50 CREES. 



the Chippeways, if the traditions which Mr. School- 

 craft collected during his long residence with that 

 people are to be trusted. Maize is more used on 

 the Missouri than in the proper Chippeway country, 

 its cultivation forming a part of the regular 

 economy of the Dakota tribes ; the Chippeways, 

 however, do not admit that they received it from 

 that quarter ; but, in a legend related by Mr. School- 

 craft, ascribe its origin to one of their own chiefs, 

 who received it as the prize of a victory he ob- 

 tained over a spirit. Hence its name of Mon- 

 (hiiiiin, or the Spirit's Grain. The Delawares had 

 extensive fields of maize at the time of the disco- 

 very of America, and to them the early Virginian 

 colonists were indebted on their first landing for 

 food, which being afterwards withheld, produced 

 extreme misery and famine. 



From some of the details of Mr. Schoolcraft's 

 account of the rites of Kagagishkoda, we may infer 

 that the national polity and social condition of the 

 Chippeways have greatly deteriorated since their 

 acquaintance with Europeans. The contact with 

 civilised man has induced among them an incon- 

 trollable desire for intoxication, unaccompanied by 

 any real benefit. For though missionaries have 

 made a number of nominal converts, the blessings 

 of vital Christianity are confined, as far as I could 

 ascertain, to only a few Chippeway communities 



