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Zea Maize   Otto Wilhelm Thomé

Corn, Maize   

Navajo Name: Naadáá'

Classification: Zea mays L. contains 2 Subspecies, 3 Varieties and 2 accepted taxa overall

Species: Zea mays L.

Ritual Use:

Coyote Chant, Night Chant, "Nubility ceremony", Women's puberty ceremony, Mountain Chant, Bead Chant, Wind Chant, Motion-in-hand ceremony, Prominent in origin stories (Matthews 1897; Farella 1984; Zolbrod 1984)

Ear 

• used in ceremonies, if kernels are in straight rows (Elmore 1944:30)

Corn meal 

• batter baked into doughnut-shaped cakes and given to the Firegod (Franciscan Fathers 1929:208)
• mush used to make a figurine of a kit fox, coyote and of various animals in the Coyote Chant, a bear in the Mountain Chant and a wildcat in the Bead Chant (Elmore 1944:30)
• cornmeal dough pit-baked; cakes cut up and used in the Night Chant vigil, "Nubility ceremony" (Franciscan Fathers1929:207)
• cornmeal batter baked into small cakes and used for Wind Chant offerings (Franciscan Fathers 1929:208)
• meal made into cakes and baked in pits during the Night Chant (Elmore 1944:30)
• made into mush, then pit-baked; cakes used in women's puberty ceremony (Bailey 1940: 281)

Leaves 

• mixed with other plants to make Night Chant medicine (Elmore 1944:28)

Corn pollen 

• used in most ceremonies (Franciscan Fathers 1929:404)
• scattered along routes of ceremonial processions (Elmore 1944:27)
• placed on sand paintings, prayer sticks, sacred masks and scattered on dancing grounds (Elmore 1944:27)
• used for the motion-in-hand ceremony (Elmore 1944:28)
• sprinkled on a gila monster, then collected, and used for "live pollen" (Elmore 1944:28)

Medicine: cornmeal mush mixed with herbs and liquids, then applied to sore throats (Elmore 1944:28)

Husk 

• used to wrap green corn bread while baking (Bailey 1940:280)

• occasionally used to hold blood sausage (Elmore 1944:28)

Husk or leaves 

• used to wrap cornmeal mush while boiling or while baking in ashes (Franciscan Fathers 1929:206)

Leaves

• leaves eaten like lettuce when plants are 3 inches high (Elmore 1944:30)

Ears 

• roasted over an open fire or in an oven (Elmore 1944:29)
• gathered after first frost, when ears are immature steamed in pits and eaten or dried for winter use Steggerda and Eckardt (1941:217)
• steamed in pits, then removed from cob and dried stored for winter use
• pit-roasted with husks on, then shucked and eaten (Franciscan Fathers 1929:208)
• boiled with meat to make stew (Franciscan Fathers 1929:212)
• pit-roasted in the husk and eaten when green or stored for future use (Bailey 1940:285)
• roasted, shelled, ground, then dried and wrapped in husks gathered when green and used during journeys (Elmore1944:28)

Meal 

• mixed with juniper ash and made into bread (Elmore 1944:29)
• boiled juniper water added to cornmeal, allowed to thicken, then eaten as mush or as a beverage (Elmore 1944:28)
• batter mixed with juniper ashes to make blue bread (Franciscan Fathers 1929:207)
• made into mush, then baked in ashes (Franciscan Fathers 1929:204)
• mush boiled in corn leaf pockets or wrapped in husks and baked in ashes (Franciscan Fathers 1929:205; Steggerda and Eckardt 1941:219)
• batter baked on griddle stones (Franciscan Fathers1929:207)
• meal parched, sweetened with saliva, boiled into mush, then frozen; later eaten (Franciscan Fathers 1929:205)
• meal mixed with juniper ash and made into dumplings (Elmore 1944:29)
• meal  mixed with salt and water and baked (Steggerda and Eckardt 1941:219)
• meal batter made into piki (wafer) bread (Franciscan Fathers1929:207)
• mixed with pumpkin, wrapped in a husk, and baked in ashes gathered when not quite mature (Elmore 1944:29)
• dried corn ground and mixed into coffee (Bailey 1940:285)
• blue corn ground and mixed with juniper ashes and then boiled for dumplings (Steggerda and Eckardt 1941:220)
• boiled in goat milk and eaten (Bailey 1940:285)
• mixed with ground sprouted wheat and water, then baked (Steggerda and Eckardt 1941:219)

Kernels 

• parched, then ground into meal and made into mush (Franciscan Fathers 1929: 205)
• boiled with meat and eaten (Steggerda and Eckardt 1941:218)
• kernels oiled with cut-up pieces of squash and eaten (Bailey 1940:285)

Other uses: 

• cobs used for fuel, pith used for tinder, 
• cob "used to beat leather when dyeing it", 
• husk used to roll cigarettes and stalk occasionally used for thatching (Elmore 1944:28)

References:

• Bailey 1940:285
• Elmore 1944:27-30
• Farella 1984
• Franciscan Fathers 1929: 205-207, 404
• Matthews 1897
• Steggerda and Eckardt 1941:218-220
• Zolbrod 1984