UC-NRLF
B 3 D63 637 J
taucation Department Bulletin
Published fortnightly by the University of the State of New York
Entered as second-class matter June 24, 1908, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y.,
under the act of July 16, 1894
No. 482
ALBANY, N. Y.
NOVEMBER i, 1910
New York State Museum
JOHN M. CLARKE, Director
Museum Bulletin 144
UOIS USES OF MAIZE AND OTHER
FOOD PLANTS
BY
ARTHUR C. PARKER
Prefatory note 5
Part i Maize 9
I Maize or Indian corn in
history 9
II Early records of corn culti-
vation 15
III Customs of corn cultiva-
tion 21
IV Ceremonial and legendary
allusions to corn 36
V Varieties of maize used. . 41
VI Corn cultivation termin-
ology 44
VII Utensils for the prepara-
tion of corn for food. . . 45
VIII Cooking and eating cus-
toms. . . .- 59
PAGE
IX Foods prepared from
corn 66
X Uses of the corn plant. 80
Part 2 Other food plants 89
XI Beans and bean foods. . 89
XII Squashes and other vine
vegetables go
XIII Leaf and stalk foods. . . 93
XIV Fungi and lichens 93
XV Fruit and berrylike
foods 94
XVI Food nuts 99
XVII Sap and bark foods 102
XVIII Food roots 104
List of authorities quoted no
Index 115
ALBANY
UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
1910
New York State Education Department
Science Division, September 27, 1910
Hon. Andrew S. Draper LL.D.
Commissioner of Education .
SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith for your approval, a
manuscript entitled Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Food Plants,
which has been prepared by Arthur C. Parker, Archeologist of the
State Museum, and to recommend its publication as a museum
bulletin.
Very respectfully
JOHN M. CLARKE
Director
State of New York
Education Department
COMMISSIONER'S ROOM
Approved for publication Sept. 28, 1910
Commissioner of Education
Education Department Bulletin
Published fortnightly by the University of the State of New York
June 24, 1908, at the Post
the act of July 16, 1894
Entered as second-class matter June 24, 1908, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y., under
>
No. 482 ALBANY, N. Y. NOVEMBER i, 1910
New York State Museum
JOHN M. CLARKE, Director
Museum Bulletin 144
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE AND OTHER FOOD
PLANTS
BY
ARTHUR C. PARKER, Archeologist
PREFATORY NOTE
These notes on the preparation and uses of maize and other vege-
table foods by the Iroquois have been gathered during a period of 10
years, while the writer has been officially concerned with the arche-
ology and ethnology of the New York Iroquois and their kindred in
Canada. They embrace all it has been possible for him to gather
from the Iroquois themselves concerning the uses of their favorite
food plants. Scores of Indians were questioned and many interest-
ing facts were brought out from almost forgotten recesses of their
minds.
The greater part of this treatise is the result of a purely original
inquiry. An attempt has been made to cite the records of early ex-
plorers and travelers where the case seemed of interest or importance,
but no general historical review of the subject is given. 1 The aim is
rather to present an ethnological study of the Iroquois uses of food
plants. This it is hoped will also have an economic and sociologic
value.
Maize played an important part in Iroquois culture and history.
Its cultivation on the large scale to which they carried it necessitated
permanent settlements, and it was, therefore, an influential factor in
1 For a general review of the subject of Indian foods consult Thomas.
Mound Explorations, Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-91 ; Carr. Mounds of the
Mississippi Valley, Smithsonian Rep't, 1891 ; Carr. Foods of Certain Ameri-
can Indians, Am. Antiq. Soc.N 1895.
M162398
STATE MUSEUM
determining and fixing their special type of culture. They had ceased
to be nomadic hunters when their corn fields and vegetable gardens
flourished. Many of the tribes of eastern North America were agri-
culturalists to an extent hardly realized by those unfamiliar with early
records and this is especially true of the Huron-Iroquois family,
though it is not to be disputed that the Algonquin tribes of the east
and southeast had large fields and raised corn and other vegetables
on a large scale.
My principal informants as to names and recipes are the follow-
ing Iroquois Indians : on the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation, Lyman
Johnson, Otto Parker, Peter Sundown ; on the Allegany Reservation,
Mrs Henry Logan, Mrs Fred Pierce and others; on the Cattaraugus
Reservation, Mrs Aurelia Jones Miller, George Dolson Jimerson,
Thomas Silverheels, Mrs Frank Patterson, Mrs Emily Tallchief, Mrs
Julia Grouse (Aweniyont), Chief and Mrs Edward Cornplanter,
Chief and Mrs Delos Big Kettle, John Jake, George Pierce, John
Lay jr, Skidmore Lay, Mrs Emily C. Parker (Tuscarora), Mrs Cas-
sie Gordon (Cayuga), Job King, Mrs Naomi Jimeson and many
others; on the Onondaga Reservation, Chief and Mrs Baptist
Thomas, Marvin Grouse and others ; on the Grand River Reserva-
tion of the Six Nations, Canada, Albert Hill, Chief and Mrs D. C.
Loft, Mr and Mrs Seth Newhouse (all Mohawks), Chief Michael
Anthony and Lawson Montour (Delaware), Chief Josiah Hill (Nan-
ticoke), Chief Jacob Johnson, Fred Johnson (Oneida), Chief Gibson
(Seneca) and many others, of the Oneida of Muncytown, Ontario,
Chief Dan ford, Elijah Dan ford, and of the Caughnawaga Mohawk,
Mr and Mrs Longfeather (James Hill), Mrs Dibeux, Mrs Saylor
and others.
As far as practicable the writer has followed the system of orthog-
raphy used by the Smithsonian Institution in recording American lan-
guages, and especially that employed by Hewett in his Cosmology.
For certain reasons there are a few minor departures from the sys-
tem as employed by Hewett but in general there is little difference.
Alphabet and abbreviations
a as in father, bar; Germ, haben
a the same sound prolonged
a as in what; Germ, man
a as in hat, man, ran
a the same sound prolonged
a as in law, all; Fr. o in or
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 7
ai as in aisle, as i in mine, bind; Germ. Hain
au as cm in out, as ow in how: Germ. Hans
c as sh in shall; Germ, sch in schcllcn; Fr. ch in charmer
c as th m wealth
d pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth
as in enunciating the English th; this is the only sound of d
in the language
e as e in they, as a in may; Fr. ne
e as in met, get, then: Germ, denn; Fr. sienne
g as in- gig; Germ, geben; Fr. gout
h as in has, he; Germ, haben
i as in pique, machine
I the same sound prolonged
i as in pick, pit
k as in kick, kin
n as in no, nun, not
n as ng in ring, sing
o as in note, boat
q as ch in Germ, ich
s as in see, sat
t pronounced with the tip of the tongue on the upper teeth, as in
enunciating the English th, this being the only sound of t in
the language
u as in rule; Germ, du: Fr. ou in dou.v
u as in rut, shut
w as in wit, win
y as in yes, yet
dj as j in judge
hw as wh in what
tc as ch in church
n marks nasalized vowels as a n , e n , e n , o n , a n , ai n , etc.
indicates an aspiration or soft emission of the breath which is
initial or final, thus 'h, e n< , o', etc.
marks a sudden closure of the glottis preceding or following a
sound, thus 'a, o', a', a', etc.
' marks the accented syllable of a word
th in this system are always pronounced separately
In abbreviating the names of the various languages the following
have been used: Mk., Mohawk; Od., Oneida; Onon., Onondaga;
Ca., Cayuga, and Sen., Seneca.
8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Unless otherwise specified the Iroquois names and words used in
the body of this paper are all Seneca. The writer is more familiar
with this dialect of the Iroquois than the others, and this coupled
with the fact that the Seneca are the most conservative of the Iro-
quois and remember more concerning their ancient usages, it is hoped
will justify the employment of that tongue to the exclusion of the
others.
In a work of this character one is always tempted to add in full
the myths which hover about the subject and to describe the various
rites and ceremonies that attend it. These things, interesting as they
are, are reserved however for notice in other works where they will
be more properly correlated.
ARTHUR C. PARKER
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 9
I MAIZE OR INDIAN CORN IN HISTORY
i The origin of maize. From the Greek > meaning to live
has come the Latin sea, the family name of Zea mays Linn.,
Indian corn or maize. The term zea as applied to the name of maize
is highly significant and most appropriate for with the Iroquois as
with many other Indian tribes maize was the principal and favorite
vegetable food. So important was it to the Iroquois that they called
it by a name meaning " our life " or " it sustains us."
That maize is a native American plant there is now no question.
The testimony of archeology, history and botany all point to this con-
clusion. From botanical studies its origin in southern Mexico can be
practically demonstrated. 1
Several early investigators have endeavored to show that Zea
mays is not indigenous to America by referring to the corn of
Egypt and the Levant. 2 Most of these writers, if not all, have based
their premises upon statements by no means unassailable. It is
difficult to imagine what advantage is to be derived from creating
or fostering misstatements as to the origin of maize but this has
been done by several writers. 3 In 1810 Molinari, a European writer,
published a work called Storia d'Incisa in which there was a refer-
ence to u . . . a purse containing a kind of seed of a golden
color and partly white, and unknown in the country and brought
from Anatolia." * This strange seed was supposed to have been
given by two crusaders, companions of Boniface III, to the town oi
Incisa. This reference to the seed " of golden color " caused some
discussion at the time and many believed it to be maize, but after
much controversy the celebrated Storia was found by the Comte
de Riant to be a pure forgery, but not until it had been cited widely
as proof of the Old World origin of maize. 5 There are many his-
torical references as vague and unreliable as this which nevertheless
seemed to have a certain weight.
1 For origin and botanical character of maize see Harshburger. Botanical
Studies, Univ. Pa. and Iowa Agric. Exp. Sta. Bui. 36, 1907. See also Brown,
P. A. Farmer's Cabinet, v. 2. Albany 1838; Brown. D. J. Amer. Inst.
Trans. 1846.
2 Cf. Van der Donck. New Netherlands. Amsterdam 1656. i:i=;8. Reprint
Hist. Soc. Trans. Ser. 2,
3 Compare the account of Lundy, John P. Zea Mays, as it is Related to
the Incipient Civilization of Red Men all the World Over. Numismatic &
Antiq. Soc. Phila. 1883.
*De Candolle. Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 388, Internat. Sci. Ser.
N. Y. 1885.
5 Riant. La Charte d'Incisa. 1877. Reprinted from Revue des Questions
Historiques.
IO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
The names applied to maize during the i6th century in Europe
have confused some writers. It was variously called Roman corn,
Turkish wheat, Sicilian corn, Spanish corn, Guinea corn, Egyptian
corn and Syrian dourra. The people or localities after which the
corn was named, however, universally disclaimed all knowledge of
its origin and referred it to some other source, and so named it; thus
the Turks called it Egyptian corn and the Egyptians always referred
to it as Syrian dourra, each in turn .disclaiming its origin. Possibly
the most widespread name by which maize was known in Europe
was Turkish wheat which was the name generally used by the Eng-
lish. The name seems to have been first used by the botanist, Reul-
lins, 1 in 1536, and later, in 1552, Tragus represented a maize plant
in his Stirpium calling it Frumentum turcicum, but after-
ward, having read some vague reference to a plant thought to be
similar he conceived the idea that it must be a species of Typhia
grown in Bactriana. Other writers, however, denied this, Matthiole
in 1570, Dodens in 1583 and Camerarius in 1588, all asserting its
American origin. 2
;D'Herbelot, the oriental scholar, thought he had discovered maize
in the references of the Persian historian, Mourkoud, who lived in
the 1 5th century and who recorded that Rous, son of Japhet, sowed
a certain seed on the shores of the Caspian sea. 3 He could not, of
course, substantiate his belief but his statements at the time had a
certain weight. Candolle 4 cites the finding of an ear of corn in an
Egyptian sarcophagus at Thebes by Rifaud but says that the inci-
dent was probably the result of a trick played by an Arab imposter. 5
If maize had grown in Egypt, says Candolle, "it would have been
connected with religious ideas like all other remarkable plants." He
further cites that Ebn Baithar, an Arab physician, who had traveled
through all the territory lying between Spain and Persia mentions no
plant which may be taken for maize. Maize was so little known as
a food plant in India in the i8th century that it was only grown in
gardens as an ornamental grass. 6 In China it has been cultivated
since the middle of the i/th century 7 although there are attempts to
show earlier introduction, which, however, are denied by the best
Chinese authorities.
1 Reullins. De Natura Stirpium, p. 428. Cf. Candolle, p. 339.
2 Candolle. Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 389. N. Y. 1885.
3 IbicL p. 390.
4 Ibid. p. 390.
5 See Reply of President Price to Lundy's Paper Zea Mays. Numismatic
& Antiq. Soc. Trans. Phila. 1883.
6 Roxburgh. Flora Indica, III 1568.
7 Candolle. Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 392.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE II
A review of the subject * leads to the fact that there is no authentic
reference to maize in the writings of travelers or naturalists prior to
the discovery of America by Columbus. Hebrew parchments and
Sanscrit scrolls are alike silent. With the opening up of the New
World and the discovery of the great staple grain of the western
continent, maize cultivation spread with lightning rapidity through-
out the eastern hemisphere. It became a definitely known and accu-
rately described food plant.
One early writer, 2 who no doubt had read with interest the early
discussions as to the origin of maize says : " Maize was carried from
America to Spain and from Spain into other countries of Europe, to
the great advantage of the poor, though an author of the present day,
would make America indebted to Europe for it, an opinion the most
extravagant and improbable which ever entered the human brain."
If the grain had been known before the Columbian epoch it would
have spread quite as rapidly as it did subsequently, which is good
evidence of its American origin and this origin is no longer disputed
by competent authorities. 3 Edward Enfield in his book on maize
is so positive that maize is an American plant that he declares that
". . . if any further evidence were wanting on this point it may be
found in the impossibility that a grain so nutritious, prolific and val-
uable, so admirably adapted to the wants of man could have existed
in the eastern world before the discovery of America without com-
ing into general use and making itself universally known. Had this
cereal existed there at that period it would have made its record too
clearly and positively to leave any doubt on the subject." 4
The researches of Harshburger and others indicate that maize is
a development of a Mexican grass known as teosinte (Euchlaena
m e x i c a n a Schrad.). Maize and teosinte by cross fertilization
produce fertile hybrid plants known as Zea canina Watson, or
! See Salisbury. History and Chemical Investigation of Corn, p. 8.
Albany 1846.
2 Clavigero. History of Mexico; trans, by Charles Cullen, Lond. 1787.
i -.26.
Clavigero in a footnote further states that the name" Grano di Turchia,
by which it (maize) is at present known in Italy, must certainly have been
the only reason for Bomares adopting an error, so contrary to the testimony
of all writers on America, and the universal belief of nations. The wheat
is called by the Spaniards of Europe and America, maize, taken from the
Haitina language which was spoken in the island Hispaniola or St
Domingo."
3 CY. Beverly. Hist, of Va. Lond. 1722. p. 125.
'' They say that they had their corn and beans from the southern Indians,
who received their seed from a peoole who resided still farther s^nth." Van
der Donck, New Netherlands, (1656). Reprint N. Y. Hist. Soc. Trans,
i :i37.
4 See Bailey. Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, i :4O4.
12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
as the Mexicans call it, mais de coyote (Lupus latrans).
Harshburger says that our cultivated maize is of hybrid origin prob-
ably starting as a sport of teosinte which then crossed itself with its
normal ancestor, producing our cultivated corn. 1 Plants which by
hybridizing and cultivation will produce maize are not found outside
of Mexico and for this reason, if no other, it would seem conclusive
that maize had its origin there. As to the exact locality, Harsh-
burger who has made a special study of the plant and its origin, says
that it originated in all probability north of the Isthmus of Tehuan-
tepec, and south of the 22 of north latitude near the ancient seat
of the Maya tribes. 2 In this connection it is worthy of notice that
nearly all the traditions of the Indians, not pure myths, point to the
far southwest as the mother country of the corn plant.
An important proof of the cultivation of maize in America before
the Columbian epoch is the fact that the kernels and cobs in a charred
state have been found in ancient pits and refuse heaps all over eastern
North America. Impressions of the kernels have been taken from
Precolumbian mounds and the actual ears and cobs from the
storage places of the Pueblos, Cliff Dwellers, Aztecs and Peruvians
where time and crumbling ruins had sealed up the stores. No Ameri-
can archeologist doubts the cultivation of maize in America in Pre-
Columbian times. The revelations of his own spade and trowel assert
the fact in no uncertain way.
The name maize is derived from the Arawak mahis. Columbus
found maize growing on the island of Hayti and his mention of it is
the first record of that plant. In the Life of Columbus, By His Son,
under the date of November 5, 1492, is the following note :
There was a great deal of tilled land some sowed with those roots,
a sort of beans and a sort of grain they call maize, which was well
tasted, baked, or dried and made into flour. 3
This is the first historical reference to maize which it is possible to
find in any work and the first use of the term maize. 4
1 Harshburger. Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of the
University of Pennsylvania, v. I, no. 2.
2 Harshburger. Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, 1 1399.
3 Life of Christopher Columbus, By His Son, in Pinkerton's Voyages and
Travels. Lond. 1832. 12:38.
4 Among the first probable references to Indian corn is one by Capt.
John De Verazzano, who early in the i6th century coasted along the middle
Atlantic coast. In his report to the King of France, under date of 1524,
32 years after the discovery, he said in describing the Indians whom he
saw : " Their food is a kind of pulse which there abounds, different in
color and size from ours and of a very delicious flavor." In the light of
subsequent descriptions by other explorers it seems very probable if not
certain that the pulse was maize
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 13
2 Importance of maize in the early English colonies. There is
no plant more vitally or more closely interwoven into the history of
the New World 1 than maize or Indian corn. 2 At the most critical
stages in colonial history corn 3 played an important part. Our Pil-
grim fathers and the less hardy cavaliers of Jamestown and Mary-
land were rescued from starvation more than once when it was hard
upon them by foods made from the corn given them by the Indians
who had cultivated and harvested it. Had it not been for the corn,
of the Indians the stories of Jamestown and Plymouth instead of
being stirring accounts of perseverence and endurance might have
been brief and melancholy tragedies. The settlement and develop-
ment of the New World would have been delayed for years. 4 His-
tory would have been changed, the foothold of the English colonists
weakened and another tongue spoken along the Atlantic coast.
1 Prescott in reviewing this subject says : " The great staple of the
country, as indeed of the American continent, was maize, or Indian corn,
which grew freely along the valleys and up the steep sides of the Cordil-
leras to the high level of the tablelands. The Aztecs were as curious in
its preparation, and as well instructed in its manifold uses, as the most
expert New England housewife. Its gigantic stalks, in these equinoctial
regions, afford a saccharine matter not found to the same extent in north-
ern latitudes, and supplied the natives with sugar little inferior to that of
cane itself . . ." Conquest of Mexico. N. Y. 1866. 1:112.
John Fiske in his Discovery of America, writes: "Maize or Indian corn
has played a most important part in the history of the New World, as re-
gards both white and red men. It could be planted without clearing or
plowing the soil. It was only necessary to girdle the trees with a stone
hatchet, so as to destroy their leaves and let in the sunshine. A few
scratches and digs were made in the ground with a stone digger, and the
seed once dropped in took care of itself. The ears could hang for weeks
after ripening and could be picked off without meddling with the stalk;
there was no need of threshing or winnowing. None of the Old World
cereals can be cultivated without much more industry and intelligence. At
the same time when Indian corn is sown on tilled land it yields with
little labor more than twice as much per acre than any other grain." Fiske,
Discovery of America, 1 :2/.
2 In using the term corn hereinafter we refer exclusively to maize.
3 Lawson very emphatically describes the utility of maize in the follow-
ing : " The Indian corn or Maize proves the most useful Grain in the
World; and had it not been for the fruitfulness of this species, it would
have proved very difficult to have settled some of the Plantations in Amer-
ica. It is very nourishing whether in Bread, sodden or otherwise ; and
those poor Christian Servants in Virginia, Maryland and the other north-
erly Plantations, that have been forced to live wholly upon it do mani-
festly prove that it is the most nourishing Grain for a Man to subsist on,
without any other Victuals." History of Carolina. Lond. 1/14. Cf. Car-
tier Voyages. Tross ed.
4 ... we are indebted to the Indians for maize, without which the
peopling of America would have been delayed for a century." Cyrus
Thomas. Agriculture, in Hand-Book of American Indians. Bureau of
Ethnology Bui. 30.
14 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Almost the first discovery which the Pilgrim historian records is
that of a cache of Indian corn found along the shore. On Novem-
ber n, 1620 the historian writes:
They found a pond of clear fresh water and shortly after a good
quantitie of clar ground where y e Indeans had formerly set come
and some of their graves. And proceeding furder they saw new-
stuble wher corne had been set y e same year, also they found where
latly a house had been wher some planks and a great ketel was re-
.maining and heaps of sand newly padled with their hands, which
they digging up . found in them diverce f aire Indean baskets filled
with corne and some in eares faire and good of diverce colours
. . . and took with them parte of y e corne and buried y e rest
. . . And here is to be noted a spetiall- providence of God . . .
that hear they got seed to plant them corne y e next year, or els they
might have starved for they had none, nor any liklyhood to get any. 1
Few of us in these modern days realize the frightful struggles of
these early pioneers to obtain food enough to sustain even the spark
of life. It is recorded that some of the desperate Pilgrims, driven
by the despair of hunger would even cut wood and fetch water for
the Indians for a cap of corn. Others, we are told, " fell to plaine
stealing both night & day from ye Indeans of which they (the In-
dians) greviously complained." 2
The bitter experiences of the winter of 1622-23 compelled them
to think how they might raise as much corn as they could and " ob-
taine a beter crop then they had done, that they might not still thus
languish in miserie." 3 The struggle for existence was a hard one
with all the colonists until they had mastered the methods of corn
cultivation. The Indians who were the teachers soon found that they
had students that outclassed them in many ways. Bradford's ac-
count of how the settlers -earned to plant and cultivate is both inter-
esting and enlightening. He writes : 4
Afterwards they, as many as were able, began to plant ther corne,
in which servise Squanto stood them in great stead, showing them
both ye maner how to set it, and after how to dress and tend it. He
also tould them excepte they gott fish and set with it in these old
grounds it would come to nothing.
Trumbull also tells that the Connecticut Indians instructed the
first settlers in the manner of planting and dressing corn. 5
1 Bradford. History Plymouth Plantation, p. 49. Cols. Mass. Hist. Soc.
Ser. 4. 111:8;. Bost. 1856.
2 Ibid. p. 130.
*Ibid. p. 134.
4 Ibid. p. 100.
5 Trumbull. History of Connecticut, Hartford 1797. i :-|6.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 15
It was the success of the corn crop that made it possible for the
eager colonists to live and to become the Pilgrim Fathers. The ex-
periences of the Connecticut colonists did not differ, for as one his-
torian says,". . . by selling them corn when pinched with famine
they relieved their distress and prevented them from perishing in a
strange land and uncultivated wilderness." *
Significant also is the statement of Capt. John Smith in his History
of Virginia: ". . . such was the weakness of this poor common-
wealth, as had not the salvages fed us we directlie had starved. And
this relyfe, most gracious queen (Anne), was brought by this lady
Pocahontas ; . . . during the time of two or three years, shee next
under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colonie from
death, famine and utter confusion." 2
Corn saved the colony as it had others before and after Smith's
time, and as in other instances, our historian naively remarks, to
obtain it, ". . . many were billited among the savages." 3
And thus it is that the maize plant was the bridge over which
English civilization crept, tremblingly and uncertainly, at first, then
boldly and surely to a foothold and ' a permanent occupation of
America.
II EARLY RECORDS OF CORN CULTIVATION AMONG THE
IROQUOIS AND COGNATE TRIBES
As early as 1535, Jacques Cartier, pushing his way up the St Law-
rence, saw fields of waving corn on the island of Hochelaga where
he found a thriving village occupied by Iroquois people. He left us
the record that these Indians had large fields and that they stored
the harvested corn in garrets " at the tops of their houses." 4 Car-
tier also described the Hochelagans as " given to husbandrie . . .
but are no men of great labour." 5
Nearly every explorer who left a detailed record of his voyages
recorded in a minute way his impressions of Indian agriculture and
particularly of their cultivation of corn. Henry Hudson repeatedly
mentioned in his records the maize which he saw on his voyage up
the river which takes its name from him. Recording the events of
1 Trumbull. History of Connecticut, i 147.
2 Smith, Capt. John. History of Virginia. Lond. 1632. p. 121.
3 Ibid. 2:229. Richmond reprint. 1819.
4 Hakluyt. Voyages. Lond. 1810. 3 1272.
1 6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
September 13, 1609, and giving the latitude l as 42 18', Hudson
wrote : 2
I saw there a house well constructed of oak bark ... a great
quantity of maize or Indian corn and beans of last year's growth,
and there lay near the house for the purpose of drying enough to
load three ships, besides what was growing in the fields.
In the journal of Robert Juet, 3 mate on the Half Moon, is a
statement under date of September 4, 1609, that " they
have a great store of corn whereof they make good bread." This
corn was undoubtedly maize, if we are to judge by contemporary
descriptions that name the corn specifically.
Sagard has left us a good description of corn cultivation among
the Huron, and his account being one of the earliest and most de-
tailed, we quote it in full.
The wheat (Indian corn) being thus sown in the manner that we
do beans, of a grain obtained only from a stalk or cane, the cane
bears two or three spikes, and each spike yields a hundred, two hun-
dred, sometimes 400 grains, and some yield even more. The cane
grows to the height of a man and more, and is very large, (it does
not grow so well or so high, nor the spike as large nor the grain so
good in Canada nor in France, as there) in the Huron country. The
grain ripens in four months and in some places three. After this
they gather and bind the leaves (husks), turned up at the top and
arrange it in sheaves (braids), which! they hang all along the length
of the cabin from top to bottom on poles, which they arrange in the
form of a rack descending to the front edge of the bench. All this
is so nicely done that it seems like a tapestry hung the whole 1 length
of the cabins. The grain being well dried and suitable to press (or
pound) the women and girls take out the grains, clean them and put
them in their large tubs (tonnes) made for this purpose, and placed
in their porch or in one corner of the cabins. 4
It, however, remained for Champlam to give us the first detailed
accounts of the cornfields and the methods of cultivation by the
Indians in the region of the St Lawrence and lower lake district.
Champlain in the beginning probably believed much as many per-
1 The present city of Hudson lies in latitude 42 14'.
2 De Laet New Netherlands. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col. Ser. 2. N. Y. 1841.
1:300.
3 Extract from the Journal of the Voyage of the Half Moon, Henry
Hudson, Master, From the Netherlands to the coast of N orth- America in
the Year 1609 by Robert Juet, Mate. Republished by the N. Y. Hist. Soc.
Col. Ser. 2. N. Y. 1841. i -.323.
4 Sagard. Voyage to the Hurons. (Le Grand Voyage du pays des
Hurons, 1632). Tross ed. Paris, 1865. 1:135.
Plate i
View of Seneca farm lands and cornfields in the Cattaraugus flats. This is a
typical farm of the conservative Seneca. It may be regarded as typical also of the
Seneca farms of a century ago
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 17
sons do even now, that the Indians were hunters only but his changed
opinion is recorded as follows:
July the tenth, 1605.
They till and cultivate the soil, something which we have not
hitherto observed. In place of ploughs, they use an instrument of
hard wood, shaped like a spade. This river is called by the inhab-
itants of the country Chouacoet. The next day Sieur de Monts and
I landed to observe their tillage on the banks of the river. We saw
their Indian corn which they raise in gardens. Planting three or
four kernels in one place they then heap up about it a quantity of
earth witji shells of the signoc before mentioned. Then three feet
distant they plant as much more, and this in succession. With this
corn they put in each hill three or four Brazilian beans which are
of different colours. When they grow up they interlace with the
corn which reaches to the height of from five to six feet; and they
keep the ground very free from weeds. We saw many squashes and
pumpkins and tobacco which they likewise cultivate . . . The
Indian corn which we saw at that time was about two feet high and
some as high as three. The beans were beginning to flower as also,
the pumpkins and squashes. They plant their corn in May and
gather it in September. 1
When the Iroquois took possession of the territory which we now
know as New York State, they carried on corn culture on a large scale
and so important an article of food and commerce was it that most
of the European invaders of their territory burned their cornfields
and destroyed their corncribs instead of shooting the Iroquois
themselves but, as one writer says, the power of the Confederacy
remained unbroken. 2
The French made a mistake fatal to French supremacy in the
middle Atlantic region. In 1609 under Champlain they fired upon
a small detachment of Iroquois at Ticonderoga and thereafter the
Iroquois were the bitter enemies of the French, while they espoused
the cause of the English. 3 The French realized their error most
1 Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, 2, :64~65. Prince Soc. Reprint 1878.
Cf. also p. 81-82.
2 Carr. Mounds of the Mississippi Valley, p. 515. Smithsonian Report.
1891.
3 The Iroquois, especially the Seneca, were not always uniformly con-
sistent in their alliances with the British, but in general their arms were
at the disposal of the English colonial authorities. The espousal of the
English cause by the Iroquois greatly strengthened the hold of the British
in eastern North America and led to the expulsion of French domination
from the continent.
In an address before the New York Historical Society in 1847, Dr Peter
Wilson, a Cayuga-Iroquois, reminded the society of this fact in the following
1 8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
keenly when they found the Iroquois a barrier between them and
the trails to central New York and down the Ohio river. To break
the power of the Iroquois Confederacy, expedition after expedition
was sent out against them, notably those of Champlain in 1615, of
Courcelles in 1655, of De Tracy in 1666, of De la Barre in 1684,
of Denonville in 1687 (whose work was particularly destructive to
cornfields), and of Frontenac in 1692 and 1696. All these gallant
commanders failed to accomplish the destruction of Iroquois power
perhaps for reasons such as given by Denonville in the following :
I deemed it our best policy to employ ourselves laying the Indian
corn which was in vast abundance in the fields, rather than to follow
a flying enemy to a distance and excite our troops to catch only
some straggling fugitives. . . We remained at 'the four Seneca vil-
lages until the 24th ; the two larger distant four leagues and the others
two. All that time was spent in destroying the corn which was in
such great abundance that the loss including old corn which was in
cache which we burnt and that which was standing, was computed
according to the estimate afterwards made at 400 thousand minots
(about 1,200,000 bushels) of Indian corn. . . A great many both
of our Indians and French were attacked with a kind of rheum
which put everyone out of humor. 1
The quantity of corn here destroyed by Denonville is claimed by
some authorities to be overestimated and perhaps this is true, as
being " out of humor," the amount may have seemed larger than
it really was.
The corn-destroying habit of the invaders of the Iroquois dominion
was still active when later, in 1779, Maj. Gen. John Sullivan made
his famous raid against the Iroquois. The accounts of his officers
and soldiers which have come down to us in their journals are most
illuminating, when aboriginal corn statistics are sought. " The
Indians," said Gen. Sullivan in discussing the subject, " shall see that
there is malice enough in our hearts to destroy everything that con-
tributes to their support." How well he fulfilled his threat may be
known by reviewing the record of his campaign.
The journals of Sullivan's campaign through the Iroquois country
are replete with descriptions of the Iroquois cornfields and the fre-
words : " Had our forefathers spurned you from it (the Iroquois " Long
House ") when the French were thundering at the opposite end, to get a
passage and drive you into the sea, whatever had been the fate^of other
Indians, the Iroquois might still have been a nation and I too might have
had a country."
1 Doc. Hist, of the State of N. Y. i :328-2Q. Albany 1849. Cf. Charle-
voix. Nouvelle France, 2 :355 ; Lahontan. Voyages, I, p. 101.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 1 9
quent mention indicates the importance of corn as a food to the Iro-
quois. The destruction of the corn supply was a greater blow to
the Iroquois than the burning of their towns. Huts might easily
have been built again but fields would not yield another harvest after
September.
In the journal of Maj. John Burrowes, as in other journals cov-
ering the Sullivan campaign, there are many references to the Indian
fields. Some instances follow :
Friday, August 27 \ 1779. Observations. We got this night at a
large flat three miles distant from Chemung where corn grows such
as can not^e equalled in Jersey. The field contains about 100 acres,
beans, cucumbers, Simblens, watermelons and pumpkins in such
quantities (were it represented in the manner it should be) would
be almost incredible to a civilized people. We sat up until between
one and two o'clock feasting on these rarities.
Monday, Middletoivn, 30th Aug. The army dont march this
day but are employed cutting down the corn at this place which being
about one hundred and fifty acres, and superior to any I ever saw
. . . (Observations) The land exceeds any I have ever seen.
Some corn stalks measured eighteen feet and a cob one foot and a
half long. Beans, cucumbers, watermelons, muskmelons, cimblens
are in great plenty. . .
Camp on the Large Flats 6 Miles from Chcnesec i$th Sep. Wed-
nesday morning. The whole army employed till n o'clock destroy-
ing corn, there being the greatest quantity destroyed at this town
than any of the former. It is judged that we have burnt and de-
stroyed about sixty thousand bushels of corn and two or three thou-
sand of beans on this expedition.
In his letter to John Jay under date of September 30, 1779, General
Sullivan reported among other things :
Colonel Butler destroyed in the Cayuga country five principal
towns and a number of scattering houses, the whole making about
one hundred in number exceedingly large and well built. He also
destroyed two hundred acres of excellent corn with a number of
orchards one of which had in it 1500 fruit trees. Another Indian
settlement was discovered near Newtown by a party, consisting of
39 houses, which were also destroyed. The number- of towns de-
stroyed by .this army amounted to 40 besides scattering houses. The
quantity of corn destroyed, at a moderate computation, must amount
to 160,000 bushels, with a vast quantity of vegetables of every
kind. . . I flatter myself that the orders with which I was entrusted
are fully executed, as we have not left a single settlement or a field
of corn in the country of the Five Nations. . .
