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Gathering Wild Rice

image courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art | Public Domain

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Date

1849-1855

Artist

Seth Eastman (1808-1875)

Collection

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Description

This is the first known picture by a non-Native artist of people harvesting Minnesota’s proudest hotdish ingredient. The birchbark canoe indicates these women are probably Anishinaabe (Ojibwe); Dakota people typically carved canoes from tree trunks. One woman steadies the canoe while the others bend stalks over the gunwale and gently release the seeds with paddles. The wild grain is then gathered, dried, and hulled. Ohiyesa (also called Charles Eastman), a grandson of Seth Eastman and the Dakota woman Wakaninajinwin, described the next step: “The women then pour it upon a robe and begin to shake it so that the chaff will be separated by the wind.”
This watercolour, one of 35 works on paper by Eastman in Mia’s collection, was the basis for an illustration in Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s massive "Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States" (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1851-57).

Image Licence

Public Domain

Image Credit

image courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art

Location

Fort Snelling State Park, Minnesota, USA

Country

Medium

Tags

Agriculture
Boats
Food
Landscapes
Professions
Rivers

Category

People & Society

Glossary
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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform