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INDIAN CORNFIELDS.
The "hill" method of planting was the one usually followed by most of
the tribes. Ground was selected as a rule along the banks of streams, trees
were cut down and removed, weeds and rubbish were cleared away. Land where
weeds grew were preferred because it was the easiest to prepare and was
thought to be the most fertile. The fields were apt to be more or less
irregular in shape, owing to the fact that they usually followed the bends
of streams.
In preparing land for corn, the entire field was not dug up and
pulverized, but only space enough for each hill. Each spring the stalks were
removed from the hill, it was pulverized and again used for planting, so
that the same hills used over and over became quite large and distinctive,
marking in after years the location of former fields. The Indian understood
the value of spacing hills and they were usually 2 to 5 feet apart.
Since the Indians practiced cooperation in their agricultural work
to quite an extent, large fields of corn were really made up of hundreds of
individual fields. Families helped each other at planting time and harvest
in many instances, and at such times the fields presented a busy appearance.
In the upper Missouri River valley in North Dakota as recently as 30 years
ago, the Mandan, Arikara, and Gros Ventre tribes cultivated a tract of about
1,200 acres not far from the river banks. During the months of May and June
this tract must have been an interesting place to visit. Here Indian women
toiled long hours in the hot sun, working with primitive tools, the small
fields being separated from each other in much the same way that children's
school gardens are to-day. At the outskirts of the fields Indian sentinels
might have been seen guarding the workers from the attacks of hostile
tribes. Later on, in the fall of the year, a procession of toilers wended
their way from the fields with braids of corn, carrying them to the village
for storage.
PRIMITIVE TOOLS.
A more or less gradual evolution in the kinds
of tools used in corn culture has taken place. The most primitive tool was
the sharpened hardwood stick. Later, the shoulder blades of the buffalo and
deer, deer antlers, and clam and tortoise shells were used. In the
Mississippi Valley, numerous stone and flint implements have been found
which, from their shape, suggest their use as primitive hoes or spades. |
