White Corn Maiden

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The White Corn Maiden is one of the younger Corn Maiden sisters of Zuni tradition, representing the direction of the east and the white color of the milk one drinks at dawn. When the Corn Maidens came from the underworld, they had no corn. Two witches dwelling under a pine bough pavilion inquired about this and gave each sister a differently-colored ear of corn to coax into growth.

Photo Credit: 

 
"Rising of the Corn Maiden" by Tammy Belson, Ashiwi, 1987 (25/8453), National Museum of American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution

Published Works: 
The Boy Who Made Dragonfly (1972)
Term Type: 
Cultural Reference