304 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May, 1918 
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INDIAN GROWERS OF MAIZE 
A REVIEW OF A BOOK OF MUCH INTEREST AND VALUE 
By “G” 
ERHAPS no fallacy 
among those which 
prevail about, the 
North American In¬ 
dian is more firmly 
fixed in the popular 
mind than the belief 
that he subsisted 
wholly by the chase. 
We picture the Indian 
as setting his snares 
for game, stealing 
through the forest in 
pursuit of the deer, driving the buffalo over 
the precipice, or, in later times, speeding 
along on the skirts of the flying buffalo 
herd and driving the arrow feather deep 
into the great beast, whose flesh and skin he 
needed for food and clothing; and all 
these things he did. 
Yet, those who know something about 
Indians are well aware that the natural 
fruits of the earth furnished a consider¬ 
able portion of their subsistence; that they 
dug roots, collected berries and harvested 
nuts. Besides that, agriculture often sup¬ 
plied a considerable part of their food, and 
in many parts of the United States certain 
tribes devoted much time to the cultivation 
of the soil and the harvesting of their 
crops. 
America gave to the world tobacco, the 
potato, and Indian corn or maize. This 
most important cereal, says Brinton, was 
found in cultivation from the southern ex¬ 
tremity of Chili to the fiftieth parallel of 
N. Latitude. The nations of the Atlantic 
Coast cultivated corn as did those of the 
Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Valley 
—though not those of the Pacific Coast— 
and in many cases this corn constituted 
their chief subsistence and was their staple 
product. In the famed Indian mounds and 
in the ruins of prehistoric pueblos of the 
southwest, corn, corn cobs and imprints of 
corn in burnt clay have been found. It is 
said that in 1687 a French officer destroyed 
for the Iroquois a quantity of corn esti¬ 
mated at 1,000,000 bushels, while much 
later, among the same people, Gen. Sullivan 
destroyed a vast quantity of corn and cut 
down orchards, one of which alone con¬ 
tained fifteen hundred apple trees. Besides 
corn and tobacco, beans, squashes, pump¬ 
kins, sweet potatoes, and sunflowers were 
cultivated. In parts of the dry southwest 
the crops were irrigated, as shown by the 
still existing remains of ditches in New 
Mexico and Arizona. 
A large volume might be written on the 
agriculture of our Indians, and on a small 
section of it—“Corn Among the Indians of 
the Upper Missouri”—a book of much in¬ 
terest and value, has recently been prepared 
by George F. Will and George E. Hyde 
and published by the W. Harvey Miner Co., 
Inc., of St. Louis, Mo. This volume seems 
to have been suggested by the experiments 
of the late Oscar H. Will, of Bismarck, 
N. D., who, in 1881, first recognized the 
value of the Indian varieties of corn grown 
in the Upper Missouri Valley and then be¬ 
gan the work of experimenting with them 
for the benefit of .the farmers of the new 
and at that time sparsely settled country. 
When the American settler came into the 
untilled northwest, he had with him seed 
corn grown in his former home, and, fail¬ 
ing to recognize that the new region pre¬ 
sented new conditions of soil and climate, 
he planted this corn that he had brought 
with him, and often without much success. 
On the other hand, the Indian tribes had 
been growing corn in that region for cen¬ 
turies, and during those centuries had 
learned by experience the best seed and the 
best methods by which to grow their crops. 
It was to adapt the local seed and local 
methods to the uses of the incoming set¬ 
tlers that the late Mr. Will began his ex¬ 
periments. 
The volume before us gives excellent 
descriptions of the different sorts of 
corn grown by the various agricultural 
tribes, and incidentally furnishes much in¬ 
formation relative to the other vegetable 
foods that they grew. After the introduc¬ 
tion follows a general discussion of the 
Upper Missouri Indians, their life and agri¬ 
culture, their planting and cultivation, the 
harvesting of their crops, corn as a food, 
as an article of trade, as an object that 
was sacred, the ceremonies connected with 
the corn, and its different varieties, of 
which are listed the sorts cultivated by no 
less than twelve different tribes, and, be¬ 
sides these, certain other varieties from the 
southwest, such as Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, 
Cherokee, and a number of others. 
The work is illustrated by engravings of 
many different corns—growing plants and 
seed—as well as squashes, corn prepared 
for drying and portraits of some famous 
corn planters of the Mandan village. 
The Indians’ crops were grown in little 
patches varying in size from half an acre 
to two or three acres, scattered about near 
the villages. The planting and cultivation 
of the crop was for the most part done by 
the women, yet, in certain parts of the 
country, the men had a share in the work. 
Often the patches were roughly fenced, to 
keep the wandering horses and other ani¬ 
mals from injuring the crop. This was 
regularly hoed and weeded, the hoes used 
being often made of the shoulder blade 
of a buffalo or an elk—though sometimes 
hoes were made of stones—lashed to a 
stick and forming an efficient Implement. 
The frontispiece shows some of the tools 
used in cultivation. 
Most of the early travelers on the Upper 
Missouri mention the agriculture of Indian 
settlements. One of them says that in go¬ 
ing from one village to another “we found 
extensive fields of corn, beans, squashes 
and sunflowers. Many women and chil¬ 
dren were already employed in clearing and 
hoeing their plantations.” 
Although green corn was freely eaten, 
yet much grain was dried and preserved 
in caches, which were large holes, wider 
at the bottom than at the top, just large 
enough at the mouth for a person to pass 
through, and holding twenty or thirty, or 
even more, bushels. The caches were lined 
with dried grass, and the shelled corn, put 
in parfleche sacks, was stored in them. 
