FIELDS AT LIKE-A-FISHHOOK VILLAGE
_East-Side Fields_
Figure 36 is a map I have made of the gardens east, or better, southeast,
of Like-a-fishhook village. The fields lay, as indicated on the map,
upon a point of land that went out into the Missouri river. The map is
only approximately correct. There were many other gardens than those
represented here on the map; for I have made no attempt to indicate any
but those that lay in the immediate vicinity of the field my family
tilled. These, however, I remember pretty clearly, and believe my map to
be, as far as it goes, fairly accurate.
Our family garden is the one marked “Strikes-many-women’s and
Buffalobird-woman’s.” It lay just south of Lone Woman’s and
Want-to-be-a-woman’s. The field was rather irregular at first; a corner
of it, as I have said, was claimed by Lone Woman and Goes-to-next-timber,
as they had started to clear it. My mothers bought out the rights of the
claimants, in order to keep our field more nearly rectangular, so that we
could count our Indian acres more accurately. This corner is marked by a
dotted line, on the map.
I remember that when I was a little girl, the boundaries of the field
were rather irregular at first; and my grandmother, Turtle, would go
along the edge with her digging stick and dig up the ground to make the
corners come out more nearly squared, and the sides of the field be
straightened.
The field was also enlarged from year to year toward the sides; and much
of this work my grandmother did with her digging stick. The garden when
completed was the largest ever owned in my family; it was this field
whose size I measured off for you on the prairie the other day.
The village gardens varied in size. Some families tilled large fields;
others rather small ones. Some families did not work very energetically;
and these were often put to it to have food. Other families worked hard,
and always had a plenty. Families were not all equally industrious.
There were no watchers’ stages nor booths in these east-side fields. The
ground rose in a shelf, or bluff, just north of the gardens; from this
shelf the watchers could watch their fields and sing to the growing corn
without the trouble of having to build stages.
The soil of the east-side gardens was bottom land and prairie, with
little or no timber.
_East Side Fences_
Our fields on the east-side of the village were fenced, as will be seen
from the map. The fences were made thus:
Posts were cut of any kind of wood two or three inches in diameter and
forked at the top. These were set in holes, at distances about as we now
use for corral posts, or twelve feet from post to post. Posts were sunk
the length of my forearm and fingers into the ground. Holes were made
with digging stick and knife, and the dirt drawn out by hand.
Rails were laid in the forks of the posts and bound down with strips of
bark; elm bark was strongest, but other kinds were used. The railing thus
made ran about three and a half feet from the ground, the height of the
posts that upheld it. All the rails were peeled of bark.
No attempt was made to firm the structure, as we did our drying stages.
Our object was but to keep out the horses, and if the fence was strong
enough to withstand the winds we thought that enough.
As will be seen from the map, some of the fields were fenced quite
around; but this was done only when the field was isolated. When several
gardens adjoined, a single fence usually ran around them all, and not
around each individual field.
When several gardens were enclosed in a single fence, each owner looked
after that part of the fence that bordered her own land, and kept it in
repair.
We did not run our fences close to the boundary of our gardens as white
men do. As we built our fences chiefly to keep horses out of the gardens,
we placed them far enough away so that even if the horses approached the
fence, they could not reach over and nibble the growing corn.
I think our fences stood twelve or fifteen feet away from the cultivated
ground, as I pace it here on the ground. I know no reason why they were
run thus, except as I have said, to keep the horses from nibbling the
corn. You see, fifteen feet is quite a little distance; and the fence
could have stood closer to the cultivated ground and still been far
enough away to keep the horses from nibbling the crops. All I know is,
that it was a custom of my tribe, and I always followed this custom if I
had a fence to build.
As will be seen by the map, the corners of the fences were turned rather
round; not built squared, as white men build their fences. We could not
square the corners as white men do when they build wire fences, because
we could not lay the rails in the forks of the posts and bind them down
firmly if we did so. Perhaps that is the reason we ran the fences so far
from the cultivated ground, that the fence, turning the corners, might
not invade the cultivated ground—if you will look at the map you will see
what I mean. However, I do not know if this is the reason or not.
Horses did not trouble us much, as we did not permit them to graze near
our garden lands; they were pastured on the prairie.
