1092 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES (ETH. ANN.19 
before he was te be tortured. The feast ‘consisted of dog, tyger-cat, 
and bear’s grease, mixed with wild oats [wild rice].”* 
Carver gives an account of a unique rice feast among the ** Naudo- 
wessies” (Dakota). They paid uncommon respect to one of their 
women, and ‘* They told me that when fhe was a young woman, for at 
the time I faw her fhe was far advanced in life, fhe had given what 
they termed a rice feaft. According to an ancient but almoft obfolete 
cuftom ... fhe inyited forty of the principal warriors to her tent, 
where having feafted them on rice and venifon, fhe by turns regaled 
each of them with a private defert, behind a ferene fixed for this pur- 
pofe in the inner part of the tent.” . . . ‘*So fenfible were the young 
Indians of her extraordinary merit, that they vied with each other for 
her hand, and in a very fhort time one of the principal chiefs took her 
to wife.” . . . ‘It is however fcarcely once in an age that any of their 
females are hardy enough to make this feaft, notwithftanding a huf- 
band of the firft rank awaits as a fure reward the fucceffful giver of 
it: and the cuftom, I fince find, is peculiar to the Naudoweffies.”* 
The rice was used probably because it was the greatest delicacy 
which could be set before guests. Yet it seems to have been the kind 
of food which always characterized this extraordinary social function. 
As might be expected from the meaning of their name, the Menomini 
Indians are more deeply influenced by wild rice than are other wild 
rice producing Indians. Special investigation® has proved, according 
to Indian traditions, what the facts recently given from Dr Hoffman’s 
report seemed clearly to show, i. e., that the Menomini came into pos- 
session of wild rice at the very inception of their tribal organization. 
Mii’niibush, one of the numerous mythic half-god half-man personages 
of the myths of the Menomini Indians, created the bear, which came 
out of the earth at Menominee river (between the upper peninsula of 
Michigan and Wisconsin). Mii’niibush determined to make an Indian 
of the bear, and accomplished the feat at the end of four days. He 
called the Indian ‘*Shekatcheke’nau,” and made him the head of the 
Bear phratry, the first phratry of the Menomini tribe. Then taking 
the Indian to the river he showed it to him and gave it into his hands, 
with all its fish, its great beds of wild rice, and many sugar trees along 
its banks. He said, ‘tI give these things to you, and you shall always 
have them—the river, the fish, the wild rice, and the sugar trees.” 
Shekatcheke’nau answered, ‘I thank you. It is all right. I will 
always work for you.” 
In a short time Wishki’no, the eagle, the thunderer, came from 
lake Winnebago to visit at Menominee river. He became the head 

1 Long, Voyages and Travels ... p.146 


Travels, pp. 245, 246. This paragraph, and other matter from this author, is given purely 
on Carver's authority; he is not so reliable on Indian subjects as could be desired, and this account 
rice feast savors strongly of the fabulous. 
Information from Menomini, at Menomini reservation, in the antumn of 1899. 
