The Heirloom Indian Garden

Because Indian agriculture helped provision the trading posts and transport crews, the museum maintains a botanical exhibit of authentic growing Indian crops. The varieties that we zealously perpetuate for the future are the same ones grown for centuries by Indians of the Missouri Valley and now are all but extinct. Oscar H. Will, pioneer Dakota horticulturist, originally obtained most of the seeds directly from the Indians over 125 years ago. Charles Hanson then acquired the seed stock from Will’s son, George.

Among the crops the summertime museum visitor can see are the midget Mandan tobacco that preceded the traders’ carrot of Virginia tobacco, the Assiniboin flint corn that went into the distillery at Ft. Union, and the blue-kernelled “little corn” that James Willard Schultz watched his adopted Blackfoot mother grow on the Montana plains.

The museum saves enough of the precious seeds to replant, and any surplus is offered for sale to museum patrons.

The following varieties are available on a limited basis. Each ¼-ounce vegetable seed packet costs $4 postpaid; the tobacco $5 postpaid.

• Assiniboin Flint Corn . A mixed flint and flour variety, it is one of the smallest varieties of corn.
• Mandan Sweet Corn . The fur traders dried this variety for winter provisions.
• Little Blue Corn . Ears the size of a man’s thumb are borne on leafy stalks from two to three feet tall.
• Arikara Watermelon . A small, pink-fleshed, and sweet melon. Descendant of small Spanish watermelons brought by traders from St. Louis in the late eighteenth century.
• Hidatsa Beans . These are dark red and good for chili and salads
• Omaha Pumpkin . It is very prolific and sweet. Dr. Melvin Gilmore originally collected this from the Omaha Tribe in the early twentieth century.
• Arikara Squash . This large blue-green squash is the earliest winter squash; it will set fruit and out yield all others under drought conditions.
• Mandan Squash . This is the earliest squash and was obtained by Oscar Will from the Mandan Indians. It is a small, round, striped summer squash that will ripen anywhere and is drought resistant.
• Mandan Tobacco ( Nicotiana quadrivalvis) . The museum continues to grow this species which withstands drought and short seasons. Its product is rank and strong to smoke.