We always had fences around our fields as long ago as I know anything
about; and I have heard that our tribe had such fences in the villages
they built at the mouth of the Knife River, to protect their fields
there from their horses. Such, I have heard, has been our Indian custom
since the world began.
At the very first it is true, we did not own ponies; but we soon got them.
I think my tribe obtained ponies from the western tribes. In my own youth
we Hidatsas got many of our horses from western tribes, especially from
the Crows.
_Idikita´c’s Garden_
On the map there appears a garden marked as belonging to a woman named
Idikita´c. She made her garden after all the others had been fenced in.
There was a road that went down to some June-berry and choke-cherry
patches, in the small timber that stood beyond the gardens; it was a mere
path used by villagers afoot, by women with their dogs, and sometimes by
horsemen.
Now, Idikita´c laid out her field so that it enclosed a small section
of this road; and she built a fence around it and tried to keep the
villagers from going across her land. The people did not like this.
Idikita´c would tie up her fence tight, but the villagers going down to
the choke-cherry patch, would go right through her garden, following the
road that had been there; sometimes they even went through with horses.
“You must not make your garden here,” the people said to Idikita´c, “this
is a road!”
And Idikita´c answered, “I do not want you to do damage to my garden!”
There was quite a deal of talk in the village about this matter, and
quite a bit of trouble came of it.
_Fields West of the Village_
The first field cleared by my father’s family on the west side of the
village, is that marked _A_, on the plot legended with Turtle’s name, on
the map (figure 37), which I have had my son Goodbird draw for you of
our west-side fields. A coulee bordered one end of the field; and in the
rainy months the water washed out much of the good soil. Willows growing
up along the edge of the coulee also gave us much trouble. We therefore
extended our field to the other side of the coulee, to include the part
marked _B_.
Afterwards we added another field, marked on the map with my name,
Maxi´diwiac.
In Turtle’s garden there was a watchers’ stage, _C_, with a tree beside
it. There was also a booth, _D_.
Peppermint and Yellow Hair had each a watchers’ stage and a booth in
her garden, as indicated on the map. Another stage and a tree stood in
a garden near by, the name of whose owner I have now forgotten. I have
marked the position of stage and tree in each field only approximately
except in Turtle’s garden; as this was one of our own family fields, I
remember the position of stage and tree very accurately.
In this map, as in that of the east-side gardens, I have indicated only
the fields that lay in the vicinity of those cultivated by my own family;
there were many others, but I can not, after so many years, accurately
mark their positions, nor tell the names of the owners.
[Illustration: Figure 37]
_West-Side Fence_
A fence protected our west-side gardens also, but only on the side
nearest the village, probably because the horses could be expected to
come from that direction. This fence differed somewhat from those on the
east side.
The fence was built thus:
A heavy stick was sharpened at one end and driven into the ground with an
ax; it was loosened by working it from side to side with the hands, and
withdrawn, leaving a hole about a foot deep.
Into this hole was thrust a diamond willow, butt end downward, for post.
The long tapering top with the twigs and leaves still on it, was bent
over and around a rail (that was raised into position for the purpose)
and then twisted around the post and tied down with bark. A second rail
was bound to the post below the first. The sketch on the map gives an
idea of what is meant, and in figure 38 is sketch and diagram by Goodbird.
[Illustration: Figure 38
Reproduced from sketch by Goodbird. On the left is post newly placed with
foliage intact. On the right is post with foliage omitted to show how top
was bound down over rails.]
This fence was nearly or quite shoulder high to a woman, or about four
feet; and the posts were about two feet apart, so that even a traveller
going afoot could not squeeze his way between them.
_Crops, Our First Wagon_
The first wagon owned in my tribe belonged to Had-many-antelopes. My
father hired him for a pair of trousers to haul in the corn from our
gardens, one year. Had-many-antelopes fetched in three wagon loads from
my garden; the field I mean, marked with my name; and three more wagon
loads from the field _A_, in Turtle’s garden. From the field _B_, in
Turtle’s garden, the family fetched the corn that year, for that field
we had planted all to sweet corn; not gummy corn, but corn planted to
half-boil and dry, for winter.