In his report of Sept. 16, 1779, to .General Washington concerning
his raid against the Seneca on the Allegany, Daniel Brodhead said :
The troons remained on the ground three whole days destroying
the Towns & Corn Fields. I never saw finer corn altho' it was
2O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
planted much thicker than is common with our Farmers. The
quantity of Corn and other vegetables destroyed at the several
Towns, from the best accounts I can collect from the officers em-
ployed to destroy it must certainly exceed five hundred acres which
is a low estimate and the plunder is estimated at 3om Dollars 1 . . .
1 Meaning probably $30,000.
Quotations from the journals of soldiers and officers could be mul-
tiplied to some length with but one result, that of corroborating the
fact that the Iroquois cultivated corn, beans, squashes, pumpkins
and other vegetables in large quantities and to an extent 'hardly ap-
preciated by the general student of history. 2
The beautiful valley of the Genesee, renowned among the Indians
as the fertile garden region of the Seneca was cultivated for miles
of its length. Luxuriant fields, patches of forest land and wide
openings of grass land were found throughout the valley. The im-
petuous army of Sullivan, inflamed by the depredations of the Iro-
quois and bent upon wreaking vengeance upon a tribe of ignorant
savages entered the Genesee valley with feelings of utmost surprise
for they found the land of the savages to be, not a tangled wilder-
ness but a smiling blooming valley, and the savages domiciled in
permanent houses and settled in towns. General Sullivan describes
the town of Genesee, for example, as containing 128 houses, mostly
large and elegant, and names it as one of the largest. It was beauti-
fully situated, he added, " almost encircled with clear flat land ex-
tending a number of miles ; over which extensive fields of corn were
waving, together with every kind of vegetable that could be con-
ceived." Forty towns were obliterated, 60,000 bushels of corn de-
stroyed, fruit orchards uprooted, girdled or chopped down, one
containing 1500 trees. Ruin was spread like a blanket over the Iro-
quois country and their garden valley reduced to a desolate blighted
and forsaken region dotted with blackened ruins. Hardly a food
plant remained for the oncoming winter. 3
2 See Stone. Life of Brandt. N. Y. 1838. v. 2, ch. i; Journals of the
Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Na-
tions, 1779. Auburn 1887.
C/. Stone. Brant, 2:33.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 21
III IROQUOIS CUSTOMS OF CORN CULTIVATION
i Land clearing and the division of labor. Land for corn-
fields was cleared by girdling the trees in the spring, and allowing
them to die. The next spring the underbrush was burned off. By
burning off tracts in the forests large clearings were made suitable
for fields and towns. Early travelers in western New York called
these clearings " oak openings." * Certain tracts, however, seem
always to have been open lands and it is a mistake to believe that
the country was entirely wooded.
Van der Donck was much impressed by the " bush burnings " of
the Indians of Xew Netherlands and records that they present a
" grand and sublime appearance." : Unless the tr^es were girdled
or dead they were not ordinarily injured by the " bush burning."
The work of girdling the trees 3 and of burning the underbrush
was that of the men/ With the tall trees girdled and the under-
brush burned off it was an easy matter to scrape up the soft loam
and plant the corn but the field was not considered in fit form until
the small shrubbery and weeds had been subdued. Fields with
standing dead trees were not regarded as safe after the first year
l See Ketchum. Buffalo and the Senecas, 1:17-19. Cf. Dwight. Travels
in Xew England and New York
2 Van der Donck. Xew Netherlands. Amsterdam 1656.
3 La Potherie. Paris 1722, 3:18.
4 Sagard in his Voyages des Hurons has left us a good description of
this work among the Hurons. The translation which follows is taken from
Carr's ~lounds of the Mississippi Valley.
"The Indians belt (coupent) the trees about two or three feet from the
ground, then they trim off all the branches and burn them at the foot of the
tree in order to kill it and afterwards they take away the roots. This being
done, the women carefully clean up the ground between the trees and at every
step they dig a round hole, in which they sow 9 or 10 grains of maize which
they have first carefully soaked for some days in water."
Peter Kalm, whose observations of Indian usages were accurate and
detailed, records:
" The chief use of their [stone] hatchets was according to the unani-
mous accounts of all the Swedes to make good fields for maize-plantations ;
for if the ground where they intended to make a maize-field was covered
with trees they cut off the bark all round the trees with their hatchets,
especially at the time when they lost their sap. By that means the tree be-
comes dry and could not take any more norishment and the leaves could
no longer obstruct the rays of the sun from passing. The smaller trees
were pulled out by main force, and the ground was turned up with crooked
or sharp branches." Kalm, 515, Pinkerton's Voyages
22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
and speedy means were taken thereafter to burn them down. In the
Seneca invocations to the Creator at the midwinter thanksgiving is
a prayer that the dead branches may not fall upon the children in
the fields.
In time the trees were burned or rotted away to leave cleared
patches. The Iroquois men 1 did very little in the way of field work
but it is said that they sometimes helped clear the land but never
allowed any one to see them. Some of the old Indians whom the
writer interviewed told laughable stories of grim old " warriors " who
had been caught with a hoe and how they excused themselves.
One early writer even goes so far as to say that if a man loved
his wife devotedly he often helped her with the field work. As a
rule, however, among the Iroquois the men disdained the work which
they deemed peculiarly that of women.
One writer remarks that the Iroquois were too busy with their
conquests to engage in field work and this is largely true. In the
age of barbarism the condition of society is one of constant emer-
gency. Invasion and the destruction of property is momentarily
expected. The Iroquois by dividing the labors necessary to sustain
life in the manner in which they did contributed much to the strength
of their nation and its arms. The function of the men was to
hunt, to bring in the game and stand ever ready to defend their
people and their property and to. engage in war expeditions. An
Iroquois man must be ever generous and give to every one who
asked for his arms or his meat. If he brought his bear to the vil-
lage it became public property, to the material injury of himself and
family. He therefore left his game hidden in the outskirts of his
town and sent his wife 2 to bring it in. 3 She was not bound to
give of her husband's bounty and could properly refuse the appeals
1 La Potherie in his Historie de I'Amerique, volume III, page 18 et seq.
says that the men cleared the ground and assisted in braiding the harvested
ears. Cf. Law'son. Carolina.
2 The writer in mentioning Indian females never uses the term squaw.
As a name in colonial days it may have been proper but it is no longer good
form and its use is frowned upon by the Iroquois women of this State and
Canada. It has come with them to mean a degraded female character.
The Superintendent of the Six Nations of Canada was severely rebuked
several years ago by an old Mohawk woman who resented the term as ap-
plied to the women of her nation. The term is of course of Algonquin
origin. An Allegany Seneca once explained to me that this word was no
longer good language, just as Shakspere's word wench is no longer good
English as applied to a housewife, or villian as applied to a farmer.
3 Cf. Carr. Pood of Certain American Indians, p. 167; Tanner. Narra-
tive, p. 362; Cadillac in Margry 68, Charlevoix, v. 171.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 23
of the hungry, lazy or others who loved to prey upon generosity.
After the meat was cooked, however, the case was different and
she was bound to feed any who came to her door.
The Iroquois and other Indians have frequently been reproached
by writers for allowing or forcing their women to do field labor
while the men enjoyed the hunt 1 or lazily fished, or perchance went
" high ho ! " on the war path. It should be remembered, however,
that hunting in those raw days was no easy task. It was not sport
then as it is now but work that demanded the use of every faculty.
Heckewelder 2 remarks most aptly that the " fatigues of hunting wear
out the body and constitution more than manual labor." Another
writer says, and there is a sense in which his description might apply
in these 'modern times, that " their manner of rambling through the
woods to kill deer is very laborious exercise, as they frequently walk
25 or 30 miles through rough and smooth grounds, and fasting, be-
fore they return to camp loaded." 3
Heckewelder sums up the case when he says that woman's labor
in the fields consumed but six weeks out of the year while " the
labor of the husband to maintain his family lasts throughout the
year." 4
Woman's part in the division of labor was not a hard one nor even
a compulsory one. The labor of the fields was a time welcomed by
the women then as modern people now welcome an outing. It was
the occasion of productive pleasure. As Heckewelder says, 5 " . . .
The cornfield is planted by her and the youngsters in a vein of gaiety
and frolic. It was done in a few hours and taken care of in the
same spirit."
In the Life of Mary Jemison* the white captive of the Genesee,
she states:
Our labor was not severe, and that of one year was exactly similar
in almost every respect to that of others, without that endless variety
that is to be observed in. the common labor of white people. Not-
withstanding the Indian women have all the fuel and bread to pro-
cure, and the cooking to perform, their task is probably not harder
than that of white women who have those articles provided for them ;
and their cares certainly not half as numerous, nor as great. In
the summer season we planted, tended and harvested our corn, and
1 Cf. Lawson, p. 188.
2 Heckewelder. Historical Account of the Indian Nations, p. 146.
3 Adair. History of the American Indians. Lond. 1755. p. 402.
4 Heckewelder. Historical Account of the Indian Nations, p. 142
5 Ibid. p. 142.
6 Seaver. Life of Mary Jemison, p. 69.
24 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
generally had our children with us; but had no masters to oversee
or drive us, so that we could work as leisurely as we pleased.
With the breaking up of the military power of the Iroquois and
the subjection of all Indian tribes to the federal government, the
men were left freer. War with them was over. The disdain which
they had for field labor, and the feeling that it was not a part of
their work clung for some time, but as the old reason for abstaining
from field work passed away and as the environment of the white
man was forced upon them, the Iroquois man gradually became the
man with the hoe and thought it no disgrace. This was hardly the
case, however, a century ago.
The women of each settlement each year elected a chief matron,
ona n 'o gain' dago" et'igowane 1 to direct their work in the communal
fields. She ordered all the details of planting, cultivation and har-
vesting. She also had the right to choose one or two lieutenants
who could give out her orders.
Certain fields were reserved for the use of the nation, that is, to
supply food for the councils and national festivals. These fields
were called Kendiu"gwa'ge' hodi'yen'tho'.
2 Preparation of the soil and planting. In preparing the soil
a digging implement made of wood, somewhat resembling a short hoe
was used. The blade was sometimes a large flat bone or simply a
piece of wood worked flat. The hoe in this case was of one piece,
the trunk of a sapling serving as a handle and the tough bulbous
root end which ran off at right angles, shaped into a blade, served
as the digging end. 2
1 Literally meaning " corn plant, its field's female chief.
2 " Use wooden hoes," Williams. Key, p. 130.
" Spades made of hard wood." Bossee. Travels Through Louisiana,
p. 224
" Us ont. un instrument de bois fort dur, faict en facon d'une besche."
Champlain, I 195.
" II leur suffit d'un morceau de bois recourbe de trois doigts de largeur,
attache a un long mauche qui leur sert a sarcler le terre et a la remuer
legerment." Lafitau. Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, II 76.
" Use shoulder blade of a deer or a tortoise shell, sharpened on a stone
and fastened on a stick instead of -a hoe." Loskiel. Missions of North
America, p. 67.
" Performed the whole process of planting and hoeing with a small tool
that resembled in some respects a hoe with a very short handle." Seaver,
Life of Mary Jemison, p. 70.
Cf. Hakluyt. Voyages, III 1329.
" In order to sow Indian Corn they make Pick-Axes of Wood." A Con-
tinuation of the New Discovery, Hennepin, Father L. Lond. 1698.
Fig. i Antler hoe blade (Cut
is actual size.)
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 25
The writer has found in various old sites pieces of flattened antler 1
see fig. i] with one worn edge and the lower surfaces well polished
which seem to have been hoe blades. In
the Mississippi valley and often in New
York hoe heads of picked and chipped
stone were used.
Where wooden hoes were used it is
probable that the digging ends were hard-
ened in the fire by a semicharring of the
surface. Hardening in this manner was
usual where a resisting surface was
needed.
Thomas Hariot, a keen and reliable
observer though not always a good specu-
lator, has left us in his Brief and True
Report an excellent description of the
cultivation of maize by the coastal In-
dians of Virginia. In 1587 he writes:
All the aforesaid commodities for victuals are set or sowed some-
times in grounds apart and severally by themselves, but for the most
part together in one ground mixtly : the manner thereof with the
dressing and preparing of the ground, because I will note unto you
the fertility of the soil, I think good briefly to describe.
The ground they never fatten with muck, dung, or anything,
neither plow or dig it as we in England but only prepare it in a sort
as followeth: A few days before they sow or set the men with
wooden instruments made almost in the form of mattocks or hoes
with long handles, the women with short peckers or parers, because
they use them sitting, of a foot long and five inches in breadth, do
only break the upper part of the ground, to raise up the weeds grass
and old stubs of cornstalks with their roots. The which after a day
or two days drying in the sun, being scraped up into many small
heaps, to save them the labor of carrying them away, they burn to
ashes. And whereas some may think that they use the ashes for to
better the ground, I say that then they would either disperse the
ashes abroad, which we observe they do not, except the heaps be
too great, or else would take special care to set their corn where the
ashes lie, which also we find they are careless of. And this is all
the husbanding of their ground that they use.
Then their setting or sowing is after this manner. First, for their
corn, beginning in one corner of the plot with a pecker they make a
1 Cf. Parker. A. C. Excavations in an Erie Indian Village.
Mus. Bui. 117. p. 535.
N. Y. State
26 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
hole wherein they put out four grains, with care that they touch not
one another (about an inch asunder), and cover them with the mould
again; so throughout the whole plot, making such holes and using
them in such manner, but with this regard, that they be made in
ranks, every rank differing from the other half a fathom or a yard
and the holes also in every rank. By this means there is a yard of
spare ground between every hole ; where according to discretion here
and there they set as many beans and pease ; in divers places also
among the seeds of Macocqwer, Melden and Planta Soles. . .
Another early description of corn and its cultivation is given by
Harris in his Discoveries and Settlements. For the purpose of com-
parison with the foregoing, as well as for its information, this de-
scription is given verbatim:
The manner of planting is in holes or trenches, about five or six
feet distance from each other; the earth is opened with a hoe (and
of late years, with a plough), four inches deep, and four or five
grains thrown into each hole or trench, about a span distant from
each other, and then covered with earth ; they keep weeding it from
time to time, and as the stalk grows high they keep the mould about
it like the hillocks in a hop garden ; they begin to plant in April but
the chief plantation is in May, and they continue to plant till the
middle of June; what is planted in April is reaped in August; what
is planted in May is reaped in September; and the last in October. 1
While the ground is being prepared for sowing, the seed corn is
soaked 2 in warm water or in a decoction made of helebore 3 root
and some other herb Which the writer has not yet identified. These
roots are said to be a " medicine for the corn " but in reality the
" medicine " is a poison for crows and other field pests which might
eat the seed corn. A bird eating this " doctored " corn becomes dizzy
and flutters about the field in a way which frightens the others.
1 Harris. Discoveries and Settlements Made by the English. In Pink-
erton. Voyages, 12:242. Cf. Beverly, p. 126-27.
Cf. Their manner of planting it is to make with the finger or with a little
stick, separate holes in the ground, and to drop into each one eight or nine
grains which they cover with the same soil that had been taken out to make
the hole." Jesuit Relations, 67:143. (Rale's letter to his brother.)
Cf. Beverly. History of Virginia, p. 127.
2 C/. Sagard. Voyages des Hurons, p. 134. Paris 1632.
3 Cf. Kalm. Travels in North America. Lond. 1772; Pinkerton. Voy-
ages, 13:527-
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 27
Peter Kalm is the only observer in whose writings the author has
found the use of the poison decoction mentioned. 1
Handsome Lake, the prophet, in his code commanded that these
herbs always be used.
The corn was carefully dropped in the hills so as not to break the
germs which had nearly burst through. Among the Senecas, in
planting corn the seeds of the squash and bean were sown in every
seventh hill because it was thought that the spirits of these three
plants were inseparable. They were called Diohe v ko, these sustain
us. 2 . In the Green Corn Thanksgiving the leader rises and says,
" Diettino n/ nio' diohe"ko n , we give thanks to our sustaincrs"
Certain women banded themselves together in a society called the
Tonwisas 3 or To n wi'sas Oa'no. They propitiated the spirits of the
three sisters by certain ceremonies. In their ceremonial march, We-
nuntofiwi'sas, the leader holding an armful of corn and a cake of
corn bread leads her band in a measured march about a kettle of
corn soup. The ritual of this society has been translated by the
writer. A pen drawing of the march of the Tonwi'sas made by a
Seneca youth is shown in figure 2.
Each year at planting time each community observed a planting
festival in which the Creator was implored to continue his bounty
and his accustomed ways. Sacrifices of tobacco and wampum were
made to the spirits of growth and to the pygmies, Djo n ga'o n , and a
general thanksgiving for past blessings was given. Especial favor
was asked in the growth of the corn. 4
The Planting Thanksgiving was called by a council of elders in
whose charge this festival was placed and lasted for a full day. The
addresses to the Creator, however, were all given in the early morn-
l lbid. p. 531.
See also Kalm on bird pests. Ibid. p. 523, 527, 531.
2 The Aztecs called tlie corn goddess Tonacaygohua, She feeds us.
She was sometimes called Centeotl. She was also regarded as the god-
dess of the earth and was the most beloved deity worshiped by the ancient
Mexicans and was the only one that did not require the sacrifice of human
victims. It is interesting to note that the Corn goddess was also called
Tzinteotl, the original goddess. Her name changed to Xilonen, Iztacac-
cuteotl, and Tlatlauhquicenteotl according to the various stages in the
growth of the corn.
3 For a fuller description 'see American Anthropologist. New Ser. 1909.
v. n, no. 2. Parker, A. C. Seneca Medicine Societies.
4 Clark, J. H. V. Onondaga. Syracuse 1849. I 154.
28
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 29
ing. The office of speaker belonged of course to a man but other
offices were held by women.
The address to the Creator as given by Morgan, follows :
Great Spirit, who dwellest alone, listen now to the words of thy
people here assembled. The smoke of our offering arises. Give
kind attention to our words, as they arise to thee in the smoke. We
thank thee for this return of the planting season. Give us a good
season, that our crops may be plentiful.
Continue to listen, for the smoke yet arises. [Throwing on
tobacco] Preserve us from all pestilential disease. Give strength to
us that we may not fall. Preserve our old men among us and pro-
tect the young.
Help us to celebrate with feeling the ceremony of this season.
Guide the minds of thy people, that they may remember thee in all
their actions, na-ho. 1
Earlier in the spring the Thunder dance was held to honor He"-
no n Ti'sot, Thunder, our grandfather. He was asked to remember
the fields with a proper amount of rain and prevent the maize fields
from parching. If rain failed to come another Thunder ceremony
might be held. 2
Cornfields were not always owned by the tribe or clan. Indi-
viduals might freely cultivate their own fields 3 if they were willing
to do their share in the tribal fields. If they did not do this they
could not claim their share of the communal harvest. Individual
fields were designated by a post on which was painted the clan totem
and individual name sign. Any distressed clansman, however, might
claim a right in the individual field and take enough to relieve his
wants, provided he notified the owner.
The first hoeing 4 is called de'owenye', and takes place when the
corn is a span high. The second and final hoeing is called the hilling
up, eye n 'o n ' or hadiye n s', and is called for when the corn is knee
high.
3 Communal customs. The women of a community who own
individual fields and their husbands or male friends mav form a
1 Morgan. League, p. 196.
2 Ibid. p. 196-97.
3 C/. Margry 1:123; Jesuit Relations, 52:165.
4 " The Indians used to give it one or two weedings, and make a hill about
it, and so the labor was done." Beverly. Hist, of Virginia. Ed. 2. p. 125-28.
Lond. 1722.
3O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
.
mutual aid society 1 known as "(In the) Good Rule they assist one
another/' Gai'wiu OMannide'osha, (Sen). This society chooses a
matron of the cornfields, eti'gowane, who inspects the individual
fields or gets reports regarding their progress and who orders the
rest of the band to go to the field she wishes cultivated at a certain
day and hour. She commences the hoeing and ranges her helpers in
equal numbers on either side and a little to the rear and hoes to the
end of the row a little in advance of the rest, counts off the urihoed
rows and takes her position again.
1 Roger Williams in his Key notes this custom among the New England
Algonquins. " When a field is to be broken up," he says, " they have a very
loving, sociable, speedy way to dispatch it; all the neighbors, men and
women, forty, fifty or a hundred, do joyne and come in to help freely with
friendly joyning they break up their fields and build their forts."
"As an organized body of workers, the women of each gens formed a
distinct agricultural corporation." Stites, Sara H. Economics of the Iro-
quois, p. 31, Bryn Mawr Col. Monographs v. i, no. 3.
In Seaver's Life of Mary Jemison [see p. 70-71] we find a detailed de-
scription of this cooperative work :
" We pursued our farming business according to the general custom of
Indian women, which is as follows : In order to expedite their business,
and at the same time enjoy each other's company, they all work together
in one field, or at whatever job they have at hand. In the spring they
choose an old active squaw to be their driver and overseer, when at labor
for the ensuing year. She accepts the honor and they consider themselves
bound to obey her.
When the time for planting arrives and the soil is prepared, the squaws
are assembled in the morning and conducted into a field where each, one
plants a row. They then go into the next field and plant once across and
so on until they have gone through the tribe. If any remains to be planted,
they again commence where they did at first (in the same field) and so keep
on till the whole is finished. By this rule, they perform their labor of
every kind and every jealousy of one having done more or less than another
is effectually avoided."
This custom of helping is continued to this day. Among the Christian
Iroquois such work is called a " bee " but among the followers of the old
ways the mutual aid societies still exist and they continue " in the good rule
(gai'wiu) to assist one another." A. C. P.
Compare also Lawson's Carolina, page 179. " They are very kind and
charitable to one another, but more especially to those of their own Nation
. . . The same assistance they give to any Man that wants to build a
Cabin, or make a Canoe. They say it is our Duty, thus to do ; for there are
several Works that one Man can not effect, therefore we must give him our
Help, otherwise our Society will fall, and we shall be deprived of those
urgent Necessities which Life requires."
Cf. Adair. p. 407.
Cf. Cullen. Clavigero's Mexico.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 3L
It is the duty of the owner of the field to provide a feast at the
end of the hoeing and each helper takes home her supply of corn
soup, hominy or ghost bread. After the hoeing and before eating
the women flock to the nearest stream or pond and bathe. The
whole work is accompanied by singing, laughing, joking and inof-
fensive repartee 1 and the utmost humor prevails, topped off by a
splash in the water to remove dust and fatigue.
This hoeing "bee" is called endwa"twenogwa', (Sen.).
4 The harvest. In the autumn when the corn is ripe, when the
" great bear chase is on in the heavens," the harvesting begins. The
corn standing in the fields may be stripped of the ears by the har-
vesters who throw the ears over their shoulders, generally the left,
into a great harvesting basket, ye'niste n nek'wista'. The corn is then
deposited in piles in the field or carried to the lodge. Sometimes the
cornstalks are pulled up by the roots and carted to the house where
they are piled up in layers crosswise for future husking. The pluck-
ing bee was called hadrnest'e'oes or if engaged in by women alone,
wadi"nest'eoes.
The husking bee that followed was called hadinowe'ya'ke' or if
women only engaged in the work, wadinowi'ya'ke'. Husking time
was another time for a long season of merry industrial gather-
ings. Work was play in those days when mutual helpfulness made
money unnecessary. It was not uncommon for men to engage in
this w r ork. 2 They were lured to the scene by the promise of soup,
song and the society of w r ise old matrons and shy maidens. 3 The
old women carefully noted the industry of their younger assistants
and scheming parents were able to obtain information about pros-
pective mates for their children.
The older men did some work but not much. They aired their
wisdom by making wise observations but soon lost their reserve in
narrating exciting stories of personal adventure or by relating folk
tales, gaga'a'. They knew full well that a pail full of soup awaited
them when the husking ceased whether they worked or not. Often
1 Cf. Adair. p. 407.
2 Lafitau, volume 2, page 78, says that the men braided corn, but that
this was the only time when they were called upon to do such menial work.
3 Lafitau, volume 2, page 79, writing of harvest customs says : "At har-
vest time the corn is gathered with the leaves surrounding the ears which
serve as cords to keep the ears together. The binding of the ears belongs
to a peculiar ceremony which takes place at night and it is the only occasion
where the men, who do not trouble themselves about harvesting or field
work, are called by the women to help."
32 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
the " bee " would be enlivened by a marching dance, and for this
emergency the men brought their water drums 1 and horn rattles and
cleared their throats for singing.
The men smoked incessantly of native tobacco mixed with dried
sumac leaves and red willow bark. Some of the older women, if
not all, claimed the same privilege. The writer has attended some
of these " bees " and though he never saw a pipe in a young woman's
mouth, 2 he sometimes thought he saw a quid of store tobacco tucked
away in a bloomy brown cheek, no doubt used as a toothache pre-
ventive.
The " bees " were often conducted out of doors under the white
moonlight. A roaring fire of sumac brush or logs tempered the crisp
air of the night but left it sufficiently invigorating to keep up spirit
and keep the workers active. There was nothing unhealthful in these
night carnivals where the smell of the corn plant, the breath of the
pines blown by the autumn wind, the smoke of the fragrant burning
wood and the pure merriment of the workers and the knowledge of
good work furnished the sole exhilaration.
Husked ears may be placed in a corncrib, ona n 'o* iada'kwa, or
arranged for roasting. When the husk is stripped back for braid-
ing the ears are stood up in rows, against the wall or log with the
husks on the floor or ground. When the worker arose for rest the
others covered the husks with corn leaves and loose husks to keep
them moist. The work of braiding was called waest"shani' (com.
gen.), or waste n 'shani (fem. gen.).
Sick and injured members of the " mutual aid company " were
always assisted by the company even in the matter of preparing the
soil, planting and harvesting. This help was considered as a right
and never as a charity.
In the work of tillage plows or digging sticks are called yetoga-
tot'tha; hoes are called gau"djisha'. The bone husking pin is called
ye n nowiya"tha.
Husking pins are shaped much like the ancient bone and antler
awls but generally have a groove cut about a third of their length
about which is fastened a loop, through which it is designed that the
middle finger be thrust. The point of the husking pin is held against
the thumb. In husking the hand is held slightly open, the ear grasped
1 Cf. Adair, p. 407.
z Cf. Jesuit Relations, 67:141.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 33
in the left hand, ear butt downward, the point of the husker thrust
into the nose of the ear and under the husk, by a sidewise shuttle
motion, the thumb closes quickly over the pin and tightly against the
EJg. 3 Seneca husking pin (specimen is 4i inches in length)
husk, and a pull of the arm downward and toward the body tears
away the husk. Many of the ancient bone awls found in refuse pits
may be husking pins as well as leather awls.
a Abnormal ears. When harvesters find a red ear all the har-
vesters give the finder for his or her own use two ears of corn with
the husk pulled back ready for braiding. The red ear is called the
" King ear " or Hosan'nowa'ne"'.
When one finds an ear with only two diametrically placed rows
filled out the finder receives as a reward an ear of corn ready for
braiding from each harvester. This ear is called oa'de meaning the
roadway. The unfilled space is " caused by the devil who has licked
the cob with his tongue ! "
When a large ear is found on which no kernels have grown or on
which they are undeveloped, it is called gage n 'tci, it is an old one.
The finder is rewarded by the gift of a single ear of normal corn
with the husk pulled back ready for braiding. The finding of one
of these abnormal ears is the cause of much merriment. The
gage n 'tci ear is short and of unusual diameter, " it is all gone to
cob." Sometimes these ears are collected and braided in strings for
decorative purposes.
When the husk is pulled back for braiding the ear is called ganon-
yon or onofi'yo". If men, boys, girls and women engage in this
work the process is called hadi'nonyofita'. If only women are work-
ing the work is called wa'dinonnyoiita'.
When the ears are entirely stripped of husks the ear is called
ganowiya"go n . The work of husking by a mixed company is called
ha'dinowiyas, or if by women alone, wadi'nowiyas.
Corn smut is called odj^gwe^sho* (syphilis). The smut-blighted
ear is termed odji n gwes o^nisda^'ge. 1 The blighted cornstalk and
its fruit is not used but cast aside and burned.
1 The pink azaleas, Rhododendron nudiflorum, are known as
odji'gwe n da'we n o', syphilitic flowers.
34 NE W YORK STATE MUSEUM
5 Storage of corn. The braided bunches 1 of corn 2 were hung
on poles in the house or in a protected outbuilding. The shelled
corn was preserved in bark barrels and might either be natural kernels
or charred. When the braided strings of corn were stored in the
house the pole hung from the ridge pole or from the cross beams.
Cartier noticed this method in all probability when he wrote that they
preserved it in garrets at the tops of their houses. 3
Champlain mentions that corn was stored in the tops of the houses
and enough cultivated to last three or four years. 4
Lafitau 5 described minutely the Iroquois long house and said
that it had storerooms for barrels and bark shelves above for storing
provisions. Certain spaces below also were reserved for this purpose.
The description left us by Sagard previously quoted in this work,
of the rows of braided corn, is a most vivid one. He says it hung
like a tapestry the whole length of the cabin. 6
The Iroquois harvested corn in greater quantities than they could
consume and thus generally had a surplus for trade or emergency.
Should one of the five nations have ill luck with their crops the
others would respond to the need, for a consideration or gratuitously,
as the case demanded.
The storage of corn was an important matter. -Morgan, however,
says : 7 " The red races seldom formed magazines of grain to guard
against distant wants.'' A little examination of the works of early
writers contradicts this statement which Morgan knew did not apply
at any rate to the Iroquois.
Referring to the custom of burying corn and vegetables in pits
Lafitau wrote: 8
Didore of Sicile said that the first people of la grande Bretagne,
having gathered their corn, kept it in subterranean granaries and it
was only taken out in quantites immediately necessary. The Indian
women have some sort of an underground granary where also they
keep pumpkins (citroulles) and other fruits. It is a hole four to
1 Cf. Sagard. Voyages des Hurons. Ed. n. 1865. pt i, p. 135 ; or see
footnote p. 31 of this work.
2 Ibid. p. 93.
3 Cartier in Hakluyt's Voyages, 3:271.
4 Champlain. Voyages. Paris 1682. p. 301.
6 Lafitau. Moeurs des Sauvages. Paris 1724. 2:12 et seq.
6 Cf. Morgan. League, p. 318.
7 Morgan. League, p.372.
8 Lafitau, 2:80.
Plate 4
: . : *
**
Braid of Seneca calico-hominy corn. This is the native method of pre-
serving dried corn on the cob, now widely adopted by white people and
others.
' / .{ *< '< - e \ '**
Ce> *. r f r *"''.; * *" , *
* * <* c
Seneca elm bark storage barrel, now obsolete among the Iroquois.
Specimen is 31 inches high. Collected 1908 by A. C. Parker
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE ^ 35
five feet deep, lined with bark and covered with earth. Their fruits
keep perfectly sound during the winter without any injury from the
frost. As for the corn, it is different, instead of burying it, ex-
cept in the case of necessity, they allow it to dry on scaffolds and
under the eaves or in sheds outside of their houses.
At Tsonnontouann 1 they make bark granaries round and place
them on elevations, piercing the bark from all sides so that the air
will get in and prevent the moisture from spoiling the grain.
Morgan in his League 2 describes the cache in a somewhat similar
way:
The Iroqttois were accustomed to bury their surplus corn and also
their charred green corn in caches, in which the former would pre-
serve uninjured through the year, and the latter for a much longer
period. They excavated a pit, made a bark bottom and sides, and
having deposited their corn within it, a bark roof, water tight, was
constructed over it, and the whole covered with earth. Pits of
charred corn are still found near their ancient settlements.
The writer has found these corn pits throughout the Iroquois re-
gion in New York, one of them shown in plate 6. Many of these
ancient pits show that they had been lined with long grass or with
hemlock boughs, 3 for after the corn had been removed the pit was
filled with rubbish and the entire matter burned or charred. In
this manner the grass lining, if it were carbonized, was preserved
and when excavated the charred grass lining could be removed in
chunks or sheets. Mr Harrington has also noted this occurrence
throughout his field of investigation in New York. The Iroquois
have not abandoned this custom even now. Among the more primi-
tive the custom of burying parched corn and other vegetables is still in
vogue. In plate 7 is shown a group of pits on the Cattaraugus
Seneca Reservation in Erie county. In the background the Council
1 Also known as Sonnontouan, Totiacton and La Conception. The site
of this old Seneca town is in the present town of Mendon, Monroe co., ii
miles from Honeoye Falls.
2 Morgan, p. 319.
3 In describing corn storage, Kalm writes : "After they reaped their maize,
they kept it in holes underground during winter; they dug these holes
seldom deeper than a fathom, and often not so deep; at the bottom and
sides they put broad pieces of bark. The Andropogon bicorne,
a grass which grows in great plenty here, and which the English call Indian
grass . . . supplies the want of bark; the ears of maize are then thrown
into the hole, and covered to a considerable thickness with the same grass
and the whole is again covered by a sufficient quantity of earth; the maize
keeps extremely well in these holes and each Indian has several such sub-
terranean stores where his corne lay safe though he travel far from it."
Kalm. Pinkerton's Voyages, 13:539.
36 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
or Long House is to be seen. These pits are near the house of Ed-
ward Cornplanter and were photographed in the spring of 1909 after
the store had been removed.
The custom of caching vegetables in the ground is, of course, one
now followed by white people generally. Beauchamp 1 says the
Mohawk word for making a cache is asaton. The Seneca word is
similar, being wae'sado 11 , meaning she buried it. It is buried would
be, gasa'do".
The modern caches are lined with hemlock boughs instead of bark
although wood is sometimes used and sometimes bark instead of
boughs at the top. Over this is placed a mound of earth. 2
Champlain is the first writer to describe the pit method of storing
corn. He says : " They make trenches in the sand on the slope of
the hills some five to six feet deep more or less. Putting their corn
and other grains into large grass sacks 3 they throw them into these
trenches and cover them with sand three or four feet above the sur-
face of the earth, taking out as their needs require. In this way it
is preserved as well as it would be possible in our granaries."
The corn found by the Pilgrims in November 1620 was buried in
a similar manner.
In the Journal of a Dutch agent, by some supposed to be Arent Van
Curler, who journeyed among the Mohawks and Oneidas in 1634-35,
is a statement that the houses were full of corn, some of them con-
taining more than 300 bushels. 4
Corncribs are an Indian invention and for general construction
have been little improved upon by white men. Figure 2 in plate 7
shows a modern Seneca crib.
