The following was written by Green Beauchamp and included in the 5 June 1873 edition of the Eufaula Times: "Green Corn Dance" There was no particular day set apart for this festival. It was an annual one, and celebrated as soon as the new corn crop was fit to be used in roasting ear; which of course in this country was usually not before July. The place selected on this occasion was about two hundred yards from the Chattahoochee River. The ground was swept clean, a circle of about thirty yards in diameter made, and a skinned pole, about twenty feet high, set up in the centre. The Indians, men, women and children in their best clothes, and what whites were present, stood about talking and laughing as at any other gathering for pleasure. Presently the young men and warriors quietly disappeared from the crowd. After a little there was heard from many sides around, a whoop or yell, such as only an Indian can make. This was answered from all part of the campus. The young men and warriors then reappeared and advanced, occasionally yelling or whooping. When in full view of the spectators they commenced some unaccountable and indescribable gymnastics. They were stripped now to the breechclout, and painted from head to foot with striped and spots. After they got through their capering they made a rush for the crowd, coming in from all directions; and when they reached it, without making any stop, moved rapidly off in Indian file to the river, and all jumped in. They soon returned, with the paint washed off and in their usual dress. Dinner was then eaten. It consisted of green corn, cooked in different ways and served in earthen vessels of different sizes, and also of dried beef and venison, which was prepared by being picked to pieces very fine in shreds, they resembled cut tobacco. It was however extremely nice and palatable. The food was served in earthen vessels shaped like a pumpkin or rather like an egg, being larger in the middle than at the top. Some were of the capacity of two gallons. The dinner table was kind of a scaffold. There were neither cups nor saucers, plates, knives nor forks, but and abundance of wooden spoons with which the green corn was eaten. The meat was taken with the fingers. No ardent spirits of any kind, and no beverage but water. At sinner, which was eaten about 1 o'clock, as well as during all the day, the whites who were present were treated by the Indians with the greatest kindness and attention. After the feast was over, the show commenced. The spectators sat round on the edge of the circle, the inner space being kept clear as at a circus. The dancers, perhaps as many as a hundred men and women, then entered the ring. There was no instrumental music, but much vocal, consisting of Indian songs rather rapidly ejaculated, and in which all the performers participated together. The songs were lively, but the faces of the singers at all times immovably solemn and in earnest. The men dancers had a bunch, about the size of a peck of high land terrapin shells fastened to their backs just behind the hips, and these were so united as to hold shot or something else that incontinently rattled. The squaws had something equally capable of clatter, but whatever that was, was concealed beneath their dress. They would then dance round the centre pole, singing together, and with a step so regular and a time so perfect that the noise of what hissed or rattled in their shells sounded like the escape pipe of a rapidly puffing steam engine. Our informant, having spent a most pleasant day in the forest fifty years a go, with these children of the wilderness, then left them at a late hour in the evening, and knows not how long the amusements were protracted, not with what ceremonies they were brought to a conclusion. ============================================== Richard Price SOS 6-3