silk on the end<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -of the ear was dry, and the husks on the ear were of a dark green color.</p> - -<p>I do not think the younger Indians on this reservation are as good agriculturists -as we older members of my tribe were when we were young. I -sometimes say to my son Goodbird: “You young folks, when you want -green corn, open the husk to see if the grain is ripe enough, and thus expose -it; but I just go out into the field and pluck the ear. When you open an -ear and find it too green to pluck, you let it stand on the stalk; and birds -then come and eat the exposed kernels, or little brown ants climb up the -stalk and eat the ear and spoil it. I do not think you are very good gardeners -in these days. In old times, when we went out to gather green ears, we -did not have to open their faces to see if the grain was ripe enough to be -plucked!”</p> - -<h4><i>Second Planting for Green Corn</i></h4> - -<p>Our green corn season lasted about ten days, when the grain, though -not yet ripe, became too hard for boiling green.</p> - -<p>To provide green corn to be eaten late in the season, we used to make a -second planting of corn when June berries were ripe; and for this purpose -we left a space, not very large, vacant in the field. In my father’s family -this second planting was of about twenty-eight hills of corn. It came -ready to eat when the other corn was getting hard; but it often got caught -by the frost. Nearly every garden owner made such a second planting; -it was, indeed, a usual practice in the tribe.</p> - -<h4><i>Cooking Fresh Green Corn</i></h4> - -<p>Our usual way of cooking fresh, green corn, was to boil it in a kettle -on the cob.</p> - -<p>Fresh, green corn, shelled from the cob, was often put in a corn mortar -and pounded; and then boiled without fats or meat. Prepared thus, it -had a sweet taste and smell; much like that of the canned corn we buy of -the traders.</p> - -<p>Shelled green corn, in the whole grain, was also boiled fresh, mixed with -beans and fats.</p> - -<h4><i>Roasting Ears</i></h4> - -<p>Green ears were sometimes roasted, usually by an individual member -of the family who wanted a little change of diet. The women of my father’s -family never prepared a full meal of roasted ears that I remember; if any -one wanted roasted, fresh, green corn, he prepared it himself.</p> - -<p>When I wanted to roast green corn I made a fire of cottonwood and prepared -a bed of coals. I laid the fresh ear on the coals with the husk removed. -As the corn roasted, I rolled the ear gently to and fro over the -coals. When properly cooked I removed the ear and laid on another.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> - -<p>As the ear roasted, the green kernels would pop sometimes with -quite a sharp sound. If this popping noise was very loud, we would laugh -and say to the one roasting the ear, “Ah, we see you have stolen that ear -from some other family’s garden!”</p> - -<p>Green corn was regularly taken out of the garden to roast until frost -came, when it lost its fragrance and fresh taste. To restore its freshness, -we would take the green corn silk of the same plucked ear and rub the silk -well into the kernels of the ear as they stood in the cob. This measurably -restored the fresh taste and smell.</p> - -<p>We did not do this if the ear was to be boiled, only if we intended to -roast it.</p> - -<p>For green corn, boiled and eaten fresh, we used all varieties except the -gummy; for when green they tasted alike. But for roasting ears we thought -the two yellow varieties, hard and soft, were the best.</p> - -<h4><i>Mätu´a-la´kapa</i></h4> - -<p>A common dish made from green corn was mätu´a-la´kapa, from -mätu´a, green corn; and la´kapa, mush, or something mushy; thus, wheat -flour mixed with water to a thick paste we call la´kapa, even if unboiled.</p> - -<p>Ripening green corn, with the grain still soft, was shelled off the cob with -the tip of the thumb or with the thumb nail. The shelled corn was pounded -in a mortar and boiled with beans; it was flavored with spring salt.</p> - -<h4><i>Corn Bread</i></h4> - -<p>We also made a kind of corn bread from green corn.</p> - -<p>Green ears were plucked and the corn shelled off with the thumb nail, -so as not to break open the kernels. Boiled green corn could be shelled -with a mussel shell because boiling toughened the kernels; but unboiled -green corn was shelled with the thumb nail.</p> - -<p>Two or three women often worked at shelling the corn as it was rather -tedious work.</p> - -<p>When enough of the corn had been shelled, it was put in a corn mortar -and pounded.</p> - -<p>Some of the ears were naturally longer than others: a number of these -had been selected and their husks removed. Some of these husks were -now laid down side by side, but overlapping like shingles, until a sheet was -made about ten inches wide.</p> - -<p>Another row of husks was laid over the first, transversely to them; and -so until four or five layers of the green husks were made, each lying transversely -to the layer of husks beneath.</p> - -<p>The shelled corn, pounded almost to a pulp, was poured out on this -husk sheet, and patted down with the hand to a loaf about seven or eight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> -inches square, and an inch or two thick. However, this varied; a girl -would make a much smaller loaf than would a woman preparing a mess for -her family.</p> - -<p>The ends of the uppermost layer of husks were now folded over the top -of the loaf, leaf by leaf; then the next layer of husks beneath; and so until -the ends of all the husks were folded over the top of the loaf, quite hiding it.</p> - -<p>Two or three husk leaves had been split into strips half an inch to three -quarters of an inch in width. These strips were tied together to make bands -to bind the loaf. Three bands passed around the loaf each way, or six -bands in all.</p> - -<p>No grease nor fat, nor any seasoning, had been added to the loaf; the -pounded green corn pulp was all that entered into it.</p> - -<p>The loaf made, now came the baking. The ashes in the fire place in an -earth lodge lay quite deep. A cavity was dug into these ashes about as -deep as my hand is long. Into the bottom of this cavity live coals and hot -ashes were raked, and upon these the loaf was laid; a few ashes were raked -over the top, and upon these ashes live coals were heaped. The loaf baked -in about two hours.</p> - -<p>We called this loaf naktsi´, or buried-in-ashes-and-baked. Soft white -and soft yellow corn were good varieties from which to make this buried-and-baked -corn, as we called it.</p> - -<h4><i>Drying Green Corn for Winter</i></h4> - -<p>Every Hidatsa family put up a store of dried green corn for winter. -This is the way in which I prepared my family’s store.</p> - -<p>In the proper season I went out into our garden and broke off the ears -that I found, that were of a dark green outside. Sometimes I even broke -open the husks to see if the ear was just right; but this was seldom, as I -could tell very well by the color and other signs I have described. I went -all over the garden, plucking the dark green ears, and putting them in a -pile in some convenient spot on the cultivated ground. If I was close -enough I tossed each ear upon the pile as I plucked it; but as I drew further -away, I gathered the ears into my basket and bore them to the pile.</p> - -<p>I left off plucking when the pile contained five basketfuls if I was working -alone. If two of us were working we plucked about ten basketfuls.</p> - -<p>Green corn for drying was always plucked in the evening, just before -sunset; and the newly plucked ears were let lie in the pile all night, in the -open air. The corn was not brought home on the evening of the plucking, -because if kept in the earth lodge over night it would not taste so fresh and -sweet, we thought.</p> - -<p>The next morning before breakfast, I went out to the field and fetched the -corn to our lodge in the village. As I brought the baskets into the lodge,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> -I emptied them in a pile at the place marked <i>B</i> in <a href="#fig11">figure 11</a>, near the fire.</p> - -<p>Sitting at <i>A</i>, I now began husking, breaking off the husks from each ear -in three strokes, thus: With my hand I drew back half the husk; second, -I drew back the other half; third, I broke the husk from the cob. The -husks I put in a pile, <i>E</i>, to one side. No husking pegs were used, such -as you describe to me; I could husk quite rapidly with my bare hands.</p> - -<p>As the ears were stripped, they were laid in a pile upon some of the -discarded husks, spread for that purpose. The freshly husked ears made -a pretty sight; some of them were big, fine ones, and all had plump, shiny -kernels. A twelve-row ear we thought -a big one; a few very big ears had fourteen -rows of kernels; smaller ears had -not more than eight rows.</p> - -<p>Two kettles, meanwhile, had been -prepared. One marked <i>D</i> in <a href="#fig11">figure 11</a>, -was set upon coals in the fireplace; the -other, <i>C</i>, was suspended over the fire -by a chain attached to the drying pole. -The kettles held water, which was now -brought to a boil.</p> - -<p>When enough corn was husked to -fill one of these kettles, I gathered up -the ears and dropped them in the boiling -water. I watched the corn carefully, -and when it was about half -cooked, I lifted the ears out with a -mountain sheep horn spoon and laid them on a pile of husks.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;" id="fig11"> -<img src="images/figure11.jpg" width="300" height="325" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 11</p> -</div> - -<p>When all the corn was cooked, I loaded the ears in my basket and bore -them out upon the drying stage, where I laid them in rows, side by side, -upon the stage floor. There I left them to dry over night.</p> - -<p>The work of bringing in the five basketfuls of corn from the field and -boiling the ears took all day, until evening.</p> - -<p>In the morning the corn was brought into the lodge again. A skin tent -cover had been spread on the floor and the half boiled ears were laid on it, -in a pile. I now sat on the floor, as an Indian woman sits, with ankles to -the right, and with the edge of the tent cover drawn over my knees, I took -an ear of the half boiled corn in my left hand, holding it with the greater -end toward me. I had a small, pointed stick; and this I ran, point forward, -down between two rows of kernels, thus loosening the grains. The -right hand row of the two rows of loosened kernels I now shelled off with -my right thumb. I then shelled off all the other rows of kernels, one row at -a time, working toward the left, and rolling the cob over toward the right -as I did so.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> - -<p>There was another way of shelling half boiled corn. As before, I -would run a sharpened stick down two rows of kernels, loosening the grains; -and I would then shell them off with smart, quick strokes of a mussel shell -held in my right hand. We still shell half boiled corn in this way, using -large spoons instead of shells. There were very few metal spoons in use -in my tribe when I was a girl; mussel shells were used instead for most -purposes.</p> - -<p>If while I was shelling the corn, a girl or woman came into the lodge to -visit, she would sit down and lend a hand while we chatted; thus the shelling -was soon done.</p> - -<p>The shelling finished, I took an old tent cover and spread it on the floor -of the drying stage outside. On this cover I spread the shelled corn to dry, -carrying it up on the stage in my basket.</p> - -<p>At night I covered the drying corn with old tent skins to protect it -from dampness.</p> - -<p>The corn dried in about four days.</p> - -<p>When the corn was well dried, I winnowed it. This I sometimes did -on the floor of the drying stage, sometimes on the ground.</p> - -<p>Having chosen a day when a slight wind was blowing, I filled a wooden -bowl from the dried corn that lay heaped on the tent cover; and holding -the bowl aloft I let the grain pour slowly from it, that any chaff might be -winnowed out.</p> - -<p>The corn was now ready to be put in sacks for winter.</p> - -<p>Corn thus prepared we called maada´ckihĕ, from ada´ckihĕ, treated-by-fire-but-not-cooked, -a word also used to designate food that has been prepared -by smoking.</p> - -<p>All varieties of corn could be prepared in this way.<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> - -<p>The Arikaras on this reservation have a different way of preparing and -drying green corn. They make a big heap of dried willows, and upon these -lay the ears, green and freshly plucked, in the husk. When all is ready, -they set fire to the willows, thus roasting the corn; and they often roast a -great pile of corn at one time, in this way. The roasted ears are husked and -shelled, and the grain dried, for storing. Corn that has been roasted in the -Arikara way, dries much more quickly than that prepared by boiling.</p> - -<p>Of late years some Mandan and Hidatsa families occasionally roast -their corn in imitation of the Arikara way; but I never saw this done in my -youth.</p> - -<p>I do not like to eat food made of this dried, roasted corn; it is dirty!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Mapë´di (Corn Smut)</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Mapë´di</i></h4> - -<p>Mapë´di is a black mass that grows in the husk of an ear of corn; it is -what you say white men call corn smut fungus. Sometimes an ear of -corn appears very plump, or somewhat swelled; and when the husk is -opened, there is no corn inside, only mapë´di, or smut; or sometimes part of -the ear will be found with a little grain at one end, and mapë´di at the other. -These masses of mapë´di, or corn smut, that we found growing on the ear, -we gathered and dried for food.</p> - -<p>There is another mapë´di that grows on the stalk of the corn. It is -not good to eat, and was not gathered up at the harvest time. The mapë´di -that grows on the stalk is commonly found at a place where the stalk, by -some accident, has been half broken.</p> - -<p>We looked upon the mapë´di that grew on the corn ear as a kind of corn, -because it was borne on the cob; it was found on the ears the grain of which -was growing solid, or was about ready to be eaten as green corn. We did -not find many mapë´di masses in one garden.</p> - -<h4><i>Harvest and Uses</i></h4> - -<p>We gathered the black masses and half boiled and dried them, still on -the cob. When well dried, they were broken off the cob. These broken -off pieces we mixed with the dried half boiled green corn, and stored in the -same sack with them.</p> - -<p>Mapë´di was cooked by boiling with the half-boiled dried corn. We -did not eat mapë´di fresh from the garden, nor did we cook it separately. -Mapë´di, boiled with corn, tasted good, not sweet, and not sour.</p> - -<p>I still follow the custom of my tribe and gather mapë´di each year at -the corn harvest.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">The Ripe Corn Harvest</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Husking</i></h4> - -<p>As the corn in the fields began to show signs of ripening, the people of -Like-a-fishhook village went hunting to get meat for the husking feasts. -This meat was usually dried; but if a kill was made late in the season, the -meat was sometimes brought in fresh.</p> - -<p>When the corn was fully ripened, the owners of a garden went out with -baskets, plucked the ears from the stalks and piled them in a heap ready -for the husking. The empty stalks were left standing in the field.</p> - -<p>A small family sometimes took as many as three days to gather and -husk their ripe corn; this was because there were not many persons in the -family to do the work.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> - -<p>In a big family, like my fathers, harvesting was more speedily done. -We had a large garden, but we never spent more than one day gathering -up the corn, which we piled in a heap in the middle of the field.</p> - -<p>The next day after the corn was plucked, we gave a husking feast. We -took out into the field a great deal of dried meat that my mothers had already -cooked in the lodge; or we took the dried meat into the field and -boiled it in a kettle near the corn pile. We also boiled corn on a fire near -by. The meat and corn were for the feast.</p> - -<p>Instead of dried meat, a family sometimes took out a side of fresh -buffalo meat and roasted it over a fire, near the corn pile.</p> - -<p>Having then arrived at the field, and started a fire for the feast, all of -our family who had come out to work sat down and began to husk. Word -had been sent beforehand that we were going to give a husking feast, and -the invited helpers soon appeared. There was no particular time set for -their coming, but we expected them in one of the morning hours.<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p>For the most part these were young men from nineteen to thirty years -of age, but a few old men would probably be in the company; and these were -welcomed and given a share of the feast.</p> - -<p>There might be twenty-five or thirty of the young men. They were -paid for their labor with the meat given them to eat; and each carried a -sharp stick on which he skewered the meat he could not eat, to take home.<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> - -<p>The husking season was looked upon as a time of jollity; and youths -and maidens dressed and decked themselves for the occasion.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> - -<p>Of course each young man gave particular help to the garden of his -sweetheart. Some girls were more popular than others. The young men -were apt to vie with one another at the husking pile of an attractive girl.</p> - -<p>Some of the young men rode ponies, and when her corn pile had been -husked, a youth would sometimes lend his pony to his sweetheart for her -to carry home her corn. She loaded the pony with loose ears in bags, -bound on either side of the saddle, or with strings of braided corn laid upon -the pony’s back.</p> - -<p>The husking season, like the green corn season, lasted about ten days. -The young men helped faithfully each day, and when they had husked all -the corn in one field, they moved to another. Thus all the corn piles were -speedily husked.</p> - -<p>The husking was always done in the field. We never carried the corn -to the village to be husked, as the husks would then have dried, and hurt -the hands of the husker. As we plucked the ears, we piled them in a heap -in the field, to keep the husks moist and soft.<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> - -<h4><i>Rejecting Green Ears</i></h4> - -<p>As the huskers worked they were careful not to add any green ears to -the husked pile. A green ear would turn black and spoil, and be fit for -nothing.</p> - -<p>Every husker knew this; and if a young man was helping another family -husk, he laid in a little pile beside him, any green ears that he found. These -green ears belonged to him, to eat or to feed to his pony.</p> - -<p>Last year a white man hired me to gather the corn in his field and husk -it; and I kept all the green ears for myself, for that is my custom. I -do not know whether that white man liked it or not. It may be he thought -I was stealing that green corn; but I was following the custom that I learned -of my tribe.</p> - -<p>I am an Indian; if a white man hires me to do work for him, he must -expect that I will follow Indian custom.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> - -<h4><i>Braiding Corn</i></h4> - -<p>Most of the corn as it was husked was tossed into a pile, to be borne -later to the village. This was true of all the smaller and less favored ears: -the best of the larger ears were braided into strings.</p> - -<p>As we husked, if a long ear of good size and appearance was found, it -was laid aside for braiding. For this purpose the husk was bent back upon -the stub of the stalk on the big end of the ear, leaving the three thin leaves -that cling next to the kernels still lying on the ear in their natural position. -The part of the husk that was bent back was cut off with a knife; -the three thin leaves that remained were now bent back on the ear, and the -ear was laid aside. Another ear was treated in the same way and laid beside -the first, also with its thin leaves bent back. And thus, until a row -of ears lay extended side by side upon the ground, all the ears lying point -forward.</p> - -<p>Another row was started; and the ears, also lying point forward and -leaned against the first row, were laid so as to cover the thin bent-back -leaves of the first row, to protect them from the sun. As the braiding was -done with these thin leaves, if they were too dry—as the sun was very apt -to make them—they would break.</p> - -<p>When a quantity of these ears, all with thin husk leaves bent back, had -accumulated, one of the huskers passed them to someone of the young men, -who braided them; or one of the women of the family owning the field -might braid them.</p> - -<p>Even with care the thin leaves were sometimes too dry for the braider -to handle safely; and he would fill his mouth with water and blow it over -the leaves.</p> - -<p>Fifty-four or fifty-five ears were commonly braided to a string; but the -number varied more or less. In my father’s family, we often braided -strings of fifty-six or fifty-seven ears.</p> - -<p>I do not know why this number was chosen; but I think this number -of ears was about of a weight that a woman could well carry and put -upon the drying stage.</p> - -<p>When the string was all braided, the braider took either end in his hand, -and placing his right foot against the middle of the string, gave the ends a -smart pull. This stretched and tightened the string, and made it look -neater and more finished; it also tried if there might be any weak places in it.</p> - -<p>We braided all varieties of corn but two, atạ´ki tso´ki, or hard white, -and tsï´di tso´ki, or hard yellow. These varieties we reckoned too hard to -parch, and for this reason they were not braided. We did, however, sometimes -parch hard yellow to be pounded up into meal for corn balls.</p> - -<p>The strings of braided corn were borne to the village on the backs of -ponies. Some families laid ten strings on a pony; but in my father’s family<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -we never laid on so many, believing it made too heavy a load for the poor -beast.</p> - -<p>The braided strings were hung to dry on the drying stage upon the -railing that lay in the upper forks; and if there was need, poles or drying -rods were laid across the rails and strings were hung over these also.<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> - -<p>These drying rods were laid across only where the forks supported the -rails (at the same places the staying thongs were tied), for at these places -the stage could better bear the weight of the heavy strings of corn; the drying -rods were bound at either end to the railing, to stay them.</p> - -<h4><i>The Smaller Ears</i></h4> - -<p>Meanwhile the smaller and less favored ears were being carried home in -baskets. It took the members of my father’s family a whole day, and the -next day following until late in the afternoon, to get this work done.</p> - -<p>Each carrier, as she brought in a basket of corn, ascended the log ladder -of the stage and emptied the corn on the stage floor. Here the corn -lay in a long heap, in the middle of the floor; for a free path was always -left around the edge for us women; having this path for our use, we did -not have to tread on the corn as we moved about. Also, if a pony came -in with a load of braided corn, the heavy strings could be handed up to us -women on the stage as we moved around in this free path.</p> - -<p>As I now remember, our family’s husked corn when piled on the stage -floor, made a heap about eight yards long and four yards wide, and about -four feet high in the middle, from which point the pile sloped down on all -sides. This was the loose corn, the smaller ears; and besides these there -were about one hundred strings of braided corn hung on the railing above -the heap. I give these measurements, judging as nearly as I can from the -size of our drying stage, and from our average yearly corn yield, when I -was a young woman. I think the figures are approximately accurate.</p> - -<p>For about eight days the corn lay thus in a long heap upon the stage. -At the end of that time the ears on the top of the heap had become dry -and smooth and threatened to roll down the sides of the pile. We now -took drying rods and laid them along the floor against the posts, two or -three of them, for the whole length of the stage on either side, and on the -ends of the stage. Planks split from cottonwood trunks were leaned -against these drying rods, on the side next the corn. The corn heap was -now spread evenly over the floor of the drying stage for the depth of about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -a foot; the split planks prevented the dry smooth ears from sliding off the -stage. The dry ears had a tendency to roll or slide down the sides of the -corn pile, as fresh ears did not.</p> - -<p>This spreading out the corn heap evenly had also the effect of stirring -up the underlying ears and exposing them to the air.</p> - -<p>If rain fell while the corn was thus drying on the stage, it gave us no -concern. The corn soon dried again, and no harm was done it.</p> - -<p>The corn, spread thus in an even heap, took about three more days to -dry, or eleven days in all. Then we began threshing.</p> - -<h4><i>Drying the Braided Ears</i></h4> - -<p>The strings of braided corn hanging on the rails at the top of the posts -of the drying stage, dried much more quickly than the loose ears heaped -on the stage floor. The wind, rattling the dry ears of the strings together, -was apt to shell out the drying kernels; it was therefore usual for us before -threshing time to tie these braids together so that the wind could not -rattle them.</p> - -<p>To do this I would ascend the ladder and make my way along the edge -of the stage floor, making places in the corn with my feet as I walked, so -that my feet would be on the stage floor and not tread on the drying corn. -I would push ten of the braided strings together on the rail or the drying -rod on which they hung, and tie them by passing around them a raw hide -thong.</p> - -<p>These braided strings, bound thus in bundles of ten, hung on the stage -until we were ready to store them in the cache pit; and this we could not -do until we had our main harvest, the loose ears, threshed and ready to -store also.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Seed Corn</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Selecting the Seed</i></h4> - -<p>I have said that for braiding corn we chose the longest and finest ears. -In my father’s family we used to braid about one hundred strings, some -years less, some years more, as the season had been wet or dry; for the -yield of fine ears was always less in a dry year. Of these braided strings -we selected the very best in the spring for seed.</p> - -<p>My mothers reckoned that we should need five braided strings of soft -white, and about thirty ears of soft yellow, for seed. Of ma´ikadicakĕ, or -gummy, we raised a little each year, not much; ten ears of this, for seed, -my mothers thought were a plenty.</p> - -<p>Hard white and hard yellow corn, I have said, were not braided, because -not used for parching. For seed of these varieties, some good ears -were taken from the drying pile on the corn stage and stored in the cache<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> -pit for the next year with loose grain of the same variety. The ears were -not put in a sack, but thrown in with the loose grain.</p> - -<p>When I selected seed corn, I chose only good, full, plump ears; and I -looked carefully to see if the kernels on any of the ears had black hearts. -When that part of a kernel of corn which joins the cob is black or dark -colored, we say it has a black heart. This imperfection is caused by plucking -the ear when too green. A kernel with a black heart will not grow.</p> - -<p>An ear of corn has always small grains toward the point of the cob, and -large grains toward the butt of the ear. When I came to plant corn, I used -only the kernels in the center of the cob for seed, rejecting both the small -and the large grains of the two ends.</p> - -<p>Seed corn was shelled from the cob with the thumb; we never threshed -it with sticks. Sometimes we shelled an ear by rubbing it against another -ear.</p> - -<h4><i>Keeping Two Years’ Seed</i></h4> - -<p>Corn kept for seed would be best to plant the next spring; and it would -be fertile, and good to plant, the second spring after harvesting. The -third year the seed was not so good; and it did not come up very well. -The fourth year the seed would be dead and useless.</p> - -<p>Knowing that seed corn kept good for at least two years, it was my -family’s custom to gather enough seed for at least two years, in seasons -in which our crops were good. Some years, in spite of careful hoeing, our -crops were poor; the ears were small, there was not much grain on them, -and what grain they bore was of poor quality. We did not like to save -seed out of such a crop. Also, frost occasionally destroyed our crop, or -most of it.</p> - -<p>When, therefore, we had a year of good crops, we put away seed enough -to last for two years; then, if the next year yielded a poor crop, we still -had good seed to plant the third season.</p> - -<p>In my father’s family we always observed this custom of putting away -seed for two years; and we did this not only of our corn, but of our squash -seeds, beans, sunflower seeds, and even of our tobacco seeds; for if I remember -rightly, the tobacco fields were sometimes injured by frost just -as were our corn fields.</p> - -<p>Not all families in our village were equally wise. Some were quite -improvident, and were not at all careful to save seed from their crops. -Such families, in the spring, had to buy their seed from families that were -more provident.</p> - -<p>Saving a good store of seed was therefore profitable in a way. In my -father’s family we often sold a good deal of seed in the spring to families -that wanted. The price was one tanned buffalo skin for one string of -braided seed corn.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus6.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Corn stage of Butterfly’s wife</p> -<p class="caption2">This stage lacks railings, and is floored Arikara -fashion with a willow mat. A pile of drying corn is seen on the stage -floor. In the ancient villages, where the lodges were crowded together, -the railings were always present.</p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus7.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Owl Woman pounding corn into meal in a corn mortar</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> - -<p>Even to-day, families on this reservation come to me to buy seed corn -and seed beans. A handful of beans, enough for one planting, I sell for -one calico—enough calico, that is, to make an Indian woman a dress, or -about ten yards.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Threshing Corn</span></h3> - -<h4><i>The Booth</i></h4> - -<p>The threshing season was always a busy one, for all the families of the -village would be threshing their corn at the same time.</p> - -<p>Corn was threshed in a booth, under the drying stage.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="fig12"> -<img src="images/figure12.jpg" width="500" height="275" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 12</p> -<p class="caption2">The figure has been redrawn from sketches by -Goodbird. The original is a stage now standing on the reservation, but -with mat of willows for floor; to this Goodbird added a threshing booth -as he saw used by his grandmother when he was a boy. Goodbird’s sketches -are closely followed, excepting that the floor of slabs is restored. The -figure tallies in every respect with Buffalobird-woman’s description, and -the model made by her for the American Museum of Natural History.