IV CEREMONIAL AND LEGENDARY ALLUSIONS TO CORN
In the cosmologic myth of the Senecas corn is said to have sprung
from the breasts of the Earth-Mother who died upon delivering the
twins, Good Minded and Evil Minded. Thus the food of the
mother's bosom still continued to give life to her offspring. Esquire
Johnson, an old Seneca chief, in an interview with Mrs Asher
,-
1 Beauchamp, Dr W. M. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 89. p. 193.
2 Compare the following : " The Indians thrash it as they gather it. They
dry it well on mats in the sun and bury it in holes in the ground, lined
with moss or boughs, which are their barns." Pinkerton. Voyages, 12:258.
*Cf. Hennepin. Voyages. Lond. 1698. p. 104.
*Amer. Hist. Ass'n Trans. 1895. Wilson, Gen. J. G. Arent Van Curler,
Journal of, 1634-35, P- Qi-
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 37
\Y right, the missionary, in 1876 said that the beans, squashes, pota-
toes and tobacco plants sprang also from the grave. Some of the
writer's informants declare that the squash grew from the grave
earth directly over the Earth-Mother's navel, the beans from her
feet and the tobacco plant from her head. Thus it is said of the
latter plant, " It soothes the mind and sobers thought."
From the manuscript of Mrs Wright's interview with Johnson, the
following is quoted :
Johnson sajs that a long time ago squashes were found growing
wild. He says that he has seen them and that they were quite un-
palatable, but the Indians used to boil and eat them. He says that
in their ancient wars with the southern Indians they brought back
squashes that were sweet and palatable and beans which grow wild
in the south, calico colored, and which were very good, and he thinks
the white folks have never used them. Also the o-yah-gwa-oweh
(oyen'kwaofi'we 11 , tobacco) they brought from the south where it
grows wild, also various kinds of corn, black, red and squaw corn,
they brought from the prairie country south where they found it
growing wild. All these things they found on their war expeditions
and brought them here and planted them and thus they abound here,
but he does not know where they first found the potato.
The mythology of the Iroquois is full of allusions to corn, its
cultivation and uses. The story of its origin from the breasts of
the mother of the two spirits, previously referred to, is generally
accepted as the proper version, but there are other stories which,
however, are regarded simply as gaga", or amusement tales, rather
than religious explanations. One story relates that an orphaned
nephew who had been adopted by an eccentric uncle with strange
habits thought that he would discover how his uncle obtained food.
He pretended to be asleep and looking through a peephole in his skin
coverlet found that the old man had a strange lot of nuts fastened
on a stick (a corncob). Cautiously removing a nut (kernel) he
placed it in a small pot of water and making some mysterious passes
over it as he crooned a mysterious song, he caused the vessel to ex-
pand to a great size and fill with a delicious food. The next day
the old man went on a journey to a distant gorge and the young man
determined to try the experiment which he had seen his uncle per-
form. He shelled all the corn from the cob, threw it in the pot,
sang and motioned until the pot swelled up so large that it filled the
house and burst the walls. A great mound was formed and when
the old man returned he cried out in dismay, " You have killed me,"
and gave as his reason that he was the custodian of the corn which
38 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
was the only ear in the country, the remainder being in the posses-
sion of a ferocious company of women who killed by their very
glances. Beasts and serpents guarded the path to their houses and
as there was nothing else to eat the nephew and uncle must starve.
The nephew laughed and set out to conquer all the difficulties. The
story of his conquest of all these things is detailed and exciting.
However, he chased the women up a tree and made them promise
to deliver up the corn, which they did and the hero went home, step-
ping disdainfully over the carcasses of monsters and serpents. Since
then corn has been plentiful.
Beauchamp refers to this tale which he found among the Onon-
daga but thinks it of European origin. Hewett in his Cosmology 1
gives this tale substantially as outlined above. The reference in the
tale to the nuts on the stick has given some Iroquois the idea that
chestnuts were meant and the story is given as the origin of chest-
nuts. The Seneca names for chestnuts and corn kernels are not
dissimilar, the former being o'nis'ta' and the latter o'nie'sta'.
Dr Beauchamp relates another tale which he had from Joseph
Lyon, an Onondaga. A fine young man lived on a small hill, so the
story runs, and being lonely he desired to marry some faithful, agree-
able maiden. With his long flowing robes and tasseled plumes he
lifted up his voice and sang, " Say it, say it, some one I will marry."
He kept up his song day after day and at last there came a fair
maiden, arrayed in a flowing green mantle over which were fastened
beautiful yellow bells. " I have come to marry you," she smiled, but
the tall young warrior responded, " No, you are not the one, you
wander too much from home and run over the ground so fast that
I can not keep you by my side." The poor rejected pumpkin maiden
went sorrowfully away and floating after her came the echo of the
song, " Some one I will marry."
One morning a tall slender maiden appeared drawn toward the
singer by the magic of the song (which even we of these degenerate
days must confess, though even inaudible, is a song that attracts).
The maiden was covered with clusters of flowers and gracefully
dangling leaves. The tall young man needed but to look and there
was an immediate consciousness of affinity. The two embraced each
other and to this day in the Indian's cornfield the two plants are
inseparable. .The cornstalk bean twines around her lover still.
1 Bureau of Ethnology Rep't. 1903.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 39
Dr Beauchamp adds that they are inseparable even in death " for the
beans make a part of Indian corn bread." i
Mrs Converse relates a very pretty story of the three plant sis--
ters in her Myths and Legends. 2 The writer has heard the same
story. The corn, however, is a female and not a pining, singing lover.
The corn plant in the old days produced a heavy grain rich in an
oil which was most delicious. The Evil Minded spirit, jealous of the
good gifts which the Good Minded had given men beings watched
his opportunity to capture the spirit of the corn. Detaining the spirit
he sent his ^messengers to blight the fields. The sun sent a ray of
light to liberate the captive spirit but ever since corn has been less
productive and required greater care. Morgan also mentions this
legend in the League. 3
There is an allusion to the spirit of the corn plant in the code of
Handsome Lake, as follows:
It was a bright day when I went into the planted field and alone
I wandered in the planted field and it was the time of the second
hoeing. Suddenly a damsel appeared and threw her arms about my
neck and as she clasped me she spoke saying " When you leave this
world for the new world above it is our wish to follow you." I looked
for the damsel but saw only the long leaves of corn twining round
my shoulders. And then I understood that it was the spirit of the
corn who had spoken, she the sustainer of life. [See Code of Ga-nio-
dai-o, 4 48, fl 2]
1 Jour. Am. Folk Lore, p. 195.
2 Converse. Myths and Legends of the Iroquois ; ed. by A. C. Parker.
N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 125.
3 Morgan. League of the Iroquois. Rochester 1854. P- 161.
Manuscript in N. Y. State Library, trans, by Parker, A. C. and Bluesky,
William.
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
5
<U x-s
S .2
/ \ N
>4\' I
rf^ T.
*rt C^
tJ
_ri
s
3
C/3
Plate 6
Corn pit excavated by Harrington and Parker, 1903 (Peabody Museum
of Archeology and Ethnology Expedition) on the Silverheel's site, Brant
township, Erie county, N. Y.
Plate 7
i Vegetable storage pits near Chief E. Cornplanter's house, Cattaraugus
Reservation. 2 Seneca corncrib on the James Sandy place, Cattaraugus
Reservation
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 41
V VARIETIES OF MAIZE USED BY THE IROQUOIS AND
OTHER EASTERN INDIANS
I Varieties mentioned by historians. Few authorities agree as
to the varieties of Indian corn. Beverly 1 mentions four " sorts "
among the Virginia Indians, two of which he says are early ripe and
two late ripe. He describes the four varieties carefully and ends by
saying that his description is without respect to what he calls the
" accidental differences in color, some being blue, some red, some
yellow, some white .and some streaked." He continues that the real
difference is determined by the "plumpness or shriveling of the
grain." To him the smooth early ripe corn was flint corn and the
" other . . . with a dent on the back of the grain . . . they call she-
corn." This is probably the Poketawes of the Powhatan Indians.
In Harris's Discoveries 2 is another description of corn giving the
variety of colors as " red, white, yellow, blue, green and black and
some speckled and striped but the white and yellow are most
common." 3 l
Thomas Hariot in his Brief and True Report, reports* the " divers
colors " as red, white, yellow and blue which in the light of the de-
scriptions of his contemporaries would seem to make his report true
but not the whole truth.
Morgan 5 is even more unsatisfactory in his descriptions and records
1 Beverly. Virginia, p. 126.
2 Pinkerton. Voyages and Travels, 12:242.
3 " . . . maise or Indian corn, which is not our pease in taste, but grows
in a great ear or head as big as the handle of a large horse whip, having
from three hundred to seven hundred grains in one ear, and sometimes one
grain produces two or three such ears or heads; it is of various colours,
red, white, yellow, blue, green and black, and some speckled and striped,
but the white and yellow are most common; the stalk is as thick as an
ordinary walking cane, and grows six or eight feet high, in joints, having
a sweet juice in it, of which a syrup is sometimes made, and from every
joint there grow long leaves in the shape of sedge leaves." Ibid. p. 242.
4 Pagatowr, a kind of grain so called by the inhabitants ; the same is
called mayze, Englishmen call it Guinywheat or Turkey-wheat, according to
the names of the countries from whence the like has been brought. The
grain is about the bigness of our ordinary English pease and not much
different in form and shape; but of divers colors, some white, some red,
some yellow and some blue. All of these yield a very white and sweet
flour being used according to his kind, it maketh a very good bread."
Hariot. Reprint. N. Y. 1872. p. 13-16.
6 League of the Iroquois, p. 370.
42 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
only three kinds of corn among the Seneca. He enumerates them
as white, O-na-o-ga-ant, red, Tic-ne, and white flint, Ha-go-wa.
These were the varieties which he collected and sent the State Cabi-
net (Museum) in 1850.
It is difficult to say what kind of corn Columbus saw on the island
which he discovered, but we may be reasonably sure that Cartier
mentioned the white flint corn when he described the corn of the
Hochelagans. Morgan 1 mentions this as the bread corn of the 'Seneca
mistaking it for the white Tuscarora or squaw corn.
Sweet corn was long known to the Indians and its seed was first
obtained by Sullivan's soldiers from the Seneca fields on the Susque-
hanna. 2
Purple or blue corn is mentioned in the Journal of Lieut. Erkuries
Beatly, an officer under Sullivan. In describing the events of Friday
the 3d of September he says ". . . the Indians had just left their
kettles on the fire boiling fine corn and beans which we got, but what
was most remarkable the corn was all purple . . ."
Esquire Johnson, an aged Seneca chief, in an interview with Mrs
Laura Wright in 1879 said, ". . . They brought it from the south,
also various kinds of corn black, red and squaw corn. . . All
these things they found on their war expeditions and brought them
here and planted them and thus they abound." The object of Iro-
quois raids, according to many of the old Indians, was to get new
vegetables and slaves as well as to subjugate insubordinate tribes.
Dent corn, with the Iroquois (Seneca), is called ono'dja, tooth.
Tradition relates that this is a western form derived from Sandusky
Iroquois in Ohio.
The writer has conducted a lengthy inquiry as to the varieties of
corn cultivated by the Iroquois during the last 100 years and the
result is embodied in the list, which is found below. 3 At the present
day while they conserve the form's with a zeal that has in it a
religious and patriotic sentiment, they also cultivate the new varieties
with equal ardor for in the modern types is found the corn which
produces the most money in the markets.
i-Ibid. p. 370.
2 Cf. Journal of Capt. Richard Begnall.
z Cf. Harrington. Seneca Corn Foods, Am. Anthropologist, new ser.
v. 10, no. 4, p. 575, 576. Four varieties are mentioned.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 43
2 Varieties of corn used by the Iroquois
7.ea mays amylacea, soft corns
Tuscarora or Squaw, Ona'onga n = * ivhite corn
Tuscarora short eared, Onyun'gwikta'=3 growing over the tip
Purple soft, Oso n gwudji' = purple
Red soft, gwe n da'a = red
Zea mays indurata, flint corns
Hominy or flint, dioneo"state'=the corn. glistens
Hominy or flint, long eared, he"kowa
_ f . f yodjisto'gofmyi iY spotted is
Calico, -I ' ,1
! deyuneo n de n ms = mixed colors
Yellow, djitgwa n 'a n he" kowa = yellow he"kowa
Zea mays saccharata, sweet corns
Sweet, diyut'gotnogwi = puckered corn
Black sweet, oso^vud'dji deutgo n/ negaide = black puckers
Zea mays everta, pod corn
Red pop, gwe n</ da'a wata'tofigwus = red, it bursts
White pop, wata'tofigwus = it bursts
Zea mays (variety ?), pod corn
Sacred corn, ona/c^w'e = original corn
The Mohawks cultivate some of these varieties now. Mr William
Loft, a Mohawk Indian of the Six Nations Reservation in Canada,
gives the Mohawk names for the following:
Tuscarora, ono n staga n 'rha
Tuscarora, short, ono n staoan'nal
Sweet corn, degon'derho n wix
Hominy or white flint, onust'teonwe'
Hominy, longeared, ga'hrades
Yellow, o'jinegwa^onuste'
Purple, orhon'ya'
Husk or pod, oo^na*
Pop, wadada'gwas oniuste'
1 Seneca terminology.
44
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
VI CORN CULTIVATION TERMINOLOGY*
i The process
SENECA
a OnaV
b waeeyunt'to'
c ohwe n o'dadyie'
d oga"hwaoda n
e otgaa'haat
/ otga'aahat
g deyua'ha'o
h ogwa n 'daaodyie'
i ogwa n 'daa'e'
; oge"odarlyie'
k owa n 'da'
/ o'geot
m ogwa n du'ae', ogwa n 'da n e'
H ono"gwaat
o deju'go n saat
p owea n daadye', owe n dadye'
q one'oda'dyie'
r hadi'nonyo"cos
s yesta'anyo n nyano'
t dusta n 'shoni
u gasda n t'shudoho'
v gano n 'gadi'
a wae'yuntto'
b yeeo'do^gwus
c deyonanyaoh, or deyo'wennye
d wae'oao", or waea
of growing
ENGLISH
Corn
She plants
It is just forming sprouts
It has sprouted
The blade begins to appear
The blade has appeared
The blade is already out
The stalk begins to appear
The stalk is fully out
It is beginning to silk
The ears are out
It has silked out
The tassels are fully out
It is in the milk
It is no longer in the milk
The ears are beginning to set
The kernels are setting on the cob
They are husking (indefinite as
to method)
She is braiding
It is braided
It is hung over a pole
It is strung along a pole
a Terminology of cultivation
S'he plants
She weeds
She stirs up the earth
She hills it up
a oea
b odjo n/ wa'sa
c oaya', oe'a'
3 Parts of corn
Leaves
Leaves of corn
Stalk
1 Based upon manuscript lexicon of Rev. Asher Wright. For the sake
of uniformity the Wright system of orthography has been changed to that
used in the body of this work;
s
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 45
d ono nV gwa n 'a' Cob
e gagosswa v ge ? , ogoisha"ge Butt of cob (meaning nose)
/ oji'jut Tassels
g onao onius'ta or o'nis'ta' Kernels
h onyo'nia' . Husk
i oaya okdaya, or ok'te'a Roots
j okta'a Hulls
k ogai'ta' Waste matter
/ onaoVwen'niasa' Germ = heart
m ogudjida' Pollen when it comes off
n ganaongwe' Seed corn
o o"gio n t Silk
VII UTENSILS EMPLOYED IN THE PREPARATION OF CORN
FOR FOOD
The implements and utensils employed for the planting, cultivating
and harvesting and the preparation of corn for food embraced the
larger part of Iroquois domestic furniture. To a large extent many
of the old-time corn utensils are still made and used by the Iroquois
who prefer the " old way " and it is surprising to find that even the
Christianized Iroquois, who generally live in communities away from
their " pagan " brothers, cling to their corn mortars and the other
articles which go with them. Today on all the Iroquois reservations
both in Xew York and Canada the corn articles form the great part
of their Indian material, and in fact constitute much of their aborig-
inality. As far as the writer can learn this same observation applies
to all of the Indian tribes or remnants of such east of the Missis-
sippi river.
Corn mortars are still made in the ancient way by burning out the
hollow.
The men probably made most of the bark and wooden dishes 1
and carved the spoons and paddles while the women made the baskets
and sieves.
Hennepin writing on this subject remarks: "When the Savages
are about to make Wooden Dishes, Porringers or Spoons, they form
the Wood to their purpose with their Stone Hatchets, make it hollow
with their Coles out of the Fire and scrape them afterward with
Beavers Teeth for to polish them. 2
1 See Jesuit Relations, 23 155, 13 -.265 ; Lawson. Carolina, p. 208.
2 Hennepin. Voyage, p. 103.
46 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Large kettle, Gano nV djowane'. Anciently large clay vessels were
used. Later brass or copper kettles obtained from the whites were
used. The use of clay vessels was early noticed by travelers 1 among
the Indians of eastern North America. There are several good de-
scriptions of the methods of pottery making, references to the use
of the vessels for cooking and several illustrations of them [see
% I 5l- I* seems most probable from these early accounts and illus-
trations that the clay kettles were placed directly over the fire, though
perhaps supported by three or four stones properly arranged. School-
craft, however, illustrates one suspended over the fire. The writer
once found a clay vessel in a fire pit with the remains of the fire
about it and four or five pieces of angular shale at the bottom as a
supporting base. There are several illustrations depicting this
method in old works.
The coming of the traders with brass kettles was an event in the
history of Indian cooking. It enlarged their capacity for cooking
food in quantities. As brass kettles became common with them the
smaller clay vessels passed' out of use and were made but rarely. In
this way the art gradually became forgotten.
Among the Seneca the writer found several persons who remem-
bered hearing in their youth how the vessels were made. They as-
serted that clay was thus occasionally employed up to the middle of
the last century. The Seneca seem to have conserved the art 2 at
any rate for some time after their settlement at Tonawanda, Alle-
gany and Cattaraugus.
The use of brass kettles among the Iroquois is still found, some
of the more conservative seeming to prefer them [see pi. 10], but the
majority now use iron or the more modern enameled ware pots.
Wooden mortar, Ga"niga"ta. 3 The corn mortar was made of
the wood of the trunk of a niiu"gagwasa, pepperidge tree or ogo'wa.
1 These vessels are so strong that they do not crack when on the fire
without water inside, as ours do, but at the same time they can not stand
continued moisture and cold water long without becoming fragile and
breaking at any slight knocks that any one may give them but otherwise
they are very durable." Sagard. Histoire du Canada. 1638. Tross ed.
Paris 1866. p. 260.
2 C/ Harrington. Last of the Iroquois Potters. N. Y. State Mus. Rep't
of Director. 1908.
3 Ga'ni'ga* in Mohawk.
Sebastien Cramoisy in his relations (1634-36) said "... we have
learned by experience that our sagamites are better pounded in a wooden
mortar in the fashion of the Savages than ground within the mill. I believe
it is because the mill makes the flour too fine." [See Jesuit Relations.
Thwaite's ed. v. 8]
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 47
black oak. To conform to the proportions specified by custom the
log was reduced to a diameter of 20 inches and then a section 22
inches long was cut or sawed off. A fire was built in the center of the
end naturally uppermost and when it had eaten its way into the block
for half an inch or thereabouts, the charcoal was carefully scraped
out to give a fresh surface to a new fire which ate its way still deeper.
The process was repeated until the bowlike hollow was of the de-
sired depth, generally about 12 inches. 1 In this hollow was placed
the corn to be pulverized. The relative values of mortars depended
on their freeclom from cracking and the grinding quality of the wood.
The use of the mortar 2 and pestle is shown in plates n, 12 and
20. In the same illustrations is shown the corn strung or braided
for convenience in handling, after the old Indian style now univer-
sally adopted by farmers.
The wooden mortar and pestle are found among most of the east-
ern Indians. The styles and shapes differed greatly. The Cherokee,
for example, had a shallow saucerlike depression in the top of their
mortars and a socket in the center. Their pestles were bulbous at the
top but the grinding end was small and of a size designed to fit the
socket loosely. As the meal was pounded it rose to the top and
settled around the " saucer " top where it could easily be swept or
scooped into a receptacle. Cherokee mortars like the Iroquois were
made upright. The Pottawatomie, Chippewa and some others had
horizontal mortars, that is the cavity was made in the side of the
mortar log. The Seminole not content with one cavity made three
or four in the side of a fallen tree. The Nanticoke made their
mortars vase-shaped with a supporting base and the Choctaw chopped
their mortar vases to a point to hold them stationary. Dr Speck
found an odd mortar among the Connecticut Mohegan. It had been
carved so as to resemble somewhat an hour glass. He was not able
1 Adair describes the process as follows, "... cautiously burned
a large log to a proper level and length, placed fire a-top, and with mortar
[clay] around it, in order to give the utensil proper form, and when the
fire was extinguished or occasion required, they chopped the inside with
their stone instruments, patiently continuing the slow process till they
finished the machine to the intended purpose." Adair, p. 416. Lond. 1725.
Cf. DePratz. Paris 1724, 2:177.
2 " The Indians always used mortars instead of mills and had them with
almost every other convenience when first opened to trade." Adair, p. 416.
" They pound it in a hollow tree." De Vries. Second Voyage. Hoorn
1655, p. 107. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col. Sen 2, v. 3, pt i.
48 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
to obtain it because the tribe held it as communal property and looked
upon it with a feeling of veneration. The pestles differ as much as
the mortars, some being mere clublike sticks.
Pestle, Hetge'o' or He'tgen"kha J1 The Seneca words mean
upper part and are derived from hetgaa'gwa, meaning upper. The
pestle is generally of hard maple wood about 48 inches long. It is
shaped the same on both ends and either may be used for pounding,
although one end is generally chosen and always used thereafter. The
other end serves as a weight that adds to the power of the arm in
making the stroke. The mortar and pestle are used in pulverizing
corn for soups, hominy, puddings and bread, and are by far the most
important .utensils used in preparing corn foods made from meal.
Stone mortar and pestle, Yeistonnia"ta'. Up to within the time of
the Civil War it was a common thing for the Seneca, as well as
others of the Iroquois, to use stone mortars and pestles or rather
mullers. Some of these mortars were so small that they could easily
be carried in a basket without inconvenience. Corn could be cracked
for soup by a single blow or by rubbing once or twice it could be re-
Fig. 5 Seneca stone mortar and muller. The mortar is 8 inches in length
duced to meal. Many of the older people remember these " stone
mills " by which their odjis'to n nonda', cracked corn hominy was
made 2 [see fig. 5]
M. R. Harrington found one of these mortars still in use by the
Oneida in Madison county and described it in the American An-
thropologist. 3
1 Ga'ni'ga* in Mohawk.
2 Cf. Jesuit Relations, 1716-27, v. 67:213. They crush the corn between
two stones reducing it to a meal; afterward they make of it a porridge
which they sometimes season with fat or with dried fish.
3 New Ser. v. 10, no. 4. 1908. p. 579.
Plate 10
Interior of the Canadian Seneca ceremonial cook house, Grand River
Reservation. Note the large brass kettle. From a photograph by the
author .
Plate ii
Iroquois corn mortar and pestle. The mortar is 25 inches high.
(Museum collection)
Plate 12
Feast makers at the New York Seneca midwinter festival, February 1909.
The costumes and other articles except the corn mortar are now in the
State Museum collections.
S;
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE
49
Mullers and mealing slabs are commonly found on Iroquois vil-
lage sites and sometimes may be picked up near log cabin sites on the
present reservations. The Iroquois probably did not use the long
cylindrical pestles to any great extent, as did the New York Algon-
qnins as late as the Revolutionary War.
Mr Harrington found one of these cylindrical pestles among the
descendants of the Shinnecock at Southampton, Long Island, to-
gether with a small wooden mortar. The Minisink Historical So-
ciety has one which was given an early settler by one of the Minsis
before the^Revolutionary War.
Hulling basket, Vegar'tcata'. 1 The Seneca word for hulling
basket means it washes corn. This basket is woven with tight sides
I 'I
Fig, 6 Technic of the hulling basket
and a coarse sievelike bottom. It is about 18 inches deep and as
many broad at the top tapering down to 12 inches at the bottom. In
this basket is put squaw or hominy corn after it has been boiied it>
weak lye to loosen the hulls and outer skin. The basket of corn is
then soused up and down in a large tub of water until all the hulls
are free and have floated off in the many rinse waters.
The details of weaving the hulling basket are shown in figure 6
and the basket itself in plate 13. Hulling baskets are made in four
styles ; without handles of any sort ; with handles made by openings
in the body of the basket just below the rim ; by raised loop handles
made by fastening pieces of bent wood through the rim and into the
body of the basket; and by a raised handle that arches from side
to side. For the various styles see figure 7. This type of basket is
Yegahreda n da'kwa' in Mohawk
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
widely found among the eastern Indians although the Iroquois basket
seems to have been higher.
The hominy sifter is woven in the same manner and the State
Museum has specimens from the Cherokee and Shawnee which are
*umiiH(|(mniuK i"ii
TT-
Fig. 7 Various forms of hulling baskets
similar in all details to the Iroquois baskets. Both of these peoples
of course have been in contact with the Iroquois at different periods.
The Delaware sifting and washing baskets were often made of shreds
of bark but the Iroquois preferred the inner splints of the black ash.
Hominy sifter, Omius'tawanes. 1 The Seneca term means
coarse kernels. This basket is of the same weave as the hulling
basket. It is a foot square at the top and tapers down to 10 inches
at the bottom. The bottom is sievelike, the openings being about
j^ inch square. The hominy corn cracked in the mortar is sifted
through this basket and the coarser grains that remain are thrown
back in the mortar to be repounded and resifted until all are of the
requisite size.
Meal sifter, 2 Niu'nyo n 'sthasa'. 3 The Indian word is derived
from niwa'a, small, and oniius'ta' kernels. In size and shape this
basket is like the hominy sifter. The splints of which it is woven,
however, are very fine, being about -f% inch wide. Except for
decorative purposes, no baskets were ever woven finer. The
niu'nyo n s'thasa' was used for sifting corn meal for bread puddings.
Sometimes it was used to sift other things, such as maple sugar,
salt, seeds etc. So much labor was required to make one of these
meal sifters that many of the Iroquois ceased to weave them when
cheap wire sieves could be obtained, the price of the meal sieve
basket being as high as $i [see fig. 8],
1 Yuno n 'owa'nes in Mohawk.
2 " They have little baskets which they call notassen, and which are made
of a kind of hemp the same as fig frails, which they make to serve as
sieves." DeVries, p. 187.
8 Niga'te'sera, flour sieve, in Mohawk.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 5!
Metallic meal sifters, now sometimes used, are regarded as inferior
for sifting the Indian prepared meal because they give a metallic
Fig. 8 Meal sifter. Specimen is 1 2 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep.
The mesh is T 3 6 inch.
taste to the food. It is said that the basket sieve makes lighter
flour.
Ash sifter, Oga'yeoHo'. 1 The ash sifter was a small basket
about 6 inches square at the top, 5 inches square or less at the bot-
tom and about 3 inches deep. It was woven like the hominy sifter,
the sieve bottom having somewhat smaller openings.
Ash sifters are rare in collections illustrating the series of baskets
used in the preparation of corn for food. One in the State Museum
is very old and was collected by Morgan at Tonawanda in 1851.
Bark bread bowl, Gusno n gaon'wa'.- This dish is made from
bark peeled in the spring or the early summer time, bent into the re-
quired shape and bound around the edges with a 'hoop of ash sewed
on with a cord of inner elm or basswood bark. The usual dimen-
1 Yo n ga n rawakto' is the Mohawk form.
2 Ga"sna'gahon'wa' in Mohawk.
52 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
sions are from I to 2 feet in diameter and from 4 to 9 inches
deep. Some bowls are elliptical in shape: These bark bowls were
used for mixing the corn meal into loaves previous to boiling and
afterward for holding the finished loaf.
The writer has seen these bark bowls used for cooking vessels,
heated stones being thrown into the liquid within it. The bark vessel
can also be put over an outdoor earthen or stone fireplace and water
heated if the flames are kept away from the rim. Bark bowls are
still used in some parts of the Seneca reservations as dish pans, sap
tubs, wash pans, etc. Bark dishes are easily made and their first use
may be referred to very early times. Two of these bowls are
shown in plate 14. Morgan collected a series of bark vessels for the
State Museum in 1854 and some of the specimens are still on
exhibition.
Wooden bread bowl, Owe^ga'ga'on'waV Sometimes instead of a
bark dish a wooden one was used for a bread bowl. It was of about
the same relative size and carved from pine or maple. The form
naturally differed somewhat from the bark bowls, but in general out-
line followed them. Some of these bowls are carved from maple
knots, or knots from other trees. Usually, however, they were
carved from softer wood.
Wide paddle, Gatgun'yasshuwa'ne. - The wide paddle was
used for lifting corn bread from the kettle in which it was boiled.
Some of these paddles are beautifully carved and ornamented. The
wide bread paddle took two forms, the round blade and the rectan-
gular bladed paddle [see pi. 16]. A feature which distinguishes a
lifting from a stirring paddle is the hole made in the middle of the
blade. The holes are either round or heart-shaped.
Narrow paddle, Nigat'gwunyashaa', 3 This paddle was used
for stirring boiling soups and hulled corn.
v Both wide and narrow paddles were carved from some hard wood,
preferably some variety of maple. Some are decorated with carv-
ings of phallic symbols. Such designs are regarded as sacred, in the
Iroquois religion, and are never looked upon with levity. The
carving of paddles gave opportunity for the carver to display his
best genius. Chains were carved from the solid wood of the paddle
handle and balls cut in barred receptacles [see pi. 16, fig. 3]. Even
some of the plainer forms had decorations made by carving a series
of small triangles arranged in figures on the handle.
1 Oyen'de' n gaon n wa' in Mohawk.
2 Gagawe"tserhowane' in Mohawk.
3 Nigagawe"tselha in Mohawk.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 53
Within recent years this work of making and decorating these
kitchen utensils has been the work of the men. No doubt they
thought that a fine paddle would furnish a proper incentive for the
making of a good soup.
Great dipping spoons, Ato'gwassho n wa'neV For dipping hulled
corn soup, or in fact any other soup from a kettle, a large dipping
spoon was generally used when there was one at hand. In form it
was like the common eating spoon used by the Iroquois but very
much larger, the bowl being about a foot in diameter. At present
these large ^spoons are very rare. One specimen that the writer
obtained for the American Museum of Natural History is said to
have been used for years in council meetings on the Genesee Reser-
vation, especially at the Green Corn Festivals. There are several
large dipping spoons in the State Museum, but they are now not
to be found in use on the New York Indian reservations. The speci-
men shown in the illustration, figure I, plate 17, has a shorter handle
than most.
The great dipping spoons were used for apportioning out the con-
tents of the great feast cauldrons. The activity of collectors and the
greater convenience of civilized articles has brought the tin dipper
into greater prominence.
Deer jaw scraper, Yigassho n/ gaya v to'. 2 . This implement is a
very rare one. It is simply one of the rami of a deer's lower jaw and
Fig. 9 Deer jaw scraper for green corn. Specimen is about 8 inches long
is complete without trimming or finishing in any way. The jaw was
held -by the anterior toothless portion and with the sharp back teeth
the greeil corn was scraped from the cob. The name of the imple-
ment, Yigassho n 'gaya v to', is derived from ogo n 'sa, green corn, and
yigowe n 'to', it scrapes.
The Seneca housewife when she uses the jaw scraper, with char-
acteristic humor, says, " I am letting the deer chew the corn first
for me."
1 Wadogwa'tserhowane' in Mohawk.
2 Ye n nos'stoga n yatha' in Mohawk.
54
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Another mjethod of bruising green corn on the cob was to place a
fiat grinding stone in a large wooden or bark bowl, hold the ear on
the stone with one hand and mash the unripe kernels with a milling
stone held in the other hand. The bruised corn was then brushed
from the mortar stone and the kernels that yet 'adhered to the cob,
scraped off. When enough material had been thus prepared the lower
stone was removed from the bowl and the mashed corn removed
for cooking.
Dried corn was milled much in the same way. A handful of the
corn was placed on the millstone and pulverized with the miller. The
cracked corn would fall into the bowl and be pounded again and
again until enough hominy or meal was obtained. The Seneca aban-
doned this method about 50 years ago, although a few have used it
in recent times when a wooden mortar was not accessible.
The writer collected a deer jaw scraper in 1903 for the American
Museum of Natural History and believes his description and speci-
men the first on record. Mr Harrington later collected and described
the deer jaw scraper in Canada, corroborating the writer's data.' 1
Sagard in his Voyages to the Pfurons describes another jaw method
of removing green corn from the cob but says the jaws were those
of the old women, the maidens and children who prepared the mass.
He remarks that he had no liking for the food.
Eating bowl, Ga'on'wa'. Eating bowls 2 were made from bark
or wood and were of various shapes.
Feast bowls oftentimes were of large size and were ornamented
in various ways to distinguish them from ordinary dishes. There
are two interesting specimens of feast bowls in the State collec-
tions. Both are Mohawk bowls from Grand River, Can. One has a
handle styled after a beaver tail, a beaver's tail being the symbol of
a feast. The other bowl is made of elm bark. It was used at one
of the Five Nation's councils some 10 years ago. The interior is
divided into five sections by painted lines of yellow radiating from
the center. At the angles of the radiating division lines are beaver
tails, five in all. Upon the inner raised sides of the bowl is painted
in red the names of the five nations and in black beneath the modern
council names : Ga-ne-a-ga-o-no, Mohawk, Owner of the Flint ; Gue-
gweh-o-no, Onondaga, On the Hill; Nun-da-wah-o-no, Seneca, The
* See also Parker, A. C. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 117, p. 544.
2 " Their dishes are wooden platters of sweet timber." Raleigh, in Hak-
luyt's Voyages. Lond. 1600. 3:304.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 55
Great Hill People; O-na-ote-kah-o-no, Oneida, The People of the
Stone. The label reads as follows :
(CANADIAN) MOHAWK BREAD BOWL.
