Rescue in Progress: Ancient corn varieties being grown from decades-old seed give Pawnee tribe hope for passing on tradition

By LORI POTTER, Hub Staff Writer

08/25/2007

Only then will she know the Pawnee Seeds Preservation Project has been successful. Only then will the Pawnee Nation’s seed bank in Pawnee, Okla., be full enough to allow corn to be eaten and not just saved as seed for future crops.

“We recognize that this corn we have is more than corn,” said Echo-Hawk, who is Pawnee Nation education and training director and Pawnee Nation College director of admissions. “It’s our heritage. It’s one of the things that defines us as a people.”

When she sees ears of ancient varieties, she thinks of her Pawnee ancestors who grew the same eagle, blue, white, yellow and flint corn many years ago on their Nebraska homelands.

“My brother and I were growing eagle corn for many years,” Echo-Hawk said in a phone interview, “and I have yet to taste it ... I hope to see the day when we’re utilizing our own seed in making corn soup and meal.”

“Corn is sacred to the Native American nations,” said Ronnie O’Brien, director of educational programs at The Great Platte River Road Archway near Kearney and coordinator of a partnership between Nebraska gardeners and Pawnee leaders to build a seed bank for corn and other Pawnee crops.

O’Brien said about 3,000 Pawnees from Nebraska were relocated to Oklahoma by the U.S. government in 1873 and 1874. Only about 1,200 survived the journey.

Government officials had denied Pawnee leaders’ requests to have one more buffalo hunt so they’d have something to eat along the trail, saying there were too few buffalo left. “You hear about the Cherokee (relocated from North Carolina to Oklahoma) and their Trail of Tears, but the Pawnee had their own,” O’Brien said.

Nebraska Pawnees planted crops each spring and harvested them after returning from the annual buffalo hunt. She said they often planted sunflowers around the field borders to hide crops from human or animal predators.

Harvested crops were stored underground in buffalo robes. O’Brien said not all the corn could be hauled to Oklahoma, and the kernels in the elders’ sacred bundles weren’t enough to feed the people.

Corn seeds that did make it to northeast Oklahoma didn’t grow well in the different soil and climate. “They thought the corn god wouldn’t let them grow it down there,” O’Brien said. “So they just quit growing it.”

Echo-Hawk and other seed preservation project leaders have had to teach their neighbors how to garden and grow Pawnee crops. Their work includes a youth gardening program.

“Our young people, they don’t have it in their minds how important this corn is to their bodies. They don’t have gardening ways,” Echo-Hawk said.

Pawnee elders and educators are changing that by tending a garden in their Oklahoma community of about 1,000 people and teaching children as young as 4 how to plant a garden. “None of them have set foot in a garden before,” she said about Pawnee teenagers.

A new goal for Pawnee Nation College, which started in 2005 and is working on accreditation for its American Indian studies and general education courses, is to add to the curriculum a class in horticulture and its ties to Pawnee culture, Echo-Hawk said.

She believes in the healing qualities of Pawnee corn, especially the potential for providing better nutrition for a large diabetic population.

Older Pawnee women make a blue corn pudding as “medicine” for people in the hospital. A 96-year-old woman is sharing her blue corn recipes with Echo-Hawk.

The struggle continues to grow Pawnee crops in the clay soil of Oklahoma. The gardeners must rely on tillage help because the tribe doesn’t own its own tractor and plow.

“It’s a lot of work,” Echo-Hawk said. “I really appreciate everyone who spends time out in the garden ... . I’ve broken three hoes this summer. There have been a lot of prayers said over our garden. That’s how we proceed.”

She sees the Pawnee partnership with O’Brien and other Nebraska gardeners continuing for many years. “Ronnie, she’s a beautiful person. She’s a true corn sister. I really feel close to her,” Echo-Hawk said.

Late-planted blue corn will be harvested by Echo-Hawk in mid-September, but seeds planted early didn’t survive Oklahoma’s wet spring and summer.

Better progress has been made in rebuilding yellow corn seed stocks. “It’s nothing like what the Nebraska farmers are used to,” Echo-Hawk said. “I’d better re-define ‘lot’ by cardboard boxes.”

Pawnee watermelons have been revitalized to the point where they can be enjoyed at festivals — with the seeds saved, of course.

O’Brien said Pawnee leaders also are working to bring back their language. Like corn, it had almost died out.

Meanwhile, she’s educating archway visitors about Kearney-area ties to the Pawnee Nation that go back much further than the seed preservation project.

Nebraska history often focuses on Genoa when discussing Pawnees. “But right here is where they were. Right here along the Platte River by Kearney ...,” O’Brien said. “We are in true Pawnee territory.”

Family links have been found. She said Echo-Hawk is one of several Oklahoma Pawnees who can trace their ancestors to the Pawnee scouts at Fort Kearny.

“I think things happen for a reason,” O’Brien said about how her interest in planting an archway garden resulted in meeting Echo-Hawk and becoming a partner in preserving Pawnee corn. “I wouldn’t have had the wildest dream when I called them for seeds that there were none.”

“They are bringing the corn back for their history,” O’Brien said. “But we’re bringing it back for Nebraska, too. It’s also our history.”

e-mail to:
lori.potter@kearneyhub.com