AFRICAN CORN MOTHER is SELU

There is an African proverb that says, "The man who marries a beautiful woman and the farmer who grows maize by the roadside has the same problem."

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean where corn first grew Corn Mother created something within her husband, Kanati, the Hunter. She awoke his manners, and he grew, in an instant, from being self-centered, and violent into a man; a protector of his woman, the animals he once slaughtered at will, and the Earth, our Mother. It was a transformation every hunter and every man should take note of.

Kanati was First Man to the Cherokee people. The animals gathered together to complain to the Creator about Kanati. Kanati was killing animals for the pleasure of it once he discovered he could kill beyond what he needed.  Creator listened to the stories, and assured his creation he would help them. Creator laid Kanati to sleep, and gave him a dream. Kanati thought he was dreaming of a plant growing out of his chest. He awoke, and found a plant had grown next to him. At the top of the plant a beautiful brown skinned woman looked down upon  him. Kanati stood up, and remembered the manners Creator had planted within him. He gave his hand to help her down.As she was stepping down she remembered something, and reached back to retrieve two ears of corn.

"I need to remember where I come from." she said to her husband.

In one story Corn Mother, and Kanati had two sons who became great hunters, like their father, of Deer. When their mother was old they took care of their mother, Selu. She received with gratitude, and rejoicing her son's kills, and would make them a soup they could not get enough of it tasted so good. The boys never knew what the soup was made of, and Selu would not tell them.

One day one of the brothers moved like the wind, as he did on a hunt, and unseen watched his mother in her lodge raise her dress and scratch her thighs. Yellow and white kernels fell from her into a wooden bowl at her feet. He slipped away, and told his brother who sat waiting for their mother's soup. When she gave them their soup they could not eat it. Selu realized it was time for her to leave. Sadly, she told her sons she was going  to leave them. She told them when she died where and how to bury her body. She said a plant would grow in her grave, and told them how to care for it until harvest time. She told them how to keep the kernels and prepare for the next season's planting. The next day they had to bury their mother. The brothers did as Selu instructed them, and from this day forward the Cherokee people have learned from and survived and thrived off the gifts of Selu, Corn Mother.

I would like to know what tribe tells this proverb to each other. It is important to know the tribe. Each tribe's stories talk about the soul of the people, and all souls are as important as the proverbs and the creation stories that tie one person to another and to the families of the tribe, and the families to the tribe connected to the Earth, our Mother. These relationships are important. They tell us how to conduct ourselves. and this proverb will it help me, for instance, over here on Turtle Island, live  better with my beautiful wife, or enforce what I already know? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9.5.12