42 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



only three kinds of corn among the Seneca. He enumerates them 

 as white, 0-na-o-ga-ant, red, Tic-ne, and white flint, Ha-go-wa. 

 These were the varieties which he collected and sent the State Cabi- 

 net (Museum) in 1850. 



It is difficult to say what kind of corn Columbus saw on the island 

 which he discovered, but we may be reasonably sure that Cartier 

 mentioned the white flint corn when he described the corn of the 

 Hochelagans. Morgan^ mentions this as the bread corn of the iSeneca 

 mistaking it for the white Tuscarora or squaw corn. 



Sweet corn was long known to the Indians and its seed was first 

 obtained by Sullivan's soldiers from the Seneca fields on the Susque- 

 hanna.2 



Purple or blue corn is mentioned in the Journal of Lieut. Erkuries 

 Beatly, an officer under Sullivan. In describing the events of Friday 

 the 3d of September he says ". . . the Indians had just left their 

 kettles on the fire boiling fine corn and beans which we got, but what 

 was most remarkable — the corn was all purple . . ." 



Esquire Johnson, an aged Seneca chief, in an interview with Mrs 

 Laura Wright in 1879 said, ". . . They brought it from the south, 

 also various kinds of corn black, red and squaw corn. . . All 

 these things they found on their war expeditions and brought them 

 here and planted them and thus they abound." The object of Iro- 

 quois raids, according to many of the old Indians, was to get new 

 vegetables and slaves as well as to subjugate insubordinate tribes. 



Dent corn, with the Iroquois (Seneca), is called ono'dja, tooth. 

 Tradition relates that this is a western form derived from Sandusky 

 Iroquois in Ohio. 



The writer has conducted a lengthy inquiry as to the varieties of 

 corn cultivated by the Iroquois during the last 100 years and the 

 result is embodied in the Hst, which is found below.^ At the present 

 day while they oonserve the forms with a zeal that has in it a 

 religious and patriotic sentiment, they also cultivate the new varieties 

 with equal ardor for in the modern types is found the corn which 

 produces the most money in the markets. 



^Ibid. p. 370. 



2 Cf. Journal of Capt. Richard Begnall. 



3 Cf. Harrington. Seneca Corn Foods, Am. Anthropologist, new sen 

 V. 10, no. 4, p. 575, 576. Four varieties are mentioned. 



