The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1902-04-24
GIFT OF SAGAMI1'TEE.
INDIAN HOSPITALITY TO FIRST
WHITE EXPLORERS.
Corn aud Its Products Are Now. as
They We're Then, the Principal De-
incidence of the Inhabitants of the
Louisiana Purchase.

Louisiana Purchase.
After De Soto and his followers, The
lirst corn eaten by White men upon the
soIl of the Louisiana purchase MAS thai
which Louis Joliet and Pere Jacques
| Marquette received from hospitabie
hand of Indians whose village lay upon
lie banks of Il small stream sup
9osed TO be the Des Moines. On June %
G73. as the explorer and his priestlf
.ompanion and historian We're padding
!ewn the Mississippi ON their voyage
II discovery they saw tracks oil ihen
en the bank somewhere near the south
IN end of what is NOW Iowa. Leaving
heir canoe in charge Of the i've bout
men, they followed the trucks to the
rillage. where they were we'll received.
A feast was spread for them, OF
which the pieces de resistance were
..sagamittee," boiled dog, dried bu1aio
neat and other delieacies relished by
lie Indian palate For the boiled dog
he guests could not conceal their dis
.nst. and it was considerably removed
rom the board. But they ate sufficient
of the buffalo meat as well rs OF the
agamittee which was nothing more nor
- than eornmeal mush Favored with
lease. The historian does not nom
1ate the kind of grease that the lndi-
is nut into their mush. Surely the
ish was not so appetizing as the crack
i corn hominy which, softened with
sesh Jersey butter, is such farorlte
u many dainty breakfast table
..Aieng tile Southerners and the Jersey
men, but the explorers ate II with good
appetite.
When they got down Into the Arkan-
sas country, they had more sagamittee
rom the Indians, and roasting ears ami
Watermelons a plenty. The watermelon
native to Africa, but these Indians
.Aowed their appreciation of n good
hing by getting the seed from Spanish
r English colonlsts and planting them.
The corn crop of the Louisiana coun.
~ is larger now than it was then, and
is put to more diversified and vastly
more profitable uses. In the pIonee.
LAYS it was the staff of life of the race
hat has possessed the great valley. 1t
vas the only breadstuff carried among
heir supplies by Joliet and Marquette.
he French settlers at Old kaskaskia
elected 1t as yictuals fit only for cattle
nd swine. The men who crossed the
50 i'm M
Robertson and Shelby, as well as those
who came into Ohio and Kentucky
higher up, Travelled and fought Indians
often with no other supplies than Il
.ack of parched corn and little bag of
salt per man. Their powder horns,
bullet pouches and notwithstanding
rifles provided all the turkey, bear and
deer meat they needed.
In these days of commercial figures
and figuring it is Of special interest to
learn from the statistician of the treas.
ury at Washington that in good years
the States and Territories of the LOUISE
ana purchase make 1,000,0o0oo0 bush
els of corn, which is just about half, or
a little more than half, of the American
crop. Happily this prodigious quantity
of grain is not now consumed in the
form of sagamittee aud roasting ears.
Much of 1t goes 10 feed the mules and
the men who make the great cotton
crops of the South. Vast quantities Of
1t go into the beef, pork and poultry
that feed the mouths of the dense manu-
featuring and commercial population of
the northeastern seaboard States.
BY means of corn America gives
powerful aid and comfort TO Europe,
and we are ourselves somewhat COM
forted In return. OF corn and cornmeal
we sent abroad last year some 100000
600 worth and got the money. Then
there are the more comforting and also
more profitable items of beef, hams,
bacon, pork, lard and its compounds,
sausage and sausage meats, butter,
cheese, and other animal products, the
basis of which is mainly corn. OF these
we blessed the outside world with an
abundance that brought nearly $780,
100000 into American pockets Half of
1t all comes out of the soil of the Lonisi.
ana purchase.
Iowa, on whose soil Joliet and Mar.
quette were fed sagamittee by the IlIinl
Indians, is greatest of all corn States.
says the st. Louis Republic. Nine.
tenths of all the corn grown west of
the Mississippi comes out of the soil of
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.
Illinois Is the only State east Of the
river that turns out corn crop equal
ing or surprising that of any one of
these States; 1t is close between her and
Iowa.