By Amanda Monk
Moapa Valley Progress
Although the Lost City Museum has held numerous Kid’s Day throughout the years, this was the first one based around corn. The A “maize” ing Corn Day was held on Saturday, September 18 for elementary aged kids. With only 50 spots available, the capacity was easily filled and those in attendance were divided into three groups.
The mornings activities were filled will all things corn. Museum archeologist, Dena Sedar was able to quiz the kids. She asked them what three crops were native to our valley. As kids tried to guess she gave out hints to the one they were finding the most difficult.
“It comes as a side-dish in some Mexican restaurants,” she said.
Once rice was ruled out, a confident young boy yelled out, “Tobacco!”
Dena explained that natives and ourselves don’t usually eat tobacco.
Once the kids were finally able to name the three crops: corn, beans, and squash; she showed them what each of the plants look like.
With the plants lined up next to each other, Sedar told the traditional Native story of the Three Sisters which is what the Anasazi people called these three plants. The story described the first sister as being tall, strong, and thin. The second sister was wild and liked to climb up her older sister. The third was the youngest and therefore closer to the ground. She was always at her sisters’ feet.
Sedar touched each plant as she read through the story. Once the story was finished, each child began to plant their own, single crop in a cup.
Around the corner and out of sight was waiting a different station. Irma Reyes and Jesse Davie were showing another set of kids what natives used corn for. With her gentle, no nonsense approach, Reyes conveyed the importance of this subject in Native history.
Children were able to make tortillas from corn. First they held the corn with their hands to feel what corn felt like after it had been soaking overnight. This stage of corn is called nixt tamal. Although there was a small grinder there to grind whole corn, there was also a large matate. The mortars and pestles used to crush the large pieces of corn were large and oval shaped stones. Most of the kids gave a try to the large stones but had more fun cranking the small grinder attached to the table.
Once the corn was ground to a more manageable piece size, they were able to move on to the next step. A slightly different matate that sloped down was used, the stone used to make the smooth paste was shaped much like a large rolling pin.
The key in every step of making tortillas was water, Reyes said. She explained how corn gets so dry and that water was a necessity to work with it.
This session was the only one that ended with silence as the children were able eat what they had just made.
The station that was under the tree was meant to be a little one’s delight. Lydia Ochoa, Janie Shakespear, and museum director Kathy Olsen taught the kids how to make dolls out of corn husks. While they dipped the dried husks into water, Olsen told stories to the children. Kids used string and cotton balls to fashion the husks into corn dolls. Even little boys were enjoying the activities. Nevertheless, the boys made theirs with pants instead of skirts and even turned the dolls into ninjas at times.
With hours of fun and snacks and water at every station, the kids were able to learn stories of native Paiutes and Anasazi, how they worked, played, ate and lived.
