Parched Corn

Grandpa, what you doing, Grandpa? He stood there, just three years
old, his hair dark and eyes full of wonder as he watched his grandpa
digging a hole in the sand.

I am going to make something good to eat, it is a day for eating corn.
The old man said, lining the pit with cedar wood and piling it up
high, and it began to burn.


The little boy watched as the fire grew, standing behind the old man,
holding his pants by the legs. It's sure hot, Grandpa. The sun was
shining and they stood on a high butte behind their place, they could
see the distant mountains and valleys below Fluted Rock..


The old man knelt down and said, see that place way down there, there
was slit of earth where Canyon De Chelly dropped down into the earth.
In that place our people lived long ago and they grew corn, some of
them saved the corn like we have and they dried. Now when they did
this they would soak it in water to give it softness again, like the
ones I have here.


The little boy with shaggy hair looked at the indian corn, and could
see it had been soaking in the tub since the night before.


What you going to do with it grandpa?


We are going to eat it.


Like that? Too hard to eat.


The old man laughed and shoveled out the hot coals, and said no, we
are going to cook it over night right here. The old man shoveled out
the coals and lined the pit and threw in the dried ears of corn now
soaked and packed them into the ground with sand, the old man then
poured lots of water buckets on it.


How can we eat it if its all covered up grandpa?


It has to cook in the ground.


The little boy looked at his grandpa with big eyes, eyes full of
wonder about how the ground could cook the corn. The old man put the
hot coals over the corn covered with earth and built a big fire.


The fire burned all day and the little boy played as his grandfather
watched the fire, until the night came.


It was dark, and the fire lit up the night sky. The embers lit up the
sky, floatin gslowly into the night sky. The ground was glowing gold
and yellow.


Is the corn ready to eat grandpa?


No, not till tomorrow.


How come we are going to eat it tomorrow. I want to eat some now


The old man told him that a long time ago when their people were on
the run from the cavalry soldiers they hid the corn in the canyon
walls, and it dried. It was in secret places, and when they needed
they gathered it and soaked it in the stream. They they went up into
the mountains to the East, near where we are now and built a fire like
this. sometimes they just threw the corn into the fire and let it burn
on the edges.


The boy asked did the corn burn all up? The corn would be all dirty
and black grandpa. The old man told him that corn originated with th
eholy peoplel, that it was gift, it was from the four kernels of the
corn, the very top, white corn, the most hard to find, from that corn
we got our strength and it made us survive.


Did you eat that corn grandpa, the kind that was thrown in the fire?


Yes I did, a long time ago when I was a child.


They sat there and the boy listened to the old man talk about how the
old ones survived and the foods they ate, all the time watching the
fire burn down to just hot coals.


When do we get to eat corn grandpa.


Tomorrow, let's go to bed.


As they went to sleep the fire burned down and by morning was just a
pile of coals. The little boy jumped out of bed and ran outside, he
saw the old man kneeling down. He had already shovelled out the dirt
and coals and was pulling out the ears of corn. The old man brushed
the wet sand from the corn.


He took one out and slowly peeled it back, it was all cooked and a
little brown around the top. His grandpa told him this is sacred corn
it comes from down the valley and gives us life, strength and food for
us to eat.


The little boy held the peeled corn by the husk and looked at it. It
smelled sweet, and he tasted just a little bit of it. It tasted so
sweet and good. This is good corn grandpa. The old man laughed and
picked up the rest of the corn and put it in a bag and started to
walkd back to the hogan. The little boy ran around to his grandma and
mom and said, look grandpa cooked this sweet corn, parched corn, it is
steaming, so it is steamed corn. He held it up in his hands and they
all laughed because they knew he learned what good corn was, and they
remembered that he was just little boy and had tasted the sweetness of