1064 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES [ETH. ANN, 19 
Again, as in the tying of the stalks, the canoe is indispensable in the 
erain-gathering. At times a blanket is spread in the bottom; the 
canoe is propelled by a paddle, a pole, or a forked stick, sometimes 
the canoeman propels the canoe from the stern and sometimes from the 
bow. The grain may be gathered into the canoe by one person, who 
may hold the stalks in one hand and beat the grain out with a stick, 
or with two sticks, or sometimes with a paddle; or two persons may 
eather the rice, one holding the stalks over the canoe while the other 
beats out the grain with a pole. Again, the heads are clipped off over 
one of the sticks, and this is done either with another similar stick, or 
with a sharp-edged curved paddle. At other times the grain is shaken 
out. Knives are used to cut the bundles which are tied, sometimes 
before cutting and sometimes after." 
CurinG AND DRYING 
As soon as the grain is gathered it is taken to the shore, and ordi- 
narily the curing process begins immediately. This work also usually 
falls to the women. A slight movement of the stalk by bird or wind 
or rain will cause the grain to drop into the water when it is fully ripe, 
hence it must be gathered just before maturity. This necessitates 
that the rice be artificially ripened or cured; when thus ripened it 
will not germinate. It is almost always necessary thus to prepare the 
grain in order that the tenacious hull may be easily removed. 
There are three ways in which the grain is cured, viz, by the sun, 
by smoke and heat from a slow fire underneath it while spread on a 
scaffolding, and by parching or ‘* popping” in a vessel. 
The sun-dried grains become almost black, the kernels varying from 
black through the browns to greenish grays. The Dakota Indians of 
Titoha village, about 50 leagues west of St Anthony falls, Minnesota, 
carly in the eighteenth century, sun-cured their rice.” On Fond du 
Lac reservation there is a double process: After being gathered, it is 
taken ashore, laid on birch bark or blankets spread on the ground, 
and dried by the sun. After being dried, which takes about twenty- 
four hours, it is placed in a large copper kettle and roasted over a 
slow fire, being continually stirred with a paddle until the hull is 
thoroughly roasted, when it is ready for hulling. On Moose-ear 
river, Barron county, Wisconsin, in 1892, after the grain was cut, tied 
in bundles, and brought to the shore, it was spread on a long rack to 
dry in the sun. The stalks were laid on the rack in two rows, each 
having the heads in the same direction. Next, a blanket was spread 
on the ground, and a pole was placed with its lower end on the blanket, 
while the other end was held at a slight angle above. Over this pole 
the stalks, with the now dried fruit heads, were held, and the grain 

2 Neill, Memoir of the Sioux, p. 236. 
