Corn is a grain that was cultivated by Native Americans some seven millennia ago in the geographic area that is today Mexico. Its cultivation led to the spread of the maize plant in North, Central and South America. It became part of the “three sisters” of crops that many native tribes adopted: the corn stalk in the field was climbed with green beans planted near it, and broadleaf gourds were also planted to shade the area around it. of the corn stalk. and broad beans, to discourage the growth of weeds. Often the natives would put the heads and entrails of the fish in the ground before planting the three sisters to make the soil more fertile.
Corn, when eaten raw, will give the consumer diarrhea. Once that was learned, the consumers tended to cook the corn and the natives learned to roast it. First, they separated the kernels from the mature corn cob. Then, they would light a fire and let the wood turn to embers. Using a cooking vessel (similar to a frying pan today), they cooked some animal fat until an oil was created (we would use cooking oil today). Then, they added a thin layer of corn kernels and stirred them with a wooden spoon as they dried over the coals. Once the kernels were browned (not blackened), they would move them to a cold container where they could have added salt and mix it to get salt all over the roasted corn. Since this cooking method only allowed for small amounts of corn to be roasted at a time, it was probably an all-day undertaking to have a large amount of corn roasted.
Roasted corn could be stored for use on rainy days when there was no fire for cooking. It could be easily obtained when adults or children were hungry. It provided a ready-to-use, portable food source when natives traveled to hunt, raid other tribes, or when the entire tribe moved to cooler fields in late winter, which they often did because they knew repetitive seasonal plantings would deplete nutrients in the soil. Then, they would leave to allow the soil to lie fallow (return to a natural state).
Interestingly, the native tribes of the Americas signed treaties with other tribes and considered some to be enemies or sources of the things they wanted to take. When the Europeans arrived, they were mostly not seen as enemies or studied because they were so different. In many cases, the natives helped the Europeans, even showing them how to plant the three sisters. Conflicts finally occurred when a tribe abandoned the land it occupied and Europeans moved onto the fallow land. Many years later the tribe would return to the land and simply set up camp and use the fields around the European settlers. Europeans tended to be outraged that the Indians returned to lands they considered abandoned and therefore “gifted” to them. Thus, the term “Indian giver” was derived.
The natives who gave themselves to strangers are to be admired. Jesus did that for all of us. He read his prayer to God for all humanity, even knowing that the hour of his personal sacrifice for humanity was drawing near (John 17, verses 20-26).