Myths on the origin of maize or of other food plants are found in several Native American cultures. They often describe how the plant came to be in consequence of a woman’s death. For example, among the Cherokee, the myth tells of a woman of the primordial time, called Selu, who was discovered by her children while she was producing corn and beans for their food by rubbing her stomach and armpits. The children remained appalled at this sight, and believing that their mother must be a witch, decided to kill her. Before being killed the woman instructed them about the treatment of her body, which they should drag around seven times. They follow her instructions and the following morning corn stalks with already mature ears had grown around their house.
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Corn husk doll. Among the Iroquois similar toys were common and recalled the idea that the corn plant was identified with a female being (Children's Discovery Museum, San Jose, California)
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For the Iroquois, maize, beans and squashes were human-like beings, persons called “Our Life” or “Our Supporters”. They were planted together, in the same field. Kernels of corn were planted in “hills”, little earth mounds, and when the young corn stalks had been grown bean and squash seeds were planted around them. The corn stalks acted as trellis or stakes for the bean vines, while the squash leaves formed a weed barrier and a moisture conserving shade for the soil.
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Corn, squash and bean seeds, which were the main food plants for the Iroquois and were called the Three Sisters |
According to a legend of the Onondaga (one of the nations forming the Iroquois League), a man lived alone on a hill, and every morning and evening he sang, calling for someone who could marry him. One day a young woman came along saying she was willing to marriage, but the man refused, saying that she wandered too far from home, instead of staying by his side. After some time another young woman came, admiring the fine looking robe and long plumes of the man. She said she would marry him, and the man accepted, because he knew that she was the one he had waited for. The character in the tale are easily recognizable as the personifications of the food plants: the man is maize, whose stalks grow on the hill, strictly embraced with the bean vines, while the squash or pumpkin roams on the ground around them.
More commonly, the three plants were represented as three female characters, the “Three Sisters”, who cared for the wellbeing of the cultivations. The Seneca told how one day an old woman, coming near a field, heard someone who was weeping. It was a corn plant, who lamented that the people had not cared for the crops and had not given enough water to them. That was the reason why the crop had been so scarce. The fields were then cultivated with care, but however some thieves entered the fields to steal the crop. The warrior discovered them and punished them by a severe whipping: some of them had stripes on their backs and rings around their eyes, because of the beating received, and turned into raccoons, other had their lips split and turned into rabbits
(Bastian-Mitchell 2004: p. 73-74).
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An Iroquois garden with the Three Sisters (corn, squash and beans) cultivated next to each other |
Animals