</p> -</div> - -<p>To make the booth, I began with the section at one end of the stage. -As is shown in <a href="#fig12">figure 12</a>, on the posts <i>A</i> and <i>D</i>, and <i>B</i> and <i>C</i>, were bound -two poles, <i>e</i> and <i>f</i>, at about two feet below the stage floor; upon these were -bound two other poles, <i>g</i> and <i>h</i>; the poles <i>e</i>, <i>f</i>, and <i>h</i> were bound outside -of the posts that supported them.</p> - -<p>A long raw hide thong was used for the corner ties. The first pole was -raised in position and bound firmly to the post; and if a second pole was to -be laid over the first—as was done at two of the corners—the thong was -drawn up and made to bind it also to the post. We always kept a number of -these raw hide thongs in the lodge against just such uses as this; they were -strong, and served every purpose of ropes; we oiled them to keep them soft.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> - -<p>A tent cover was now fetched out of the lodge. Tents were of different -sizes, from those of seven, to those of sixteen buffalo cow hides. A -woman used whatever sized tent cover she owned; but a cover of thirteen -skins was of convenient size.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;" id="fig13"> -<img src="images/figure13.jpg" width="300" height="75" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 13</p> -</div> - -<p>Around the curved bottom of the tent cover was a row of holes, through -which wooden pins were driven to peg the tent to the ground. The tent -cover was bound to the four over-hanging poles, inside of the four posts, -by means of a long thong woven in and out through the holes, as shown -in <a href="#fig13">figure 13</a>.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="fig14"> -<img src="images/figure14.jpg" width="500" height="425" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 14</p> -</div> - -<p>Bound thus to the poles, and quite enclosing the space within them, -the tent cover made a kind of booth. The upper parts of the cover, including<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -the smoke flaps, that now hung sweeping the ground, were drawn -in and spread flat on the ground to make a floor for the booth; and stones -laid upon them weighted the cover against the wing.</p> - -<p>In <a href="#fig12">figure 12</a> the four posts, <i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, <i>C</i>, and -<i>D</i>, enclose one section of the drying stage; the -booth did not enclose the whole ground space -of this section, but about three fifths of it.</p> - -<p><a href="#fig14">Figure 14</a>, I think, will explain the arrangement -of the booth. The end corners, <i>X</i> and -<i>Y</i>, were bound to opposite posts, <i>M</i> and <i>N</i>, -respectively, the lapping edges, at <i>O</i>, forming -a door through which the threshers entered -the booth; <i>P</i> and <i>P´</i> were bound to posts at -<i>p</i> and <i>p´</i>; the final corner, <i>M</i>, was left untied -until the threshers had entered and were ready -to begin their task. (Compare with <a href="#fig12">figure -12</a>, in which, however, the posts are differently -lettered.)</p> - -<p>Before they did this they went above and -removed the planks and drying rods laid around -the edge of the stage floor, and pushed the -corn back toward the middle of the floor into -a long heap again, that it might not fall over -the edge, now that the planks were taken -away. One of the floor planks was now removed, -at <i>R</i>. Through the aperture thus -made, corn was pushed down to left and right -of <i>R</i>; this was continued until there was a pile -of corn just under the aperture, and running -the width of the booth, about eighteen or -twenty inches high.</p> - -<p>The threshers now entered the booth and -tied the corner at <i>M</i>, closing the door. In my -father’s family there were usually three threshers, -women; and they sat in a row on the floor -of the booth, facing the pile of corn. Each woman had a stick for a flail, -with which she beat the corn.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;" id="fig15"> -<img src="images/figure15.jpg" width="200" height="600" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 15</p> -</div> - -<p>Flails were of ash or cottonwood. An ash flail would be about three -and a half feet long and from three quarters of an inch to an inch in diameter, -and was cut green. A cottonwood flail was seldom used green; -and as it was therefore lighter than the green ash, a cottonwood flail was -a little greater in diameter, but of the same length. We were careful that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> -a flail should not be too heavy, lest it break the kernels in the threshing. -Kinikinik sticks were sometimes used for flails.</p> - -<p>A diagram (<a href="#fig15">figure 15</a>) has been drawn to illustrate how I worked in a -threshing booth when I was a young woman. As shown, I sat on the -extreme left; one of my mothers and my sister sat as indicated, on my right. -More than three seldom worked in a threshing booth at the same time, at -least in our family; however, I have known my sister, Not-frost, to make -a fourth. I have even known five to be threshing in the booth of some other -family in the village, but never more than five.</p> - -<p>To thresh the corn, I raised my flail and brought it down smartly, -but not severely, upon the pile of corn. The grain as it was thus beaten -off the dry cobs would fall by its own weight into the pile, and work its way -to the bottom; while the lighter cobs would come to the top of the pile.</p> - -<p>Beating the ears with the flails caused many of the kernels to leap and -fly about; but the tent cover, enclosing the booth, caught all these flying -kernels. It was, indeed, for this that the booth was built.</p> - -<p>As the cobs, beaten empty of grain, accumulated on the pile, we drew -them off and cast them out of the door of the booth upon a tent cover, -spread to receive them, under the middle section of the stage. Many of -these cobs had a few small grains clinging to them; and these must be saved, -for we wasted nothing.</p> - -<p>Having paused then to throw out the cobs, we returned to the pile and -thrust our flails in under it, drawing them upward through the corn, thus -working the unthreshed ears to the top. As much as we could, we tried -to keep the unthreshed ears in the middle of the pile, and the threshed grain -pushed to right and left, as will be seen by studying the diagram. To -thresh one pile, or filling of corn in a booth, took a half day’s work.</p> - -<h4><i>Order of the Day’s Work</i></h4> - -<p>Our habit was to begin quite early in the morning, enclose the booth -with the tent cover, and set to work threshing; finishing the first filling, -or pile, about midday. In the afternoon we began a second pile, first heaping -the already threshed grain to right and left, and behind the threshers.</p> - -<p>I have said that on the ground under the second section of the stage, -a second tent cover was spread to catch the cobs. A part of this tent -cover was drawn in under the edge of the booth to help carpet the floor -of the booth.</p> - -<p>At the end of the day we turned our attention to the pile of cobs; and -with our thumbs we shelled off every grain that clung to the cobs. From -the cobs of a day’s threshing we collected about as many grains of corn as -would fill a white man’s hat. This was taken into the booth and thrown on -the pile of threshed grain.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> - -<p>We now disposed of the grain for the night. If we had gotten -through threshing rather early in the day, we bore the newly threshed -grain in baskets into the lodge, and emptied it into a bull boat.</p> - -<p>If we had gotten through our threshing rather late in the day, we made -the door of the booth tight, and left the grain on the booth floor throughout -the night.</p> - -<h4><i>The Cobs</i></h4> - -<p>The day’s threshing over, we attended to the cobs. I have said that -we shelled off any kernels that clung to them after threshing, so that they -were now quite clean of grain.</p> - -<p>All day long, as we threshed, we had watched that no horses got at the -cobs to trample and nibble them, or that any dog ran over them, or any -children played in them. Then, in the evening, if the weather was fine, -and there was little wind, one of my mothers or I carried the cobs outside -of the village to a grassy place and heaped them in a pile about five feet -high. A pile of cobs of such a height I usually gathered from a day’s -threshing.</p> - -<p>In our prairie country, on a fair day, the wind usually dies down about -sunset; and now, when the air was still, I fired the cob pile. As the pile -began to burn, I could usually see the burning cob piles of two or three -other families lighting up the gathering dusk.</p> - -<p>I had to stay and watch the fire, to keep any mischievous boys from -coming to play in the burning heap. Children of from ten to fifteen years -of age were quite a pest at cob-firing time. They had a kind of game they -were fond of playing. Each would cut a long, flexible, green stick, and at -the edge of the Missouri he would get a ball of wet mud and stick it on his -stick. He would try to approach one of the burning piles, and with his -stick, slap the mud ball smartly into the burning coals, some of which, still -glowing, would stick in the wet mud. Using the stick as a sling, the child -would throw the mud ball into the air, aiming often at another child. -Other children would be throwing mud balls at one another at the same -time, and these, with the bits of glowing charcoal clinging to them, would -go sailing through the air like shooting stars. Knowing very well that -the children would get into my burning cobs if I even turned my back, I -was careful to stay by to watch.</p> - -<p>At last the fire had burned down and the coals were dead; and nothing -was left but a pile of ashes. It was now night, and I would go home. -Early the next morning, before the prairie winds had arisen, I would go -out again to my ash heap. On the top of the ashes, if nothing had disturbed -them in the night and an unexpected wind had not blown them -about, I would find a thin crust had formed. This crust I carefully broke -and gathered up with my fingers, squeezing the pieces in my hand into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> -little lumps, or balls. Sometimes I was able to gather four or five of these -little balls from one pile of ashes; but never more than five.</p> - -<p>These balls I carried home. There were always several baskets hanging -in the lodge, ready for any use we might want of them; and it was our -habit to keep some dried buffalo heart skins, or some dried buffalo paunch -skins, in the lodge, for wrappers, much as white families keep wrapping -paper in the house. The ash balls I wrapped up in one of these skins, into -a package, being careful not to break the balls. I put the package in one -of the baskets, to hang up until there was occasion for its use.</p> - -<p>These ash balls were used for seasoning. I have explained elsewhere -how we used spring salt to season our boiled corn; and that every day in -the lodge, we ate mä´dạkạpa, or pounded dried ripe corn boiled with beans. -But in the fall, instead of seasoning this dish with spring salt, or alkali -salt as you call it, we preferred to use this seasoning of ash crust.</p> - -<p>In my father’s family, for each meal of mä´dạkạpa we filled the corn -mortar three times, two-and-a-half double handfuls of corn making one -filling of the mortar. Each time we filled the mortar, we dropped in with -the corn a little of the ash crust, a bit about as big as a white child’s marble. -Finally, a piece about as big, or perhaps a little larger, was also dropped -into the boiling pot.</p> - -<p>We Indians were fond of this seasoning; and we liked it much better -than we did our spring salt. We did not use spring salt, indeed, if we had -ash balls in the lodge.</p> - -<p>We called these ash balls mä´dạkạpa isĕ´pĕ, or mä´dạkạpa darkener.</p> - -<p>We did not make ash balls if the dogs or horses had trampled on the -cobs; or if children had mussed in the fire; nor would we make ash balls -if the day had not been rather calm, for a high wind was sure to blow dust -into the cobs.</p> - -<p>We burned cobs and collected ash balls after every threshing day, unless -hindered by storm or high wind. But even if the harvest was a good one, -the ash balls that we got from the burned cobs for seasoning never lasted -long. We were so fond of seasoning our food with them that every family -had used up its store before the autumn had passed.</p> - -<h4><i>Winnowing</i></h4> - -<p>I have said that after the day’s threshing we stored the newly threshed -grain for the night, either in the booth or in a bull boat in the earth lodge; -and that we then fired the cobs that had accumulated during the day.</p> - -<p>The next morning we spread an old tent cover outside the lodge, near -the drying stage; and we fetched the loose grain of the previous day’s -threshing out of the booth, or the earth lodge and spread it evenly and -thinly upon the tent cover. The grain was here left to dry until evening.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> - -<p>A little before sunset, and before the prairie wind had died down, we -fetched baskets and winnowed the grain. The basket was half filled with -grain, held aloft, and the grain poured gently out in the wind. Wooden -bowls were often used for winnowing, -instead of baskets; but they did not -hold as much grain.</p> - -<p>The winnowing over, I would take -up a few grains of the corn to test -with my teeth. If, when I bit a kernel -in two, it broke with a sharp, -snappy sound, I knew it was quite -dried; if it broke dull and soft, I knew -the grain needed another day’s drying; -but at the most, this second -day’s drying was enough.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;" id="fig16"> -<img src="images/figure16.jpg" width="300" height="325" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 16</p> -</div> - -<p>The winnowed grain, now well -dried, was borne into the earth lodge -and stored temporarily in bull boats. -In the diagram (<a href="#fig16">figure 16</a>), is shown -where the bull boats full of grain used -to stand in my father’s lodge. Some years our harvest filled three bull -boats of threshed grain; some years it filled five. In the year illustrated -by this diagram, there were three bull boats standing between the planks -at the left of the door, and the fire; and two bull boats on the other side -of the fire, all full of grain.</p> - -<p>The threshed grain, I have said, received its final drying and winnowing -upon a tent cover (or covers) spread on the ground near the earth lodge. -It was my own habit always to spread these tent covers beside the drying -stage on the side farthest away from the lodge. However, the particular -spot where the winnowing was done, was determined by the convenience -of the household.</p> - -<p>We did not usually thresh consecutive days. We threshed one day; dried -the grain and winnowed it the second; and threshed again the third day.</p> - -<h4><i>Removing the Booth</i></h4> - -<p>During these days the booth did not remain always in one place. When -the corn on the floor of the first section had all been threshed, the booth -was removed to another section. I will now explain how this was done.</p> - -<p>In <a href="#fig17">figure 17</a> my son has diagramed the floor plan of my mothers’ stage -and threshing booth, as I remember them.</p> - -<p>The stage stands in front of Small Ankle’s lodge, which faces toward -the west. The stage is divided into three sections, <i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, <i>C</i>. The posts -upon which the floor of the stage rests are <i>d</i>, <i>e</i>, <i>f</i>, <i>g</i>, <i>h</i>, <i>i</i>, <i>j</i>, <i>k</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> - -<p>The booth was first raised under section <i>A</i>, based upon <i>fg</i> and enclosing -ground space <i>lmfg</i>.</p> - -<p>Sometimes we got up early, bound the poles to the posts and erected -our booth before breakfast; then after we had eaten, three or four of us -would go out to thresh, one first going up to push down the corn. She -raised a plank along the side, <i>fg</i>, just within the booth; this, if the door of -the booth was on the side <i>lm</i>. The corn on the floor of the stage in section -<i>A</i> was then shoved down as wanted.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 350px;" id="fig17"> -<img src="images/figure17.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 17</p> -<p class="caption2">Ground plan of earth lodge here accompanies that of -stage to show relative positions of the two structures. The -stage always stood, as here, directly before the lodge entrance. -The figures are drawn to scale.</p> -</div> - -<p>The corn pushed down for one threshing, made a pile running the -width of the booth, and about forty inches wide and twenty inches high. -When the pile was threshed one of the women went up and shoved down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -another pile. The corn in one section was threshed in about three such -piles.</p> - -<p>Sometimes, if we worked hard and had plenty of help, we threshed one -whole section in one day; but the beating, beating, beating of the corn was -hard work, and we more often stopped when wearied and rested until the -next day. I have already said that we often spent the next day at the -lighter work of drying and winnowing.</p> - -<p>When the corn in section <i>A</i> was all threshed, the booth was moved -over under the floor of section <i>B</i>, enclosing <i>fgno</i>; and again a plank was taken -up to let down the corn. Now this plank was always taken up above the -side of the booth opposite the door; and the door was always placed down -wind. Thus, if the wind was from the north, the door would be placed on -the south side of the booth, and the plank was taken up on the north side, -just within the booth. Corn was always threshed in the booth on the side -opposite the door.</p> - -<p>Sections <i>A</i> and <i>B</i> of my mothers’ stage, as shown in diagram (<a href="#fig17">figure 17</a>) -contained only yellow corn. Section <i>C</i>, or a part of it, contained white -corn. Braided strings of corn were also hung all around the railing above, -but these were not to be threshed.</p> - -<p>Section <i>B</i> having been threshed, the booth was removed to section <i>C</i>, -enclosing <i>hiqp</i>. I have said that this section had white corn. Now this -white corn was piled toward the south end of the stage; and between it and -the yellow corn was left a narrow vacant place on the floor. Above this -vacant place, meat was often dried; but this meat was removed when we -were ready to thresh.</p> - -<p>Placing the booth to enclose <i>hiqp</i>, directly under the vacant place, -made it easy for us to raise a plank here to push down the white corn. If -we had placed the booth on the south end of this section, we should have -had to dig into the corn piled here, in order to raise a plank.</p> - -<p>Our family’s threshing lasted about five days in a year of good yield; -if the year was a poor one, threshing lasted only two or three days.</p> - -<h4><i>Threshing Braided Corn</i></h4> - -<p>The strings of braided corn were stored in the cache pit (which I will -describe later) in the whole ear. If, during the winter, or the following -spring, I wanted to thresh a string of braided corn, I put the whole string -into a skin sack; and this sack I beat and shook, turning it over and around -until all the grain had fallen off the cobs. The sack was then emptied.</p> - -<h4><i>Amount of Harvest</i></h4> - -<p>Our harvested corn, in a good year, lasted my father’s family until the -next harvest, with a small quantity even then unused. Some years we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> -ran out of corn before the harvest came, but not often. We ate our corn -as long as it lasted, not husbanding it toward the last, because we knew -there were elk and buffalo and antelope to be had for the hunting. If we -ran out of corn at all, it was about the first of August; sometimes a little -earlier. Sometimes when we had eaten all our last year’s harvest there -was a small quantity from the previous season’s harvest with which we -eked out our shortage.</p> - -<p>My mothers, however, were industrious women, and our shortage, if -any, was never for long. Some families, not very provident, had consumed -all their harvest as early as in the spring; but such never happened in my -father’s family.</p> - -<h4><i>Sioux Purchasing Corn</i></h4> - -<p>The Standing Rock Sioux used to buy corn of us, coming up in midsummer, -or autumn. They came not because they were in need of food, -but because they liked to eat our corn, and had always meat and skins to -trade to us. For one string of braided corn they gave us one tanned -buffalo robe.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Varieties of Corn</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Description of Varieties</i></h4> - -<p>We raised nine well marked varieties of corn in our village. Following -are the names of the varieties:</p> - -<table summary="Names of bean varieties in the Hidatsa language and in English"> - <tr> - <td>Atạ´ki tso´ki<br />(White hard)</td> - <td>Hard white</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Atạ´ki<br />(White)</td> - <td>Soft white</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Tsï´di tso´ki<br />(Yellow hard)</td> - <td>Hard yellow</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Tsï´di tapa´<br />(Yellow soft)</td> - <td>Soft yellow</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ma´ïkadicakĕ<br />(Gummy)</td> - <td>Gummy</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Do´ohi<br />(Blue)</td> - <td>Blue</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Hi´ci cĕ´pi<br />(Red dark)</td> - <td>Dark red</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Hi´tsiica<br />(Light-red)</td> - <td>Light red</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Atạ´ki aku´ hi´tsiica<br />(White, kind of light red)</td> - <td>Pink top</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> - -<p>Our Hidatsa word for corn is ko´xati; but in speaking of any variety -of corn, the work ko´xati is commonly omitted. In like manner, atạ´ki -means white; but if one went into a lodge and asked for “atạ´ki” it was -always understood to mean soft white corn.</p> - -<p>Of the nine varieties, the atạ´ki, or soft white, was the kind most raised -in our village. The ma´ïkadicakĕ, or gummy, was least raised, as almost -its only use was in making corn balls.</p> - -<p>In my father’s family, we raised two kinds of corn, tsï´di tso´ki, or hard -yellow; and atạ´ki, or soft white.</p> - -<p>The names of the varieties suggest pretty well their characteristics. -The atạ´ki aku´ hi´tsiica, or white-with-light-red, was marked by a light -red or pink color toward the top or beard end of the ear. The name pink-top -which you suggest for this variety will, I think, do for an English -name, if the literal translation of the Indian term is, as you say, rather -clumsy.</p> - -<p>We planted each variety of corn separately. We Indians understood -perfectly the need of keeping the strains pure, for the different varieties -had not all the same uses with us.</p> - -<h4><i>How Corn Travels</i></h4> - -<p>We Indians knew that corn can travel, as we say; thus, if the seed -planted in one field is of white corn, and that in an adjoining field is of -some variety of yellow corn, the white will -travel to the yellow corn field, and the yellow to -the white corn field.</p> - -<p>Perhaps you do not understand what I mean -by corn traveling. Well, let us suppose that -there are two fields lying side by side, the one in -yellow, the other in white corn. When the corn -of the two fields is ripe, and the ears are opened, -it will be found that many of the ears in the -yellow rows that stand nearest the white field -will have white kernels standing in the cob; -also, in the rows of white corn that stand nearest -the yellow field, there will be many ears with -yellow kernels mixed in with the white kernels.</p> - -<p>We Indians did not know what power it -was that causes this. We only knew that it -was so. We also knew that when a field stands alone, away from other -fields, and is planted with white corn, it will grow up in white corn only; -there will not be any yellow grains in the ears. And so of any other -variety.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;" id="fig18"> -<img src="images/figure18.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 18</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> - -<p>Sometimes two women, owning adjoining fields, would make an agreement; -they would divide their fields into sections and plant the corresponding -sections on opposite sides of the division line alike. Thus in the diagram -(<a href="#fig18">figure 18</a>), <i>A</i> and <i>A´</i> may be planted in a variety of yellow corn; -<i>B</i> and <i>B´</i> may be planted in beans and squashes; and <i>C</i> and <i>C´</i> may be -planted in a variety of white corn; but even this did not make so very -much difference; still the corn traveled.</p> - -<p>We thought that perhaps the reason of this was that the ground here -was soft, or mellowed and broken by cultivation. We thought corn could -not travel readily over hard, or unbroken ground; and as you notice in the -diagram, although the two patches of yellow corn are separated from the -white corn by the two patches of squashes and beans, yet the beans and -squashes are in soft, or cultivated ground. We thought corn traveled -more easily over soft ground.</p> - -<p>However, we really did not know what made corn travel; we just knew -that it did.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Uses of the Varieties</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Atạ´ki Tso´ki</i></h4> - -<p>I think that perhaps at first, there was but one variety of corn, atạ´ki -tso´ki, or hard white; and that all other varieties have sprung from it. -I know that when we plant hard white seed, ears often develop that show -color in the grain. Sometimes ears are produced bearing pink grains -toward the beard end of the cob; such ears we call i´puta (top) hi´tsiica -(pink); that is, pink top, or light-red top. In color these ears differed in -no wise from atạ´ki aku´ hi´tsiica.</p> - -<p>Hard white was very generally raised, nearly every family in the tribe -having a field of it.</p> - -<p>There were two chief dishes chiefly prepared from hard white corn; -these I will now describe.</p> - -<p><i>Mäpi´ Nakapa´.</i> I put water in a pot, and in this I dropped a section -of a string of dried squash, with some beans. Dried squash was always -strung on long grass strings; and having, from one of these strings, cut off -a piece I tied the ends together, making a wreath, or ring, four or five -inches in diameter. It was this ring of dried squash slices that I dropped -into the pot. When well boiled, I lifted the squash slices out by the string -and dropped them into a wooden bowl, where I mashed them and chopped -them fine with a horn spoon. The mashed squash I dropped back into -the kettle again, with the beans; the now empty string I threw away.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile corn had been parched, and some buffalo fats had been -held over the coals on a stick, to roast. The parched corn and roast fats -I pounded together in the corn mortar; and the pounded mass I stirred -into the kettle. The mess was now ready to be eaten.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> - -<p>This dish we called mäpi´-nakapa´, or pounded-meal mush; from mäpi,´ -something pounded, and nakapa´, mush, something mushy.</p> - -<p>The dish was especially a morning meal; after eating it we started to -work.</p> - -<p><i>Mä´nakapa.</i> A second way of preparing hard white corn was as follows: -I pounded the corn in a mortar to a meal, but without first parching -it. Most of this meal was fine, but there were many coarser bits in it, -some of them as big as quarter grains of corn.</p> - -<p>Water was put in a kettle; I added the pounded meal, and when it boiled -put in beans. No fats were added.</p> - -<p>As the mess boiled. I stirred it with a wooden paddle to prevent scorching; -I did not stir with a horn spoon as the hot water softened and spoiled -the horn.</p> - -<p>When well boiled, the mess was served.</p> - -<p>We called this dish mä´nakapa´.<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> - -<p>A seasoning of spring salt, as we called it, was often added. A small -palmful of the salt was mixed with a little water in a horn spoon; this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -dissolved the salt and let the sand and dirt drop to the bottom. The dissolved -salt was poured off through the fingers, held to the mouth of the -horn spoon; this strained out the sand and dirt. The salt turned the mush -slightly yellow.</p> - -<p>As the soft mush boiled up in the cooking, we were fond of dipping a -horn spoon into it, and licking off the back of the spoon. This was especially -a children’s habit.</p> - -<p>Also at morning and evening meals we ate hard white corn parched -and mixed with fats; or mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a, boiled whole corn.</p> - -<h4><i>Atạ´ki</i></h4> - -<p>This is a soft, or as you call it, a flour corn, and was perhaps the favorite -variety grown by us. The word atạ´ki means white; but when -applied to corn we translate soft white, to distinguish from atạ´ki tso´ki, -or hard white.</p> - -<p>The use of atạ´ki, or soft white, was very general, since it could be made -into almost every kind of corn food used by us. “It is the one variety,” -we used to say, “that can be used in any and every way.”</p> - -<p>Soft white corn, parched and pounded into a meal, was boiled with -squash and beans to make mäpi´ nakapa´. The unparched grain was -pounded for meal to make mä´nakapa; but although good, we did not think -the mush made from soft white meal was as good as that from the hard -white corn meal.</p> - -<p><i>Boiled Corn Ball.</i> A less frequent dish made from soft white corn was -boiled corn balls; it was made only from the dried ripe grain.</p> - -<p>I pounded a quantity of grain into meal, and poured the meal into a -pot having hot water—but not too much water—stirring it well about. -I now lifted out some of the mass into my left palm and patted it down -with my right, making a cake about as big around as a baking powder -biscuit, but not so thick. This cake I dropped into a pot of boiling water, -where it sank to the bottom. I continued until the pot was full, or until -I had all I wished to cook.</p> - -<p>No salt or other seasoning was added.</p> - -<p>As the pot boiled, one could see the corn cakes move around in the -water; but they never floated, nor did they break apart. The boiling lasted -about an hour.</p> - -<p>In olden days we ate these corn balls alone; now we more often eat -them with coffee.</p> - -<h4><i>Tsï´di Tso´ki and Tsï´di Tapä´</i></h4> - -<p>The two varieties of tsï´di, or golden yellow corn, could be pounded -and boiled to make mush, or mä´dakapa; or they could be boiled whole, -to make mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> - -<p><i>Mạdạpo´zi I’ti´a.</i> For this dish I put the shelled ripe grain, with -fats, in a pot and boiled them until I saw the kernels break open; then I -added beans, and when these were boiled, the mess was served. This -dish we called mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a. I do not know the derivation of mạdạpo´zi; -i’ti´a means large. I think you can translate “corn boiled whole.”</p> - -<p>Hard yellow and soft yellow corn, roasted in the green ear, tasted sweet, -as if a little sugar were in them. Especially was this true at the time when -kernels were beginning to turn yellow. At this time each kernel shows a -little yellow spot on the very top. For this reason this season was called -tsi´dotsxĕ, or yellow-drop time; for the little yellow spot looked like a drop -on the top of the kernel.