This decoration is a faosimile of the old bowl taken by the Mo-
hawks when they left the League and departed with Brant.
5 yellow lines The sun's path guarding the 5 nations. 5 Beaver
tails the beaver tail soup symbol. At the 5 Fire councils each Fire
(or nation) was compelled to dip his soup from its own national
division of the bowl. The dipping of the spoon into each portion
allotted to its Fire signified union and fidelity. This bowl, obtained
in Canada, was decorated by a Seneca Indian Artist on the Catta-
raugus Reservation, June 12, 1899.
Harriet Maxwell Converse
Cattaraugus Reservation, N. Y.
June 15, 1899.
Ordinary eating bowls were smaller than feast bowls and were
often carved with great nicety from maple, oak or pepperidge knots.
After carving and polishing the bowls were dyed in a solution made
from hemlock roots. Continual scouring soon reduced the bowl to
a high polish and the grease which it absorbed gave it an attractive
luster which contributed in a large measure to preserve the wood.
Bowls which have been in the State Museum for 50 years still yield
grease if scraped with a penknife.
Eating bowls are usually round but many of the older forms have
suggestions of handles oppositely placed. Some of these handles go
beyond mere suggestions and take the form of a bird's head and tail
or two facing human effigies. 1 Bowls are shown in plates 14 and 15.
Wooden spoons, Atog'washa. - Great care was exercised in
carving wooden spoons. As a rule, each individual had his own
Fig. 10 Wooden~spoon from bottom of Black lake. Collected by E. R. Burmaster'
1910. Specimen is i 5 inches in length.
spoon which he recognized by the animal or bird carved on the
handle. In olden times, the dream animal or clan totem was usually
carved upon the handle, but specimens of later times nearly always
1 See Harrington. Some Unusual Iroquois Specimens. Am. Anthrop-
ologist, new ser. u 185.
2 Niwado^kwatserha, in Mohawk.
5O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
have the conventionalized forms of birds carved upon them. In
rare instances the figure was carved from a separate piece of wood
and attached to the spoon handle with a peg.
The wood chosen for spoons was usually curly maple knots,
although knots of other woods were valued and often used. The
Iroquois preferred to have their spoons of a dark color and as the
" spoon wood " was white or yellow, they used dyes to darken
them. Hemlock bark or roots were boiled in water until the liquid
was of the proper shade, which was dark red, and then the spoon
Fig. n Types of Seneca and Onondaga eating spoons, i, wooden spoon; a, bark ladle;
3, buffalo horn spoon. Number 3 was collected by E. R. Burmaster, 1910, from the
Alec John family who had preserved it as an heirloom for many years.
was plunged in and boiled with the dye until it had become
thoroughly saturated with the dye and had partaken of the desired
color. By use and time the spoon became almost as black as ebony
and took a high polish.
Spoons were sometimes shaped from elm bark but these were
not durable. They were scoops rather than ladles or spoons.
The Iroquois did not readily abandon the use of wooden spoons
and in some districts they are still used. The Indians say that food
Plate 14
i Seneca bark bowl. 2 Mohawk feast bowl used at the Six Nations
annual meetings. The beaver tail symbols refer to a section in the Iroquois
Constitution and symbolize peace and plenty. Illustrations are one sixth
actual size. Converse collection
Plate 15
Iroquois bread and eating
vo
*o
*o
oS
ft
T3
g
-o
c
rt
ft
3
O
Plate 17
I Seneca feast dipping spoon. 2 Mohawk beaver tail national feast bowl.
Illustrations are about one fifth actual size. Mrs H. M. Converse collection
in State Museum *-,' '--'->
o
M
4)
". ^v*'
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
57
tastes much better when eaten from one and those who have not
used them for some years express a longing to employ them again,
recalling with evident pleasure the days when they ate from an
" atcg'washa." l
The favorite decorations for the tops of the handles were ducks,
pigeons and sleeping swans. The tails of the birds projecting back-
ward afforded a good hold for the hand and at the same time acted
as a hook that prevented the spoon from slipping into the bowl when
it was rested within it [see pi. 18].
The shape of the wooden spoon bowl is significant and seems to
suggest that it was copied from the form of a dam shell or from
a gourd spoon, these forms perhaps being the prototypes. Various
types of spoons are shown in figure n and plate 18.
Husk salt bottle, Ojike'ta'hda'wa. While not employed directly
as a utensil for preparing corn foods, the husk saU bottle was used
as a receptacle for the seasoning sub-
stances used for giving an added flavor
to soups, bread etc. made from corn.
The bottle was made of corn husk in-
geniously woven. The stopper was a
section of a corncob. Corn husk bot-
tles sometimes were woven so tightly, it
is said that they would hold water. On
the other hand the bottles were valued
for their property of keeping the salt
dry, the outer husk absorbing and hold-
ing the moisture before it reached the
salt within [see fig. 12].
The Iroquois have used these salt
bottles within the last 10 years but only
a few are now to be found.
The Iroquois say that they have not Fig. 12 Husk salt bottle, cut is
i 11-1 i 1 i size of specimen.
always used salt in the quantities which
they now do and say that it has a debilitating effect upon them.
Parched corn sieve, Yundeshoyondagwatha. This utensil was
first described by Morgan 2 who collected a single specimen for the
1 Beverly in describing the eating customs of the Virginia Indians, says,
"The Spoons which they eat with do generally hold half a pint; and they
laugh at the English for using small ones, which they must be forced to
carry so often to their Mouths, and their Arms are in Danger of being
tir'd before their Belly."
2 See Morgan. Fabrics of the Iroquois. State Cabinet of Nat. Hist.
Fifth An. Rep't 1852. p. 91.
58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
State Museum, in 1850. It consists of strips of wooden splints a
little more than an -J inch wide laid longitudinally, bound together
with basswood cords and fastened tightly at either end making a
canoe-shaped basket. It was used for sifting the ashes from
parched corn and for sifting out the unburst kernels from pop
corn. The writer has not been able to collect another old specimen
of this basket and was told that the hominy sieve is now used
instead.-
The corn sieve is an interesting survival of a form of basket (the
melon basket) now obsolete among the Canadian and New York
Iroquois. 1 It has been preserved, however, among the 'Cherokee
and is common among other southern tribes. Morgan's figure in
the Fifth Museum Report is a poor illustration of the specimen and
has confused several writers who have attempted to copy it. A
better drawing is shown in the accompanying cut, figure 13.
Fig. 13 Popcorn sieve. Morgan specimen. This type is a survival of the melon basket
now obsolete among the Iroquois except perhaps the Oneida.
Specimen is 20 inches long.
Planting and harvesting baskets
Planting basket, Yundushinun'dakhwa'. 2 This is the small
basket used for containing the seed corn for planting. The basket
is generally tied to the waist so as to leave both hands free for
dropping the seed and covering it with the hoe.
One planting basket in the museum collection is made of bark
doubled in such a maner as to leave pockets on either side and a
handle in the middle [see fig. i, pi. 19].
Carrying basket, Ye'mste n nek'wista' or Yuntge"dastha. 3 This
basket is generally tied by a carrying strap, gusha'a, to the head or
chest and the ears of corn thrown over the shoulders into it as they
were picked. The use of this basket is shown in plate 2, fig. I.
1 Harrington collected some interesting forms from the Oneida, two of
which were acquired by the State Museum.
2 Yu n terhaha'wida"kwa' in Mohawk.
3 Yo n da"terhagehtslakwa in Mohawk.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
59
VIII COOKING AND EATING CUSTOMS
I Fire making. The precolonial method of producing fire was
of course by friction and there were a number of ways for this
Fig. 14 Iroquois pump drill used for producing fire by friction. Collected by
L. H. Morgan, 1850. Specimen is 18 inches high.
purpose. The most characteristic contrivance was the pump drill. 1
Morgan figured a pump drill in his report 2 to the Regents of the
University. A pump drill is simply a weighted spindle of resinous
1 Mason. Origin of Inventions, p. 88.
2N. Y. State Cab. Nat. Hist. Third An. Rep't.
Albany 1851. p. 88.
60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
wood to the top of which is fastened a very slack bow string, the
bow hanging at right angles to the weight. By twisting up the
string and then quickly pressing down on the bow a spinning motion I
is imparted to the spindle which immediately as the string unwinds,
winds it up again in an opposite direction. The bow is then quickly '
pressed downward again and so continuously. The top of the]
spindle is inserted in a greased socket and the foot in a notch in a;
piece of very dry tinder wood. The rapid twirling of the spindle;
creates friction which as it increases ignites the powdered wood. A
piece of inflammable tow is placed near this dust which suddenly
ignites in the socket and fires the tow which is quickly transferred!
to a pile of kindling. Pump drills of course are not characteristic- :
ally Iroquois, though the Iroquois used this means of producing!
fire by friction more generally than other methods [see fig. 14] - 1
TERMINOLOGY OF FIRE
Fire ode'ka'
Match (it makes fire) yiondekada/'kwa'
I make a fire engade'gat
Fire wood oyan'da*
Charcoal odja n 'sta'
Ashes o'ga"a'
Smoke (in house) odia"gwa'
Smoke (out of doors) odia/'gweot
Flame o'do n 'kot
Bake or broil waen'dasko n de
For cooking food anciently the fires were generally made in
sunken pits, variously called fire pits, pots or sunken ovens.
Pots of clay were probably placed only in shallow saucerlike
depressions and held up by stones. The writer discovered such a
pot at Ripley in 1906. It stood upright in a pit and was supported
by some chunks of stone. Charcoal lay about it as if the fire had
been hastily smothered. Schoolcraft pictures a clay pot suspended
from a tripod, but most explorers picture the position of the clay
vessel as above described.
Pits often were heated to a good temperature, the embers raked
aside and corn, squashes or other foods thrown in, covered with
Morgan League, p. 381.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE
61
cold ashes and allowed to bake by the heat that remained in the
ground. Small pits were thus made in clay banks and beans and
other vegetables boiled to perfection. The remains of these pit
ovens are found by all field archeologists who have worked in New
York. 1
2 Meals and hospitality. The Iroquois in precolonial and
even during early colonial times had but one regular meal each day.
This was called sedetcinegwa, morning meal, and was eaten between
9 and n o'clock. Few of the eastern Indians had more than two
regular meals each day, but this did not prevent any one from
eating as many times and as much as he liked for food was always
ready in every house at all times. 2
The food for the day was usually cooked in the morning and
kept warm all day. For special occasions, ho\vever, a meal could be
cooked at any time, but as a rule an Iroquois household did not
Fig. 15 Drawing of an Indian and his wife at dinner, from Beverly's Virginia. The
numbers refer to Beverly's description which is as follows; " i. Is their Pot boiling
with Hominy and Fish in it. 2. Is a Bowl of Corn, which they gather up in their
Fingers, to feed themselves. 3. The Tomahawk which he lays by at Dinner. 4. His
Pocket, which is likewise stript off, that he may be at full liberty. 5. A Fish.
6. A Heap of roasting Ears, both ready for dressing. 7. A Gourd of Water. 8. A
Cockle-Shell, which they sometimes vise instead of a Spoon. 9. The Mat they sit on." !
expect a family meal except in the morning. As every one had four
or five hours exercise before this meal it was thoroughly enjoyed.
1 Cf. Harrington. Mohawk Strongholds. Manuscript in N. Y. State
Museum.
2 Cf. Heckewelder, p. 193; Morgan. House Life, p. 99.
62 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Large eaters were not looked upon with favor, but every one was
supposed to satisfy his hunger.
The housewife announced that a meal was ready by exclaiming
Hau ! Sedek'oni, and the guest when he had finished the meal always
exclaimed with emphasis " Niawe n " " meaning, thanks are given.
This was supposed to be addressed to the Creator. As a response
the host or hostess, the housewife or some member of the family
would say " Niu v " meaning it is well. Neglect to use these words
was supposed to indicate that the goddess of the harvest and the
growth spirits or " the bounty of Providence " was not appreciated
and that the eater was indifferent.
In apportioning a meal the housewife dipped the food from the
kettle or took it from its receptacle and placed it in bark and wooden
dishes, which she handed the men. They either sat on the floor or
ground or stood along the wall as was most convenient. The
women and children were then served. This old time custom still
has its survival in the modern eating habits of the more primitive
Iroquois. There are now tables and chairs and three regular meals,
to be sure, but the women serve the men first and then, when the
men have gone from the room, arrange the meal for themselves.
Regular meals two and three times a day did not come until the
communal customs of the Iroquois had given way to the usages of
modern civilization. Even then, as Morgan observes, 1 one of the
difficulties was to change the old usage and accustom themselves
to eating together. It came about, as this author says, with the
abandonment of the communal houses and the establishment of
single family houses where the food for the household was secured
by the effort of the family alone.
Under the old regime food was kept ready for any one who might
call for it at any time. The single meal of the late morning did not
prevent any one from eating as many times as he pleased.
Springing from the law of communism came the law of common
hospitality. Any one from anywhere could enter any house at any
time if occupants were within, and be served with food. Indeed it
was the duty of the housewife to offer food to every one that entered
her door. If hungry the guest ate his fill but if he had already
eaten he tasted the food as a compliment to the giver. A refusal
to do this would have been an outright insult. There was never
need for any one to go hungry or destitute, the unf ortunate and
46 Morgan. House Life, p. 99.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 63
the lazy could avail themselves of ^the stores of the more fortunate
and the more energetic. Neither begging nor laziness were encour-
aged, however, and the slightest indication of an imposition was
rebuked in a stern manner.
Heckewelder explains this law of hospitality in a forcible manner.
" They think that he (the Great Spirit), made the earth and all that
it contains," he writes, 1 " that when he stocked the country that
he gave them with plenty of game, it was not for the benefit of the
few, but for all." This idea that the Creator gave of his bounty
for the good\>f the entire body of people was one of the funda-
mental laws of the Iroquois. As air and rain were common so was
everything else to be. Heckewelder expresses this when he con-
tinues, " Everything was given in common to the sons of men.
Whatever liveth on land, whatsoever groweth out of the earth, and
all that is in the rivers and waters flowing through the same, was
given jointly to all, and every one is entitled to his share. From
this principle hospitality flows as from its source. With them it
was not a virtue but a strict duty ; hence they are never in search of
excuses to avoid giving, but freely supply their neighbors' wants
from the stock prepared for their own use. They give and are
hospitable to all without exception and will always share with each
other and often with the stranger to the last morsel. They would
rather lie down themselves on an empty stomach than have it laid to
their charge that they had neglected their duty by not satisfying the
wants of the stranger, the sick or the needy. The stranger has a
claim to their hospitality, partly on account of his being at a distance
from his family and friends, and partly because he has honored them
with his visit and ought to leave them with a good impression on
his mind ; the sick and the poor because they have a right to be
helped out of the common stock, for if the meat they are served
with was taken from the woods it was common to all before the
hunter took it; if corn and vegetables, it had grown out of the com-
mon ground, yet not by the power of men but by that of the Great
Spirit."
When distinguished guests came into a community a great feast
was prepared for them. Various French, Dutch and English
writers who visited the Iroquois during the colonial period have
written of these feasts and some of them describe the feasts in
a vivid way. Sometimes the food was unpalatable to European
1 Heckewelder. Indian Nations, p. 101.
64 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
taste and sometimes howsoever unpalatable it was eaten with great
gusto, so sharp a sauce does hunger give.
John Bartram, who made a trip from Philadelphia to Onondaga
in the middle of the i8th century, with Conrad Weiser, Lewis
Evans and Shickalmy, records in his Observations: 1
We lodged within 50 yards of a hunting cabin where there were
two men, a squaw and a child. The men. came to our fire, made us
a present of some venison and invited Mr Weiser, Shickalmy and
his son to a feast at their cabin. It is incumbent on those who par-
take of a feast of this sort to eat all that comes to their share or
burn it. Now Weiser being a traveler was entitled to a double share,
but being not very well, was forced to take the benefit of a liberty
indulged him of eating by proxy, and he called me. But both being
unable to cope with it, Evans came to our assistance notwithstanding
which we were hard set to get down the neck and throat, for these
were allotted to us. And now we had experienced the utmost bounds
of their indulgence, for Lewis, ignorant of the ceremony of throwing
a bone to the dog, though hungry dogs are generally nimble, the In-
dian, more nimble, laid hold of it first and committed it to the fire,
religiously covering it over with hot ashes. This seemed to be a kind
of offering, perhaps first fruits to the Almighty Power to crave future
success in the approaching hunting season.
Instances of the hospitality of the Iroquois toward the whites and
Indians could be cited at great length, 2 with but one result, that of
confirming the statement that hospitality was an established usage.
The Indians were often greatly surprised to find that on their visits
to white settlements they were not accorded the same privilege,
and thought the whites rude and uncivil people. " They are not
even familiar with the common rules of civility which our mothers
teach us in infancy," said one Indian in expressing his surprise.
The Iroquois were not great eaters, that is to say, they seldom
gorged themselves with food at their private meals or at feasts,
except perhaps for ceremonial reasons. To do so ordinarily would
be a religious offense and destroy the capacity to withstand hunger.
Children were trained to eat frugally and taught that overeating
was far worse than undereating. They were warned that gluttons
would be caught by a monster known as Sago'dakwus who would
humiliate them in a most terrible manner if he found that they
were gourmands.
1 Bartram. Observations. Lond. 1751. p. 24.
2 See Morgan. House Life, p. 45-62.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 65
The large appetites of white men who visited them was often a
matter of surprise to the Indians who entertained them. Morgan 1
commenting on this says that a white man consumed and wasted
five times as much as an Indian required. In a footnote 2 he quotes
Robertson as writing that the appetite of the Spaniards appeared
insatiably voracious; and that they affirmed that one Spaniard de-
voured more food in a day than was sufficient for 10 Americans
(Indians).
The food and eating customs of the eastern Indians are described
by various early writers with some conflict of opinion, but in gen-
eral their system of free hospitality has the commendation of the
majority of writers. 3
There were and still are among the Iroquois, innumerable ways
of combining foods and several ways of cooking each variety.
Nearly all the early travelers expressed themselves as impressed
with the number of ways of preparing corn and enumerate from
20 to 40 methods, though some are not so explicit. 4
TERMINOLOGY
Food giik'wa'
Breakfast (early morning meal) sede'tciane'gwa
Midday meal ha'de'wenisha
Sunset meal hega' / gwaane / gwa <
Appetite yeo n kwan'owas
A glutton ha'kowane'
.(Come thou) eat (imper.) sedeko'ni
I eat aga'dekoni
You eat . e n sa'dekoni
Cook (she cooks) yeko n 'nis
" (he cooks) ha'ko n 'nis
Hanging crane e n sa"enondat
Kettle hook adus'ha
Oven yonta'gonda'gwa'ge
1 Morgan. House Life of the American Aborigines, p. 60.
* Ibid, p. 61.
3 See Laho'ntan, 2:11; Van der Donck. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Cols. v. i, ser.
2, 192; Jesuit Relations, 67:141; Adair, p. 412; Bartram. Observations, p.
16, 59, 63; Smith. Virginia. Richmond ed. 1:83, 84; Heckewelder, p. 193;
Morgan. House Life, 45 et seq. ; Robertson. History of America, p. 178.
N. Y. 1856.
4 " Forty-two ways." Dumont. Memoirs sur La Louisiane. Paris 1753.
1 '33-34- Cf. Loskiel. p. 67 ; Adair, p. 409 ; " 40 methods," Boyle, Report
for 1898; cf. Jesuit Relations, 10:103, "twenty ways."
3
66 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
IX FOODS PREPARED FROM CORN
Leaf bread tamales, onia 5 ' tci'4a\ This is prepared from green
corn. The kernels are cut or scraped from the cob and beaten to
a milky paste in a mortar. The corn used for leaf cake tamales
should be too hard for green corn good for boiling and eating on
the cob.. The paste will then be of the proper consistency. The
paste is patted into shape and laid in a "strip on one end of a broad
corn leaf, the free half being doubled over the paste. Other leaves
are folded over the first, the ends all projecting uniformly from
one end for tying. The onia/'tci'da' was then tied three times
laterally and once transversely and dropped into boiling water.
When cooked cooking requires about 45 minutes the wrap-
pings are removed and the cake is eaten with sunflower or bear oil,
though in these modern days bacon grease or butter are more in
vogue. Oftentimes cooked beans are mixed with the mass before
wrapping in the leaves. These impart their flavor and give variety.
Leaf cakes may be dried for winter's use if no beans have been
used with the corn. In wrapping the leaf bread a bulbous shaped
bundle is made resembling a large braid of hair doubled and tied,
hence the name onia"tci'da', derived from yenya'tci'dot, doubled
braid of woman's hair.
Heckewelder 1 describes this bread but says it is too sweet al-
though the Indians consider it a delicate morsel. He says the
mashed green corn is put in the corn blades with ladles.
Adair 2 in describing it remarks, " This sort of bread is very
tempting to the taste, and reckoned most delicious by their strong
palates."
David DeVries 3 writing of the dish says, " They make flat cakes
of meal mixed with water, as large as a farthing cake in this
country, and bake them in the ashes, first wrapping a vine or maize
leaf around them.
Sagard in describing leaf cakes says that the Huron called it
Andataroni. He describes the process of preparing it substantially
as given above. He mentions that berries and beans are often
added. 4
1 Heckewelder, p. 195.
2 Adair. North American Indians.
3 Second Voyage. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col. Ser. 2. v. 3, pt i, p. 107.
Cf. Vincent. History of Delaware. Phila. 1870. p. 74.
4 Grand Voyage. Tross ed. p. 96.
Plate 20
Seneca woman pounding Tuscarora corn. Photograph by M. R. Harrington
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE . 67
These early citations are interesting because they prove how
persistently the Iroquois have clung to the dishes of their ancestors.
Baked green corn, 1 Ogon'sa'. When the milk has set, Tusca-
rora and sweet corn is scraped from the cob and beaten to a paste
in a mortar. This should be done just before the evening meal.
After the housework is finished the housewife lines a large kettle
with basswood leaves three deep. The corn paste is then dumped
in up to two thirds the depth of the vessel. The top is smoothed
down and covered by three layers of leaves. Cold ashes to a
finger's depth" are now thrown over the leaves and smoothed down.
A small fire is built under the kettle which hangs suspended
from a crane or tripod. Glowing charcoal is placed on the ashes
at the top. The small fire is kept brisk and the coals at the top
renewed three times. The cook may now retire for the night if
her kettle hangs in a shielded place or in a fire pit. In the morning
the ashes and top leaves are carefully removed and the baked corn
dumped out. The odor of this steaming ogon'sa' is most appetizing
and it is eaten greedily with grease or butter. For winter's use the
caked mass is sliced and dried in the sun all day, taken in at night
to prevent dew from spoiling it and dogs or night prowlers from
taking too much of it, and set out again in the morning to allow the
sun to complete the drying. The ogon'sa' is then ready to be stored
away for the winter. When ready for use the winter's store of
ogon'sa' was taken from storage and a sufficient quantity for a meal
thrown in cold water and immediately put on the stove. Boiling for
a little more than a half hour produces a delicious dish. Ogon'sa'
was one of the favorite foods of the Iroquois and remains so to this
day. An Onondaga or Seneca can hardly mention the name without
showing that it brings memories of the pleasant repasts that it has
afforded.
In recent years the corn paste is prepared with a potato masher
in a chopping bowl, or by running the corn as cut from the cob
through a food chopper. Baking is done in shallow dripping pans
in the oven. The food so prepared, however, lacks a deliciousness
that makes the older method still popular.
Boiled green corn, O'kni'staga^o'. 2 This is simply the green
corn on the cob with which we are all familiar. Tuscarora corn
as well as sweet corn, however, was used with equal favor. It was
1 This is the ble'-grille of the French.
2 Ganossto'ho 11 is the Mohawk equivalent.
68 . NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
eaten on the cob or scraped oft" and eaten in dishes. Sometimes the
kernels were cut from the cob and boiled as a soup.
The Seneca name means delicious corn food, from o'nius'ta,
corn, and oga n 'o n , delicious food.
Fried green corn, Gagon's'a ge*'da. This dish was prepared by
scraping the green corn, in the milk, from the cob, mashing it in
a mortar and either patting it into cakes o>r tossing it in a basket to
make a loose light mass. The corn was then ready for frying. The
older Indians say that the frying could 'be done in a clay kettle and
that corn so prepared was especially good if cooked in bear oil. 1
Succotash, Ogon'sa' ganon'da. 2 Iroquois succotash was pre-
pared much ,as is the modern form made by white people. The
green corn cut or scraped from the cob was thrown in a pot of
beans which had nearly been cooked and the mass cooked together
until both ingredients were done. A sufficient quantity of salt and
grease or oil was added for seasoning and flavor. The favorite
corn for this dish was Tuscarora or sweet corn.
Baked cob-corn in the husk, Wades'konduk o'nis'ta. This was
a popular way of preparing green corn on the cob. The ashes
from the camp or hearth fire were brushed aside and a row of un-
husked ears laid in the hot stones or ground. These were then
covered with cold ashes. Embers were now heaped over and a hot
fire built and continued until the corn beneath was thought suffi-
ciently baked. Corn baked in this manner has a fine flavor and
never becomes scorched.
Baked scraped corn, Ogo n/ sa' ohon'sta'. 3 The green corn is
scraped from the cob with a deer's jaw or knife, pounded in a
mortar or mashed in a wooden bowl with a stone, patted into cakes,
sprinkled with dry meal and baked in small dishes. For baking in
the ashes the cakes are wrapped in husk and covered with ashes.
Embers are heaped over and a brisk fire built, this being kept going
until the cakes were considered baked.
Carver, the British traveler, in writing of his experiences among
the aboriginal Americans, says of this dish ". . . better flavored
bread I never ate in this country." In describing the preparation
1 Carr, quoting Carver's Travels (London 1778), notes, "We . . . cook
our vegetables by themselves though formerly this was not the case for
according to an old writer (Carver), when made with bear oil 'the fat
moistens the pulse and renders it beyond comparison delicious.' "
2 Onon'darha is the Mohawk name for succotash.
' 3 O'gaserho'da is the Mohawk name.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 69
of these cakes he said that they Ve-re ". . . made without the
addition of any liquid by the milk that flows from them ; and when
it is effected they parcel it out into cakes and enclosing them with
leaves place them in the hot embers where they soon bake."
Cracked undried corn, Odjis'tanonda. The ripened but not
dry corn was shelled from the cob and smashed kernel by kernel
on a flat stone, a muller being used as a crusher. The crushed corn
was mixed with new harvested beans and boiled for nearly three
hours. Salt >vas used as a seasoning and deer or bear meat mixed
with the mass if desired t ' ser rig. 5 i.
Boiled corn bread, Gagai'te n ta n 'a' / kwaV For bread, purple,
calico and the two hominy corns were used. After the corn was
shelled it was boiled for from 15 to 30 minutes in a weak lye made
of hard wood ashes and water. The lye solution in order to be of
the proper consistency must be strong enough to bite the tongue
when tasted. When the hulls and outer skins had been loosened,
looking white and swelled, the corn was put in a hulling basket,
taken to a brook or large tub, where.it was thoroughly rinsed to
free the kernels of any trace of lye and to wash off the loosened
hulls and skins. The corn was then drained, thrown in a mortar
and pulverized with a pestle. The granules were sifted through
the meal sieve to make the meal fine and light. After this process
the meal was mixed with boiling water and quickly molded into a
flattened cake about 8 inches in diameter and 3, inches thick. The
cake was then plunged into boiling water and cooked for nearly an
hour. The object of mixing the meal with boiling water was to
coagulate the starch and make the meal stick together. After the
meal is mixed with the hot water and molded, the hands are
plunged in cold water and rubbed over the loaf to give it a smooth
glossy surface. When the loaf floats it is considered properly
cooked. Sometimes the molded loaf is baked instead of boiled,
specially for journeys. The loaf is buried in hot ashes and a roar-
ing fire built over it until it is baked thoroughly. When it is to be
eaten the ashes are washed off and slices cut from the loaf. The
baked loaf if not wet will not become moldy like boiled bread and
this is the approved form for hunting and war parties.
1 Gano n 'stoharhe ganada'rho n , in Mohawk.
J7O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
In the course of boiling some of the meal on the outside of the
cake comes off, together with a quantity of starch and gluten, and
mixes with the water. When the bread is sufficiently cooked this
liquid is poured out in bowls and drunk as a tea. The Iroquois
considered this gruel a great delicacy.
Fig. 1 6 Bark tray containing boiled bread, dried. Specimens J actual size. Seneca
specimens collected 1908
Corn bread is fairly hard but readily crumbles when masticated.
It is not dry, but moist and mealy. Before eating the cake it is
sliced and spread with tallow or butter, bear or deer oil. It is a
delicious food and considered highly nutritious. Often cooked
cranberry beans or berries were mixed with the meal before boiling.
These added to the flavor as well as nourishment. 1
One of the best descriptions of boiled bread has been left us by
Adair 2 who writes:
They have another sort of boiled bread which is mixed with beans
or potatoes ; they put on the soft corn till it begins to boil and pound
it sufficiently fine ; their invention does not reach the use of any
kind of milk. When the flour is stirred, and dried by the heat of
the sun or fire, they sift it with sieves of different sizes, curiously
made of the coarser or finer cane splinters. The thin cakes mixt with
bear's oil, were formerly baked on thin broad stones placed over a
fire, or on broad earthen bottoms fit for such a use, but now they use
kettles. When they intend to bake great loaves, they make a strong
1 " Some of the loaves were baked with nuts and dry blue berries and
grains of the sunflower." Van Curler's Diary, p. gi.
2 Adair. History of the American Indians. Lond. 1775. p. 407. See also
Boyle. Ontario Arch'. Rep't 1898. p. 188.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 71
blazing fire, with short dry split wood on the hearth. When it is
burnt down to coals they carefully rake them off to each side, and
sweep away the remaining ashes; then they put their well kneaded
broad loaf, first steeped in hot water, over the hearth, and an earthen
basin above it, with the embers of coals atop. This method of baking
is as clean and efficacious as could possibly be done in any oven ; when
they take it off they wash the loaf with warm water, and it soon
becomes firm and verv white. It is likewise very wholesome, and
well tasted to any except the palate of an epicure.
Lafitau ha<J no such pleasant impressions of the bread which
would seem to bring him under the class of epicures. As a matter
of fact white people of today regard the Iroquois boiled bread as a
" well tasted " food, though a trifle heavy. The writer during his
school days on the reservation often " swapped " his lunch of civil-
ized viands with other Indian boys who were lucky enough to have
half a loaf of boiled bread and a chunk of maple sugar or perhaps
a leaf cake.
Beverly 1 describes the baking of corn bread in his History of
Virginia and says that the Indians first covered the loaf with leaves
and then with warm ashes over which were heaped the hot coals.
The ash baked corn bread of the Indians has survived in the 'South
as hoe cake, ash cake and "old fashioned " journey or Johnny cake.
Corn soup liquor, O'niyustagf. The liquor in which the corn
bread was boiled was carefully drained off and kept in jars or pots
as a drink. It is said that the Indians were not fond of drinking
water and preferred various beverages prepared from herbs or corn.
One writer 2 in discussing this subject says: "Though in most of
the Indian nations the water is good, because of their high situa-
tion, yet the traders very seldom drink any of it at home-; for the
women beat in mortars their flinty corn till all the husks are taken
off, which having well sifted and fanned, they boil in large earthen
pots ; then straining off the thinnest part into a pot they mix it with
cold water till it is sufficiently liquid for drinking; and when cold
it is both pleasant and very nourishing; and is much liked even by
genteel strangers."
Wedding bread, Go n nia"ta' oa'kwa. Corn was prepared in the
same manner as for bread but was wrapped in two balls with a
short connecting neck like a handleless dumbbell wrapped in corn
1 Beverly. Virginia, p. 151.
2 Adair, p. 416.
72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
husk and tied in the middle. It was then ready for boiling. To
complete the cooking required about one hour.
Twenty-four of these cakes were taken by the girl's maternal grand-
mother (by blood or by clan appointment, if the maternal grand-
mother was dead) to the door of the maternal grandmother of an
eligible male. The recipient, " who had previously conferred with
the donor, if she favors the alliance suggested by the gift, tastes
the bread and notifies her daughter that her (the daughter's) son
is desired to unite with a certain young woman in marriage by the
grandmother of that young woman. The mother of the boy must
submit to her mother's wish if she can offer no substantial objec-
tion. The boy's grandmother then makes 24 wedding cakes 1 and
carries them to the girl's grandmother who then notifies her
daughter that the girl must marry a certain man. If the suit is
rejected at the first proposal the wedding cakes are left untouched
and the humiliated donor must creep back and reclaim the cakes.
My informant says the rejected cakes were never eaten, but prob-
ably reserved as ammunition with which to pelt the offending old
dowager, who had given reasons to believe that the suit was smiled
upon. The bounds of a cake recipe forbid further discussion.
Sagard found this bread among the Huron who, he says, called
it Coinkia. He remarked that instead of being baked it was boiled.
His description ''deux balles jointes ensemble" makes the identity
of the dish absolute. 2
Early bread, Ganeo n te"doV Before the corn was thoroughly
dry in the autumn it was plucked for making early bread. The
unhulled corn was mixed with a little water in a mortar and beaten
to a paste instead of a meal. Loaves were molded by the hands from
the paste and boiled. This bread was considered a great delicacy
and valued especially as a food for invalids.
Early corn pudding, Ganeo n te v do n odjis'kwa. The paste from
the mortar, as described above, was sometimes drained, sifted and
tossed into a wet meal. It was then thrown in boiling water and
boiled down into a pudding.
1 Morgan. League, p. 322 ; cf. Sagard, p. 94, 136.
2 ". . . excepte le pain mis et accommode comme deux baltes iointes
ensemble, enueloppe entre des fueilles de bled d'Inde, puis boiiilly et cuit
en 1'eau, et non sous la cendre, lequel ils appellent d'vn nom particulier
Coinkia." Sagard, Grand Voyage, p. 136, Paris 1682, see also Tross ed. p. 94.
