When Hare finished creating the Medicine Rite, his grandmother Earth made a special donation to the human beings so that they might have more of life. She told Hare to look at her, and when he did he saw that a plant was growing out of one of her breasts. This was the first maize plant. [1] Still the people did not know all how to cultivate this plant. When his clan had fallen on hard times, a Hotcâk clan chief fasted on behalf of all his people. In time, the Maize Spirit, who rules over all aspects of corn, appeared to him and taught him all that he need to know about cultivating and preserving corn. [2] The tassels that appear on the ears of corn are also the manifestations of a female spirit, the sister of Green Man. Green Man is actually the spirit chief of black rocks. However, heated black rocks are used to dry the corn, so the spirit of these rocks ends up covered in green corn husks. His brother is the pit in which the corn is dried. [3]

Just as there are four seasons of the solar year, mani, "winter"; wana, "spring," dok, "summer," and tcani, "fall"; so there are four seasons of corn. These are: Mâîna'ûwira (Earth Cultivating Month), Waxodjrawira (Corn Tasseling Month), Watadjoxhiwira (Corn Popping Month), and finally the time at which the Green Corn Dance is given to celebrate the harvest. [4] In this dance everyone chooses a partner forming a double line. There is no restriction on who may participate. The dance is done to songs in a shuffle step, sometimes dancing forward and sometimes backwards. Usually it lasts 45 minutes or longer depending on the number of songs that are sung. [5]

Modern corn has kernels that are uniformly yellow, but maize as it was originally grown was polychrome, with kernels of yellow, white, red, orange, purple, and black. This is now styled "Indian corn," or "flint corn," called in recent times, warutcútcge, "red corn," in Hotcâk. [inset] The Hotcâgara had many ways to serve corn, the most popular in the literature being roasted with bear ribs. Another way to serve corn is in maple syrup, a mix called wacughe wadutc. It can also be made into hominy, called wadacorotc. [6] Perhaps the favorite use of corn is in corn soup. This is usually made by taking three quarts of carefully washed Indian corn and boiling in ten quarts of water or every quart of corn. The corn is boiled for eight hours with frequent stirrings. After the corn has boiled for four hours, four pounds of chopped venison or other meat is added. [7]

It is also worth noting here that not only did the Native Americans develop maize, but invented popcorn, called watádjox in Hotcâk. It is said, "According to Chief Whirling Thunder, a 20th century Winnebago chief in Chicago, Winnebago Indians have -- for as long as anyone remembers -- popped popcorn right on the cob by inserting a sharp stick through the cob and holding it near the fire." [8] A month on the Hotcâk calendar is named for the time when corn is dried and roasted: Watadjoxhiwira ("Corn Popping Month"). [9] It is said that crickets announce the ripening of corn by weeping during Watadjoxhiwira, since it was during this month that their spirit chief was killed. Cricket used to own all the green things of the earth, but lost them to the sons of Earthmaker who gained them for humanity. [10]

Links: Earth, The Sons of Earthmaker, Hare.

Stories: about maize (corn): Maize Origin Myth, Maize Comes to the Hotcâgara, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Green Man, Grandmother's Gifts; Grandmother Earth as a character: Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Maize Origin Myth, Grandmother Packs the Bear Meat, Grandmother's Gifts, Owl Goes Hunting, Hare and the Grasshoppers, Hare Acquires His Arrows, The Plant Blessing of Earth, Hare Visits His Grandfather Bear, Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads, Hare Burns His Buttocks, Hare Gets Swallowed, Hare Kills Wildcat, Hare and the Dangerous Frog, Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, The Necessity for Death, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge, Hare Steals the Fish, Hare Kills Sharp Elbow, Hare Kills Flint, The Creation of the World, The Creation of Man (vv 4, 6), Hare Establishes Bear Hunting, Redhorn's Father (?).

Notes:

[1] Oliver LaMère and Harold B. Shinn, Winnebago Stories (New York, Chicago: Rand, McNally and Co., 1928) 104-105. Informant: Oliver LaMère of the Bear Clan. Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 309.

[2] Sally M. Hunter, Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition (Minneapolis: Lerner Publicatons Company, 1997) 16-17.

[3] Paul Radin, "The Blue Man," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) notebook 55; Paul Radin, (untitled), [unpublished] Winnebago Notes (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) Freeman number 3858, pp. 4-16.

[4] Radin, "The Blue Man," 37.

[5] Radin, "The Blue Man," 37-38.

[6] Mary Carolyn Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago: An Analysis and Reference Grammar of the Radin Lexical File (Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, December 14, 1968 [69-14,947]) 404, sv wa.

[7] Hunter, Four Seasons of Corn, 36.

[8] From the website, "What's Up with Popcorn?" (now defunct); but the same information is now contained at "History of Popcorn."

[9] Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 76-77.

[10] Paul Radin, "The Blue Man," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) notebook 55; Paul Radin, (untitled), [unpublished] Winnebago Notes (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) Freeman number 3858, pp. 4-16.