</p> - -<h4><i>Other Soft Varieties</i></h4> - -<p>Do´ohi, or blue, hi´ci cĕ´pi, dark red, and hi´tsiica, light red, were all -soft corns and were cooked and prepared and stored just like atạ´ki; these -four varieties tasted exactly alike, if cooked in the same way.</p> - -<h4><i>Ma´ikadicakĕ</i></h4> - -<p>Ma´ikadicakĕ, or gummy corn, is of different colors; some is of a light -red; some yellow flaked with red; and some is in color like hard white; -but all these slightly differing strains are alike in this, that when the kernels -dry they shrink up and become rough, or wrinkled. The name, ma´ikadicakĕ, -comes from kadi´cakĕ, or gum-like.</p> - -<p>Ma´ikadicakĕ was the least grown of our five principal varieties of corn; -however, a good deal of this variety is still raised on this reservation.</p> - -<p>Ma´ikadicakĕ was sometimes roasted green, when the kernels chewed -up gummy in the mouth; but the one recognized use of this variety was -to make corn balls.</p> - -<p><i>Mä´pĭ Mĕĕ´pĭ I’´kiuta</i>, or <i>Corn Balls</i>. Into a clay pot while yet cold, -I put shelled corn and set it on the fire. As the grain parched, I stirred -it with a stick. The heat made the kernels pop open somewhat, but not -much.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile fats were roasted over the coals on the point of a stick; and -these and the parched grain were dropped into the corn mortar and pounded -together. I then reached into the mortar and took out a handful of the -meal, which being oily with the fats, held together in a lump. This lump -I squeezed in my fingers and then tapped it gently on the edge of the mortar, -making a slight dent or groove, lengthwise, in one side of the lump. The -lump or ball—it was not exactly round—I dropped into a wooden bowl. -The process was repeated until the bowl was full.</p> - -<p>Our native name for corn ball is mä´pi mĕĕ´pĭ i’´kiuta, from mä´pi, -something pounded, mĕĕ´pĭ, mortar, and i’´kiuta, hit or pressed against;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> -that is pounded meal pressed against the mortar; but we translate, just -corn ball.</p> - -<p>Corn balls were an acceptable present for a woman to give her daughter -to take to her husband; the son-in-law might himself eat the corn balls, -or share them with his parents or sisters.</p> - -<p>As I have said, the one recognized use of gummy corn was for parching -to make corn balls; but any of the soft corns could be used to make corn -balls, as soft yellow, soft white, blue, light red, and the like.</p> - -<p><i>Parched Soft Corn.</i> Corn of any of the soft varieties parched in a pot -as just described, was often carried by hunters or travelers to be eaten as -a lunch. The corn was carried in a little bag made by drying a buffalo’s -heart skin.</p> - -<p><i>Parching Whole Ripe Ears.</i> We parched the whole ears, sometimes, -of ripe soft white and soft yellow corn. We had many squash spits piled -up in the rear of the lodge behind the beds; these made excellent roasting -sticks. The ear was stuck on the end of the stick and held over the coals.</p> - -<p>Parching ripe corn on the ear was a winter custom; but boys herding -horses in the summer also parched whole ears sometimes for their midday -lunch.</p> - -<p>We did parch other kinds of corn thus, besides soft white and soft yellow, -but they were not so good.</p> - -<p>The gummy was not cooked in this way.</p> - -<p><i>Parching Hard Yellow Corn with Sand.</i> We sometimes parched hard -yellow corn in a clay pot of our own make, with sand. Down on the sand -bars by the Missouri we found clean, pure sand; if I wanted to parch hard -yellow, I put a handful of this sand in my clay pot.</p> - -<p>The pot I now set on the coals of the fire place until the sand within -was red hot. With a piece of old tent skin to protect my hand, I drew the -pot a little way from the coals and dropped a double handful of corn within. -I stirred the corn back and forth over the sand with a little stick.</p> - -<p>When I thought the corn was quite heated through, I put the pot back -on the coals again, still stirring the corn with the stick. Very soon all the -kernels cracked open with a sharp crackling noise; they burst open much -as you say white man’s popcorn does.</p> - -<p>Hard yellow corn parched in this way was softer than even the soft -corns parched in a pot without sand.</p> - -<p>No variety of corn was good cooked in this way, except hard yellow; -no other kind would do.</p> - -<p><i>Mạdạpo´zi Pạ´kici, or Lye-Made Hominy.</i> There was another way in -which we prepared hard and soft yellow and hard and soft white; this -was to make it into hominy with lye.</p> - -<p>I collected about a quart of ashes; only two kinds were used, cottonwood -or elm wood ashes. When I was cooking with such wood and thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> -of making hominy, I was careful to collect the ashes, raking away the other -kinds first.</p> - -<p>I put on an iron kettle nearly full of water, and brought it to a boil. -Into the boiling water I put the ashes, stirring them about with a stick. -Then I set the pot off to steep for a short time.</p> - -<p>When the ashes had settled I poured the lye off into a vessel and cleaned -the pot thoroughly.</p> - -<p>In earlier times the ashes were boiled in an earthen pot as indeed I -have often seen it done when I was a girl. I was not quite twenty when -we bought an iron pot for cooking. Before that we used only earthen -pots for cooking in our family.</p> - -<p>Having cleaned the pot I poured the lye back into it, put the pot on -the fire, and added shelled, ripe, dried corn. This I boiled until the hulls -came off the grain and the corn kernels appeared white.</p> - -<p>I added a little water, and took the pot off the fire; I drained off the lye.</p> - -<p>I poured water into the pot and washed the corn, rubbing the kernels -between my palms; I drained off the water.</p> - -<p>I poured in water and washed the corn a second time, in the same way; -I drained off the water.</p> - -<p>Again I put water in the pot and boiled the corn in it. As the corn was -already soft, this boiling did not take long. I now added fats, and beans, -and sometimes dried squash, all at the same time; and the pot I replaced -on the fire. When the beans and squash were cooked, the mess was ready -to eat.</p> - -<p>Corn so prepared we call mạdạpo´zi pạ´kici, or boiled-whole-corn -rubbed. It is so called because the hulls of the kernels were rubbed off -between the palms at the time the corn was washed in water after the lye -was poured off.</p> - -<h4><i>General Characteristics of the Varieties</i></h4> - -<p>We Hidatsas thought that our five principal varieties of corn, hard and -soft white, hard and soft yellow, and gummy, had characteristics that -marked them quite distinctly one from the other.</p> - -<p>For one thing, they had each a distinct taste. If at night I were given -to eat of hard white corn, or hard yellow or soft yellow, I could at once -tell each from any of the others. If I were given mush at night made from -these three varieties, each by itself, I could distinguish each variety, not -by its smell, but in my mouth by taste.</p> - -<p>Meal made by pounding ripe hard white corn became thick and mushy -when boiled in a pot.</p> - -<p>Tsï´di tapa´, or soft yellow corn, was quite soft to pound when we made -meal of it; and the boiled meal, or mush, seemed to contain a good deal of -water in it—that is, it seemed thin and gruel-like when we came to eat it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> - -<p>To pound tsï´di tso´ki, or hard yellow corn, into meal took a long time; -but when it had been pounded and the meal boiled into food, it was very -good to eat and had an appetizing smell.</p> - -<p>Of the nine varieties I have named, the atạ´ki, or soft white, was the -earliest maturing. If seeds of all nine varieties were planted at the same -time, the soft white would always be the first to ripen in the fall; and the -tsï´di tso´ki, or hard yellow, would be the last to ripen.</p> - -<p>Although the blue, light red, dark red, pink top, and soft white were all -soft or flour corns, yet the soft white was the earliest to ripen. I reckon -the soft white, also, to be the softest of all our varieties of corn.</p> - -<p>I also rate the hard yellow and hard white as equal in value. Both -are equally hard, and can not be pounded up into the fine flour or meal -which we get from the soft varieties.</p> - -<p>The hard yellow and soft yellow we thought were the best varieties -from which to prepare half-boiled dried corn for winter storing. The -dark and light reds were also used, and if not quite so good, were but little -inferior. Indeed, for half-boiled dried corn, all varieties were used, even -the ma´ikadicakĕ, or gummy; but this last we did not think a good variety -for this way of putting up corn. Our gummy corn had but one well recognized -use; it was good for parching to make corn balls.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<div class="figmulti" style="width: 200px;" id="fig19"> -<img src="images/figure19.jpg" width="200" height="60" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 19</p> -</div> - -<div class="figmulti" style="width: 250px;" id="fig20"> -<img src="images/figure20.jpg" width="250" height="100" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 20</p> -</div> - -</div> - -<h4><i>Fodder Yield</i></h4> - -<p>I do not think there was any perceptible difference in the fodder yield -of the various races of corn which we Hidatsas cultivated; but the fodder -yield was always much heavier in rainy years. In a dry season, the stalks -of the corn would be small and weak; and the leaves would be smaller than -in seasons of good rainfall.</p> - -<h4><i>Developing New Varieties</i></h4> - -<p>We Hidatsas knew that slightly differing varieties could be produced -by planting seeds that varied somewhat from the main stock. A woman -named Good Squash used to raise a variety of corn that tasted just like -soft white. This corn had large swelling kernels with deep yellow, almost -reddish, stripes running down the sides of the grain. We called it Adaka´-dahu-ita<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> -ko´xati, or Arikaras’ corn, though it was not Arikara corn at all. -Good Squash’s daughter, Hunts Water, lives on this reservation; she may -have some of the seed of this variety.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Sport Ears</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Names and Description</i></h4> - -<p>Quite often ears of corn appear that are marked by some unusual form; -and for the more marked of these forms, we had special names. Following -are some of them:</p> - -<p><i>Na’´ta-tawo´xi.</i> From na’´ta, grain; and tawo´xi, a name applied to -youth, or the young, and conveying the idea of small. This is an ear of -corn having seventeen or eighteen rows of very small kernels. Our largest -ears of corn had usually but fourteen rows of kernels of normal size.</p> - -<p>In the old legends of my tribe appear many women bearing this name -Na’´ta-tawo´xi.</p> - -<p><i>Wi´da-Aka´ta.</i> From wi´da, goose; and aka´ta, roof of the mouth. -This is an ear having two rows of corn on either side, with vacant spaces -on the cob between the double rows; often, toward the larger end of the -ear, the two rows will expand into three. Goodbird has made a drawing -of such an ear (<a href="#fig19">figure 19</a>). A wi´da-aka´ta ear, we thought, looks like the -roof of the mouth of a goose.</p> - -<p><i>I´ta-Ca´ca.</i> Forked face, or cloven face; from i´ta, face. A kind of -double ear. Goodbird has made a drawing of one (<a href="#fig20">figure 20</a>).</p> - -<p><i>Okĕi´jpita.</i> From o´kĕ, or o´ki, head-ornament, plume; i´jpu, top; and -i´ta, fruit. This is a small ear that sometimes appears at the top, on the -tassel of the plant.</p> - -<p>Okĕi´jpita ears, if large enough, we gathered and put in with the rest -of the harvest; but smaller ears of this kind, hardly worth threshing, we -gathered and fed to our horses. Sometimes, if the harvesters were in haste, -these ears were left in the field on the stalk; a pony was then led into the -field to crop the ears.</p> - -<p><i>I´tica´kupadi.</i> I´tica´kupadi, or muffled head; so called because the -kernels come down and cover the face or bearded end of the cob quite to -the point. We thought such an ear looked like a man with his head muffled -up in his robe.</p> - -<p>Muffled-head ears were more numerous in good crop years than in -poor years; and we thought such ears, if otherwise well favored, made good -seed corn.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br /> -<span class="smaller">SQUASHES</span></h2> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Planting Squashes</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Sprouting the Seed</i></h4> - -<p>Squash seed was planted early in June; or the latter part of May and -the first of June.</p> - -<p>In preparation for planting, we first sprouted the seed.</p> - -<p>I cut out a piece of tanned buffalo robe about two and a half feet long -and eighteen inches wide, and spread it on the floor of the lodge, fur side up.</p> - -<p>I took red-grass leaves, wetted them, and spread them out flat, matted -together in a thin layer on the fur. Then I opened my bag of squash seeds, -and having set a bowl of water beside me, I wet the seeds in the water—not -soaking them, just wetting—and put them on the matted grass leaves -until I had a little pile heaped up, in quantity about two double-handfuls.</p> - -<p>I next took broad leaved sage, the kind we use in a sweat lodge, and -buck brush leaves, and mixed them together. At squash planting time, -the sage is about four inches high</p> - -<p>Into the mass of mixed sage-and-buck-brush leaves, I worked the wetted -squash seeds, until they were distributed well through it. The mass I -then laid on the grass matting, which I folded over and around it. Finally -I folded the buffalo skin over that, making a package about fifteen by -eighteen inches. We called this package kaku´i kida´kci, squash-thing-bound, -or squash bundle.</p> - -<p>This squash bundle I hung on the drying pole near one of the posts. -The bundle did not hang directly over the fire, but a little to one side. -Sed si femina in domo menstrua erat, she should tell it so that the package -of seeds could be removed to the next lodge, or they would spoil.</p> - -<p>After two days I took the bundle down and opened it. From a horn -spoon I sipped a little tepid water into my mouth and blew it over the -seeds. I took care that the water was neither too hot nor too cold, lest -it kill the seeds. I rebound the bundle and hung it up again on the drying -pole. At the end of another day the seeds were sprouted nearly an inch -and were ready to plant.</p> - -<p>I took a handful of the grass-and-leaves, and from them separated the -sprouted squash seeds. A wooden bowl had been placed beside me with a -little moist earth in it. Into this bowl I put the seeds, sprinkling a little -earth over them to keep them moist. I was now ready to begin planting.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> - -<h4><i>Planting the Sprouted Seed</i></h4> - -<p>Usually two or three women did the family planting, working together.</p> - -<p>One woman went ahead and with her hoe loosened up the ground for -a space of about fifteen inches in diameter, for the hill. Care was taken -that each hill was made in the place where there had been a hill the year -before. I am sure that in olden times we raised much better crops, because -we were careful to do so; using the same hill thus, each year, made the soil -here soft and loose, so that the plants thrived.</p> - -<p>One woman, then, as I have said, with her hoe, loosened up the soil -where an old hill had stood, and made a new hill, about fifteen inches in -diameter at the base. Following her came another woman who planted the -sprouted seeds.</p> - -<p>Four seeds were planted in each hill, in two pairs. The pairs should -be about twelve inches apart, and the two seeds in each pair, a half inch -apart. The seeds were planted rather under, or on one side of the hill, -and about two inches deep in the soil. A careful woman planted the seeds -with the sprouts upright; but even if she did not do this, the sprouts grew -quickly and soon appeared through the soil.</p> - -<p>We had a reason for planting the squash seeds in the side of the hill. -The squash sprouts were soft, tender. If we planted them in level ground -the rains would beat down the soil, and it would pack hard and get somewhat -crusted, so that the sprouts could not break through; but if we planted -the sprouts on the side of the hill, the water from the rains would flow over -them and keep the soil soft. Likewise, we did not plant the sprouted seeds -on the top of the hill because here too the rain was apt to beat the soil -down hard.</p> - -<p>We Indian women helped one another a good deal in squash planting; -especially would we do turns with our relatives. If I got behind with my -planting, some of my relatives, or friends from another family, would -come and help me. When a group of relatives thus labored together, four -women commonly went ahead making the hills, and two women followed, -planting the sprouted seeds.</p> - -<h4><i>Harvesting the Squashes</i></h4> - -<p>The squash harvest began a little before green corn came in. It was -our custom to pick squashes every fourth morning; and the fourth picking—twelve -days after the first picking—brought us to green corn time.</p> - -<p>The first picking was, naturally, not very large—three or four basketfuls, -I think, in my father’s family; and these we ate ourselves. The -basket used for bringing in the squashes was about fifteen inches across -the mouth and eleven inches deep.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> - -<p>The second picking was about ten basketfuls, enough for us to eat and -spare a little surplus to our neighbors. After this each picking increased -until a maximum was reached, and then the pickings decreased in size. -The fifth or sixth picking was usually the largest.</p> - -<p>The pickings were made before sunrise. In my father’s family, one of -my mothers and I usually attended to the actual picking. It was her -habit to get up early in the morning, go to the field and pluck the squashes -from the vines, piling them up in one place in the garden. She returned -then to the lodge; and after the morning meal, the rest of us women of -the household went out and fetched the squashes home in our baskets.</p> - -<p>Squashes grow fast, and unless we picked them every four days, we -did not think them so good for food. Moreover, squashes that were four -days old we could slice for drying, knowing that the slices would be firm -enough to retain their shape unbroken. If the squashes were plucked -greener, the slices broke, or crumbled.</p> - -<p>We could tell when a squash was four days old. Its diameter then was -about three and a quarter inches; some a little more, some a little less; -but we chiefly judged by the color of the fruit. A white squash should -just have rid itself of green; a green colored squash should have its color -a dark green. We could judge quite accurately thus, by the state of the -colors.</p> - -<p>The hills yielded some three, some two, some only one squash at a -picking. I have made as many as six trips to our family garden for the -squashes of a single picking; our garden was distant as far as from here to -Packs Wolf’s cabin—three quarters of a mile.</p> - -<p>We picked a good many squashes in a season. One year my mother -fetched in seventy baskets from our field. I have known families to bring -in as many as eighty, or even a hundred baskets, in a season.</p> - -<p>The baskets, as they were brought in, were borne up on the drying -stage, and the squashes emptied out on the floor for slicing and drying; -squashes not cooked and eaten fresh were sliced and dried for winter, -excepting those saved for seed.</p> - -<h4><i>Slicing the Squashes</i></h4> - -<p>Slicing squashes for drying began about the third picking. Sometimes, -in good years, a few squashes might be sliced at the second picking; but at -the third picking, slicing and drying began in earnest.</p> - -<p>When the squashes, emptied from the baskets, made a great heap on the -floor of the drying stage, the women of the family made a feast, cooking -much food for the purpose; some old women were then invited to come and -cut up the squashes with knives, into slices to dry. We regarded these -old women as hired; and I remember that in my father’s family we hired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -sometimes eight, sometimes ten, sometimes only six. I think that at the -time I was a young woman, when my mothers made such a feast, about -ten old women came.</p> - -<p>These old women ascended the drying stage, and sat, five on either side -of the pile of squashes. Each of the old women had a squash knife in her -hand, made of the thin part of the shoulder bone of a buffalo, if it was an -old-fashioned one; butcher knives of steel are now used.</p> - -<p>The squashes were cut thus:</p> - -<p>An old woman would draw a robe up over her lap, as she sat Indian -fashion, with ankles to the right, on the floor of the stage. She took a -squash in her left hand, and with her bone knife in her right, she sliced the -squash into slices about three eighths of an inch thick.</p> - -<p>The squash was sliced from side to side, not from stem to blossom. -An old woman slicing squash would take up a squash, cut out the stem -pit and the blossom, then turn the squash sidewise and slice, beginning -on the side nearest her. The cut was made by pressing the bone blade -downward into the squash as the latter lay in her palm.</p> - -<p>The first three slices and the last three of a large squash; or the first -two and the last two of a smaller squash, the old woman put beside her in -a pile, as her earnings for her work; upon this pile also went any squash -thought too small to be worth slicing.</p> - -<p>These end slices we thought less valuable than those from the middle -of the squash; and unlike the latter, they were not spitted on willow sticks, -but were taken home by the old woman worker in her blanket, or her robe, -or in something else in which she could carry them. About three sacks -of these inferior slices would be carried home at one time by an old woman -worker.</p> - -<p>These less valuable slices being cut close to the rind were of solid flesh. -The better slices had each a hollow in the center, caused by the seed cavity. -The old women did not spit their solid slices on willows, but dried them on -the ground, carefully guarding them against rain; for if wet, the drying -slices would spoil.</p> - -<h4><i>Squash Spits</i></h4> - -<p>All the better slices, the ones to be retained by the family that hired -the old women workers, were spitted on willow rods to dry.</p> - -<p>These rods we called kaku´iptsa; from kaku´i, squash; and i´ptsa, spit, -stringer. The word may be translated squash spit.</p> - -<p>Squash spits were usually made of the small willows that we call mi´da -hatsihi´ci, or red willow; from mi´da, wood; and hi´ci, light red. When -the outer skin of one’s finger, for example, is peeled off, the color of the -flesh beneath we call hi´ci. This red willow however is not kinikinik, -which white men call red willow.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> - -<p>A squash spit should be about half an inch in diameter; and its length -should be measured from the center of my chest to the end of my index -finger, as I do now; or about two feet, six, or two feet, seven inches.</p> - -<p>A spit was sharpened at one end to a point. At the other end there was -left about an inch of the natural bark like a button, to keep the squash -slices from slipping off. The rest of the rod was peeled bare.</p> - -<p>Small Ankle used to make our drying spits for us. He cut the rods in -June or early July when the bark peeled off easily; he peeled off the bark -with his teeth.</p> - -<p>It was his habit to cut quite a number of rods at a time and after peeling -them, he would tie them up in a bundle of about three hundred rods, so -that they would dry straight—would not warp, I mean, in drying.</p> - -<p>In seasons when they were not in use our squash spits were made into -a bundle as big as I could hold in my two arms and bound about with two -thongs. The bundle was stored away on the floor of the lodge, under the -eaves, or in the atu´ti, as we called the space under the descending roof. -The next year, in harvest time, the bundle was unbound and the spits examined -to see if any had warped. Such warped ones were thrown away, -and new ones were made to take their places.</p> - -<h4><i>Spitting the Slices</i></h4> - -<p>Each of the old women hired to slice our squashes worked with a pile -of these squash spits beside her; and as she sliced a squash she laid aside -those slices which she retained as her pay; and taking the others up in her -right hand, she spitted them with a single thrust, upon one of the willow -spits. The spitted slices were then separated about a half inch apart, so -that the first two fingers of the hand could be thrust astraddle the spit -between each slice and its neighbor. This was to give the slices air to dry.</p> - -<p>One willow spit held the slices of four squashes, and two slices from a -fifth squash, if the squashes were of average size.</p> - -<p>Sometimes an old woman brought her granddaughter along to help her, -the little girl spitting the slices as her grandmother cut them.</p> - -<p>Drying rods, which I have already described, were laid across the upper -rails of the stage; and each spit as it was loaded was laid with either end -resting on a drying rod. The spits were laid with a certain method. Each -projecting end bore two squash slices, which acted as a button to stay the -spit from being blown down by the wind.</p> - -<p>As the drying rods rested transversely on the upper rails, the spits -which the rods bore lay parallel with the rails, and therefore lengthwise -with the stage. The spits were laid with the heavier, or bark covered -end toward the front, or ladder end of the stage, which in our family, was -the right, as one came out of the lodge door.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/illus8.jpg" width="400" height="550" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Owl Woman putting squash slices on a spit</p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus9.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Squash slices drying</p> -<p class="caption2">Are on squash spits and on stage built to resemble -the top of an old time corn stage.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> - -<p>When a pair of drying rods was quite filled with these loaded spits, they -made what we called one i´tsạki—one walking stick, or one staff. We -counted the quantity of squash we dried as so many staves.</p> - -<p>We never laid the loaded spits on the floor of the stage, as the weight -of the load caused the drying squash slices to warp, thus making them hard -to handle.</p> - -<h4><i>In Case of Rain</i></h4> - -<p>If a sudden rain came up the day we began drying squash, we felt no -concern, for the slices having just been cut, were still green and would not -be harmed.</p> - -<p>But if rain threatened the second day, or thereafter, we women ran up -on the stage and drew the loaded spits toward the middle of the drying -rods; and over them we spread hides, upon which we laid poles, or unused -drying rods to weight the hides against the wind. Sometimes we even -lashed the poles down with thongs.</p> - -<p>If the drying squash got wet after the first day, the slices swelled up, -and the fruit spoiled.</p> - -<h4><i>Drying and Storing</i></h4> - -<p>When the squash slices had dried for two days, two women of the family -went up on the stage; and working, one from the front, the other from the -rear end of the stage, they took the spits one by one, and with thumb and -fingers of each hand slipped the drying slices into the middle of the spit, -thus loosening them from it; and for the same purpose, the spit itself was -turned and twisted around as it lay skewered through the slices. When -well loosened, the squash slices were again spaced apart as before, and -the spit was replaced on the rods, to be left for another day. On the -evening of the third day the slices were dry enough to string.</p> - -<p>The strings, three to six in number, had been prepared from dry grass. -Each string was seven Indian fathoms long; we Hidatsas measure a fathom -as the distance between a woman’s two outstretched hands. Each grass -string had a wooden needle about ten inches long, bound to one end.</p> - -<p>All the slices on one spit were now slid off and the worker by a single -thrust skewered the wooden needle through them and slid them down the -long string to the farther end; this end of the string was now looped back -and tied just above the first three or four slices of the dried squash that -fell down the string; doing thus made these slices act as a button or anchor -to prevent the rest of the squash slices from slipping off the string.</p> - -<p>In stringing the squash slices, the spit was held in the right hand, the -left hand straddling the spit with the index and second fingers. The slices -were slid down the spit toward the right hand, the spit being then drawn out -and cast away. The squash slices were held firmly in the first two fingers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> -and thumb of the left hand and the needle was run through the hole -left by withdrawing the spit. As the spit had a greater diameter than -the grass string, the slices easily slid down the string.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="fig21"> -<img src="images/figure21.jpg" width="400" height="150" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 21</p> -</div> - -<p>When stringing slices of squash myself, I always sat on the floor of the -drying stage with a pile of loaded spits at my left side. As I unloaded a -spit, I dropped it at my right side. The grass string hung over the edge -of the stage floor, on the side nearest the lodge. On the ground below I -had spread some scraped hides, so that the squash slices, falling down the -string, would not touch the ground and become soiled.</p> - -<p>When a string became full, I tossed the end over the edge of the floor, -letting it fall down upon the heap on the scraped hides.</p> - -<p>The needle used to skewer the slices was bound to the end of the grass -string two inches or more from its extremity, as shown in <a href="#fig21">figure 21</a>. When -the string was filled, one had but to turn the needle athwart, and it became -a button or anchor, preventing the slices from slipping off.</p> - -<p>The strings filled with dried squash slices, were now taken into the -lodge. Between the right front main post of the lodge and the circle of -outer posts and near the puncheon fire screen at the place it bent in toward -the wall, a stage had been built. Two forked posts, about as high as my -head, supported a pole ten or twelve feet long; and over this pole the strings -of squash were looped, care being taken that they hung at a height to let the -dogs run under without touching and contaminating the squash. I speak -of the right front main post; I use right and left in the Indian sense, which -assumes that an earth lodge faces the doorway; the door indeed is the lodge’s -mouth.</p> - -<p>On sunny days these strings were taken outside. Several of the long -poles, or drying rods, already described, were brought down from the top -of the stage and lashed to the outside of the stage posts on either side. -If the harvest was a good one, a row of these rods might extend the whole -length of either side of the stage, and even around the ends. On the railing -thus made the squash strings were taken out and hung on a fair day; in -the morning, on the east side; in the afternoon, on the west side of the stage.