"■^""i"^! TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 57 



The Stiff awns of this grass were firmly bound into a b.mdle, from 

 which the pointed grainswere burned off, leaving a brush used for 

 dressing the hair. This brush was used also in a certain jiart of the 

 ceremony heretofore mentioned as the AVawan of the Omaha-Ponca 

 the Hako^ of the Pawnee. 



ZizANiA AQTJATICA L. Wild Rice, Indian Rice. (PI. 3 ) 

 Psi- (Dakota). 



Si'^ioaninda (Omaha-Ponca ) . 



Sv" (Winnebago). 



The range of wild rice is very extensive throughout the North 

 Temperate Zone. It is found in the shallow lakes of the Sand Hills of 

 Nebraska, still more northeastward in the lake region of Minnesota, 

 Wisconsin, and Michigan, and northward into Canada. This cereal 

 was an important part of the dietary of the tribes of Nebraska, but 

 not in so great a degree as with the tribes of the lake regions to- 

 ward the northeast. It woidd seem worth while to raise wild rice 

 in any lakes and marshy flood plains in our State not otherwise 

 productive, and so add to our food resources. From trial I can 

 say that it is verv palatable and nutritious and, to my taste, the 

 most desirable cereal we have. A quotation from a consular report 

 characterizes it as " the most nutritious cereal in America." ^ The 

 most exhaustive treatise on wild rice and its use among the aboriginal 

 tribes is that by Dr. A. E. Jenks." 



Zea mats L. Maize, Indian Com. 



Wamndheza (Dakota) ; Teton dialect, wagmcza. 



Wahdba (Omaha-Poncii). 



NikUs (Pawnee). 



Maize was cultivated by all the tribes of Nebraska. Native in- 

 formants say they had all the general types — dent corn, flint corn, 

 flour corn, sweet corn, and pop corn : and that of most of these types 

 they had several varieties. They maintained the purity of these 

 varieties from generation to generation bj' selecting typical ears for 

 seed and by planting varieties at some distance from each other. 

 They raised considerable quantities, part of which was preserved by 

 drying in the green stage, while the rest was allowed to ripen. The 

 ripe corn was pi'epared by pounding to a meal, by parching (some- 

 times by parching and then grinding), by hulling with lye from 

 ashes to make hominy, and in various other ways. Maize comprised 

 a large part of the food .supply. Corn was regarded as "mother" 

 among the Nebraska tribes who cultivated it. 



1 Flptcher, The Hako. p. 220. 

 'Oiitlimk. Aray 1(1. litis, p. sn. 



= The WUd Rlct- Oathirers of the Ippcr I.akfs. In \inil,,nlli Ucp. Hut: Amn: Ethn., 

 pt. 2. 



