St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-02-15
GAVE THEM SAGAMITTEE.
indian Hospitality to First whites
In Louisiana Purchase-Its
Great Corn Crop.

After De Soto and his followers, the
s-st corn eaten by white men upon the
soil of the Louisiana purchase was that
which Louis Joliet and Pere Jacquea
Marquette received from a hospitabls
band of Indians, whose village lay up
on the banks of "small stream" sup
posed to be the Des Moines. On June
25, 1873, as the explorer and his priestly
companion and historian were pad
ding down the Mississippi on their voy.
age of discovery, they saw tracks OF
men on the bank somewhere near the
southern end of what is now Iowa
Leaving their canoe in charge of the
five boatmen, they followed the tracks
to the village, where they were well re.
ceived.
A feast was spread for them. of which
the "pieces de resistance" were saga.
mittee," boiled dog, dried buffalo mea,
and other delicacies relished by the
Indian palate. For the boiled dog the
guests could not conceal their disgust
the board. But they ate sufficiently Of
the buffalo meat, as well as of the
sagamittee, which was nothing more
nor less than cornmeal mush favored
with grease. The historian does not
nominate the kind of grease that the
Indians put into their mush. Surely
the dish was not SO appetizing as the
cracked corn hominy which, softenee
with fresh Jersey butter, is such "a
vorite on many dainty breakfast
table among the southerners and the
Jerseymen, but the explorers ate il
with good appetite.
When they got down into the Arkan.
sas country they had more sagamittee
from the Indians, and roasting ears
and watermelons a plenty. The wa.
termelon is native to Africa, but
these Indians showed their apprecia.
ton of a good thing by getting the
| seds from Spanish or English colonists
and planting them, says the st. Louis
Republic.
The corn crop of the Louisiana coun.
try is larger now than it was then, and
| it is put to more diversified and vastly
more profitable uses. In the pioneer
days it was the staff of life of the race
that has possessed the great valley. II
was the only breadstuff carried among
their supplies by Joliet and Marquette.
The French settlers at Old Kaskaskia
rejected it as victuals fit only for cattle
and swine. The men who crossed the
Alleghenies with Boone and Sewer, and
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
sack of parched corn and a little bag OF
salt per man. Their powder horns, bull
let pouches, and straight-shooting
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 year.
the states and territories of the Louisi.
ana purchase make LOCO, 900 bushels OF
corn, which is just about half, or lit.
tie more than half, of the American
crop. Happily this prodigious quaint.
ty of grain is not now consumed in the
form of sagamittee and roasting ears.
Much of it goes to feed the mules and
the men who make the great cotton
crops of the south. Vast quantities OF
it go into the beef, pork and poultry
that feed the mouths of the dense man
ufacturing and commercial populations
Of the northeastern seaboard states.
/ By means Of corn America gives pow.
erful aid and comfort to Europe, and
we are ourselves some what comforted
in return. OF corn and cornmeal we
sent abroad last year some SOC, 000, OG
worth and got the money. Then there
are the more comforting and also
more profitable items of beef. hams.
bacon, lard, and it's compounds, sau-
sage 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,
5000 into American pockets Halt
/, Of it all comes out of the soil OF the
Louisiana purchase.
Iowa, on whose soil Joliet and Mar
1uette were fed sagamittee by the H.
Ilini Indians, is the greatest Of all corn
states. Nine-tenths of all the corn
grown west Of the Mississippi comes
out of the soil of Iowa, Kansas, Nebras-
ka and Missouri. Illinois is the only
state east of the river that turns out
corn equaling or SURPRISING that OF
any one of these states; it is close be.
tween her and Iowa.
| Corn is the mightiest Of all the dyna-
mic forces of America. It makes VI
happy and prosperous in peace, power
full in war. Great is corn; great is the
Louisiana purchase country, the nat
Iural home Of corn.
Once and Man.
Once upon a time postmaster who