The University of Minnesota
STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES NUMBER 9
AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS
AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION
BY
GILBERT LIVINGSTONE WILSON, Ph.D.
[Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA]
MINNEAPOLIS
Bulletin of the University of Minnesota
November 1917
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(Continued inside back cover)
[Illustration: Maxi´diwiac, or Buffalobird-woman
Photographed in 1910]
The University of Minnesota
STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES NUMBER 9
AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS
AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION
BY
GILBERT LIVINGSTONE WILSON, Ph.D.
[Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA]
MINNEAPOLIS
Bulletin of the University of Minnesota
November 1917
COPYRIGHT 1917
BY THE
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
PREFACE
The field of primitive economic activity has been largely left
uncultivated by both economists and anthropologists. The present study
by Mr. Gilbert L. Wilson is an attempt to add to the scanty knowledge
already at hand on the subject of the economic life of the American
Indian.
The work was begun without theory or thesis, but solely with the object
of gathering available data from an old woman expert agriculturist in
one of the oldest agricultural tribes accessible to a student of the
University of Minnesota. That the study has unexpectedly revealed certain
varieties of maize of apparently great value to agriculture in the
semi-arid areas west of Minnesota is a cause of satisfaction to both Mr.
Wilson and myself. This fact again emphasizes the wisdom of research work
in our universities. When, now and then, such practical dollar-and-cent
results follow such purely scientific researches, the wonder is that
university research work is not generously endowed by businesses which
largely profit by these researches.
It is the intention of those interested in the anthropological work of
the University of Minnesota that occasional publications will be issued
by the University on anthropological subjects, although at present
there is no justification for issuing a consecutive series. The present
study is the second one in the anthropological field published by the
University. The earlier one is number 6 in the _Studies in the Social
Sciences_, issued March, 1916.
ALBERT ERNEST JENKS
_Professor of Anthropology_
CONTENTS
PAGES
Foreword 1-5
Chapter I—Tradition 6-8
Chapter II—Beginning a garden 9-15
Turtle 9
Clearing fields 9
Dispute and its settlement 10
Turtle breaking soil 11
Turtle’s primitive tools 12
Beginning a field in later times 13
Trees in the garden 15
Our west field 15
Burning over the field 15
Chapter III—Sunflowers 16-21
Remark by Maxi´diwiac 16
Planting sunflowers 16
Varieties 16
Harvesting the seed 17
Threshing 18
Harvesting the mapi´-na´ka 18
Effect of frost 18
Parching the seed 19
Four-vegetables-mixed 19
Sunflower-seed balls 21
Chapter IV—Corn 22-67
Planting 22
A morning’s planting 23
Soaking the seed 23
Planting for a sick woman 24
Size of our biggest field 24
Na´xu and nu´cami 25
Hoeing 26
The watchers’ stage 26
Explanation of sketch of watchers’ stage 28
Sweet Grass’s sun shade 30
The watchers 30
Booths 31
Eating customs 32
Youths’ and maidens’ customs 33
Watchers’ songs 33
Clan cousins’ custom 34
Story of Snake-head-ornament 35
Green corn and its uses 36-41
The ripening ears 36
Second planting for green corn 37
Cooking fresh green corn 37
Roasting ears 37
Mätu´a-la´kapa 38
Corn bread 38
Drying green corn for winter 39
Mapë´di (corn smut) 42
Mapë´di 42
Harvest and uses 42
The ripe corn harvest 42-47
Husking 42
Rejecting green ears 44
Braiding corn 45
The smaller ears 46
Drying the braided ears 47
Seed corn 47-49
Selecting the seed 47
Keeping two years’ seed 48
Threshing corn 49-58
The booth 49
Order of the day’s work 52
The cobs 53
Winnowing 54
Removing the booth 55
Threshing braided corn 57
