BOLL. 80] 



WILLANOUCHA WILLIAMS 



953 



and the physical well-being of the In- 

 dians there resident have been remarked 

 by many writers. Henry in 1775 and 

 Carver in 1776 record the fact that the 

 great expeditions to the rivers of the W. 

 and the preservation of the "infant 

 colonies" beyond the settled E. would 

 hardly have been possible without this 

 cereal. The nomenclature of the wild- 

 rice area is of importance, since Jenks 

 concludes that in this limited region of 

 North America alone "more geographic 

 names have been derived from wild rice 

 than from any otlier natural vegetal prod- 

 uct throughout tlie whole continent." 

 The plant itself is multinomial, no fewer 

 tlian 60 synonyms in English, French, 

 and the Indian tongues being cited by 

 Jenks. The use of wild rice (which is 

 mentioned rather late in the Jesuit Rela- 

 tions) seems to have been stimulated not 

 a little by the pressure of the whites on 

 the Indians, which forced them more and 

 more into closer quarters in this region 

 and cut off some of their resources, espe- 

 cially hunting. Wild rice is remembered 

 in several Indian month-names and some 

 interesting legends are connected with it. 

 The Menominee tribe is so called from the 

 plant. Practically all thatisknownabout 

 the botany of wild rice, its production 

 and food uses, its influence on Indian life 

 and customs, and its use by white settlers, 

 will be found in Dr A. E. Jenks' mono- 

 graph, "The Wild-Rice Gatherers of the 

 Upper Lakes" (19th Rep. B. A. E., 

 1900). A list of the tribes using wild 

 rice is there given. (a. f. c. ) 



Willanoucha. A former Seminole town 

 near the head of St Marks r., probably in 

 Leon CO., Fla. 



Willa-noucha-talofa. — Bell in Morse, Rep. to Sec. 

 War, 306, 1822. 



■Willewah. A band of the Nez Perccs 

 (q. V. ) mentioned by Lewis and Clark in 

 1805 and formerly residing in Wallowa 

 valley, Oreg. At that date they num- 

 bered al)out 500. Their descendants after- 

 ward formed Joseph's band, and were the 

 leaders in the Nez Perce war of 1877. 

 The majority of this band are now on 

 Colville res.. Wash., where they num- 

 bered 97 in 1909. 



Grand Ronde.—Gihbs in Pac. R. R. Rep., I, 417, 

 1855. Willa'motki tituxan.— Gatschet, MS., B. A. 

 E., 187S. Willewah. — Lewis and Clark Exped., 

 H, 471, 1814. 



Willi. A former Maidu division re- 

 siding in Sutter co., Cal. 

 Willem.— Cheverin Bull. Essex Inst. 1870. ii, 28, 

 1871. Willie.— Wozencraft (1851 ) in Sen. E.x. Doc. 

 4, 32d Cong., spec, sess., 206. 1>>53. 



Williams, Eleazar. The son of Thomas 

 (Tehoragwanegen, q. v.) and Mary Ann 

 Rice Williams (Konwatewenteta), born 

 probably on the shore of L. George, N. Y. , 

 in May,' 1788, died Aug. 28, 1858, on St 

 Regis res., near Hogansburg, N. Y., neg- 

 lected and in great destitution. He is 



said to have been one of 13 children, most 

 of whom were born at Caughnawaga, 

 Quebec, the home of their parents. The 

 childhood of Eleazar passed unevent- 

 fully, as usual among children of semi- 

 agricultural Christianized Indians. One 

 of the early playmates of Eleazar related 

 in after life how the latter, wearing a kind 

 of shift as his only garment, sported al)out 

 the byways of Caughnawaga, exposed to 

 wounds from stones and thorns. Owing 

 to a scrofulous taint in his family, these 

 bruises and injuries left permanent scars, 

 which later in life were increased in size 

 by means of lashes and tartar emetic in 

 such manner as to suggest the scars of the 

 shackles and chains alleged to have been 

 inflicted on him by the jailor Simon of 

 the Tower of the Temple in Paris. In 



ELEAZAR WILLIAMS. (from a Painting in possession of the 

 Wisconsin historical society) 



1 800, his father (in opposition to the wishes 

 of the mother, on religious grounds, she 

 being a strict member of the Roman Cath- 

 olic Church) took him and his brother 

 John to Long Meadow, Mass., to be edu- 

 cated among distant relations of the 

 father, but John soon returned home be- 

 cause he made no progress in his studies. 

 At Long Meadow the boys were left 

 with Mr Nathaniel Ely, who had under- 

 taken to educate them at his own ex- 

 pense, but financial reverses compelled 

 Mr Ely to apjieal first to nussionary socie- 

 ties for aid, then, in 1804, to the state 

 legislature, each time meeting with some 

 success. In 1805 P^leazar visited Mon- 

 treal; and in the following year, in com- 

 pany with a reputed relation, the Rev. 

 Mr Williams, he went to Boston, where 



