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Gerald Dawavendewa (Hopi & Cherokee)
A young Hopi maiden stands among blue corn as rain clouds bring moisture to the plants. She wraps herself from the early morning with a blanket carrying star symbols. Corn is very important in Hopi culture.
When the Hopi people first came to this world, Tuuwaqatsi - the fourth world to the Hopi, they chose an ear of small blue corn representing their life: a life of long existence and challenges. In a ceremony to bring a child into this world, it is a perfect ear of white corn that symbolizes the mother of a child. Corn is used for food, flour, and for ceremonies and prayer. Corn is symbolic of the Hopi women, for they both give life and sustain the people and their culture.