Salt Lake Telegram | 1922-09-22 | Page 6 | Indians Harvest Wild Rice Crop

INDIANS HAHVEST WILDRICECRQP Grain Provides Winter Food in North Country Dri.lTir. Minn.. Hrvt. . Mah-aoh-mln. tha wild rlre of tha North, tha In-dlan'a In-dlan'a grain for winter ron.umpdon. Is ripe. Word haa pa.eeri from buck to jstjuaw or rsverse that the crop this ysar I 1 Is not a large one. Garnering mut pro I reed rapidly for a hungry horde of wild ducks shortly will descend upon the vast rk-e fields and batter down the rice to the laat stem, which they atrip gleam of kernels. By day, and under the full moon, the squaws are eearrhlnr the la coons of the muakesg country for rice beds. Certain localities are known to have rice beds anl other local. ilea breed the lice every year. Where no rlre waa found laat year. It will be found thia year. The crop la fathered today aa It was In the days of Hiawatha and of Minnehaha, Minne-haha, lanoee ara piloted through miles of rice beda The rw-e Is either snipped off on the stem, or polled from the wa ter. Taken Into the canoe. It la dis-lodaed dis-lodaed from the stem by beattna; with a Paddle. Thus a canoe will be loaded In a dav. The hulllna Is done by heatlna; the rice In Its shell, and while It is yet hot. It la treaded by moccanlned feet. Wild rice ta a tall aquatic perennial rraae (Zlsanla aquttlca) of North America and of Aala. It haa ample panicles, bear-ins bear-ins plstulate flowers above the stamlnatea below. Its train, or aeed. haa been used by the Indians for food since time out f memory. Wild rice Is for sale at principal irroo-ery irroo-ery stores In the North. The rice Is housht st trading posts direct from Indians, In-dians, or from traders who set It from Indiana The work of Katherii.ir the rice Is so tedious that faw whit people at tempt It.