Corn and the Native Americans

Corn is a very important part of Native American culture. The religious beliefs behind how man came across corn vary, but there are some very interesting stories. One that I came across is probably the most interesting to me, because it covers the colors of corn as well as the woodpeckers red head. It goes a little something like this: Corn was originally hidden under a huge rock or mountain and only the ants of the land were able to get down to the grains to eat them. But after learning of the grain’s existence from foxes, rats, mountain cats, coyotes, crows, parrots, magpies or other animals, man asked the gods’ to make corn available to them. So, after various attempts, the gods were able to remove the precious food from under the ground and made it available to all mankind. In the Chilam Balam de Chumayel, a book of sacred stories, the author of this feat was Chaac, god of thunder and rain, and in all variations of the myth, the woodpecker appears to aid the gods, and ever since, the woodpecker’s head has been red because of the wound he received from a fragment of rock. According to these legends, in the beginning, all corn was white, but a lightening bolt which one of the gods hurled upon the rock to break it burned, smoked or singed some of the grains. That is why there are now black, yellow and red varieties of the grain. In addition, the Popol Vuh tells us that from a mixture of white and yellow grains the current human race was formed.