3 Ga'te'do n gana'darho, pounded bread, Mohawk form.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 73
Dumplings, Oho n 'sta'. Moisten a mass of corn meal with boil-
ing water and quickly mold it into cakes in the closed hand moist-
ened in cold water. Drop the dumplings one by one into boiling
water and boil for a half hour.
Dumplings were the favorite thing to cook with boiling meats,
especially game birds.
To fish the dumplings from the pot every one had a sharpened
stick or bone. The dumplings were speared and held on the stick
to cool and nibbled with the meat as it was eaten. The sticks after
use were wiped off and stuck between the logs or bark of the wall
for future use.
Many of the sharpened splinters of 'bone now excavated from
village and camp sites are probably nothing more than these primi-
tive forks, or more properly food holders.
Oho n sta' was one of the foods of which children were very fond;
nor did grown people despise it as a bread with their meat.
Hominy, Onon'daat. 1 Hominy is prepared from flint corns.
For a family of five persons, a quart of corn was thrown in a
mortar and moistened with a ladleful (four tablespoon fuls) of
water. 2 To make the pounding easier a teaspoonful of white ashes
or soda is thrown in also. The pounding with the pestle proceeds
slowly at first to loosen the hulls, this work being accelerated -if
ashes have been used. When the hulls begin to come off easily the
pounding is quickened until the corn is broken up into coarse pieces.
It is then ready for the first sifting, e^yowo"^. A basket called a
oniius'tawanes is used for this purpose. The hominy passes through
and is placed in a bowl while the uncracked corn is thrown back
into the mortar to be repounded. After the second sifting the un-
cracked kernels that remain are thrown out to the birds or chickens.
The hominy is then ready for winnowing. The results of the two
poundings are carefully mixed and then put in a tossing bowl or
basket. The hominy is tossed with a peculiar motion the bowl being
held at a slant. The lighter chit rises to the top while the heavier
portion stays at the bottom. The hulls and chit are thrown out by
hand or by the use of a fan made of a bird's wing, called oneg'osta'.
The process of winnowing is called waegai"tawak.
1 Onofi'darha is the Mohawk word.
2 Harrington says cold water. See Seneca Corn Foods, Amer. Anthrop-
ologist. New Ser. v. 10, no. 3, p. 587,
74 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
The coarse granular meal so prepared is now ready for cooking.
One part of meal is put in eight parts of water and boiled for two
hours. Pork or bear's meat and beans are cooked with the
hominy 1 for flavoring. When cooked salt or sugar were added,
according to taste.
Sagard 2 in his Grand Voyage refers several times to this dish as
Sagamite. In one instance he calls it a " good sort of substance "
and says that its sustaining qualities surprised him.
With the Dutch hominy was called by another name. In Van
der Donck's Description of New Netherlands, we find that the pap
or mush of the Indians is called sapaen (suppawn). It was the com-
mon food of all Indians, he says, without which no Indian would
think he had a satisfactory meal.
Hulled corn, O n no"kwa'. 3 This favorite dish was made from
some soft corn treated as corn used for bread. It was washed
until free from skins and hulls and then put in cold water and boiled
for four hours until the kernels had burst open and were tender.
Small chunks of meat and fat were thrown in the boiling liquid and
sometimes berries. O n no"kwa' is the favorite feast dish of the
Iroquois. This dish is a most palatable one and appeals to all tastes.
It is used at Indian social gatherings as white people use ice cream,
that is, as a fitting food for festal occasions. It must be confessed
that the Indian's food was the more solid and perhaps the more
sensible. Several canning companies now put up hulled corn under
the name of Entire Hominy and it may be purchased in many
modern provision stores.
Dried corn soup, Onadoononda. 4 For winter's use, green,
white, sweet or squaw sweet corn was cut from the cob and dried
before a fire, taking care that the drying was rapid enough to pre-
vent the milk from souring. The dried corn when prepared for
1 This is the sagamite of the French. See Jesuit Relations.
2 "Le pain de Mais, et la sagamite qui en est faicte, est de sort bonne
substance, et m'estonnois de ce qu'elle nourrit si bien qu'elle facit: car
pour ne boire que de 1'eau en ce pays-la, et ne manger que sort peu
sonnent de ce pain, et encore plus rarement de la viande, n'vsans presque
que des seuls Sagamites auec vn bien peu de poisson, on ne laisse pas de
se bien porter, et estre en bon poinct, pourueu qu'on en ait suffisamment,
comme on n'en manque point dans le pays; mais seulement en de longs
voyages, ou Ton souffre souuent de grandes necessitez ", Le Grand Voyage
du pays des Hurons. Paris 1632. p. 137; Tross ed. Paris 1865, p. 97.
3 Gagarhedo n 'to n is the Mohawk form of the word.
4 Ganaha n 'da t is the Mohawk word.
iROOUOiS USE> OF MAIZE f5
food was boiled until tender, tnree-quarters of an hour. This dried
corn was sometimes roasted and pounded for pudding meal.
Nut and corn pottage, Onia* degaiyist'o 11 ona'o'khu*. This
was prepared by mixing nut meal or nut milk, onia v ge', with
parched corn meal.
Heckewelder 1 describes the use of nut milk with corn in a fairly
detailed way as follows:
The Indians have a number of manners of preparing their corn.
They make an excellent pottage of it, by boiling it with fresh or
dried meat ^( the latter pounded), dried pumpkins, dry beans and
chestnuts. They sometimes sweeten it with sugar or molasses from
the sugar-maple tree. Another very good dish is prepared by boiling
with their corn or maize, the washed kernels of shell bark or hickory
nut. They pound the nuts in a block or mortar, pouring a little warm
water on them, and gradually a little more as they become dry until,
at last, there is a sufficient quantity of water so that by stirring up
the pounded nuts the broken shells separate from the liquor, whidh
from the pounded kernels assumes the appearance of milk. This
being put into the kettle and mixed with the pottage gives it a rich
and agreeable flavor. If the broken shells do not all freely separate
by swimming on the top or sinking to the bottom, the liquor is
strained through a clean cloth before it is put into the kettle.
Corn and pumpkin pudding, OnhT'sa' odjis'kwa. 2 This favorite
pudding was made from parched or yellow corn meal mixed with
sugar and boiled pumpkin or squash. It was often used instead of
gago n sa odjis'kwa.
Samp, Gwa'ononda' or O'ni'yustage*. In making samp the
corn was treated with the same process as for corn bread except
that it was not beaten so fine in a mortar. It was boiled in water
and when cooked tasted like the soup of corn bread, but it did not
have so delicate a flavor. Often berries or meat were mixed and
cooked with samp. For samp any corn that would hull easily was
used.
Adair after describing hominy says, " the thin of this is what my
Lord Bacon calls Cream of Maize, and highly commends for an
excellent sort of nourishment." This is the samp, or gwa'ononda' of
the Iroquois.
Corn pudding, O n so n 'wa. 3 For o n so n 'wa white corn was
1 Heckewelder, John. History, Manners and Customs of the Indian
Nations. Hist. Soc. Pa. 12:194.
2 Onoo n se'rhagowa odjis'kwa is the Mohawk name.
3 Wadenosstatsaha"to', burnt corn, is the Mohawk name.
76 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
roasted brown and pounded slowly in a mortar and sifted until all
the granules were uniform, the coarser ones being pounded and
resiittd until this end was achieved. The meal was then thrown in
boiling water and cooked until tender.
Preserved in skin bags this meal was carried by hunters and
either eaten raw with water, boiled as above or thrown in with boil-
ing meat. 1
V an der Donck, in his Description of New Netherlands, says :
When they intend to go a great distance on a hunting expedition
. . . where they expect no- tood, they provide themselves severally
with a small bag of parched corn meal which is so nutritious that they
can subsist upon the same many days. A quarter of a pound of the meal
is sufficient for a day's subsistence; for as it shrinks much in drying,
it also swells out again with moisture. When they are hungry they
take a handful of meal after which they take a drink of water, and
then they are so well fed that they can travel a day. [See N. Y.
Hist. Soc. Lol. Ser. 2. i : 193-94, 1841.]
i
Heckewelder describes this food as follows : " Their Psindamo-
can or Tassmanane, as they call it, is the most durable food made
out of the Indian corn. The blue sweetish kind is the grain which
they prefer for that purpose. They parch it in clean hot ashes until
it bursts, it is then sifted and cleaned, and pounded in a mortar into
a kind of flour, and when they wish to make it very good they mix
some sugar with it. When wanted for use they take about a table-
spoonful of this flour in their mouths, then stooping to the river or
brook, drink water to it. If, however, they have a cup or other
small vessel at hand they put the flour in it and mix it with water,
in the proportion of one tablespoonful to a pint. At their camps
they will put a small quantity in a kettle with water and let it boil
down, and they will have a thick pottage. With this food, the
traveler and warrior will set out on long journeys and expeditions,
and, as a little of it will serve them for a day, they have not a heavy
load of provisions to carry. Persons who are unacquainted with
this diet ought to be careful not to take too much at a time, and
not to suffer themselves to be tempted too far by its flavor; more
1 " The Indians boil it till it becomes tender and eat it with fish or veni-
son instead of bread; sometimes they bruise it in mortars and so boil it.
The most usual way is to parch it in ashes, stirring it so artificially as to
be very tender, without burning; this they sift and beat in mortars into
a fine meal which they eat dry or mixed with water." Harris. Discoveries
and Settlements. Pinkerton's Voyages. 12:258.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 77
than one or two spoonfuls at most at any one time or at one meal
is dangerous ; for it is apt to swell in the stomach or bowels, as when
heated over a fire/' :
A handful of the parched meal, 2 or 3 ounces, was considered a
rather large meal if eaten out of hand and this quantity was even
considered dangerous unless cooked in a pot.
Most of the old writers refer to this dish 2 and agree that it is
a most sustaining food. Sugar was often mixed with the meal to
give it flavor and dried cherries were sometimes pulverized with
the parched ^corn. In this form the Mohawk call it O'hogwit//
orha.
Beverly 3 in describing traveling customs says, ". . . each man
takes with him a Pint or Quart of Rockahomonie, that is, the finest
Indian corn, parched and beaten to powder. When they find their
Stomach empty, (and can not stay the tedious Cookery of other
things) they put about a spoonful of this into their Mouths,
and drink a Draught of Water upon it, which stays in their
'Stomachs. . ."
Roasted corn hominy, Odjis't?nonda'. The ripe corn was
husked by the harvesters and stood " nose " upward against the
top pole of a roasting pit. This pit was a long narrow trench a
foot or more deep with Y-shaped sticks at either end as supporters
for the top pole, which was placed horizontally in the crotches, after
a fire of saplings and sticks had been reduced to a mass of glowing
embers [see pi. 21]. The ears were then leaned at an angle against
the pole, drawn out and roasted. Watchers turned them as they
were parched sufficiently while other helpers gathered them up when
done and shelled the kernels into a bark barrel.
The meal from this roasted corn was called odjis'tanonda'. If
the parched corn was boiled it was called ona n da'ono n 'kwa'.
It should be noted that this dish is prepared from roasted green
corn and not from ripe dried corn as is o n so n 'wa.
Parched corn coffee, O'nls'tagi'. Corn was well burnt and
parched on the coals, scraped from the cob and thrown in a dish.
Upon this boiling water was thrown and the dish or kettle placed
over the fire again. To produce the burnt corn drink the boiling
was continued for about five minutes.
1 Heckewelder. History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations.
Hist. Soc. Pa. 12:195.
2 This is the Nocake or rockahominy of the New England Indians. See
Williams. Key. Narragansett Club Reprint, 1 140.
3 History of Virginia, p. 155.
78 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Roasted corn, Gani'ste n 'da. This was the husked ear of green
corn baked in hot embers.
It is related that one of the old methods was to dig a long trench
and place the ears across two slender green saplings and allow the
heat of the hot coals to cook the corn. The ears could easily be
turned over and the roasting made uniform (see pi. 21).
Sometimes a husked ear of corn 'was incased in clay and baked.
This was called Oga'goak'wa or gago n duk. For roasting ears 1
singly a sharpened stick was shoved into the stem and the ear held
in the embers.
If kernels of the corn prepared in this way were sufficiently dried
and parched the entire ear or the shelled kernels were capable of
long preservation. The writer has found roasted corn on the cob,
several centuries old, buried in pits Which evidently once had been
bark lined cellarettes. Parched shelled kernels are commonly found
in caches in Indian village or lodge sites.
Pop corn pudding, Watatofi'gwus odjis'kwa. Corn was
popped in a metal or clay kettle and then pulverized in a mortar and
mixed with oil or syrup. The writer has often seen the modern
Iroquois run their corn popped in a modern popper through a chop-
ping machine and eat the light white meal with sugar and milk or
cream.
Ceremonial foods
Bear's pudding, Niagwai"tato n odjis'kwa. 2 This was a cere-
monial food prepared from yellow meal unseasoned and mixed with
bits of fried meat. The meal was boiled into a pudding and the
meat thrown in afterward. Bear dance pudding was only used as
a ceremonial food in the Bear Society meetings or by members
performing some of the rites. 3
Buffalo dance pudding, Degi'yago 11 odjis'kwa. 4 Squaw corn
is pounded to a meal, boiled as a pudding and sweetened with
maple or corn sugar. This pudding is harder than Bear dance
pudding, its proper consistency being like the mud where the buffa-
1 Beverly says, " They delight to feed on roasting ears, that is Indian
corn, gathered green and milky, before it is grown to its full bigness."
History of Virginia.
2 O'kwa'rhi odjis'kwa is the Mohawk form.
9 See Parker, A. C. Seneca Medicine Societies. Am. Anthropologist.
New ser. v. XI, no. 2.
4 Dege'lhiyagon odjis'kwa is the Mohawk form.
Plate 21
Corn is roasted on a frame or pole placed over a pit filled with glowing
embers. The roasted corn is used for parched meal.
Plate 22
- 1 Long House of the Canadian Onondaga, Grand River Reservation.
It is here that the feasts and thanksgivings for the products of the fields are
held by the Canadian Onondaga.
2 Cook house of the Canadian Seneca. The architecture of the building
follows the lines of the bark house. Note the smoke hole in the roof.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 79
Ices go when they dance off the flies. This pudding is used only by
members of the Buffalo company, a " medicine " society. 1
1 Ball players pudding, Gadjis'kwae* odjis'kwa. 2 This is a
charm pudding and made like false face pudding except that it is
a little sweeter and contains more meat. A woman afflicted with
rheumatism or some like disease prepares this pudding and pre-
sents it to a ball player, who, eating it, is supposed to charm away
the disorder by his activity. He sets at defiance the spirits which
have crippled the patient. If her case is very severe she bathes her
limbs in sunflower oil and drinks it with the pudding.
False face pudding, Gago n 'sa odjis'kwa. 3 This was a cere-
monial pudding eaten at the False Face dances, at special private
lodge feasts or in the ceremonies of healing the sick. It was com-
posed of boiled parched corn meal mixed with maple sugar. Sun-
flower or bear oil was used with it in special cases. This pudding
is considered a most delicious food and believed to be a very power-
ful factor for pleasing the masks. No one must make a disrespect-
ful remark while eating this pudding as the mysterious faces were
thought to be able to punish the offender by distorting their faces,
and cases are cited to prove this assertion.
Unusual foods
Decayed corn, Utgi'onao*. A corn food of which the Iroquois
of today have no memory is described by Sagard who calls it bled-
puant. To prepare this viand the ear of corn before it was fully
mature was immersed in stagnant water and allowed to " ripen "
for two or three months at the end of which time it was taken out
and roasted or boiled with meat or fish. The odor of this putrid
corn was so frightful that the good father either through imagina-
tion or from good cause relates that it clung to him for a number
of days from simply touching it. Nevertheless he adds that the
Indians sucked it as if it were sugar cane. 4
It is safe to say that among the Iroquois no knowledge of this
food remains. An Iroquois whom the writer interrogated said that
l See Parker, A. C. Seneca Medicine Societies. Am. Anthropologist.
New ser. v. XI, no. 2.
2 Dehaji'gwa'es odjis'kwa is the Mohawk form.
3 Ago n 'hwarha odjis'kwa is the Mohawk name.
4 Sagard. Le Grand Voyage du Pays Des Hurons, p. 97; Tross ed. 1865,
p. 140; orig. ed. Paris 1632.
8O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
he could imagine that the Huron would eat such food but that he was
sure that Iroquois never used anything so questionable.
Another writer mentions a variety of bread mixed with tobacco
juice. He says: " When they were traveling or laying in wait for
their enemies they took with them a kind of bread made of Indian
corn and tobacco juice, which says Campanius was a very good
thing to allay hunger and quench thirst in case they have nothing
else at hand. 1
X USES OF THE CORN PLANT
1 The stalk. Stalk tubes, gushe"da' or deyus'wande', were
made for containing medicines. A section of the stalk was cut off
at a joint, the pith removed, plugs were inserted at each end and
the tube complete. Tubes were made from 2 to 8 inches long.
Syrup, oshesta', was extracted by boiling or evaporating the juice
of young and green cornstalks. The top of the corn above the corn
sheaths was cut, the stalk bruised and then thrown in a kettle and
boiled, the juice was then strained off and evaporated. A metal
polish, yesta'teda'kwa, was made from the pith. The outer cover-
ing was stripped from a dry stalk and the pith used for rubbing
copper and silver ornaments to a polish. Absorbent, ne"deskuk,
qualities of the dry pith were recognized and it was employed ac-
cordingly. A lotion, yago'gatha, of the juice of the green corn-
stalk and root was employed for cuts, bruises and sores. Fish line
floats, hetgesho n iodye', were made from sections of the dry stalk.
Cornstalk war clubs and spears, gadji'wa, were used by boys in sham
battles. Counter or jack straws, gasho'weda, were cut from the
tassel stems and used with bean counters in games. Children were
taught to count with these " straws."
2 Uses of corn husks. Single husks or strips pressed or folded
together and dried were used to convey lights short distances, much
as the rolled pa-per " larnn li^ht^rs " are used where matches are
scarce. The Ironuois indeed now use husks for lightingr lamns,
calling them yediistonda"kwa. A larger quantity of dried husks
was used in kindling- a fire. Husks are shredded and used for
pillow, cushion and mattress fillings, omon'nva'ga^o^sha'. For
maHng " brHe's bread" the corn ptirMino- or grated preen corn is
wrapped in t^e green husk and baked or ho^ed as the case m^v re-
quire. Another use for the simple husks is as the water sprinklers
1 Vincent. History of Delaware. Phil. 1870. p. 74-75.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
8l
used by the Otter company, Dowaando"', in their winter ceremony
[see fig. 17]. In this instance the husks are pulled back over the
stem and the cob broken midway as a handle. The sprinklers are
called dionego'gwuta'.
\
i'usk? were sometimes braided in long strands and used for
clothe,;? lines-, gao nV ga'; jn the houses. The loosely braided husks
82 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
from the strings of corn, oste n se n 'gas'ske n doni, were used by the
" buffalo head" (Hade'yeo 11 ) announcers of the midwinter thanks-
giving. A crown 15 arranged for the head and trailers tied to each
ankle. Braided in fine ropes, the husk was coiled up into the masks,
gatci'sha, used by the husk face (Gatci'sha'oano') company [see
pi. 23]. The braided coils are sewn with thread. An outer binding
is fastened to the face, from which long shreds of the husk hang to
represent hair [see pi. 23, fig. i].
Another variety of the husk mask is woven entirely and is not
sewed \see pi. 23, fig. 2]. These particular masks are used mostly
on the Allegany Reservation. Husk bottles, trays and baskets are
woven in the same manner as the woven mask as also are sandals
and moccasins although the latter are about obsolete now [see pi. 24] .
Another interesting article manufactured from corn husk is the
lounging mat, ono'nya' geska'a or yiondyade n kwa'. This is made
of short lengths of the husk neatly rolled and folded at the ends,
into which other lengths were inserted and tied in place by a warp
of basswood cord. A specimen of this mat is shown in plate 25.
It was collected by the author in 1907 on the Tonawanda-Seneca
Reservation. It was claimed that it was the old form of the Iro-
quois sleeping and lounging mat. It can easily be rolled up and is
of no great weight. The writer is not aware of another specimen
in any museum. No great age is ascribed to the State Museum
specimen, the owner, Lyman Johnson, Gaient'wake' , claiming it had
been made in about 1900 by his mother.
' Probably the corn husk article most familiar to white people sur-
rounding Indian reservations is the husk door mat, gadji'sha'. This
mat is braided in such a manner that tufts of the husk are left pro-
truding from the top of the braid. The braid then is coiled so as
to form an oval or round mat and the thick tufts of still husk
trimmed off evenly, and the flat braids sewed securely with threads
of husk. Mats of this kind are common on all the reservations.
The details of the foot mat are shown in plate 26.
Dolls, gaya"da', are made by folding the husk in a pestlelike
form for the neck and body. Room 'is left for the head and neck
and the central core is pierced to allow a wisp of husk to be pulled
through to be braided into arms. The lower portion is pierced in
the same way and the husk for the legs pulled through. Husks are
rolled around the upper portion of the neck and the head is formed,
CO
Plate 24
Seneca husk moccasins. Once common, these articles are now obsolete among
the Iroquois. Collected by A. C. Parker, 1910
Plate 25
Husk bed mat. A rare Seneca specimen.
A. C. Parker
Plate 26
Husk foot mat, Seneca specimen
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
Husks now are placed over the back of the neck and carried diag-
onally across the chest from either side. The same process is re-
peated from the front and the husk drawn diagonally across the
back. This produces body and shoulders. The legs are then
braided or neatly rolled into shape, wound spirally with twine and
tied tightly at the ankle. The foot
is then bent forward at right
angles to the leg and wound into
shape. The-arms undergo a simi-
lar process but no attempt is made
to simulate hands. The head and
body are now ready for covering.
For the head the wide husks are
held upward against the top of
the head and a string passed
around them. The husks are then
bent downward and the string
tightened. This leaves a little cir-
cular opening at the top of the
head. The head cover husks are .
drawn tightly over the form and
tied at the neck, which is after-
ward wound neatly with a smooth
husk. More diagonal pieces are
placed over the shoulders fore and
aft and drawn tightly down to the
waist. A wide band is then
drawn around the waist and tied.
The doll is now ready for corn
silk hair which may be sewn on,
and its face may be painted
on. These dolls are sometimes*
dressed in husk clothing but more"
often cloth or skin is used.
Dolls are dressed as warriors and
women and are given all the ac-
cessories, bows, tomahawks, baby-
boards or paddles, as the sex may require.
Among the articles made from husks, moccasins are perhaps as
uncommon as any. Morgan collected a pair for the State Museum
in 1851, but the specimens are not now to be found. In 1910
Fig. 1 8 Common type of the husk doll
made by the Iroquois of New York and
Janada. Figure is half size.
84 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
the writer succeeded in getting two pairs on the Cattaraugus Reser-
vation from a husk worker who spent some time in finding among
the old women one who remembered the art. She was successful
in her inquiries and was able to make
two pairs for the State Museum.
They are most ingeniously woven but
are as snug as any slipper ever made.
The details of these moccasins are
shown in plate 24.
Small baskets were woven from
twisted corn husks. Trays, table
mats and salt bottles were similarly
made. The basket was commenced
by tying two rolled husks together
with another single husk inserted,
and then starting two oppositely
placed husks about them by the twin-
ing process as the width of the warp
increased, as it radiated from the
center others were inserted and the
twining process repeated. When the
desired size of the bottom was reached
the warp was bent at right angle 1
some malady. .^Specimen is actual size upward and ^ tw j ning continued
until the hight wished had been achieved. The warp was then
bent over along the top and braided, in a three strand plait.
This stiffened and protected the top. Husk baskets are called
ononya' gaus'ha' (ihusk basket).
Husk bottles for containing salt or ashes or other substances are
called ono'nya' gus"heda' (husk bottle) or yedji'keda"kwa
(=salt dish, from ye, feminine affix, and odjike"da, salt, and
iakwa', meaning container, in compounding words). Salt bottles
were tightly woven and some are said to be water tight. The Iro-
quois prize them, believing that the husk absorbs the moisture be-
fore it reaches the salt which is thereby kept dry.
Husk trays are used for containing small objects or food n.nH are
designed to be kept on a flat surface only. They are called o'dior/h"'
iakwa' (= crumb dish).
Baby hammocks, ono'nya' gao n 'wo n ', or gao n 'yon, ( ono'nya'
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
Fig. 20 Corn husk basket. Collected by Lewis H. Morgan, 1850.
Specimen is 1 2 inches in diameter.
Fig 21 Corn husk salt basket and bottle, about f actual size. Collected
1908 by A. C. Parker. Seneca specimens
86 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
+ gao^'wo"' boat, or gao'^yon 1 = hanging boat). Hammocks
are woven like the sleeping mat but they are shaped so that they
will hang properly and hold a baby in safety. These hammocks are
suspended over the beds of the parents where they can be swung
and the babies easily cared for. Hammocks are now made by sus-
pending a blanket or a quilt in the same manner. These modern
contrivances are called iyos'gasha"' nia'do n gao^wo 11 ', blanket, it is
in.ade from boat, (a hammock).
Husk pudding wrappings are called deye"'hodye n 'yikta' (= a
wrapping). Husks were braided for ropes and clothes lines,
gao n "ga (=rope).
A woman unable to deliver the placenta is held over a pan in
which a couple of handfuls of husks are burning. The smoke rises
and exercises a medical function, it is thought, which facilitates the
delivery. This was widely practised by the Iroquois as late as 1875,
and now to some extent.
To stop " nose bleed " a small strand of husk is tied about the
little finger. A wad of husk or kernel of corn was placed under the
upper lip next to the gum and just over the middle incisors.
There are references to clothing of corn husk and Father Dablon
in 1656 wrote of the brother of his host who arrayed himself to
impersonate a satyr, " covering himself from head to foot with
husks of Indian corn."
3 Uses of corn silk. Corn silk (when on stalk = odiot' ;
off = oga") was used commonly for the hair of husk dolls. It
was rarely used for adulterating tobacco. Another use of the dried
corn silk was an adulterant for certain medicines. The dried silk
was pulverized and kept in cornstalk bottles.
4 Uses of corn cobs. Cobs (Ono"gwe n a 11 ) were used for smok-
ing meats and hides. A slow fire of cobs was built under the meat
and then smothered so that the cobs merely smoldered and smoked.
In smoking skins the skin was folded into a tentlike cone, suspended
from a limb or crane and smoked on the underside from a small pit
beneath, in which was a smoldering fire of cobs. The skin was then
reversed and smoked. Cobs were not the only substances used for
smoking.
1 Gani'yon = hanging, gao n 'wo n '= boat ; gao n yofi, hanging boat = ham-
mock. The earlier form is gao'wo n 'niyon, hanging boat. Cf. Awe n 'o n 'niyofi
= hanging flower; Awe n 'o n '= flower. Gano"djaniyofi hanging kettle,
gano"dj a = kettle + (ga)ni yon = hanging.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 87
Segments of cob are used for stoppers for husk salt bottles and
for the openings in gourd rattles. Cobs were and still are used for
hand and flesh scrubbing brushes, oyen'nyTta', and for pipe bowls.
Cobs were " singed " and used as combs, e n yeske n e n wai', with which
to clean pumpkin and squash seeds. Singed cobs were also used as
back scratchers, yiontge n "data'.
The ashes, o'ga n ', of the cob in quantities were used to make a
lye, o'ga n 'gi', that induced vomiting. In small quantities cob ashes
were usec^as a seasoning for food. "They killed stomach worms
and prevented dyspepsia."
5 Uses of the Caryopsis. Besides their use as food, corn ker-
nels were used as beads and decorations, as a medium for trade for
the oil, for rattlers in gourds, and for sacrificial purposes.
Fig. 22 Section of ceremonial cane showing the use of kernels of corn as a decorative motive
When used as decorations the various colored corns were soaked
in water until soft and then strung, sometimes with beads alternat-
ing upon thread. Such strands could be used as necklaces and the
writer has seen them strung as portieres. Oil, Ona'o" ono", was
extracted from the kernels and used for a rubbing oil and various
poultices, oye n 'saV were made of corn meal. There are a number
of references to the sacrifices to various spirits.
White Tuscarora corn kernels were parched on the stove and
pulverized on a hot stone. The powder, ona'o ot'on'yosha, was used
as a compress on the navel of a baby from whom the dried navel
chord (hoshet'dot, masc., goshet'dot, fern.) had just been removed.
It was thought to be a nonirritating absorbent and a valuable heal-
ing agent.
1 Iroquois use poultices of boiled maize flour and apply them hot to the
cheek. " I have found that this remedy has been very efficacious against
a swelling," says Kalm, " as it lessens the pain, abates the swelling, opens
a gathering if there be any, and procures a good discharge of pus." Kalm.
Travels in North America, p. 514; Pinkerton. Voyages, p. 13.
88 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
In notifying people of the death feast an ear 1 or kernel of corn
is given as a token. The person receiving it is bound to attend the
ceremony.
The pulp of crushed green corn has been used effectively by the
Iroquois as a substitute for deer's brains as a filler in tanning skins.
At the unveiling of the Mary Jemison monument in Letchworth Park
on September 19, 1910, a Seneca girl threw handful-s of Tuscarora
corn upon the grave and Mrs .Thomas Kennedy, a Seneca and de-
scendant of Mary Jemison, made a short address, saying that as the
corn which Mary had so often planted sprang into life again, so it
was hoped that her spirit would blossom in the heaven world.
6 Uses of corn leaves. Corn leaves, odio n 'sa', newly torn from
the stalk are used as wrappings for green corn tamales, or boiled
cakes, onia"tcida' ( folded braid of hair). The green corn cut
from the cob is thrown into a mortar and beaten into a paste and
wrapped in corn leaves which are doubled over and tied three times
laterally and once transversely.
In the Jesuit Relations of 1652-53, a Jesuit Father relates that his
finger, the end of which has been cut off, was wrapped in a corn
leaf to staunch the flow of blood. 2
1 Beauchamp. Am. Folk Lore Jour. 11:3.
2 Jesuit Relations. 40:153.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
Part 2
NOTES ON CERTAIN FOOD PLANTS USED BY
THE IROQUOIS
XI BEANS -AND BEAN FOODS
Beans next to corn were regarded as a favorite food and quanti-
ties are still eaten. The Iroquois have 10 or more varieties of beans
which they claim are ancient species which have long been culti-
vated. Some are said now to be cultivated only by the Iroquois.
The cornstalk bean, 1 oa"geka, is thought by the Seneca to be the
most ancient bean and perhaps the species which grew from the
Earth-Mother's grave.
The bean is an indigenous American plant, at least it grew here
in Precolumbian times. Explorers and early writers have left us
many references to it and most agree that it is an American plant.
Varieties of Iroquois beans
Beans, osai"daf
Bush beans dega'gaha'
Wampum o'tgo'a osai"da'
Purple kidney awe'ondago 11
White kidney o'sai'dagan
Marrowfat osai"dowanes
f otgo n 'wasaga n ofi
String 4 f...
^ odji'stanokwa
Cornstalk . oa <r geka
Cranberry hayuk'osai v dat
Chestnut lima onii'sta'
Hummingbird djutowendo n
White (small) osai"daga'n
Wild peas owendo'ge'a' osai v da'
Bean vines oo n 'sa'
Poles yoano'da'kwa*
Bean foods
Among the varieties of bean foods may be mentioned :
Bean soup, osai"da'gi'. This was made in several ways : from
string beans cooked in the pods, from shelled green beans and from
dried beans. Often sugar was put in as a seasoning.
N. Y. Hist. Soc. Proc. Ser. 2, 1:189.
90 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Fried cooked green beans (none v owi = it is done). The cooked
green beans were fried in sunflower or bear oil and eaten with
salt.
Mashed bean pudding (osai v da' odjiis'kwa). Dried beans
were put in a mortar and pounded coarsely, soaked in cold water
and boiled down to a pudding with bear meat or vension.
Boiled beans (osai"duk odjis'kwa). These were mashed and
mixed with sugar and grease.
Beans and squash " together " (Ganiu"suk osai'Ma' kho). Cook
cranberry beans with the pods and when beans are almost dry serve
in the shell of a boiled squash. This dish is served at the Green
Corn Thanksgiving ceremony and is called Onon'deikwawas, cooked
together food.
Beans with corn (Gai'nonda). Green shelled beans were
boiled with green sweet corn, meat or fat. The red beans were
preferred.
XII SQUASHES AND OTHER VINE VEGETABLES
The squash plant is indigenous to America and was cultivated to
a large extent by the Iroquois and other eastern stocks. The word
squash is derived from the Algonquin akuta squash or isquouter
squash (colonial spelling). Roger Williams 1 writing on the agri-
culture of the New England Indians says: "Askuta squash, their
vine apples, which the English from them call squashes, are about
the bigness of apples of several colours, a sweet light wholesome
refreshing."
Van Curler in the same year wrote in his journal: " We had .1
good many pumpkins cooked and baked that they called anansira."
This was in December which of course shows the use of squashes
in winter. Van Curler attests the hospitality of the Mohawk when
he writes : "A woman came to meet Ucs bringing us baked pumpkins
to eat." [See Am. Hist. Soc. Trans. 1895. p. 91-92]
The squash was one of the principal foods of the Iroquois who
even yet regard it as a favorite. The records of earjy travelers 2
abound in references to the uses of squashes and pumpkins. Some
of them praised " pompions " for their goodness while others
1 Williams. Key. 1643. p. 125. Narragansett Club Pub. Cf. Wood.
New England Prospect. 1634 : " In summer when their corn is spent Is-
quoter squashes is their best bread, a fruit like young Pompion."
2 Heckewelder, p. 194-95; Jesuit Relations, 10:103.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 91
affirmed that the " citrules " were hard tasteless things. Hunger
and mood largely govern descriptions of food.
Lahontan 1 records that the citruls (pumpkins) of this country are
sweet and of a different nature from those of Europe. ". . . and I
am informed," he writes, " that the American citruls will not grow
in Europe. They are as big as our Melons; and their Pulp is as
yellow as Saffron. Commonly they are bak'd in Ovens, but the
better way is to roast 'em under the Embers as the Savages do.
