Mandan Corn Ceremony

Description

Although the scene is sketchy, this drawing is apparently the one Bodmer is known to have done on April 2, 1834, of the women's corn ceremony at Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kusch. The principal Mandan crops were symbolized by migratory waterfowl. The goose represented corn, the swan stood for pumpkins or squashes, the duck for beans. Each spring when these birds returned northward they were seen as messengers from the Old Woman Who Never Dies. Their arrival was a signal to consecrate the seed for the summer crops. The ceremony was held in front of the village, where quantities of dried meat were hung on long, horizontal poles as offerings to the Old Woman Who Never Dies. Her representatives, the old women of the village, danced in a circle around the meat offerings holding ears of corn impaled on sticks. Grains of this corn were later carefully mixed with the seed corn to insure a good harvest.