</p> - -<p>On wet days, the squash strings were left inside the lodge; and if the -rain was falling heavily, a tent skin, or scraped rawhides, dried and ready<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> -to tan, were thrown over them to protect from dampness. The air in -the lodge was damp on a rainy day; and sometimes the roof leaked.</p> - -<p>When the strings of squash were thought to be thoroughly dried, they -were ready for storing. A portion was packed in parfleche bags, to be taken -to the winter lodge, or to be used for food on journeys. The rest was stored -away in a cache pit, covered with loose corn.</p> - -<p>Several seasons, as I recollect, the women of my father’s family were -a month harvesting and drying their squashes.</p> - -<h4><i>Squash Blossoms</i></h4> - -<p>Besides our squashes, we also gathered squash blossoms, three to five basketfuls -at a picking; and they were a recognized part of our squash harvest.</p> - -<p>On every squash vine are blossoms of two kinds; one kind bears a squash, -but the other never bears any fruit, for it grows, as we Indians say, at -the wrong place among the leaves. We Indians knew this, and gathered -only these barren blossoms; if we did not they dried up anyway and became -a dead loss, so we always gathered them.</p> - -<p>These blossoms we picked in early morning while they were fresh, but -not if rain had fallen in the night, as the rain splashed dirt and sand into -the blossoms, making them unfit for food.</p> - -<p>The blossoms we took home in baskets. On the prairie there is a kind -of grass which we Indians call “antelope hair.” We chose a place where -this grass grew thick and was two or three inches high, to dry the blossoms -on. They were taken out of the basket one by one; the green calyx leaves -were stripped off and the blossom was pinched flat, opened, and spread on -the grass, with the inside of the blossom upward, thus exposing it to the -sun and air. A second blossom was split on one side, opened, and laid -upon the first, upon the petal end, so that the thicker, bulbous part of the -first—the part indeed that had been pinched flat—remained exposed to -dry. This was continued until quite a space on the grass was covered -with the blossoms.</p> - -<p>They remained all day drying. In the evening I would go out and -gather them, pulling them up in whole sheets. Splitting them open and -laying them down one upon another, caused them to adhere as they dried, -so that they lay on the grass in a kind of thin matting. I always began -pulling up the blossoms from one side of this matting, and as I say, they -came away in whole sheets.</p> - -<p>We put away the dried blossoms in bags, like those used for corn. These -bags were made with round bottom and soft-skin mouth that tied easily. -Bags were usually made of calf skin.</p> - -<p>In my father’s family we always put away one sack full of dried squash -blossoms for winter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Cooking and Uses of Squash</span></h3> - -<h4><i>The First Squashes</i></h4> - -<p>The first squashes of the season that we plucked were about three inches -in diameter; that is, they were gathered as soon as we thought they were -fit for cooking; and that same day we picked blossoms also.</p> - -<p>There might be three or four basketfuls of squashes at this first picking. -These squashes we did not dry, but ate fresh; as they were the first -vegetables of the season, we were eager -to eat them. We cooked fresh squashes -as follows:</p> - -<p><i>Boiling Fresh Squash in a Pot.</i> I -took a clay pot of our native manufacture, -partly filled it with fresh squashes -and added water. The smaller squashes -I put in whole; larger ones I cut in two. -I did not remove the seeds; left in the -squash they made it taste sweeter.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;" id="fig22"> -<img src="images/figure22.jpg" width="200" height="225" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 22</p> -<p class="caption2">Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.</p> -</div> - -<p>I now took big leaves of the sunflower -and thrust them, stem upward, -between the squashes and the sides of -the pot; the leaves then stood in a circle -around the inside of the pot, with the -upper surface of each leaf inward. I -added more squashes until the pot was -quite full, even heaping. The sunflower leaves I then bent inward, folding -them naturally over the squashes. I now set the pot on the fire.</p> - -<p>Under my direction Goodbird has made a sketch of a pot of fresh -squashes (<a href="#fig22">figure 22</a>); the sunflower leaves are placed and ready to be folded -down.</p> - -<p>Squashes thus prepared were boiled a little longer than beef is boiled. -The sunflower leaves were put over the pot merely as a lid or covering. -It is hard to cook squashes without a cover, and this was our way of providing -one. Blossoms were not added when squashes were thus prepared.</p> - -<p>When the cooking was done, the green sunflower leaves, used as a -cover, were removed with a stick, and thrown away.</p> - -<p>I had a bowl of cold water near by. I dipped my hand into the water -and lifted out the squash pieces one by one, and laid them on a bowl or -dish. The cold water protected my hand; for the squashes were quite hot.</p> - -<p>Most of the water in the pot had boiled out, only a little being left in -the bottom of the pot. The pieces of squash immersed in this hot water -I lifted out with a horn spoon. Not much water was ever put in the pot -anyhow, for it was the steam mostly that cooked the squashes. The pot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> -was quite heaped with squashes at the first, but the cooking reduced the -bulk, making the heap go down.</p> - -<p>The squash pieces in the bottom of the pot were apt to be a little burned -or browned; and so were made sweeter, and were very good to eat.</p> - -<p>This was the way we cooked fresh squashes in my father’s family until -I was eighteen years old; at that time we got an iron dinner pot, and began -to boil our food in it instead of the old fashioned clay pot.</p> - -<p>Fresh squashes, to be at their best, should be cooked on the day they -are picked; left over to the next day they never taste so good.</p> - -<p><i>Squashes Boiled with Blossoms.</i> Fresh squashes were sometimes boiled -with fresh blossoms and fats. Sunflower leaves were not then used as a -covering. Squashes so cooked were usually small; and when done, they -were lifted out of the pot with a horn spoon. Cooking this mess was really -by boiling, not steaming, as in the mess above described.</p> - -<h4><i>Other Blossom Messes</i></h4> - -<p>When I wanted to cook fresh squash blossoms, I plucked -them early in the morning, stripping them of the little points, -or spicules shown as <i>a</i>, <i>a´</i>, and <i>a´´</i> in <a href="#fig23">figure 23</a>. These spicules -I stripped backward, or downward. I do not know why we -did this; it was our custom. Then I broke the blossom off -the stem at the place in the figure marked with a dotted line. -The green bulbous part of the blossom I crushed or pinched between -my thumb and finger, to make it soft and hasten cooking; -for the yellow, blossom part soon cooked.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;" id="fig23"> -<img src="images/figure23.jpg" width="100" height="250" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 23</p> -</div> - -<p>I will now give you recipes for some messes made with -these fresh, crushed, spicule-stripped blossoms; however, dried blossoms -were often used in these messes instead, and were just as good.</p> - -<p><i>Boiled Blossoms.</i> A little water was brought to boil in a clay pot. A -handful of blossoms, either fresh or dried, was tossed into the pot and stirred -with a stick. They shrunk up quite small, and another handful of blossoms -was tossed in. This was continued until a small basketful of the -blossoms had been stirred into the pot.</p> - -<p>Into this a handful of fat was thrown, or a little bone grease was poured -in; and the mess was let boil a little longer than meat is boiled, and a little -less than fresh squash is boiled. The mess was then ready to eat.</p> - -<p><i>Blossoms Boiled with Mạdạpo´zi I’ti´a.</i> Mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a was made, -the pot being put on the fire in the early afternoon and boiled for the rest -of the day. In the night following the fire would go out and the mess -would get cold.</p> - -<p>In the morning the pot was set on the fire again, and if I was going to -use fresh blossoms I went out to the field to gather them, expecting to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> -return and find the pot heated and ready. The newly gathered blossoms, -crushed as described, I dropped in the rewarmed mess, and boiled for half -an hour, when the pot was taken off, and the mess was served.</p> - -<p>Sometimes this mess was further varied by adding beans.</p> - -<p><i>Blossoms Boiled with Mäpi´ Nakapa´.</i> The blossoms were first boiled. -Meal of pounded parched corn and fats were then added and the whole -was boiled for half an hour.</p> - -<p>Like the previous mess, this was sometimes varied by adding beans.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Seed Squashes</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Selecting for Seed</i></h4> - -<p>Seed squashes were chosen at the first or second picking of the season. -At these pickings, as we went from hill to hill plucking the four-days-old -squashes, we observed what ones appeared the plumpest and finest; and -these we left on the vine to be saved for seed. We never chose more than -one squash in a single hill; and to mark where it lay, and even more, to -protect it from frost, we were careful to pull up a weed or two, or break -off a few squash leaves and lay them over the squash; and thus protected, -it was left on the vine.</p> - -<p>There was a good deal of variety in our squashes. Some were round, -some rather elongated, some had a flattened end; some were dark, some -nearly white, some spotted; some had a purple, or yellow top. We did -not recognize these as different strains, as we did the varieties of corn; -and when I selected squashes for seed, I did not choose for color, but for -size and general appearance. Squashes of different colors grew in the same -hill; and all varieties tasted exactly alike.</p> - -<p>In later pickings, while we continued to gather the four-days-old squashes -we did not disturb the seed squashes. They were easily avoided, for if -not plainly marked by the leaves I have said we laid over them, they could -be recognized by their greater size, and their rough rind. A four-days-old -squash is smaller and has a smoother rind than a mature squash.</p> - -<h4><i>Gathering the Seed Squashes</i></h4> - -<p>The time for plucking the seed squashes was after we had gathered the -first ripe corn, but had not yet gathered our seed corn. It was our custom to -pluck our corn until the first frost fell; then to gather our seed squashes; and -afterwards our seed corn. Some years the first frost fell very early, before -we had plucked our first corn; in such seasons we gathered our seed squashes -first, for we never let them lie in the field after the first frost had set in.</p> - -<p>On this reservation the first frost falls at the end of the moon following -this present moon. We Indians call the present moon the wild cherry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -moon, because June berries ripen in the first half, and choke-cherries in the -second half of the moon; and we reckon June berries as a kind of cherry. -Our next moon we call the harvest moon; and in it wild plums ripen and -the first frost falls.</p> - -<p>The seed squashes when plucked, were all taken into the earth lodge -and laid in a pile, on a bench. The bench was made of planks split from -cottonwood trunks, laid lengthwise with the lodge wall. The squashes -were piled in a heap on this bench; they were bigger than four-days-old -squashes and their rinds were rougher and hard, like a shell.</p> - -<h4><i>Cooking the Ripe Squashes</i></h4> - -<p>When now we wanted to have squash for a meal, I went over to this -heap of ripe seed squashes and brought a number over near the fire. There -I broke them open, carefully saving the seeds. I would lay a squash on -the floor of the lodge; with an elk horn scraper I would strike the squash -smart blows on the side, splitting it open.</p> - -<p>The broken half rinds I piled up one above another, concave side down, -until ready to put them in the pot. Ripe squashes were less delicate than -green four-days-old squashes, and did not spoil so quickly.</p> - -<p>I was able to boil about ten ripe squashes in our family pot; but it took -three such cookings of ten squashes each to make a mess for our family, -which I have said was a large one. We boiled these ripe squashes like the -four-days-old, in a very little water.</p> - -<h4><i>Saving the Seed</i></h4> - -<p>Always near the fireplace in our lodge there lay a piece of scraped hide -about two feet square. It had many uses. When boiling meat we would -lift the steaming meat from the pot and lay it on the hide before serving. -We also used the hide for a drying cloth.</p> - -<p>This piece of hide I drew near me when I was breaking ripe squashes; -and as I removed the seeds I laid them in a pile on the hide. Squash seeds, -freshly removed from the squash, are moist and mixed with more or less -pulpy matter. To remove this pulp I took up a small handful of the fresh -seeds, laid a dry corn cob in my palm and alternately squeezed and opened -my hand over the mess. The porous surface of the cob absorbed the moisture -and sucked up the pulpy matter, thus cleansing the seeds. As the -cleansed seeds fell back upon the hide I took up another handful and -repeated the process.</p> - -<p>If there was a warm autumn sun, I often carried the hide with the -cleansed seeds upon it, and laid it on the floor of the drying stage outside -for the seeds to dry; but if the day was chill or winter had set in, I -dried the seeds by the fire.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> - -<p>When quite dried, the seeds were put in a skin sack to be stored in a -cache pit. The storing bag was often the whole skin of a buffalo calf, -with only the neck left open for a mouth; or it might be made of a small -fawn skin; or it might be made of a piece of old tent cover and shaped like -a cylinder.</p> - -<h4><i>Eating the Seeds</i></h4> - -<p>Sometimes we boiled ripe squashes whole, seeds and all; and we then -ate the seeds. They tasted something like peanuts.</p> - -<p>These seeds of boiled squashes were eaten just as they came from the -squash. I would take up two or three seeds in my mouth, crushing -them with my teeth; and with my tongue I would separate the kernels -from the shells which I spat out. I was rather fond of squash seeds.</p> - -<p>I have also heard of families who prepared squash seeds by parching -or roasting; but I never did this myself.</p> - -<h4><i>Roasting Ripe Squashes</i></h4> - -<p>I have heard that in old days my tribe used to roast fall-kept ripe -squashes. They were buried in the ashes and roasted whole. I never -did this myself, however.</p> - -<p>There is a story that an old man who was blind, was handed a squash -thus roasted. He found the squash to his liking, but did not know how it -had been cooked.</p> - -<p>“Girl,” he cried, “let me have the broth this was boiled in!”</p> - -<p>“The squash was roasted in the ashes; it has no broth,” answered the -girl who had handed it to him.</p> - -<p>The blind man laughed. “I thought it was boiled in a pot,” he said.</p> - -<p>I judge from this story that several squashes had been roasted, and -that the blind man got one as his share.</p> - -<h4><i>Storing the Unused Seed Squashes</i></h4> - -<p>It was our custom to remove to our winter village in the mida´-pạx´di -widi´c, or leaf-turn-yellow moon; it corresponds about to October. I remember -the leaves used to be falling from the trees while we were working -about our winter lodges, getting ready for cold weather.</p> - -<p>When moving time came in the fall, any squashes left over in the lodge, -uneaten, were stored in a cache pit until spring. But it was a difficult -thing to store these squashes so that they would keep sound; and when -spring came many of them would be found to have rotted. Some families -were more careful in making ready and storing their cache pits than were -others. Squashes kept best when stored in carefully prepared pits.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> - -<p>On the family’s return the next spring the cache pit was opened; and -the squashes that had kept sound could be used for cooking, and their -seeds could be planted. The number thus stored over winter was not -large.</p> - -<p>The seeds of rotted squashes were just as good to plant as were the -seeds of the sound squashes.</p> - -<p>We carried no squash seeds with us to our winter village. For our -spring planting we depended on the seed we had left stored in the cache -in our summer lodge, in my father’s family.</p> - -<p>The seeds of a ripe squash are swelled and plump in the center; -those of a four-days-old squash are flat. We could tell in this way if -squash seeds were ripe.</p> - -<h4><i>Squashes, Present Seed</i></h4> - -<p>I grew our native squashes in my son Goodbird’s garden until four -years ago. I stopped cultivating them because my son’s family did not -seem to care to eat them. Last year a squash vine came up wild in my -son’s garden. The squashes that grew on it were of two colors. I saved -some of the seed and planted them this year. It is from their yield that I -have given you seed.</p> - -<p>As I have said, squashes were of different colors and varied a good deal -in shape; yet we recognized but one strain of seed. “We plant but one -kind of seed,” we said, “and all colors and shapes grow from it, dark, white, -purple, round, elongated.”</p> - -<h4><i>Squash Dolls</i></h4> - -<p>There is one other thing I will tell before we forsake the subject of -squashes. Little girls of ten or eleven years of age used to make dolls of -squashes.</p> - -<p>When the squashes were brought in from the field, the little girls would -go to the pile and pick out squashes that were proper for dolls. I have -done so, myself. We used to pick out the long ones that were parti-colored; -squashes whose tops were white or yellow and the bottoms of some other -color. We put no decorations on these squashes that we had for dolls. -Each little girl carried her squash about in her arms and sang for it as for -a babe. Often she carried it on her back, in her calf skin robe.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI<br /> -<span class="smaller">BEANS</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Planting Beans</i></h3> - -<p>Bean planting followed immediately after squash planting.</p> - -<p>Beans were planted in hills the size and shape of squash hills, or about -seven by fourteen inches; but if made in open ground the hills were not -placed so far apart in the row. Squash hills, like corn hills, stood about -four feet apart in the row, measuring from center to center; but bean hills -might be placed two feet or less in the row.</p> - -<p>Beans, however, were very commonly planted not in open ground, but -between our rows of corn; the hills were arranged as shown in diagram -(<a href="#fig8">figure 8, page 25</a>).</p> - -<p>Corn hills, I have said, stood four feet, or a little less in the row, and the -rows were about four feet apart,<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> when corn was planted by itself. But if -beans were to be planted between, the corn rows were placed a little farther -apart, to make room for the bean hills.</p> - -<h3><i>Putting in the Seeds</i></h3> - -<p>To make a hill for beans, I broke up and loosened the soil with my hoe, -scraping away the dry top soil; the hill I then made of the soft, slightly -moist under-soil. The hill, as suggested by the measurements, was rather -elongated.</p> - -<p>I took beans, three in each hand, held in thumb and first two fingers, -and buried them in a side of the hill, two inches deep, by a simultaneous -thrust of each hand, as I stooped over; the two groups of seeds were six -inches apart.</p> - -<p>I have heard that some families planted four seeds in each group, instead -of three; but I always put in three seeds and think that the better -way. <a href="#fig24">Figure 24</a> will explain the two ways of planting.</p> - -<p>I am not sure that I know just why we planted beans always in the side -of the hill; I have said we planted squash thus because the sprouted seeds -were tender and the soil in the side of the hill did not bake hard after a -rain. Also, we were careful not to make our bean hills too large, as the -heavy rains turned the soft soil into mud which beat down over the vines, -killing them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Hoeing and Cultivating</i></h3> - -<p>These subjects I have sufficiently described, I think, when I told you -how we hoed and cultivated corn.</p> - -<h3><i>Threshing</i></h3> - -<p>Threshing was in the fall, after the beans had ripened and the pods were -dead and dried. Sometimes, when the weather had been favorable, the -bean vines were quite dry and could be threshed the same day they were -gathered. But if the weather was a little damp, or if, as was usually the -case, the vines were still a little green, they had to be dried a day or two -before they could be threshed.</p> - -<p>To prepare for this labor, I went out into the field and pulled up all the -corn stalks in a space four or five yards -in diameter; this was for a drying place.</p> - -<p>I pulled up the vines of one bean hill -and transferred them to my left hand, -where I held them by the roots; I gathered -another bunch of bean vines in my -right hand, as many as I could conveniently -carry; and I took these vines, -borne in my two hands, to the drying -place, and laid them on the ground, roots -up, spreading them out a little. I thus -worked until I had pulled up all the vines -that grew near the drying place.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;" id="fig24"> -<img src="images/figure24.jpg" width="200" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 24</p> -<p class="caption2">Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.</p> -</div> - -<p>I made several such drying places, -as the need required; and on them I put all the bean vines to dry.</p> - -<p>At the end of about three days, when the vines were dry I took out -into the field half of an old tent cover and laid it on the ground in an open -space made by clearing away the corn stalks. This tent cover, so laid, was -to be my threshing floor.</p> - -<p>We never laid this tent cover at the edge of the field on the grass, because -in threshing the vines, some of the beans would fly up and fall outside -the tent cover, on the ground. We always picked these stray beans up carefully, -after threshing. This could not be done if we threshed on the grass.</p> - -<p>My threshing floor ready, I took up some of the dry vines and laid them -on the tent cover in a heap, about three feet high. I got upon this heap -with my moccasined feet and smartly trampled it, now and then standing -on one foot, while I shuffled and scraped the other over the dry vines; -this was done to shake the beans loose from their pods.</p> - -<p>When the vines were pretty well trampled I pushed them over two or -three feet to one side of the tent cover; and having fetched fresh vines, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> -made another heap about three feet high, which also I trampled and pushed -aside. When I had trampled three or four heaps in this manner I was ready -to beat them.</p> - -<p>We preferred to tread out our beans thus, because beating them with -a stick made the seeds fly out in all directions upon the ground; when the -vines were trampled, this would not happen. However, after the treading -was over, there were always a few unopened pods still clinging to the -vines; and to free the beans from these pods, we beat the vines at the end -of every three or four treadings.</p> - -<p>This beating I did with a stick, about the size of the stick used as a flail -in threshing corn.</p> - -<p>I always threshed my beans on a windy day if possible, so that I might -winnow them immediately after the threshing. If the wind died down, I -covered over the threshed beans and waited until the wind came up again. -A small carrying basket or a wooden bowl, was used to winnow with.</p> - -<p>After the beans were winnowed, they were dried one more day, either -on a tent cover in the garden, or at home on a skin placed on the ground -near the drying stage. At the end of this day’s drying, they were ready -to be packed in sacks.</p> - -<p>Our bean harvests varied a good deal from year to year; in my father’s -family, from as little as half a sack, to as much as three barrels. The biggest -harvest our family ever put up, that I remember, was equivalent to -about three barrelfuls. Of course we did not use barrels in those days.</p> - -<p>Bean threshing never lasted long; it was work that could be done rapidly.</p> - -<p>Gathering up the vines, threshing, and winnowing took about a day -and a half; the actual threshing lasted only about half a day. But this -does not take into account the time the vines and the threshed beans lay -drying.</p> - -<p>I remember that one year, when our crop was of good size, for the whole -work of threshing and labor of getting our bean crop in, I spent but three -days. In this time I had gathered up the vines, threshed them, and winnowed -the threshed beans.</p> - -<p>However, the time necessary for these labors varied much with the -crop, the weather, and the greenness of the vines.</p> - -<h3><i>Varieties</i></h3> - -<p>There were five varieties of beans in common use in my tribe, as follows:</p> - -<table summary="Names of bean varieties in the Hidatsa language and in English"> - <tr> - <td>Ama´ca ci´pica</td> - <td>Black bean</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ama´ca hi´ci</td> - <td>Red bean</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ama´ca pu´xi</td> - <td>Spotted bean</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ama´ca ita´ wina´ki matu´hica</td> - <td>Shield-figured bean</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ama´ca atạ´ki</td> - <td>White bean</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> - -<p>These varieties we planted, each by itself; and each kind, again, was -kept separate in threshing; also, only beans of the same variety were put -in one bag for storing. Black, red, white, shield-figured, spotted, each -had a separate bag.</p> - -<p>Besides the foregoing varieties, there were some families who raised a -variety of yellow beans. I once planted some seed of this variety, but did -not find that they bred very true to color; I do not know if this was because -I did not get very good seed.</p> - -<p>I do not think these yellow beans were in use in my tribe in very old -times. Whether they were imported to us by white men, or, as seems likely, -were brought from other tribes, I do not know.</p> - -<p>The white beans now raised in this part of the reservation, seed of which -you have purchased, is from white man’s stock. The seed was brought to -us, I think, when I was a little girl, or about sixty years ago. But we -Hidatsas and Mandans had white beans before this. The two strains are -easily distinguished. In the white man’s variety, the eye is a little sunken -in the seed. In the native white beans, the eye is on a level with the body -of the bean.</p> - -<h3><i>Selecting Seed Beans</i></h3> - -<p>In the spring, when I came to plant beans, I was very careful to select -seed for the following points: seed should be fully ripe; seed should be of -full color; seed should be plump, and of good size.</p> - -<p>If the red was not a deep red, or the black a deep black, I knew the -seed was not fully ripe, and I would reject it. So also of the white, the -spotted, and the shield-figured.</p> - -<p>Did I learn from white men thus to select seed? (Laughing heartily.) -No, this custom comes down to us from very old times. We were always -taught to select seed thus, in my tribe.</p> - -<p>White men do not seem to know very much about raising beans. Our -school teacher last year raised beans in a field near the school-house; and -when harvest time came, he tried to pluck the pods directly into a basket, -without treading or threshing the vines. I think it would take him a very -long time to harvest his beans in that manner.</p> - -<h3><i>Cooking and Uses</i></h3> - -<p>Of the several varieties, I like to eat black beans best. Especially I like -to use black beans in making mä´dakapa. However, all the other kinds -were good.<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> - -<p>I have already described to you some of the dishes we made, and still -make, with beans. Following are some messes I have not described:</p> - -<p><i>Ama´ca Di´hĕ</i>, or <i>Beans-Boiled</i>. The beans were boiled in a clay pot, -with a piece of buffalo fat, or some bone grease. If the beans were dried -beans, they were boiled a little longer than squash is boiled—a half hour or -more. Spring salt, or other seasoning, was not used.</p> - -<p>Green beans, shelled from the pod, were sometimes prepared thus, -boiled with buffalo fat or bone grease; but green beans did not have to -be boiled quite as long as dried beans.</p> - -<p><i>Green Beans Boiled in the Pod.</i> Green beans in the pod we boiled and -ate as a vegetable from the time they came in until fall; but we did not -plant beans, as we did corn, to make them come in late in the season, that -we might then eat them green.</p> - -<p>Green beans in the pod were boiled in a clay pot, with a little fat thrown -in. Pods and seeds were eaten together.</p> - -<p>But a green bean pod has in it two little strings that are not very good -to eat. At meal time the boiled pod was taken up in the fingers and carried -to the eater’s mouth. At one end of the pod is always a kind of little -hook; the unbroken pod was taken into the mouth with this little hook -forward, between the teeth; and the eater, seizing the little hook between -thumb and finger, drew it out of his mouth with the two little strings that -were always attached to the hook.</p> - -<p><i>Green Corn and Beans.</i> Pounded green shelled corn was often boiled -with green beans, shelled from the pod.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII<br /> -<span class="smaller">STORING FOR WINTER</span></h2> - -<h3><i>The Cache Pit</i></h3> - -<p>We stored our corn, beans, sunflower seed and dried squash in cache -pits for the winter, much as white people keep vegetables in their cellars.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="fig25"> -<img src="images/figure25.jpg" width="400" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 25</p> -<p class="caption2 center">Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.</p> -</div> - -<p>A cache pit was shaped somewhat like a jug, with a narrow neck at the -top. The width of the mouth, or entrance, was commonly about two feet; -on the very largest cache pits the mouth was never, I think, more than two -feet eight, or two feet nine inches. In diagram (<a href="#fig25">figure 25</a>), the width of -pit’s mouth at <i>BB´</i> should be a little more than two feet, narrowing to -two feet a little higher up.</p> - -<p>In my father’s family, we built our cache pits so that they were each -of the size of a bull boat at the bottom. Other measurements were, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> -I here show with my hands, one foot eight inches from the top of the mouth, -where it is level with the ground, down to the puncheon cover that lay in -the trench dug for the purpose; and two feet and a half from this plank -cover to the lower part of the neck, marked <i>BB´</i> in the diagram.</p> - -<p>Descent into one of these big cache pits was made with a ladder; but -in a small one, such as I have made you in vertical-section model, in a bank -by the Missouri, and which you have photographed, the depth was not -so great. In one of these smaller pits, when standing on the floor within, -my eyes just cleared the level of the ground above, so that I could look -around. When such a pit was half full of corn, I could descend and come -out again, without the help of a ladder. At other times I had to be helped -out; I would hold up my hands, and my mother, or some one else, would -come and give me a lift.