Their Taste i$ much the same with that of the marmalade of Apples,
only they are sweeter. One may eat as much of 'em as he pleases
without fearing disorder."
Charles Hawley in his Early Chapters of Cayuga History- quotes
Dr Shea's translation of de Casson's Histone dc Montreal which
gives the account of the journey of Trouve and the Catholic fathers
to Kente. A part of the narrative reads :
Having arrived at Kente we were regaled there as well as it was
possible by the Indians of the place. It is true that the feast con-
sisted only of some citrouilles (squashes) fricasseed with grease and
which we found good ; they are indeed excellent in this country and
can not enter into comparison with those of Europe. It may even be
said that it is wronging them to give them the name citrouilles. They
are of a very great variety of shapes and scarcely one has any re-
semblance to those in France. They are some so hard as to require
a hatchet if you wish to split them open before cooking. All have
different names.
A favorite way of preserving pumpkins and squashes for winter
use was to cut them into spirals 3 or thin sections and hang them
on the drying racks to evaporate. Sometimes even now this method
is used but the modern way among the Seneca and Onondaga at
least is to cut off thin sections and string the pieces on cord. A
string would hold about half a pumpkin or squash and be suspended
perpendicularly to pegs back of the stove or near the fireplace.
Varieties of squashes
The Iroquois generally planted their squashes in the same hills
\vith corn and some kinds of beans. Beside the land and labor saved
by this custom there was a belief that these three vegetables were
1 1:151.
2 Early Chapters of Cayuga History. Auburn 1879.
3 Cf. Adair, p. 408.
92 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
guarded by three inseparable spirit sisters and that the plants would
not thrive apart in consequence.
Crook neck squash onya'sa'
Hubbard squash odaint'dowane'
Scalloped squash onya'sao n 'we n
Winter squash gai'dowane'
Hard pumpkin nyo'sowane'
Squash foods
Baked squash (wandenyo n sonduk). Squashes were baked in
ashes and the whole squash eaten, the shell and seeds included.
Boiled squash (Ganyu"so). Squashes were split and cleaned
and boiled in water salted to taste.
Boiled squash flower (ojaint'duk). 1 The infertile flowers of
the squash were boiled with meat and the sauce used as a flavoring
for meats and vegetables.
Melons
Cucumber onios'kwae 1
Musk melons wa'yais
Water melons o nyut'sutgus
Other vine foods
" Husk tomatoes " dji'wewa'yas
Melons were planted in patches in the woods cleared by burning,
the leaf mold furnishing a good medium for growth. Those who
planted melons in cleared woodland tracts set up poles upon which
were painted the clan totems and the name signs of the owners.
The totem sign signified that while, according to the communistic
laws, the patch belonged, nominally, to the clan, and that any clans-
man might take the fruit if necessary, yet by virtue of the fact that
the garden was cleared, planted and cultivated by the individual
whose name was indicated, the individual claim and right should be
recognized as actually prior, though not nominally.
Before the frost the melon vines that still had unripe fruit were
often dug up without disturbing the roots, and replanted in a basket
of sand to be taken to the lodge and kept under the beds or in small
cellars. During the winter months, so several informants said, the
melons would mature and were reserved for the sick.
1 Bartram in his Observations, page 16, writes of " one kettle full of
young squashes and their flowers boiled in water and a little meal mixed."
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
93
Wild pea
Berry sprouts
Sumac sprouts
Wild asparagus
Sorrel
Yellowdock^
Mustard
Dandelion
Pokeberry plant-
Milkweed
Cowslips
Pigweed
Burdock
XIII LEAF AND STALK FOODS.*
Lathyrus maritimus awendo'ge'a osai"da'
wase''oik'da' (= new
sprouts)
Rhus glabra o'tgo"da'
Asparagus officinalis deo'dai'ho
O.valis (var. sp.) deyu"yu'djis (= sour)
Rumex crispus iye't (=she stands)
Brassica (var. sp.) djitgwa'a niayawe n o"da
(= yellow blossom)
Taraxacum officinale odjissho n da' (=yellow star)
Phytolacca dccandra o"shea one"'ta' (= crimson
leaves)
onaqs'ka"
gano n 'now's (=it wants)
gwis'gwis gane"das
Asclcpisa syriaca
Caltha palustris
Chenopodium
(var. sp.)
Arctium lappa
ono n dowa'nes (= big comb)
Berry and sumac sprouts newly grown and sorrel are eaten raw
and esteemed an excellent alterative. In the spring new stalks of
wild asparagus, peas, yellowdock, poke and milkweed are cooked as
greens. The plants must be young and tender and not more than
6 to, 10 inches high. All greens are supposed to be good for the
liver, for the blood and as a remedy for rheumatism. Young dande-
lions, cowslips and mustard were cut at the ground and boiled as
greens. Fat meat was generally cooked with greens.
XIV FUNGI AND LICHENS
Mushrooms
Puffballs
Lichens
one n 'sa'
one n 'sa'wa'ne'
gustaot one"ta'
Mushrooms, puff balls and other edible fungi were esteemed as
good materials for soup. The fungus is first peeled and then diced
and thrown in boiling water, seasoned with salt and grease. Some-
times bits of meat are added. The Iroquois like edible fungi quite
as well as meat.
! Adair, p. 415.
2 Ibid. 412.
94 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM.
Puffballs were peeled and sliced and mushrooms peeled and fried
entire in grease, sunflower or bear oil, though sometimes deer tallow
was used.
Rale 1 mentions the use of tree fungi and says that they were
"white as large mushrooms; these are cooked and reduced to a sort
of porridge, but it is very far from having the flavor of porridge."
Lichens have been eaten but rarely within the memory of my
oldest informants. Hunters when pressed by hunger, they remem-
bered, had sometimes scraped the lichens from a tree or rock and
boiled them with grease. In preparing them the lichens were first
washed in a mixture of camp ashes and water to remove the bitter-
ness. In times of great emergency, however, with hunger pressing,
the cook did not stop to soak the lichens but cooked them as they
were. The Jesuit Rale, in his letter to his brother mentions lichens
and calls them " rock tripe." 2 When cooked, he says, they made a
black and disagreeable porridge.
In Iceland for centuries lichens have been an important food and
other peoples have not despised them. The nutritive value lies in
the lichenin and starch which the plant contains.
XV FRUIT AND BERRYLIKE FOODS
The Iroquois considered fruits and berries a necessary part of
everyday diet. Long before the Revolutionary War they had, in
many places, extensive orchards of apples, peaches and plums. It
is probable that at that period they cultivated fruit trees to a greater
extent than any other native American people. The Iroquois loved
the apple above other fruits, a fact which several writers mention. 3
General Sullivan in his famous raid against the hostile Iroquois cut
down a single orchard of 1500 trees. 4
A list of the principal fruits used by the Iroquois follows :
, r ganyu"oya
Apple Pyrus (var. sp.) *****
^oya'odji'ya
Crab apples Pyrus coronaria djoik'dowa
Thorn apples Crataegus (var. sp.) awe'owek
1 Jesuit Relations, 67 1223.
2 Jesuit Relations, 67:223.
3 See Schoolcraft. Senate Document 24. Albany 1846. " The apple is
the Indian's banana."
4 History of New York during the Revolutionary War. New York 1879.
11:334. Life of Brant. Albany 1865. v. II, ch. I.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
95
Cherry, wild
Cherry, choke
Peach 1
Plum
Grapes
Pawpaw
Pear 1
Quince 1 ^
Mandrake
Primus (var. sp.)
Primus virginiana
Primus per sic o
Prunus americana
Vitis (var. sp.)
Asimina triloba
Pyms (var. sp.)
Cydonia vulgaris
Podophyllum
peltatitm
Terminology
Tree
Fruit skin
Fruit seeds or pits
Core
Stem (also tree trunk)
Cluster
oya'gane gowa
gane', or dyagyonya'-
tas
gai'dae' odji'ya'
ga'e'
oniung'wisa'
hadi'ot
odji'djo'gwa
odji'ju oya"dji
oda^onosha'
ge'it
oa'wista'
oska"e n
oa"da'
oonda'
wa'gwais'hiinion
Apples were generally eaten raw but they were often boiled entire
or cut up for sauce. The favorite way, however, was to bake them
in ashes. The camp fire was brushed aside and the apples laid on
a layer of hot gray ashes, covered with the same material, the hot
embers raked over these and the fire rebuilt. Baked apples are
called wada'gonduk and the boiled sauce ganyaoya' odji'skwa. The
latter was eaten with roasted meats or bread.
Apples were stored in bark barrels and buried in winter pits with
other vegetables. Apples were cut up in thin slices, strung on twine
and dried. Even now it is a common thing to see apples strung up
over the stove or hung on a pole at the top of the room in the houses
of the more primitive Iroquois.
Cherries were dried for winter use and pulverized in a mortar
and mixed with dried meat flour for soup.
Small fruits. Of the smaller fruits and berries the list which
follows includes those most commonly used :
Blackberries
Black raspberries
Red raspberries
Rubus (var. sp.)
R. occidentals
R. strigosus
otga'asha'
ton'daktho'
dagwa/'danne'
1 Postcolumbian.
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Blueberries
Huckleberries
Thimble
High cranberries
Nannyberries
Mulberries
Strawberries
Elderberries
Gooseberries
Dewberries
Wintergreen
Partridge vine
Squaw vine
Oneberry
June berries
Currants
Sumac berries
Bush
Berries
Blossoms
Briars
Green fruit
Seeds
Berry time
Berry picker
I pick berries
V actinium (var. sp.)
Gaylussacia baccata
Rubus odoratus
r (Vac. macrocarpon)
[ Viburnum opulus
V. lentago
Morus rubra
Fragaria virginiana
Sambucus cana dewsis
Ribes (var. sp.)
Rubus mliosus
Gaultheria procum-
bens
Mitch ella rep ens
Amelanchier oblong-
ifolia
A. canadensis
Ribes (var. sp.)
Rhus glabra
Terminology
getdatge'a
oyadji''
onao n sha"
ha''nonundjuk
ga'ne'sa/ wanunda
od j i < nowo n/ wadisiyas
cljo'yesshayes
cdjistondas'ha/
cmiot'sutgus
im n "gwuss6t
ogau'o^gwa'
djisda v gea'
oshaista"wayas
ha'do n
djoaga v wayas
o'tgo"da'
oi </ kta >
odji'ya'
awe'o"
oi"kdaii'
oga n/ s'a*
oska n/ a'
o'wai'yai'
ha'yagwus
ga'yagwiis
Berries when in season were eagerly gathered by the Iroquois and
even today berries have not lost favor with them. They were eaten
entire raw, crushed and mixed with sugar and water or mixed with
various puddings. Blackberries, strawberries, elderberries and huckle-
berries seem to be the favorite varieties. For winter's use black-
berries, black raspberries, huckleberries and blueberries are dried.
Strawberries were also dried but required a great deal of care.
These dried fruits were either soaked in sugared water and cooked
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE 97
as a sauce or thrown in soups, puddings and breads or other foods.
For making an expedition food berries were pounded with meat,
parched corn and sugar. This food was eaten sparingly and washed
down with quantities of water.
Dried blackberries are soaked in honey and water and used as a
ceremonial food by the Bear Society in their rites.
Dried, and in modern times, preserved strawberries are mixed
with water and maple sugar and used as a refreshment by the
Guardians of the Little Water Medicine 1 during their night song.
Strawberries are eagerly gathered in the spring and eaten by
every one as a spring medicine. Handsome Lake, the prophet, com-
mands their use for this purpose in his code, the Gai'wiiu. 2
Juneberries were considered as a valuable blood remedy, which
was given to mothers after childbirth to prevent afterpains and
hemorrhages. The smaller branches of the Juneberry bush were
broken up and steeped as a tea for the same purpose.
Cranberries were a favorite autumn food and were considered
" good " for the blood and liver. Huckleberries were also valued
for the same purpose.
Elderberries were eagerly gathered for sauce. They were con-
sidered a valuable remedial agent for fevered patients and con-
valescents.
Partridge berries were not generally eaten as food except perhaps
by women. They were supposed to prevent severe labor pains and
to facilitate easy delivery. There were other herbs also used for
this purpose.
The drying of berries and small fruits in the late summer and
autumn was and now to a certain extent is an important item in the
domestic economy of the Iroquois.
Blackberries, black raspberries, huckleberries, elderberries and blue-
berries are easily dried entire if care is taken not to allow them to
become damp during the process, which may spoil them. It is said
that blackberries were best when dried on the stalk. The stalk or
cluster stem was broken and allowed to hang on the bush where the?
sun could dry down the fruit with all its natural juices. The smaller
pulpy berries were dried in shallow basket trays [see pi. 30]. The
iuicv berries such as strawberries and red raspberries were mashed
1 Parker, A. C Secret Medicine Societies of the Seneca. Am. Anthro-
pologist. New ser. v. n, no. 2.
2 Translated by Parker & Bluesky. Manuscript in New York State
Library.
4
9 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
in a wooden bowl and with as much juice as the mass would hold
placed on basswood leaves on slabs of slate or other flat rocks. The
juice that remained in the bowl was given to the children who even
in those days loved to " lick out the bowl."
For winter's use the dried berries were soaked in cold water and
then heated slowly, maple sugar being thrown in as a seasoning. The;
berries were then either eaten as a sauce or mixed with bread meal
or onon'da', hominy.
The gathering of the autumn berries was regarded more of a
pastime than work. In fact, work with these people in many lines
was made easier by its social character, and seemed more like a game
where the thrill of it all kept the thought of fatigue away.
The work of berrying was left of course to the women and girls.
They would go in groups to the places where patches of the vines
and bushes grew and sing their folksongs as they gathered the fruit.
Every one laughed or sang and picked as fast as their two hands
could touch the berries. The picking baskets yiondasste"nondakwa'
held about 5 quarts. They were suspended from the back of the
neck and the chest, one fore, the other aft. The forward basket lay
against the abdomen so that it was within easy reach. This being
filled the berries were covered with sumac or basswood leaves held
in place by two sticks, slung to the rear, the rear basket brought
forward and filled. The two baskets were then carried to a larger
basket holding about i bushel. One large basket and the two pick-
ing baskets full of berries constituted a load for a woman to carry.
Huckleberries were raked from the bushes with the fingers.
Swamp huckleberries, bushes that grew along streams running
through marshes, were bent over into a canoe and stripped of their
berries which fell into large containing baskets. In picking mountain
huckleberries or those which grew in snake infested places the
moccasins were smeared with lard to frighten away the rattlers.
The snakes, scenting the hog fat, would think that pigs were scout-
ing for them.
This description of the berry-picking industry applies to a large
extent to the Iroquois of the present day, especially the Seneca along
the 'Cattaraugus, Allegany and Tonawanda.
The first fruit of the year is the wild strawberry and this the
Iroquois takes as a symbol of the Creator's renewed promise of
beneficence. Quantities are gathered and brought to the feast-
makers at the Long House for the Strawberry Thanksgiving. This
is an annual ceremony of importance though it lasts but a day.
Plate 30
Seneca evaporating tray and berry picker's basket. The evaporating tray
is used for green corn, pulpy fruits and berries. The tray is 40 inches in
length. E. R. Burmaster, collector, 1910
Plate 31
Cache of charred acorns excavated by Harrington and Parker, 1903
(Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology Expedition) on the Silver-
heels site, Brant township, Erie county, N. Y. I l , ,,.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE ()
The thrifty housewife examines the teeth of the June mullet
which her husband has caught in the creeks to see if the base of its
teeth is black. If so, it is an omen of a good blackberry year. A
legend states that frost will never come when blackberries are in
blossomVin berry. Ha'tho, the frost spirit, once entered the lodge of
O'swi'noda', the summer spirit, but a boy entering and seeing the
strange cold spirit in his father's house threw a pot of hot blackberry
sauce in the frost spirit's face to his intense discomfort. There-
after Ha v thp never ventured from his hiding place in the north from
the time blackberries blossom until the fruit is mature. Blackberry
juice makes a fine drink in the winter for it frightens away the
cold. " Do not even bears eat berries all summer and defy the
blasts of winter?" Blackberry roots are considered an effectual
astringent and the tender new shoots as a fine blood remedy.
Thimble berries were eaten in the late summer as a diuretic.
Dried for winter use they were valued for the same purpose. Sumac
bobs were boiled in winter for a drink.
XVI FOOD NUTS OF THE IROQUOIS
Xuts formed an important part of the Iroquois diet. Great
quantities were consumed during the nut season and quantities were
stored for winter use. The nut season to the Iroquois was one of
the happiest periods of the year 1 especially for the young people
to whom fell the work of gathering most of the nuts. The women,
however, often went in companies when serious business was meant,
for with the failure of other crops, nuts formed an important food
source. The nut season was called o'wadawisa'ho'".
The favorite food nuts of the Iroquois were hickory and chest-
nuts though other nuts were valued : A list of the principal nuts used
by the Iroquois follows :
Acorns Quercus (sp) ogowa"
Beechnuts Fagus grandifolia oska n 'a
Black walnuts Juglans nigra djonyot'gwak
Butternuts /. cinerea djonot'gwes
Chestnuts Castanea dcntata onye"sta
Hickory, bitter Carya cordiformis onio n gwadjiwage n
Hickory Carya ovata djistaga'o"
Hazel Cory! us americana oso'wisha'
i See Relation of 1670, ch. IX.
100
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Nut
Husk or shucks
Shells
I shuck them
Meats
Burs
I crack nuts
Pitted nut stone
Stone hammer
Entire outfit for cracking
Nut meal
Nut oil
Nut milk
It is cracked
Rancid meats
Good meats
*Ripe meats
Ripe (on tree)
Ripe (on ground)
It is not ripe
Nut time
Roasted chestnut
Boiled
Entire nut meat
I gather nuts
They are gathering
Terminology
onio"gwa'
goktdo"'tso n
oktda"
o'gekdo n tci'
onia"
osi'ga'
degadenut'dyak
dyiodeda'kwe 11
ye n ye n 'dakwa'
nuts ge'ondeniya"dakta'
omV'degai'to"'
onia"deyo n no n go
onia''ono n "gwa <
deganyo'Mya'go"
oniat'ga'
onye'iu'
onie"stai*
o'wadawis'a'
odawis'sa n o n
doodawis'sa'o 11
o'wadawis'aho n<
wade'nyistdondiik
ganie"stok
2 deyut'hage n/ o n
ogeniogwe'oek
hadinio'gwe'oek
Fresh nut meats were crushed in wooden bowls. The crushed
meats were then thrown into a kettle of boiling water and the oil
skimmed off. This oil was kept as a delicacy to be used with corn
bread and puddings. Hickory and butternut oil was regarded
especially palatable, the former being used for feeding infants.
After the -nut meats and oil were skimmed out the liquid was used
as a drink. The crushed meats were often mixed with corn pudding
or bread.
Chestnuts were boiled and the mealy interior used for puddings
or the dried meats were pounded into a flour and mixed with bread
rneal to give the bread flavor.
1 Means also boiled chestnut meats.
2 Means Spreads its legs.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE ^ ; J 'iof
Acorns were boiled in lye and roasted 1 much as corn was to re-
move the bitterness, and after several washings pounded up in a
mortar and mixed with meal or meat and made into soup or
pudding. Children even now commonly eat raw acorns but their
elders at present seldom use them for cooking. Their former em-
ployment remains only a memory.
The name hickory in its original uncorrupted form is derived
from the name given by the Virginia Indians to a food or flavoring
liquor prepared from a nut meat emulsion. John Smith in 1612
described this nut preparation as follows: "Then doe they dry
them againc upon a mat over a hurdle. After they put it into a
morter of weed and beat it very small : that done they mix it with
water that the shells may sink to the bottome. This water will be
coloured as milk; which they call Pawcohifcora and kccpe it for their
The original Lenape form of the word according to William
Gerard :i was patahikareo.
For cracking nuts cuplike depressions, the size of the nut were
picked into small boulders or slabs of shale. The nut was placed in
the depression and cracked or crushed with a suitable stone. These
'* nut stones " and hammers were used on the various reservations
up to within a few years and there are many Indians in New York
State who can remember having used them. These stones are to
be found today near large old nut trees and the writer in his child-
hood days often hunted about for them in his grandfather's back
fields and used them for the purpose previously mentioned. In the
Cattaraugus valley where black walnut trees once were plentiful
these nut stones are common. The Seneca call the pitted nut stone
dyiodeda'kwe". The hammer is called ye n ye n 'dnkwa' and the entire
nut cracking outfit deyondeniya^dakta'.
The Seneca say that in the early days dry butternut and hickory
meats were pulverized and mixed with dried bear or deer meat pul-
1 " . . . they search for even acorns, which they value as highly as
corn; after having dried these, they roast them in a kittle with ashes, in
order to take away their bitterness. As for me, I eat them dry, and they
take the place of bread." Rale. 1716-27. Jesuit Relations. 67 :2i5 ; cf. also
1610, p. 243; Lawson, p. 178.
2 Smith. Map of Virginia (1612) p. 12. Cf. Strachey. History of Travile
into Virginia (1616) ; Norwood Voyage to Virginia (1649), p. 37; Bev-
erly. History of Virginia (1705)- Bk 2, p. 16.
3 Am. Anthropologist, New ser. v. 9, no. I, Jan.-Mar. 1907. p. 92.
62 w '***&& YORK STATE MUSEUM
verized in a mortar. This powder was thrown in a quantity of
boiling water and used as a baby food.
The nursing bottle was a dried and greased bear-gut. The nipple
was a bird's quill around which was tied the gut to give proper size.
To clean these bottles they were untied at both ends, turned wrong
side out, rinsed in warm water, thrown into cold water, shaken and
hung in the smoke to dry.
Sunflower oil was used in quantities by the Iroquois, with whom
it was a favorite food oil. It was prepared by bruising the ripe
seed in a mortar, heating the mass for a half hour and then throw-
ing it into boiling water until most of the oil had been separated
from the pulp. The water was cooled and strained and then the oil
skimmed off.
The use of this oil is mentioned elsewhere in this work.
XVII SAP AND BARK FOODS
The maple tree was one of the trees venerated by the Iroquois.
It was in fact the goddess of trees and the only one to which a stated
ceremony was dedicated and to which offerings were made. Pine,
hemlock, elm and basswood of the forest trees were esteemed, but
the maple was a special gift of the Creator and every spring at the
foot of the largest maple tree in each village a ceremonial fire was
built and a prayer chanted by the Keeper of the Maple Thanksgiving
ceremony as he threw upon the embers pinches of sacred incense
tobacco. The maple tree started the year. Its returning and rising
sap to the Indian was the sign of the Creator's renewed covenant.
The Iroquois will ever remember the maple tree, but few now even
remember the tradition of how it was, during the maple sap season,
that the Laurentian Iroquois 1 struck their blow for freedom from
Adirondack domination and fled into northern and central New
York. 2
Trees were probably tapped in early times by sawing a slanting
gash into the trunk with a chert knife or saw. A flat stick was driven
1 The Mohawk, the Oneida and Onondaga.
2 One Mohawk tradition relates that the women flung hot maple sap into
the faces of the Algonquin chiefs and thus helped their people in the fight
for independence.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE
103
into the gash and the sap run down over it into bark tubs. For
boiling the sap the Iroquois had in early times only their clay vessels
but these were suitable receptacles though their capacity was small.
Fig. 23 Seneca sap basket or tub of elm bark, collected by L.'H. Morgan. Specimen
is 1 8 inches in length.
. '- :
Maple sap was drunk as it came from the tree 1 and, fermented,
was some times used as an intoxicant, the only record of such a thing
which the writer has been able to find as used anciently by the Iro-
quois. When fermentation went too far a vinegar was produced
which was highly esteemed. It was called wat'da dyono n ga'yotdjis.
The sugar syrup was sometimes poured into the empty shells of
quail and duck eggs and these sugar eggs were valued by travelers.
One of the best early descriptions of maple sugar making has been
left us by Lahontan whose description follows:
The maple-tree . . . yields a sap, which has a much pleasanter
Taste than the best Limonade or Cherry Water, and makes the whole-
somest Drink in the World. The Liquor is drawn by cutting the
Tree two Inches deep into the Wood, the cut being run sloping to
the Length of ten or twelve Inches. At the lower End of the Gash,
a knife is thrust into the Tree slopingly so the Water running along
the Cut or Gash, and falling upon the Knife that lies across the Chan-
nel, runs out upon the Knife, which has Vessels placed underneath
to receive it. Some Trees will yield five or six Bottles of this Water
1 Lahontan, 2:59.
IO4 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
a Day ; and some Inhabitants of Canada, might draw twenty Hogs-
heads of it in one day, if they would thus cut and notch all the
Mapples on their respective Plantations. The gas'h do's no harm to
the tree. Of this Sap they make Sugar and Syrup, which is so
valuable that there can't be a better Remedy for fortifying the
Stomach. 1
Bark was eaten by certain Indian tribes but seldom if ever by the
Iroquois. Their ancient enemies and captors, the Adirondacks, 2 (in
iSeneca, Hadi'ondas. in Mohawk, Adirhon'daks, meaning, tree caters]
ate bark in quantities. They were especially fond of the inside bark
of the top of the pine especially in the spring when it was full of
sweet sap.
The Iroquois in emergencies ate elm and basswood bark 3 and
perhaps other barks but it was never a general article of diet. Sassa-
fras bark and root as a carminative and aromatic was regarded with
favor, as were several other spicy barks.
Maple wat'da'
Sap owa n 'no n gi'
Sugar owa n/ no n
Syrup owa n 'no n gi'
Boiling sap goste"do n
Saptime o'ga'not
Sap runs o'ga'not
He taps ha'ge'o'la
Sap spout nio n 'geoda'kwa
XVIII FOOD ROOTS, Okdea
Root foods were not despised by the Iroquois but with few ex-
ceptions they were seldom u?ecl unless the scarcity of other foods
made it necessary. It is difficult at this time to enumerate all the
food roots used by the Iroquois since they have long since ceased to
use wild roots and tubers as food, preferring, of course, cultivated
1 Lahontan. New Voyages to America. Lond. 1/35! i 1249.
2 Tree Eaters, a people so called (living between 300 and 400 miles west
into the land) from their only Mihtuchquash, that is trees: They are Men-
eaters, they set no corne, but live on the bark of Chestnut and Walnut
and other fine trees : They dry and eat this bark with the fat of beasts,
and sometimes men . . ." Roger Williams. Key. Reprint R. I. Hist.
Soc. Col. Providence 1827. vol. I.
Rale mentions the use of green oak bark and " a kind of wood " which
he was compelled to eat for want of anything better while among the
Indians of the north St Lawrence valley. Jesuit Relations, 67:223.
3 See Swetland. Captivity,
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
105
varieties. Even wild onions and artichokes are now seldom used.
There is a dim recollection of food roots, however, and the writer
succeeded in getting the list which follows:
Artichokes
Ground nuts
Wild onions
Wild leek
Yellow pod lily
Cat-tail
Arrowhead
Indian turnip
Milkweed
Solomon's seal
Potato
Skunk cabbage
Helianthivs tuberosws
Apios tuberosa
Allium canadense
A. tricoccum
Nymphaea adi ena
Stir pus I'cilidits
Sagitiaria latifolia
Arisaema triphyllitin
Asclcpias syriaea
f Polygonatum biflorum
\ P. coiumctatum
Solatium tubcrosiim
Symplocarpws
focditns
otwe n 'a'
yoandjago"'
gahadago n ka (
o'no'sao 11
owa n 'osha'
ono n "gwe n da
oo n wa'ho'no n '
ga'osha'
ono'ska'
ga'ga'wiyas
(crow eats it)
onon'o n 'da'
niagwai^igas
( bear eats it)
ENGLISH
Root
I pull roots
Root gatherer
Root eater
Terminology
SEXECA
okde'n'
o'gik'teodagok
hakde'ogwas
'hakde'as
Artichokes were valued for their tasteful tubers which were edible
raw as well as cooked. The boiled artichokes formed a dish which
if properly seasoned with oil had some degree of palatability. Arti-
chokes as food was early noted by explorers 2 and later writers men-
tion their use. Charnplain is the first writer to note their cultiva-
tion. 3 The Iroquois so far as it has been possible for the writer to
11 Hak-de'-as, from //, masculine affix ; okcle'a', root; initial o changes
to broad a. terminal a' is elided ; ias or ias, in compounds mea % ning eater of,
loses initial i after e thus h-akde-as, he root eats.
2 On September 21, 1605, Champlain wrote of his explorations along the
Xe\v England coast, ". . . We saw . . . very good roots which the
savage cultivate, having a taste similar to that of chards." Elsewhere it
was stated that these roots were Jerusalem artichokes. The Rev. Edmund F.
Shatter commenting on this subject says that the Italians had procured
these tubers for cultivation before Champlain's time, calling them girasole,
corrupted and anglicized to Jerusalem.
3 Champlain. Voyages. 11:112 footnote. Prince Soc. Bost. Pub. 1878.
IC)6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
inquire, never cultivated the plant but it frequently grew in their
cornfields on flat lands along streams, and roots, raw or roasted, fur-
nished food for the camp dinners of husking parties. Some women
became especially fond of the tubers and were called otwae n yas,
artichoke eaters, a name which survives today among the Seneca.
Ground nuts, yoandjago n/ o n< , were used in considerable quantities
up to within the past 25 years. Their use early attracted the atten-
tion of explorers. 1 The ground nut was the favorite root food
of a captive tribe, according to a tradition, and became the totem
name of a clan. 2
The plant grows on the rich alluvial bottom lands and the tubers
which are strung along on the roots are easily dug and when boiled
or roasted furnish a food which can be made palatable.
Several early writers mention the ground nuts used by the Indians,
among them Peter Kalm, whose account follows:
Hopniss or hapniss was the Indian name of a wild plant which
they ate at that time. The Sweedes still call it by that name and it
grows in the meadows in good soil. The roots resemble potatoes, and
were boiled by the Indians, who eat them instead of bread. Some of
the Sweedes at that time likewise ate this root for want of bread.
Some of the English still eat them instead of potatoes. Mr Bartram
told me that the Indians who live further in the country not only
eat these roots which are equal in goodness to potatoes, but likewise
take the pease which lie in the pods of the plant, and prepare them
like common pease. 3
In the Paris Documents of 1666, is an account of the Iroquois
who are there said to be divided into nine tribes the sixth of which
was the Sconescheronon, or Potato People. A drawing is appended
showing a string of potatoes as the tribe's totem. There is now
only a dim recollection of this clan whose name and symbol was the
ground nut rather than the potato.
Indian turnips, 4 ga'osha, at first though, scarcely seem an invit-
ing food. The acrid repugnant taste of the fresh root leaves an
impression not soon forgotten. The juice is an actual poison if used
1 Ground nuts are probably what the French called " des chaplets, pource
qu'elle est destingue par noends en forme de graeaes." Jesuit Relations
1634. P- 36.
2 See Documentary History New York. I :io.
3 Kalm. Travels in North America. Lond. 1772. See Pinkerton. Voy-
ages. Lond. 1812. 13:533.
4 Synonyms : Jack-in-pulpit, wake-robin,
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE IO7
even in a small quantity and yet there seems to be good historical 1
evidence of the use of the root as food, not only by Indians but by
white men as well. Harris has made a special study of this root
.and embodied a most interesting account of it in the Proceedings of
the Rochester Academy, volume I.
To prepare the roots they were sliced and dried and pulverized.
Harris by inquiries among the old residents of the Genesee valley,
found that the pioneers of that region had used the powdered roots
of the A f*u m t r i p h y 1 1 u m as a substitute for flour and that
they had obtained the receipt from the Seneca. 2
\Yild onions and leeks though often eaten raw with meat were a
favorite substance for making soups. The onions were boiled and
seasoned with oil. The writer was unable to find that onions were
used as a flavoring for other soups or foods. The Iroquois seemed
to like their onions in an unadulterated form.
The Iroquois have about forgotten the ancient use of yellow pond
lily roots but a few old people were able to describe their use as
food. The tuberous roots were gathered in the fall by dreading them
out with the toes and then scooping them up. When it is realized
that the roots generally grew in 5 or 6 feet of water the difficulty
of procuring them may be realized. A few Indians filched them
from muskrat houses 3 but for superstitious reasons the practice never
became general. Water animals were considered powerful magic
agents and were thought to visit frightful vengeance when outraged.
They might be killed for their meat or pelts but never robbed of
their roots without special ceremonies.
1 " Cos-cus-haw groweth in very muddy pools and moist ground. The
juice is poison, and therefore heed must be taken before anything be made
therewithal; either the roots must first be sliced and dried and then being
pounded into a flour, will make good bread; or else while they are green
they are to be pared, cut in pieces and stamped [pounded] ; loaves of the
same to be laid near or over the fire until sour, and then being well pounded
again, bread or spoonmeat, very good in taste and very wholesome, may be
made thereof." Thomas Hariot, Virginia 1585.
"The chief food they have for food is called loc-ka-whough. It grows
in the marshes . . . and is much of the greatness and taste of potatoes
. . . Raw it is no better than poison, and being roasted, except it be
tender and the heat abated, mixed with sorrel or meal, it will prick and
torment the throat extremely; yet in summer they use this ordinarily for
bread." Smith. Virginia. 1606. See Harris. Root Foods. Rochester Acad.
Proc. i:ni et seq. Cf. also Carver's Travels; Kalm, see Pinkerton. Voy-
ages, 13:534.
2 Harris. Root Foods. Roch. Acad. Proc. Rochester, 1891. 1:113.
3 Harris, page 115, says it was the usual custom when hunting the little
animals (muskrats) to search their houses for roots. This was probably the
case only when the muskrats were killed.
IO8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
The roots of the yellow pond lily are porous and somewhat sweet
and glutinous. They were either boiled with meat or roasted. Early
explorers frequently mentioned the use of these roots and left in-
teresting descriptions. Few, however, agree as to their taste. Some
say that they tasted like the liver of a sheep, 1 others that they tasted
like licorice and still others possibly in the throes of starvation en-
thusiastically describe their fine flavor. Pond lily roots are one of
the most widely known food roots on the continent and were eaten
from eastern Canada to the Pacific coast.
