GILMore] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 67 
The stiff awns of this grass were firmly bound into a bundle, from 
which the pointed grains were burned off, leaving a brush used for 
dressing the hair. This brush was used also in a certain part of the 
ceremony heretofore mentioned as the Wawan of the Omaha-Ponca, 
the Hako* of the Pawnee. 
ZIzAN1a Aquatica L. Wild Rice, Indian Rice. (PI. 3.) 
Psim (Dakota). 
Sinwaninda (Omaha-Ponca). 
Sin (Winnebago). 
The range of wild rice is very extensive throughout the North 
Temperate Zone. It is found in the shallow lakes of the Sand Hills of 
Nebraska, still more northeastward in the lake region of Minnesota, 
Wisconsin, and Michigan, and northward into Canada. This cereal 
- was an important part of the dietary of the tribes of Nebraska, but 
not in so great a degree as with the tribes of the lake regions to- 
ward the northeast. It would seem worth while to raise wild rice 
in any lakes and marshy flood plains in our State not otherwise 
productive, and so add to our food resources. From trial I can 
say that it is very palatable and nutritious and, to my taste, the 
most desirable cereal we have. A quotation from a consular report 
characterizes it as “the most nutritious cereal in America.”? The 
most exhaustive treatise on wild rice and its use among the aboriginal 
tribes is that by Dr. A. E. Jenks.* 
Zea MAYS L. Maize, Indian Corn. 
Wamndaheza (Dakota) ; Teton dialect, wagmeza. 
Wahdba (Omaha-Ponca). 
Nikiis (Pawnee). 
Maize was cultivated by all the tribes of Nebraska. Native in- 
formants say they had all the general types—dent corn, flint corn, 
flour corn, sweet corn, and pop corn; and that of most of these types 
they had several varieties. They maintained the purity of these 
varieties from generation to generation by selecting typical ears for 
seed and by planting varieties at some distance from each other. 
They raised considerable quantities, part of which was preserved by 
drying in the green stage, while the rest was allowed to ripen. The 
ripe corn was prepared by pounding to a meal, by parching (some- 
times by parching and then grinding), by hulling with lye from 
ashes to make hominy, and in various other ways. Maize comprised 
a large part of the food supply. Corn was regarded as “ mother ” 
among the Nebraska tribes who cultivated it. 
1 Pletcher, The Hako, p. 220. 
2 Outlook, May 10, 1913, p. 80. 
*The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, in Nineteenth Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., 
pt. 2. 
