JMost of the historical records were collected in the library of the Wisconsin llistoi-ical Society, in Madison. In its early stage, it consists of a large growth of mycelium.. in the tissues and on the surface of the young ovule.
HABITAT
Common near New Haven (Alex's letter.. Also grows in the tidal coastal marshes which are submerged most of the time, and also along the Connecticut River. Not known and probably not found west of the Rocky Mountains (L. F. Henderson's letter, Mo.scow, Idaho, December 11, 1898).
JENKS] FOREIGN HABITAT 1087
Mienone believes that by their peculiarity, numbers, and extensive haliitat, the Ojibwa (commonly called Chippewa) and Dakota (generally termed Sioux) are the most important of all the Indians of the wild rice region. 34;passage into the country of the wild Rice Indians.” It leads to the mouth of the St Croix river, half way down its course.
JENKS] THE DAKOTA 1045
The above letter does not speak of rice gathering in western Dakota, but two of the wild rice villages mentioned. Many Dakota Indians on reservations have access to wild rice at the present time.
JENKS] THE MASKOTIN 1053 Piko roported that in 18(M) there were 450 warriors, 500 women, and
School craft say that the Oiil)wa and Ottawa drove thcni southward when they invaded A\'isconsin.- and that aiuony the traditions of the Algonqiuuii tribes who inhabit the shores of the upper lakes are one that they. "Assinipoualaks" (Assiniboin) or "Warriors of the Rocks" are a Siouan tribe. perhaps in the sixteenth ccMitury, after quarrel- .. ing- with their relatives, the Dakota, took refuge among the rt,s-,s'i« .. or rocks of the Lake of the Woods.. soj)aied from the Yanktonai Sioux."
PRODUCTION
NTKODUCTION
INDIAN WOMAN ON HER WAY TO THE RICE BED TO TIE THE STALKS
In 1820, Edward Tanner wrote that the Ojibwa Indians of Sandy Lake, Aitkin County, ^Minnesota, piled the heads into large spouts “to facilitate the gathering of the grain when ripe. Wisconsin, bend the tied bunches over the side of the canoe, untie the strip of bark, and l)eat the grain with a short stick.". Another version is that after the strip around the stalks was cut and removed, one of the harvesters bent the stick heads over a canoe, while another struck the grain with a stick. , in 1S92.
JESKS] METHODS OF GATHERING 1063 At Rice lake, Ontario, "two go with a birch canoe, into the thickest
US in tyiiig of tlic sUilk.s.the fiuioc i.s iiidispeiisiihle i . i>-i-ain-i;;itlipi-intr. Next a ])ruglet was spread on the ground, and a pole was put on with its lower end on the rug, while the other end was held a little above.. the stalks with the now dried fruit-heads were kept, and grain .. viewoftlicriceHeldaftertliegrainhasbei'Ugatheredis .sliowiiinplate L.xxiv,ii. In the early part of the eighteenth century the Dakota cut their grain into a wooden trough.^ In 1829, at Rice Lake, Ontario, the boys trampled the grain into a hole lined with a deer.
STAVE-LINED THRASHING HOLE FOR TREADING OUT THE GRAIN
Carver wrote that after the grain had hardened, the Indians trod or swept the hull. '. The grain is sometimes pounded on flat stones and reshuffled into large open baskets. Lac: 'A blanket or birch bark is spread on the ground. , and with the help of a strong breeze the grain is fanned out."
WILD-RICE KERNELS BEFORE THRASHING
Among the Menomini. "on a windy day the rice is cleaned by means of a liirch-l)ark container. Chief Pokagon writes about wild rice among the Pottawatomi: "Our .. people always distribute everything when need comes to the door."'. "As for some of the agents, if you require some of it, without using any of our surlesautres."
WILD-RICE KERNELS AFTER THRASHING AND WINNOWING
JENKS] AMOUNTS HABVESTED ANNUALLY 1075
1076 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES [ETH. ANN.19
AMOUNTS HARVESTED ANNUALLY 1077
1078 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES
CONSUMPTION
BIRCH-BARK WINNOWING TRAY
COMPOSITION OF INDIAN FOODS 1081
Indians: 'Wild rice is a good and very wholesome food, very light and nutritious: it is excellent with game stock.' He said they were as tasty as currants - 'ces Barbares nous donnerent a manger de la foUe avoine, say but not. Mr. George Law wrote of these Indians in the early forties that their rice, cooked and eaten with maple sugar, is very palatable. and nutritious, and serves them instead of bread." Rev. Chrysostomus Verwyst, a lifelong missionary among the Indians south of.
JENKS] WILD RICE AS A FOOD 1087 During- the period wlieii the food supply depended upon almost con-
JENKS] WILD RICE AS FOOD 1087 During this period the food supply was almost dependent on con-. 1()8GENERAL SOCLIL AND ECONOMIC INTERPRETATIONS The Wild-rick Moon
This second toti-m was the Eagle, who was at the head of the BigThunder phratry that lived at Lake Winnebago. The periods of the wild rice harvest, as indeed most opportunities for social gatherings, are gala days for the Indians. This paragrnpli, and other matters of this writer, are pure (mCarver's authority; lie is not so reliable on Indians as the Vjjeets would use.) and this one amount of the celebrated feasts are shores of the fabulous.