The roots of the cat-tail were often used. Dried 2 and pulverized
the roots made a sweet white flour useful for bread or pudding.
Bruised and boiled fresh a syrupy gluten was obtained in which
corn meal pudding was mixed.
My Abenaki informants told me that the juice from the bruised
roots was eaten raw with bread within very recent years.
Arrowhead tubers 3 were esteemed as good if boiled. Sometimes
they were eaten raw but in this state the bitter milky juice made them
repugnant to any one but a starving person.
Kalm says that the Swedes of New Sweden called the root
Katniss after the Indian name and that the Indians boiled the root
or roasted it in ashes. 4
The potato is a native American plant 5 but it seemed to have
1 " The Indians eat the roots which are long aboiling. They taste like
the liver of a sheep. The moose deer feed much upon them; at which time
the Indians kill them when they have their heads under water." Josselyr.
New England Rarities Discovered. London 1672. p. 105-238. Reprint Am.
Antiq. Soc. Trans, v. IV. Bost. 1860. Cf. Pickering. Chronological His-
tory of Plants. Bost. 1879; Le Jeune. Relation 1633-34, p. 273.
2 See Palmer, E. U.-S. Dep't Agric. Rept. 1870. Washington 1871. p. 408.
*Ibid. p. 408.
4 Pinkerton. Voyages, 13 1533.
5 The potato was certainly indigenous. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his efforts
to colonization, had it brought from Virginia, under the original name of
openawg. But none of the North American tribes are known to have cul-
tivated it. They dug it up, , like other indigenous edible roots from the
forest. But it has long been introduced into their villages and spread over
the northern latitudes far beyond the present limit, of zea maize. Its culti-
vation is so easy and so similar to that of the favorite corn, and its yield
so great that it is remarkable it should not have received more general
attention from all the tribes. Schoolcraft. Census of the Iroquois. 1845.
p. 12-13. Senate Document 24, Albany 1846.
Hariot who came to Virginia with Raleigh in 1584 described potatoes as
Openawk, " a kind of root of round form, some of the bigness of walnuts."
In 1586 the openawk were carried back to England and later in 1597 were
figured by Gerard under the name of Potato of Virginia. Cf. Harris,
p. 109.
IROOUOIS USES OF MAI2E ICQ
been cultivated but little before the colonial period. After and dur-
ing that time however the Iroquois began to plant potatoes in increas-
ing quantities until now as a food they are consumed in greater
quantities than corn. To- give the Indian method of preparing po-
tatoes - for food now would be merely to repeat what every modern
cookbook gives. Their favorite recipes, however, were potato soup,
boiled and baked potatoes. Distinctive flavoring was given by mixing
in bear oil, sunflower oil and w r hite ashes. Potatoes were sometimes
dried and made into a flour:
The Seneca cultivated the potato long before the Revolutionary
War. To them it was known as onon'nonda' while groundnuts
were often called onon'nonda'oii'we 11 , original potatoes.
The root of Solomon's seal is said to have been used for food.
The mature roots were gathered in the fall, dried, pounded and
worked up into bread. Harris cites that a Seneca Indian in passing
through Highland Park, Rochester, called the attention of his white
companion John Nott to the plant saying it was once highly prized
for its root.
The roots of skunk cabbage Lyiuplocarpiis foetid us were also used
being dried and pulverized. Harris says it was sometimes roasted
or baked to extract its juice. The modern Seneca call it bear root.
The stalk of the milkweed rises -from a tuberous root of consider-
able size. Western Indians it is said boil these roots for food. One
writer 1 says that the Sioux gather the roots early in the morning
while the dew is on the plant and prepare a crude sugar from them,
lie also states that the young seed pods are eaten after boiling them
with buffalo meat and that the young stalks were used as white men
use asparagus.
"Wild rice was an important food of the Indians of the eastern
portion of the continent, especially along the great lakes and the
Mississippi valley. It was little used by the Iroquois however,
although there are records of its employment. The Seneca some 40
years ago gathered a great quantity of it but the writer does not
know of its use subsequently.
1 Palmer, Dr E. U. S. Agric. Com'n Rep't 1870, p. 405.
110 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
LIST OF AUTHORITIES QUOTED
State Library number at extreme right
Adair, James. History of the American Indians. London 1775.
970.1 qAd.i
American Anthropologist. Njew ser. Various issues; see citations
572 O 8
American Antiquarian Society. Proceedings 1895. Carr, Lucien. Food
of Certain American Indians and their Method of Preparation.
906 Am.3
American Historical Association. Transactions 1895. Wilson, Gen.
James Grant. Journal of Arent Van Curler.
Bailey, L. H. The Evolution of Our Native Fruits. New York 1898.
634 P 8a
Bartram, John. Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers,
Productions, Animals, in a Journey from Pennsylvania to Onondaga.
Reprinted, Geneva 1895. 91747 B 281
- Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians, 1789. Re-
printed in facsimile by the Am. Eth. Soc. 1909.
Beauchamp, W. M. Aboriginal Uses of Wood. N. Y. State Mus.
Bui. 89. Albany 1905.
- Corn Stories and Customs. Jour. Am. Folk Lore, 2:195.
- History of the New York Iroquois. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 78.
1905.
Beverly, Robert. The History of Virginia, Ed. 2. London 1772.
975.5 B 46
Boyle, David. Reports. Archeology of Ontario (Canada). Submitted
to Minister of Education.
Bozman, J. L. History of Maryland, from the First Settlement in 1633.
Baltimore 1837. 975-2 B 71
Bradford. History of Plymouth Plantation. Mass. Hist. Soc. Col.
Ser. 4, v. III. Boston 1856. 975-4 M38 v.33
Brown, P. A. History of Maize, v. 2. Farmer's Cabinet Albany 1838.
Brown, D. J. History of Corn. Am. Inst. Trans. 1846.
Burnaby, Rev. Andrew. Travels through the Middle Settlements in
North America. London 1798.
de Candolle, A. L. P. Origin of Cultivated Plants. Appleton's Inter-
nat. Sci. Ser. New York 1885. 581.6 0.5
Carr, Lucien. The Food of Certain American Indians and their Meth-
ods of Preparing It. Am. Antiq. Soc. Proc. 1895. New ser. v. 10, p. i.
906 Am. 3 17
- The Mounds of the Mississippi Valley Historically Considered;
Memoirs of the Kentucky Geological Survey, 1883. Also Smithsonian
Rep't 1891. 506 K7 a 46
Carder, Jacques. Bref Recit Voyages, 1535-36. Tross ed. Paris 1863.
973.18 C 24
Carver, Jonathan. Travels in the Interior Parts of North America.
Phila. 1792. 917-3 C 25
Caswell, Mrs H. S. Our Life Among the Iroquois. Boston 1892.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE III
Champlain, Samuel de. Voyages of Samuel de Champlain. Reprint
Prince Soc. Boston 1878. 917*1 C 351
Charlevolx, P. F. X. Hist, de la Nouvelle France. Paris 1774; trans,
by Dr John G. Shea. New York 1900. 971 qC 382
Golden, Cadwallader. History of the Five Indian Nations. London 1767.
Cullen, Charles. History of Mexico. London 1787 (Translated from
the Italian version by D. F. S. Clavigero). 972.01 qC 571
Creux. History of Canada.
Cyclopedia. Bailey's, Cyclopedia of American Agriculture.
De Laet, John. Description of New Netherlands. Col. N. Y. Hist.
Soc. New York 1841.
De Vries, David. Journal Notes of Several Voyages. Hoorn 1655,
Col. N. Y. Hist. Soc. 1841.
Gray, Asa. Manual of Botany. Ed. 6. New York 1889. 581.973 O 9
Greenhalgh. Documentary History of New York. v. i.
Hakluyt. Collection of Voyages. London 1810.
Harlot, Thomas. Brief and True Report of a New Found Land in
Virginia. Pinkerton's Voyages.
Harrington, M. R. Some Seneca Corn Foods and their Preparation.
Reprinted from Am. Anthropologist. New ser. v. 10, no. 4. Lancaster
1908
Some Unusual Iroquois Specimens. Am. Anthropologist. Let-
ters to author and manuscripts in N. Y. State Museum.
Harris, George H. Root Foods of the Seneca Indians. Reprinted from
the Rochester Acad. of Sci. Proc. 1801. v. I. 9/O.6 H 241
Heckewelder, John. History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian
Nations. Rev. ed. Hist. Soc. Pa. 1876. 974.8 P 383
Hennepin, Louis. A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America.
London 1698. Also edition of 1903 (Chicago). Edited by Reuben G.
Thwaites. 91 7- 3 H 396
American Folk Lore Journal, v. 18; W. M. Beauchamp. Corn Stories and
Customs. 398 J 82
Kalm, Peter. Travels into North America. London 1772. See Pinker-
ton's Voyages.
Lahontan, A. L. de L. New Voyages to North America. London
1735- 9I7.I L 131
Lafitau, Joseph F. Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains. Paris 1724.
970.1 qL 13
Lawson, John. History of Carolina. London 1714. 9*7- 56 L 44
Lescarbot. Marc. History of New France. Champlain Soc. Pub.
Toronto 1907.
Loskiel. Missions in America. London 1794*
Marchand, Henri. Translations of certain early French explorations:
Manuscripts in Archeology section archives, N. Y. State Museum.
Megapolensis, Johannes. Mohawk Indians, (Korte Ontwerp van de
Mahakanse Indianen of 1644). Antwerp 1651; J. B. Broadhead,
translator, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Trans. Ser. 2, 1852. v. 3, pt I.
Morgan, Louis H. Fabrics, Inventions, Implements and Utensils of the
Iroquois. 5th Annual Report of the New York State Cabinet (Mu-
seum) 1852.
1 12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
League of the Iroquois. Rochester 1851.
Report to the Regents of the University of the State of New York
on the Articles Furnished the Indian Collection. Univ. State of N. Y.
3d Annual Rep't 1850.
Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines. Washington
1881.
N. Y. Historical Society. Collections, Ser. 2, v. i, 2, 3. Proceedings.
1847, 1849.
N. Y. State Museum. Reports and bulletins, individually cited.
O'Callaghan, E. B. Documentary History of the State of New York.
Albany 1849.
Ontario Archeological Rep't. Report for 1898; by David Boyle.
Palmer, Edward. Food Products of the North American Indians. U. S.
Agric. Com'n Rep't 1870.
Parker, Arthur C. Erie Indian Village. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 117.
Albany 1907.
Secret Medicine Societies of the Seneca. Am. Anthropologist.
New Ser. v. u, no. 2.
Unpublished notes and manuscripts in N. Y. State Museum.
Pinkerton, John. Collection of Voyages and Travels. London 1812.
910.8 qP 65
Popular Science Monthly. What Is an Ear of Corn? Jan. 1906.
505 N 2
Prescott, William H. Conquest of Mexico. New York 1866.
Relations of the Jesuits. Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. Bur-
rowes Brothers ed. Edited by R. G. Thwaites. Cincinnati 1900.
9/i T 42
Ruttenber, E. N. History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River.
Albany 1872. 970.4 R 93
Sagard, Gabriel. Histoire du Canada, 1615. Tross ed. Paris i865.
971 Sa. i
Le grand Voyage Pays des Hurons. Tross ed. Paris 1865.
970.3 Sa I
Salisbury, J. H. History and Chemical Investigation of Maize or Indian
Corn. Reprinted from N. Y. State Agric. Soc. Trans. Albany 1849.
Sargent, Frederick L. Corn Plants, their Uses and Ways of Life.
Boston 1809. 638 P 9
Schoolcraft, Henry. Census of the Iroquois. N. Y. State Senate Docu-
ment 24. Albany 1846.
- History of the Indian Tribes of the United States. Philadelphia
1857.
Seaver, James E. Life of Mary Jemison. Ed. by W. P. Letchworth
Ed. 6. New York 1898.
Shea, John G. Charlevoix, History of New France. New York 1900.
Skinner, Alanson B. The Lenape Indians of Staten Island. Am. Mus.
Nat. Hist. Anthropological Papers, v. 3. New York 1909.
Letters to Author.
IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 113
Smith, Capt. John. General History of Virginia, New England and the
Summer Isles. See Pinkerton's Voyages, v. 13.
Speck, Frank G. Personal Notes and Letters to Author.
Stites, Sara Henry. Economics of the Iroquois. Bryn Mawr Col.
Monogr. v. I, no. 3. Bryn Mawr 1905. 97 0.3 St. 5
Stone, William L. Life of Joseph Brant, v. 2. New 1838. 970.2 B 731
Sturtevant, E. L. Varieties of Maize. Am. Nat. 1884. p. 532.
Sullivan, Gen. John. Journals of Sullivan's Campaign. Secretary of
State, Albany 1887.
Swetland, Luke. A Narrative of the Captivity of Luke Swetland, I77&-
1779 among the Seneca Indians. Waterville, N. Y. 1875. 970.3 Sw. 4
Thomas, Cyrus. Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology.
Bureau of Ethnology An. Rep't 1890. 572.97 qOi v. 12
Thwaites, R. G. Hennepin's A New Discovery ; ed. by R. G. Thwaites,
Chicago 1903. 917-3 H 396
Compilation of Jesuit Relations.
Trumbull, Benjamin. History of Connecticut. Hartford 1797, Re-
printed at New London 1898.
United States Dep't of Agriculture. Foods of the North American
Indians. Dep't Agric. An. Rep't, 1870. 630.6 KO v. 22
United States Bureau of Ethnology. Handbook of American Indians.
Bui. 30. 1907.
- Annual Reports, see citations.
Van der Donck. Xew Netherlands. Amsterdam 1616; N. Y. Hist. Soc.
Proc. Reprint Ser. 2. 1841. v. i.
Williams, Roger. Key into the Language of the Indians. Reprint, R. I.
Hist. Soc. Col. v. i. Providence 1827.
Willoughby, Charles. Virginia Indians of the i7th Century. Am.
Anthropologist. New ser. v. 9. Lancaster 1907.
Wilson, Gen. James Grant. Arent Van Curler and His Journals, 1634-35.
Reprint Am. Hist. Soc. An. Rep't. 1895.
INDEX
Abbreviations, 7.
Acorns, 99, .101.
Adair, James, cited, 23, 30, 31, 32, 47,
65, 66, 70, 75, 91, 93, 1 10.
Alphabet a'nd abbreviations, 6, 7.
American Anthropologist, cited, no.
American Antiquarian Society, cited,
no.
American Folk Lore Journal, cited,
in.
American Historical Association,
cited no.
Apples, 94, 95-
Arrowhead, 105, 108.
Artichokes, 105.
Ash sifter, 51.
Asparagus, wild, 93.
Bailey, L. H., cited, n, no, in.
Baked cob-corn in the husk, 68.
Baked green corn, 67.
Baked scraped corn, 68.
Ball players pudding, 79.
Bark bread bowl, 51-52.
Bark foods, 102-4.
Bark ladle, figure, 56.
Bartram, John, cited, 64, 65, 92, no.
Baskets, 58.
Beads, corn kernels used as, 87.
Beans and bean foods, 20, 37, 38,
89-90, 91-
Bear root, 109.
Bear's pudding, 78.
Beatly, Lieut. Erkuries, quoted, 42.
Beauchamp, W. M., cited, 36, 38,
88, no.
Beechnuts, 99.
Begnall, Capt. Richard, cited, 42.
Berries, list. 95-96.
Berry-picking industry, description,
98.
Berry sprouts, 93.
Berrylike foods, 94-99.
Beverly", Robert, cited, n, 26, 29, 41,
57, /i, 77, 78, 101, 1 10.
Black raspberries, 95, 97.
Black walnuts, 99.
Blackberries, 95, 97, 99.
Blue corn, 42.
Blueberries, 96, 97.
Boiled corn bread, 69.
Boiled green corn, 67-68.
Bossee, cited, 24.
Bowl, eating, 54.
Boyle, David, cited, 65, no.
Bozman, J. L., cited, no.
Bradford, cited, 14, no.
Brant, cited, 94.
Brass kettles, 46.
Bread, boiled, 69; figure, 70; leaf
bread, 66.
Bread bowl, 55; bark, 51-52;
wooden, 52.
Bread paddle, 52.
Brodhead, Daniel, quoted, 19.
Brown, D. J., cited, 9, no.
Brown, P. A., cited, 9, no.
Buffalo dance pudding, 78.
Burdock, 93.
Burnaby, Rev. Andrew, cited, no.
Burrowes, Maj. John, journal, 19.
Butternuts, 99, 101.
Camerarius, cited, 10.
Candolle, A. L. P. de, cited, 9, 10, no.
Carr, Lucien, cited, 5, 17, 21, 22, 68,
no.
Carrying basket, 58.
Cartier, Jacques, cited, 15, 34, 42, no.
Carver, Jonathan, cited, 68, 107, no.
Caryopsis, uses of, 87-88.
Caswell, Mrs H. S., cited, no.
Cat-tail, 105, 108.
Ceremonial allusions to corn, 36-40.
Ceremonial foods, 78-79.
Champlain, Samuel de, cited, 17, 24,
34, 2,6, 105, in.
115
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Charlevoix, P. F. X., cited, 18, in.
Cherries, 95.
Chestnuts, 99, 100.
Clark, J. H. V., cited, 27.
Clavigero, cited, u.
Clay vessels, 46.
Cobs, uses of, 86-87.
Coffee, parched corn coffee, 77.
Golden, Cadwallader, cited, in.
Columbus, mention of maize by, 12.
Communal customs, 29.
Converse, Mrs, cited, 39.
Cooking customs, 59-65.
Copper kettles, 46.
Corn, in using term, author refers
to maize, 13; early records of cul-
tivation among the Iroquois, 15-
20; destruction by European in-
vaders, 17-20; Iroquois customs,
21-36; land clearing and division
of labor, 21-24; preparation of the
soil and planting, 24-29 ; com-
munal customs, 29; harvest, 31;
storage, 34-36 ; ceremonial and
legendary allusions to, 36-40 ;
varieties of, used by Iroquois and
other eastern Indians, 41-43;
terminology, 44-45 ; utensils em-
ployed in the preparation of,
f-or food, 45-58; removing from
cob, 53-54; number of ways of
preparing, 65 ; foods prepared
from, 66-80. See also Maize.
Corn and pumpkin pudding, 75.
Corn cobs, uses of, 86.
Corn husks, uses of, 80.
Corn leaves, use of, 88.
Corn mortars, 45.
Corn pits, 35.
Corn plant, uses of, 80-88.
Corn pudding, 75-76.
Corn sieve, 58.
Corn silk, uses of, 86.
Corn soup liquor, 71.
Corncribs, 36.
Cowslips, 93.
Crab apples, 94.
Cracked undried corn, 69.
Cramoisy, Sebastian, cited, 46.
Cranberries, 96, 97.
Creux, cited, in.
Cucumber, 92.
Cullen, Charles, cited, 30, in.
Currants, 96.
Dandelion, 93.
Decayed corn, 79-80.
Decorations, corn kernels used as,
87. -
Deer jaw scraper, 53; figure, 53.
D'Herbelot, cited, 10.
DeLaet, John, cited, 16, in.
Denonville, quoted, 18.
Dent corn, 42.
DeVries, David, cited, 47, 66, in.
Dewberries, 96.
Dipping spoons, 53.
Dodens, cited, 10.
Dried corn soup, 74.
Dumont, cited, 65.
Dumplings, 73.
Dwight, cited, 21.
Early bread, 72.
Early corn pudding, 72.
Eating bowl, 54.
Eating customs, 59-65.
Edible fungi, 93.
Elderberries, 96, 97.
Enfield, Edward, -cited, n.
False face pudding, 79.
Feast -bowls, 54.
Fire making, 59-61.
Fiske, John, cited, 13.
Food nuts of the Iroquois, 99-102.
Food plants used by the Iroquois,
notes on, 89-109.
Food roots, -104-9.
Foods, prepared from corn, 65-So;
ceremonial, 78; unusual, 79-80.
Fried green corn, 68.
Fruit, 94-99.
Fungi, 93-94-
Genesee valley, depredations by
Gen. Sullivan, 20.
Gooseberries, 96.
Grapes, 95.
Gray, Asa, cited, 111.
INDEX TO IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE
Greenhalgh, cited, in.
Ground nuts, 105, 106.
Hakluyt, cited, 15, 24, in.
Handsome Lake, 27, 39, 97.
Hariot, Thomas, cited, 25. 41, 107,
108, in.
Harrington, M. R., cited, 35, 42, 46,
48, 54, 55, 61, 73, m.
Harris, George H., cited, 26, 41, 76,
107, 109^ in.
Harshburger, cited, 9, n, 12.
Harvest, 31.
Harvesting baskets, 58.
Hawley, Charles, cited, 91.
Hazel, 99-
Heckewelder, John, cited, 23, 61, 63,
65, 66, 75, 76, 77, 90, in.
Henriepin, Father Louis, cited, 24,
36, 45, in.
Hewett, cited, 38. . .
Hickory, 99, 101.
Hoe, blade, figure, 25.
Hoeing "bee," 31.
Hominy, 73 ; roasted corn hominy,
77-
Hominy sifter, 50.
Hospitality of Iroquois, 61-65.
Huckleberries, 96, 97, 98.
Hudson, Henry, cited, 15.
Hulled corn, 74.
Hulling basket, 49; figures, 49, 50.
Husk baskets, figures, 85.
Husk doll, figures, 83, 84.
Husk salt bottle, 57; figure, 57.
Husk tomatoes, 92.
Husking bee, 31.
Husking pin, figure, 33.
Husks, uses of, 80.
Indian corn, in using term, author
refers to maize, 13.
Indian turnip, 105, 106.
Jaw scraper, 53.
Jemison, Mary, cited, 23.
Jesuit Relations. 26, 32. 45, 46, 48,
65, 74, 88, 90, 94, 101, 104, 106, 112.
Johnson, Esquire, quoted, 36, 42.
Josselyn, cited, 108.
Juet, Robert, cited, 16.
June berries, 96, 97.
Kalm, Peter, cited, 21, 26, 27, 35, 87,
106, 107, 108, in.
Ketchum, cited, 21.
Kettle, large, 46.
Lafitau, Joseph F., cited, 24, 31, 34,
71, in.
Lahontan, A. -L. de L., cited, 18, 65,
91, 103, 104, in.
Land clearing, 21-24.
La Potherie, cited, 21, 22.
Lawson, John, cited, 13, 22, 23, 30,
45, 101, iii.
Leaf and stalk foods, 93.
Leaf bread tamales, 66^-67.
Leeks, 105, 107.
Legendary allusions to corn, 36-40.
Le Jeune, cited, 108.
Lescarbot, Marc, cited, in.
Lichens, 93-94.
Loskiel, cited, 24, 65, in.
Lundy, John P., cited, 9.
Lyon, Joseph-, 38.
Maize, cultivation by Iroquois, 5 ;
origin, 9-12; native American
'plant, 9; names applied to, 10; no
authentic reference in writings
prior to discovery of America, n ;
origin in Mexico, 12 ; proof of
cultivation in America before the
Columbian epoch, 12; derivation of
name, 12; mentioned by Colum-
bus, 12; first use of term, 12; im-
portance of in early English col-
onies, 13-15: cultivation by coastal
Indians of Virginia, 25. See. also
Corn.
Mandrake, 95.
Maple sugar making, 103.
Maple tree, venerated by the Iro-
quois, 102.
Marchand, Henri, cited, in.
Margry, cited, 29.
Mason, cited, 59.
Matthiole, cited, 10.
Meal sifter, 50; figure. 51.
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Mealing slabs, 49.
Meals of Iroquois, 61-65.
Megapolensis, Johannes, cited, ill.
Melons, 92.
Mexican grass, II.
Milkweed, 93, 105, 109.
Molinari, cited, 9.
Morgan, L. H., cited, 29, 34, 35, 39,
41, 42, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65,
72, in.
Mortar, stone, 48; figure, 48.
Mortar, wooden, 46.
Mourkoud, mentioned, 10.
Mullberries, 96.
Mullers, 49 ; figure, 48.
Mushrooms, 93.
Musk mellons, 92.
Mustard, 93.
Nannyberries, 96.
New York Historical Society, cited,
112.
New York State Museum, cited, 112.
Norwood, cited, 101.
Nursing bottle, 102.
Nut and corn pottage, 75.
Nut stones, 101.
Nuts of the Iroquois, 99-102.
Nuts, ground, 105, 106.
O'Callaghan, E. B., cited, 112.
Oneberry, 96.
Onions, 105, 107.
Ontario Archeological Rep't, cited,
112.
Paddle, narrow, 52; wide, 52.
Palmer, Edward, cited, 108, 109, 112.
Parched corn coffee, 77.
Parched corn sieve, 57-58.
Parker, Arthur C, cited, 25, 27, 54,
78, 79, 97, 112.
Partridge berries, 96, 97.
Pawpaw, 95.
Pea, wild, 93.
Peaches, 94, 95-
Pear, 95.
Pestle, 47, 48.
Pickering, cited, 108.
Pigweed, 93.
Pinkerton, John, cited, 12, 26, 36,
41, 76, 106, 107, 108, 112.
Planting baskets, 58.
Planting Thanksgiving, 27.
Plums, 94, 95.
Pokeberry plant, 93.
Pop corn pudding, 78.
Pop corn sieve, figure, 58.
Popular Science Monthly, cited, 112.
Potato, 37, 105, 1 06, 1 08.
Pottery, 46.
Prescott, William H., cited, 13, 112.
Pudding, 75.
Puffballs, 93-
Pump drill, 59; figure, 59.
Pumpkins, 20, 90, 91.
Purification ceremony of the Society
of Otters, figure, 81.
Purple corn, 42.
Quince, 95-
Rale, quoted, 94, 104.
Raleigh, cited, 54.
Raspberries, 95, 97-
Red raspberries, 95, 97.
Reullins, cited, 10.
Riant, cited, 9.
Rice, wild, 109.
Roasted corn, 78.
Roasted corn hominy, 77.
Robertson, cited, 65.
Root foods, 104.
Roxburgh, cited, 10.
Ruttenber, E. N., cited, 112.
Sagard, Gabriel, cited, 16, 21, 26, 34,
54, 66, 72, 74, 79, 112.
Salisbury, J. H., cited, II, 112.
Salt bottle, husk, 57; figure, 57.
Samp, 75.
Sap basket, figure, 103.
Sap foods, 102.
Sapaen, 74.
Sargent, Frederick L., cited, 112.
Schoolcraft, Henry, cited, 94, 108,
112.
Seaver, James E., cited, 23, 24, 30,
112.
Shafter, Rev. Edmund F., 105.
INDEX TO IROOUOIS USES OF MAIZE
119
Shea, John G., cited, 112.
Sifting baskets, 50.
Skinner, Alanson B., cited, 112.
Skunk cabbage, 105, 109.
Smith, Capt. John, cited, 15, 65, 101,
107, 112.
Solomon's seal, 105, 109.
Sorrel, 93.
Speck, Frank G., cited, 112.
Spoons, dipping, 53; wooden, 55;
figure, 5o, 56.
Squashes, 20, 37, 90-92.
Squaw, term not used by writer, 22.
Squaw vine, 96.
Stalk, uses, 80.
Stites, Sara Henry, cited, 30, 113.
Stone, William L., cited, 20, 113.
Stone mortar and pestle, 48.
Strachey, cited, 101.
Strawberries, 96, 97, 98.
Sturtevant, E. L., cited, 113.
Succotash, 68.
Sullivan, Maj. Gen. John, campaign
through the Iroquois country, 18;
mentioned, 94; cited, 113.
Sumac sprouts, 93.
Sunflower oil, 102.
Sweet corn, 42, 67.
S wetland, Luke, cited, 104, 113.
Tanner, cited, 22.
Teosinte, n.
Thimble berries, 96, 99.
Thomas, Cyrus, cited, 5, 13, "3-
Thorn apples, 94.
Thunder ceremony, 29.
Thwaites, R. G., cited, 113.
Tobacco plant, 37-
Tonwisas, 27.
Tonwisas Company, ceremonial
march, figure, 28.
Tragus, cited, 10.
Trumbull, Benjamin, cited, 14, I5>
113-
Turnip, Indian, 105, 106.
United States Bureau of Ethnology,
cited, 113.
United States Dep't of Agriculture,
cited, 113.
Van Curler, cited, 70, 90.
Van der Donck, cited, 9, 11, 21, 65,
74, 76, 113-
Verazzano, John de, cited, 12.
Vincent, cited, 66, 80.
Walnuts, 99.
Washing baskets, 50.
Watermelons, 92.
Wedding bread, 71.
Wild leeks, 105, 107.
Wild onions, 105, 107.
Wild rice, 109.
Williams, Roger, cited, 24, 30, 77,
90, 104, 113.
Willoughby, Charles, cited, 113.
Wilson, Gen. James Grant, cited, 36,
113-
Wilson, Dr Peter, quoted, 17-18.
Wintergreen, 96.
Women, field labor, 22-24.
Wooden bread bowl, 52.
Wooden mortar, 46.
W^ooden spoons, 55; figure, 55, 5^-
Wright, Rev. Asher, 44.
Wright, Mrs Asher. 37, 42.
Yellow pond lily, 105, 107, 108.
Yellowdock, 93.
New York State Education Department
New York State Museum
JOHN M. CLARKE, Director
PUBLICATIONS
Packages will be sent prepaid except when distance or weight renders the
same impracticable. On 10 or more copies of any one publication 20%
discount will be given. Editions printed are only large enough to meet
special claims and probable sales. When the sale copies are exhausted,
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hand booksellers, in order to limit their distribution to cases of special
need. Such prices are inclosed in [ ]. All publications are in paper covers,
unless binding is specified. Checks or money orders should be addressed
and payable to New York State Education Department.
Museum annual reports iS47~date. All in print to 1894, 500 a volume, 750 in
cloth; i&94-date, sold in sets only; 750 each for octavo volumes; price of
quarto volumes on application.
These reports are made up of the reports of the Director, Geologist, Paleontologist, Botanist
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Director's annual reports iQ04-date.
1904. I38p. 2oc. 1907. aiap. 63pl. SQC.
1905. leap. 23pl. 300. 1908. 234p. 3Qpl. map. 4oc.
1906. i86p. 4ipl. 35C. 1909. 23op. 4ipl. 2 maps, 4 charts, 450.
These reports cover the reports of the State Geologist and of the State Paleontologist.
Bound also with the museum reports cf which they form a part.
Geologist's annual reports i88i-date. Rep'ts i, 3-13. i7~date, Svo. 2,
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In 1898 the paleontologic work of the State was made distinct from the geologic and was
reported separately from 1899-1903. The two departments were reunited in 1904, and are
now reported in the Director's report.
The annual reports of the original Natural History Survey, 1837-41, are out of print.
Reports 1-4, 1881-84. were published only in separate form. Of the sth report 4 pages
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Paleontologist's annual reports i8qp-date
See first note under Geologist's annual reports.
Bound also with museum .reports of which they form a part. Reports for 1899 and 1900
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Entomologist's annual reports on the injurious and other insects of the
State of New York iSSz-date.
Reports 3-20 bound also with museum reports 40746. 48-58 of which they form a part
Since 1898 these reports have been issued as bulletins. Reports 3-4, 17 are out of print,
other reports with prices are:
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Reports 2, 8-12 may also be obtained bound in cloth at 250 each in addition to the piice
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Botanist's annual reports i867~date.
Bound also with museum reports 2i-date of which they form a part; the first Botanist's
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Separate reports for 1871-74, 1876, 1888-98 are out of print. Report for 1899 may be had
or 200; 1900 for $oc. Since 1901 these reports have been issued as bulletins.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Descriptions and illustrations of edible, poisonous and unwholesome fungi of New York
have also been published in volumes i and 3 of the 48th (1894) museum report and in volume
r of the 49th (1895), sist (1897), sid (1898). 54th (1900), ssth (1901), in volume 4 of the
S6th (1902), in volume 2 of the s?th (1903), in volume 4 of the $8th (1904), in volume 2
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The descriptions and illustrations of edible and unwholesome species contained in the 49th,
5ist and sad reports have been revised and rearranged, and, combined with others more
recently prepared, constitute Museum memoir 4.
Museum bulletins iSSy-date. 8vo. To advance subscribers, $2 a year or -$i
a year for dimsion (i) geology, economic geology, paleontology, mineralogy,
5oc each for divisions (2) general zoology, archeology and miscellaneous, (3)
botany, (4) entomology.
Bulletins are grouped in the list on the following pages according to divisions.
The divisions to which bulletins belong are as follows:
Zoology
a Botany
3 Economic Geology
4 Mineralogy
5 Entomology
7 Economic Geology
8 Botany
9 Zoology
10 Economic Geology
ii
12
13 Entomology
14 Geology
15 Economic Geology
1 6 Archeology
17 Economic Geology
1 8 Archeology
19 Geology
20 Entomology
21 Geology
22 Archeology
23 Entomology
24
25 Botany
26 Entomology
27
28 Botany
29 Zoology
30 Economic Geology
31 Entomology
32 Archeology
33 Zoology
34 Paleontology
35 Economic Geology
36 Entomology
38 Zoology
39 Paleontology
40 Zoology
41 Archeology
42 Paleontology
43 Zoology
44 Economic Geology
45 Paleontology
46 Entomology
47
48 Geology
49 Paleontology
50 Archeology
51 Zoology
52 Paleontology
53 Entomology
54 Botany
55 Archeology
56 Geology
57 Entomology
58 Mineralogy
59 Entomology
60 Zoology
6 1 Economic Geology
62 Miscellaneous
63 Paleontology .
64 Entomology
65 Paleontology
66 Miscellaneous
67 Botany
68 Entomology
69 Paleontology
70 Mineralogy
71 Zoology
72 Entomology
73 Archeology
74 Entomology
75 Botany
76 Entomology
77 Geology
78 Archeology
79 Entomology
80 Paleontology
81
82
83 Geology
84
85 Economic Geology
86 Entomology
$7 Archeology
i8 Zoology
89 Archeology
90 Paleontology
Q i Zoology
92 Paleontology
93 Economic Geology
94 Botany
95 Geology
96 "
97 Entomology
98 Mineralogy
99 Paleontology
100 Economic Geology
101 Paleontology
102 Economic Geology
103 Entomology
104
105 Botany
106 Geology
107 "
1 08 Archeology
109 Entomology
no
in Geology
112 Economic Geology
113 Archeology
114 Paleontology
115 Geology
116 Botany
117 Archeology
118 Paleontology
119 Economic Geology
120
121 Director's re port for 1907
122 Botany
123 Economic Geology
124 Entomology
125 Archeology
126 Geology
127
128 Paleontology
129 Entomology
130 Zoology
131 Botany
132 Economic Geology
133 Director's report for 1908
134 Entomology
135 Geology
136 Entomology
137 Geology
138 "
139 Bptany
140 Director s report tor 1909
141 Entomology
142 Economic geology
144 Archeology
Bulletins are also found with the annual reports of the museum as follows:
Bulletin
Repc
12-15
48, v
16, 17
So, v
18, 19
5i, v
20-25
52, v
26-3 i
53, v
33-34
54, v
35, 36
54, v
37-44
54, V
45-48
54, V
49-54
55, v
II
56, v
56, v
57
56, v
58
56, v
59. oo
56, v
61
56, v
62
56, v
63
56, v
64
56, v
65
56, v
66,67
56, v
68
56, v
Bulletin Report Bulletin Report
69
56. v.
