Year: 1969
Abstract:
At the time of European contact the northern limit of Indian agriculture on the Great Plains was in the Upper Missouri region. Then in 1805 a gift of seed corn to some immigrant Ottawas at Netley Creek, at the southern end of Lake Winnipeg, led to the establishment of Indian gardens there. From Netley Creek, and later from Plantation Island in Lake of the Woods (to which the Netley Creek Ottawas migrated in 1812), agriculture spread among the Saulteaux Indians of the Manitoba plains and of the adjacent woodlands of Ontario and Minnesota. Indian corn reached its northern limit in the Mossy River area. All evidence suggests that short-season Mandan flint corn from the Upper Missouri was the source of the original seed. The traditional corn-bean-squash-pumpkin complex of the North American Indians was found as far north as Plantation Island, beyond which it could not survive as a complete complex. Except for potatoes, few corps of European origin were grown.