Amount of harvest 57
Sioux purchasing corn 58
Varieties of corn 58-60
Description of varieties 58
How corn travels 59
Uses of the varieties 60-67
Atạ´ki tso´ki 60
Mäpi´ nakapa´ 60
Mä´nakapa 61
Atạ´ki 62
Boiled corn ball 62
Tsï´di tso´ki and tsï´di tapa´ 62
Mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a 63
Other soft varieties 63
Ma´ikadicakĕ 63
Mä´pĭ mĕĕ´pĭi’´kiuta, or corn balls 63
Parched soft corn 64
Parching whole ripe ears 64
Parching hard yellow corn with sand 64
Mạdạpo´zi pạ´kici, or lye-made hominy 64
General characteristics of the varieties 65
Fodder yield 66
Developing new varieties 66
Sport ears 67
Names and description 67
Na’´ta-tawo´xi 67
Wi´da-aka´ta 67
I´ta-ca´ca 67
Okĕi´jpita 67
I´tica´kupadi 67
Chapter V—Squashes 68-81
Planting squashes 68
Sprouting the seed 68
Planting the sprouted seed 69
Harvesting the squashes 69
Slicing the squashes 70
Squash spits 71
Spitting the slices 72
In case of rain 73
Drying and storing 73
Squash blossoms 75
Cooking and uses of squash 76
The first squashes 76
Boiling fresh squash in a pot 76
Squashes boiled with blossoms 77
Other blossom messes 77
Boiled blossoms 77
Blossoms boiled with mạdạpo´zi i’ti´a 77
Blossoms boiled with mäpi´ nakapa´ 78
Seed squashes 78-81
Selecting for seed 78
Gathering the seed squashes 78
Cooking the ripe squashes 79
Saving the seed 79
Eating the seeds 80
Roasting ripe squashes 80
Storing the unused seed squashes 80
Squashes, present seed 81
Squash dolls 81
Chapter VI—Beans 82-86
Planting beans 82
Putting in the seeds 82
Hoeing and cultivating 83
Threshing 83
Varieties 84
Selecting seed beans 85
Cooking and uses 85
Ama´ca di´hĕ, or beans-boiled 86
Green beans boiled in the pod 86
Green corn and beans 86
Chapter VII—Storing for winter 87-97
The cache pit 87
Grass for lining 88
Grass bundles 89
The grass binding rope 89
Drying the grass bundles 89
The willow floor 89
The grass lining 90
Skin bottom covering 90
Storing the cache pit 90
The puncheon cover 93
Cache pits in Small Ankle’s lodge 95
First account 95
A second account on another day 96
Diagram of Small Ankle’s lodge 97
Chapter VIII—The making of a drying stage 98-104
Stages in Like-a-fishhook village 98
Cutting the timbers 98
Digging the post holes 99
Raising the frame 100
The floor 100
Staying thongs 101
Ladder 101
Enlarging the stage 102
Present stages 102
Building, women’s work 102
Measurements of stage 103
Drying rods 104
Other uses of the drying stage 104
Chapter IX—Tools 105-106
Hoe 105
Rakes 105
Squash knives 106
Chapter X—Fields at Like-a-fishhook village 108-112
East-side fields 108
East-side fences 108
Idikita´c’s garden 110
Fields west of the village 110
West-side fence 111
Crops, our first wagon 112
Chapter XI—Miscellanea 113-118
Divisions between gardens 113
Fallowing, ownership of gardens 113
Frost in the gardens 115
Maxi´diwiac’s philosophy of frost 115
Men helping in the field 115
Sucking the sweet juice 116
Corn as fodder for horses 116
Disposition of weeds 116
The spring clean-up 116
Manure 117
Worms 117
Wild animals 117
About old tent covers 118
Chapter XII—Since white men came 119-120
How we got potatoes and other vegetables 119
The new cultivation 120
Iron kettles 120
Chapter XIII—Tobacco 121-127
Observations by Maxi´diwiac 121
The tobacco garden 121
Planting 122
Arrow-head-earring’s tobacco garden 122
Small Ankle’s cultivation 122
Harvesting the blossoms 123
Harvesting the plants 124
Selling to the Sioux 125
Size of tobacco garden 126
Customs 126
Accessories to the tobacco garden 126-127
Fence 126
The scrotum basket 127
Old garden sites near Independence 129
HIDATSA ALPHABET
a as a in what
e ” ai ” air
i ” i ” pique
o ” o ” tone
u ” u ” rule
ä ” a ” father
ë ” ey ” they
ï ” i ” machine
ạ ” u ” hut
ĕ ” e ” met
ĭ ” i ” tin
c ” sh ” shun
x ” ch ” machen (German)
j ” ch ” mich (German)
z ” z ” azure
b, d, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, as in English
b, w, interchangeable with m
n, l, r, interchangeable with d
An apostrophe (’) marks a short, nearly inaudible breathing.
