Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

140 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
drying over night and scraping from the cob with a mussel
shell, the left valve of the animal being most convenient for
the use of the ordinary right-handed person. It is then dried
on mats spread in the hot sun on the ground. Two days
exposure are enough to cure it for winter use. In this condition
it is caWcd pagaswahuk and is ready to grind with mortar
and pestle (pota'hagHn and pota'hagun hUskwan) to make corn
meal.
Skinner further noted that among the Sauk
"green corn, while still somewhat milky, is
scraped free from the cob with a deer's jaw." As
noted below (p. 144), deer-jaw corn shellers are
recorded ethnographically for other groups in the
Prairies and Plains, as well as in the northeastern
United States and Canada.
The historic Fox also used clam shells in removing
green corn from the cob. In his ethnographic
treatise, the anthropologist, Dr. William
Jones (1939:17), himself of Fox descent and upbringing,
elucidates the spiritual as well as dietary
aspects of maize consumption:
Tamina (corn) is a manitou, and every little grain is a
mortal. The name of each grain is wipita. All of these grains
of corn have feelings like you and me, and when they are
taken from the cob and wasted they feel sad and begin to
weep. When WIsa'ka created tamina, he made it a food for
the people (Foxes). When they eat tamina, the manitou goes
into every part of the body, and that makes the people
strong. The people need not have anything else before them
to eat but tamina, because it has everything in itself to make
them do what they wish. When they travel, they go much
farther after eating tamina than after eating any other food.
Tamina is a manitou, and that is why it has so much strength.
In editing the above passage for the posthumous
publication of Jones' monograph, Margaret Welpley
Fisher added the following footnote (Jones,
1939, n. 21): "Corn should be shelled from the
cob with a clam shell, or if one has no shell, with
a spoon. A knife should never be used." Fisher's
citation documenting this practice was in reference
to the contemporary Mesquakies in Iowa.
The recording of this procedure was accomplished
by Edgar R. Harlan, curator of Iowa's
State Historical Museum in Des Moines, who
had arranged a number of cross-cultural workshops
in which Mesquakies discussed aspects of
their lifeways with local school teachers. Harlan
(1933:117) reported:
The Indians explained to the teachers how the foods were
prepared. In preparing corn the kernels were taken whole
from the cob. Anciently they used, and now perfer to use, a
fresh water clam-shell—a muscle [sic] shell. When they have
no shell they use a spoon, never a knife as white people do.
By running the edge of the shell between the rows, the green
kernels are "shelled" from the cob. Then it had been dried.
As will be discussed (p. 145), the techniques of
shelling corn as described by Mesquakies in the
1930s are still in practice today.
The Potawatomi, originally neighbors of the
Illinois, Sauk, and Mesquakies in the Western
Great Lakes area, may also have used freshwater
mussel valves as green corn shellers in the early
historic period. During the 1930s Floyd Schultz
took moving picture films recording this practice
among the Prairie Band Potawatomi of Kansas.
These scenes can be viewed in the film, Neshnabek,
recently produced by the University of Kansas
(Stull and Hirsch, 1980).
Another group residing in the western Great
Lakes area at the time of Euro-American contact
was the Winnebago tribe. In her autobiography.
Mountain Wolf Woman vividly recalled her experiences
in harvesting and preparing corn during
the late nineteenth century (Lurie, 1966:11-12):
When various foods were ripe the people dried them.
They also steamed things underground. They harvested a
lot of corn and carried it home on their backs. When I was
a little girl our family was large. I was the youngest and I
had three older brothers and two older sisters. Another older
sister and I were the younger ones. When they harvested the
gardens, they harvested a great amount. They steamed the
corn. In the evening they dug a pit and heated stones there
in a big fire. They put the stones in the pit and when the
stones became red hot they took out all the wood and embers
and put in the corn husks. Then they put in the fully ripe
corn and covered it with more husks. Finally they covered it
with the earth that had been dug out. They covered the pit
but they left four holes in which they poured the water. We
used to hear the red hot stones make a rumbling sound.
Then, very early in the morning they opened the pit with
great care. They removed the earth very carefully and finally
when they reached the husks they took them out. Eventually
they reached the corn and it was thoroughly cooked. It was
really hot! They took the corn out and put it on the husks.
Sometimes other people heard about it and worked with my
family. The helpers came and spread out a big piece of