Maize: The Origin Story Of Corn

One-pager assignment: Origin stories of “maize” After reading the Cherokee origin story of how corn or “maize” came to be, you will see that you see a much more interesting perspective on its creation rather than the claims that archeologists have came up with to determine maize’s origin. According to archaeologists, maize was developed and cultivated in what would be present day Mexico around 6000 BC. Scientists do not know exactly how maize was first developed, but they know that maize gradually spread from present day Mexico up north into what is now the United States of America, as well as modern day Canada. I personally found the Cherokee origin story of maize to be quite a bit more violent and graphic than I would have ever thought
it would be. According to the Cherokee, maize was made by Selu when she would go into her store house and rub her stomach and the basket would fill half way with corn, and when Selu would rub her armpits, the basket would fill to the top with beans. Well, her two sons accused her of being a witch and planned to killed her. She accepted her fate and instructed her sons to clear the whole field in front of their house and circle it with her body seven times and watch it all night and the corn would grow. The boys then beat Selu to death with their clubs, but of course boys being boys, they half-assed the job and that was why corn only grew in certain parts of the world and took half the year to grow.
And that was the Cherokee origin story of corn. As you can tell the Cherokee and archeologists have very different opinions on how maize/corn came to be.