The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-09-14

| impression is very far from true. The
Indian-like man everywhere except III
the Arctic regions-is an omnivorous
creature, and Will" lie may subsist
chiefly on flesh, lie also greatly rels!ies
vegetable food. AS a matter of fact,
the great majority Of the aboriginal
tribes Of North America were culiiv&-
tors of the ground. The popular idea
that the Indian was nomad WANDER
ing from place to place and never
! camping twice in the same spot arises
from an entire misconception of facts.
We have been told for years by the
! newspapers and other equally ill-in-
formed authorities that the Indians
were wanderers, and we have come
to believe that this was true. 1t was
not. The Indians lived in very large
measure in permanent villages, near
which they had their cultivated fields,
ard which they occupied for the great
er part of each year. At certain sea-
sons special abSenccs-morc or less
protracted-were necessary for the pur-
pose of hunting sonic particular game
or of gathering some special sort of
wild roots or fruits.
This permanency Of L&bitation was
true even of some of the tribes inhab-
iting the semi-arid plains who depend
ed for support OH lie buffalo, and to-
day, one who visits one of the plains
tribes and asks tic old men how their
fathers used to live will everywhere
receive the same answer. They will
say that they used to grow corn. beans,
sQuashes or pumpkins, and tobacco
and besides this they gathered IA
abundance of wild crops which gave
them 4 certain amount Of vegetable
food all through the year.
OF the Iroquois we are told that the
crops they harvested were so large that
they frequently had in their store
houses two or three years supply of
corn, beans and squashes. The Paw
nees, occupying the arid West, like the
Deiawarcs of the moist, sea coast,
stored their crops in great pits dug in
the ground, which they lined with
mats, and in which their corn was per-
fectly preserved all through tie win
ter, or until the supply was exhausted.
Very different was the situation of the
Cocopahs inhabiting the desert away
to the Southwest. They scraped aside
the rocks that covered the dry moun-
taiuside and, uncovering a little soil,
planted there q few hills of com and
squashes, carrying on tleir backs from
the distant spring the water which
should moiSten the ground to cause the
seeds to sprout and to refresh the
plants until the crop natured, and
when it was gathered they at once con-
sunled it.
Within the memory Of living men,
and while there were yet buffalo in
abundance, the Western Indians OF
many tribes continued their primitive
culture of tie stubborn soil. The Paw
nee women used to hoe their corn with
ices made from the shoulderhade OF
the buffalo lashcd to i wooden hanale,
ard about the same time the warlike
Cneyennes were planting their little
cornieIds OH. the Little Missouri River.
We know that in early days, when
wooded Minnesota WAS much farther
from the centre of things than Alaska
is to day, the Indians Of that territory
planted little crops Of corn, ioosening
the soil. either with hoes purchased
from the traders or with the hardened
sharpened branch Of a tree. Their
fields were small, from quarter of
All acre to an acre i'll extent, and pro-
duced 4 small corn the ears Of which
we're from three to eight inches long,
and which was chiefly consumed green
as roasting ears. A. part Of the crop.
however, was boiled on the ear While
green. cut from the cob and dried in
the sun to be kept for winter use.
Boiled with meat it made a nourishins
and palatble dish. There was no food
more delicious. and none better to work
on than dried corn and buffalo meat.
Over the Whole of North America,
wherever the climate permitted it TO
r:pen, corn was cultivated by the In
dams and constituted an important
part Of their subsistence. Loskiel. Who
in the eighteenth century wrote inter-
estinsIy and at great length OF the
Indians among whom the Cn!1eo
Brethren worked, enumerates no less
than twelve methods employed by the
Indians in preparing their corn for
food. A concentrated form of nour:sl!-
ment much employed when traveiins
on the warpath. or where it was ne"es-
sary to 20 swiftly or with light loads,
was citamon. III interesting analogue
Of the pemmican used in old prairie
travel. Pemmican consisted Of pu!-
yfr:zed dried meat mixed With melted
FIT. but, rs those will remember who
have read the old works of travel III
the Northwest. or evrl: those Trails or
the pathfinGers.' which have recently
:pneared in Forest and Stream. there
was another sort Of peNlmic"n made
Of the pulveriZel flesh Of FISH aiSo
mixed with fat CiHmOn. on ille other
l,nnI w:S finely Rounded cJrilEle;ll