</p> - -<p>Usually, two women worked together thus in a cache pit, one helping -the other out, or taking things from her hands. One of my mothers was -usually my helper.</p> - -<p>The digging and storing of a cache pit was women’s work. For digging -the pit, a short handled hoe was used; of iron, in my day; of bone, I -have heard, in olden times.</p> - -<p>I have dug more than one cache pit myself. I began by digging the -round mouth, dragging the loosened earth away with my hoe. As the -pit grew in depth, the excavated earth was carried off in a wooden bowl. -I stood in the pit with the bowl at my feet and labored with my hoe, raking -the earth into the bowl. When it was full, I handed the bowl to my -mother, who bore it away and emptied it.</p> - -<p>It took me two days and a good part of a third to dig a cache pit, my -mother helping me to carry off the dirt; such a cache pit, I mean, as we used -in my father’s family, and which, as I have said, was large enough for a -bull boat cover to be fitted into the bottom.</p> - -<p>A trench for the puncheon cover of the mouth was the very last part -of the cache pit to be dug; but I will describe the use of this trench a little -farther on.</p> - -<h3><i>Grass for Lining</i></h3> - -<p>When the cache pit was all dug, it had next to be lined with grass. -The grass used for this purpose, and for closing the mouth of the cache -pit, was the long bluish kind that grows near springs and water courses on -this reservation; it grows about three feet high. In the fall, this kind of -grass becomes dry at the top, but is still green down near the roots; and we -then cut it with hoes and packed it in bundles, to the village.</p> - -<p>This bluish grass was the only kind used for lining a cache pit. We -knew by repeated trials that other kinds of grass would mold, and did not -keep well.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Grass Bundles</i></h3> - -<p>I remember, one time, I went out with my mother to cut grass. I -took a pony along to pack our loads home. I loaded the pony with four -bundles of grass, two on each side, bound to the saddle. A bundle was -about four feet long, and from two and a half to three feet thick, pressed -tight together. One bundle made a load for a woman.</p> - -<p>Besides the four bundles loaded on my pony, my mother packed one -bundle back to the village, and three or four dogs dragged each a bundle -on a travois.</p> - -<p>We reckoned that three of these bundles would be needed to line and -close a large cache pit; and two and a half bundles, for a smaller pit. A -hundred such bundles were needed to cover the roof of an earth lodge. -Long established use made us able to make the bundles about alike in -weight, though of course we had no scales to weigh them in those days.</p> - -<h3><i>The Grass Binding Rope</i></h3> - -<p>Each bundle was bound with a rope of grass. In a bed of this grass as -it stands by the spring or stream, there is often found dead grass from the -year before, or even from two years previous, standing among the other -grass stems that are still somewhat green at the roots. To make a binding -rope I must use only dead grass. I did so in this manner:</p> - -<p>I stooped, took a wisp of grass in my hands, twisting it to the left and -at the same gently lifting it, when all the dry stems would break off at -the roots. I took a half step forward, laid the twisted end of the strand on -the ground, and grasped another wisp of grass, which I twisted to the -left and broke off as before; but I twisted the new wisp in such manner -that it made part of the continued twisted strand. I continued thus until -I had a strand long enough to tie my bundle. <a href="#fig26">Figure 26</a> is a sketch made -after my description of a grass bundle, showing the grass rope and the tie.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;" id="fig26"> -<img src="images/figure26.jpg" width="250" height="125" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 26</p> -<p class="caption2">Exact reproduction of sketch by Goodbird. -The tie is pronounced accurate by -Buffalobird-woman.</p> -</div> - -<h3><i>Drying the Grass Bundles</i></h3> - -<p>These grass bundles we fetched home and laid on the drying stage until -we were ready to use them. Just before using, we took the bundles up on -the roof of the earth lodge, broke the binding ropes and spread the grass -out to dry, for one day.</p> - -<h3><i>The Willow Floor</i></h3> - -<p>The walls of the cache pit were left bare for the grass lining; but a floor -was laid on the bottom. This was rather simply made by gathering dead -and dry willow sticks, and laying them evenly and snugly over the bottom -of the pit.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>The Grass Lining</i></h3> - -<p>Over this willow floor, the grass, now thoroughly dried, was spread -evenly, to a depth of about four inches. Grass was then spread over -the walls to a depth of three or four -inches, and stayed in place with -about eight willow sticks. These -were placed vertically against the -walls and nailed in place with -wooden pins made each from the -fork of a dead willow, as shown in -<a href="#fig27">figure 27</a>. The ends of the sticks -should reach to the neck of the -cache pit, at the place marked <i>B</i>, -in diagram (<a href="#fig25">figure 25, page 87</a>).</p> - -<p>We were careful to spread the -grass lining evenly over the walls; and we were especially careful not to let -the root ends get matted together, as they were very apt to do.</p> - -<p>It will be noticed that the willow flooring of the pit, the willow staying -rods, and the wooden pins that held them in place, were all made of dead -and dry willows; this was done that everything within the pit might be -perfectly dry.</p> - -<p>It did not take long to place the grass lining of the cache pit.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;" id="fig27"> -<img src="images/figure27.jpg" width="150" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 27</p> -</div> - -<h3><i>Skin Bottom Covering</i></h3> - -<p>If the cache pit was a small one, we covered the -bottom with a circular piece of skin, cut to fit the -pit bottom, and laid it directly on the grass matting -that covered the willow floor; but if the cache pit -was a large one, we fitted into the bottom the skin -cover of a bull boat, with the willow frame removed.</p> - -<h3><i>Storing the Cache Pit</i></h3> - -<p>The cache pit was now ready to be stored.</p> - -<p>My mother and I—and by “my mother” I mean -always one of my two mothers, for my mother that -bore me was dead—fetched an old tent cover from -the earth lodge, and laid it by the cache pit so that -one end of the cover hung down the pit’s mouth. -Upon this tent cover we emptied a big pile of shelled ripe corn, fetched -in baskets from the bull boats in which it had been temporarily stored -inside the lodge. We also fetched many strings of braided corn, and laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> -them on one side of the tent cover. Lastly, we fetched some strings of -dried squash and laid them on the tent cover.</p> - -<p>Of dried squash, I fetched but one string at a time, doubled and folded -over my left arm. A string of dried squash, as I have said, was always -seven Indian fathoms long; and I have described an Indian fathom as the -distance from the tips of the fingers of one hand to the tips of the fingers -of the other, with both hands outstretched at either side. As these measurements -were made by the women workers, an Indian fathom averaged -about five and a half feet in length. A string of dried squash, seven Indian -fathoms in length, we knew by experience to be just about the weight that -a woman could conveniently carry. A string eight fathoms long would -be too heavy; and one six fathoms long would be rather short.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="fig28"> -<img src="images/figure28.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 28</p> -<p class="caption2">Plan of cache in horizontal section: A, floor ready for storing; B, the first series of braided strings; -C, loose corn; D, first squash string.</p> -<p class="caption2">In vertical section: E, the first series of braided strings of corn; F, adding loose corn; G, the first -squash string; H, loose corn filled in around squash.</p> -</div> - -<p>All being now ready, my mother descended into the cache pit. Leaning -over the mouth, I handed her a string of braided corn. In my father’s -family, we usually braided fifty-four, or fifty-five ears, to a string; and a -woman could carry about three strings on her left shoulder. These braided -strings, as I have said, my mother and I fetched from the drying stage; -she stood on the stage floor and handed me the braided strings, and I bore -them off to the cache pit.</p> - -<p>Leaning over the pit then, as I have said, I handed my mother one of -the braided strings that now lay in a heap on the tent cover. My mother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> -took the string of corn, folded it once over, and laid it snugly against the -wall of the cache pit, on the skin bottom covering, with the tips of the ears -all pointed inward. Folding a string thus kept the ears from slipping, -and stayed them more firmly in place; and the ears, laid husk end to the -wall, were better preserved from danger of moisture.</p> - -<p>My mother continued thus all around the bottom of the pit, until she -had surrounded it with a row of braided corn laid against the wall, two ears -deep; for the strings, being doubled, lay therefore two ears deep.</p> - -<p>My mother now started a second row, or series, of strings of braided -corn doubled over, laying them upon the first series; and like these, with -the ears all pointed inward. When this series was completed, the bottom -of the cache pit was surrounded by strings of braided corn, which, because -doubled, now lay four ears deep.</p> - -<p>My mother now called to me that she was ready for the shelled, or -loose, corn. Obeying her, I pushed the shelled corn that lay on the tent -cover, down the overhanging end of the skin into the cache pit, until the -floor of the pit was filled up level with the top of the four-tiered series of -strings of braided corn. It will be seen now how necessary it was that a -hide or bull boat cover be put in the bottom of the cache pit, to receive -this shelled grain.</p> - -<p>I next passed down a string of dried squash, seven fathoms long; and -this my mother coiled and piled up in the center of the cache pit upon the -shelled corn. This loose corn, I have already said, lay level with the topmost -row of ears laid against the pit’s wall, but did not quite cover the ears. -I remember, as I looked down into the pit, I could see these corn ears lying -in a circle about the loose corn within. <a href="#fig28">Figure 28</a>, drawn under my direction, -shows in a series of rough sketches how the cache pit was filled.</p> - -<p>Again I passed down strings of braided corn to my mother. These -she doubled, as before, and laid them around the wall of the cache pit, -until they came up level with the top of the squash heap coiled in the -center. We did not have any fixed number of rows of corn to place now; -my mother just piled the doubled braids around the wall until they came -even with the top of the coiled squash string.</p> - -<p>My mother then called to me, and again I shoved loose corn into the -cache pit, until it just barely covered the coiled squash pile and the topmost -row of braided ears.</p> - -<p>The object of our putting the squash in the center of the shelled corn -was to protect it from dampness. The shelled ripe corn did not spoil very -easily, but dried squash did. We were careful, therefore, to store the -strings of squash in the very center of the cache pit and surround them on -every side with the loose corn; this protected the squash and kept it dry.</p> - -<p>We continued working, my mother and I, until the cache pit was filled. -In an average sized cache pit we would usually store four seven-fathom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> -strings of dried squash, coiled each in a heap in the center of the cache and -hidden as described, in the loose corn; and as I recollect it, I think it took -about thirty or more strings of braided corn to lie around the wall of an -average sized pit; but my memory here is a little uncertain, and this estimate -may not be quite accurate.</p> - -<p>We filled the pit about up to the point marked <i>B</i> in the diagram (<a href="#fig25">figure -25</a>), the last two feet being filled with shelled corn only; thus the last -string of squash put in the cache pit should be covered with at least two -feet of loose corn.</p> - -<p>Over this shelled corn, at <i>B</i> in the diagram, we snugly fitted a circular -cover, cut from the thick skin of the flank of a buffalo bull. A bull’s hide -is thicker than a buffalo cow’s, -and for this reason was seldom -made into a robe; but there -were purposes for which a -bull’s hide was preferred. -Thus the heavy thick-haired -parts of a bull’s hide were -much used for making saddle -skins, because the heavy wool -protected the horse’s back; -and the short haired parts -were much used for making -cache pit covers. Using these -parts of the hide for covers, we did not have to bother to scrape off the -hair, which in summer is very short on a buffalo’s flanks. The skin cover -was laid hair side up, so that the flesh side would come next to the loose corn.</p> - -<p>On this hide cover my mother and I laid grass,<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> of the same kind as -used for lining the cache pit wall.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;" id="fig29"> -<img src="images/figure29.jpg" width="250" height="150" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 29</p> -<p class="caption2">Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.</p> -</div> - -<h3><i>The Puncheon Cover</i></h3> - -<p>Upon this grass, if the pit was one of the smaller ones, we laid puncheons; -and these puncheons, as I have said, rested in a trench.</p> - -<p>The puncheons, split from small logs, were laid in the trench flat side -down, so that they would not rock. There were about five main planks, -or puncheons, the middle one being the heaviest, the better to sustain the -weight of any horse that might happen to walk over the cache pit’s mouth. -On either side of these main puncheons were two shorter ones, laid to cover -the small area of the pit’s mouth not covered by the main puncheons.</p> - -<p><a href="#fig29">Figure 29</a> by Goodbird, drawn from the small model I made for you in -Wolf Chief’s yard, will explain this. The puncheons shown in the figure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> -exactly fit the trench; and their circumscribed outline represents also the -shape of the trench. The dotted circle represents the pit’s mouth, now -hidden by the over-lying puncheons.</p> - -<p>Upon the puncheons we now laid grass, quite filling the pit’s mouth, -and even heaped, it might be, a foot high above the level of the ground; -this we trampled down hard, well into the mouth of the pit.</p> - -<p>Over this grass we fitted a second cover, cut as was the first from a -buffalo bull’s hide; and upon this we heaped earth until the pit was filled -level with the ground.</p> - -<p>Lastly, we raked ashes and refuse dirt over the spot, to hide it from any -enemy that might come prowling around in the winter, when the village -was deserted.</p> - -<p>I have said that puncheons, resting in a trench, were used to cover the -mouth of a cache pit of smaller size. If the pit was of the larger size, I dug -about two feet down in the neck or opening, a rectangular place on either -side, with my knife. Puncheons were thrust down into one of these rectangular -openings and drawn through into the other, covering the mouth -of the pit; and as in the smaller pit, there were several main puncheons, -with one or two smaller and shorter ones at either side. Grass was stuffed -into the two openings, above the ends of the puncheons, to firm the latter. -Above the puncheons, the mouth of the pit was filled in, as was that of the -smaller pit, with grass, a circular skin cover, and earth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> - -<p>The two rectangular openings which I dug with my knife in the neck -of the larger pit, were, as will be noted, a little farther down than was the -floor of the trench of the smaller pit. This was because the neck was -longer in a pit of the larger size.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Cache Pits in Small Ankle’s Lodge</span></h3> - -<h4><i>First Account</i></h4> - -<p>In diagram (<a href="#fig30">figure 30</a>), I have marked the positions of the cache pits -we had in use in my father’s family, when I was a girl. Cache <i>A</i> was -used for hard yellow shelled corn; but the braids piled against the wall of -the pit were of white corn; so also of <i>B</i> and <i>C</i>. In cache <i>D</i> were stored -dried boiled corn and strings of dried squash.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;" id="fig30"> -<img src="images/figure30.jpg" width="350" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 30</p> -</div> - -<p>Sometimes in one of the cache pits outside of the lodge we put a bag of -beans, or sometimes two bags. Each bag was of skin and was about as -long as one’s arm; its shape was long and round.</p> - -<p>In the fall, when we went to our winter lodges, corn, squash, beans, -and whatever else was needed, we loaded on our horses and took with us. -As soon as we came to our winter lodge we made ready a cache pit at once -and stored these things away.</p> - -<p>We opened a cache pit whenever we got out of provisions. When -should this be, you ask? When we got out of provisions. This might -happen at any time. One winter, I remember, we got out of provisions and a -number of our people left the winter village and went to the lodges at -Like-a-fishhook village, to open a cache. The Sioux surrounded them -there. Our people took refuge in a kind of fort that belonged to the traders -and fired down from an upper room; they killed two of the Sioux.</p> - -<p>Cache pit <i>F</i> in the diagram, we made afterwards. Pit <i>E</i> was also of -later make; we dug it after we got potatoes; it was inside the lodge and -near the corral for horses.</p> - -<p>Cache pit <i>C</i> we had to abandon because mice got into it and we could -not get rid of them. So we filled it up with earth and dug pit <i>D</i>. We -stored gummy corn in cache pit <i>D</i> and used it for two years. The third -year the Sioux came against our village in the winter time and stole our -corn and burned down my father’s lodge.</p> - -<p>I have been telling you how the cache pit was used for storing things -for winter; but I do not mean that it was of no use in summer time. In -early spring we put into a cache pit two big packages of dried meat and a -bladder full of bone grease. We did not take them out until about August -or a little earlier. The meat would still be good, and the bone grease would -be hard and sweet, just as if it were frozen.</p> - -<p>A cache pit lasted for a long time, used year after year.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> - -<h4><i>A Second Account on Another Day</i></h4> - -<p>We had four cache pits to store grain for my father’s family; one held -squash, vegetables, corn, etc.</p> - -<p>A second held shelled yellow corn. In this cache the usual strings of -corn laid around to protect the shelled grain from the wall, were of white -corn. We did not braid hard yellow corn. It was corn that we did not -often use for parching.</p> - -<p>A third cache held white shelled corn, protected by the usual braided -strings of white corn.</p> - -<p>A fourth cache pit was a small one inside the lodge; here we stored -dried wild turnips, dried choke-cherries, and dried June berries; and any -valuables that we could not take with us to our winter village.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> - -<p>Our cache pits were for the most part located outside the lodge, because -mice were found inside the lodge, and they were apt to be troublesome.</p> - -<p>In the cache pit where we stored our yellow corn, we stored the grain -loose, not in sacks.</p> - -<p>I knew of course where each cache pit was located.</p> - -<p>The Sioux sometimes came up against us in winter and raided our -cached corn. One winter (about 1877) they came up and burned our lodges -and stole all that was in our cache pits.</p> - -<p>We returned from our winter quarters to our permanent village a little -before ice breaks on the Missouri, or in the latter part of March.</p> - -<h4><i>Diagram of Small Ankle’s Lodge</i></h4> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;" id="fig31"> -<img src="images/figure31.jpg" width="350" height="375" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 31</p> - -<p class="caption2 center">Redrawn from sketch by Goodbird.</p> -<p class="caption2">A. Bed of Small Ankle and Strikes-many-women.</p> -<p class="caption2">B. Bed of Wolf Chief and wife.</p> -<p class="caption2">C. Bed of Bear’s Tail and wife.</p> -<p class="caption2">D. Bed of Son-of-a-Star and his wife Buffalo-bird-woman.</p> -<p class="caption2">E. Bed of Flies-low, Yellow Front Hair -and Fell-upon-his-house, three boys.</p> -<p class="caption2">F. Bed of Turtle.</p> -<p class="caption2">G. Place for storing ax, hay, wood, or any -thing that could be piled or laid away.</p> -<p class="caption2">H. Bed of Small Eyes, elder sister of -Strikes-many-women; the bed here by the fireplace -being the warmest was commonly reserved -for an elderly person. (Small Eyes is probably -the same as Red Blossom).</p> -<p class="caption2">K. Corn mortar and pestle.</p> -<p class="caption2">L. and M. Cache pits.</p> -<p class="caption2">N. Platform of slabs on which were stored -food, utensils, etc.</p> -<p class="caption2">P. Lazy-back or native chair.</p> -<p class="caption2">XXX. Small Ankle’s medicines, or sacred -objects.</p> -</div> - -<p><a href="#fig31">Figure 31</a> is a diagram of Small Ankle’s lodge, as I remember it. My -three brothers slept in bed <i>E</i>, but often Wolf Chief or Bear’s Tail and their -wives would be away, staying at some other lodge, perhaps at the wife’s -mother’s; sometimes they visited thus for a long time. The boys might -then make use of the vacant bed of the visiting couple.</p> - -<p>All beds were covered with skins, as I have before described to you.</p> - -<p>Small children slept with their parents.</p> - -<p>I do not know why my father put his medicine shrines in the rear of -the lodge. Ours was a big family and there was not room enough for all -the beds on one side. Probably Small Ankle wanted the medicine objects -near his bed and not where the children were.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE MAKING OF A DRYING STAGE</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Stages in Like-a-fishhook Village</i></h3> - -<p>There were about seventy lodges in Like-a-fishhook village, when I -was a girl. A corn drying stage stood before every lodge.</p> - -<p>That before Small Ankle’s lodge was a three-section stage, of eight -posts. White Feather, or his wives, owned two of these big eight-post stages, -one before each of their two lodges; for White Feather had four wives. -Many Growths—a woman—had a big eight-post stage. There were a -few other eight-post stages in the village, but they were small, with narrow -sections and posts placed relatively rather close to one another.</p> - -<p>The rest of the stages in the village, as I recollect, were all six-post, or -two-section, stages.</p> - -<p>In all cases, whether of a six-post or eight-post stage, the floor was -upheld by two long, but narrow beams, that ran the whole length of the -stage.</p> - -<p>The description I shall now give of the making of a drying stage, is of -an eight-post stage, such as always stood before my father’s lodge.</p> - -<h3><i>Cutting the Timbers</i></h3> - -<p>The timbers we used for building a drying stage were all of cottonwood. -Being thus of a soft wood, the timbers did not last so very long when exposed -to the weather; and a stage built of cottonwood timbers lasted only -about three years; the fourth year, unless the stage was rebuilt, the posts -rotted and the stage would fall down. Unlike the posts of a watchers’ -stage, those of a drying stage were always carefully peeled of bark, as -they rotted more quickly if the bark was left on.</p> - -<p>My mother’s drying stage, as I have said, had eight posts; and these -posts we cut with forks at the top. If we could find them, or if we had time -to hunt for them in the woods, we cut double-forked posts, like that of -<a href="#fig32">figure 32</a>. But it was much easier to get the smaller posts, of the height -of the stage floor. Such a post had but one fork at the top, in which lay -one of the beams that supported the floor; and a companion post, longer -and not so heavy, stood by it to support the railing at the top of the stage. -However, in reckoning the number of posts of a stage, I count a single-forked -post and its companion as but one post.</p> - -<p>For the two long beams on which the floor of the stage was to be laid, -we cut two rather slender logs, the longest we could find in the woods.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> - -<p>All these timbers we cut in the summer time, peeling off the bark and -letting them lie until winter, to dry. Then when there was snow on the -ground, we hitched ropes to the seasoned timbers and dragged them into -the village.</p> - -<p>The stage was built the following spring or summer, to be ready for -the fall harvest; so that we commonly cut the timbers for a stage nine -months or a year before they were to be used in building it.</p> - -<h3><i>Digging the Post Holes</i></h3> - -<p>When we were ready to begin building, the first thing we had to do was -to mark the post holes. We laid the two long floor beams parallel -on the ground, at such a distance apart as to enclose the space -necessary for the stage. We then marked the places for the post -holes, at proper distances along the inside of the two beams; there -were eight of these post holes, four on a side.</p> - -<p>These post holes were dug with a long digging stick, and the -dirt removed, to the depth of a woman’s arm from the shoulder -to the hand; that was as far as one could reach down to lift out -the dirt. To get the post holes all of a depth, I took a stick and -measured on it the length of my arm from shoulder to fingers; this -stick I used to probe the holes to see that they were of a proper -depth.</p> - -<p>We now laid down all the posts in a row, and so adjusted -them that the forks that were to receive the floor beams lay all in -a straight line; that is, if the posts were two-forked posts, all the -forks <i>C</i> (<a href="#fig32">figure 32</a>) would lie in a straight line; and if the posts, -or some of them, were single-forked posts, their tops would lie in -a line with fork <i>C</i> of the double-forked posts.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 100px;" id="fig32"> -<img src="images/figure32.jpg" width="50" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 32</p> -</div> - -<p>On all the posts a charcoal line was now drawn at <i>A</i> (<a href="#fig32">figure 32</a>). The -distance from <i>A</i> to <i>B</i> (<a href="#fig32">figure 32</a>) should be the length of a woman’s arm, -which also was the depth of the post hole. But in cutting the posts, no -matter how careful we were, there was always some irregularity in lengths -so that the part from <i>A</i> to <i>B</i> upon the various posts might slightly vary.</p> - -<p>All having now been marked with the charcoal line, the posts were -rolled each to its proper post hole and the part <i>AB</i> on the post was carefully -measured and compared with the hole’s depth. For this purpose the stick -used to probe the post holes came again into use. If the length of the -part <i>AB</i> on any post happened to be an inch or two longer than my arm -its post hole was deepened to the same extent. All this was necessary -in order that when the posts were dropped into their holes, the -forks that were to receive the floor beams would lie all at the same -height.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> - -<p>I have said that a charcoal line was drawn around each post at <i>A</i> (<a href="#fig32">figure -32</a>). The position of this line, after the first one was drawn, was -obtained by measuring from the fork <i>C</i>; and care was taken that the measurements -on all the posts should be exactly alike. The charcoal line quite -encircled the post.</p> - -<h3><i>Raising the Frame</i></h3> - -<p>The posts were now raised and dropped into the post holes; raising -was by hand. The posts were turned so that the forks lay in proper position -to receive the floor beams and upper rails; a two-forked post was -placed with the prong <i>C</i> (<a href="#fig32">figure 32</a>) turned inward.</p> - -<p>A single-forked post had to have a companion post beside it, also forked, -to support the railing at the top of the stage. This companion post was not so -heavy, but of course was longer. It stood just beside the main post and -was carefully adjusted to receive the upper rail properly. It was lashed -to the main post by a green-hide thong.</p> - -<p>This thong might pass around the shorter post just below its fork; or -it might bind the companion post to one of the prongs of the fork itself.</p> - -<p>If I had several two-forked posts and several one-forked posts with -companion posts beside them, it required some little bit of fitting to adjust -them all so that the floor beams and rails would lie properly. To better -permit this to be done, it was not my custom to firm the earth about the -post, until the frame had been set up and adjusted; for little irregularities -in the fitting could be cured by slightly moving the posts as they stood unfirmed, -in their holes. When the frame was properly adjusted, I took my -digging stick—it was always a long one that was used for digging holes—and -rammed the earth around the foot of each post, firming it.</p> - -<p>It was the custom of my tribe when digging the post holes, to dig each -one just the diameter of its post, or as nearly to it as we could; then the -posts when raised fitted snugly into the holes.</p> - -<p>The two long floor beams having been raised into position, the two -poles that were to make the top railing were also raised. These rails were -of the same length, but were not so heavy, as the floor beams. We were -now ready to lay the floor.</p> - -<h3><i>The Floor</i></h3> - -<p>The floor of the stage was of cottonwood planks. Cottonwood logs, -nine to twelve inches in diameter, had been cut of proper length. Out of -the center of each was split a plank, or board, with ax and wedge. These -planks were laid to make the floor, the ends of the planks resting on the -two floor beams that lay on the forks of the posts. We took care to make -the floor as snug as possible. The planks were carefully fitted together, -and if there was any little crooked place in a plank that left a crack in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> -floor, we stuffed a dry cornstalk into the crack so that no ear of corn could -fall through.</p> - -<p>The planks that made the floor were not bound to the floor beams, -nor weighted down in any way; their own weight stayed them in -place.</p> - -<p>I have said that the drying stage had to be rebuilt about every three -years because the posts rotted down in that time. This was not true of -the floor planks; they lasted much longer and were used year after -year.</p> - -<h3><i>Staying Thongs</i></h3> - -<p>The eight posts of the stage stood in pairs, a post on either side of the -floor; and between the tops of each pair of posts a -green-hide thong was bound, and left to dry. These -thongs stayed the stage and made it stronger and firmer; -often they were also made to bind down the upper rails -to the forks of the posts.