1100 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES [ETH. ANN. 19 
Where high water is never or seldom possible, failures must be less 
frequent. Frosts also destroy the young plant;' while, when the grain 
is ripe, a storm of a few hours will thresh out into the bottom of the 
lake or river an entire crop;” or, if the storm occurs while the stalk is 
ereenand tender, it will be bent over into the water, from which it can 
not rise again.* 
Sir John Richardson wrote that in 1847 multitudes of caterpillars 
spread like locusts over the neighborhood of Rainy river. ** They 
destroyed the Folle avoine [wild rice] on Rainy lake,” though they 
did not touch wheat. A letter dated ‘t‘ American Fur Company’s 
establishment, Fond du Lac” (Lake Superior), August 8, 1826. speaks 
of » freshet the previous spring. It ‘t destroyed the wild rice—and 
this makes our visit with the supplies we have brought with us so 
opportune... Weare here at a moment of the utmost need of the 
poor Indians.” ° 
Tn 1849 the rice crop of the Pillagers (Ojibwa of Leech lake, Minne- 
sota, numbering about 1,050) entirely failed, and on this article they 
depended mostly for their winter’s support. ‘* Hunger and starvation 
menace them; and in order to procure means of subsistence their hun- 
ters this winter will be forced to press westward till they find the but- 
falo.”® The Ojibwa of Sandy lake, Minnesota, numbering about 300, 
lost their rice both in 1849 and in 1850. The majority of them passed 
their winters in the vicinity of Crow Wing and Fort Gaines, Minne- 
sota, on ceded lands, hunting and begging for a living.’ The ‘‘Sug- 
wun-dug-ah-win-in-e-wug” (Ojibwa in Minnesota north of Lake Supe- 
rior) also lost their rice crop in 1850, ‘‘and this people anticipate with 
aching hearts the sufferings and privations of the approaching winter. ~* 
These Indians also depended much upon rabbit and reindeer for winter 
consumption. 
Mr Hind, in passing down the Rainy lake waterway in 1857, said 
that the Indians he met lamented the failure of the rice that year, and 
this failure, together with poor fishing and extraordinary mortality 
among the rabbits, threatened them with famine during the coming 
winter.” September 30, 1867, the agent of the Ojibwa of the Missis- 
sippi (Minnesota), wrote that the rice crop appeared likely to be almost 
an entire failure. ‘*This is a great calamity to the Indians, as they 
depend largely upon it for subsistence, and I fear suffering will ensue 
»1 The Ojibwa of Lake Superior (Wisconsin) lost 
their crop both in 1869 and 1870 and are ‘compelled to scatter over 

in consequence. 


1 Chief Pokagon, op. cit. 
2 Dr Morse, Report, appendix, p. 52. 
Roger Patterson, op. cit. 
4Henry Youle Hind, Narrative, p. 93. For further causes of failure, see chapter on botany, section 
“ Natural Enemies.” 
McKenney, Tour of the Lakes, p. 337. ®Ibid., p. 59. 
Indian Affairs Report, 1850, p. 57. ®*Henry Youle Hind, Narrative, pp. 118, 119. 
TIbid., p. 56 Indian Affairs Report, 1867, pp. 341, 342. 
