Dine' expression of corn

Cornfield blessings
Photo credit: Venaya Yazzie 2016
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Naadaa. This is the Dine' expression of 'corn.'

For the desert southwest people, corn is everything. For many of us corn is a living entity. For the most part we look as the existence of corn as a blessing to us, and to our daily ways of being. We use the corn tassel or corn pollen for our prayerlife and to bless the children. We use the corn stalk leaves for rolling mountain tobacco, again for our prayers. And the corn itself is utilized in a plethora of different ways from consumption to the details of ceremonial life.

Corn along with water are very important to our lives. For, without water, we would not be able grow this 'beautyful' plant. In every aspect of our Indigenous desert lives, water is essential.

I feel it a very big blessing to be able to enter the garden and be among the corn and melons... I have grown these plants traditionally and from heirloom seeds that have been passed down from my great-grandmother and other of my relatives. I captured this 'beautyful' moment in time as I watered the garden. This moment for me was prayer in everyway.

In blessings.