December 15, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



865 



June to the faculty of the University of Minne- 

 sota for the degree of Ph.D. in anthropology. 



With funds largely from the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, New York, research 

 work has been prosecuted each summer since 

 1910 among the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians 

 on the Mandan Reservation, North Dakota. 

 So important have the findings of Mr. Wilson 

 been for probable development of a drought- 

 resistant maize for the farmers of the north- 

 west that both Dean A. F. Woods, of the col- 

 lege of agriculture, University of Minnesota, 

 and Mr. M. L. Wilson, of the Agriculture 

 Experiment Station, Bozeman, Montana, have 

 contributed toward the financial support of the 

 research. 



It is interesting to learn that in western 

 North Dakota where maize has been a doubt- 

 ful crop as grown by the white farmer, the 

 Hidatsa and Mandan Indians have for cen- 

 turies been successfully cultivating it. With 

 crudest wooden and bone tools they developed 

 an agriculture that in some respects surpassed 

 that of most white farmers at present in that 

 area. 



Maize, sunflowers, beans, squashes and to- 

 bacco were raised by the Hidatsas, but their 

 principal crop was maize. The chief varieties 

 of maize were white and yellow flint, " sweet 

 corn," and those producing white and yellow 

 meal. Corn planting began when the wild 

 gooseberry came to full leaf. The corn hills 

 were prepared with digging-stick and bone- 

 bladed hoe. The earth was raked over the 

 seed and patted down with the hands. Each 

 corn hill stood exactly where a hill had stood 

 the year before. The fields were hoed twice 

 during the summer. The second hoeing was 

 accompanied by hilling up. 



Qorn was husked in the field. Eriends and 

 relatives commonly joined in a husking bee. 

 Fine full ears were braided in strings ; and from 

 these strings, carefully dried, seed ears were 

 chosen for the next year. A provident family 

 kept two years' seed on hand, in order that the 

 ill-favored grain of a poor year might not 

 have to be sown. In the selection and prepara- 

 tion of seeds of all their cultivated crops, 

 these Hidatsa Indians were far more careful 



than most of our American farmers. The 

 braided strings of ears were transported from 

 the field to the village on the backs of ponies. 

 Smaller loose ears were borne in baskets on 

 the backs of the women; these smaller ears 

 made the main part of the harvest. Before 

 each lodge stood a drying stage, a rather ela- 

 borate structure floored with planks split from 

 cottonwood trees. On this floor the loose ears 

 were spread to dry. The braided strings were 

 hung on a railing above, and were bound 

 closely in small bunches to prevent the wind 

 from shelling the drying grain. When well 

 dried the smaller ears were threshed or shelled, 

 and this threshed grain and the braided ears 

 were stored and sealed in jug-shaped caches 

 or pits dug in the ground. Green corn, after 

 having been boiled, shelled and dried, was 

 stored in the caches in bags. Curiously, 

 sweet corn, or " gummy corn " as the Indians 

 call it, was never boiled green. It was pre- 

 pared by parching, after having become thor- 

 oughly ripe. 



Fallowing of fields was practised by the 

 Hidatsa agriculturists, and they knew that wood 

 ashes increased the yield of a field. When new 

 ground was cleared the felled trees and bushes 

 were spread over the field and burned for the 

 sake of the ash. 



While most of the field work was done by the 

 women, the men assisted in part of the labors. 

 They aided in clearing the fields, and did the 

 heavy lifting when a stage was built. How- 

 ever, it was thought that a younger man was 

 better employed hunting, or warring. But 

 when the men's hunting and war days were 

 over they thought it no shame to help their 

 women plant and hoe. Field work was done 

 in the early hours of the day, the women com- 

 monly rising with the sun, and returning to 

 the village to eat and rest about ten o'clock 

 in the forenoon. 



Seed corn from the most intelligent and 

 skilled of the Hidatsa women is being sold to 

 northwest farmers by a commercial seed house. 

 This fact and the breeding experiments by 

 scientific experimenters bid fair to make an- 

 other contribution to American economic life 

 by the Indian. 



