CORN MOTHER, FIRST MOTHER
Penobscot

Before human-people lived, Kloskurbeh, Great Power and All Maker, lived alone. One day when it was warm, a young man emerged from the foam of the sea. Kloskurbeh allowed the man to be his helper, and they set about together creating all things on earth. Then, as it was to be, a dew drop fell on a leaf and a lovely young woman emerged.

She said, “I am love. I bring strength and nourishment to all humans, and to all creature-animals. That is why I am love.”

“I will marry her,” the young man said, “so that she and I may conceive more humans.” And he did. And they did. And she became First Mother.

Now the humans thrived, and continued to multiply in numbers. They lived by hunting creature-animals, until the creature-animals where too scarce. Then they began to starve and die.

First Mother was sad and wept for her starving children. Her husband begged her to stop weeping, but she could not.

“You must kill me,” she said. “It is necessary, or the children will continue to starve forever, until there are none.”

The husband traveled to the North to consult his Great Uncle Kloskurbeh.

“You must grant First Mother’s wish,” Kloskurbeh said.

When the husband returned, she advised him, “When the sun is high in the sky, you can kill me. Two of my strongest sons must drag my body over every part of the empty patch of earth near our home until I am only bones, then bury my bones in the middle of that patch.”

The husband and the two strongest sons carried out First Woman’s wishes. After seven moons, when they returned to the dry patch, it was no longer dry. Tall green stalks of healthy corn - - symbolic of First Woman’s flesh-covered - - covered all the earth. The humans ate of the corn and saved many kernels for replanting, so the memory of First Mother would be with them always. And that is how Corn Mother, First Mother, saved her children.

From Traditional Stories and Foods: An American Indian Remembers, by Joan Leslie Woodruff