Native Hidatsa words in this thesis are written in the foregoing
alphabet. This does not apply to the tribal names Hidatsa, Mandan,
Dakota, Arikara, Minitari.
AGRICULTURE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS AN INDIAN INTERPRETATION
FOREWORD
The Hidatsas, called Minitaris by the Mandans, are a Siouan linguistic
tribe. Their language is closely akin to that of the Crows with whom
they claim to have once formed a single tribe; a separation, it is said,
followed a quarrel over a slain buffalo.
The name Hidatsa was formerly borne by one of the tribal villages. The
other villages consolidated with it, and the name was adopted as that
of the tribe. The name is said to mean “willows,” and it was given the
village because the god Itsikama´hidic promised that the villagers should
become as numerous as the willows of the Missouri river.
Tradition says that the tribe came from Miniwakan, or Devils Lake, in
what is now North Dakota; and that migrating west, they met the Mandans
at the mouth of the Heart River. The two tribes formed an alliance and
attempted to live together as one people. Quarrels between their young
men caused the tribes to separate, but the Mandans loyally aided their
friends to build new villages a few miles from their own. How long the
two tribes dwelt at the mouth of the Heart is not known. They were found
there with the Arikaras about 1765. In 1804 Lewis and Clark found the
Hidatsas in three villages at the mouth of the Knife River, and the
Mandans in two villages a few miles lower down on the Missouri.
In 1832 the artist Catlin visited the two tribes, remaining with them
several months. A year later Maximilian of Wied visited them with the
artist Bodmer. Copies of Bodmer’s sketches, in beautiful lithograph,
are found in the library of the Minnesota Historical Society. Catlin’s
sketches, also in lithograph, are in the Minneapolis Public Library.
Smallpox nearly exterminated the Mandans in 1837-8, not more than 150
persons surviving. The same epidemic reduced the Hidatsas to about 500
persons. The remnants of the two tribes united and in 1845 removed up
the Missouri and built a village at Like-a-fishhook bend close to the
trading post of Fort Berthold. They were joined by the Arikaras in 1862.
Neighboring lands were set apart as a reservation for them; and there the
three tribes, now settled on allotments, still dwell.
The Mandans and Hidatsas have much intermarried. By custom children
speak usually the language of their mother, but understand perfectly the
dialect of either tribe.
In 1877 Washington Matthews, for several years government physician to
the Fort Berthold Reservation Indians, published a short description
of Hidatsa-Mandan culture and a grammar and vocabulary of the Hidatsa
language.[1] More extensive notes intended by him for publication were
destroyed by fire.
In 1902 the writer was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church
of Mandan, North Dakota. In ill health, he was advised by his physician
to purchase pony and gun and seek the open; but spade and pick plied
among the old Indian sites in the vicinity proved more interesting. A
considerable collection of archaeological objects was accumulated, a part
of which now rests in the shelves of the Minnesota Historical Society;
the rest will shortly be placed in the collections of the American Museum
of Natural History.
