32 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. III. 



squaw cuts three slits in it, and immerses it in a skillet of deep frying 

 fat. This makes a puffy doughnut, and it never gets soggy or hard. 

 In fact, there is no time for it to get hard, as it is usually eaten before 

 the day is over. 



Most of the Indians go barefoot thru the summer and fall months 

 but dress in white men's clothes. Only on special occasions do they 

 put on their finery for some dance. These dances are religious in 

 character; such as a thanksgiving for rain, or for abundant crops, or 

 celebrate a successful council with the whites, or are dream dances. 

 Every year from the 21st to the 25th of August, they hold their annual 

 corn dance, and bring in their tallest corn for the festivities. Often 

 this corn is three times as tall as the dancer. White people come for 

 miles to see this ceremony, which occurs only a stone's throw from the 

 Lincoln Highway, three miles west of Tama. At this time, they dress 

 up in the most fantastic manner possible, chiefly to attract the atten- 

 tion of the whites. They wear feathered war bonnets and many ar- 

 ticles of apparel which they buy from other Indians all over the coun- 

 try. This serves the purpose of making an impression on the white 

 man, altho the ethnologist knows that there is not a single Indian 

 dressed in the true Meskwaki costume. The children are adepts at 

 learning the Indian dances and songs. These dance steps and songs 

 are not borrowed for the occasion, but are their genuine heritage. 



The Meskwaki long ago abandoned the medicine lodge once com- 

 mon to all Wisconsin Indians. It was brought to an end because some 

 bad men developed among the medicine men, who, instead of healing 

 the Indians, acted as sorcerers and used their knowledge to poison and 

 kill several of the tribe, so that by common consent this religious fea- 

 ture of their life was dropped. They still preserve their worship of the 

 deity, (Wi Sa kea) and their dancing ceremonies of thanksgiving, but 

 are mainly without the intensely religious life displayed in the medicine 

 lodge of our other Wisconsin Indians. A Presbyterian mission on the 

 edge of the reservation is meeting with indifferent success. Quite a 

 number of the Meskwaki, and especially those with admixture of Po- 

 tawatomi blood, have taken up the peyote cult. The Indian depart- 

 ment has forbidden the use of this drug, but nevertheless it flourishes 

 in secret. Peyote is obtained from Mexico and Texas and comes from 

 a small cactus ( Lophopho7-a williamsii) which has a stem above ground 

 that resembles a root. The branches of this stem are short, compact 

 and round and when separated from the main trunk, resemble buttons. 

 The peyote addict chews these small buttons, which he buys at $4.00 

 per thousand. At a lodge meeting, these are chewed and the quid 



