1923] SMITH, THE RED EARTH INDIANS 35 



young folk are interested in acquiring his knowledge. For this reason, 

 he offered his books freely to the writer that his knowledge might not 

 die with him. Altho eighty-two, he is quite active and can identify all 

 of his medicines at any period in their growth. He also maintains a 

 drug garden at home, where he grows such needed medicaments as are 

 not native to that region. Uncle John knows many of the old tradi- 

 tions of his people and has many of the old relics, such as a fine dream 

 drum and costumes, medicine bag and so on. But he is the exception. 



With the auto, we went to several places on and off of the reserva- 

 tion, collecting all of the medicines mentioned in his book. Not all 

 of his medicines are plants. He uses such odd remedies as horn, 

 rattlesnake flesh, bones from certain animals, and white clay. In only 

 one place near the reservation can he obtain this clay; near Montour, 

 in a little hollow opposite the old Indian settlement of a hundred years 

 ago. 



Some other of the Meskwaki deserve special mention for their 

 assistance. Wm. Davenport, who is well grounded in English and 

 Meskwaki, supervised all the orthography in the notes taken. He was 

 not satisfied until a word was spelled exactly as the Meskwaki spells 

 it. Their language which is Algonkian in origin, has a number of whis- 

 pered letters, which he took pains to spell out and likewise pronounce. 

 Wm. Davenport is the son of the old Indian agent, for whom Daven- 

 port, Iowa, was named. His mother was a Meskwaki squaw, and Wm. 

 has most of the traits of the Meskwaki blended with some fine traits 

 of the white race. His sister was engaged to Dr. Wm. Jones, anthro- 

 pologist at the Field Museum, who was murdered in the Philippines 

 in 1907 by the Ilongotes. Having been associated with Dr. Jones at 

 the Field Museum, the writer was surprised to learn from Mr. Daven- 

 port, that Dr. Jones was a member of the Meskwaki tribe by birth. 



Charles Keosatok, one of the councilors of the Meskwaki, and his 

 good wife, were also very helpful in giving the writer information on 

 medicinal plants, foods and fiber uses. We made several trips to- 

 gether thru the woods of that region after strong medicines, and it 

 was from him that we heard origin stories relating to their use of plants 

 and their religion. Upon one occasion we drove twenty miles away to 

 a springy slope by the Iowa river where we procured the root of the 

 Skunk Cabbage (Spatheymafoetida) and the wild ginger (Asarum cana- 

 dense). Of the former we only collected one root for him, though it 

 was plentiful at this place. Questioning brought out the fact that he 

 already had three roots at home and feared to take more than one, be- 

 cause the rattlesnakes would then come to their home and bite them. 