</p> - -<h3><i>Ladder</i></h3> - -<p>The stage stood always in front of the earth lodge -with its longer side to the door. A ladder stood at the -right hand nigher corner post—as one comes out of the -lodge—with the foot of the ladder resting a little way -from the stage. The top of the ladder leaned against -the end of the floor beam on the side next the lodge.</p> - -<p>Of course if the ladder were left here with nothing to -stay it, it would fall against the loose planks of the stage -floor and force them out of position. To prevent this a -pole was bound firmly to the two posts <i>A</i> and <i>B</i> (<a href="#fig12">figure -12</a>) and resting on the two floor beams just outside the -posts. The ladder rested against this pole. To receive -the pole, the floor beams were made to project a little -bit forward at the ladder end of the stage.</p> - -<p>The ladder was made of a cottonwood trunk, about ten inches in diameter, -with notches cut in it for steps. At its lower end it was brought -to an edge that it might more firmly rest on the ground and not turn when -someone stepped on it. At the upper end a notch was cut in the back to -receive the end of the floor beam against which the ladder rested. (See -<a href="#fig33">figure 33</a>.)</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;" id="fig33"> -<img src="images/figure33.jpg" width="100" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 33</p> -</div> - -<p>The ladder had always one fixed place; or, if for any reason it had to -be moved during labors, we took pains to warn our friends. A woman in -our village once moved her ladder to another place on her stage and forgot -about it. When she started to come down she stepped in the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> -place and fell and broke both her arms. We did not like to have a ladder -removed from its accustomed place for fear of just such accidents.</p> - -<p>When the owner descended from her drying stage, she took down her -ladder and laid it on the ground beside the stage. It was not proper for -strangers to go up on the drying stage, nor were children allowed to go up there.</p> - -<p>Neighbors sometimes came in and borrowed the ladder; but when not -in use, its proper place was on the ground by the stage.</p> - -<p>You ask me how we Indian women ascended and descended a ladder. -I never thought of our having any particular custom in this; but now that -you call my attention to it, I remember that a woman ascended and descended -a ladder with her face toward the stage, giving her the appearance -of going up sidewise, and coming down in the same manner.</p> - -<p>In going up a ladder I usually placed my left foot on the lowest step; -brought my right foot around in front and over my left to the second step; -then my left foot past and behind my right foot, with my face toward the -drying stage. My left hand might or might not touch the ladder, as I -was used to ascending it and felt no fear.</p> - -<p>In descending a ladder I placed my right foot on the highest step, and -overlapped with my left; and so until the bottom was reached.</p> - -<p>I do not know if other women had exactly this custom, for I never -observed or thought anything about it; but I do know that always, ascending -or descending, an Indian woman went sidewise, with her face -toward the stage.</p> - -<h3><i>Enlarging the Stage</i></h3> - -<p>Some years, if our family’s corn crop was very large, we extended our -drying stage, making it five posts long instead of four posts long, on a -side. Other families did likewise, as they had need; one family might have -corn enough to require a stage five posts long, while another family needed -one only four posts long, on a side. Stages, indeed, varied in length with -the needs of the family, but they were all of about the same width.</p> - -<h3><i>Present Stages</i></h3> - -<p>The stage that I have been describing is of the kind that was in use in -my tribe when I was a young girl of twelve or thirteen years of age. At -present we no longer use this, our old form, but the Arikara form instead.</p> - -<p>The Arikara stage differs in having a floor of willows, and is easier to -make. It took two days to erect a stage of the old fashioned kind, such -as I have been describing.</p> - -<h3><i>Building, Women’s Work</i></h3> - -<p>Building the drying stage was women’s work, although the men helped -raise the heavy posts and floor beams. In my father’s family, my two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> -mothers and I built the stage; but my father also helped us, especially if -there was any heavy lifting to do.</p> - -<h3><i>Measurements of Stage</i></h3> - -<p>I will now give you the measurements of such a stage as we used in -my father’s family.</p> - -<p>Pacing it off here, on the ground, the length of the stage was, I think, -about so long—thirty feet.<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Its width was about thus—twelve feet. -From the ground to the top of the stage floor was a little higher than a -woman can reach with her hand, or about six feet, six inches; there were -horses in the village, and the stage floor must be high enough so that the -horses could not reach the corn. From the floor of the stage to the upper -railing was about so high (holding up a stick), or five feet and nine inches.</p> - -<p>I will now give you the measurements of the posts and beams; and for -this, we will use the little model which I have made for you. In this model -I have used double-forked posts on one side, and single-forked posts, with -companion posts, on the other side.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;" id="fig34"> -<img src="images/figure34.jpg" width="350" height="150" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 34</p> -</div> - -<p>In the diagram (<a href="#fig34">figure 34</a>), <i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, <i>C</i>, <i>D</i>, are double-forked posts; <i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, -<i>c</i>, <i>d</i>, are single-forked posts; and <i>xa</i>, <i>xb</i>, <i>xc</i>, <i>xd</i>, are companion posts.</p> - -<p>The double-forked posts, <i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, <i>C</i>, and <i>D</i>, should be about ten inches in -diameter between the lower fork and the ground, but tapering slightly -toward the upper fork. This upper fork, if it was not in the post naturally, -might be cut to receive the upper rail. The posts <i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>, and <i>d</i>, -should be ten inches in diameter; and the companion posts, <i>xa</i>, <i>xb</i>, <i>xc</i>, and -<i>xd</i>, should be, perhaps, four inches in diameter. All of these posts are -set in the ground with the smaller, or branch end upward.</p> - -<p>The floor beams should each be about nine and one-half inches in diameter -at one end, tapering to four or five inches in diameter at the other -end. This tapering was the natural growth of the trunk; it was not, I -mean, cut tapering with an ax. The beams were so laid that the heavy -ends were always at the front of the stage as we called it; that is, at the -end where the ladder stood.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> - -<p>The upper rails were about three and a half inches in diameter. They -were chosen for strength, if possible of trunks that were branchless, or -nearly so. These upper rails were also laid with the heavy ends toward the -front, or ladder end, of the stage.</p> - -<p>I have said that if the long posts, <i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, <i>C</i>, <i>D</i>, had no natural fork at the -top, one was cut; but all other forks, and those also on the tops of the shorter -posts were natural.</p> - -<p>We took pride in building the stage of well chosen timbers, and in making -the parts fit snugly. The floor especially was laid as smooth and as -evenly as possible; and here and there, if a crack appeared, a dry corn stalk -was caulked in to make the floor snug and smooth. We were also careful -to choose straight, well formed trunks for posts and floor beams.</p> - -<h3><i>Drying Rods</i></h3> - -<p>Lying across the top of the stage in harvest time, with their ends resting -on the upper rails, were often a number of drying rods. A drying rod -was a pole averaging a little more than two inches in diameter and -about thirteen feet long, its length permitting six or seven inches to project -over the rail on which either end rested.</p> - -<p>These drying rods were much used in harvest time. When old women -came to the stage to slice squashes, they spitted the slices, as I have described, -on willow spits; and these spits again were laid on the drying -rods, each end of a spit resting on one of the rods.</p> - -<p>The drying rods had other uses. If the day was warm, old women -working on the floor of the stage would lay two or three of these rods across -the upper rails and throw a buffalo robe over them, and thus have shade -while they worked. They bound the robe down with thongs to hold it -firm.</p> - -<p>When not in use the drying rods were laid lengthwise on the floor of -the stage that the wind might not blow them about.</p> - -<h3><i>Other Uses of the Drying Stage</i></h3> - -<p>By far the chief use of the drying stage, was to dry our vegetables, -especially our corn and sliced squashes. Firewood, collected from the -Missouri river in the June rise, was often piled on and under the stage floor, -to dry.</p> - -<p>The keepers of the O´kipạ ceremony used to bring out their buffalo -head masks, and air them on the drying stage that stood before their lodge -door.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX<br /> -<span class="smaller">TOOLS</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Hoe</i></h3> - -<p>Iron hoes had come into general use when I was a girl, but there were -two or three old women who used old fashioned bone hoes. I think my -grandmother, Turtle, was the very last to use one of these bone hoes. -I will describe the hoe she used, as I remember it.</p> - -<p>The blade was made of the shoulder bone of a buffalo, with the edge -trimmed and sharpened; and the ridge of bone, that is found on the shoulder -blade of every animal, was cut off and the place smoothed.</p> - -<p>The handle of the hoe was split, and grooves were cut in the split to -receive the bone blade; this was slightly cut to fit and was so set that the -edge pointed a little backwards.</p> - -<p>Raw-hide thongs bound the split firmly about the blade and a stout -thong, running from a groove a little way up the handle, braced the blade -in place. (See <a href="#fig3">figure 3, page 12</a>).</p> - -<p>Under my directions, Goodbird has made a hoe such as I saw my grandmother -use, using the shoulder bone of a steer for a blade. You can make -necessary measurements from it.</p> - -<p>Hoe handles were made of cottonwood or some other light wood.</p> - -<h3><i>Rakes</i></h3> - -<p>We Hidatsas began our tilling season with the rake.</p> - -<p>We used two kinds,<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> both of native make; one was made of a black-tailed -deer horn (<a href="#fig5">figure 5, page 14</a>), the other was of wood (<a href="#fig4">figure 4, page 14</a>).</p> - -<p>Of the two, we thought the horn rake the better, because it did not grow -worms, as we said. Worms often appear in a garden and do much damage. -It is a tradition with us that worms are afraid of horn; and we believed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> -if we used black-tailed deer horn rakes, not many worms would be -found in our fields that season.</p> - -<p>We believed wooden rakes caused worms in the corn. These worms, -we thought, came out of the wood in -the rakes; just how this was, we did -not know.</p> - -<p>However, horn rakes were heavy -and rather hard to make; and for this -reason, the handier and more easily -made wooden rakes were more commonly -used.</p> - -<p>All this that I tell you of our tools -and fields is our own lore. White -men taught us none of it. All that I -have told you, we Indians knew since -the world began.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;" id="fig35"> -<img src="images/figure35.jpg" width="200" height="175" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 35</p> -</div> - -<h3><i>Squash Knives</i></h3> - -<p>Squash knives of bone were still in use when I was young. I have often -seen old women using them but, as I recollect, I never saw one being made.</p> - -<p>The knife was made from the thin part of a buffalo’s shoulder bone; -never, I think, from the shoulder bone of a deer, elk, or bear.</p> - -<p>The bone of a buffalo cow was best, because it was thinner. If the -squash knife was too thick, the slices of squash were apt to break as they -were being severed from the fruit. Bone squash knives, as I remember, -were used for slicing squashes and for nothing else.</p> - -<p>A squash knife should be cut from green bone; it would then keep an -edge, for green bone is firm and hard. I do not think I ever saw anyone -sharpening a bone knife so far as I can now recollect.</p> - -<p>There was no handle to a bone squash knife, beyond the natural bone.</p> - -<p>A bone squash knife lasted a long time. Old women in our village -who used these bone knives, brought them out each summer in the squash -harvest. It was their habit, I think, to keep the knives in the back part -of the lodge, by the owner’s bed. Whether it was customary to keep the -knives in bags, or in some other receptacle, I do not know.</p> - -<p>My mothers used a white man’s steel knife for slicing squashes; but as -I have said, there were old women in the village who still used the older -bone knives.</p> - -<p>Yellow Squash, I remember, was one; an old Hidatsa woman named -Blossom was another; so also was Goes-around-the-end.</p> - -<p>This model of a squash knife (<a href="#fig35">figure 35</a>) that I have had my son Goodbird -make for you, is of rather dry bone; I have had him grease it, that it -may be more like green bone.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="fig36"> -<img src="images/figure36.jpg" width="700" height="475" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 36</p> -<p class="caption2 center">MAP of GARDENS S.E. of VILLAGE.</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X<br /> -<span class="smaller">FIELDS AT LIKE-A-FISHHOOK VILLAGE</span></h2> - -<h3><i>East-Side Fields</i></h3> - -<p><a href="#fig36">Figure 36</a> is a map I have made of the gardens east, or better, southeast, -of Like-a-fishhook village. The fields lay, as indicated on the map, upon -a point of land that went out into the Missouri river. The map is only -approximately correct. There were many other gardens than those represented -here on the map; for I have made no attempt to indicate any but -those that lay in the immediate vicinity of the field my family tilled. -These, however, I remember pretty clearly, and believe my map to be, as -far as it goes, fairly accurate.</p> - -<p>Our family garden is the one marked “Strikes-many-women’s and Buffalobird-woman’s.” -It lay just south of Lone Woman’s and Want-to-be-a-woman’s. -The field was rather irregular at first; a corner of it, as I have -said, was claimed by Lone Woman and Goes-to-next-timber, as they had -started to clear it. My mothers bought out the rights of the claimants, -in order to keep our field more nearly rectangular, so that we could count -our Indian acres more accurately. This corner is marked by a dotted line, -on the map.</p> - -<p>I remember that when I was a little girl, the boundaries of the field -were rather irregular at first; and my grandmother, Turtle, would go along -the edge with her digging stick and dig up the ground to make the corners -come out more nearly squared, and the sides of the field be straightened.</p> - -<p>The field was also enlarged from year to year toward the sides; and -much of this work my grandmother did with her digging stick. The -garden when completed was the largest ever owned in my family; it was -this field whose size I measured off for you on the prairie the other day.</p> - -<p>The village gardens varied in size. Some families tilled large fields; -others rather small ones. Some families did not work very energetically; -and these were often put to it to have food. Other families worked hard, -and always had a plenty. Families were not all equally industrious.</p> - -<p>There were no watchers’ stages nor booths in these east-side fields. -The ground rose in a shelf, or bluff, just north of the gardens; from this -shelf the watchers could watch their fields and sing to the growing corn -without the trouble of having to build stages.</p> - -<p>The soil of the east-side gardens was bottom land and prairie, with -little or no timber.</p> - -<h3><i>East Side Fences</i></h3> - -<p>Our fields on the east-side of the village were fenced, as will be seen -from the map. The fences were made thus:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> - -<p>Posts were cut of any kind of wood two or three inches in diameter -and forked at the top. These were set in holes, at distances about as we -now use for corral posts, or twelve feet from post to post. Posts were -sunk the length of my forearm and fingers into the ground. Holes were -made with digging stick and knife, and the dirt drawn out by hand.</p> - -<p>Rails were laid in the forks of the posts and bound down with strips -of bark; elm bark was strongest, but other kinds were used. The railing -thus made ran about three and a half feet from the ground, the height of -the posts that upheld it. All the rails were peeled of bark.</p> - -<p>No attempt was made to firm the structure, as we did our drying stages. -Our object was but to keep out the horses, and if the fence was strong enough -to withstand the winds we thought that enough.</p> - -<p>As will be seen from the map, some of the fields were fenced quite -around; but this was done only when the field was isolated. When several -gardens adjoined, a single fence usually ran around them all, and not -around each individual field.</p> - -<p>When several gardens were enclosed in a single fence, each owner looked -after that part of the fence that bordered her own land, and kept it in repair.</p> - -<p>We did not run our fences close to the boundary of our gardens as white -men do. As we built our fences chiefly to keep horses out of the gardens, -we placed them far enough away so that even if the horses approached the -fence, they could not reach over and nibble the growing corn.</p> - -<p>I think our fences stood twelve or fifteen feet away from the cultivated -ground, as I pace it here on the ground. I know no reason why they were -run thus, except as I have said, to keep the horses from nibbling the corn. -You see, fifteen feet is quite a little distance; and the fence could have stood -closer to the cultivated ground and still been far enough away to keep -the horses from nibbling the crops. All I know is, that it was a -custom of my tribe, and I always followed this custom if I had a fence -to build.</p> - -<p>As will be seen by the map, the corners of the fences were turned rather -round; not built squared, as white men build their fences. We could not -square the corners as white men do when they build wire fences, because we -could not lay the rails in the forks of the posts and bind them down firmly -if we did so. Perhaps that is the reason we ran the fences so far from the -cultivated ground, that the fence, turning the corners, might not invade -the cultivated ground—if you will look at the map you will see what I mean. -However, I do not know if this is the reason or not.</p> - -<p>Horses did not trouble us much, as we did not permit them to graze -near our garden lands; they were pastured on the prairie.</p> - -<p>We always had fences around our fields as long ago as I know anything -about; and I have heard that our tribe had such fences in the villages -they built at the mouth of the Knife River, to protect their fields there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> -from their horses. Such, I have heard, has been our Indian custom since -the world began.</p> - -<p>At the very first it is true, we did not own ponies; but we soon got them.</p> - -<p>I think my tribe obtained ponies from the western tribes. In my own -youth we Hidatsas got many of our horses from western tribes, especially -from the Crows.</p> - -<h3><i>Idikita´c’s Garden</i></h3> - -<p>On the map there appears a garden marked as belonging to a woman -named Idikita´c. She made her garden after all the others had been fenced -in. There was a road that went down to some June-berry and choke-cherry -patches, in the small timber that stood beyond the gardens; it was a mere -path used by villagers afoot, by women with their dogs, and sometimes by -horsemen.</p> - -<p>Now, Idikita´c laid out her field so that it enclosed a small section of -this road; and she built a fence around it and tried to keep the villagers -from going across her land. The people did not like this. Idikita´c would -tie up her fence tight, but the villagers going down to the choke-cherry -patch, would go right through her garden, following the road that had been -there; sometimes they even went through with horses.</p> - -<p>“You must not make your garden here,” the people said to Idikita´c, -“this is a road!”</p> - -<p>And Idikita´c answered, “I do not want you to do damage to my garden!”</p> - -<p>There was quite a deal of talk in the village about this matter, and -quite a bit of trouble came of it.</p> - -<h3><i>Fields West of the Village</i></h3> - -<p>The first field cleared by my father’s family on the west side of the village, -is that marked <i>A</i>, on the plot legended with Turtle’s name, on the map -(<a href="#fig37">figure 37</a>), which I have had my son Goodbird draw for you of our west-side -fields. A coulee bordered one end of the field; and in the rainy months -the water washed out much of the good soil. Willows growing up along -the edge of the coulee also gave us much trouble. We therefore extended -our field to the other side of the coulee, to include the part marked <i>B</i>.</p> - -<p>Afterwards we added another field, marked on the map with my name, -Maxi´diwiac.</p> - -<p>In Turtle’s garden there was a watchers’ stage, <i>C</i>, with a tree beside it. -There was also a booth, <i>D</i>.</p> - -<p>Peppermint and Yellow Hair had each a watchers’ stage and a booth -in her garden, as indicated on the map. Another stage and a tree stood -in a garden near by, the name of whose owner I have now forgotten. I -have marked the position of stage and tree in each field only approximately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> -except in Turtle’s garden; as this was one of our own family fields, I remember -the position of stage and tree very accurately.</p> - -<p>In this map, as in that of the east-side gardens, I have indicated only -the fields that lay in the vicinity of those cultivated by my own family; -there were many others, but I can not, after so many years, accurately -mark their positions, nor tell the names of the owners.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="fig37"> -<img src="images/figure37.jpg" width="700" height="475" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 37</p> -</div> - -<h3><i>West-Side Fence</i></h3> - -<p>A fence protected our west-side gardens also, but only on the side nearest -the village, probably because the horses could be expected to come from -that direction. This fence differed somewhat from those on the east side.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> - -<p>The fence was built thus:</p> - -<p>A heavy stick was sharpened at one end and driven into the ground -with an ax; it was loosened by working it from side to side with the hands, -and withdrawn, leaving a hole about a foot deep.</p> - -<p>Into this hole was thrust a diamond willow, butt end downward, for post. -The long tapering top with the twigs and leaves still on it, was bent over -and around a rail (that was raised into position for the purpose) and then -twisted around the post and tied down with bark. A second rail was bound -to the post below the first. The sketch on the map gives an idea of what -is meant, and in <a href="#fig38">figure 38</a> is sketch and diagram by Goodbird.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="fig38"> -<img src="images/figure38.jpg" width="400" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 38</p> -<p class="caption2">Reproduced from sketch by Goodbird. On the left is post newly -placed with foliage intact. On the right is post with -foliage omitted to show how top was bound -down over rails.</p> -</div> - -<p>This fence was nearly or quite shoulder high to a woman, or about -four feet; and the posts were about two feet apart, so that even a traveller -going afoot could not squeeze his way between them.</p> - -<h3><i>Crops, Our First Wagon</i></h3> - -<p>The first wagon owned in my tribe belonged to Had-many-antelopes. -My father hired him for a pair of trousers to haul in the corn from our -gardens, one year. Had-many-antelopes fetched in three wagon loads -from my garden; the field I mean, marked with my name; and three more -wagon loads from the field <i>A</i>, in Turtle’s garden. From the field <i>B</i>, in Turtle’s -garden, the family fetched the corn that year, for that field we had planted -all to sweet corn; not gummy corn, but corn planted to half-boil and dry, -for winter.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI<br /> -<span class="smaller">MISCELLANEA</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Divisions Between Gardens</i></h3> - -<p>When two-fields adjoined the dividing space, or ground that ran between -them, we called maạdupatska´; it was always about four feet wide.</p> - -<p>The word really means, I think, a raised ridge of earth. We still use -the word in this sense. Down by the government school house at Independence, -our agent has run a road; and the earth dug out of the roadway -has been piled along the side in a low ridge to get rid of it. This ridge, -running along the side of the road, we call maạdupatska´.</p> - -<p>But the maạdupatska´ dividing two gardens in old times was never -raised in a ridge. It was nothing but a four-foot-wide dividing line. Nothing -grew on it. Each gardener hoed her half of the maạdupatska´ to keep -it clean of grass and weeds. We were particular about this; we did not -want to have any weeds in our gardens.</p> - -<p>I do not mean that I, for example, was accustomed to hoe exactly one -half of the maạdupatska´ that bordered my garden, leaving exactly the -other half to my neighbor. I merely hoed as needed, and my neighbor -did likewise; but the work was pretty equally divided, each woman recognizing -that she should do her share.</p> - -<p>Sometimes, however, the owner of a garden would come to her next -neighbor and say, “I do not want you to have any hard feelings, nor speak -against me; but I want to plant the maạdupatska´ that divides our gardens, -in squash;” or instead of squash, she might want to plant it in sunflowers -or beans.</p> - -<p>Permission being given, she would plant as she had requested; and -thereafter, of course, she would hoe all the maạdupatska´, because she had -a crop standing on it. But even then the ground would not be hers, and -her neighbor might refuse the permission asked.</p> - -<p>I have said that it might be asked to plant squash, or beans, or sunflowers. -A gardener never asked to plant corn on the maạdupatska´ that -bordered her field. Rows of corn hills should be about four feet apart; and -as this was the width of the maạdupatska´, even a single row of hills would -have crowded the corn; but beans or squashes or sunflowers planted -on the maạdupatska´ did not do so.</p> - -<h3><i>Fallowing, Ownership of Gardens</i></h3> - -<p>The first crop on new ground was always the best, though the second -was nearly as good. The third year’s crop was not so good; and after that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> -each year, the crop grew less, until in some seasons, especially in a dry -summer, hardly anything was produced.</p> - -<p>The owners then stopped cultivating the garden and let it lie for two -years; the third year they again planted the garden and found it would -yield a good crop as before. During the two years their garden lay fallow, -the family owning it would plant their season’s crop elsewhere.</p> - -<p>In my father’s family we owned garden lands both on the east and on -the west side of the village, as I have told you in explaining the two maps -made for you. This made it easy, if need arose, to work one garden while -we let the other rest. There were families in the village who owned more -fields even, than did my father’s household.</p> - -<p>Sometimes when a woman died, her relatives did not trouble themselves -to work her garden for a couple of years, but just let it rest; then -they would begin planting it again, and the ground was sure to bring forth a -good crop. I think our custom of fallowing ground may have arisen in this -way. When a woman died leaving a garden, and her relatives did not at -once take possession, it was found that a two years’ rest increased the -yield; and so the custom of fallowing, perhaps, arose. Every one in the -village knew the value of a two years’ fallowing.</p> - -<p>Ground that was newly broken produced good crops for a long time. -Our family’s west side garden once got to producing very poor crops; and -we let it lie untilled for two years. I do not recollect how long it was before -we let it rest again.</p> - -<p>There was no rule how long we should use land before we fallowed it; -nor was there any rule that we should let it rest for just two years. We -merely knew that two years’ rest brought a poorly producing field back -into good condition.</p> - -<p>Sometimes a woman died and her garden was abandoned by her relatives, -who perhaps had more land than they could use. For this and other -causes, there were always some of the cultivated lands of the village lying -vacant. We never had all our fields in use every year; there were always -some lying untilled, either for fallowing, or for some other reason.</p> - -<p>If a woman died and her relatives did not care to till her garden, it was -free to any one who cared to make use of it. However, if a woman desired -to take possession of such an abandoned field, it was thought right that she -should ask permission of the dead owner’s relatives. Permission might be -asked of the dead woman’s son, or daughter, her mother, her husband’s -sister, or of the husband himself.</p> - -<p>The woman did not wait two years before asking; if she wanted the -dead woman’s field, she just went to the relatives and asked for it.</p> - -<p>When the owner of a field died, I never heard that her relatives ever -sold it; if they did not care to use it themselves, they gave it to some one -who did, or let it lie abandoned.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Frost in the Gardens</i></h3> - -<p>The fields that lay on the west side of our village got frosted more -easily than those on the east side. Indeed, our west-side gardens suffered -a good deal from frost.</p> - -<p>The reason was that the ground along the Missouri was lower on the -west side of the village; and fields that lay on lower ground, we knew, were -more likely to get frosted than those on higher ground. Gardens on the -higher grounds east of the village were seldom touched by frost.</p> - -<h3><i>Maxi´diwiac’s Philosophy of Frost</i></h3> - -<p>Fields lying on lower ground catch frost more easily than those that lie -higher. On a warm day, the ground becomes warmed; but at night cool -air comes up out of the ground, and we can see that where it meets the warm -air above, it creates a kind of snow [hoar frost].</p> - -<p>Also, some days the wind is high; and toward evening it dies down. The -hot airs are then sucked down into the ground and cause moisture to rise -up out of the ground in steam. Afterwards, if the cool air comes up out of -the ground and meets that hot air, it makes a kind of snow on the weeds -and corn, killing them. But you can not see this steam until the cold air -arises; then it becomes visible.