JENKS] INDIAN DEPENDENCE ON WILD RICE 1095 
as far west, they say, as the Ojibwa ever dwelt. This was about six 
generations ago. As Warren said that they estimate a generation at 
forty years, it would be about 1660. Sixteen hundred and sixty is 
probably near the time the Ojibwa came into possession of wild rice as 
a food, for Warren has said that they left La Pointe island in Lake 
Superior and came south and west onto the mainland between 1612 and 
1671. On the Red river of the North the Indians used the grain and 
found it good. They gathered and sowed some at Snake river, Min- 
nesota. Then they sowed it at Shell lake, and so on to the east in Wis- 
consin. It was distributed eastward from one Indian to another until 
today it is found wherever the Ojibwa lives. 
DEPENDENCE OF THE INDIAN ON WILD RICE 
The food of primitive men yaries with the season of the year and 
the section of the country in which theyare. They frequently live 
upon one staple at atime. In the region of the upper lakes three or 
four weeks in March, April, or May were given to the making of 
maple sugar, during which time the people often lived almost exclu- 
sively on this food. Indeed, Alexander Henry says of maple sugar 
making between April 24 and May 12, 1768, ‘* We ate nothing but our 
sugar during the whole period. Each man consumed a pound a day, 
desired no other food, and was visibly nourished by it.”* Soon the 
varly berries were ripe, then green corn (maize) was edible, if the 
Indian cultivated it, and in September the wild rice came. Both in 
the spring and autumn wild fowl were countless in the vicinity of rice 
fields, and furred game and fish were plentiful all the year. The win- 
ter was the season for hunting, when stores of penimican” were laid up. 
In some sections of the country the rice crop failed partly or wholly 
at frequent intervals. Information from such sources as Chief Poka- 
gon and government farmers at Indian reservations shows that it so 
fails once in three or four years.* Again, at Grass lake, Lake county, 
Illinois, where there are 1,000 acres of wild rice, it has not been known 
to fail in the last sixty vears. 
These preliminary remarks haye been thought necessary in order 
that the historical sketch and summaries which follow may not over- 
emphasize the value of wild rice in the household economy of: the 
Indians and early whites, for of course other foods must here be 
largely ignored. 
Very positive evidence of the value of wild rice to the Indian comes 
to us from various Indian agencies. Mr D. P. Bushneil’s report for 

1Henry, Travels and Adventures, p. 218. 
2Pemmican is lean buffalo meat dried and pounded fine, then mixed with melted fat and packed 
in buffalo skins. It hardens and will keep for years, but if exposed to moisture it soon becomes 
musty and unfit for use. One buffalo would make a sack of about 100 pounds. It is a very palatable, 
nourishing, and healthful food (Harmon). 
%See page 1699 et seq. 
