IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 



I MAIZE OR INDIAN CORN IN HISTORY 



I The origin of maize. From the Greek Caw meaning to live 

 has come the Latin zea, the family name of Z e a mays Linn., 

 Indian corn or maize. The term zea as applied to the name of maize 

 is highly significant and most appropriate for with the Iroquois as 

 with many other Indian tribes maize was the principal and favorite 

 vegetable food. So important was it to the Iroquois that they called 

 it by a name meaning " our life " or '* it sustains us." 



That maize is a native American plant there is now no question. 

 The testimony of archeology, history and botany all point to this con- 

 clusion. From botanical studies its origin in southern Mexico can be 

 practically demonstrated.^ 



Several early investigators have endeavored to show that Zea 

 mays is not indigenous to America by referring to the corn of 

 Egypt and the Levant.^ Most of these writers, if not all, have based 

 their premises upon statements by no means unassailable. It is 

 difficult to imagine what advantage is to be derived from creating 

 or fostering misstatements as to the origin of mjaize but this has 

 been done by several writers." In 1810 Molinari, a European writer, 

 published a work called Storia d'Incisa in which there was a refer- 

 ence to " . . . a purse containing a kind of seed of a golden 

 color and partly white, and unknown in the country and brought 

 from Anatolia." * This strange seed was supposed to have been 

 given by two crusaders, companions of Boniface III, to the town ot 

 Incisa. This reference to the seed '' of golden color " caused some 

 discussion at the time and many beHeved it to be maize, but after 

 much controversy the celebrated Storia was found by the Conate 

 de Riant to be a pure forgery, but not until it had been cited widely 

 as proof of the Old World origin of maize.^ There are many his- 

 torical references as vague and unreliable as this which nevertheless 

 seemed to have a certain weight. 



1 For origin and botanical character of maize see Harshburger. Botanical 

 Studies, Univ. Pa. and Iowa Agric. Exp. Sta. Bui. z^, 1907. See also Brown, 

 P. A. Farmer's Cabinet, v. 2. Albany 1838; Brown, D. J. Amer. Inst. 

 Trans. 1846. 



2 C/. Van der Donck. New Netherlands. Amsterdam 1656. 1:158. Reprint 

 Hist. Soc. Trans. Ser. 2. 



3 Compare the account of Lundy, John P. Zea Mays, as it is Related to 

 the Incipient Civilization of Red Men all the World Over. Numismatic & 

 Antiq. Soc. Phila. 1883. 



■^De Candolle. Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 388, Internat. Sci. Ser. 

 N. Y. 1885. 



_5 Riant. La Charte d'Incisa. 1877. Reprinted from Revue des Questions 

 Historiques. 



