Io6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



inquire, never cultivated the plant but it frequently grew in their 

 cornfields on flat lands along streams, and roots, raw or roasted, fur- 

 nished food for the camp dinners of husking parties. Some women 

 became especially fond of the tubers and were called otwae"yas, 

 artichoke eaters, a name which survives today among the Seneca. 



Ground nuts, yoandjago"'o"', were used in considerable quantities 

 up to within the past 25 years. Their use early attracted the atten- 

 tion of explorers.^ The ground nut was the favorite root food 

 of a captive tribe, according to a tradition, and became the totem 

 name of a clan.- 



The plant grows on the rich alluvial bottom lands and the tubers 

 which are strung along on the roots are easily dug and when boiled 

 or roasted furnish a food which can be made palatable. 



Several early writers mention the ground nuts used by the Indians, 

 among them Peter Kalm, whose account follows: 



Hopniss or hapniss was the Indian name of a wild plant which 

 they ate at that time. The Sweedes still call it by that name and it 

 grows in the meadows in good soil. The roots resemble potatoes, and 

 were boiled by the Indians, who eat them instead of bread. Some of 

 the Sweedes at that time likewise ate this root for want of bread. 

 Some of the English still eat them instead of potatoes. Mr Bartram 

 told me that the Indians who live further in the country not only 

 eat these roots which are equal in goodness to potatoes, but likewise 

 take the pease which lie in- the pods of the plant, and prepare them 

 like common pease.^"* 



In the Paris Documents of 1666, is an account of the Iroquois 

 who are there said to be divided into nine tribes the sixth of which 

 was the Sconescheronon, or Potato People. A drawing is appended 

 showing a string of potatoes as the tribe's totem. There is now 

 only a dim recollection of this clan whose name and symbol was the 

 ground nut rather than the potato. 



Indian turnips,* ga'osha, at first though, scarcely seem an invit- 

 ing food. The acrid repugnant taste of the fresh root leaves an 

 impression not soon forgotten. The juice is an actual poison if used 



1 Ground nuts are probably what the French called " des chaplets, pource 

 qu'elle est destingue par noends en forme de graeaes." Jesuit Relations 

 1634. p. 36. 



^ See Documentary History New York. 1:10. 



3 Kalm. Travels in North America. Lond. 1772. See Pinkerton. Voy- 

 ages. Lend. 1812. 13 :533. 



* Synonyms : Jack-in-pulpit, wake-robin, 



