At night I covered the drying corn with old tent skins to protect it from dampness.
The corn dried in about four days.
When the corn was well dried, I winnowed it. This I sometimes did on the floor of the drying stage, sometimes on the ground.
Having chosen a day when a slight wind was blowing, I filled a wooden bowl from the dried corn that lay heaped on the tent cover; and holding the bowl aloft I let the grain pour slowly from it, that any chaff might be winnowed out.
The corn was now ready to be put in sacks for winter.
Corn thus prepared we called maada´ckihĕ, from ada´ckihĕ, treated-by-fire-but-not-cooked, a word also used to designate food that has been prepared by smoking.
All varieties of corn could be prepared in this way.[11]
The Arikaras on this reservation have a different way of preparing and drying green corn. They make a big heap of dried willows, and upon these lay the ears, green and freshly plucked, in the husk. When all is ready, they set fire to the willows, thus roasting the corn; and they often roast a great pile of corn at one time, in this way. The roasted ears are husked and shelled, and the grain dried, for storing. Corn that has been roasted in the Arikara way, dries much more quickly than that prepared by boiling.
Of late years some Mandan and Hidatsa families occasionally roast their corn in imitation of the Arikara way; but I never saw this done in my youth.
I do not like to eat food made of this dried, roasted corn; it is dirty!