The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1916-09 - 1916-10

              The Word Carrier
of Santee Normal Training School.
VOLUME XLV
HELPING- THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER 5
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
SEPTEMBET-OCTOBER, 1916
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR
Our Platform
For Indians we want; American Education ! We want
American Horn-s! We want American Rights ! The result
of which is American Citizenship! And the Gospel is the
Power of God for their Salvation !
In the Heart of tbe Corn Country
A Hardy Indian Corn thus far Overlooked by
White Men
Not many years ago, all-wise white farmers
were declaring that corn could not be grown in
northern Iowa, much less in South Dakota. Yet
these Indians north of what is now Bismarck
went on unconcerned and grew their corn season after season. The white man knew corn
could not be grown 350 miles farther south—he
had not tried it. The Indian knew it could be
grown in the north where he was—he had an
ancient history of his successful culture of it.
Herein appears an interesting difference between the white man and the Indian.
The difference persists until this day. White
men have come into possession of nearly all
the great empire of agricultural land stretching
away to the north and west. With horses aud
tractors and broad-sweep plows they are carving
it into farms on all sides of the reservation where
these Indians are living. Yet the strange thing
is that but few realize the value of the Indian
corn. It is still growing and producing under
the Indian's hand. Any one who wishes may
see it for himself and procure the seed for his
own use and profit.    But not only farmers but
also scientific men whose r—•—-	
duty it is to discover aud'
apply truths of value to s
v.
Mont
4.l\4
our agriculture have pass
ed by in innocent, igno-   y
ranee.  Here is a wonderful S       	
corn growingunder our very   x—-H
noses—and we have not seen it.    j
There has been some little in-    I      W,
terest in a mongrel corn which   j
has gone under the   name of  \_
"Squaw," and which has been
grown in a scattering way.    This term is rather
elastic and generally refers to mixtures of the
varieties originating among the Indians,    Of
real recognition and general use of the Indian
corn there has been a woeful lack.
Threetribes, the Mandans,the GrosVentres and
the Arikaras or Rees are among the few tribes
that have not warred upon the whites. Rather
have they been friendly and helpful. Custer
considered the Rees as probably the bravest and
most efficient scouts employed by the army.
For centuries the Indians had permanent
homes in fortified villages, the remains of
which are scattered along the Missouri through
the Dakotas from the Cheyenne to Fort Berth-
old. Unable to hold their own against the
Sioux, these Indians were forced gradually
northward. When driven from one stronghold, they would establish themselves in another farther up river and there engage again
in the tilling of the soil. When their enemies
were at last subjugated by the white men, they
abandoned village life and settled on allotments
over their reservation, making the change within the last 35 years.
The cache holes were the Indians' corn cribs
and hiding places. They were dug jug shape,
with the neck perhaps 30 inches wide, were 6
to 10 feet deep and of varying diameter, and
having a capacity of from 20 to 40 bushels. It
was not unusual for one family to have 3 caches.
From this we can get an idea of the amount of
corn they grew It does not seem large to a
modern farmer, but when we remember that all
labor performed in raising it was by hand and
with only a few simple tools fashioned from
bone and wood, we must concede that it was
considerable. The caches were lined with dried
grass before the corn and dried vegetables were
put in, and they were covered with dirt so skillfully that no trace of them could be discovered.
Their being driven north was of far-reaching
had to live
from the
soil and
they found
this increasingly difficult as they
migrated to
localities of
sborter and
yet shorter
seasons
where scant
rainfall further complicated matters. They
had to have
crops that
would ripen in spite
of late and
early frosts,
and that
would give
them food
even when
droug hts
intervened.
Now corn
will most
marvelously adapt itself to varying conditions
when handled with intelligence and skiil. And
so it came about that this tropic
plant—corn—with
The Dakota l-armer, of Aberdeen, So.
Dak. has printed an exceedingly attra.tive
article on the hardy Mandan Corn, and they
have kindly furnished us with this miniature
reproduction of their corn page. This highly
artistic cover is very significant to those who
are interested in either Indians or agriculture.
The. He Art of
its original home probably in Mexico, after many
wanderings migrated with these northwestern Indians and under their skillful guidance shortened its growing season, changed its form from a
lofty stalk to a heavily-suckered bush, hardened
its resistance to extremes of climate, gained al-
almost unlimited power of reproducing itself
and thus maturing seed under the most adverse
conditions, and made for itself the important
place in an agriculture that was old and highly
developed before Dakota w7a« given a name.
The women, of course, were the farmers, and
every morning at daylight, sometimes by four
o'clock, they would *roop past the Mission on
their way to work. Th^ir custom was to spend the
cool early forenoon and
late afternoon in the
fields, and retire to their
lodges and look after the
housework during the
heat of the day. Their
farming tools were simple—a heavy hoe, a rake,
and a sharp stick. The
hoe, before they got iron
from the whites, was the
shoulder blade of a buffalo or elk lashed to a
stick. The rake was a
wooden brush or the antlers of a deer, yet with
these rude implements
they turned and subdued
the tough sod and made
it produce abundantly.
Corn   living under
the conditions found in
North Dakota cannot spend time in building up
a high coarse stalk;—it must get leaves to work
as early as possible so they may make the kernels within the short space of a northern season.
Hence the short, fine stalks and the mauy suckers. It has been found that where the suckers
were removed, there has usually been a marked
decrease in the yield. The bushy nature of this
corn makes it especially valuable for forage,
and it produces a large amount, nearly ail of
which is palatable to the stock.
Two ears to the stalk are common, and frequently there are more. The yield is often"
surprisingly large—up to 70 bushels per acre
under good conditions. And it will still produce when the season goes wrong, being especially persistent in this respect. It endures
droughts and even light frosts and still makes
corn. Seed has lain dormant in the ground
for 30 days in a cold, backward spring—and
then come
on and given a good
account of
itself. In
one plot we
found a
mixed corn
of soft Man-
dan origin
which had
been taken
to western
Canada bv
Sitting Bull
when he was
a refugee
and which
has been
grown there
since by the
Assiniboine
Indians. It
will mature
in 60 days.
We ate roast
ing ears from
it in 63 days
after planting. In one part of the plot, water from a heavy
rain had washed out much ot the top soil, leaving
little to cover the corn roots. Here the plants
were hardly a foot tall, spindling Arid yellow and
hard to distinguish at first glance from some
grassy weeds in the hills. Yet they had perfect
ears—of course not large but still out of all proportion to the rest of the plant. If the big southern corn were to have ears in like proportion, they
would be 3 feet long and look like war clubs.
There is no record that the hardy varieties
of corn along the upper Missouri ever failed
entirely, and there is abundant evidence that
they were highly productive and even in years
of drought made returns and gave food to whole
tribes.—Alfred Wenz, in the Dakota Parmer.
TJPIC IE HILL OF MANDAN COISN
ORUS VEN USE CORN TILLAGE   I OOLS MADE BY BUFFALO BIKD WOMEN.
From top to bottom :  Digging stick, willow rake, bone hoe, deer horn rake, braid of soft white seed corn.