Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 30
gested the use of these implements as corn shellers
among the Pawnee.
Among the Seneca the corn prepared by removing
the kernels from the cob with a deer jaw
sheller is called by a name meaning "already
chewed" (Parker, 1907:544). An even more literal
method of shelling corn was reported by Father
Gabriel Sagard (1939:105) who lived with the
Hurons in 1623 and 1624:
They make another kind of bread: they gather a number
of ears of corn before it is thoroughly dry and ripe, and then
the women, girls, and children bite off the grains, spitting
them out of their mouths afterwards into large pots which
they keep beside them, and then they finish by pounding it
in a large mortar; and since this paste is very soft they must
necessarily wrap it in leaves in order to bake it under the
ashes in the usual way. This chewed bread is the kind they
themselves prize most, but for my part I only ate it of
necessity and reluctantly. . . .
Sagard's humor on this general subject was obviously
less than that of Parker's Seneca housewife
informant!
Contemporary Use of Clam Shell Corn
Shellers by the Mesquakie
In late August of 1979, Nancy Osborn and I
visited Frank and Adeline Wanatee at their home
on the Mesquakie Settlement. They shared with
us information pertaining to the harvesting and
preparation of green corn. That season the corn
was a little late in maturing and was a week or
two away from being harvested. Frank showed
me his garden located in the corner of his yard to
the southeast of his house. The corn was planted
in rows and to either side were growing squash
and other vegetables. Frank peeled back a portion
of the husk from an ear of large-kerneled white
corn, one of five varieties (red, blue, two kinds of
white, and a mixed blue and white), which he
said are grown by the Mesquakies. He pinched a
kernel and observed that, since milk was showing,
the corn was nearly ready to be harvested.
Frank also showed me the open-air arbor, a
ramada-type structure, located north and east of
his house. Here the harvested green corn would
be parboiled. After the corn is picked, the husks
145
are removed from the ears. Then the husks are
spread out on the ground while the ears of corn
are placed in a large kettle to boil. Within the
kettle the ears are kept turning with a large "mesh
spoon." After the corn is parboiled, the ears are
removed from the kettle and laid out on the bed
of husks. When all the picked corn is parboiled
and set out in this fashion, the entire mass is
covered with husks and allowed to drain and
partially dry out over night.
The next morning the shelling process begins.
Adeline commented that they try to get going as
early as possible in the morning to take advantage
of a nice sunny day for drying the corn. Shelling
corn is an extended family affair with women and
men, boys and girls, participating. In former
times, Frank thought that shelling corn was more
of a community project and was the task of
women.
The parboiled corn is shelled by using the
valves of freshwater mussels collected along the
banks of the Iowa River, which flows through the
Mesquakie Settlement. The Wanatees, on occasion,
pick up shells that feel comfortable in the
hand and save them for future use as corn shellers.
They each have favorite clam shells that they
prefer to use. Sometimes, as Adeline observed,
shells are brought to her by children who find
them while playing along the river. The Wanatees
said they had heard that the clam shells along the
Mississippi River are thicker and that they might
try to pick up some there on one of their trips to
Rock Island. The six clam shells they showed us,
however, had been collected along the Iowa River
and had been used as corn shellers without any
special prepration (Figure 17). Depending on its
thickness and brittleness, an individual shell
could last several years as a corn sheller, since it
would not be used for other functions.
The identification and characteristics of the
Wanatees' clam shell corn shellers are summarized
in Table 1. Species identification of the
shells was provided by R. Stanley Riggle, chief of
the Iowa Archeological Survey, State Historic
Preservation Program, Iowa City, Iowa. Of the
six specimens, four different genera are repre-