</p> - -<h3><i>Men Helping in the Field</i></h3> - -<p>Did young men work in the fields? (laughing heartily.) Certainly not! -The young men should be off hunting, or on a war party; and youths not -yet young men should be out guarding the horses. Their duties were elsewhere, -also they spent a great deal of time dressing up to be seen of the -village maidens; they should not be working in the fields!</p> - -<p>But old men, too old to go to war, went out into the fields and helped -their wives. It was theirs to plant the corn while the women made the -hills; and they also helped pull up weeds.<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> - -<p>When their sweethearts were working in the fields, young men often -came out and talked to them, and maybe worked a little. However, it -was not much real work that they did; they were but seeking a chance -to talk, each with his sweetheart.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Sucking the Sweet Juice</i></h3> - -<p>When the first green corn was plucked, we Indian women often broke -off a piece of the stalk and sucked it for the sweet juice it contained. We -did this merely for a little taste of sweets in the field; we never took the -green stalks home to use as food at our meals.</p> - -<p>Did old men do this, you ask? (laughing.) How could they, with their -teeth all worn down? Old men could not chew such hard stuff!</p> - -<p>No, just women and children did this—sucked the green corn stalks -for the juice.</p> - -<h3><i>Corn as Fodder for Horses</i></h3> - -<p>In the early part of the harvest season, when we plucked green corn -to boil, we gathered the ears first; afterwards we gathered the green stalks -from which the ears had been stripped. These stalks with the leaves on -them we fed to our horses, either without the lodge, or inside, in the corral.</p> - -<p>We commonly husked our corn, as I have said, out in the fields, piling -up the husks in a heap. After the corn was all in, we drove our horses to -the field to eat both the standing fodder and the husks that lay heaped -near the husking place. Horses readily ate corn fodder, and by the time -spring came again, there was little left in the field; not only were the husks -devoured, but most of the standing stalks were eaten off nearly or quite -to the ground.</p> - -<h3><i>Disposition of Weeds</i></h3> - -<p>Weeds that we cut down in hoeing a field, we let lie on the ground if they -were young weeds and bore no seeds nor blossoms, but if the weeds had seeded, -we bore them off the garden about fifteen or twenty yards from the cultivated -ground and left them to rot.</p> - -<p>In olden times we Indian women let no weeds grow in our gardens. I -was very particular about keeping my own garden clean all the time.</p> - -<h3><i>The Spring Clean-up</i></h3> - -<p>We never bothered to burn weeds; but in the spring we always cleaned -up our fields before planting. We pulled up the stubs of corn stalks and -roots, and piled them with the previous year’s bean vines and sunflower -stalks, in the middle of the garden and burned them; this was commonly -done at the husking place, where the husks had been piled. There was not a -great deal of refuse left from the corn crop, however, as the horses had eaten -most of it for fodder in the previous fall; but bean vines they would not eat.</p> - -<p>I never saw any one fire their corn stalks in the fall. Our yearly clean-up -was always in the spring, when every field must be raked and cleaned -before planting.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>Manure</i></h3> - -<p>We Hidatsas did not like to have the dung of animals in our fields. -The horses we turned into our gardens in the fall dropped dung; and where -they did so, we found little worms and insects. We also noted that where -dung fell, many kinds of weeds grew up the next year.</p> - -<p>We did not like this, and we therefore carefully cleaned off the dried -dung, picking it up by hand and throwing it ten feet or more beyond the -edge of the garden plot. We did likewise with the droppings of white -men’s cattle, after they were brought to us.</p> - -<p>The dung of horses and cattle raised sharp thistles, the kind that grows -up in a big bush; and mustard, and another plant that has black seeds. -These three kinds of weeds came to us with the white man; other weeds -we had before, but they were native to our land.</p> - -<p>Our corn and other vegetables can not grow on land that has many -weeds. Now that white men have come and put manure on their fields, -these strange weeds brought by them have become common. In old times -we Hidatsas kept our gardens clean of weeds. I think this is harder to -do now that we have so many more kinds of weeds.</p> - -<p>I do not know that the worms in the manure did any harm to our -gardens; but because we thought it bred worms and weeds, we did not like -to have any dung on our garden lands; and we therefore removed it.</p> - -<h3><i>Worms</i></h3> - -<p>Our corn, we knew, raised a good many worms. They came out in the -ears; it was the corn kernels that became the worms. Wood also became -worms. Leaves became worms. All these bred worms of themselves.</p> - -<p>I knew also, when I was a young woman, that flies lay eggs, that after -a time the eggs move about alive; and that later these put on wings and fly -away. Whether all flies do this, I did not know, but I knew that some do.</p> - -<p>Many worms appeared in our gardens in some years; in other years they -were fewer.</p> - -<h3><i>Wild Animals</i></h3> - -<p>Did buffaloes or deer ever raid our gardens? (laughing.) No. Buffaloes -have keen scent, and they could wind an Indian a long way off. While -they could smell us Indian people, or the smoke from our village, there was -no danger that they would come near to eat our crops.</p> - -<p>Antelopes lived out on the plains, in the open country; they never -came near our fields.</p> - -<p>Rocky Mountain sheep lived in the clay hills, in the very roughest -country, where cedar trees and sage brush grow.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> - -<p>Black-tailed deer lived far away in the Bad Lands, in the little round -patches of timber that are found there, where the country is very rough. -They were not found near our village, nor in such places as those in which -we planted our gardens.</p> - -<p>White-tailed deer, however, lived in the heavy timber that lines the -banks of the Missouri river. A few are still found on this reservation. -However, though haunting the woods near our gardens, these deer never -molested our crops; they never ate our corn ears nor nibbled the stalks.</p> - -<h3><i>About Old Tent Covers</i></h3> - -<p>I have said that we made the threshing booth under the drying stage -of an old tent cover.</p> - -<p>Buffalo hides that we wanted to use for making tent covers, were taken -in the spring when the buffaloes shed their hair and their skins are thin. -The skin tent cover which we then made would be used all that summer; -and the next winter, perhaps, we would begin to cut it up for moccasins. -The following spring, again, we could take more buffalo hides and make -another tent cover.</p> - -<p>Not all families renewed a tent so often. Some families used a tent -two years, and some even a much longer time; but many families used a -tent cover but a single season. It was a very usual thing for the women -of a family to make a new tent cover, in the spring.</p> - -<p>Old tent covers, as I have said, were cut up for moccasins, or they were -put to other uses. There was always a good deal of need about the lodge -for skins that had been scraped bare of hair; and the skins in a tent cover -were, of course, of this kind. Every bed in the earth lodge, in old times, -was covered with an old tent cover.</p> - -<p>Skins needed in threshing time were partly of these bed covers, taken -down from the beds. Often the piece of an old tent cover from which we -had been cutting moccasins would be brought out and used. Then we -commonly had other buffalo hides, scraped bare of hair, stored in the lodge, -ready for any use.</p> - -<p>Buffaloes were plentiful in those days, and skins were easy to get. We -had always abundance for use in threshing time.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII<br /> -<span class="smaller">SINCE WHITE MEN CAME</span></h2> - -<h3><i>How We Got Potatoes and Other Vegetables</i></h3> - -<p>The government has changed our old way of cultivating corn and our -other vegetables, and has brought us seeds of many new vegetables and -grains, and taught us their use. We Hidatsas and our friends, the Mandans, -have also been removed from our village at Like-a-fishhook bend, and -made to take our land in allotments; so that our old agriculture has in a -measure fallen into disuse.</p> - -<p>I was thirty-three years old when the government first plowed up fields -for us; two big fields were broken, one between the village and the agency, -and another on the farther side of the agency.</p> - -<p>New kinds of seeds were issued to us, oats and wheat; and we were -made to plant them in these newly plowed fields. Another field was plowed -for us down in the bottom land along the Missouri; and here we were taught -to plant potatoes. Each family was given a certain number of rows to -plant and cultivate.</p> - -<p>At first we Hidatsas did not like potatoes, because they smelled so -strongly! Then we sometimes dug up our potatoes and took them into -our earth lodges; and when cold weather came, the potatoes were frozen, -and spoiled. For these reasons we did not take much interest in our potatoes, -and often left them in the ground, not bothering to dig them.</p> - -<p>Other seeds were issued to us, of watermelons, big squashes, onions, -turnips, and other vegetables. Some of these we tried to eat, but did not -like them very well; even the turnips and big squashes, we thought not so -good as our own squashes and our wild prairie turnips. Moreover, we did -not know how to dry these new vegetables for winter; so we often did not -trouble even to harvest them.</p> - -<p>The government was eager to teach the Indians to raise potatoes; and -to get us women to cultivate them, paid as much as two dollars and a half -a day for planting them in the plowed field. I remember I was paid that -sum for planting them. After three or four years, finding the Indians did -not have much taste for potatoes and rather seldom ate them, our agent -made a big cache pit—a root cellar you say it was—and bought our potato -crop of us. After this he would issue seed potatoes to us in the spring, and -in the fall we would sell our crop to him. Thus, handling potatoes each -year, we learned little by little to eat them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> - -<h3><i>The New Cultivation</i></h3> - -<p>The government also broke up big fields of prairie ground, and had us -plant corn in them; but these fields on the prairie near the hills I do not -think are so good as our old fields down in the timber lands along the -Missouri. The prairie fields get dry easily and the soil is harder and -more difficult to work.</p> - -<p>Then I think our old way of raising corn is better than the new way -taught us by white men. Last year, 1911, our agent held an agricultural -fair on this reservation; and we Indians competed for prizes for the best -corn. The corn which I sent to the fair took the first prize. I raised it -on new ground; the ground had been plowed, but aside from that, I -cultivated the corn exactly as in old times, with a hoe.</p> - -<h3><i>Iron Kettles</i></h3> - -<p>The first pots, or kettles, of metal that we Hidatsas got were of yellow -tin [brass]; the French and the Crees also traded us kettles made of red -tin [copper].</p> - -<p>As long as we could get our native clay pots, we of my father’s family -did not use metal pots much, because the metal made the food taste. When -I was a little girl, if any of us went to visit another family, and they gave us -food cooked in an iron pot, we knew it at once because we could taste and -smell the iron in the food.</p> - -<p>I have said that we began cooking food in an iron kettle in my father’s -family when I was about eighteen years old; but the great iron kettle that -lies in Goodbird’s yard was given us by an Arikara woman before I was born.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII<br /> -<span class="smaller">TOBACCO</span></h2> - -<h3><i>Observations by Maxi´diwiac</i></h3> - -<p>Tobacco was cultivated in my tribe only by old men. Our young men -did not smoke much; a few did, but most of them used little tobacco, or -almost none. They were taught that smoking would injure their lungs -and make them short winded so that they would be poor runners. But -when a man got to be about sixty years of age we thought it right for him -to smoke as much as he liked. His war days and hunting days were over. -Old men smoked quite a good deal.</p> - -<p>Young men who used tobacco could run; but in a short time they became -short of breath, and water, thick like syrup, came up into the mouth. -A young man who smoked a great deal, if chased by enemies, could not -run to escape from them, and so got killed. For this reason all the young -men of my tribe were taught that they should not smoke.</p> - -<p>Things have changed greatly since those good days; and now young -and old, boys and men, all smoke. They seem to think that the new ways -of the white man are right; but I do not. In olden days, we Hidatsas took -good care of our bodies, as is not done now.</p> - -<h3><i>The Tobacco Garden</i></h3> - -<p>The old men of my tribe who smoked had each a tobacco garden planted -not very far away from our corn fields, but never in the same plot with -one. Two of these tobacco gardens were near the village, upon the top -of some rising ground; they were owned by two old men, Bad Horn and -Bear-looks-up. The earth lodges of these old men stood a little way out -of the village, and their tobacco gardens were not far away. Bear-looks-up -called my father “brother” and I often visited his lodge.</p> - -<p>Tobacco gardens, as I remember them, were almost universal in my -tribe when I was five or six years of age; they were still commonly planted -when I was twelve years old; but white men had been bringing in their -tobacco and selling it at the traders’ stores for some years, and our tobacco -gardens were becoming neglected.</p> - -<p>As late as when I was sixteen, my father still kept his tobacco garden; -but since that day individual gardens have not been kept in my tribe. -Instead, just a little space in the vegetable garden is planted with seed if -the owner wishes to raise tobacco.</p> - -<p>The seed we use is the same that we planted in old times. A big insect -that we call the “tobacco blower” used always to be found around our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> -tobacco gardens; and this insect still appears about the little patches of -tobacco that we plant.</p> - -<p>The reason that tobacco gardens were planted apart from our vegetable -fields in old times was, that the tobacco plants have a strong smell -which affects the corn; if tobacco is planted near the corn, the growing corn -stalks turn yellow and the corn is not so good. Tobacco plants were therefore -kept out of our corn fields. We do not follow this custom now; and -I do not think our new way is as good for the corn.</p> - -<h3><i>Planting</i></h3> - -<p>Tobacco seed was planted at the same time sunflower seed was planted.</p> - -<p>The owner took a hoe and made soft every foot of the tobacco garden; -and with a rake he made the loosened soil level and smooth.</p> - -<p>He marked the ground with a stick into rows about eighteen inches -apart. He opened a little package of seed, poured the seed into his left -palm, and with his right sowed the seed very thickly in the row. He covered -the newly sowed seed very lightly with soil which he raked with his hand.</p> - -<p>When rain came, and warmth, the seeds sprouted. The seed having -been planted thickly, the plants came up thickly, so that they had to be -thinned out. The owner of the garden would weed out the weak plants, -leaving only the stronger standing.</p> - -<p>The earth about each plant was hilled up about it with a buffalo rib, -into a little hill like a corn hill. It was a common thing to see an old man -working in his tobacco garden with one of these ribs. Young men seldom -worked in the tobacco gardens; not using tobacco very much, they cared -little about it.</p> - -<h3><i>Arrow-head-earring’s Tobacco Garden</i></h3> - -<p>An old man, I remember, named Arrow-head-earring, or Ma´iạ-pokcahec, -had a patch of tobacco along the edge of a field on the east side of the village. -He was a very old man. He used a big buffalo rib, sharpened on -the edge, to work the soil and cultivate his tobacco. He caught the rib in -his hands by both ends with the edge downward; and stooping over, he -scraped the soil toward him, now and then raising the rib up and loosening -the earth with the point at one end—poking up the soil, so to speak.</p> - -<p>He wore no shirt as he worked; but he had a buffalo robe about his -middle, on which he knelt as he worked.</p> - -<h3><i>Small Ankle’s Cultivation</i></h3> - -<p>My father always attended to the planting of his tobacco garden. When -the seed sprouted he thinned out the plants, weeded the ground and hilled -up the tobacco plants later with his own hands.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tobacco plants often came up wild from seed dropped by the cultivated -plants. These wild plants seemed just as good as the cultivated -ones. There seemed little preference between them.</p> - -<h3><i>Harvesting the Blossoms</i></h3> - -<p>Tobacco plants began to blossom about the middle of June; and picking -then began. Tobacco was gathered in two harvests. The first harvest -was of these blossoms, which we reckoned the best part of the plant for -smoking. Old men were fond of smoking them.</p> - -<p>Blossoms were picked regularly every fourth day after the season set -in. If we neglected to pick them until the fifth day, the blossoms would -begin to seed.</p> - -<p>This picking of the blossoms my father often did, but as he was old, -and the work was slow and took a long time, my sister and I used to help -him.</p> - -<p>I well remember how my sister and I used to go out in late summer, -when the plants were in bloom, and gather the white blossoms. These I -would pluck from the plants, pinching them off with my thumb nail. -Picking blossoms was tedious work. The tobacco got into one’s eyes and -made them smart just as white men’s onions do to-day.</p> - -<p>We picked, as I have said, every fourth day. Only the green part of the -blossom was kept. The white part I always threw away; it was of no value.</p> - -<p>To receive the blossoms I took a small basket with me to the garden. -There were two kinds used; one was the bark basket that we wove, and -of which you have specimens; the other kind was made of a buffalo bull’s -scrotum, with hair side out.</p> - -<p>Such a basket as the latter was a little larger than the crown of a white -man’s hat, the hat band being about the same diameter as the rim that we -put on the basket. It had the usual band to go over forehead or shoulders. -I bore the basket in the usual way on my back; or I could swing it around -on my breast when actually picking, thus making it easy to drop the blossoms -into it.</p> - -<p>More often, however, I took the basket off and set it on the ground -when plucking blossoms. I would make a little round place in the soft soil -with my hands and set the basket in it, so that it would stand upright. The -basket did not collapse, for the skin covering was tough and rigid, not soft.</p> - -<p>I often used the scrotum basket also for picking choke-cherries or June -berries. It was more convenient when berrying to carry the basket swung -around on my breast. Going home with the basket filled with berries, I -bore it in the usual way on my back.</p> - -<p>My father usually worked with us; and indeed it was to help him, because -he was old, that we picked the blossoms at all. It was slow work.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -I did not expect to gather more than a fourth of a small basketful every -four days; and as the blossoms shrunk a good deal in drying, a day’s picking -looked rather scant.</p> - -<p>When we fetched the blossoms home to the lodge, my father would -spread a dry hide on the floor in front of his sacred objects of the Big Birds’ -ceremony; they were two skulls and a sacred pipe, wrapped in a bundle -and lying on a kind of stand. We regarded these objects as a kind of -shrine. Nobody ever walked between the fire and the shrine as that would -have been a kind of disrespect to the gods. My father spread the new-plucked -blossoms on the hide to dry. Lying here before the shrine, it was -certain no one would forget and step on the blossoms.</p> - -<p>It took quite a time to dry the blossoms. If the weather was damp -and murky for several days, my father, on appearance of the sun again, -would move the hide over to a place where the sun shining through the -smoke hole, would fall on the blossoms. The smoke hole, being rather -large, would let through quite a strong sunbeam, and the drying blossoms -were kept directly in the beam.</p> - -<p>When the blossoms had quite dried, my father fetched them over near -the fireplace, and put them on a small skin, or on a plank. We commonly -had planks, or boards, split from cottonwood trunks, lying in the lodge; -they had many uses.</p> - -<p>My father then took a piece of buffalo fat, thrust it on the end of a -stick and roasted it slowly over the coals. This piece of hot fat he touched -lightly here and there to the piled-up blossoms, so as to oil them slightly, -but not too much. He next moved the skin or board down over the edge -of the fire pit, tipping it slightly so that the heat from the fire would strike -the blossoms. Here he left them a little while, but watching them all the -time. Now and then he would gently stir the pile of blossoms with a little -stick, so that the whole mass might be oiled equally.</p> - -<p>This done my father took up the blossoms and put them into his tobacco -bag. The tobacco bag that we used then was exactly like that used -to-day, ornamented with quills or bead work; only in those days old men -never bothered to ornament their tobacco bags, just having them plain.</p> - -<p>When my father wanted to smoke these dried blossoms, he drew them -from his tobacco bag and chopped them fine with a knife, a pipeful at a -time. Cured in this way, tobacco blossoms were called ạduatạkidu´cki. -They were smoked by old men unmixed.</p> - -<p>The blossoms were always dried within the lodge. If dried without, -the sun and air took away their strength.</p> - -<h3><i>Harvesting the Plants</i></h3> - -<p>About harvest time, just before frost came, the rest of the plants were -gathered—the stems and leaves, I mean, left after the harvesting of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> -blossoms. My father attended to this. He took no basket, but fetched -the plants in his arms.</p> - -<p>He dried the plants in the lodge near the place where the cache pit lay. -For this he took sticks, about fifteen inches long, and thrust them over -the beam between two of the exterior supporting posts, so that the sticks -pointed a little upwards. On each of these sticks he hung two or three -tobacco plants by thrusting the plants, root up, upon the stick, but without -tying them.</p> - -<p>When dry, these plants were taken down and put into a bag; or a package -was made by folding over them a piece of old tent cover; and the package -or bag was stored away in the cache pit.</p> - -<p>When the tobacco plants were quite dry, the leaves readily fell off. -Leaves that remained on the plants were smoked, of course; but it was the -stems that furnished most of the smoking. They were treated like the -blossoms, with buffalo fat, before putting into the tobacco pouch; we did -not treat tobacco with buffalo fat except as needed for use, and to be put -into the tobacco pouch, ready for smoking.</p> - -<p>I do not remember that my father ever saved any of the blossoms to -store away in the cache pit, as he did the stem, or plant tobacco. Friends -and visitors were always coming and going; and when they came into the -lodge my father would smoke with them, using the blossoms first, because -they were his best tobacco. In this way, the blossoms were used up about -as fast as they were gathered.</p> - -<p>Before putting the tobacco away in the cache pit, my father was careful -to put aside seed for the next year’s planting. He gathered the black -seeds into a small bundle about as big as my fingers bunched together, or -about the size of a baby’s fist, wrapping them up in a piece of soft skin -which he tied with a string. He made two or three of these bundles and -tied them to the top of his bed, or to a post near by, where there was no -danger of their being disturbed.</p> - -<p>We had no way of selecting tobacco seed. We just gathered any seed -that was borne on the plants. Of course there were always good and bad -seeds in every package; but as the owner of a tobacco garden always planted -his seed very thickly, he was able to weed out all the weak plants as they -came up, as I have already explained.</p> - -<p>A tobacco plant, pulled up and hung up in the lodge, we called o´puti: -opi, tobacco, and uti, base, foundation, substantial part.</p> - -<p>The Mandans and Arikaras raised tobacco exactly as we did, in little -gardens.</p> - -<h3><i>Selling to the Sioux</i></h3> - -<p>We used to sell a good deal of tobacco to the Sioux. They called it -Pana´nitachani, or Ree’s tobacco.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> - -<p>A bunch six or seven inches in diameter, bound together, we sold for -one tanned hide.</p> - -<h3><i>Size of Tobacco Garden</i></h3> - -<p>My father’s tobacco garden, when I was a little girl, was somewhat -larger than this room; and that, as you measure it, is twenty-one by eighteen -feet. I have seen other tobacco gardens planted by old men that measured -somewhat larger; but this was about the average size.</p> - -<h3><i>Customs</i></h3> - -<p>If any one went into a tobacco garden and took tobacco without notifying -the owner, we said that his hair would fall out; and if any one in the -village began to lose his hair, and it kept coming out when he brushed it, -we would laugh and say, “Hey, hey, you man! You have been stealing -tobacco!”</p> - -<p>What? You say you got this tobacco out of Wolf Chief’s garden without -asking? (laughing heartily.) Then be sure your hair will fall out when -you comb it. Just watch, and see if it doesn’t!</p> - -<p>I have said that my father softened the soil of his tobacco garden with -a hoe. After the plants began to grow, the hoe was not used, either for -cutting the weeds or for hilling up the plants. I have said that the weak -plants were culled out by hand, and that the strong plants were hilled up -with a buffalo rib.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Accessories to the Tobacco Garden</span></h3> - -<h4><i>Fence</i></h4> - -<p>When I was a little girl every tobacco garden had a willow fence around it.</p> - -<p>I remember very well seeing such fences built. Post holes were made -by driving a sharp stake into the ground with an ax; the stake was withdrawn, -and into the hole left by it, a diamond willow was thrust for a post; -on this willow were left all the upper branches with the leaves. A rail -was run from the post to its next neighbor, at the height of a woman’s -shoulder, and stayed in place by bending over the leafy top of the willow -post, and drawing it around the rail, then twisting it down and around the -body at the post in a spiral manner. If the leafy top of the post was long -enough, and slender enough, it might, after being wrapped spirally about -the post, be even drawn out and woven into the fence.</p> - -<p>Below the top rail at a convenient distance, there ran a second rail, -bound to the post with bark. Besides these rails, branches and twigs, and -as I have said, the tops of the posts themselves, were interwoven into the -fence to make it as dense as possible.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> - -<p>The posts of the fence stood about two and a half feet apart, making, -with the rails and the interwoven twigs, a barrier so dense that even a dog -could not push through it.</p> - -<p>There was an opening left to enter the garden, closed by a kind of stile—bars -of small poles thrust right and left between the posts; against these -bars were leaned one or two bull berry bushes, which were removed when -the owner wanted to enter.</p> - -<p>If a weak place was found in the fence, it was strengthened with a bull -berry bush thrust into the ground and leaned against the fence or woven -into it.</p> - -<h4><i>The Scrotum Basket</i></h4> - -<p>I have said that we used a basket made of -the scrotum of a buffalo bull, for picking tobacco -blossoms.</p> - -<p>A fresh scrotum was taken, and a rim or hoop -of choke-cherry wood was bound around its mouth; -choke-cherry limbs are flexible and easily bent. -The hoop was sewed in place with sinew passing -through the skin and around the hoop spirally.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;" id="fig39"> -<img src="images/figure39.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 39</p> -<p class="caption2">Reproduced from sketch by Goodbird.</p> -</div> - -<p>A thong was bound at either end to opposite -sides of the hoop, and the whole was hung upon -the drying stage, or at the entrance to the earth -lodge in the sun. The skin was then filled with -sand until dry, when it was emptied, the thong -removed, and a band, or leather handle, was bound -on one side of the hoop, at places a few inches -apart, and the basket was ready for use.</p> - -<p>The scrotum is the toughest part of the buffalo’s hide. When dried -it is as hard and rigid as wood.</p> - -<p><a href="#fig39">Figure 39</a> is a sketch by Goodbird showing what the basket was like.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;" id="fig40"> -<img src="images/figure40.jpg" width="350" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption1">Figure 40</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> - -<p>Down in the bottoms along the Missouri near Independence school -house are the gardens—now abandoned—used by the neighboring families -when they first came to this part of the reservation, about 1886.</p> - -<p>The fields are plainly marked in the underbrush and trees from the fact -that they are relatively open. Goodbird accompanied me to the several -locations and I made maps of the fields, which I include in <a href="#fig40">figure 40</a>. While -not accurately surveyed—I had to pace off the distances—the fields are -fairly accurately represented by the maps.</p> - -<p><a href="#fig40">Figure 40</a>, <i>I</i>, is a diagram in vertical section of the land surface in which -the gardens lie. Toward the right is seen the basin of the Missouri river.</p> - -<p>At the extreme left is a bit of the prairie that abuts the foothills. Between -are two level terraces, one eighty yards, the other and lower, one -hundred and seventy-five yards in width. Four of the gardens lie in the -eighty-yard terrace; field <i>A</i>, of Small Ankle; <i>B</i> of Big Foot Bull; <i>E</i> of Crow’s -Breast, and <i>H</i>, a small bit of ground used by the Small Ankle family for a -squash garden. Gardens <i>C</i> of Small Horn; <i>D</i> of Leggings; <i>F</i> of Crow’s -Breast; and <i>G</i> of Cedar Woman, lie in the lower and wider terrace.</p> - -<p>With one exception the fields are called by the names of the male heads -of the families, a custom that probably began at the time allotments were -first made.</p> - -<p>The relative positions of the fields are not as shown in the figure, except -of <i>A</i> and <i>B</i>, the gardens of Small Ankle and Big Foot Bull. These are -separated by a wagon road that descends to the lower terrace, as indicated -on the map.