WILD RICE — CHAMBLISS 381 



prospect of a good and pleasant home somewhere near or in the valley of the 

 Wild Rice . . . 



Believe me, then, my Father, to be what my people always have been and what 

 they and I now am, Your friend and the friend of the white man. 



Wild rice has played an important part in providing subsistence to 

 explorers and trappers who penetrated this great continent two or 

 three centuries ago along the waterways that now separate the United 

 States from the Dominion of Canada. 



A traveler among the North American Indians during the years 

 1652 to 1684, after referring to his reception by the natives, states: 

 "Our songs being finished we began our teeth to worke. We had there 

 a kinde of rice, much like oats. It growes in the watter in 3 or 4 f oote 

 deepe." After comments on God's care over His creatures and a brief 

 description of how the grain is gathered, he continues : "That is their 

 food for the most part of the winter and doe dresse it thus : ffor each 

 man a handfull of that they putt in the pott, that swells so much that 

 it can suffice a man."* 



In his Travels and adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, 

 Alexander Henry ^° tells us a hundred years later about obtaining from 

 Indian women by barter 100 bags of this grain and adds that "without 

 a large quantity of rice the voyage could not have been prosecuted to 

 its completion." 



An ample supply of wild rice was always included among the winter 

 provisions for the outposts of the fur companies trading in this region. 

 David Thompson " records in his Narrative of explorations in west- 

 ern America that a superintendent of a fur company in northern 

 Minnesota and his men "passed the whole winter on wild rice and 

 maple sugar." Under such circumstances he considered this grain 

 "a weak food" and says that "those who live for months on it enjoy 

 good health and are moderately active but very poor in flesh." 



The old journals of the earlier hunters, trappers, and priests seek- 

 ing adventure in this great wilderness of the north contain many 

 stories about the use of this grain in fighting hunger when other food 

 was hard to get. In the great outdoors, white men, like Indians, can 

 retain health, develop endurance, and enjoy life on a very simple diet. 



The aborigines of this country were fond of soups, broths, and stews 

 thickened with wild rice." To this day, their descendants have not 

 lost that fondness. In addition to its simplicity, this dish has the char- 



» Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson. Transcribed from original manuscripts in the Bod- 

 leian Library and the British Museum. The Prince Society, Boston, 1885. 



10 Henry, Alexander, Travels and adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, 

 1760-76, new ed., p. 241, 1901. 



" Thompson, David, Narrative of explorations In western America, 1784-1812. The 

 Champlain Society, Toronto, 1916. 



" Smith, Huron H., Ethnobotany of the Meskwald Indians. Bull. Publ. Mus. City of 

 MUwauliee, vol. 4, p. 259, 1928. 