JEXKS] WILD-RICE TALES 1093
Another story of the origin of the wild riee is taken from a series of experiences of the Wenibo'. Excluding the value of canoe material and furs, we find that the value of wild rice was about one-sixth of the total remaining (edil)le) production. This recent testimony to the value of wild birds to the Indians shows their much greater utility in former years; and this is actually proved by the following quotations.
JENKS] FOOD OK EARLY WHITES 1101 the country and seek such subsistence as accident may ofl'er them."'
JENKS] FOOD OK EARLY WHITES 1101 country and seek such sustenance as misfortune can offer them.”' .. they go to buy wild rice on a sandy island in tho lake. No. l)ut a better testimony than Henry's could be given to the dependence of merchants. on wild rice in those early years.'. Indian slays [sleds] loaded with wild rice and dried meat.'' consisting of about eighty, men, women, and children, who )) cook dried meat, oats [wild rice], bear fat, and eight packs of beaver."^.
JENKS] FOOD OF EAKLY WHITES 1103
Doty says, (directed by Dr Morse in "Tish and wild rice" are the staple food of the traders, and without them the trade could scarcely be carried on." - Schoolcraft, who collected his facts during this period, says: speaking of wild rice. " Much of it was sold to the traders, to subsist their men. on their visits to the Indians." "^' It is unnecessary to cite more instances, but wild rice is used 1)V. The foregoing facts are sufficient to show that wild rice was a valuable and prized food to the pioneer whites of the Northwest.
IKM) WILD RICK OATHEREKS OF UPPER LAKES [F.T11.A.NN.19
JENKS] INDIANS AT GREEN BAY 1107
No estimate was made for any sucii yjurpose like that to which they are here used, and there was nothing to influence the mind of the surveyor in favor of one part of the territory against another.
JENKS] POPULATION COMPARED 1111
Cliarli'voix' (ii'cl;u-(' The powerful and numerous Ojihwa Indians come into possession of wild rice in the first period of the fur trade: theirs was therefore not a choice between starvation or use of rice. This fact is attested in the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Atl'airs for Istil. Prol)al)ly one of the above towns is presented in 1837 as MenominievUleon Fox River.*. Between -17° and 48° north latitude, a river flows from the east into the Red River of the North, which has been known for more than a hundred years for its production of wild rice. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the stream was called Rice Straw River, and immediately north of it is a Wild Rice River which flows into Red Lake River, which in turn empties into the Red River of the North.' " This WildRice river runs. JESKS] WILD RICE RIVERS 1123Rice Lake pours its waters into the Mississippi with a short tower. wcic exploited on earlier maps. Big Hice River and a Little Rice Riv/tr, in Oneida county, AVisconsin, discharge their waters into the Wisconsin river. rlo Daviess county, Illinois, has Big Menominee creek, wliicli is a tributary of the Mississippi river at ""Nine-mile island" or "Number". Rice Lake, Oneida county, AVisconsin, township 36, range 7 east (Pocketbook Map of Oneida, Vilas, and series 4 of Iron counties, AA'is-. Pilgrimage to Europe and America, leading to the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Blood Rivers, with Description of the Course of the Ancient Hole and Olio. History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clarke, to the source of the Missouri river, beyond the Rocky mountains, and down the Columbia river to the Pacific ocean, conducted during the years 1804-5-6, by order of the United States government. Manuscript diaries of Alexander Henry, fur trader of the Northwest Company, and of David Thompson, geographer and official explorer of the same company. Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, etc., executed in the year 182o under (•order of Stephen H. Consisting of notes by Messrs. Long.Say, Keating, and others.]. Sketches of a march on the lakes, of the character and customs of the Chijipe-way Indians; also a vocabulary of Algian or the Chippeway language. [111.].Report to the Secretary of War of the United States, containing a narrative of a voyage made in 1820, to ascertain the actual condition of the Indian tribes. Akkasumas kanumatti kan hidhame, furtuu afaan Hindii Niiw Ingilaandii, lakkoofsa 1. TiTFOHi), W. J. Skechestowarda hnrtus botanicusAmericanus ykn, gabatee halluu qabu .. biqiltoota haaraa fi gatii guddaa qaban West Indies fi Ameerikaa Kaabaa fi Kibbaa. CHRONOLOGIC LIST OF MAPS JENKS] MAPS 1137K.SKS] CAUSES FOR CONSUMPTION 1113 with them it was iiuiipuhlc of extensive eultivation. Its supply was
INFLUENCE OF WILD RICE ON GEOGRAPHIC NOMEN- CLATURE'
JESKS] WILD-RICE RIVERS 1123 Rice Lake discharges its waters into the Mississippi by a short thor-
JENKS] WILD-RICE LAKES 1125
JE.NKS] BIBLIOGRAPHY 1129
LIST OF CORRESPONDENTS
