Arizona republican., 1894-10-10
INDIAN RICE PACKERS.
How They Inaugurate the Season
 in the Wisconsin Fields.
The Exercises Include the Execution and Mock Eating of Dog and the Welkin Is Made to Ring by the Red
 mems Revels.

Up in Chippewa county, Wis, around the shores of Rice lake, weird fires break the darkness during the August nights, and the occasional lone white man, camped in the neighboring wilder ness, hears, apparently emanating from the flames, unearthly kinds of noises, echoing over the waters. This is the season of the year the Chippewa h. dians come down from their settlement on Sand lake to pick the wild rice which grows in profusion at Rice lake, about ten miles from the village of Cartwright.
 Hundreds of braves and squaws and papooses assemble on the borders of the lake, and the night is sometimes made hideous with their historic dances and revelries, says the Chippewa Falls Herald. Last season the rice picking was inaugurated with the most solemn dance in the traditions of the tribe the dog dance. It requires a milk white dog for the occasion, whose sac rifce is demanded before the dance can proceed, and while the animals blood is flowing from the wound which causes it's death, the dance is begun and continues with the greatest fervor until the dog has breathed it's last. The carcass is afterward baked in a boiling pot of water and the Indians, after go- ing through an imitation of feasting on the remains, bury it with eXagger ated ceremonies.
 The next day rice-picking is com menced, and to those who never wit messed the mode of gathering the seed the operations of the Indians are cer- tainly interesting. Several of the tribe take a. canoe, and while one pad dles around through the rice fields, the others knock the seeds from the heads into the bottom of the boat. After load is obtained it is rowed to shore, where others await it to take charge of the curing" operations. It is thrown into a large kettle, which stands over a blazing fire, and is al lowed to bake there until turned into beautiful brown. Then another set of workers take charge of it, and it is sub jected to the stamping" operation. At this part of the proceedings the spec tatorS are liable to become a little dis gusted with the work The rice is lowered in deer skin into a pit in the earth, and swarthy Indian, stripped to the waist, jumps into the hole and commences to stamp with all his might. If he sees doubtful expres- sion on the faces of those not familiar with this mathO Of olaaninU tho riao he treasures them with the statement that his fleet are heap clean, wash 'em good before getting in," and goes on with the arduous exercise amid clouds of dust. After the foreign sub stances are thus removed it is set away in baskets, ready for the market.
 The rice IS sold to stores and private families. for ten cents pound. About six hundred bushels are gleaned yearly and the tribe is amply repaid for it's trouble in gathering and preparing it. This year the yield has not been so large as it has been in former seasons. The plant is said to be gradually dying out, owing to the manner in which the Indians gather it, and it may require only few seasons more to kill it eff fectually. The land on which it stands is owned by Menominee company and is donated to the Chippewa tribe for the picking.
 After the rice season is over cranber- rying commences, and several weeks employment is obtained on the marshes near Cartwright.