leave plates of food outside, pray and sing your thanks for it. Some people say "Oh, a
dog will just eat it if you leave a plate outside for the spirits," but that really doesn't
matter. Probably animals eat the food we leave by the woods and waters, too. That is
giving it to the spirits, although maybe there are different ones in the City.
Zagaswe'iwe! give a feast with it, for friends and relatives.BOOTAAGANIKEWIN -- Making a Rice-Mill
Elder Maude Kegg (Naawakamigookwe), of Mille Lacs Ojibwe Tribe, was born
around 1904, and raised at Portage Lake, midway between Mille Lacs and Bemidji in
Minnesota. She recalled helping her uncle make a bootaagan, the mortar for pounding
parched rice:I used to help my uncle when he made a bootaagan. I held it for him. He cut a log, then
sawed it straight. Then he pointed one end and carged some wooden pieces, pointing them
so they'd fit well and make the bootaagan round. When he was through carbing them, he
dug a pit and put grass in it. It was long grass that he put in it. Then he put a willow strip
bent into a circle. He pressed the grass down. Then he fitted the boards together in it
again. I held them as I watched him.After he got done fitting in those things, the pieces of carved cedar, he tapped in the
round piece of log. It looked just like a pail. He formed the boards into a circle. Then he
put in the willow strips. It held them. It was round. No sand could get in then. We took
care of it properly so it didn't get wet, covering it perhaps with a birch bark roll when it
rained or at night when we weren't using it.That was where they pounded or trampled the rice. When it was through being used and
they were done picking rice, they took it apart and stored away the parts. Whenever there
was ricing, he used the bootaagan. He was always putting it together. That's all.MEMEGWESIWUK Like Rice, Too
Maude's step-mother told her an interesting story about meeting Memegwesiwug
(Little People) once when ricing:We always went to Boy River, we were always doing something there at Boy River. We
were ricing there, and were sitting down towards evening. She (Maude's step-mother) was
saying that they had seen Memegwesiwug.They too knock rice there on Boy River. The river turns there," she said. "We were
knocking rice along there," she said."Maybe there is someone over there," her old man was saying, so they stopped there
Wild Rice
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/wildrice.html (5 of 8) [5/17/2004 11:56:41 AM]