A centuries-old planting tradition continues at The Old Fort
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HESPERUS, Colo. — More than 60 people gathered at the Old Fort, Fort Lewis College’s agricultural training facility, May 15 to take part in the fifth annual community blue corn planting ceremony.
Participants paired up to plant seven rows of corn, finishing the project in less than an hour. The harvest isn’t expected until October.
Blue corn is more than just food for many Native communities — it’s part of their stories, ceremonies and way of life. In the Southwest, its cultivation dates back more than 4,000 years.
The event at the Old Fort began with a prayer session, followed by a traditional introduction circle. Attendees passed a greasewood stick and introduced themselves one by one. Participants ranged from seasoned gardeners to beginners, including a group of a dozen high school students from Southwest Open School.
Brandon Francis, a Diné scientist and seed-keeper, founded the ceremony and led the group in planting blue corn using traditional methods. He also shared stories connecting food with cultural heritage and personal history.
Francis is of the Tobacco People of the Red Running into the Water Clan. He was born for the Big Water Clan. His maternal grandfather is of the Bitter Water Clan, and his paternal grandfather is of the Red House Clan.
Rocky Mountain PBS spoke with Francis about the history of blue corn, the importance of traditional planting techniques, and the story behind.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Rocky Mountain PBS: Can you tell me how you plant blue corn?
Brandon Francis: The method I show here at the Old Fort is the traditional method that Indigenous people, and in particular the Navajo people, used a long time ago — with the planting stick and with traditional crops.
We plant with a greasewood planting stick and we plant at least eight inches into the soil. That’s where the water is, available for the plant. A lot of Navajo people farming in the Four Corners didn’t have access to irrigation systems, so they relied on natural elements like the seasonal monsoon.
Video: Ziyi Xu, Rocky Mountain PBS
I usually push the stick into the ground as far as it can go without much force because the Earth is our mother and you want to be very gentle. I set the corn kernel right next to the stick so that when I pull it out, it’ll drop and the soil will fall in.
Depending on water availability, spacing is very important. Since the Old Fort has reliable irrigation, we planted them about 8 to 10 inches apart. But back home on Black Mesa, we take at least two or three steps between each planting. Sometimes, if the rain doesn’t come and we don’t want to abandon the plants, we water them by hand, and that’s very hard.
Before mechanization, it took a whole community to come together and plant each other’s plots. Sometimes thousands of people would plant miles of corn, squash, beans and melons.
As we experienced today, the larger the group, the faster the work goes — as opposed to an individual trying to do it all themselves.
Rocky Mountain PBS: Why did you start this planting ceremony?
BF: My earliest memory is playing hide-and-seek in the cornfield with my grandma, my cousins and my brothers.
One of my earliest jobs when I was young was to wake up early, run to the cornfield and make sure rabbits weren’t eating our sprouts. It was instilled in me from a young age that you have a responsibility for the food and for the continuation of growing things.
When I was going to school at Fort Lewis College, I missed that cycle of growing and planting. Luckily, there was a place for it.
It’s been a place for helping people — Native people — get in touch with farming and agriculture. I started here as a volunteer and an intern, then became a farmer-in-training and later an incubator farmer. In that way, I created new families here. I met people who share the same desire — wanting healthy food not only for yourself but also for others.
RMPBS: What makes this planting process unique?
BF: We’re about 7,600 feet high, and very few plants can grow at this elevation. There’s a very short growing window — only about 90 days.
The corn I brought from home on Black Mesa — which is about 6,500 feet in elevation — has been growing there for at least 4,000 years, so it’s adapted to grow at high elevations in a short amount of time.
But when I first grew it here, it only reached my shoulder. The second year, it reached my head. It took time to adapt.
I also soak the corn in water infused with greasewood leaves. I ran an experiment with a control plot — I didn’t soak the seeds there — and fewer of them grew. My hypothesis is that animals and insects recognize that greasewood is toxic, so corn soaked in greasewood water signals to them that it isn’t edible.
RMPBS: Why do you choose blue corn?
BF: It’s a type of corn that we traditionally grow and eat back home, and I want to share a little of that experience and the story that goes with it. That was one of the first foods that was grown.
In our stories, blue corn is not only nutritious but also restores energy when we have prayers or songs as part of the ceremonies. We feed it to our horses or to our medicine men or women.
RMPBS: Can you share the blue corn story?
BF: This is a story I grew up listening to. Different areas of the Navajo Nation have their own versions.
In our stories, we traveled through different worlds to reach this current one. Depending on who you’re talking to, we might be in the fifth or sixth world.
The second world was an animal world. Humans had been created, but not as we know them now. They were facing starvation. All the animals gathered to solve the problem and decided to find a new source of food.
Birds noticed the gathering from above and wanted to help, since they had knowledge the land animals didn’t. So the animals chose four representatives to search in the four cardinal directions — the four sacred mountains. Whoever brought back the best food would become the leaders of the new world.
They sent Badger, Bobcat, Bluebird and Hummingbird.
On the first day, Bobcat ran east. Bluebird flew south. Badger went west. Hummingbird flew north, considered the most dangerous direction in our stories.
For four days, the animals waited, growing hungrier.
At dawn on the fourth day, Bobcat returned with white corn. The animals were thrilled and considered making him their leader.
At midday, when the sky was the bluest, Bluebird returned with blue corn.
By mid-afternoon, when the day was hottest, Badger walked in with yellow corn. It was sweet, and everyone loved it.
But Hummingbird had not returned, and many thought he wouldn’t make it. Then, at sunset, he flew in carrying multicolored corn.
The animals realized all four had brought gifts. They made the four representatives leaders and established the first planting laws, which we still follow today:
- Always pray with corn pollen and give thanks for your food.
- Always have a cornfield to plant, so there will always be food.
- Always have a grinding stone, a way to prepare your food.
Eventually, the animals forgot these laws, but not before passing them to us. If we retain even part of them, we can feed our families and communities. Growing things is a very holy profession.
RMPBS: Why do you think it's important to continue traditional blue corn planting?
BF: It takes many generations to adapt to a new food system, and we’re displaced from our food system. So the significance of returning to our traditional diet is not only spiritual healing but also physical healing.
I want us to eat food that we’re genetically predisposed to digest and have food sovereignty to heal our people. That’s the reason I do it.
RMPBS: Finally, what would you say this growing ceremony mean to you?
BF: For us, it’s not officially spring until you hear the first thunder and lightning. That’s the time to wake up, stretch and get ready to plant — and that’s what we’re doing.
When people come together to plant as a community, it’s a very endearing thing to witness. You see people who’ve never met before helping one another. That’s the beauty of agriculture — it transcends all barriers, not just physical ones.
Type of story: Q&A
An interview to provide a single perspective, edited for clarity and obvious falsehoods.
An interview to provide a single perspective, edited for clarity and obvious falsehoods.
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