“When you white people met our Mandan people we gave to the whites the name Maci´, or Waci´, meaning nice people, or pretty people. We called them by this name because they had white faces and wore fine clothes. We said also ‘We will call these people our friends!’ And from that time to this we have never made war on white men.
“Our Mandan corn must now be all over the world, for we gave the white men our seeds. And so it seems we Mandans have helped every people. But the seed of our varieties of corn were originally ours.
“We know that white men must also have had corn seed, for their corn is different from ours. But all we older folk can tell our native corn from that of white men.”—Wounded Face (Mandan)
[6] Corn sucker, i. e., the extra shoot or stem that often springs up from the base of the maize plant.
[7] Buffalobird-woman says she planted six to eight kernels to a hill. Just what pattern she used she could not tell until she went out with a handful of seed and planted a few hills to revive her memory. The three patterns shown in [figure 7] will show how she laid the grains in the bottom of the several hills.—Gilbert L. Wilson
[8] “Twice in the corn season were scarecrows used; first, when the corn was just coming up; and again when the grain was forming on the ear and getting ripe.”—Edward Goodbird
[9] In August, 1910, Buffalobird-woman related the story of “The Grandson,” in the course of which she said in explanation of reference to a watchers’ stage:
“I will now stop a moment to explain something in the other form of this tale.
“According to this way of telling it, there was a garden and in the middle of the garden was a tree. There was a platform under the tree made of trunks and slabs; and there those two girls sat to watch the garden and sing watch-garden songs. They did this to make the garden grow, just as people sing to a baby to make it be quiet and feel good. In old times we sang to a garden for a like reason, to make the garden feel good and grow. This custom was one used in every garden. Sometimes one or two women sang.
“The singing was begun in the spring and continued until the corn was ripe. We Indians loved our gardens and kept them clean; we did not let weeds grow in them. Always in every garden during the growing season, there would be some one working or singing.