In 1906 the writer and his brother, Frederick N. Wilson, an artist,
and E. R. Steinbrueck drove by wagon from Mandan to Independence,
Fort Berthold reservation. The trip was made to obtain sketches for
illustrating a volume of stories, since published.[2] At Independence the
party made the acquaintance of Edward Goodbird, his mother Maxi´diwiac,
and the latter’s brother Wolf Chief. A friendship was thus begun which
has been of the greatest value to the writer of this paper.
A year later Mr. George G. Heye sent the writer to Fort Berthold
reservation to collect objects of Mandan-Hidatsa culture. Among those
that were obtained was a rare old medicine shrine. Description of this
shrine and Wolf Chief’s story of its origin have been published.[3]
In 1908 the writer and his brother, both now resident in Minneapolis,
were sent by Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of anthropology, American Museum
of Natural History, to begin cultural studies among the Hidatsas. This
work, generously supported by the Museum, has been continued by the
writer each succeeding summer. His reports, preparations to edit which
are now being made, will appear in the Museum’s publications.
In February, 1910, the writer was admitted as a student in the Graduate
School, University of Minnesota, majoring in Anthropology. At suggestion
of his adviser, Dr. Albert E. Jenks, and with permission of Dr. Wissler,
he chose for his thesis subject, _Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians:
An Indian Interpretation_. It was the adviser’s opinion that such a
study held promise of more than usual interest. Most of the tribes in
the eastern area of what is now the United States practiced agriculture.
It is well known that maize, potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, beans, sweet
potatoes, cotton, tobacco, and other familiar plants were cultivated
by Indians centuries before Columbus. Early white settlers learned the
value of the new food plants, but have left us meager accounts of the
native methods of tillage; and the Indians, driven from the fields of
their fathers, became roving hunters; or adopting iron tools, forgot
their primitive implements and methods. The Hidatsas and Mandans, shut
in their stockaded villages on the Missouri by the hostile Sioux, were
not able to abandon their fields if they would. Living quite out of the
main lines of railroad traffic, they remained isolated and with culture
almost unchanged until about 1885, when their village at Fort Berthold
was broken up. It seemed probable that a carefully prepared account of
Hidatsa agriculture might very nearly describe the agriculture practiced
by our northern tribes in pre-Columbian days. It was hoped that this
thesis might be such an account.
But the writer is a student of anthropology; and his interest in the
preparation of his thesis could not be that of an agriculturist. The
question arose at the beginning of his labors, Shall the materials of
this thesis be presented as a study merely in primitive agriculture, or
as a phase of material culture interpreting something of the inner life,
of the soul, of an Indian? It is the latter aim that the writer endeavors
to accomplish.
But again came up a question, By what plan may this best be done?
The more usual way would be to collect exhaustively facts from
available informants; sift from them those facts that are typical and
representative; and present these, properly grouped, with the collector’s
interpretation of them. But for his purpose and aim, it has seemed to
the writer that the type choice should be human; that is, instead of
seeking typical facts from multiple sources, he should rather seek a
typical informant, a representative agriculturist—presumably a woman—of
the Indian group to be studied, and let the informant interpret her
agricultural experiences in her own way. We might thus expect to learn
how much one Indian woman knew of agriculture; what she did as an
agriculturist and what were her motives for doing; and what proportion of
her thought and labor were given to her fields.
After consulting both Indians and whites resident on the reservation, the
writer chose for typical or representative informant, his interpreter’s
mother, Maxi´diwiac.
The writer’s summer visit of 1912 to Fort Berthold Reservation was
planned to obtain material for his thesis. His brother again accompanied
him, and for the expenses of the trip a grant of $500 was made by
Curator Wissler. This trip the writer will remember as one of the
pleasantest experiences of his life. The generous interest of Dr. Jenks
and Dr. Wissler in his plans was equaled by the faithful coöperation
of interpreter and informant. The writer and his brother arrived at
the reservation in the beginning of corn harvest. As already stated,
Maxi´diwiac was the principal informant, and her account was taken down
almost literally as translated by Goodbird. Models of tools, drying
stage, and other objects pertaining to agriculture were made and
photographed, and sketched. Before the harvest closed notes were obtained
which furnished the material for the greater part of this thesis.
