JENKS] METHODS OF GATHERING 1063 
At Rice lake, Ontario, ‘‘two go with a birch canoe, into the thickest 
part of it [the rice field] and with their paddles thresh it [the grain] 
into their canoe.’ 
Again it is‘recorded that the Ottawa bend the bunches over the 
‘anoe and shake the grain into it: ‘*Le temps de la mcisson estant 
venu, ils menent leurs Canots dedans les petites allées quwils ont prati- 
quées au trauers de ces grains, et faisant pencher dedans les touftes 
amassées ensemble, les égrainnent.”” 
In all of the above gathering it is simply the grain which is removed. 
Two instances are found, however, in which the entire fruit-head is 
cut off and taken to the shore in the canoe, and still others in which 
the stalks are cut in sheaves and taken thus to the shore. 
At Rice lake, Ontario, we find that ‘‘one person steered the canoe 
with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and another 
with a stick in one hand, anda curved sharp-edged paddle in the other, 
struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the stick: the 
chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe.” * 
At Rat Portage, Ontario, sticks about 2 feet long are used by the 
gatherer who ‘‘strips off the heads.”* A forked pole is used to push 
the canoe, but the boatman sits at the bow instead of at the stern. 
The men and not the women gather the grain there. 
At Moose-ear river, Barron county, Wisconsin, in 1892 the women 
and boys went through the field in canoes, and with knives cut the 
stalks about 2 feet long. They then tied them in bunches about half 
as large as a sheaf of wheat, and brought them to the shore.’ The 
Green Bay county, Wisconsin, Indians, who made bunches by giving 
them ‘‘a twist and kink,” cut these bunches with knives and then 
brought them to the shore.’ The late Chief Pokagon wrote of the 
Potawatomi Indians of St Joseph river valley, Michigan, that **It 
[wild rice] was sometimes gathered in bundles and kept in that way 
for winter use.” 
The Indians at Lac Courte Oreille reservation also gather what 
they call *‘green wild rice.” When they are at the fields to tie the 
bunches they strip off the grain into their canoes by simply pulling 
the closed hand over the fruit-heads. This grain, then in the milk, is 
parched and consumed during the period immediately before the 
mature grain is gathered, though some families at times cure a suffi- 
cient quantity for consumption during the year. The grain in this state 
is much lighter in color than that which is cured when more mature. 

‘Jones, Life and Journals, pp. 259-260; also Chamberlain, Notes on the History, Customs, and 
Beliefs of the Mississagua Indians, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol.1, 1888, p. 155. 
2 Relations des Jésuites, 1663, p, 19; also Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. I, p. 74. 
%Traill, Canadian Crusoes, p. 188. 
4 Pither, letter, December 5, 1898. 
5 John Hutchinson, letter, Elroy, Juneau county, Wisconsin. 
6 Ellis, Recollections, p. 265. 
7 Pokagon, letter, November 16, 1898. 
