JENKS] THE DAKOTA 1045 
In the winter of 1811-1812 they caught many wild horses south of 
Platte river, and in the following winter they used riatas to catch wild 
horses. * 
So, while during the early incursions of the Ojibwa into the wild- 
rice fields of the Dakota these fields were worth defending, yet they 
became less so when the horse came to carry the bison-loving Dakota 
into the great pasture lands of the western prairies. 
However, wild rice played no small part in the household economy 
of the Dakota Indians, those east of the Mississippi doubtless using it 
more than the others. A French author, probably of the first quarter 
of the seventeenth century, wrote that there were five village districts 
of these Indians. ‘‘The Ouatabatonha (River Sioux) live by the St 
Croix river or on the Wildrice lake, which is below and 15 leagues 
from the Riyiere au Serpent... The Menesouhakatoha (or lake 
Sioux)... The Natatoha (or prairie Sioux) .. . The Hictoha (or 
hunting Sioux)... The Titoha (or prairie Sioux).” The five vil- 
lages numbered 1,200 men, or about 6,000 or 7,000 souls. These were 
the only Dakota with whom there was any considerable commerce at the 
time. Others farther west would be little known, but the five villages 
of 6,000 or 7,000 souls were doubtless about the only Dakota who had 
access to wild rice. This number must again be reduced, for the 
Titoha village was situated 50 leagues west of St Anthony falls, hence 
probably did not use the grain, while it is recorded that the people of 
other four villages did not cultivate the soil, but were roving about and 
lived on game, fish, and wild rice.” This leaves some 5,000 or 6,000 of 
these Indians who used wild rice. 
Previous to this Perrot said that they occupied a country of nothing 
but lakes and marshes filled with wild rice. It lay for 50 or more 
leagues square (19,000 or 20,000 square miles) on both sides of the 
Mississippi: 
Il est A remarquer que le pays of ils [the Dakota] sont n’est autre chose que 
lacs et marests, remplis de folles avoines, séparés les uns des autres par petites lan- 
gues de terre qui n’ont tout au plus d'un lac 4 autre que trente 4 quarante pas, et 

d’autres cing 4 six ou un peu plus. Ces lacs ou marests contiennent cinquante 
lieues et davantage en carré, et ne sont séparés par aucune riviére que par celle de la 
Loitisianne (le Mississippi), qui a son lit dans le milieu, ou une partie de leurs eaux 
vient se dégorger. D’autres tombent dans la riviére de Saint Croix, qui est située 4 
leur égard au nord-est, et les range de prés. Enfin les autres marests et lacs situez a 
Poiiest de la riviére de Saint Pierre s’y vont jetter pareillement; si bien que les Scioux 
sont inaccessibles dans un pays simarécageux, et ne peuvent y estre détruits que par 
des ennemis ayant des cannots comme eux pour les poursuiyre; parceque dans ces 
endroits il n’y a que cing ou six familles ensemble, que forment comme un gros, ou 
une espéce de petit village, et touts les autres sont de mesme éloignez 4 une certaine 
distance, afin d’estre 4 portée de se pouvoir prester la main 4 la premiére alarme. Si 
quelqu’une de ces petites bourgades est attaquée, l’ennemy n’en peut deffaire que 

1 Pictography of the N. Am. Indians, Fourth Ann. Rept. Bur. Eth., p. 89 et seq. 
Neill, Memoir of the Sioux, p. 235. 
