186 Kansas Academy of Science. 



was filled with the rice, which looks very much like bearded barley, they 

 rowed to the shore and the rice was scorched in large caldron kettles 

 which were placed over a hot fire as the rice was continually stirred 

 with a paddle to keep it from burning. This scorching was done to get 

 the husk off of the kernel. When scorched enough, the product was 

 dumped into a sunken, cemented, tub-shaped place in the yard and 

 tramped by a barefooted Indian to further remove the husks from the 

 grain; the Indian washed his feet after the tramping was completed. 

 The grain was then winnowed, after which it was washed. As soon as 

 the first canoe loads were cleaned the rice was cooked, much as we cook 

 oatmeal, and all sat down to a feast. The next day many were sick 

 with a dysentery, and within a week 23 of the children under two 

 years of age had died of cholera infantum. After the gathering of the 

 first rice there came a heavy dashing rain, after which there were no 

 more deaths of the fatal disease. 



We had no government doctor at that time, the position being vacant 

 on account of resignation. Consequently, as Indian agent, I wired the 

 Indian office at Washington for medical aid. I also wired to Virginia, 

 Minn., for a local physician to come at once, also to the state board 

 of health at St. Paul to send us what assistance they could. But the 

 fates were against us. The weather turned stormy, and Pelican Lake, 

 which lay between us and the railroad, became so rough that it could 

 not be crossed till the disease had worn itself out. Then we had doctors 

 galore. Besides the local doctors the government sent two of its ablest 

 physicians, and two state doctors came from St. Paul. No one was sick 

 when any of them arrived. They had no case to diagnose, but proceeded 

 at once to lay the disease to Colon Bacillae in the well water. 



We had five wells in the village. I had the water of each of these 

 wells analyzed by the state board of health and Colon Bacillae were found 

 in but one of these wells, and that was in a well that had never been 

 used by any one. The water of the well we all used was potable in every 

 sense of the word. Moreover, some of the Indians did not use water from 

 any well, but from the lake direct, and the children of these died of the 

 disease the same as of those who used the well water. I maintained at 

 the time that the rice caused the disease and still do so. I believe that 

 a mold or fungus growth of some kind formed on the rice as a result of 

 its being submerged and that all the rice gathered before its being 

 washed clean by the terrific rainstorm aforementioned, was poisonous to 

 the human system, and produced death to the infants and weaklings of 

 the race, the same as the mold on the grass of the plains killed the 

 horses off, I believe, the same year. As all the conditions remained the 

 same, except that the rice in the field was drenched and thoroughly 

 washed by a furious storm and immediately following the storm the 

 ravages of the disease ceased, it is my candid opinion that the cholera 

 infantum was caused by the diseased rice, or the toxic principle caused 

 by same, and not by any contamination of the water. 



I 