In the summers of 1913, 1914, and 1915, additional matter was recovered.
Previously written notes were read to Maxi´diwiac and corrections made.
In addition to the museum’s annual grant of $250, Dean A. F. Woods,
Department of Agriculture, University of Minnesota, in 1914 contributed
$60 for photographing, and collecting specimens of Hidatsa corn; and Mr.
M. L. Wilson of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Bozeman, Montana,
obtained for the writer a grant of $50 for like purposes.
A few words should now be said of informant and interpreter. Maxi´diwiac,
or Buffalobird-woman, is a daughter of Small Ankle, a leader of the
Hidatsas in the trying time of the tribe’s removal to what is now Fort
Berthold reservation. She was born on one of the villages at Knife River
two years after the “smallpox year,” or about 1839. She is a conservative
and sighs for the good old times, yet is aware that the younger
generation of Indians must adopt civilized ways. Ignorant of English, she
has a quick intelligence and a memory that is marvelous. To her patience
and loyal interest is chiefly due whatever of value is in this thesis. In
the sweltering heat of an August day she has continued dictation for nine
hours, lying down but never flagging in her account, when too weary to
sit longer in a chair. Goodbird’s testimony that his mother “knows more
about old ways of raising corn and squashes than any one else on this
reservation,” is not without probability. Until recently, a small part of
Goodbird’s plowed field was each year reserved for her, that she might
plant corn and beans and squashes, cultivating them in old fashioned
way, by hoe. Such corn, of her own planting and selection, has taken
first prize at an agricultural fair, held recently by the reservation
authorities.
Edward Goodbird, or Tsaka´kasạkic, the writer’s interpreter, is a son of
Maxi´diwiac, born about November, 1869. Goodbird was one of the first of
the reservation children to be sent to the mission school; and he is now
native pastor of the Congregational chapel at Independence. He speaks the
Hidatsa, Mandan, Dakota, and English languages. Goodbird is a natural
student; and he has the rarer gift of being an artist. His sketches—and
they are many—are crude; but they are drawn in true perspective and do
not lack spirit. Goodbird’s life, dictated by himself, has been recently
published.[4]
Indians have the gentle custom of adopting very dear friends by
relationship terms. By such adoption Goodbird is the writer’s brother;
Maxi´diwiac is his mother.
For his part in the account of the _Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians_,
the writer claims no credit beyond arranging the material and putting
the interpreter’s Indian-English translations into proper idiom. Bits
of Indian philosophy and shrewd or humorous observations found in the
narrative are not the writer’s, but the informant’s, and are as they
fell from her lips. The writer has sincerely endeavored to add to the
narrative essentially nothing of his own.
_Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians_ is not, then, an account merely of
Indian agriculture. It is an Indian woman’s interpretation of economics;
the thoughts she gave to her fields; the philosophy of her labors.
May the Indian woman’s story of her toil be a plea for our better
appreciation of her race.
CHAPTER I
TRADITION
We Hidatsas believe that our tribe once lived under the waters of Devils
Lake. Some hunters discovered the root of a vine growing downward; and
climbing it, they found themselves on the surface of the earth. Others
followed them, until half the tribe had escaped; but the vine broke under
the weight of a pregnant woman, leaving the rest prisoners. A part of our
tribe are therefore still beneath the lake.
My father, Small Ankle, going, when a young man, on a war party, visited
Devils Lake. “Beneath the waves,” he said, “I heard a faint drumming, as
of drums in a big dance.” This story is true; for Sioux, who now live at
Devils Lake, have also heard this drumming.
Those of my people who escaped from the lake built villages near by.
These were of earth lodges, such as my tribe built until very recent
years; two such earth lodges are still standing on this reservation.
