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Native American farmers taking a break during the harvest. The harvest is a very spiritually significant period worldwide, where people give thanks to the Gods and their ancestors for the food that will sustain them through out the dry and/or cold season to come.
Native Mid-Summer Festival
Among the native tribes residing within the region now known as the Southeastern U.S., a very important ceremony takes place during the time when the first corn ripens. It begins the new year for these tribes and is celebrated with ceremonies that generally last either four or eight days. The ceremony is called he Green Corn Ceremony and is also known as Busk (from the Creek Indian word poskita, or "to fast"). In fact, fasting was is just one of the rituals involved in the ceremony. On the first day of the ceremony, everyone gathers in the town square of the host village for the opening rituals of the ceremony, which begins with a big feast, a necessary preparation for the fast that follows. Interestingly, none of the dishes include any of the newly ripened corn. This shows the reverence that is held for the corn by these traditional cultures.
To illustrate just one of the many misunderstandings European colonizers had regarding native cultures, a traditional drink is ingested by the men as part of a ritual purification rite. This drink is brewed into a medicine, similar to tea, and looks black like coffee. For the native cultures, the color white symbolized purity and taking the drink purifies the individual, this drink is therefore referred to as the white drink. The European colonizers referred to the drink as the black drink, based on its color.
This highlights an important cultural distinction. For cultures that practice some form of traditional spirituality, certain things are sacred. What is sacred may differ between traditional cultures but an individual coming from one traditional culture to another can recognize and will respect what another culture holds as sacred, if for no other reason than the desire for other cultures to respect what you hold sacred. The lack of recognition on the part of the European colonizers as to why these natives called a "black" drink white shows their lack of spiritual understanding.
The ingesting of the white drink is done in conjunction with many of the events that take place within the host village. Most of these events are held in a plaza in the center of the village. The purity of the plaza has to be upheld as well. It is kept very clean, children are not allowed to wander into the plaza and any dog that did is often killed. The plaza was a performance space which held the ceremonial dances and speeches by elders who encourage everyone to forgive the past years’ transgressions and honor their cultural obligations.
Another important ceremony that occurs during Busk is the rekindling of the sacred fire, seen as a representation of the Sun on Earth, in the town square and throughout town. The sacred fire of the village is maintained continually. It is understood in the culture that as the year goes on and peoples fail to live up to their obligations and violate rules or break taboos, the sacred fire becomes less and less pure. It is at this time that the sacred fire is extinguished and all of the fires in the town are extinguished. This was seen as a representation of extinguishing the past year’s transgressions.
After cleaning the hearths where the fires burned, the sacred fire is then lit. People renew their vows to honor their obligations to each other, to their culture, their ancestors and the divine world. They then light their personal fires from the sacred one after a huge feast. This feast is preceded by days of fasting during the ceremony, after the ceremony begins with a feast. The period of fasting is generally between one and two days. The men are to hold strict to the fasting while children, women and the elderly are allowed to eat certain foods during prescribed times. With a pure, sacred fire burning brightly, the final ceremonial feast features the newly ripened first corn. It was followed by dancing and activities to celebrate another year. The people feast with the fire in their minds and hearts.
Sofkee Comeback
Many people across the U.S. enjoy grits as a regular part of their diet, unaware of its traditional history. In the native villages of the Creek Indian tribes, correctly called Mvskoke, Seminole and by other tribal names, it was customary for each village to have a large pot of food on the fire for any visitors to eat their fill when they arrived. Such is the hospitality that we see throughout traditional cultures around the world. In these villages the pot would contain sofkee, the original grits. A select variety of corn was used for this dish and because of modern agriculture this variety had almost gone extinct.
At this point in time, traditional cultures around the world are in the rebuilding phase. For the Mvskoke people, their Food Sovereignty Initiative is just one aspect of this rebuilding. It is the goal of their initiative to eliminate their dependency on the system that was built from the wealth of their land. The focus is on providing food and health needs through sustainable agriculture and cultural investment. To achieve these goals, the Mvskoke have turned their sights on their ancestors and the rich heritage of knowledge that allowed their ancestors to survive thousands of years.
One example of this traditional knowledge that was lost on colonial minds is that in the preparation of sofkee, the corn is soaked in water and wood ashes. This process makes the corn more digestible and releases niacin, an essential vitamin. Europeans who adopted the corn diet, but not the addition of alkaline ashes, suffered from a vitamin B deficiency called pellagra into modern times. This resulted in the modern requirement that all grits be enriched, although this problem had been solved long ago by our ancestral cultures.
Current Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative projects include a community outreach to empower local farmers and ranchers, a community food project and a youth/elder sharing program. One key project that has assisted with the saving of the sofkee corn is the MFSI seed bank. These projects are centered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma and extend throughout the tribal nation. Traditional foods and recipes are used in the programs Tribal Elderly Nutrition Services and the Meals and More program which adds an educational component about the foods for those being served. Guests are even welcome to come early and assist in the preparation to learn the preparation techniques. It seems that "southern hospitality" predates the "modern" south.