By Rick Hill, Deyohahá:ge:, Six Nations Polytechnic
For the next few weeks, Rick Hill of Deyohahá:ge: gives us an overview of the origin of our seeds. In Part Two, we hear about the discovery of corn, origin of animal foods, preparing food, and the sacred gamble over seeds. If you missed Part One, it’s available on our website www.tworowtimes.com.
Discovery of Corn
In the Onondaga story, Sapling shoots at and misses a flying bird and dives into the water to retrieve his arrow. He comes across the lodge of his father — Great Turtle — who gave him some corn and instructed him to roast it as soon as he got back to his lodge and repeatedly say, “In this manner will it continue to be, that man-beings who will inhabit the earth, will be in the habit of eating it.” In the Mohawk version, Sapling is given two kinds of sweet corn by his father. One is ripe and the other is in the green corn stage, with instructions to roast the milky corn and use the other for seed.
In the Mohawk version, Sapling began to create many kinds of things: plants, animals, birds, and land features. In one version of the Creation Story, the first food plant he made was the sunflower, which provides essential oils. The first medicine plant he created was red willow, that in the beginning, when burned, could transport him from the Turtle Island to the Sky World (he later makes tobacco to do the same for the thoughts of humans). The first bird to be made was the blue bird, to bring more beauty to this world with its brightly colored feathers and its song. Then Sapling took the corn that had grown from his mother’s burial mound and began to roast it in the hot coals. At that time, the corn was also full of rich oil and the sweet smell of the roasting corn filled the air.
In fact, it attracted the attention of his Grandmother, the Sky Woman. She had been quite angry with Sapling, as she mistakenly blamed him for the death of his mother. Her mind was unsettled by the death of her daughter, so she was mean towards Sapling. But the smell of roasting corn was too much to resist and she followed it to Sapling’s campsite. She asked for some corn to eat.
Sapling refused, explaining that he was about to make humans and that she would have to wait. Soon there would be plenty of corn for everyone. His grandmother was impatient and demanded corn. He gave one kernel and told her she would have to wait.
In her anger, she grabbed some of the wood ashes and cast them onto the roasting corn, spoiling its flavor. If she could not enjoy it, no one would. The rich oil of the roasting corn dried up and the outer hull became very hard. This is the reason that, to this very day, we have to soften that outer shell by boiling white corn kernels in hard wood ashes.
The Senecas tell us that his twin brother Flint arrived and asked for some corn to eat, while it was roasting. But Sapling refused, knowing that the Grandmother wanted to spoil the corn. Sapling invented the process of turning corn seed into food, cooking, it, pounding it, and magically finishing it. His grandmother arrived and took the pot from the fire, put ashes into the hot water, shelled an ear of corn and put it in the hot ashes, saying, “This shall be their manner of doing, the method of the man-beings.” Sapling admonished her, but she refused to obey him, thus beginning, according to the Onondagas, the tradition that those who speak ill when they prepare food will spoil it.
Origin of Animals Foods
In the Onondaga and Mohawk version, Sky Woman rests after her fall, and awakes to find the island covered with mud. She also finds a deer carcass near her that she cooks for food. She then finds some red willow reeds growing at the edge of the island.
In the Seneca story, the twins (Sapling and Flint) held a foot race, which Sapling won. His father (West Wind) then gave a huge bundle to carry that contained the animals. Later, a deer, elk, bear, and buffalo emerged from the bundle, and were immersed in a pond of oil to protect them from bugs. Other fur bearing animals were set aside, not as food but for the warmth of their hides (racoon, fisher, otter, mink, and weasel).
In another version, Flint tries to create animals and birds like his brother, but cannot succeed, and instead creates misshaped creatures that often attack the beautify animals and birds made by his brother.
Preparing Food
In the Onondaga version of the Creation Story, the Old Man gets Sky Woman to make mush while standing by the fire naked. She soaked the corn, washed it, and pounded it to make meal of it. The boiling mush painfully splattered on her body, and she had to stand still while his dogs came and licked the hot mush off her body, making it bleed wherever the rough tongues touched her body. I don’t recommend this as a traditional style of food preparation! The Old Man then put sunflower oil on her wounds.
In the Seneca story, Sapling peeks into his grandmother lodge to watch her prepare food. She used the gifts provided by the Sky Panther. She pounded corn to make meal, poured it into a pot of boiling water and made mush. He copied her process, but in this story, she was dismayed saying that by doing so, he corrupted her ability to prepare food and that she would die as a result.
To make up for his mistake, Sapling then created a wolf and deer from his bow and arrow to symbolize the hunt needed to obtain meat, and carried a string of corn to his grandmother’s house. He suggested that they add beaver meat to the mush, but in cleaning it, he threw some of its blood at his grandmother and said that women will experience a monthly moon cycle, and should be removed from the household for four days. This is the origin of the idea that women on their moon should not be involved in preparing medicine or food. Sisters, aunts or nieces are supposed to cook at those times.
Sacred Gamble over Seeds
The Grandmother/Sky Woman and her grandson, Sapling, continued to clash over many things. She seemed intent, along with Flint, to undermine all of the Creator good work in making this world ready for humans to enjoy. They had a great contest over the plants and animals, and at one point, Sky Woman and Flint imprisoned all of the beautiful animals made by Sapling, and released all kinds of dangerous, creepy, crawling serpents and creatures that would pose a risk to human life.
Finally, Sapling has no choice but to defeat his brother physically in order to get him to leave the Turtle Island. But because he loved his brother, Sapling made a deal with him. He would give humans free choice as to which path they would follow once they were created. Some call this free will. If they followed the path created by Sapling, they would live happy, healthy lives. However, if they chose to follow the path of Flint, they would suffer the consequences of their decisions. Flint agreed to go into the ground, taking most of the dangerous creatures he made with him.
Next, Sapling had to transform the mind of his grandmother, as she was the last obstacle in his plan to make a world inhabited by humans. He challenged her to a bowl game, in which two toned dice would be used. Depending on how these dice would turn up, points would be scored. Special white bean seeds were used to tally the points. When one player won all of the counter seeds, the game was over, and their mindset would dominate the new world.
Fortunately for us, Sapling employed his creative powers. Instead of large seed dice, he used the heads of living chickadees – black on the top, and white on the bottom. He told them to all turn up one color when he shook the wood bowl. Sure enough, he was able to win the game and thereby ensure that this world who he helpful to humans.
Check the Healthy Roots section of the Two Row Times next week when we continue with Part 3 of the Our Changing Relationship to Foods series.