</p> - -<p>Doubtless the two terraces have been made by over-flow waters. It is -likely that both are still subject to overflow at long intervals, especially -the lower. The soil is light and sandy, but black and rich. The overflow -of the river would seem to suggest that the land would be fertilized by silt -deposited upon it; but my Indian informants seem to attach no significance -to this. Fields were located near the Missouri “because the soil there is -soft and easily worked, and does not become dry and burn up the crops.”</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Gilbert L. Wilson.</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="footnotes"> - -<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Washington Matthews, <cite>Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians</cite>. U. S. Geological -and Geographical Survey.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Gilbert L. Wilson, <cite>Myths of the Red Children</cite>. Ginn and Company, 1907.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> George H. Pepper and Gilbert L. Wilson, <cite>An Hidatsa Shrine and the Beliefs Respecting It</cite>. Memoirs -of the American Anthropological Association, 1908.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Gilbert L. Wilson, <cite>Goodbird, the Indian: His Story</cite>. Fleming H. Revell Co. 1914.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> “In the garden vegetable family are five; corn, beans, squashes, sunflowers, and tobacco. The -seeds of all these plants were brought up from beneath the ground by the Mandan people.</p> - -<p>“Now the corn, as we believe, has an enemy—the sun who tries to burn the corn. But at night, when -the sun has gone down, the corn has magic power. It is the corn that brings the night moistures—the early -morning mist and fog, and the dew—as you can see yourself in the morning from the water dripping from -the corn leaves. Thus the corn grows and keeps on until it is ripe.</p> - -<p>“The sun may scorch the corn and try hard to dry it up, but the corn takes care of itself, bringing the -moistures that make the corn, and also the beans, sunflowers, squashes, and tobacco grow.</p> - -<p>“The corn possesses all this magic power.</p> - -<p>“When you white people met our Mandan people we gave to the whites the name Maci´, or Waci´, -meaning nice people, or pretty people. We called them by this name because they had white faces and -wore fine clothes. We said also ‘We will call these people our friends!’ And from that time to this we -have never made war on white men.</p> - -<p>“Our Mandan corn must now be all over the world, for we gave the white men our seeds. And so it -seems we Mandans have helped every people. But the seed of our varieties of corn were originally ours.</p> - -<p>“We know that white men must also have had corn seed, for their corn is different from ours. But -all we older folk can tell our native corn from that of white men.”—<span class="smcap">Wounded Face</span> (Mandan)</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Corn sucker, i. e., the extra shoot or stem that often springs up from the base of the maize plant.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Buffalobird-woman says she planted six to eight kernels to a hill. Just what pattern she used she -could not tell until she went out with a handful of seed and planted a few hills to revive her memory. The -three patterns shown in <a href="#fig7">figure 7</a> will show how she laid the grains in the bottom of the several hills.—<span class="smcap">Gilbert L. Wilson</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> “Twice in the corn season were scarecrows used; first, when the corn was just coming up; and again -when the grain was forming on the ear and getting ripe.”—<span class="smcap">Edward Goodbird</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In August, 1910, Buffalobird-woman related the story of “The Grandson,” in the course of which -she said in explanation of reference to a watchers’ stage:</p> - -<p>“I will now stop a moment to explain something in the other form of this tale.</p> - -<p>“According to this way of telling it, there was a garden and in the middle of the garden was a tree. -There was a platform under the tree made of trunks and slabs; and there those two girls sat to watch the -garden and sing watch-garden songs. They did this to make the garden grow, just as people sing to a baby -to make it be quiet and feel good. In old times we sang to a garden for a like reason, to make the garden -feel good and grow. This custom was one used in every garden. Sometimes one or two women sang.</p> - -<p>“The singing was begun in the spring and continued until the corn was ripe. We Indians loved our -gardens and kept them clean; we did not let weeds grow in them. Always in every garden during the -growing season, there would be some one working or singing.</p> - -<p>“Now in old times, many of our gardens had resting stages, or watchers’ stages, such as I have just -described. We always made our gardens down in the woods by the river, because there is better ground -there. When we cut off the timber we would often leave one tree standing in the garden. Under this tree -were erected four forked posts, on which was laid a platform. This made the stage; in the tree overhead we -often spread robes and blankets for shade.</p> - -<p>“This resting stage was small. It was just big enough for two persons to sit on comfortably. Corn -was never dried on it; it was used for a singing and resting place only. It was reached by a ladder. Its -height was about four and a half feet high.</p> - -<p>“This resting stage or watchers’ stage was built on the north side of the tree so that the shade of the -tree would fall upon it. Robes were laid on the floor of the stage to make a couch or bed. Sometimes -people even slept on this platform—sometimes a man and his wife slept there.</p> - -<p>“This resting stage we used to rest on after working in the garden; and to sing here the songs that we -sang at this season of the year, and which I have called watch-garden songs. A place to cook in was not -far away on the edge of the garden. It was a kind of booth, or bower. With a stake we made -holes in the ground in a circle, and into the holes thrust willows. The tops of these willows we bent toward -the center and joined together to make a bower. Over the top we threw a robe. We built a fire beneath -to cook by.</p> - -<p>“Our gardens I am describing were those at Like-a-fishhook village; and they were on the Missouri on -either side of the village. They were strung along the river bank for a mile or more on either side of the -village.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> In redrawing Goodbird’s sketch this calf-skin has been omitted, that the construction of the stage -floor might be shown.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> “My wife is drying half-boiled corn on the ear this year. This way we find makes the dried corn -sweeter, but takes longer to dry it. We cook it in winter by dropping the ear, cob and all, into the pot. -This method of drying corn was known also in old times.”—<span class="smcap">Edward Goodbird</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Buffalobird-woman means that the buskers arrived in the fields in the morning to begin the day’s -labors. More than one corn pile might be husked in a single day.—<span class="smcap">Gilbert L. Wilson</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Water Chief having strolled into the cabin while Buffalobird-woman was dictating, here interrupted -with the following:</p> - -<p>“The owner of a field would come and notify the crier of some society, as the Fox or Dog society, -or some other. The crier would go on the roof of the society’s lodge and call, ‘All you of the Fox society -come hither; they want you to husk. When you all get here, we will go to that one’s garden and husk the -corn!’</p> - -<p>“We young men of the society all gathered together and marched to the field to which we were bidden. -In old times we took our guns with us, for the Sioux might come up to attack us. As we approached the -field we began to sing, that the girls might hear us. We knew that our sweethearts would take notice of -our singing. The girls themselves did not sing.</p> - -<p>“At the corn pile in each garden would be the woman owner and maybe two or three girls. On our -way to some field, if we passed through other fields with corn piles at which were girls, each young man -looked to see if his sweetheart was there; and if he saw her he would yell, expecting that she would recognise -his voice.</p> - -<p>“Sometimes two societies husked at one corn pile. Any of the societies might be asked. If the pile -was too big for one society, another society was asked, if the owner could afford the food for the feast.</p> - -<p>“Different societies would be husking in different gardens all at the same time.</p> - -<p>“Sometimes a group of young men belonging to different societies were asked to come and husk. This -was chiefly at small gardens; the societies were usually asked to come and husk the big corn piles of the -larger gardens.</p> - -<p>“If a society went early, they got through just after midday. By early I mean nine o’clock in the -morning.</p> - -<p>“When we had finished husking one pile, we went to another. We worked late, by moonlight, even.</p> - -<p>“Some man of the family and his wife would be out all night and watch by the corn if they had not -gotten all the husked ears borne in to the village. Also while the pile awaited husking watchers stayed by -to protect against horses.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> “Corn in old times was gathered in September. A basket was carried on the back and the corn was -tossed into it over the shoulder, or the basket was set on the ground and filled. This work was done by -the women. The corn having been plucked, the owner of the field notified people what food she wanted to -serve—meat or boiled corn-and-beans—and young men came to husk the corn. A pile might be three -or four feet high and twenty feet long. The men huskers sat on one side of the pile and the women on the -other. The big ears were strung in braids. A braid was long enough to reach from the thigh around under -the foot and up again to the other side of the thigh. A husker would try the newly made braid with his -foot as he held the ends in his hands. Unless this was done a weak place in the string might escape notice -and the braid break, and all the others would then laugh.</p> - -<p>“Small ears were tossed into one place. Four or five women would carry off these ears in baskets; -they bore the filled baskets right up the ladder to the top of the drying stage. The braided strings were -often borne home on the backs of ponies, ten strings on a pony. They were hung like dead snakes on the -railings above the floor of the stage to dry.</p> - -<p>“Boys and young men went to the husking bees because of the fun to be had; they wanted to see the -girls!”—<span class="smcap">Edward Goodbird</span> (related in 1909).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> “Sometimes for fun we lads used to take long poles with nooses on the end and snare off one ear of a -braid of corn as it hung drying; for the braids were soft when fresh. An ear broken off, we would run off -and make a fire and parch the corn. This was when we were little fellows, ten or eleven years old. The -owner would run after us, and if he caught one of us, whipped him. However, this was our custom; and -the owner and the boy’s father both looked upon it as a kind of lark, and not anything very serious.”—<span class="smcap">Edward Goodbird</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> In 1910 Buffalobird-woman gave an interesting and detailed account of the making of a clay pot. -A newly made pot, she explained, was rubbed over with boiled pounded-corn meal; and she added this rather -humorous variation of the recipe above:</p> - -<p>“This mush, or boiled, pounded-corn meal was made thus:</p> - -<p>“A clay pot was three-quarters filled with water and put on the fire to boil. Meanwhile, twelve -double handfuls of corn were pounded in the corn mortar; usually we pounded three or four double handfuls -at a time. This began after breakfast; it was work and made us women sweat. The corn was hard, -ripe corn, yellow or white.</p> - -<p>“These twelve double handfuls were thrown into the pot of now boiling water, and boiled for half an -hour. As there was no grease in the pot, we had to stir the contents with a smooth stick to keep from -sticking.</p> - -<p>“As the corn boiled a scummy substance would rise to the top. To this the woman cooking would -touch the point of her horn spoon, and carry it to her tongue and lick it off. When she could taste that it -was sticky enough, she knew that it was time to add beans. It took, as I have said, about half an hour for -the corn to boil to this point.</p> - -<p>“She now added some spring salt. This is alkaline salt which we gathered about the mouth of -springs. It was white. The woman put some of this salt in a cup and made a strong liquor—in old times -instead of a cup she used a horn spoon. She now added the salt liquor to the mess. It took about enough of -this white salt to make a heaping tablespoonful to one pot of this corn mess. As the salt liquor was poured -into the pot, the woman held her hand over the mouth of the cup, so that if any pieces of grass or other -refuse were in it, they would be strained out by her fingers.</p> - -<p>“The corn when it is pounded does not pound evenly; and so when it was put into the pot, the -finer part of the meal was cooked first. This rose to the top, and in old times was skimmed off. The -coarser parts of the meal took longer to cook; but the skimmed-off part, when the other was done, was -poured back into the pot again.</p> - -<p>“When the pounded corn meal had now all cooked and the salt had been added, the beans were put in—red, -spotted, black, or shield-figured, we did not have white beans in very old times; they were brought in -by white men. The pot was now let boil until the beans were done. Beans were always added to the pot.</p> - -<p>“A pot of corn meal and beans was [almost] always on the fire in the lodge. The boys of the lodge -liked to come around when the corn was cooking and dip horn spoons into the thick, rising liquor, and lick -it off as I have described the woman doing as she cooked.</p> - -<p>“It was this sticky, rising liquor taken off the boiling corn to keep and return to it, that was used to -rub over a newly made pot. When this was done, the pot was ready to boil corn in.</p> - -<p>“After using a pot, it was usually rubbed over with the residue of the boiled corn meal, or mush, because -this made the pot look better and last longer.</p> - -<p>“The skimmed-off liquor from a pot of boiling corn meal was also fed to a baby whose mother had -died, and whose family could not hire a woman to nurse it.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Measuring from center of corn hill to center of next corn hill.—G. L. W.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> “I have raised white beans mostly of late years because it is easier to sell them to white men. This -summer, however (1913), I planted several acres also to other kinds of our Hidatsa beans, red, black, -spotted.</p> - -<p>“I find that the black beans have yielded best, next the red, then the spotted, last of all the white. -I have observed before that this is true; that black beans yield the most.”—<span class="smcap">Wolf Chief</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Slough grass, a species of Spartina.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Buffalobird-woman here means a three-section stage. A stage of four sections would be forty feet -or more in length.—G. L. W.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> “The first that rakes are mentioned in the stories of my tribe so far as I know, is in the tale of ‘The -Grandson.’ There is a little lake down near Short River where lived an old magic woman, whom we call -Old-woman-who-never-dies. There is a level piece of ground near by, about five miles long by one and a -half mile wide. This flat land was the garden of Old-woman-who-never-dies. Her servants were the -deer that thronged the near-by timber. These deer worked her garden for her. All buck deer have -horns; and with their horns the deer raked up the weeds and refuse of Old-woman-who-never-dies’s garden.</p> - -<p>“Now deer shed their horns. Old-woman-who-never-dies got these shed horns and bound them on -sticks and so we got our first rakes. Her grandson saw what she did and afterwards taught the people to -make rakes also.</p> - -<p>“In later times we learned to make rakes of ash wood instead of horns; but we still reckon the teeth to -mean the tines of a deer’s antler. Sometimes deer have six, sometimes seven tines on an antler. So we -make our ash rakes, some with six, some with seven teeth.</p> - -<p>“If the Grandson had not seen what his grandmother did, we Hidatsas would never have known how -to make rakes, either of horn or of ash wood.”—<span class="smcap">Wolf Chief</span> (told in 1910).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> “In my tribe in old times, some men helped their wives in their gardens. Others did not. Those -who did not help their wives talked against those who did, saying, ‘That man’s wife makes him her servant!’</p> - -<p>“And the others retorted, ‘Look, that man puts all the hard work on his wife!’</p> - -<p>“Men were not alike; some did not like to work in the garden at all, and cared for nothing but to go -around visiting or to be off on a hunt.</p> - -<p>“My father, Small Ankle, liked to garden and often helped his wives. He told me that that was the -best way to do. ‘Whatever you do,’ he said, ‘help your wife in all things!’ He taught me to clean the -garden, to help gather the corn, to hoe, and to rake.</p> - -<p>“My father said that that man lived best and had plenty to eat who helped his wife. One who did -not help his wife was likely to have scanty stores of food.”—<span class="smcap">Wolf Chief</span> (told in 1910).</p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<h3>STUDIES IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES</h3> - -<p>1. <span class="smcap">Herbert G. Lampson</span>, A Study on the Spread of Tuberculosis in Families. -1913. $0.50.</p> - -<p>2. <span class="smcap">Julius V. Hofman</span>, The Importance of Seed Characteristics in the Natural -Reproduction of Coniferous Forests. In press.</p> - -<h3>STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE</h3> - -<p>1. <span class="smcap">Esther L. Swenson</span>, An Inquiry into the Composition and Structure of -<cite>Ludus Coventriae</cite>; <span class="smcap">Hardin Craig</span>, Note on the Home of <cite>Ludus Coventriae</cite>. 1914. -$0.50.</p> - -<p>2. <span class="smcap">Elmer Edgar Stoll</span>, <cite>Othello</cite>: An Historical and Comparative Study. 1915. -$0.50.</p> - -<p>3. <span class="smcap">Colbert Searles</span>, <cite>Les Sentiments de l’Académie Française sur le Cid</cite>: Edition -of the Text, with an Introduction. 1916. $1.00.</p> - -<p>4. <span class="smcap">Paul Edward Kretzmann</span>, The Liturgical Element in the Earliest Forms -of the Medieval Drama. 1916. $1.00.</p> - -<p>5. <span class="smcap">Arthur Jerrold Tieje</span>, The Theory of Characterization in Prose Fiction -prior to 1740. 1916. $0.75.</p> - -<h3>CURRENT PROBLEMS</h3> - -<p>1. <span class="smcap">William Anderson</span>, The Work of Public Service Commissions. 1913. $0.15.</p> - -<p>2. <span class="smcap">Benjamin F. Pittenger</span>, Rural Teachers’ Training Departments in Minnesota -High Schools. 1914. $0.15.</p> - -<p>3. <span class="smcap">Gerhard A. Gesell</span>, Minnesota Public Utility Rates. 1914. $0.25.</p> - -<p>4. <span class="smcap">L. D. H. Weld</span>, Social and Economic Survey of a Community in the Red -River Valley. 1915. $0.25.</p> - -<p>5. <span class="smcap">Gustav P. Warber</span>, Social and Economic Survey of a Community in -Northeastern Minnesota. 1915. $0.25.</p> - -<p>6. <span class="smcap">Joseph B. Pike</span>, Bulletin for Teachers of Latin. 1915. $0.25.</p> - -<p>7. <span class="smcap">August C. Krey</span>, Bulletin for Teachers of History. 1915. $0.25.</p> - -<p>8. <span class="smcap">Carl Schlenker</span>, Bulletin for Teachers of German. 1916. $0.25.</p> - -<p>9. <span class="smcap">William Watts Folwell</span>, Economic Addresses. In press.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, by -Gilbert Livingstone Wilson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS *** - -***** This file should be named 60313-h.htm or 60313-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/3/1/60313/ - -Produced by MFR, K Nordquist and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6f50fd9..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure1.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure1.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7cdd869..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure1.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure10.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure10.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 2e2c1f6..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure10.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure11.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure11.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 06d61b5..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure11.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure12.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure12.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c661ede..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure12.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure13.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure13.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index da38434..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure13.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure14.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure14.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6f9c28c..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure14.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure15.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure15.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4df2d5c..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure15.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure16.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure16.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 8c66033..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure16.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure17.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure17.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c05da38..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure17.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure18.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure18.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 8f2f98b..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure18.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure19.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure19.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f265637..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure19.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure2.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure2.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3c0a395..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure2.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure20.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure20.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 42017c3..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure20.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure21.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure21.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1ee6353..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure21.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure22.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure22.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 26a747b..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure22.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure23.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure23.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 28ffa61..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure23.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure24.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure24.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index fe9e158..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure24.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure25.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure25.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0407ac8..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure25.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure26.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure26.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f0c95cd..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure26.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure27.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure27.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index fd22258..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure27.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure28.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure28.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f7b1d72..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure28.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure29.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure29.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a246b69..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure29.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure3.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure3.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index aa4b42c..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure3.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure30.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure30.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4af7f25..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure30.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure31.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure31.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 69f8f4f..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure31.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure32.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure32.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f1c0698..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure32.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure33.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure33.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d4cdd60..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure33.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure34.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure34.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c4d405d..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure34.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure35.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure35.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3788f83..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure35.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure36.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure36.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e5a6863..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure36.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure37.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure37.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 66a7b0d..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure37.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure38.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure38.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6514488..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure38.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure39.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure39.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 98649e2..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure39.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure4.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure4.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index cbf5276..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure4.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure40.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure40.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a147c95..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure40.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure5.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure5.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4dd0859..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure5.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure6.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure6.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index fc07807..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure6.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure7.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure7.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index dba6e95..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure7.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure8.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure8.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 8ec9f0b..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure8.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/figure9.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/figure9.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7740dab..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/figure9.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus1.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e157b5b..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus1.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus2.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 71d820a..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus2.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus3.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 16b4ed0..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus3.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus4.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus4.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c64604a..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus4.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus5.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus5.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d78604d..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus5.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus6.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus6.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c7b48ff..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus6.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus7.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus7.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 975bc6b..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus7.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus8.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus8.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 72f06c1..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus8.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/illus9.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/illus9.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4081605..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/illus9.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60313-h/images/u-minn.jpg b/old/60313-h/images/u-minn.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 40a5b83..0000000 --- a/old/60313-h/images/u-minn.jpg +++ /dev/null |
