Native American Foods: Spiritual and Social Connections: Food Mythology

Food-related mythologies were part of daily life. Southwestern Zuni women sang the adventures of the Corn Goddesses as they ground corn. Hopi babies were presented to the sun at birth, along with two perfect ears of corn, a reference to the Corn Goddess and the child’s two mothers (spiritual and temporal). Lenape men, when hunting deer, or Lenape women, when gathering nuts and firewood in the forests, asked for the approval of Mësingw, the bearlike “Keeper of the Game” who was the chief protector of animals and their environment. In addition, annual festivals such as the Corn Dance, the Green Corn Festival, the Strawberry Festival, the First Salmon Ceremony of the Northwest, or the Cheyenne Sun Dance were meant to ensure the survival of humankind and its cultures with sufficient food.