198 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXI, 



Where, then, did the ceremonial planting originate? Native tradi- 

 tion, as usual, leaves us in the lurch. The Sarsi have it that they re- 

 ceived the seeds from a water serpent with injunctions not to pass them 

 on to other peoples. The Blackfoot are equally certain that they were 

 the original beneficiaries of supernatural benevolence, and the Crow 

 explain circumstantially how the Blackfoot learned the custom from 

 them. We must accordingly resort to objective considerations. 



As between Sarsi and Blackfoot, the marginal position of the former 

 among Plains Indians and their known relations with the Blackfoot 

 indicate that they were the borrowers. Their ceremonialism is certainly 

 much more weakly developed and it is perhaps a characteristic mani- 

 festation of this trait that planting is not limited by them to bundle 

 owners. 



The problem thus reduces itself to the question whether the Crow 

 borrowed from the Piegan or vice versa. Recognizing that a mathe- 

 matical demonstration is impossible, I incline to the view that the usage 

 is of Crow origin. In the first place, the Tobacco planting plays a far 

 more prominent part among the Crow than among the Blackfoot, where 

 it merely represents a portion of the Beaver men's activities. For this 

 reason, it has persisted among the Crow until at least 1916, while except 

 for the northern division it has been obsolete among the Blackfoot for 

 more than a generation. Secondly, the planting of Tobacco represents 

 an agricultural technique, the only agricultural effort of these typical 

 buffalo-hunters. The Blackfoot, as one of the northwesternmost Plains 

 tribes and representing an aberrant branch of the Algonkian family, are 

 not affiliated with any group from which they are likely to have derived 

 the technique. The Crow, on the other hand, are intimately related 

 to the Hidatsa, who planted corn and even tobacco, though of a different 

 variety and in non-ritualistic fashion. 1 Accordingly I assume that the 

 Crow derived their agricultural technique from the Hidatsa, elaborated 

 it ceremonially and transmitted it subsequently to the Piegan, who 

 developed the conceptions received in consonance with their own 

 ceremonial pattern, which in turn was partly borrowed by the Sarsi. 



It is a very different question where the Crow may have obtained the 

 Tobacco plant. Above (p. Ill) I have quoted Professor Setchell to the 

 effect that Nicotiana multivalvis can be produced from the wild tobacco 

 of northern California. This statement should be combined with the 

 following linguistic and cultural data. The only Siouan language in 



Wilson, 121-127. 