97
58, v 5
70, 71
57, v.
, Pt i
98, 99
59, v
72
57, V
, Pt 2
ibo
59, v
73
57, V
IOI
59, V
74
57, v
, Pt 2
102
59, V
75
57, v
103-5
59, V
76
57, v
, Pt 2
136
59, v
77 .
57, v
, pt I
107
60, v
78
57, v
108
60, v
79
57, v
, Pt 2
109, 11060, v
80
57, v
, Pt I
III
60, V
81,82
58, v
112
60, v
83,84
58, v
H3
60, v
85
58, v
114
60, v
86
58, v
s
115
60, v
87-89
58, v
4
116
60, v
90
58, v
3
117
60, v
9i
58, v
4
118
60, v
92
58, v
3
119-21
61, v
93
58, v
2
122
61, v
94
58, v
4
123
61, v
95, 96
58, v
124
61, v
Bulletin Report
125 62, v. 3
126-28 62, v. i
129 62, V. 2
130 62, V. 3
I3I.T32 62, V. 2
133 62, V.
134
62, V. 2
Memoir
2 49,
3, 4 53,
S, 6 57,
7 57,
8, pt i 59,
8, pt 2 59,
9, pt i 60,
9, pt 2 62,
10 60,
11 61,
MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS
The figures at the beginning of each entry in the following list indicate its number as a
museum bulletin.
Geology. 14 Kemp, J. F. Geology of Moriah and Westport Townships,
Essex Co. N. Y., with notes on the iron mines. 38p. il. 7pl. 2 maps
Sept. 1895. Free.
19 Merrill, F. J. H. Guide to the Study of the Geological Collections of
the New York State Museum. i64p. uppl. map. Nov. 1898. Out of
print.
21 Kemp, J. F. Geology of the Lake Placid Region. 24p. i pi. map. Sept.
1898. Free.
48 Wood worth, J. B. Pleistocene Geology of Nassau County and Borough
of Queens. 58p. il. 8pl. map. Dec. 1901. 250.
56 Merrill, F. J. H. Description of the State Geologic Map of 1901. 42p.
2 maps, tab. Nov. 1902. Free
77 Gushing, H. P. Geology of the Vicinity of Little Falls, Herkimer Co.
98p. il. i5pl. 2 maps. Jan. 1905. 300
83 Woodworth, J. B. Pleistocene Geology of the Mooers Quadrangle. 62p.
2 5 pi. map. June 1905. 25c.
84 Ancient Water Levels of the Champlain and Hudson Valleys. ao6p.
il. upl. 1 8 maps. Julv 1905. 450.
95 Gushing, H. P. Geology of the Northern Adirondack Region. i88p.
i5pl. 3 maps. Sept. 1905. 300.
96 Ogilvie, I H. Geology of the Paradox Lake Quadrangle. 54p.il. lypl.
map. Dec. 1905. 300.
1 06 Fairchild, H. L. Glacial Waters. in the Erie Basin. 88p. i4pl. 9 maps.
Feb. 1907. Out of print.
107 Woodworth, J. B .; Hartnagel. C. A.; Whitlock, H. P.; Hudson, G. H.;
Clarke, J. M. : White, David & Berkey, C. P. Geological Papers. 388?.
54pl. map. May 1907. 9oc, cloth.
Contents: Woodworth, J. B. Postglacial Faults of Eastern New York.
Hartnagel, C. A. Stratigraphic Relations of the Oneida Conglomerate.
Upper Siluric and Lower Devonic Formations of the Skunnemunk Mountain Region.
Whitlock. H. P. Minerals from Lyon Mountain, Clinton Co.
Hudson, G. H. On Some Pelmatozoa from the Chazy Limestone of New York.
Clarke, J. M. Some New Devonic Fossils.
An Interesting Style of Sand-filled Vein.
Eurypterus Shales of the Shawangunk Mountains in Eastern New York.
White, David. A Remarkable Fossil Tree Trunk from the Middle Devonic of New York.
Berkey, C. P. Structural and Stratigraphic Features of the Basal Gneisses of the
Highlands.
iii Fairchild, H. L. Drum! ins of New York. 6op. 28pl. 19 maps. July
1907. Out of print.
115 Gushing, H. P. Geology of the Long Lake Quadrangle. 88p. 2opl.
map. Sept. 1907. Out of print.
126 Miller, W. J. Geology of the Remsen Quadrangle. 54p. il. upl. map.
Jan. 1909. 250.
127 Fairchild, H. L. Glacial Watersin Central New York. 64?. 2 7pl. 15 maps.
Mar. 1909. 4oc.
135 Miller, W. J. Geology of the Port Leyden Quadrangle, Lewis County,
N. Y. 62p. il. ii pi. map. Jan. 1910. 250.
137 Luther, D. D. Geology of the Auburn-Genoa Quadrangles. 36p. map.
Mar. 1910. 2oc.
138 Kemp, J. F. & Ruedemann, Rudolf. Geology of the Elizabethtown
and Port Henrv Quadrangles. iy6p. il. 20 pi. 3 maps. Apr. 1910. 400.
Berkey, C. P. Geologic Features and Problems of the Catskill Aqueduct.
In press.
Cushing, H. P.; Fairchild, H. L. ; Ruedemann, Rudolf & Smyth, C. H
Geology of the Thousand Island Region. In press.
Economic geology. 3 Smock. J. C. Building Stone in the State of New
York. i54p. Mar. 1888. Out of print.
7 First Report on the Iron Mines and Iron Ore Districts in the State
of New York. 78p. map. June 1889. Out of print.
10 Building Stone in New York. 2iop. map, tab. Sept. 1890. 400.
11 Merrill, F. J. H. Salt and Gypsum Industries of New York. 94p. i2pl
2 maps, ii tab. Apr. 1893. [SQC]
12 Ries, Heinrich. Clay Industries of New York. i74p. ipl. il. map.
189$.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
15 Merrill, F. J. H. Mineral Resources of New York. 24op. 2 maps
Sept. 1895. [$oc]
17 Road Materials and Road Building in New York. 52p. i4pl. 2 maps.
Oct. 1897. i$c.
30 Orton, Edward. Petroleum and Natural Gas in New York. i36p. il.
3 maps. Nov. 1899. i5c.
35 Ries, Heinrich. Clays of New York; their Properties" and Uses. 456p.
t4opl. map. June 1900. Out of print.
44 Lime and Cement Industries ot New York; Eckel, E. C. Chapters
on the Cement Industry. 332p. loipl. 2 maps. Dec. 1901. 850, cloth.
61 Dickinson, H. T. Quarries of Bluestone and other Sandstones in New
York, ii 4p. i8pl. 2 maps. Mar. 1903. 350.
85 Rafter, G. W. Hydrology of New York State. 902p. il. 44pl. 5 maps.
May 1905. $1.50, cloth.
93 Newland, D. H. Mining and Quarry Industry of New York. y8p.
July 1905. 250.
100 McCourt, W. E. Fire Tests of Some New York Building Stones. 4op.
26pl. Feb 1906. i5c.
102 Newland, D. H. Mining and Quarry Industry of New York 1905.
i62p. June 1906. 250.
112 Mining and Quarry Industry of New York 1906. 82p. July
1907. Out of print.
119 - - & Kemp, J. F. Geology of the Adirondack Magnetic Iron Ores
with a Report on the Mineville-Port Henry Mine Group i84p. i4pl.
8 maps. Apr. 1908. 350.
120 Newland, D. H. M'ning and Quarry Industry of New York 1907. 82p
July 1908. Out of print.
123 & Hartnagel, C. A. Iron Ores of the Clinton Formation in New
York State. 7<3p. il. 14 pi. 3 maps. Nov. 1908. 2$c.
132 Newland, D. H. Mining and Quarry Industry of New York 1908. 98p.
July 1909. 150.
142 Mining and Quarry Industry of New York for 1909. 98p. August
1910. 150.
143 Gypsum Deposits of New York. 94p. 2opl. 4 maps. Oct. 1910. 35C.
Mineralogy. 4 Nason, F. L. Some New York Minerals and their Localities
22p. ipl. Aug. 1888. Free.
58 Whitlock H. P. Guide to the Mineralogic Collections of the New York
State Museum, isop. il. 39pl. n models Sept. 1902. 400.
70 New York Mineral Localities, nop. Oct. 1903. 200.
98 Contributions from the Mineralogic Laboratory. 38p. 7pl. Dec.
190}. Out of print.
Paleontology. 34 Cumings, E. R. Lower Silurian System of Eastern Mont-
gomery County; Prosser, C. S. Notes on the Stratigraphy of Mohawk
Valley and Saratoga County, N. Y . 74p. i4pl. map. May 1900. isc.
39 Clarke, J. M. ; Simpson, G. B. & Loomis, F. B. Palecntologic Papers i.
72p. il. i6pl. Oct. 1900. 150.
Contents: Clarke, J. M. A Remarkable Occurrence of Orthoceras in the Oneonta Beds of
the Chenango Valley, N. Y.
Paropsonema cryptophya: a Peculiar Echinoderm Lorn the Intumescens-zone
(Portage Beds) of Western New York.
Dictvonine Hexactinellid Sponges from the Upper Devonic of New York.
The Water Biscuit of Squaw Island, Canandaigua Lake, N. Y.
Simpson, G. B. Preliminary Descriptions of New Genera of Paleozoic Rugose Corals.
Loomis, F. B. Siluric Fungi from Western New York.
42 Ruedemann, Rudolf. Hudson River Beds near Albany and their Taxo-
nomic Equivalents. n6p. 2pl. map. Apr. 1901. 25c.
45 Grabau. A. W. Geology and Paleontology of Niagara Falls and Vicinity.
a86p. il. i8pl. map. Apr. 1901. 6sc; cloth, 900.
49 Ruedemann, Rudolf; Clarke. J. M. & Wood. Elvira. Paleontologic
Papers a. 24op. i3pl. Dec. 1901. Out of print.
Contents: Ruedemann, Rvdolf. Trenton Conglomerate of Rysedorph Hill.
C 1 arke, J. M. Limestones of Central and Western New York Interbedded with Bitumi-
nous Shales o' the Marcellus Stage.
Wood, Elvira. Marcellus Limestones of Lancaster, Erie Co., N. Y.
Clarke, T. M. New Agelacrinites.
Value of Amnigenia as an Indicator of Fresh- water Deposits during the Devonic c f
New York, Ireland and the Rhinelapd.
MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS
52 Clarke, J. M. Report of the State Paleontologist 1901. 28op. il. icpl.
map, r tab. July 1902. 400.
63 & Luther, D. D. Stratigraphy of Canandaigua and Naples Quad-
rangles ?8p. map June 1904. 250
65 Clarke, J. M. Catalogue of Type Specimens of Paleozoic Fossils in the
New York State Museum. 848p. May 1903. $1.20, cloth.
69 Report of the State Paleontologist 1902. 464p. 52pl. 7 maps. Nov.
1903. Si, cloth.
80 Report of the State Paleontologist 1903. 396p. 29pl. 2 maps.
Feb. 1905. 850, cloth.
8 1 & Luther, D. D. Watkins and Elmira Quadrangles. 32p. map.
Mar. 1905. 250.
82 Geologic Map of the Tullv Quadrangle. 4op. map. Apr. 1005. 200.
90 Ruedeifrann, Rudolf. Cephalopoda of Beekmantown and Chazy For-
mations of Champlain Basin. 224p. il. 38pl. May 1906. 750, cloth.
92 Grabau, A. W Guide to the Geology and Paleontology of the Schoharie
Region. 314?. il. 26pl. map. Apr. 1906. 750, cloth.
99 Luther, D. D. Geology of the Buffalo Quadrangle. 32p. map. May
1906. 2oc.
101 Geology of the Penn Yan-Hammondsport Quadrangles. 28p.
map. July 1906. 250.
114 Hartnagel, C. A. Geologic Map of the Rochester and Ontario Beach
Quadrangles. 36p. map. Aug. 1907. 2oc.
118 Clarke, J. M. & Luther, D. D. Geologic Maps and Descriptions of the
Portage and Nunda Quadrangles including a map of Letchworth Park.
Sop. i6pl. 4 maps. Jan. 1908. 350.
128 Luther, D. D. Geology of the Geneva-Ovid Quadrangles. 44p. map.
Apr. 1909. 2oc.
Geology of the Phelps Quadrangle. In preparation.
Whitnall, H. O. Geology of the Morrisville Quadrangle. Prepared. m
Hopkins, T. C. Geology of the Syracuse Quadrangle. Prepared.
Hudson, G. H. Geology of Valcour Island. In preparation.
Zoology, i Marshall, W. B. Preliminary List of New York Unionidae.
2op. Mar. 1892. Free.
9 Beaks of Unionidae Inhabiting the Vicinity of Albany, N. Y. 30?.
ipl. Aug. 1890. Free.
29 Miller, G. S. jr. Preliminary List of New York Mammals. i24p.
Oct. 1899. i5c.
33 Fair, M. S. Check List of New York Birds. 224p. Apr. 1900. 250.
38 Miller G. S. jr. Key to the Land Mammals of Northeastern North
America. io6p. Oct. 1900. 150.
40 Simpson, G. B. Anatomy and Physiology of Polygyra albolabris and
Limax maximus and Embryology of Limax maximus. 82p. a8pl. Oct.
1901. 250.
43 Kellogg, J. L. Clam and Scallop Industries of New York. 36p. apl.
map. Apr. 1901. Free.
51 Eckel. E. C. & Paulmier, F. C. Catalogue of Reptiles and Batrachians
of New York. 64p. il. ipl. Apr. 1902. Out of print.
Eckel, E. C. Serpents of Northeastern United States.
Paulmier. F. C. Lizards. Tortoises and Batrachians of New York.
60 Bean, T. H. Catalogue of the Fishes of New York. 784?. Feb. 1903.
Si. cloth.
71 Kellogg J. L. Feeding Habits and Growth of Venus mercenaria. 3op.
4 pi. Sept. 1903. Free.
88 Letson, Elizabeth J. Check List of the Mollusca of New York. n6p
May 1905. 2oc.
91 Paulmier, F. C. Higher Crustacea of New York City. 78p. il. June
I90;. 20C.
130 Shnfeldt, R. W. Osteology of Bird?. 3&2p. il. 26pL May 1909. 500.
Entomology. 5 Lintner, J. A. White Grub of the May Beetle. 34?. il.
Nov. 1888. Free.
6 Cut- worms. ;?8p. il. Nov. 1888. Free.
13 San Jose* Scale and Some Destructive Insects of New York State.
54p. ypl. Apr. 1095. 150.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
20 Felt, E. P. Elm-leaf Beetle in New York State. 46?. il. Spl. June
1898. Free.
S" 57.
23 - 1 4th Report of the State Entomologist 1898. isop. il. ypl. Dec.
1898. 20C.
24 - Memorial of the Life and Entomologic Work of J. A. Lintner Ph.D.
State Entomologist 1874-98; Index to Entomologist's Reports 1-13.
3i6p. ipl. Oct. 1899. 3sc.
Suoolement to i4th report of the State Entomologist.
26 - Collection, Preservation and Distribution of New York Insects.
36p. il. Apr. 1899. Free.
27 - Shade Tree Pests in New York State. 26p. il. spl. May 1899.
Free.
31 - 1 5th Report of the State Entomologist 1899. i28p. June 1900.
i$c.
36 - 1 6th Report of the State Entomologist 1900. n8p. i6pl. Mar.
1901. 250.
37 - Catalogue of Some of the More Important Injurious and Beneficial
Insects of New York State. 54p. il. Sept. 1900. Free.
46 - - Scale Insects of Importance and a List of the Species in New
York State. 940. il. ispl. June 1901. 250.
47 Needham, J. G. & Betten, Cornelius. Aquatic Insects in the Adiron-
dacks. 234p. il. 36pl. Sept. 1901. 450.
53 Felt, E. P. 1 7th Report of the State Entomologist 1901. 232p. il. 6pl.
Aug. 1902. Out of print.
57 - Elm Leaf Beetle in New York State. 46p. il. Spl. Aug. 1902.
Out jf print.
This is a revision of 20 containing the more essential facts observed since that was pre-
pared. .
59 - Grapevine Root Worm. 4op. 6pl. Dec. 1902. 150.
See 72.
64 - i8th Report of the State Entomologist 1902. nop. t 6pl. May
1903. 2OC.
68 Needham, J. G. & others. Aquatic Insects in New York. 322p. S2pl.
Aug. 1903. 8oc, cloth.
72 Felt, E. P. Grapevine Root Worm. s8p. i3pl. Nov. 1903. 200.
This is a revision of 59 containing the more essential facts observed since that was
prepared.
74 - & Joutel, L. H. Monograph of the Genus Saperda. 88p. i4pl.
June 1904. 250.
76 Felt, E. P. 1 9th Report of the State Entomologist 1903. isop. 4pl.
1904. 150.
7 9 - Mosquitos or Culicidae of New York. i64p. il. S7pl. tab. Oct
1904. 4oc.
86 Needham, J. G. & others. May Flies and Midges of New York. 3S2p.
il. 37pl. June 1905. 8oc, cloth.
97 Felt, E. P. 2oth Report of the State Entomologist 1904. 246?. il. i9pl.
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103 - Gipsy and Brown Tail Moths. 44p. lopl. July 1906. 150.
104 - 2 1 st Report of the State Entomologist 1905. i44p. lopl. Aug.
1906. 250.
109 -- Tussock Moth and Elm Leaf Beetle. 34p. Spl. Mar. 1907. 2oc.
no - 22d Report of the State Entomologist 1906. i52p. 3pl, June
1907. 250.
124 - 23d Report of the State Entomologist 1907. S42p. 44pl. il.
Oct. 1908. 75C.
129 - Control of Household Insects. 48p. il. May 1909. Out of print.
134 - 24th Report of the State Entomologist 1908. 2o8p. i7pl. it Sept.
9- 35C.
136 - Control of Flies and Other Household Insects, s6p.il. Feb. 1910.
159.
This is a revision of 129 containing the more essential facts observed since that waf
prepared.
MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS
141 25th Report of the State Entomologist 1909. 178?. aapl. il. July
1910. 350.
Needham, J. G. Monograph on Stone Flies. In preparation.
Botany. 2 Peck, C. H. Contributions to the Botany of the State of New
York. 72p. 2pl. May 1887. Out of print.
8 Boleti of the United States. gSp. Sept. 1889. Out of print.
25 Report of the State Botanist 1898. 76p. 5pl. Oct. 1899. Out of
print.
28 Plants of North Elba. 2o6p. map. June 1899. 200.
54 Report of the State Botanist 1901. sSp. 7pl. Nov. 1902. 400.
67 Report of the State Botanist 1902. i96p. spl. May 1903. soc.
75 Report of the State Botanist 1903. 7op. 4pl. 1904. 400.
94 Report of the State Botanist 1904. 6op. lopl. July 1905. 400.
105 Report of the State Botanist 1905. io8p. i2pl. Aug. 1906. soc.
116 Report of the State Botanist 1906. i2op. 6pl. July 1907. 350.
122 Report of the State Botanist 1907. 178?. 5pl. Aug. 1908. 400.
131 Report of the State Botanist 1908. 2o2p. ~4pl. July 1909. 4oc.
139 Report of the State Botanist 1909. n6p. icpl. May 1910. 450.
Archeology. 16 Beaucbamp, W. M. Aboriginal Chipped Stone Imple-
ments of New York. 86p. 2 3 pi. Oct. 1897. 250.
1 8 Polished Stone Articles used by the New York Aborigines. i04p.
3Spl. Nov. 1897. 250.
22 Earthenware of the New York Aborigines. 78p. 33pl. Oct.
1898. 250.
32 Aboriginal Occupation of New York. i9op. i6pl. 2 maps Mar.
1900. 300.
41 Wampum and Shell Articles used by New York Indians.
i66p. 28pl. Mar. 1901. 300.
50 Horn and Bone Implements of the New York Indians. ii2p. 43pl.
Mar. 1902. 3oc.
55 Metallic Implements of the New York Indians. 94 p. 3 Spl.
June 1902. 25c.
73 Metallic Ornaments of the New York Indians. i22p. 37pl. Dec.
1903. 3oc.
78 History of the New York Iroquois. 34op. lypl. map. Feb. 1905.
75C, cloth.
87 Perch Lake Mounds. 84p. i2pl. Apr. 1905. Out of print.
89 Aboriginal Use of Wood in New York. i9op. 3 Spl. June
1905- 35c.
108 Aboriginal Place Names of New York. 336p. May 1907. 400.
113 Civil, Religious and Mourning Councils and Ceremonies of Adop-
tion. n8p. 7pl. June 1907. 250.
117 Parker, A. C. An Erie Indian Village and Burial Site. io?p.
3 Spl. Dec. 1907. 3oc.
125 Converse, H. M. & Parker, A. C. Iroquois Myths and Legends. i96p.
il. upl. Dec. 1908. SQC.
144 Parker, A. C. Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Food Plants. i2op.
3 1 pi. il. Nov. 1910. 300.
Miscellaneous. Ms i (62) Merrill, F. J. H. Directory of Natural History
Museums in United States and Canada. 236p. Apr. 1903. 300.
66 Ellis, Mary. Index to Publications of the New York State Nat-
ural History Survey and New York State Museum 1837-1902. 4i8p.
June 1903. 750, cloth.
Museum memoirs i889-date. Q.
i Beecher, C. E. & Clarke, J. M. Development of Some Silurian Brachi-
opoda. 96p. Spl. Oct. 1889. $i.
9 Hall, James & Clarke J. M. Paleozoic Reticulate Sponges. 3 sop. il. 7opl.
1898. $2, cloth.
3 Clarke, J. M. The Oriskany Fauna of Becraft Mountain, Columbia Co.,
N. Y. i28p. 9pl. Oct. 1900. Soc.
4 Peck, C. H. N.Y. Edible Fungi, 1895-99. io6p. 25pl. Nov. 1900. [$1.25]
This includes revised descriptions and illustrations of fungi reported in the 49th, sist and
sad reports of the State Botanist.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
5 Clarke, J. M. & Ruedemann, Rudolf. Guelpb Formation and Fauna of
New York State. iq6p. 2ipl. July IQO.V $i 50, cloth.
6 Clarke, J. M. Naples Fauna in Western New York. 268p. a6pl. map.
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7 Ruedemann, Rudolf. Graptolites of New York. Pt i Graptolites of the
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8 Felt, E. P. Insects Affecting Park and Woodland Trees, v.i. 4600.
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9 Clarke, J. M. Early Devonic of New York and Eastern North America.
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4 maps. Sept. 1909. $2, cloth.
10 Eastman, C. R. The Devonic Fishes of the New York Formations.
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11 Ruedemann. Rudolf. Graptolites of New York. Pt 2 Graptolites of the
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12 Eaton, E. H. Birds of New York. v. i, soip. il. 42 pi. Apr. 1910.
$3, cloth; v. 2 in press.
13 Whitlock, H. P. Calcites of New York. igop. il. 27 pi. Oct. 1910. , cloth.
Clarke, J. M. & Ruedemann, Rudolf. The Eurypterida of New York.
In press,
Natural history of New York. 3ov. il. pi. maps. 4to. Albany 1842-04.
DIVISION i ZOOLOGY. De Kay, James E. Zoology of New York; or, The
New York Fauna; comprising detailed descriptions of all the animals
hitherto observed within the State of New York with brief notices of
those occasionally found near its borders, and accompanied by appropri-
ate illustrations. 5v. il. pi. maps. sq. 4to. Albany 1842-44. Out of print.
Historical introduction to the series by Gov. W H. Seward. i?8p.
v. i pti Mammalia. 131 +46p. 3 3 pi. 1842.
300 copies with hand-colored plates
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v 3 P*3 Reptiles and Amphibia. 7 +98p. pt4 Fishes. is+4isp. 1842.
pt3~4 bound together.
v. 4 Plates to accompany v. 3. Reptiles and Amphibia. 239!. Fishes. 79p1.
1842.
300 'copies w?th hand-colored elates
v. 5 pt5 Mollusca. 4+27ip. 4opl. pt6 Crustacea. 7op. 13?!. 1843-44.
Hand-colored plates; pts~6 bound togefehet.
DIVISION 2 BOTANY. Torrey, John. Flora of the State of New York; com-
prising full descriptions of all the indigenous and naturalized plants hith-
erto discovered in the State, with remarks on their economical and medical
properties. 2v. il. pi. sq. 4to. Albany 1843. Out of print.
v. i Flora of the State of New York. 12 +484p. 72pl. 1843.
300 copies with hand-colored plates.
v. 2 Flora of the State of New York. 572p. 89pl. 1843.
300 copies with hand-colored plates.
DIVISION 3 MINERALOGY. Beck, Lewis C. Mineralogy of New York; com-
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of New York, and notices of their uses in the arts and agriculture, il. pi.
sq.4to. Albany 1842. Out of print.
v. i pti Economical Mineralogy. pt2 Descriptive Mineralogy. 24+536p.
1842.
8 plates additional to those printed as part of the text.
DIVISION 4 GEOLOGY. Mather, W. W. ; Emmons, Ebenezer; Vanuxem, Lard-
ner & Hall James. Geology of New Yor-k. 4v. il. pi. sq. 4to. Albany
1842-43. Out of print.
v. i pti Mather, W. W. First Geological District. 37 +653?. 46pl. 1843.
v 2 pt2 Emmons, Ebenezer. Second Geological District. 10+437?. i7pl.
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1843-
MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS
DIVISION 5 AGRICULTURE. Emmons, Ebenezer. Agriculture of New York;
comprising an account of the classification, composition and distribution
of the soils and rocks and the natural waters of the different geological
formations, together with a condensed view of the meteorology and agri 1
cultural productions of the State. 5v. il. pi. sq..4to. Albany 1846-54. Out
of print.
v. i Soils of the State, their Composition and Distribution, n +3 yip. 21 pi.
1846.
v. 2 Analysis of Soils, Plants, Cereals, etc. 8+343+46p. 42pl. 1849.
With hand-colored plates
v. 3 Fruits, etc. 8+34op. 1851.
v. 4 Plates to accompany v. 3. gspl. 1851.
Hand-colored.
v. 5 Insects Injurious to Agriculture. S+^yzp. sopl. 1854
With hand-colored plates.
DIVISION 6 PALEONTOLOGY. Hall, James. Paleontology of New York. 8v.
il. pi. sq. 4to. Albany 1847-94. Bound in' cloth.
v. i Organic Remains of the Lower Division of the New York System.
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v. 2 Organic Remains of Lower Middle Division of the New York System.
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v. 3 Organic Remains of the Lower Helderberg Group and the Oriskany
Sandstone, pti, text. i2+532p. 1859. [$3.50]
pt2. i43pl. 1861. f$2.$o]
v. 4 Fossil Brachiopoda of the Upper Helderberg, Hamilton Portage and
Chemung Groups. n+i+428p.- 69pl. 1867. $2.50.
v. 5 pti Lamellibranchiata i. Monomyaria of the Upper Helderberg,
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ilton, Portage and Chemung Groups. 62+293p. 5ipl. 1885. $2.50.
pt2 Gasteropoda, Pteropoda and Cephalopoda of the Upper Helder-
berg, Hamilton, Portage and Chemung Groups. 2V. 1879. v. i, text.
15 +4Q2p. V. 2, I2Opl. $2.50 for 2 V.
& Simpson. George B. v. 6 Corals and Bryozoa of the Lower and Up
per Helderberg and Hamilton Groups. 24+298?. 67pl. 1887. $2.50
& Clarke, John M. v. 7 Trilobites and other Crustacea of the Oris-
kany, Upper Helderberg. Hamilton, Portage, Chemung and Catskill
Groups. 64+236?. 46pl. 1888. Cont. supplement to v. 5, pt2. Ptero-
poda, Cephalopoda and Annelida. 42p. i8pl. 1888. $2.50.
& Clarke, John M. v. 8 pti Introduction to the Study of the Genera
of the Paleozoic Brachiopoda. 16+367?. 44pl. 1892. $2.50.
& Clarke, John M. v. 8 pt2 Paleozoic Brachiopoda. 16 + 394? 64pl.
1894. $2.50.
Catalogue of the Cabinet of Natural History of the State of New York and
of the Historical and Antiquarian Collection annexed thereto. 242p. 8vo.
1853-
Handbooks i893~date.
In quantities, i cent for each 16 pa?es or less. Single copies postpaid as below.
New York State Museum. 52p. il. Free.
Outlines, history and work ot the museum with list of staff 1902.
Paleontology. i2p. Free.
Brief outline ot State Museum work in paleontology under heads: Definition: Relation to
biology; Relation to stratigraphy: History' of paleontology in New York.
Guide to Excursions in the Fossiliferous Rocks of New York. i24p. Free.
Itineraries of 3 2 trips covering nearly the entire series of Paleozoic rocks, prepared specially
for the use of teachers and students desiring to acquaint themselves more intimately with the
classic rocks of this State
Entomology. i6p. Free
Economic Geology. 44?. Free.
Insecticides and Fungicides. 2op. Free.
Classification of New York Series of Geologic Formations. 32?. Free.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Geologic maps. Merrill, F. J. H. Economic and Geologic Map of the State
of New York; issued as part of Museum bulletin 15 and 48th Museum
Report, v. i. 59x67 cm. 1894. Scale 14 miles to i inch. 150.
Map of the State of New York Showing the Location of Quarries of
Stone Used for Building and Road Metal. Mus. bul. 17. 1897. Free.
Map of the State of New York Showing the Distribution of the Rocks
Most Useful for Road Metal. Mus. bul. 17. 1897. Free.
Geologic Map of New York. 1901. Scale 5 miles to i inch. In atlas
form $3; mounted on rollers $5. Lower Hudson sheet 6oc.
The lower Hudson sheet, geologically colored, comprises Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, Put-
nam, Westchester, New York, Richmond, Kings. Queens and Nassau counties, and parts of
Sullivan, Ulster and Suffolk counties; also northeastern New Jersey and part of western
Connecticut.
Map of New York Showing the Surface Configuration and Water Sheds.
1901. Scale 12 miles to i inch. i5c.
Map of the State of New York Showing the Location of its Economic
Deposits. 1904. Scale 12 miles to i inch. 150.
Geologic maps on the United States Geological Survey topographic base;
scale i in = i m. Those marked with an asterisk have also been pub-
lished separately.
*Albany county. Mus. rep't 49, v 2. 1898. Out of print.
Area around Lake Placid. Mus. bul. 21. 1898.
Vicinity of Frankfort Hill [parts of Herkimer and Oneida counties]. Mus.
rep't 51, v. i. 1899.
Rockland county. State geol. rep't 18. 1899
Amsterdam quadrangle. Mus. bul. 34. 1900.
* Parts of Albany and Rensselaer counties. Mus. bul. 42. 1901. Free.
*Niagara river. Mus. bul. 45. 1901. 250.
Part of Clinton county. State geol. rep't 19. 1901.
Oyster Bay and Hempstead quadrangles on Long Island. Mus.. bul. 48.
1901.
Portions of Clinton and Essex counties. Mus. bul. 52. 1902.
Part of town of Northumberland, Saratoga co. State geol. rep't 21. 1903.
Union Springs, Cayuga county and vicinity. Mus. bul. 69. 1903.
*Olean quadrangle. Mus. bul. 69. 1903. Free.
*Becraft Mt with 2 sheets of sections. (Scale i in. == m.) Mus. bul. 69.
1903. 2OC.
*Canandaigua-Naples quadrangles. Mus. bul. 63. 1904. 2oc.
*Little Falls quadrangle Mus. bul. 77. 1905. Free.
*Watkins-Elmira quadrangles. Mus. bul. 81. 1905. 2oc.
*Tully quadrangle Mus. bul. 82. 1905. Free.
*Salamanca quadrangle, Mus. bul. 80. 1905. Free.
*Mooers quadrangle. Mus. bul. 83. 1905. Free.
*Buffalo quadrangle. Mus. bul. 99. 1906. Free.
*Penn Yan-Hammondsport quadrangles. Mus. bul. 101. 1906. aoc.
*Rochester and Ontario Beach quadrangles. Mus. bul. 114. 200.
* Long Lake quadrangle. Mus. bul. 115. Free.
*Nunda-Portage quadrangles. Mus. bul. 118. 2oc.
*Remsen quadrangle. Mus. bul. 126. 1908. Free.
*Geneva-Ovid quadrangles. Mus. bul. 128. 1909. aoc.
*Port Leyden quadrangle. Mus. bul. 135. 1910. Free.
* Auburn-Genoa quadrangles. Mus. bul. 137. igto. 2oc.
*Elizabethtown and Port Henry quadrangles. Mus. bul. 138. 1910. 150.
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