EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



423 



1. An Old Indian Com Clearing 



The farthest north and one of the most ancient of Michigan's Indian 

 corn clearings, located on the banks of the St. Mary's River in Chippewa 

 county. 



These clearings were visited annually by the Indians for the purpose 

 of planting and harvesting a crop of corn and were very numerous, par- 

 ticularly in the Lower Peninsula in the days of the early settlement of 

 the State. 



The following, quoted from a recent letter from Mr. Otto Fowle of 

 Sault Ste. Marie, gives some interesting information in regard to the 

 early history of corn growing by the Indians : — 



"The Indian name for the river and vicinity was Mash-ko-de-sa-ging, 

 which signified openings of fields near the rapids. 



These fields were undoubtedly formerly cultivated by the Indians, on 

 which were raised corn and squashes, but at a time beyond the memory 

 of present inhabitants, and I find no written account of this cultivation 

 more than that Jacob M. Howard, Attorney for the claimants in the 

 Repintiguy case, visited this spot in 1862 and found a small encampment 

 of Indians there. 



The Jesuit Fathers who founded the Mission at the Sault in 1668, im- 

 mediately began the cultivation of corn. Galinee, the Sulpitian priest 

 who visited the Sault in 1680 writes, "They — the Jesuit Fathers — have 

 a large clearing well planted from which they ought to gather a good 

 ])art of their sustenance; they are hoping to eat bread within two years 

 from now." This of course was corn bread, as wheat raising was not 

 attempted. 



In the trial of the Repintiguy case, referred to, which was in relation 

 to events which occurred at the time of the building of the French Fort 

 at the Sault-1751 to 1755, the following testimony was adduced: "He- 

 Repintiguy-has engaged a Frenchman who married at the Sault Ste. 

 Marie an Indian woman, to take a farm; they have cleared it up and 

 sowed it and without a frost they will gather from 30 to 35 sacks of 



corn 



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