4 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 



it was even bartered for marriage licenses. It is certain 

 that on many occasions starvation would have over- 

 taken the colonists had it not been for supplies of maize. 



CORN AND THE INDIAN. 



Upon the Indian, the first grower of corn, the cultivation 

 of maize has exerted a more or less striking influence. Its 

 cultivation in large fields made necessary a banding together 

 of the individuals of the tribes. It was a sort of community 

 or cooperative undertaking. With the cultivation of maize, 

 the Indian brought northward the art of pottery making. 

 Schoolcraft, the historian, states that mound building is 

 associated with the growing of corn, being made necessary 

 as a means of defense and easily accomplished because of 

 the communal method of living. 



The development of corn growing among the Indians en- 

 couraged the trading spirit. The corn of the Huron Indians 

 in New York was exchanged for furs and other commodities. 

 The agricultural Indian tribes of the Missouri Valley in 

 North Dakota early developed a trade in corn and vege- 

 tables with the white traders and explorers, thus enabling 

 the latter better to carry on their operations. They also 

 traded with the hunting tribes of the Plains, securing furs, 

 horses, and weapons, thus enabling them better to withstand 

 invasion from powerful enemies. To the Plains hunters, the 

 securing of corn meant prevention of famine in seasons when 

 the hunting was poor. The trading equivalent of corn in the 

 early days indicates its importance in the opinion of the 

 Indian. Buffalo Bird Woman, a Gros Ventre of the Fort 

 Berthold Keservation, states that a buffalo robe used to be 

 given in exchange for a braid of corn containing about 50 

 ears. Red Bear, an Arikara of the same reservation, states 

 that the Sioux Indians used to give his people a horse in 

 exchange for 10 braids of corn. 



The presentation of corn as a gift to other tribes and to 

 the whites was common. It was the sign of friendship. 

 Verendrye, in 1738, was met near the Mandan village, in 

 what is now North Dakota, by a messenger who presented 

 him with corn. Lewis and Clark, who wintered near this 

 village, Maximillian and Verendrye, as well as other white 



