241 



WILD OR INDIAN RICE. 



BY 



Ar.UKKT r>. ItKACAX. 



Along the swampy honlcrs of strciiius and in the sliallnw water of the 

 numerous small hikes throujjhout the Great Lake rejjion and on westward 

 through Minnesota to the Red River valley in that state, grows the water 

 oats or Indian rice. Zizania aqiiatica L. This plant helongs to the grass 

 family. It is an annual; flowers monoecious; tlie staminate and pistiUate 

 both 1-flowered spikelets in the same panicle. Glumes 2, subtended by a 

 .small cartilaginous ring, herbaceous-memhranaceous, convex, awnless in 

 the sterile, the lower one tipped with a straight awn in the fertile spikelets. 

 Palet none. Stamens 6. Stigmas pencil-form. A large reed-like water- 

 grass. Spikelets jointed upon the club-shaped iiedicels, very decidons. 

 Culms 3 to 9 feet high ; leaves fiat, 2 to 3 feet long (and lie flat on the water 

 when they first emerge ; later they stand erect and finally decline at 

 the tips), linear lanceolate; lower branches are of the ample pyramidal; 

 panicle staminate, spreading; the upper erect, pistillate; low-er glums long 

 awned, rough; styles distinct; grain linear, slender. G" long. 



I became acquainted with this plant at Nett Lake, Minnesota, where I 

 had charge of the Bois Fort Indian Reservation as Superintendent and 

 Special Disbursing Agent from 1909 to 1914. Nett Lake, the lake that bears 

 that name, covers three-fourths of a township in area and is the shape of a 

 great lobster's paw with the claws pointing eastward, the major claw being 

 the northern member. It is very shallow, the greater part being less than 

 four feet in depth. In this the wild rice grows in such quantities that the 

 lake looks like a great barley field. 



The rice does not ripen all at once, so can not be cut like a barley field. 

 But as the grains drop from the stalk very easily when ripe, it can be 

 pounded off into a canoe with a stick and the green still left to ripen. 



The rice begins to ripen in the latter part of August. As soon as it be- 

 gins to ripen, the Indians have a secret ceremony and much powowing. 

 Then the chief medicine man gives permission for the Indians to go out 

 and gather rice. 



With canoes, the Indians go among the rice and beat the heads over the 

 ciiiioe with short clubs. This they keep up till they have a canoe full of rice. 

 They then go to the village with it. 



A( the village the rice, which has Jusl passed the uiilU slagc wiicii galli- 

 crcd. is parched and scorched in a large iron kettle inclined over the 

 lire so that a squaw can stir the rice the while to keep it from burning. By 

 lliis scorching process the hulls are burned from the kernels, or are so dried 

 .111(1 charred that they can be loo.sened antl removed by the next process. 



As soon as the scorched rice is removed from the kettle and is cold enough 

 to handle, it is placed in a cylindrical hole in the ground that has l»een 

 lined with cement or marl from the lake. Then the Indian man of the 

 house gets into this hole and tramps the hulls off with his bare feet. (Some 

 people say they \vash their feet — after they get through the tramping.) 