The site where an earth lodge has stood is marked by an earthen ring,
rising about what was once the hard trampled floor. There are many such
earthen rings on the shores of Devils Lake, showing that, as tradition
says, our villages stood there. There were three of these villages, my
father said, who several times visited the sites.
Near their villages, the people made gardens; and in these they planted
ground beans and wild potatoes, from seed brought with them from their
home under the water. These vegetables we do not cultivate now; but we do
gather them in the fall, in the woods along the Missouri where they grow
wild. They are good eating.
These gardens by Devils Lake I think must have been rather small. I know
that in later times, whenever my tribe removed up the Missouri to build a
new village, our fields, the first year, were quite small; for clearing
the wooded bottom land was hard work. A family usually added to their
clearing each year, until their garden was as large as they cared to
cultivate.
As yet, my people knew nothing of corn or squashes. One day a war party,
I think of ten men, wandered west to the Missouri River. They saw on the
other side a village of earth lodges like their own. It was a village of
the Mandans. The villagers saw the Hidatsas, but like them, feared to
cross over, lest the strangers prove to be enemies.
It was autumn, and the Missouri River was running low so that an arrow
could be shot from shore to shore. The Mandans parched some ears of ripe
corn with the grain on the cob; they broke the ears in pieces, thrust the
pieces on the points of arrows, and shot them across the river. “Eat!”
they said, whether by voice or signs, I do not know. The word for “eat”
is the same in the Hidatsa and Mandan languages.
The warriors ate of the parched corn, and liked it. They returned to
their village and said, “We have found a people living by the Missouri
River who have a strange kind of grain, which we ate and found good!” The
tribe was not much interested and made no effort to seek the Mandans,
fearing, besides, that they might not be friendly.
However, a few years after, a war party of the Hidatsas crossed the
Missouri and visited the Mandans at their village near Bird Beak Hill.
The Mandan chief took an ear of yellow corn, broke it in two, and gave
half to the Hidatsas. This half-ear the Hidatsas took home, for seed; and
soon every family was planting yellow corn.
I think that seed of other varieties of corn, and of beans, squashes, and
sunflowers, were gotten of the Mandans[5] afterwards; but there is no
story telling of this, that I know.
I do not know when my people stopped planting ground beans and wild
potatoes; but ground beans are hard to dig, and the people, anyway, liked
the new kind of beans better.
Whether the ground beans and wild potatoes of the Missouri bottoms are
descended from the seed planted by the villagers at Devils Lake, I do not
know.
My tribe, as our old men tell us, after they got corn, abandoned their
villages at Devils Lake, and joined the Mandans near the mouth of the
Heart River. The Mandans helped them build new villages here, near their
own. I think this was hundreds of years ago.
Firewood growing scarce, the two tribes removed up the Missouri to the
mouth of the Knife River, where they built the Five Villages, as they
called them. Smallpox was brought to my people here, by traders. In a
single year, more than half my tribe died, and of the Mandans, even more.
Those who survived removed up the Missouri and built a village at
Like-a-fishhook bend, where they lived together, Hidatsas and Mandans,
as one tribe. This village we Hidatsas called Mu´a-idu´skupe-hi´cec, or
Like-a-fishhook village, after the bend on which it stood; but white men
called it Fort Berthold, from a trading post that was there.
We lived in Like-a-fishhook village about forty years, or until 1885,
when the government began to place families on allotments.
The agriculture of the Hidatsas, as I now describe it, I saw practiced in
the gardens of Like-a-fishhook village, in my girlhood, before my tribe
owned plows.
[Illustration: An earth lodge
Note ladder at right of lodge entrance. Drying stage before entrance
lacks the usual railings. (Photograph by courtesy of Rev. George
Curtis.)]
[Illustration: Like-a-fishhook village in process of being dismantled
(about 1885)
Drying stage in foreground is floored Arikara fashion with a mat of
willows. The Arikaras at this time had joined the Hidatsa-Mandans.
(Photograph by courtesy of Rev. George Curtis.)]